No we aren’t going to win anything, we are trading money for fun and a unique experience enjoyed by few.

For those curious about the race weekend details…. this is your homepage.

Lemons Organizers Event Information

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Lemons Organizers Event Information 〰️

DO THIS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!!

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• DRIVERS

  First I need y’all to join the team via Lemon’s webpage. If you are new to racing the series you will need to create an account.

  1. Login (create account) → top right of here: https://24hoursoflemons.com/

  2. Renew License [$100]

     ‍ ‍Yes it feels like a scam

  3. Join Team → Events → Enter Invitation (shared via email)

     Team: Yet Another Shitty E30

     ‍ ‍ Car #: 300

  4. Pay your portion of registration fees = $400

• CREW

  If you have fire suit and helmet, bring them!

  ——————————————————

  You aren’t crew. You are a spectator. See below for link. Please buy ahead to make entry smoother.

• FRIENDS/FAMILY

  They charge everyone except tiny humans and pets. $40 to watch a bunch of hooligans racing.

  ‍ ‍Tickets Link

  We love to have friends and family visit!

General Plan for Event

• Thursday

  ~9:00 PM - Car and Trailer will arrive and find paddock spot

  —> Paddock Spot ←-

• Friday

  Drivers Gear Tech - noon to 5:00 pm

  Car Tech - TBD pm FOR US!!

  Car Light Tech - 8:30-10:30 pm

  Team Meeting - 6:00-7:00 PM

  • Familiarize with car

  • Discuss safety items

  • Locations of roles/activities during race

• Saturday

  Drivers Meeting - 9:30 AM

  Driver/Car to Grid - 10:30 AM

  Race Start - 11:00 AM

  No Drinking!!!!

• Sunday

  Checkered flag - 12:01 PM

  Awards Ceremony - 1:00 PM

  Safe travels home!

Driver Roster:

• Michael Detmers (Team Lead)

• Xin Jin

• Cameron Rogers

• Emil Ekmečić

• Matt McGuire

• Michael Burello (1st adventure to W2W racing)

Crew:

