Fear And Loathing

Buttonwillow scares me.

It's going to be miserably hot.

It's going to suck hauling my car there solo from Salt Lake over passes and through the desert with my little truck.

It's stressful to have an out of state team relying on me to have the car prepped after the overheat problems we've had.

I hear the track is the most technical in the 24HL series. I felt good about my skills at THill, there was no room for skills at AMP, and Reno I felt like I had my ass handed to me.

Despite all of this I'm pretty excited for this, my most adventurous race. Mark Jr and I got the water pump and timing belt done. First attempt the engine barely started and response was horrible. We noticed we were off one tooth on the exhaust cam. Second attempt she fire up immediately and sounded great for about 15 seconds before we slipped the timing belt. Too loose. Third time was a charm and the engine sounded FAB!

We then did a compression test. After all the overheating we've punished V-RAM with I expected to have valve/head problems. It made 150, 165, 155, and 180 psi. Not bad at all for a $250 car that has been flogged! I may be hesitant about this race, but V-RAM is chomping at the bit.

1 comment:

Pete P said...

Awesome, Good Luck! We will be following and rooting for you guys from the comfort of Concours de LeMons. Wish we were going to be out there with you. Nah, who am I kidding, Glad it's you roasting and not us! :-)

Sparky Pete