It's been several years since I've written any updates. I'm astonished that
y'all find my drivel interesting. Be honest - many of you have kids now and
need
something to read that will drone the kiddies to sleep.
Nothing too spectacular has happened in the past 3-4 years of racing. The car
is
becoming less competitive bc of new cars being classed into ITA. I'm not
pleased
but understand that we can't stand in the way of progress. What I am seeing
that
annoys me is that the EFI cars are getting all the breaks while the old junk
like the CIS-E or carbureted cars are getting left behind.
After 6, yes SIX, seasons, I finally replaced the otherwise stock engine 3
years
ago. The "race" motor is now a .020 overviews 1.8l 16v with porting as allowed
in IT - 1" in from the outside edge of the head. Otherwise everything else is
OE, just fresh and new.
The results of the fresh engine amazing. All that time spent trying to eke out
momentum paid off. The engine was worth a good second PLUS it as great to final
motor past other cars on the straights.
2 years ago, I finally ditched my ancient Koni single adjustable for some
Bilstein Race shocks. Again, what a HUGE difference. The car actually stuck and
I found myself gaining in otherwise faster cars in the twisties.
The past years have had a few "moments" as well.
The last race of 2007, a car spun on the first lap in T9. I spun to avoid or
I'd
have shortened his car by several feet. I took out the tyre wall with the LF
but
the car was unfazed. Unfortunately, going down the front straight, I saw a
flash
of orange which told me that the hood pin had come loose. Worse, entering T3,
the car go loose on me, I jumped the inside kerbing, giving the car behind me,
the SAME that that I'd spun to avoid, a great view of the underside of the
General Li as I balanced the car on the RR tyre. I slid to a stop in a cloud
of
dust, heard squealing tyres and WHAM - Earl's 240 pummeled the driver's side of
my car, side-to-side. I restarted my car and left the scene in a hurry to
avoid
having other cars find me in the fog. Ducking into the pits, I frantically
motioned to some friends (I still don't normally travel with crew) to take a
look at the hood - they gave me a "Come back in 2 laps" signal. 2 laps later,
I
returned and they graciously taped my hood shut and I returned to the melee.
The final outcome wasn't pretty but it wasn't hopeless either. The drivers'
side of the car was beat up and the rocker panel was bent at the trailing edge
of the door BUT the car was still running without any pulling, rubbing or fluid
leaks. Earl's 240 went back to the paddock b/c of a bent tie rod - Germany 2,
Japan 0.
Over the winter, I replaced the fender and Auto Expectations (owned by the
former owners of Datsun Dynamics) pulled the major dents in the LR quarter
panel. I retained the door and the dents in the rocker panel for asthetics.
For the first race of 2008, we raced in a misty pseudo-rain. A few laps into
the race, I was running with Doug's MR2 and eating up the track. In T7 on
Summit Point, Doug started a rather lurid spin - anticipating that he'd spin
off
to driver's right, I hit the grass on driver's left. Nope - wrong idea -
Doug's
car instead came back to driver's left and found the RF of my car. I tagged
the
RR of his MR2, spinning both of us surprisingly quickly. Per usual, I drove
away, bouncing off the rev limiter in the grass. Doug got the short end of
that
contact with about 6 degrees of toe-out in the RR - Germany 3, Japan 0.
The rest of 2008 went well with some oddities starting show up as the car ages.
In particular was an infuriating miss during hard right turns - this is
indicative of fuel starvation so I started adding more and more fuel to the
car. The problem persisted and I started wondering if something in the fuel
system was starting to fail - I HATE intermittent problems with a passion.
Then
Brian, my crew and now fellow competitor (or maybe it was Bob, one of my other
crew and Brian's Dad) who noticed that the main electrical connection to the
alternator was broken. The tab was completely broken away BUT because of
metal-memory, it touched the connector. However, under hard right turns, the
connector was "pulled" away from the alternator - since the voltage was
marginal
(thought the alternator was just junk), the car WAS cutting out in hard right
turns but it was electrical, NOT fuel. Ugh - problem solved although we
encountered the same problem in 2009. At least we'd seen it before and Bob,
whom we all refer to as the Mad Scientist (Think Dexter of Dexter's Laboratory)
was prepared with a full electrical kit including lugs specifically sized for
the alternator.
As a whole, 2008 was an exercise in frustration - the car is just as fast as it
was in the past 1:31-1:30 on Summit Point Main but the new cars are getting
significantly faster. The lap record on SP Main is now in the 1:26 range
(might
even be in the 1.25s - I try to put that out of my mind or I'm just depressed).
Starts are still my favorites, especially charging down the middle, scaring the
daylights out of the smaller cars. At the end of 2008, Ryan, my other crew and
soon-to-be Brian's brother-in-law, thanked me for not making him do bodywork
over the winter - that's gratitude for you...<G>
In Fall 2008, Brian, my crew member, decided to go racing and I offered him the
General Li for School. He took to the car like a duck to water which was bad
for me. Actually it was amusing to watch the car going around the track
without
me driving. Some of my fellow competitors mentioned that the car looked fast -
probably b/c it was at least 50 lbs lighter without me driving. I reminded all
of them that my bumpers are both big and strong. During the race and the end
of
Driver's School, Brian and Jesse, son of one of my ITA competitors, were
running
inches apart. As they came thru T10, we only saw the General Li - poor Todd,
Jesse's Dad exclaimed "Oh, no - Jesse must have gone off". About the same time
that he said that, Jesse popped out from behind the General Li and suddenly,
there were 2 cars...very, very cool.
2009 was another exercise in frustration - Brian's car wasn't completed so we
shared the General Li during the season. At the first race, we had shifter
problems and ended up changing the clutch. That wasn't the problem and at VIR,
the issues just got worse as the trans had no interest in finding gears. This
made for interesting racing since gear changes had to be very slow and
deliberate. This relegated me towards the back of the pack and made racing
more
of a chore than a fun competition. When we (actually just me) returned from
VIR, we (this time ALL of us) pulled the trans and sent it to a buddy who is a
VW Master Tech and a transaxle guru. The verdict was that the 1-2 slide had
worn along with a clutch disc that delaminated - something about an over-rev on
downshift - couldn't have been me <G>.
Once the trans was fixed, the light at the end of the tunnel started getting
brighter although racing a now "vintage" VW has many challenges. During one
race, whilst racing with a pack of cars, the car just shut off - the coil wire
popped off - something that happened many years ago so we zip-tied the wire in
place - apparently that wasn't enough. Scratch one DNF into the books.
Updates for 2010 to follow shortly.
- Matthew -