• Colleen Schaefer

• Georg Klöck

• José Miguel Cruz Toledo

• More TBD

What to Expect

~~~~~ 120 cars on track ~~~~~

Drivers and Crew - From the Real NASA 25 hr

Car will run 1:30 hours to 1:45 hours on fuel

Expecting drivers to support 1:30 hour stints if possible. If you aren’t feeling well for any reason, radio the pits and come in. Safety is more important than racing. I want you around for abuse in the next race.

Live Telemetry on car will be active, pits will be monitoring vitals as needed.

Pit Stops

Lots will be happening when the car comes into hot pits. We are using the actual hot pits i.e. being real racers.

Driver Task when entering Pits:

1. Radio you will be PITTING at end of next lap, report this on back straight of East (3 mile). Gives crew ~5 minutes to get over there.

   1. We will coordinate PIT planning

2. Upon entering hot pits, speed limit ~35 mph or cruising 3rd gear

3. Lights off (if at night)

4. Loosen belts

5. Look for crew waving #300 drip pan

6. Stop, Kill switch off

7. Window Net Down/Comm Disconnected/Belts off/Out of car

Crew for Pitting:

2 suited up in fire gear, next driver, 1 non-suited crew (optional)

1. New driver over wall to inspect car for damage

2. Fire bottle person wave down car with fuel spill pan

3. Place fuel spill pan under car behind passenger rear wheel

4. Non-suited crew help out driver (remember to disconnect comms)

5. Fuel person over wall with jug

   1. Open tank AFTER driver out of car and helper crew back over wall

6. Driver getting out, download any information about car to new driver.

   1. vibrations, noises, contact, shitty drivers

7. Fueling, helmet visors down, Fire bottle person next to passenger front wheel aiming bottle at fuel person

   1. eyes up looking for asshat cars coming into pits hot/reckless

   2. Two and half fuel jugs fill tank

   3. Close filler cap

8. Fire bottle crew and fuel crew put stuff over wall

9. If available and needed have someone clean window

10. Help next driver into car

    1. Driver In

    2. Adjust seating position for pedals

    3. Belt in driver, helper on both sides for lap belts (drivers will be felt up for good measure)

    4. Connect comms

    5. Comm volume check

    6. GO GO GO, pit speed limit ~35 mph until flag tower

Driver on out lap:

• Double check shoulder belts

• Feel the car out

• Get comfy and put in laps. Have fun.

  • You on fire => stop asap, pull fire pin (left hand side), belts, window net, get the fuck out

  • Red flag => come to safe and controlled stop on side of track surface with flag tower in sight

• Radio the pits if you are bored, see a silly incident, serious incident or for any other reason.

Crew/Spectators Outside of pitstops:

Go get sleep and hydrate (water then sleep might be more effective) !!!!!

We will have a RV rented primarily for drivers to rest, but if beds are free go take them. Location of RV will be posted with the information for paddock spot. 25 hours is a very long event and we need everyone as alert as possible to minimize mistakes.

Stuff to Bring

Drivers

• Race Suit, Gloves, Shoes, Balaclava, Socks

• Helmet

• HANS or equivalent (sharing is welcomed also, so find your HANS buddy)

• Ear Plugs for comms & IMSA headset unit (or adapter to IMSA connector)

• All stuff for Crew/Spectators listed below

Crew/Spectators

• Chair for sitting upon

• Clothes for weather from 50-90°F, it gets cold and windy at night and very warm in day time

• Sunscreen

• Comfy shoes (lots of hard pavement)

• Water (we will have lots, but bringing your own is key)

• Food is available at track, but think ballpark food.

• Personal meds/etc.

• Pillow/blanket (if you sleep in RV)

Zaid kindly offered me to take his Copart Cayman and see what’s what. Wonderful so I wandered to Santa Clara to meet up with the track day crew consisting of 3 Porsches and an Elise. Enjoyed a lovely dinner before setting out on the long ~3.5 hr drive south.

Trip started off nicely, enjoying conversation with Emil. Stopped for fuel after getting onto I-5, jumped in the drivers seat and almost immediately the dash lit up with many warning lights about coolant and overheating. Immediately was like wtf just happened. Pulled to the side of road by politely cutting off the car I just passed. As soon as we opened the door we saw the issue. Puked coolant from the front, likely one of the front radiator connections Zaid and Emil just recently worked. Cool. Now what…

Time for AAA and wait. After arguing that I still have a 200 mile tow because they thought I used it already for my miata break down a few weeks ago. It was just over 1 mile from my house, that definitely shouldn’t be counted for my 200 mile tow. Anyways I convinced them and so we got to wait. It was 11:00 PM. Beginning of a very long night, leaving the others to keep trekking down to the hotel.

Note for other drivers. Don’t be assholes! Move over for stopped cars with hazards on. It was chilly outside so we sat in the car, but constantly had my eye looking rearward for drunkards and idiots. Many many passed us right on the line… Assholes.

