Mike's 24 Hours of Lemon's Thread, Updated 4 April 2010 Options

[qatar11]

http://picasaweb.google.com/mjcoury/24Hour...feat=directlink

Here is one camera dump of the weekend, more to follow - I promise

This post has been edited by qatar11: Apr 4, 2010 - 9:36 PM

[qatar11]

I started a few threads in other sections... we have a few problems:

Our Kill Switch shattered into a million pieces about 40 minutes before the race. And then as I was driving out to join the parade before green, someone spotted us and explained how incorrectly our safety harness was. We lost almost 90 minutes fixing the harness but I believe him when he said we would have died in any kind of collison over 40 MPH. We got on the track at 1:30 PM

The car handled AMAZING. EBC RedStuff with ST165 calipers in the front. KYB OEM all around with Vogtland spring kit. We could out brake and out turn most cars. The car felt balanced, didn't understeer and didn't over steer. This may have been because I was driving like a nancy out there - the other drivers seemed to agree with me...

The hard brake line under the car rusted through and failed around 5:30 PM - we had to run to the auto store and get a flare tool and some line and fix the leak. We then sprung a leak on the same line a foot or so down. So we had to repair that as well... We got back on the track around 9:00 PM.

We developed a nasty hesitation high in the 6Ks during the second drivers stint after we fixed the brakes. It felt like you were hitting a rev limiter or something - it was a total loss of power. As the car started racking up hours on the track, the hesistation fell into the 5Ks and 4Ks. During driver changes whatever it was that was malfunctioning would cool off and the process would repeat.... hesitations at 6Ks... 5Ks... etc.... by the end of the race we were in 5th gear almost all the time and at like 3K RPM.

Also towards the very end of the race - we felt a bit of understeer as well - could be tires (they were never rotated) / tire pressure. or it could have been the rear hatch we removed ~ 9:00PM... dunno.. too many variables for my feeble mind

Power... hard to say with our nasty hesistation... I am actually pretty torn about the power conversation. The car lacked power - no question. But - does the lack of gobs of power make me a better driver in the sense that I have really learn to carry speed through a turn? I am of that opinion. So we might hold of on doing anything - and really the only options is engine swap sadly. 100 HP is really pushing it out there - most everyone had least 50% more than that, and then all the BMWs, Mustangs, Alfas.... so... I think I'll keep the engine we have, maybe clean it up so we get back some HP that way - exhaust, etc....

All in all I am very pleased with the car, next steps are to replace all the brake lines, replaced the exhaust manny (has a crack) and possibly run a new exhaust that is a little larger dai, little lighter, and has a little more sound so we don't sound like sewing machine out there.

This post has been edited by qatar11: Oct 8, 2009 - 6:52 AM