If you’re reading our blog for the first time, it’s pretty likely that you’ve gotten here (directly or indirectly) due to the article “Lap Dogs” that was written by our own Brad Cope and published in the August issue of Spirit Magazine. Brad dropped an advance copy of the article off at my house the other night and I was entertained and thrilled with the article. I’m sure the rest of the team will be too when they read it. And obviously if you’re reading this now, it’s probably a fair bet that you found it interesting too.
Due to the limitations of space and time, Brad was only able to include a sliver of our LeMons experience in his article. Please feel free to surf around our blog, which chronicles our experience from the very start all the way through the race. I’ll post some more updates soon about what’s coming up for the team as well as some additional memories that didn’t make it into Brad’s story.
If you have any questions, please feel free to send me an email. My address is patrick mulry at gmail dot com. Maybe putting it down like that will keep the spambots away. Cheers and welcome!
Pat
Driving Tips, MR2, We Need Parts
Author: Pat
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
No work was done on Blue over the weekend. As you all know, I promised the Missus that I would finish the nightstands I’ve been building for her prior to wrenching on the MR2’s. Well, with her permission I did a little work on the MR2’s, but I’m outta rope. I got the first bit of stain/color work done on the nightstands over the weekend and plan to get the last step on the color work done this evening. Then it will be onto more MR2 work until I can spray final finish on her tables.
That said, I’m obsessively thinking about our LeMons racer all the time. I know that we have a roll cage issue pending, that being the fact that Matt is quite tall (6′5″-ish) and will be a tight squeeze in the car even without the helmet. But I may have a solution, as shown in the photos below.
Before you look at the pictures, remember this: we are taking a street-legal vehicle and are turning it into a race car. It will not be subject to a reverse vasectomy. If we can find a way to keep the roll cage inside the frame, all the better, but this is at least an alternative (credit to Free Range Racing):
Knowing Is Half of the Battle!, MR2, We Need Parts
After a lot of discussion about testing for spark and fuel and about why/how the distributor cap got melted on the engine, I decided that the next thing to do was actually not to test for spark and fuel, but to test the compression. Minimum compression per cylinder should be in the 140 psi range and max is around 173. So I ran up to the AutoZone and borrowed a compression tester. More after the jump:
Read more…
Engine Trouble, MR2, We Need Parts
I was just reading this post on the Grassroots Motorsport site. One of the guys who ran at the Carolina race last year had this advice on brakes:
…don’t skimp on brakes, and make sure to throroughly bleed the brakes, and check for leaks. We went through ~8 bottles of brake fluid, 3 sets of front pads, and 2 calipers(!)
(ed.: Here’s the photo that they posted with this comment):
So maybe we should think about definitely getting endurance race pads (even though they are expensive) to reduce the chances that we have to do a mid-race replacment of pads & especially calipers. That could be a very time-costly decision if we go the wrong way.
In regard to tires, another poster mentioned the following:
Since tires do not count, we went with the 15×7 ten hole rims and Falken Azenis RT615’s, usually around $65 apiece. We had six tires, they lasted the whole time with minimal wear (they are going back this year!) at at least at CMP, they worked very well even on the pig of a car we were running.
Parts, We Need Parts
Recent Comments