Thankfully we got a great tow driver, carried us and the car back to San Jose. Our new tentative plan was return Zaid’s Cayman, then pick up Emil’s 911 GTS. Upon arrival at Zaid’s around 12:50 am Sunday morning, we quickly put car up on his lift while Emil went to grab his car. After about 15 minutes we had the undertray and bumper removed with a clear indication of our coolant system failure. It was just a connection to the center radiator that popped free. Didn’t have time or energy to complete the repair, so we hopped into Emil’s car and hauled ass down to our hotel in Wasco. Finally arriving to the staff preparing for breakfast. It was 4:40 am. Reminder our drivers meeting starts at 8:00 am, just over 3 hrs away. With the track being a 30 minute drive. We quickly went to our rooms and attempted to get a wink of sleep.

Later that “day”

The collection of us made our way to the track, paying entry fees (super weird) and setting up our spot for the day.

Massive thank you for Mahin letting me track his Cayman when I just met him a matter of hours ago. Huge trust and appreciative of presumably recommendations from Zaid, Matt and Emil. I planned to take it easy in his car and never pushed all the way to redline, but happily overheated the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S he had equipped in a handful of laps. Ended up giving everyone a ride along to share insights about the track and feeling out a cars handling. Serving as a minor coach to them all as well in their passenger seat.

While I was mentally and physically exhausted, it was a lovely day and a wonderfully old school track. There were what felt like almost no flaggers, the pavement felt old and abusive to tires, there were no obvious corner braking points. But after a few laps a natural line started to appear. The corners aren’t obviously a flow, but look harder and they really are a blast to connect. Phil Hill is a great blind crest with pretty harsh consequences for too much speed. The corners aren’t numbered, just given random names. I never remembered any except Phil Hill. Below are some fun laps in Mahin’s Cayman S. It was my first test run with RaceChrono Pro + RaceBox. Worked flawlessly including the Bluetooth OBDII reader.

If you want to record HPDE sessions with engine information this is definely the way to go. Completely matches the much more expensive Garmin setup, with added bonus of car telemetry overlaid.

Fastest lap of the day. Most importantly I beat Zaid’s times in his Cayman with better tires, suspension and brakes. The extra 40 hp for the S was offset by having a passenger. :-)

Buttonwillow is a wonderful track! I’ll be coming back again and wish I had been sooner.

Oh… yeah Emil also punctured his sidewall and had to get another tow home. Unfortunate trend for this trip. Better luck next time!

Based on internet searching apparently only spicy beetles i.e. Porsche Cup car owners. And those peeps don’t seem to share too many details so it took awhile to find a system that works. Eventually ran across this awesome blog post from an SLC owner, huge thank you for sharing the information. Check out his post -> https://www.swartzgarage.com/slc-air-jack-system

In that spirit I am sharing all my parts and designed parts for the Ultima RS and anyone else curious about nitrogen shocks, specifically the AP Racing ones.

Why do this?

Aside from the cool factor, which is self explanatory. I plan to explore America’s race tracks with my Ultima. To do this I’ll need to be inspecting brakes, making suspension adjustments, replacing tires and any number of other things that require the car in the air. Anyone with an Ultima will know this is sort of tricky due to all the fiberglass. For reference from the side of car to actual metal chassis points is roughly 1 foot, the side pod which is only ~4-5” off the ground. No low profile jacks are going to work with this. Even if trying to pick up the front end, I have the same problem due to the huge splitter. So I started considering ‘air’ jacks.

• How much would they cost? Yes

• Could I fit them in places without major modifications? Yes

• Would they lift the car high enough? Mostly

Research

I found a handful of companies selling nitrogen air shocks. Numerous brands I’ve never heard of, which could be perfectly fine but ultimately ended up not being compact enough for the Ultima chassis. One company worth a mention is Nuke Performance and their 90C system. It runs on 120 psi easily available from any air compressor. I really wanted to use them, but they ultimately are too large diameter for me. Large diameter because of the lower operating pressures make sense because physics.

Ended up focused on AP Racings CP3985 for a few key reasons:

1. Options for different length shocks (150mm, 230mm and 310mm lift)

2. Compact diameter

3. Detailed design information available

