Two weeks ago we had an IVR event out at Wendover. It was a good weekend,
a reasonable turnout of drivers (For us, anyway) and excellent weather.
All those flies, most likely from the badly overflowing dumpster on the
other side of the hangar, were the major drawback to the weekend. Some
good food on the grill, good beverages and a bit of good racing. Check out
the shot of Killer closing in for a pass going into the east sweeper at
http://intermountainvintage.org/images/killer_pass.jpg
Okay, if you think I am getting ready to pass those fast guys, I've got a
clean, one owner Spit that just needs a bit of TLC for sale... In truth, I
did end up second in that race, since the winner (red and yellow RX7 ahead
of me) and I were the only two cars who were on the track for the full 20
minute race. My best IVR finish ever!
Regarding the GT6 brakes, I wish I had time to get the red car back
together for the final IVR race of the season coming up this weekend.
Killer, which was set up for autocrossing, not road racing, and is just
acting as a stand-in for the red car, can outcorner just about any car that
races at IVR events. Killer can also outbrake any car at IVR events, but
only for the first 15 - 16 minutes of the 20 minute races. Those last few
laps can be fairly exciting! But since Killer will still be primarily an
autocross and street car, the GT6 front hub and brake bits will go on the
red Prod racer. Next season, honest!
But Killer did well last weekend, and after Sunday's second race and before
we packed up, I was letting folks take Killer around for some hot laps. Of
course it was just part of my evil scheme to get Bob Allred to work on HIS
Spitfire race project, so next year I can run with someone in a car of
equal ability. Well, near equal ability, I might happen to forget one or
two little secrets when helping Bob with his squaretail ;-)
But all good things come to an end - one fellow got sort of wedged, prodded
and strapped into the cockpit and headed out. Killer took off, but started
missing, sounded odd, and the disappointed driver pulled back in. We sort
of determined the car was out of gas, and I had forgotten to fill my can
before leaving Salt Lake, so on to the trailer for th etrip back home. Got
home, put some gas in to drive him off the trailer, the thing wouldn't
start. One feeble poof, but no luck.
Tonight I finally got a chance to do some debugging. Turns out that the
high tension tower on the coil was cracked, and the electrons, holding to
their sworn duty to seek the path of least resistance, were shorting
directly to the coil case rather than bothering with the ignition system.
Some test leads, an old coil from under a shelf and Killer fired right up.
I guess it is time to start carrying a spare coil in the race box!
mjb.
ps: Thanks to Bob Allred and Ed Oblad of the Utah Lotus Museum, I did get
to drive a Caterham at yesterday's autocross. Hot dang! I won't
mention the tie to brakes that episode has. Do you smell smoke?
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