Place your bets
We’ll be heading to Northstar tomorrow, time trials should start around 6. The Weather Channel says 100 degrees, zero clouds, and 106 heat index for that time.
So, the question is, will it run 7.0s? Teens? Twenties? We shall see..or melt, one of the two.
6′s in the heat? Well, close..
8 Passes at Sanger, nothing broken, and a whole grouping that were within a few tenths. Turbo 350 bracket racing should be a little smaller chunk to bite off than TREMEC bracket racing was, I think. We’ll be taking our first stab at it this Saturday, but till then here’s a video from Friday -
Success..mostly
After two days of solid work, it pulls itself down the road and chirps the tires when it shifts. Stalls to 2000 and lights up the rears effortlessly. Ended up with a leak around the detent cable by the time we got back into the shop, but that will hopefully be a simple fix.
Good fortune..?
So, the Camaro turns loose a piece of this rocker arm at startup in the shop last weekend. I would say it hates us, but doing it in the shop instead of down the road-or at the track-might actually mean we’re on it’s good side again.
In other news, change of plans #3,263 is officially official, a turbo 350 is on the table and bracket racing will soon commence. We discovered at Sanger a few weeks back that the TKO is in need of some TLC before it makes another trip to the track. Guess Tremec means it when they say don’t shift it above 7,000 rpm..over and over again..for a year.
Anyway, still thinking Texas Mile in October, but who knows what might happen between now and then. Should have some automatic timeslips soon, and we’ll see how much the driver (ahem, was that me?) was slowing it down.
Stainless Twins
Being that this is a business website and all, how about a post about one of our paying projects?
This the framework (pun intended) for a 39 Chevy street rod project, we were called upon to build the fuel lines along with a few other odds and ends, including relocating the neck on the radiator to alleviate clearance issues. Pictures speak louder than typed words so here we go:
The journey begins
Dive, dive, dive
Catchin some Z's
Wild plumbing all over this thing
It’s not all tire smoke, zinc plated dirt track parts and wheelies around here after all. We can do shiny from time to time, too.
A psychic, I am not
Well, it’s occurred to me recently that every time I post something, the plans change. The next two hits to my soothsaying record: autocrossing the Turdcel and Texas Mile in March.
The Turdcel will be moving on to, well, wherever crappy 80′s FWD cars go after their time on earth is through. Seems there was a pretty good reason it found its way into that field it lived in before moving into the back of our shop, as a pulse could not be found. Farewell little blue car..
On to the Texas Mile plan, which is now set for the fall event in October after pulling the motor and determining that a year of thrash has done what would normally be expected from a year of thrash. Nothing major, but enough to dent the funds and postpone the plans accordingly.
So it appears that rather than pursuing a career as a predictor of the future, I will stick to making signs, chasing tools around the floor of the shop, and making broad generalized posts not mentioning the future on this website. Oh, and putting together a little timelapse craziness from time to time..
Side note, 2010 Autocrossing commenced last weekend, and the Camaro will be making it’s maiden voyage with a posi and a fresh bullet sometime in the next few months. Look out cones..
So I jumped the gun
Well, we started looking at the money involved, and the LeMons car isn’t feasible this year. Look for it to become an autocross/track day beater as time permits..and snow continues to fall.
Meanwhile, Texas Mile registration opens January 15th, cross your fingers for us that we can get into it, it fills up fast from what I’ve read and been told. Countdown to March has officially begun..
Falling off the deep end
Well, it’s cold outside, and idle hands being idle hands we’ve found a way to pass the time. Enter: the Tercel.
Sweet Emblem - why's it attached to that?
This is our new project, for the 24 Hours of LeMons race at Eagle’s Canyon in June. The basic premise is building a race car for $500 or less, and documenting the process in such a way to pass through tech inspection without getting slapped with a ton of penalty laps. Starting with a FWD Toyota that makes double digit horsepower is a good start in that department.
Latex Paint = 10 hp
So the basic plans include: stripping everything that’s not necessary (anyone need some cheap Tercel interior parts?), sticking together some tubing in there, sitting it down a bit and stiffening it up with some ghetto swaybars, let’s see, what else, oh yeah — getting it to start, and maybe rounding up a junkyard turbo to try and crack the century mark on the straights.
76 Feet of Vacuum Tubing? Check!
Seriously, who needs some interior parts?
We’re looking to partner with a charity in the area to make this whole thing worthwhile, possibly a sponsored donation per lap type thing, so if you’re interested get in touch with us. Check back for updates, the whole process should be pretty fun.
It's a Toyota, and don't you forget it
So Much For That
Well, Drag Week issue of Hot Rod came today, and no love for the little second gen. We’ll be heading to Crandall next weekend to see if it’s got a Texas 10 in it before autocross mode starts, everyone do your anti-rain dance!
Typical Northstar Luck
Red light first round, 7.03 @ 99 in time trials, and a hole in a tube. In six trips here we’ve managed maybe 9 passes. Bring on the cones!