4. Major brand with great support network

Math Time Because Engineer

During the research I was very curious about how much Nitrogen I would need to carry with me to operate the jacks and roughly how many cycles would be achieved. The internet completely failed me on this item, # of lifts wildly varied and was basically useless. I won’t repeat any of them here and just share the engineering approach using basic physics and math. For those nerds, do you remember PV = nRT? Yeah we needed to use that old guy.

Starting assumptions:

Using 4 CP3985 air shocks, 2x 230mm (rear) and 2x 150mm (front). Their piston diameter is ~60mm probably smaller. Your basic math yields volume at atmospheric pressure.

Now that I know how much volume of gas the system contains fully extended I can figure out how much volume is required to fill this at an assumed 350 psi. Cylinders have a max operating pressure of 30 bar (435 psi). From research Porsche Cup cars need between 325-350 psi to lift fully, I am much lighter but will use their pressures for a reference. For my math I am going to convert everything to atmospheric of 14.7 psi. I could have left everything in other pressures, but wanted a consistent reference.

Now to find the sizing of standard bottles. Referenced Airgas as they are locally available. They have numerous one, but I focused on the 40, 80 and 125 bottles. Each refer to the cubic feet they contain.

Sorry for all that math, but at the end of the day it confirms nitrogen lift kits are not for the financially limited. At $7 per lift I’ll have to think about when to use this, but I’m stoked it will solve the problem of getting her off the ground when I need it. Now that I sort of confirmed the smaller bottles should accommodate my needs I’ll likely end up with an 80 bottle just because the massive price benefit vs a 40.

Design

Breaking out some CAD in Solid works to figure out where I can make brackets to mount this bad boys. Incredibly grateful for AP Racing sharing full exterior dimensions allowing me to create a 3d model and subsequently print out an accurate shock. I opted to make it modular via slicing in Bambu Studio. If you too want to print out a shock for mock ups, please enjoy this model which is for the 230 mm travel. It is hollow to minimize filament waste. If you take 100mm out of the middle you can make it work for both the 150 and 230 shock.

For anyone looking for the Solid works model, here ya go. Forgive any of my modeling bad habits, I’m not an ME…

Next I ended up replicating the rear chassis to find a home for the shock. It ended up snugly working just behind the main shock upright mount. Designed an upper and lower plate to be welded into the chassis. An order from Send Cut Send will be on its way in a week or two after the real lift shock arrives to confirm my final fitment. The gallery below captures various prints and stages of mock up.

For anyone interested in a 3 dimensional PDF, here is my design for the rear. I think it only works with Adobe PDF Reader unfortunately.

Made a crude, but useful mock up in cardboard. Never forget how helpful dead trees can be. You don’t always need CAD and 3d scans.

I love CAD and the ability to move things around without effects of gravity. It is so helpful before you try in reality.

The 230mm rear shocks should get wheels off the ground nicely.

It is the best feeling when your model matches reality or vice versa.

Hard to see, but this is a 150mm travel shock tucked away within the front portion of each side pod. Stoked to hide them out of sight.

Expenses

While I normally have not tallied any of the purchases for this build because I don’t want to know I could have paid off my house instead of creating this car. Don’t worry about my poor financial decisions. Below is the tally for lifting my questionable choices to get the Ultima 1-2” off the ground.

Chassis Parts:

AP Racing - Air Jack (CP3985-230): $497.01ea (x2)

AP Racing - Air Jack (CP3985-150): $548.53ea (x2)

AP Racing - Air Jack Coupling + Valve (CP6116-3): $401.51

Russell Performance - Black AN-6 Lines (30 ft): $68.95

Russell Performance - Tube Nuts: $4.95 (x5)

Russell Performance - Tube Sleeves: $4.95 (x5)

Russell Performance - AN-6 Tee: $15.95 (x3)

DeatschWerks - AN-6 to M14x1.5: $10.00 (x4)

Total pre-tax = $2,698.89

Gas Cylinder & Lines:

Airgas - Nitrogen 80 Cylinder: $404.07 (refills are $130.31)

Harris - 25GX-500-580 Regulator: $152.87

Grainger - Continental Hose (#55CN17): $76.90

Titan - M16x1.5 to 1/4”NPTF (#9235-16-04): $5.86

AP Racing - Air Jack Lance (CP6116-15): $525.88

Total pre-tax = $1,165.58

All in for the full nitrogen air jack system and supporting tools leads me to spend a whopping $3,864.47 + tax and shipping

In a few weeks I’ll add a new post with the final parts or just augment this one. Either way looking forward to upgrading the Ultima once again with more expensive parts and custom engineering.

