Stevo and I will be flying out to SFO on Thursday this week to participate in the 24 Hours of LeMons race at Infineon Raceway, formerly known as Sears Point. Thus, the official name of the race is “Sears Pointless.” We are driving with my friend Paul and his Stick Figure Racing MR2 team (of course) based out of Salt Lake City. Paul and his guys out there have been working furiously on turning the MR2 into a compact replica of the “DeathMobile” featured at the end of the movie “Animal House.” I’d post photos of the car but Paul has sworn me to secrecy. I hope he won’t kill me for saying that it looks great!
We were hoping to also create the float “Eat Me” from which the DeathMobile emerges in the parade scene in the movie, but time and space prevented that from happening. Maybe next time?
I’ll try to update the blog while we’re out in California, but probably mostly via the Twitter link (or you can follow me on Twitter directly, my ID there is pmulry. You probably didn’t see that one coming, did you?). There is going to be a lot going on in our few short days out there. We have 4 on-track sessions on Friday to learn the track, plus we have to take the car through tech. I’m linking up with a couple other guys to try to get a wireless timing & scoring system setup so that teams can almost always know how crappy they are doing in the race, because for some reason, teams want that info like a crack junkie wants the rock. We have the race all day on Saturday, then a Pinewood Derby race afterward, for which Dave and I have been building a special car. Then another race day on Sunday, pack up the trailer, and head back to the airport for the redeye home.
A fun weekend is anticipated!
Race Prep
Author: Pat
Ok, here are 2 designs that I’ve come up with for the back of the Infineon t-shirt. I’m still working on the front design but I wanted to get some votes on which back is better. We’ll refer to them as Draft 1 and Draft 2. I’ve got them showing on white t’s because those are the cheapest to get it printed on. I think it looks best on white, but of course a white shirt gets dirty easily and shows grease immediately. We could print on a grey t-shirt, which is better for the dirt/grease, but the graphics don’t pop quite as much. It’s up to you guys. Click on each to see a larger view.
Draft 1:
Draft 2:
Race Prep
Author: Pat
Stevo and I are planning to drive with Paul and his Stick Figure Racing crew out at Infineon in early March. We got our acceptance into the race earlier this week so now it’s time to start working on the car. Unfortunately for me (and probably fortunately for the Missus), the car is out in Salt Lake City, so my ability to do much wrenching on the car before the race is fairly limited unless I grow some really long arms.
As a result, my pre-race contribution will be more on the ideas and design phase. Our theme for this race is a tribute (or, for you snooty LeMons fans, an “homage”) to the Deathmobile that wrecks the annual Homecoming Parade at the end of Animal House (click the photo for a larger version):
To that end, I spent the better part of New Year’s Eve (after the Missus had sacked out) watching the end of the movie and getting some screen captures to help guide our efforts to recreate the Deathmobile and its float, Eat Me, as if they had originally been built on the chassis of a clapped out 1988 Toyota MR2 instead of a 1963 Lincoln Continental. We just might run into some issues of scale. More
So, if anyone out there in blawgworld has, for example, a bust of Emil Faber that we could borrow for the race, that would be great. I suspect there is going to be a lot of papier mache in our near future. Regardless, here are the photos that should help define our mission:
More photos after the break:
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Race Prep
Author: Pat
Tonight was a very good night for getting things finished up. In short, once I pour the oil in the car, it’s ready to start testing at the track. Tomorrow night shouldn’t be too late, which is good. 
First priority was to get the new oil pan installed. That was kind of a pain because the kicked-out section makes it pretty difficult to screw in about half of the bolts that secure the pan to the bottom of the engine, but with some contortionist moves, they all went in. I used one of the dead-blow hammers that Pete sent along with the pan to jostle the pan into place when a few of the bolts didn’t want to mate up. Of course, I had to drop the exhaust and then re-install it to get the pan in, but at least we didn’t have to modify the stock exhaust to make it fit with the new, kicked-out oil pan. Apparently it holds about 8 qts, which should be good for helping to keep out engine temps from getting too high.
While I was pulling the exhaust, I noticed a crack on the bung that holds the oxygen sensor into the exhaust stream, so I welded that back shut. I also got the hood scoop finished (finally). Now I just need to cut the engine lid to match. I’ll do that tomorrow morning probably.
Finally, I put the windshield back on the car. I had no idea how convenient it is to be able to take the front glass on and off to facilitate working on the inside of the car. I feel foolish for not having broken the original windshield sooner
So, I’ll finish the deck lid and then it’s off to buy provisions and a few last other things, then I’ll be getting all the gear and parts and tools packed up and ready to load on the trailer for Thursday. Cheers.
Race Prep
Author: Pat
Things got off to a slow start yesterday owing to yet another kiddo soccer game, but I was out in the garage and working by 3:00. Daylight starts burning fast now and my top priority for the day was the last thing that would hold us up in tech: the new door bars. More after the jump:
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Race Prep
Author: Pat
Gotta say, I was kinda draggin last night from the long, busy day with the kids and the late night on Friday night, so I decided to work on jobs last night that were a little easier and wouldn’t induce a critical failure in the race if I screwed something up out of fatigue or general cluelessness. This was high on the agenda:
More on this after the break:
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Race Prep
Author: Pat
Very busy last couple of days, so I haven’t documented it very well. Sorry about that.
I finally got the new seat mounts done and fitted in the car late last night. I wish that they made more of a difference in the headroom, but I don’t think that they really did. I wish there was a way to make that more efficient; there probably is, but it will involve more custom bracketry than I have time for right now, so we’ll just have to live with this. At least these FIA-homologated sliders move a lot more smoothly than the 20+ year old stock Toyota sliders. More after the break…
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Race Prep
Author: Pat
Got a lot done last night. Since the battery was finally recharged, I was able to start the car and ensure that our PCV solution was working. There’s still more oil smoke than I’d like coming off the engine (valve seals are a pretty notorious problem on the 4AG, or so it seems) but at least it’s venting to atmosphere now rather than blowing our dipstick out of its tube and spraying hot crankcase oil over the entire underside of the car. I drained the oil that has been in the car since the last race and fortunately there weren’t any nasty issues with it, no oil or visible metal bits. I put in some cheap dino oil until the high-capacity pan arrives from the TARP 2 car up in Indy, then I’ll fill the car with the oil for the race.
Once I was able to start the car, the biggest success was getting the tachometer issue resolved. The solution was installing an aftermarket tach that likes to play nice with the distributorless ignition, since the factory one just never wanted to read true. One nice thing about the aftermarket tach is that it came with a programmable shift light, which should (in theory) make it easier for the drivers to avoid over-revving the engine.
Once that was wired in I was able to complete the final wiring for the datalogger. Still need to complete the wireup for the radios, but once that’s done then we can re-install the windshield.
I also got a little more work done on the flashing for the scoop. That will take some more time but it’s lower on the priority list. The new seat slides are scheduled for delivery today, so I intend to work up the install for those tonight. Once the new seat installation is complete then we can finish up the door bar installation, and at that point everything will be complete to pass tech for the race.
Race Prep
Author: Pat
Final race prep was a little anti-climactic last night. The vinyl car numbers arrived in the mail, so I put those on the car. They look sharp and are a good contrast to the fuzzy white meatball on which they’re placed on the doors and roof of the car. It’s a LeMons-perfect kind of look. More after the break:
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MR2, Race Prep
Author: Pat
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