We head over to Altamont Raceway as early as we could. There's still a lot of things left to be done, mount the fire extinguisher, give the car a parking lot alignment, remove the tail lights (we didn't have enough time to wire them up so they work), check all the fluids. We go start the car and bring it over to tech, and have the judges look all over the car with prying eyes. The first thing they mention, they think the car is a drifter car. They ask if they're gonna find any suspension mods, like shocks, sway bars, LSD. We replied, no, it's all stock suspension on there. The first thing they see is our brand new shiny black steelie rims and brand new Hankook RS2 tires in 245/45/16. It was impossible for us to try to find any stock rims for the car. Everybody that we contacted on the starquest forums that was selling rims flaked out on us. Stock rims on the car were 16x7 and 16x8, so we wanted 6 16x8 stock rims. And we couldn't find any other rims from any other cars in the correct offset. Fortunately we were able to find some brand new rims from summit racing of all places. They were real cheap too! About the same price as used starion rims were going for. And they were the correct offset! Next, the judges looked under the car and spotted our brand new kyb gr2 shocks. The shocks that came on the car were dead in the rear, and we had to purchase new shocks for them. Luckily the judge knows what the GR2 shocks are and said "Oh yah, those are cheap". But when we popped the hood, they stared at our bling bling silicone couplers connected to our home fabbed intercooler piping, connected to the stock starion fmic. We get to the next tech inspector and he informs us that our 4 point harness doesn't have SFI stickers on it, and won't pass tech. Luckily there was a vendor selling the pyrotect equipment, including a 5 point harness. We buy it from him on the spot for $85 (or was it $65?) since we had no choice. We head back to the pits to install the safety harness when we notice that the water pump is now leaking. Crap!
We think the water pump is leaking at the gasket, so we attempt to remove the water pump. Unfortunately the new Kragen water pump we had installed didn't quite fit correctly. The hub for the radiator fan was too big, and they forced it on when they installed it. Now they're grabbing screwdrivers and trying to hammer and pull it out. Meanwhile, another team goes to work on installing the 5 point harness, which unfortunately did not come with instructions. We guess on how everything goes together, bring it back to the guy that sold it to us to double check. We then start drilling into the car to mount the hardware, cut the seat cushion with a pocket knife to get the submarine belt through it. The guys are still pounding away with a hammer and screwdriver desperately trying to get the water pump off. The tech crew lost our incomplete tech sheet, so we get one of the tech guys over and he techs our car. Whew, now that we passed tech, we can breathe a little easier. Then they announce that they're doing transponder checks and we need to get out there. The guys finally get the water pump off and are putting it back on, while modifying the fan with a dremel sanding bit to open up the hole. The sanding bit breaks off inside the fan, and now the stone is stuck inside. We grab a screwdriver and hammer the stone into bits to get it out. Luckily the hole is just big enough to fit on the water pump without problems. We lather on the quick dry sealant, and bolt it back up, and reattach the water pump hose. We start the car up and watch a big stream of water come pouring out where the water pump hose is, just like the day before when we got it on the trailer. Clamping the hose down like mad doesn't help this time. They take a close look at the water pump outlet pipe, and notice that it's not round, but rather oval. They announce that transponder checks is closing in a few minutes, and they are mandatory. We decide to wrap up the outlet pipe with duct tape, then clamp over it. We start the car up, and it's not leaking.... yet. I know it won't last, but we need to get on the track, now! They volunteer that I drive it around the track since I had a whole 2 minutes of prior driving experience with the car. So I go into the car, and slowly go around the outside oval, over the start / finish line, and immediately exit. The guy at the pit exit asks if I wanna go around the track, and I say no, fearing the water pump is gushing water out. Head back to the pits, and whaddya know, I was right, water was pouring out pretty good. We then decide that more duct tape and more of the 1 minute sealant around the water pipe outlet, and double clamping it should do the trick. And whaddya know, it worked! The leak stopped.
First up was Jason Kertianis driving.
I'm the first driver, and I pull into line. We had yet to drive the car over 25mph, or more then the length of a block. Did I mention that we never set the boost controller, and Fred just put it somewhere in the middle? So my introduction to wheel to wheel racing read as follows... 1) Bed in the brake pads during the race. 2) Scrub the new tires that still have mold release on them. 3) Watch the water temp, because all of the water may dump out at any second. 4) Figure out how the car handles. We removed around 1000lbs, cut the springs, and Dave did the alignment just minutes prior with his home made alignment tools. 5) Last but not least, don't get creamed by one or more of the 85 other manics out on the small one mile track. What could go wrong?
Actually, nothing! I took it easy the first few laps, and got out of everyone's way. I made sure the car was okay, and the tires and brakes were ready. I checked the boost- whoa it climbs fast, I let off as it climbs past 10psi. But I try again, and find that it jumps to 12psi and stays there. Exactly what I wanted to start the race. And more then enough for the whole race, we never touched it again. I got more comfortable with the car and then let 'er rip. Holy crap, the car was FAST. It had plenty of power, with a very wide powerband. You could bog it and it would still pull hard. Too much throttle, and you could spin the tires from a roll in second. But what about the turns? The car was incredible balanced, very neutral. No understeer, and the car could be easily rotated and placed with the throttle. The brakes were STRONG, but the pedal feel took a little getting used to. It took me a bit for my driving to catch up to the abilities of the car. But once I did, I was able to pass other cars in bunches. I felt vindicated that our car building strategy paid off, even better then I would have dreamed. I knew we would be far out gunned experienced wise on the track. None of us has any wheel to wheel experience. That's why I wanted a car that was competent in the tight infield, but excelled on the straits and banking where it is much safer and easier to pass. Well the car car was fast in the infield, and almost plain unfair on the outside. Very few cars could run with it on the outside, maybe none when one of our better drivers was in a groove. I was able to use our car's advantage to make up for my lack of experience. It could also race safe and clean, no need to dive bomb someone on the inside to get around. Just be paitent, and wait for an opportunity to launch by them. After my stint in the car, Even after my ultra conservative start, I was shocked to find we were in 15th place!