Keeping wires wrapped snuggly around lines, will be able to install the HVAC lines through side pod later. Green tape reflects the front edge of fuel cells.

They make lovely products and its also a good policy because everyone has great ideas. Super happy with the resulting wire and coolant lines. Keeping heat in and abrasion down.

Decided to route the wires along lower a-arm because it minimizes risk of contact from wheels, steering rack and suspension movement. Additionally having it secured near lower pivot eliminates need for extra length.

Just keeping it tidy.

All buttons on the dash are connected with this loom, should make installation and/or replacement later of anything much simpler.

Transaxle Parts

While Ultima does make shift brackets for the G96.50, either I lost it or couldn’t find it in the boxes. So the logical next step was to fire up the CAD machine and make my own out of stainless steel. Factory version is powder coated black and sort of sticks out compared with the aluminum case. Went through a few revisions to get the angles and lengths correct. Ordered from #sendcutsend made of 0.187” (4.7mm) stainless 304.

Feel free to grab the G96.50 Shift Bracket: Solidworks file - STEP file

Also spent a bit of time working out the wheel speed sensor brackets, allowing for monitoring on each corner. One leverages the cover plate over clutch slave pivot and the other picks up unused bolt holes. Keeping things simple without modifications to the case required. These are both from 5052 aluminum of 0.100” (2.5mm) thick. Feel free to grab them.

Cover/Bracket: Solidworks file - STEP file

Brace: Solidworks file - STEP file

Bracket: Solidworks file - STEP file

Brackets are designed to work with the "Red" Single Channel Hall Effect SensorThread: M12x1.0

I also found OEM Porsche axle covers to keep all the CV grease in the correct home. Added a bit of RTV before gently pressing them on to seal everything nicely.

Few other circuits being tested, providing some satisfaction. The lift is currently setup to automatically lift once the engine is started, this action is fully customizable because controlled by the Nexus R5. For now it’s primary controls are from the dash buttons similar to factory design. They are always the override. This operation is also linked to Aim dash icons for awareness about nose position.

Both fans are working with the steering wheel override, yet primary control will be independent depending on engine temps. No need to run both if the car isn’t hot.

Finally the custom designed washer fluid tank is doing its job by holding fluid and the circuit has been tested to confirm the pump and wiring works. I’m a bit surprised by the pair of straight squirters, would have expected more of a mist. Whatever, it works and I can always replace the end nozzle later with some under dash gymnastics.

Enough for now. Next few weeks/month is very exciting. More blogs coming soon!

fab9tuning: antigravity-atx20-re-start-lithium-battery

antigravity batteries: atx20-rs

Problem arises when trying to mount in the factory spot, enter a bit of 3D printing.

For anyone else looking to stick this small battery in your boot, enjoy the 3d print files:

• Solidworks Model

• STEP file

• Bambu 3MF

Brandon thank you for reaching out to join at Laguna Seca this January. Signed my life away and was told I cannot drive it to the aquarium Saturday night. We shall see sir!

Happily packed up my WRX with a tent, air mattress, race bag, a few fuel jugs and firepit. Obviously a few other items like shirt/pants, but way way simpler than loading truck and trailer. Let’s go!

Friday

Ummm, pop up tent and table then wander the pits to visit friends? Arrived at 4pm as requested by LDRL after wandering about Monterey pier and downtown. Nice relaxing afternoon until Brandon and crew showed up at 5:30. At which the shenanigans began. Was lovely to be told what needs to be taken out of a trailer and placed in spots instead of being the one herding cats. “What should I grab next” was the question of my evening. So relaxing.

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Trust me I’m racing with a group of responsible adults.

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Race Day #1 aka Saturday

Over the evening, Brad sorted out our driving schedule. Unexplainable to any normal human, but I’m here just to drive not think too much. So let’s get things going. I have by far the most experience around Laguna and tried to share various tips and secrets.

• Turn 1 is a joke for Miata’s,

• No 2 is a nice passing zone and we should be able to outbreak most things,

• Turn 3 isn’t worth focusing on for early lap time gains,

• Watch out for the exit of T4, dropping a tire can be costly if not careful,

• Fifth turn is critical to huck the car into and keep speed, especially when powered by hamsters,

• Bravery T6, get as close to the red burm but don’t dare touch it,

• Wave to the flagger in turn 7 because you aren’t turning, just get ready for the Corkscrew,

