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

[TiGZ461]

Nice stuff dude it looks like you had fun.

Post up some vids, and what place did you place in btw?

[qatar11]

Nice stuff dude it looks like you had fun.

Post up some vids, and what place did you place in btw?

We finished 66 out of 122 -not terrible but we spent a lot of time in the paddock fixing problems and very pedestrian driver changes, we might go a little faster with pits next year

our fastest lap was around 1:35 and we turned 466 laps.

Full race results here:

http://www.mylaps.com/results/showrun.jsp?id=1339917

More pics and video to follow

[TiGZ461]

That's not bad man!
Any overheating problems, or similar? 466 laps is crazy.
And is there anything you would like to say about the Celica? Performance, speed, handling, etc.
Did it change alot?


Loads of questions but I like circuit racing alot and just wondering how the 6g treated you.

[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

[qatar11]

Track:



We did get to do the full course (not the short course after station 4)

This post has been edited by qatar11: Oct 8, 2009 - 4:55 PM

[Hanyo]

This has been one of the most interesting post I've seen on here in a long time.

A couple of things I recommend would be to:

1) removed all the headlights and sell them. They cost alot to replace and aftermarket cheap driving lights are not street legal but perfect for the track.

2) cut out the inside door seems and welding them shut. You have a roll cage already. Opening the doors to get in and out would not help much. Might as well do what NASCAR does and sit on the window sill everytime you get inside/out of the car.

3) Removed all the quart panels with thin plexi glass or lexan. This prevents shattered glass from entering the car during car on car contact.

4) Get some front strut tower bars or use the oem GT strut tower bar. The entire rear end of the car is stiffen from the roll cage but your front is not re-enforced? This will make the front flex more then usual and cause overseer. Not to mention numb the steering. Since this track is very large and is lemans style race you want to keep the tire planted. Any drifting from slide will just chew up your tires..

5) install a front splitter?





Last question i have is what tire pressure are you using? During track days your tires should more air then oem requirements. Somewhere along the lines of 40psi, depending on the weather and tire temperature.

This post has been edited by Hanyo: Oct 9, 2009 - 3:01 AM

[qatar11]

Hanyo, all good suggestions, responses:

1) removed all the headlights and sell them. They cost alot to replace and aftermarket cheap driving lights are not street legal but perfect for the track.

I know what your saying here - but I love the look of the car with all four lights - one my favorite things about celicas. And for night driving, these lights did very well during night driving

2) cut out the inside door seems and welding them shut. You have a roll cage already. Opening the doors to get in and out would not help much. Might as well do what NASCAR does and sit on the window sill everytime you get inside/out of the car.

Definately an option... if we do this - we need to re do the X bar on the drivers side to possibly push out into that space that you just described by cutting out the doors - Believe it or not - and I think this is because the X bar is not push out, it is very hard to get in and out of the car with the door closed.

3) Removed all the quart panels with thin plexi glass or lexan. This prevents shattered glass from entering the car during car on car contact.

Right - we removed the door glass and only have the front and rear + the small pieces of glass remaining... we are considering plexi or lexan

4) Get some front strut tower bars or use the oem GT strut tower bar. The entire rear end of the car is stiffen from the roll cage but your front is not re-enforced? This will make the front flex more then usual and cause overseer. Not to mention numb the steering. Since this track is very large and is lemans style race you want to keep the tire planted. Any drifting from slide will just chew up your tires..

A very good call - we were worried about getting dinged at the Bull**** Inspection rocking front and/or rear strut bars - however - the judges took pitty on us bringing a FWD celica and did not even pop the hood - ALSO teams were installing strut bars after BS inspection so that is always an option - I wonder if the OEM front strut brace is really enough?

5) install a front splitter?

Another good idea - we actually have very poor under car aerodynamics at the moment... with I mean is that all the underbody cladding is missing. I think you are on to somethimg but we really need to do is replace all the under body cladding - with stock or maybe something else.... When Top Gear did a 24 Hour race - they made a front spoiler out of a large piece of particle board to give the front underside a nice smooth flat path for air... This does come up to the rear hatch discussion... do we ever get up to speed where this matters? I agree it will help *drag* but maybe not downforce

Last question i have is what tire pressure are you using? During track days your tires should more air then oem requirements. Somewhere along the lines of 40psi, depending on the weather and tire temperature.

We don't know what tire pressure we were running - I feel it was OEM - 32/33 - we were supposed to pump it up..... so next time we'll try to take better care of the tire pressure - we were thinking 38/36 or so

This damn race car is going to totally derail my "real" car project LOL

This post has been edited by qatar11: Oct 9, 2009 - 6:38 AM

[presure2]

sounds like a fun time mikey!! that track looks like a blast!

[qatar11]

http://jalopnik.com/5375987/the-top-122-le...lemons/gallery/


The full gallery of....... excellence?

[qatar11]

More Photos!
http://picasaweb.google.com/mjcoury/24hour...feat=directlink


Just a taste...







This post has been edited by qatar11: Oct 28, 2009 - 8:05 PM

[mmmchocolate]

More Photos!
http://picasaweb.google.com/mjcoury/24hour...feat=directlink


Just a taste...

oh man how many different colors are on that?! looks like it was fuN!

[qatar11]

Hey all -

starting to shake off the bitter cold of Michigan with some race car work.... new fuel tank and fuel lines..

Pics here...

http://www.celicawiki.com/blog/?p=157




The condition of these used parts from Cali were AMAZING!




Cheers!

This post has been edited by qatar11: Jan 18, 2010 - 12:51 AM

[windowlicker]

great to see you racing a 6th gen, looks like a hell of a lot of fun. i was thinking you might be able to make a one piece underbody panel out of a thin sheet metal. would be inexpensive and do the job. good luck.

[qatar11]

Yeah - its been discussed a bit - our driving ability is not to that point yet and we could use a thin piece of particle board or something - they did it on Top Gear with their budget 24 Hour Diesel Merc? The real trick would be mounting it...

[qatar11]

W00t - Jalopnik!!!111!!

LeMons Torture Test

[qatar11]

Time Delayed Videos of replacing the brake and fuel lines are here:

http://www.celicawiki.com/blog/?p=167

[qatar11]

Next race is only two weeks away - I will keep you guys updated - I should also have a time elsapsed video of all the work (16? hours or so in like a 3 minute video)

Lots of fixes on the car

- Wide band 02
- New Coil
- New Brake Lines
- New Fuel Lines
- Obligatory Oil and Coolant Flush
- New Roll Cage Padding
- Paint and Decals
- New Tires

Man - pimping ain't easy










More Pics Here!

[wjhoffman]

I'm only about 1.5 hours from there. That looks like it'd be fun. I can't race my Celica though, it's my only ride to work.

Edit: Ah looks like the cars need pretty major outfitting anyway.

This post has been edited by wjhoffman: Apr 5, 2010 - 6:16 PM

[qatar11]

Prepping the car for paint:

You Tubes Part 1


You Tubes Part 2


You Tubes Part 3

This post has been edited by qatar11: Apr 6, 2010 - 10:31 PM