…when I write only in generalities. But I’ll risk being specific to say on behalf of us all: Thanks, Pat, for pulling together the TARP crew for this insane project. Without you there would be no we. And we led that race for a chunk of day one, not to mention having a lot of fun up to and even past when this “half-shaft” ejected itself from the car. And even then if the junkyard would have been open or one of the other MR2 teams could have helped us out…but I digress.
Thanks, Pat.
Engine Trouble, Logistics, MR2, Parts, Race Prep, Team Strategy
From: Brad
We had our break-and-tune testing session on Sunday out at the Motorsport Ranch complex in Cresson, Texas. Big thanks to Jack Pharr for letting us use his track for about an hour to shake down the TARP Special and get in some seat time for all the drivers who were able to make it. Another thanks to Shannon and the guys at Motorsport Enterprise Racing for letting us borrow a Miata for the track time too; between the MR-2, the Miata, and Jack’s Mustang, we all got in many turns of high-speed practice. Who knows if it will translate to success at MSR-Houston in a couple weekends.
One of the mechanics at MER is an MR-2 fanatic and pointed out a few free things to do to the car to make it handle better. Primary among those was to cut the coils. So we’ve taken a coil-and-a-half off the front and a full coil off the rears. Did it with a cut-off wheel on a die grinder so as to not heat-temper the springs, which are soft enough as they are. It definitely lowered the ride height; we had taken so much weight out of the car that it looked like it was ready to go rallying!
We put the car on the scales: 2007 lbs. Not too bad for a car that was at 1050kg (~2315 lbs) from the factory!
Grayson is doing some welding work on the front engine mount today, then Jesse’s going to flatbed it back to my garage. And I’m sure that what little work I have left to do on the car, I’ll be working on tonight 
Logistics, MR2, Race Prep
Author: Pat
Brad and Dave joined me in the garage last night to throw some man hours at the TARP Special in preparation for our track testing day (a/k/a Break and Tune) this Sunday. Although I took some photos, those didn’t make it into the office with me this morning, so all you’ll have is my stirring narrative. Lucky you! More after the jump:
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MR2, Race Prep
Author: Pat
The good people at TraqMate have agreed to let us borrow their complete TraqMate video and data acquisition system for the race. We’ll be able to record the entire thing via our ChaseCams. It should also make writing the story a lot easier. The stuff will arrive in about a week.
Logistics, MR2, Race Prep, Videos
Author: Brad
We’ve got an extra car for Sunday. I don’t know the make and model, but it’ll have a stick. It comes to us from the wonderful people at Motorsport Enterprises. So we’ll have the junker and this other car. Pat and I will work out how to get both there.
Now, about Sunday: We’ll start at 3:30 at the Ranch. Jack Pharr, the manager of the track, will be there, as will a professional driver. We’ll also have a couple of designers/photographers from Spirit there, Brody Price and Lauren Chesnutt. Look your best!
See you soon.
Driving Tips, MR2, Team Strategy
Author: Brad
It is a day of great rejoicing here at TARP HQ! Gentlemen, I just now (11:46pm) started and ran the engine on the car. Woo Hoo!!!
I would have taken it out for a spin but (a) my truck was parking it in and (b) it has no headlights. There were several things that were probably contributing to the problem, including crappy wiring in the engine compartment, a blown fuse on the AFM header, and crappy work by prior ownership on underdash wiring. And the ignition switch is still mega-crappy. We can now wire in the switch panel and kill switch with confidence.
Grayson, the exhaust sounds loud. And fantastic! Click on the play icon below and give it a listen for yourself. You might want to turn down your speakers at first. And then turn them up really loud so that your co-workers wonder who has moved a loud car into their cubicle!
And be patient, I haven’t edited it for length yet so you don’t hear the car start until the countdown timer is at about -0:43 or so:
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Audio, Engine Trouble, MR2, Race Prep
Author: Pat
No, don’t freak out or anything. Our MR2 will be fine for the race (so long as we can run down this starter problem or rewire the electrics, which probably wouldn’t be a bad idea anyway since we’re probably carrying 40 pounds of extra wire around at this point).
But we need a second car for the test day next Sunday. Anybody got any leads on this? It needs to be a manual transmission. It would be very nice to have a second car so we can each get some significant seat time. Bueller? Bueller?
Logistics, MR2
Author: Pat
Enough got done on the car yesterday that we opened it up for a driveway testing session. Caroline supplied her own helmet:
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MR2, Race Prep
Author: Pat
From looking at the coverage of past LeMons races, it’s clear that this event is half auto race, half costume contest. The teams that have well-exeuted themes (like TARP, or so we hope) seem to have more fun and evidently get better treatment from the BS judges. Which, of course, means fewer penalty laps or (sometimes) bonus laps added to the ticket.
Along those lines, I have been picking up bits of costume for our drivers and crew to wear during the BS judging portion of the event. Most of them I’ll save for the day so that you can enjoy the surprise, but I had to share this find. Punchline after the jump:
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MR2, Team Strategy, Tomfoolery
Author: Pat
Not that the headline above is setting the bar too high or anything; I don’t want you to misunderestimate me.
To paraphrase Ron Burgundy in the greatest film of all time, “Anchorman,” this past weekend was kind of a big deal for the TARP Team and the TARP Special (a/k/a “Tarpy”). For those of you out there who are executives, here is the executive summary: we got a lot done on the car. It’s not totally ready to race yet, but we could put it on the track today if we had to. Now go back to doing whatever it is that executives do. Execute, I guess. For the rest of us proles, here’s the update (now would be a good time to hit the bathroom and refill the coffee).
To start with, let’s recall what the car looked like when it went out to Jesse’s shop early in January, and then I’ll begin the tale of the long weekend past:
(continued after the jump:)
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MR2, Race Prep
Author: Pat
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