Next up to drive was me, James Pung.
The first 10 minutes of driving was sheer terror. Everybody goes into all the turns 2 wide. On the banked ovals, cars are going 4 wide then hitting the brakes and trying to squeeze into the esses two wide. That was complete chaos as cars were spinning and getting punted into the dirt. The big domestics are pushing wide exiting the corner, and threatens to punt little japanese cars like ours into the dirt infield. I go conservative and wide throughout the corners giving them enough room, but that also gives the aggressive drivers out there reason to dive bomb me in the corners. There's more than a few occasions where we end up going 3 wide through turns where there's really only room for 2. And the brakes, good lord the brakes. Absolutely nothing happens to the brakes until the pedal goes halfway to the floor, then all of a sudden you go flying towards the windshield because the brakes grab so hard. There is absolutely no feel to the brakes, you have to gingerly tip toe on the brakes in order to not lock up. It was extremely difficult to modulate. Try to brake while turning, and you end up looping the car. Which is exactly what I did twice.
Eventually I start to settle in, and find out that the Hankook RS2's are really grippy, especially around the banked ovals. That and the power to weight ratio of the starion means I'm now out accelerating almost every car out there on the ovals, and maintaining high speeds. That's where I decide I'm gonna do all my passing, but there's debris all over the track. It's real slippery on certain parts of the track, which changes all the time. I try to pass high up on the banked oval a couple of times, but almost lose it completely as the car starts sliding on the loose gravel. A CRX completely loses it in the Ess turns and stops sideways right in front of me. I can't get out of it's way, and give it a soft punt and go around it. I worry about the FMIC and radio in to my pit crew on the next yellow. They tell me there isn't much damage, and I continue. At this point I start to get the hang of things a bit, until the big yellow el camino like school bus spins off into the dirt, and tries to get back on by trying to t-bone me. I barely miss him by an inch, and he t-bones the car behind me and sends it spinning into the infield inches from my rear bumper. My session ends when I take up the outside line, and forget where exactly someone's bumper is lying in the middle of the road. The outside line is slippery with gravel, and I don't see the bumper until it's too late, and I hit the bumper and cause a flat. I head into the pits to change the tire and drivers. I climb out of the car, beads of sweat trailing down my face, adrenaline still pumping, and nearly shaking. Holy crap that was insane!
Everyone else drove well. After a couple warm up laps, each driver started chopping up the field. Dave jumped in the car next, and quickly made up time. He was easily one of the fastest cars on the track. Then Fred took over and made it look easy. He was treating the other cars like slalom cones. Evan did well, but I think other drivers started taking their frustration out on him. He seemed to have a bulls eye on him, I guess they were tired of getting passed by the black and red car. Jason C. took the car for the last stint. Contact bent the right front shock housing, giving the car a lot of extra negative camber for left turns. It also made the car more tail happy when braking. Still, he soldiered on and we finished the day in an outstanding 15th place. This is with six new drivers and one cut tire. We also were more biased toward having fun and equalizing driving time instead of all out winning. We didn't need to stop for six driver's changes with the big 20 gallon tank (the car was even good on fuel!) but we wanted to be fair. Besides, we never expected to be doing so well. We modified our strategy the next day. Same timed driver changes, but with a 210 minute + or - window to wait for a caution before pitting. We also figured we would start with a full fuel tank, and only add fuel until the driver was strapped in. One big advantage we had were our spotters in the stands. Allen and T.V. radioed important info to the driver, such as obstacles in the track, crashes, slow cars, and flag status. They saved our necks on many occasions. It must have been tough, because they had to pay attention to the whole track all of the time.
So for our first day, we placed as high as 13th place, ended up 15th place at the end of the day, along with our right front tire now angled at about a negative four degrees worth of camber. We also found out that we took a pretty good hit on the front left corner, and hit the battery hard enough where it stopped working. A trip to walmart for a new battery was now in the works the next morning..
Some pics of the first day.
Thank you Jim Inglebright, for donating your used triple layer nomex simpson fire proof driving suits! No more single layer nomex get out of a burning car in less than three seconds or die driving suits for me!
Some shots of the track
Morning madness to get the car together
This is what a undented body panel looks like. It won't look like this for much longer
Look at the shiny black steel rims with Hankook RS2's.
The intercooler piping was too much bling for the judges.
Come off the water pump, damn you fan.
If all else fails, use the Big Ass Prybar
How the hell do you install this harness?
Yup, the #93 car, sponsored by
Yume Networks and
VeeIt.com
The fan is finally off and we end up modifying the fan mounts to fit better
Fire Extinguisher mounted, roll bar in place, gauge cluster zip tied securely.
Still working on getting the harness to mount properly
Harness is now mounted. We had to cut through the seat to get the submarine belt in place.
Some random pit chaos
How the hell is this BMW 740il even comes close to being worth $500?!
We seriously need some bumper guards
It's godzilla!
Must stomp on other cars!
This car tried to put a tiki curse on us, but we blocked it by closing our eyes and rolling them.
These guys were driving crazy on the track and bumping people off left and right. They eventually got black flagged, and the driver didn't exit for 5 laps. The organizers took it out on them by tar and feathering the car.
There were alot of beemers out today
There were also alot of crx's too.
A Neon?
That wing was creating a lot of downforce. Too bad it didn't stay on for very long
There were a few RX7's too.
And some very underpowered cars
There were a team of 3 saabs that ran
