Hey Folks,
Thought you'd want to hear a little about the season finale here at
Portland Raceway. This is SCCA Vintage.
Between last race and this one, I went to a different Weber 45DCOE -
this one on a 5" intake manifold
generously donated by our own Hans Huber (who, by the way, lives way up
on a lovely hill in San Francisco
with a spectacular view, good beer, and a bunch of groovy toys). I also
went from an ancient 3->1 exhaust
manifold to a standard (i.e. not big bore) Mini Mania LCB manifold.
First of all, I did have to raise the bonnet a bit to clear the taller
intake setup (mostly the air filters) to get the
system to fit - I also shortened the exhaust and gave it some bend so
that it ends in that nice gap just in front
of the rear axle. This makes trailer ingress and egress a bit easier,
too.
I was able to cobble together a linkage for the throttle on this Weber
out of parts from a Datsun mikuni carburetor.
Important Note: those Japanese carbs have the same size throttle shaft,
so the arms will transfer.
The race weekend came and our first qualifying session was right after
lunch - temp about 85-90 degrees, no
wind to speak of. Pretty hot for Portland. I ran a couple laps and felt
pretty good, then caught up with an MGB
and we raced for the remainder of the session. He would outrun me in the
straights, but I'd catch up at the first
corner and dog him to the next straight. But I lacked the power (or the
fortitude - or both) to pass him by late
braking at the end of the front straight.
I had done better than expected before I caught him, though - I
qualified at a 1:33:944 and he at a 1:35:282.
This is down another second from my best time at the last event. Not bad
at all!
We raced at 5:30 pm, by which time it was over 90 degrees on the racing
surface. The bugeye was running
warmer than usual (220 water, 200 oil) but steady. I ended up behind my
friend (we chatted after qualifying
and he's a fine fellow) in the MGB and we together caught another MGB
and a Midget - and gave everyone a
great race to watch as we went more or less nose to tail all over the
track - right up until I thought it was
time to attempt the very ballsy but none-too-bright move to get by some
or all
of them at one end of the track. Consider the situation - at Portland,
turn 7 is a high-speed left hand dog leg
(high speed meaning about 110-115 in my car in current configuration -
fifth gear at about 5500 RPM)
followed by a right hand kink and bend (turn 8), leading to a fairly low
speed (3rd gear) right hand corner (turn 9)
and out onto the front straight.
If I stay fast through 7, I can tuck a nose inside a competitor going
into turn 8 and 9 and then he's all
outta whack for 9 and I can get a better exit and come out ahead. When
this works, you're a hero - the
tower and grandstands all get to watch. But when you end up a little too
far over to driver's right in turn
8, you can bounce off the curbing and then you're at the mercy of the
Gods.
Guess what happened to me? Yup.
So I fought it a little while as the rear end tried to come around to
ask me just what in the name of all that is
good and MOWOG-ian did I think I was trying to do to us, and then I just
held on. When the tires hit grass,
I pressed the brake pedal and stopped before I encountered the
guardrail. (my buddy in the MGB was not
so lucky the next day in the same place). After breathing a silent
prayer of thanks to the ancestors, I got the
bugeye re-fired and pulled back onto the track and actually ran my best
lap times of the race from there to the
end. They tell me it was a spectacular 270 degree snap-spin.
But as I pulled back into the paddock, I noticed that the car's
perennial low-end miss that I had always
attributed to the Weber or to the cam being somewhat growly was getting
worse. So I let her cool and
addressed the issue the next morning. I cleaned the carb jets, checked
spark, but it wasn't hitting on all
four, and so I checked the valves for clearance - Bingo! One stuck
exhaust valve on #3. A little examination
showed that it had bent at some point and wedged in the guide, and the
guide was going up and down
in the head with the valve. This is not as designed by the good boys
back in Jolly Olde, so after a
brief flirtation with the thought of getting a core head from home and
banzai-ing through a head swap in the
paddock, I elected to put the old girl in the trailer, consolidate my
winnings (in terms of improvement
for the year) and made an appointment with my engine shop guy (also a
racer - Dan Hall, GT-5 Datsun
#77) for later this week.
So that's pretty much it for the 1998 season for me. I have a few
things to fiddle with over the winter, but
on the whole, other than having the head freshened and probably
replacing bearing shells, I don't intend to
do much else with her. Well, maybe I'll get a set of rear-disk brakes
for Xmas or something. ;^)
I'm still looking for some short air horns for the 45DCOE - so if you
find some at the fall swap meets,
do let me know, eh?
JZ
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