• The famous turn, the 3 story drop. Don’t break too late or you’ll slide past apex,

• Turn 9 has tons of grip so use it and run out,

• Tenth corner is just a corner, enjoy it,

• Final T11 is a place for divebombs but will sacrifice front straight speeds and could bend steering arms.

Nothing too exciting here except I laid the foundation for more speed. I was last of the four drivers in the car today and quickly gave them a target for low lap times. Nailed a handful of 1:51 with a low of 1:51.205. Immediately Brad had to show me he was the faster driver putting in a 1:51.067 then working his way down to a 1:50.106. Always enjoy a friendly battle both between teammates and on track competition. While top times are great, I always love wheel to wheel high speed chess. Knowing you can ink out a bit more to defend the spot or place the car in a terrible position for them to pass. Watching the others make decisions on the spot and equally respond to their plans.

Sadly there were some major incidents today. While Tom was out there he came over radio yelling “car fire”, we promptly saw a car fireball at the beginning of the hot pits. I’ve never seen a car fire this huge, glad the driver escaped safely and safety crews were able to put it out eventually. Good reminder to flip the kill switch before pulling fire bottle and fleeing the vehicle, it continued to burn because the power was on causing fuel pump to keep running. Thanks Eric, race director or whatever is your official LDRL title.

During my stint there was an unfortunate contact between an SN95 Mustang and Datsun Z on the front straight, leading to lots of crumbled metal on the Z and various suspension damage for the Mustang. I’m sure both cars will return, both drivers were okay.

Emergency oiling system, fire bottle filled with 2 quarts of oil. Pressurized to 150 psi and activated by handle in the car squirting into the valve cover.

Sunday Race Time

Second day after trolling paddock far too late, listing to our neighbors trying to convince Eric to sell his blue Tuk Tuk EV thing, while he argued they should import 50 at a time. As always everyone is awake and ready for racing even if a bit groggy. Sunday was quite clean overall with one exception, a massive crash between turn 4 and 5 between a Miata and BMW.

Oh and Brandon went for a “gap” into T11 that was closed on him, resulting in shunting the blue Miata. Bending the front right steering end link, and ripping out part of the splitter mounts. Quick work from the team and we had the Tom back out to finish the last 30-40 minutes. Zip ties holding on the air damn and splitter, old steering rod swapped in and the extra one left in footwell. One more pitstop to grab the loose part and Tom was off to put in solid laps.

Lap Analysis Python Script for the curious

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Thank you guys for a great weekend!

Items addressed:

• Intake manifold bolts loose, scary when it was previously making ~30 psi of boost. Simple retorque for now. Later they should all be replaced with consistent hardware instead of the mix and match set.

• Exhaust vibrating against transmission; previously added a minor dent to clear, but now have some header wrap in the section since its still very close. Again not a long term solution, but better so I wouldn’t go insane driving it on highway.

• Valve cover fill cap; rubbing against the strut tower brace, bit of time with a Dremel and hammer to relieve the bottom of brace. Probably a long term fix unless we care to make a new brace. Not sure how much they actually are needed.

• Turbo downpipe alignment was adjusted for “better” clearance to coolant lines and engine sensors. While at it I added the turbo blanket and wrapped downpipe.

• Oil catch can was emptied and reattached with rubber and zip ties. Temporary for this test day, long term needs a proper mount and return drain to pan.

Driving to and at the track

The ride up to Willows was relatively uneventful. Most of the rattles seemed to be resolved, which was relieving. I did find some new oddities.

• For example the interior button/knob back lighting doesn’t work, quite annoying while trying to adjust HVAC.

• Headlights could be adjusted so forward visibility is further than a handful of car lengths.

• Shift knob still has a random vibration, I believe it is from the transmission itself.

• 16 MPG is horrible for cruising at 65-70 mph around 3100 rpm.

• Clutch is still frustrating to manage pulling away from stops.

Once at the track nothing went to plan. In the first corner the car went into some type of VSC/TC. Limiting any power during casual corning on track, didn’t notice this while street driving. Incredibly unsettling to have the car slow down while trying to accelerate/stabilize mid-corner. Tested for a few more corners before slowly returning to the paddock for pondering and data investigation. Unfortunately the ECU logging isn’t enabled and since fully password locked I couldn’t change it.

