Reviewing the results from LeMons Thunderhill (a/k/a Arse-Freeze-A-Palooza 2008), it is pretty clear that FRS/GMRS radios are, in terms of racing communications reliability, a dumpster fire at best. Our partially-formulated plan to use those radios probably is, at best, a Plan B.
Plan A would be if anyone has access to 4-watt UHF radios, which is what “real” race teams use. I can get some off eBay, but I’d rather just borrow them if we can do that. So, Bueller? Anyone? Anyone?
Advice from Other Teams, We Need Parts
Author: Pat
Pat tells you our team got in, and that’s true enough. But here’s a peek behind the scenes, to the true center of 24 Hours power. Behold this e-mail exchange between me and grand poobah Jay Lamm:
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Logistics
Author: Brad
An early Christmas for all of us here at TARP Team Worldwide HQ and Pie Eatery: our application for the Houston LeMons race has been accepted! I just got the confirmation email from race organizer/grand poobah Jay Lamm.
On another note, I’ll probably be mostly radio silent for about the next week since we’ll be traveling for the Christmas holidays. Merry Christmas to all! Come the first weekend in January, it will be time to start pushing this thing forward. Next step: finish wheels/brakes and get started on the roll cage.
Logistics
Author: Pat
Great news on the brakes, they’re going to cost us less $$$ than we previously thought.
Dave came over this afternoon for awhile and we worked away on the brakes. We got the font calipers off and measured the rotors. Both were at near-minimums for thickness, so we will need to replace those, but we could keep the calipers as backups. The pads were probably at about half thickness, so we kept the pads as backups for the race; we’ll want to put fresh pads on.
The rear axle was a different story entirely. The rotors have to be nearly new, as they barely had any wear on them at all. Both were within 0.003″ of new. The pads on both rear weels were very thick too. We should probably buy a pair of backup pads for the back just in case something horrible happens and we need to replace them following a collision or something of that nature, but barring that, it’s likely that the rear pads are good for the full race.
We pulled apart the front calipers and they are in the midst of being rebuilt. We got them scrubbed clean and all the interior parts are soaking in fresh brake fluid to get them clean. I’ll re-assemble the front calipers tonight. We will have to wait until the shipment with the brake parts arrives after Christmas, as it will also have the rear caliper rebuild kit. Nobody has one in stock in Dallas.
Other good news is that with the headlights removed, it will be easy to route some cool air ducting from the front end of the car over to the front brake area. I’m thinking that maybe taping together some paper towel rolls will suffice.
MR2, Parts, Race Prep
Author: Pat
It might not be a bad idea to make sure we’re all rowing together. Dave and Matt surely have a better handle on all the proactive business management talk, but I thought I’d take a crack at a prioritized list of our goals for this race.
- Have fun;
- Be competitive yet display good sportsmanship;
- Still be running at the end of the race, completing as many laps as possible;
- For budgetary concerns, be value-conscious — get the biggest bang for the buck;
- Win.
- Return home alive, preferably in one piece. This one is true both for drivers and car.
Please discuss.
Team Strategy
Author: Pat
Advice from another team that was getting their car ready for the Arse-Freeze in California at the end of next week that I thought might be pertinent to those who are thinking we might want to add a turbo to New Blue:
“A week from the race and our Corrado is still in pieces after a minor “detonation event” cracked the #1 cylinder in 3 pieces. Good thing it happened, because it turns out the piston skirts on 2,3 and 4 were broken off! Considering there’s no shrapnel in the oil pan, we’ll attribute the damage to the previous hooligan who owned this basket case. If I was a bettin’ man, I’d bet against Z Red Baron even making it past day one, but don’t tell my teammates!
A word to the wise - If you wanna win, much less finish, NO FORCED INDUCTION!!”
Advice from Other Teams, Knowing Is Half of the Battle!, MR2
Author: Pat
This is from the LeMons Yahoo group, it hit my email today. Very good advice therein, after the jump:
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Advice from Other Teams
Author: Pat
Last night after the Missus went to bed early to try to get rid of her cold before we travel for Chrismas, I stopped by AutoZone to get the rebuild kits for the front brakes. To my amazment and amusement, they were cheaper than expected. I’ve read up on the procedure and it’s pretty simple. I was expecting to spend about $12 for both caliper sets, but it ended up at less than $6. I had to buy some caliper assembly grease that pushed it higher, but that can’t be avoided. Rumor is that you have to use the special grease for caliper assembly as other greases/lubes will contaminate brake fluid, which is pretty much exactly the opposite of what we’re going for here.
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Advice from Other Teams, MR2, Parts
Author: Pat
Gentlemen, time to kiss your rabbit’s feet or pick four leaf clovers or keep your fingers crossed, or whatever it is that you do for luck, as I’ve submitted our team application for the Gator-A-Rama LeMons event in Houston. We are officially a registered team; now we just have to hope our entry is accepted. Props to Brad for taking the essay part of the application by the horns.
On a related matter, I discovered today that there is a 24 Hours of LeMons Yahoo Group. Looks pretty official, what with the race organizer being the group organizer too. So if you want to join that group and get all the updates and scuttlebutt, just head on over to Yahoo Groups and look for the 24hoursofLeMons group.
Logistics
Author: Pat
Say it out loud: tars. You know, those four black rubbery things on the corners. Tars. What about them?
After prolonged back-and-forth with Racer Matt, I’ve been hunting for tire advice from veteran LeMons racers the past few days, and in particular MR2 LeMons racers. The consensus seems to be as follows:
- The Falken Azezis RT-615 is the tire to race on in this race for any number of reasons (quality, price, availability, great dry grip and above-average wet grip);
- Start the race on new rubber on all 4 wheels;
- Although it is best practice to have 4 new spares ready to go if/when we sustain tire damage on the car, teams can probably get by with 2 new spares and 2 used spares if we keep our fingers crossed, God willin’ and the creek don’t rise.
New Blue has Miata wheels with 4 very used RT615’s on the car, one of which isn’t holding air worth a darn. The red parts car has 4 dry rotted crap tires that I wouldn’t rely upon to drive to the store, let alone at speed on the track. So although my preference would be to get 8 new tires, my budget-minded suggestion would be to get 6 new tires on steelies and if worse comes to worse use the used RT615’s in a pinch. Thoughts?
Advice from Other Teams, Parts
Author: Pat
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