Second outing I left laptop in passenger footwell to record (don’t tell SpeedSF). Knowing the issue this time I purposely pushed for more throttle mid-corner and same results. Something is seriously haywire either ECU is pulling throttle or ABS/TC module is activating. At the end of this very short outing consisting of 2 laps there was smells of oil and smoke once returning to the paddock. Opening hood revealed the catch can puked oil everywhere.

DATA LOG FROM HALTECH 1500

Basic Engine Checks

The engine appears to be healthy mechanically.

-> Spark plugs seem clean generally, but are sooty. Makes sense considering it runs rich with the turbo.

-> Next up was compression tests. Cylinder #1 = 225 psi, #2 = 227 psi, #3 = 224 psi, #4 = 220 psi…. average of 224 psi with max 1.8% deviation.

-> Finally a leak down test measured at 50 psi source. Cylinder #1 = 4%, #2 = 2%, #3 = 2%, #4 = 4%.

All very small and all past the rings, air could be heard from catch can.

Non-Turbo Quick Lap of the Morning for reference. I can drive an FR-S! Just not one that is actively doing weird shit mid-corner.

First thing is very simple, they don’t supply wheel speed sensors and 99% of cars don’t need them on all corners because most people aren’t data nerds. Enter Haltech hall effect sensors. I previously designed trigger rings for the brake rotors, now I finally mount the sensors. Initially the plan was to create a bracket or something, but then realized the existing caliper mounting holes work perfectly. Don’t worry the mounting holes aren’t used as these hubs are cast to be universal left to right and thus have extra ears. Had to order an odd M12-1.0 tap, but otherwise was simple as pie.

Testing the sensor is working. Oscilloscope!! A square wave is the expected result with frequency increasing with wheel speed.

Second was the windshield washer tank/pump. They recommend attaching it to the fiberglass via a janky mount without any secure fasteners. This had to go and be replaced. Their setup was gonna fly off within the first braking zone. Huge thanks to Greg Veizades for his help with the final resin print. I finished it off with sanding from 400 grit to a final of 1000. Then applying multiple clear coats.

Third and most egregious was the front suspension. Springs supplied are far too long to allow proper installation of the lift solenoids. Ordered new springs from Nitron and had a fun 6 week battle to finally get them.

Doing some match as you may see below, if I were to run the supplied 6” springs with the lift kit…It would mean always having a minimum preload of an 1/8” with the kit in lowered state. With the lift applied it would be a 1 1/8” preload aka ~675 lbs trying to pull that shock apart. Even with the front loaded with actual weight it would leave the suspension effectively locked out with in ‘lift’ position. I’d prefer to have the choice on setting preload and ride height of the front nose. So swapping to a 5” spring with same rates allows the adjustments and the shorter spring still won’t bind before the shock bottoms out on bump stops. Win-win from a little suspension math/engineering.

The installed 5” spring has a small amount of pre-load and the ability to go up another 1/4” (6mm) or down roughly 1” (25mm).

Maths

Shock stroke = 73.5mm

Bump stop Uncompressed size = 24.9 mm

Shock travel before touching bump stop = ~50mm

5” spring travel before bind* = 71.8mm

6” spring travel before bind* = 82.5mm

*numbers from Eibach because Nitron doesn’t share them. Assuming they are close.

Using a 6” spring means shock will always bottom out before spring even without a bump stop.

Using the 5” spring means spring will bind if somehow the bumpstop is compressed to 7% of its nominal size. This will never happen, says physics.

In case you were curious how I mounted the upper eyelet of each shock position sensor. It required many days of staring to realize the upper shock mount bolts were long. Meaning I could create a ‘stud’ for the sensor to mount on. Enter some questionable use of TIG welding, M4 bolt, M5 washer and 1/2“-20 nut. Are they ideal…no. Are they gonna work…yes. Sometimes I have to remind myself that not everything must be bespoke CNC parts.

Fourth thing that wasn’t an issue, but a personal addition.

I need to annoy people when they annoy me and somehow don’t hear this beast rumbling down the road. So I added a pair of Hella horns. They fit snuggly behind the front clamp fiberglass and in front of steering rack. Like the results of brackets created for the pair. Obviously coated in multiple layers of black paint.

Drivers: Michael Detmers, Zaid Nadeem, Greg Veizades and Cam Rogers (guest: Brad Marson)

Always need to get that shade up as soon as enough hands are available to heave it skyward. Its been a great $300 “investment”. Keeping wind, rain and cold out.

Sharing thoughts about various corners with Zaid.

No explanation needed.

Seen the car for years, finally pitted next to them and had a wonderful time.

We are one of the ugliest cars on the grid. Still feisty.

Yes this Cayman was racing against us and yes we merely hoped to beat them because they failed to finish last year. Money doesn’t mean good drivers.

Someone brought a toy and allowed it to be our pace car. Much cooler than a suburban!

Race Day Comes Along

Our plan as always is to prioritize fun over winning since we have no chance of winning A class. Our only hope is to end up in B class somehow then not have any part failures. Even this is quite difficult as we continue to get faster with every hour of seat time.

This year we were placed into B class, which was an awesome start.

Zaid started the race off for us, until there was a horrific accident on the first flying lap. Three cars came together just before the start/finish flag tower, cause unknown. Immediately red flagged with very long delay to get all drivers attended to and cars taken away. Later we found out the driver was okay, but did sustain some injuries. Another reminder for building strong cages and using quality safety equipment. From the looks of crash and car damage, one Miata made its way out to some barricades inside of turn 1. Extremely unexpected place to contact.

After working his way from 42nd to 37th, Zaid passed the car along to me for the second leg of driving, for which I thoroughly enjoyed. There was plenty of space for fast laps with the field of only ~85 cars spread over the 4.78 mile course. I was able to manage a 3:24.4 with average speed of 84.2 mph. Very happy with this considering our absolute top speed was 111.5 mph

Next stint was covered by Greg, turning plenty of quick laps and keeping the racing clean. Don’t remember any key moments during this part of day, I’m sure he had a few good battles. He started off with a penalty from me, they claimed I passed under yellow yet there were no yellows for the last handful of laps in my stint. No idea, he was nice and they let him off easy with a short delay.

Finally Cam was in to finish the first day, shaking off the cobwebs and putting away the boat loafers. He did us solid bringing the car to Parc fermé in 28th overall.

Saturday was great fun with no serious issues aside from me apparently passing under yellow.

Kathy telling stories and sharing memories along with reminders of racing rules.

Red flag leading to all hand’s to the crashed cars.

You’ll notice three cars sliding past the flag station… On lap #1.

Just another fuel and driver stop.

Guessing Cam was driving, not sure.

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Sunday

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Second day was far less successful. Numerous problems hit us.

First issue was found during Cam’s return to paddock for drivers change. Zero fault of his, he ran a clean race. While refilling the car I noticed two missing lug nut and studs on the right rear. Immediately called it and we pushed in the car for work. Since we had a similar stud failure during the 25:01, I knew exactly how to solve it. Remove wheel, caliper and rotor (just take off the caliper mount and set aside together). Center punch the broken stud, drill out until it frees itself and backs out. Chase the threads and install new ones with red loctite. Voila fixed!

Second problem happened while I was running around in the Full Ass Racing Miata. Previous night Brad and I chatted about swapping driving stints for Sunday so I was riding around having fun on bald tires remembering how to drive flat out. Upon returning to the paddock I found out that Zaid turned our front tires into squares…. Massive flat spots down to cords. Clearly our ABS module no longer works.

Next driver up was Brad, from the looks of it he had a blast and enjoyed driving our car. Ended up posting similar lap times to Greg until he noticed front wheel vibrations. Returning we found the front right hub completely trashed. Thanks to Brad for being an aware driver in a new car and bringing it home. You are welcome anytime! Some frustrating wrenching to swap both fronts and we sent Greg out to finish the race. He brought it home for 47th overall.

Race analysis

Race Notes for Zaid

Driver: Michael

Saturday Statistics:

Average Lap Time: 3:35.8

Fastest Lap Time: 3:24.4 on lap 24

Slowest Lap Time: 5:5.0

Number of Laps: 23

No data available for Sunday

Total Laps Across Both Days: 26

Driver: Greg

Saturday Statistics:

Average Lap Time: 3:31.2

Fastest Lap Time: 3:27.5 on lap 13

Slowest Lap Time: 3:50.4

Number of Laps: 26

Sunday Statistics:

Average Lap Time: 3:34.8

Fastest Lap Time: 3:30.5 on lap 10

Slowest Lap Time: 3:47.0

Number of Laps: 13

Total Laps Across Both Days: 39

Driver: Zaid

Saturday Statistics:

Average Lap Time: 3:35.3

Fastest Lap Time: 3:31.0 on lap 8

Slowest Lap Time: 3:40.0

Number of Laps: 19

Sunday Statistics:

Average Lap Time: 3:48.6

Fastest Lap Time: 3:40.0 on lap 4

Slowest Lap Time: 4:6.2

Number of Laps: 19

Total Laps Across Both Days: 41

Driver: Cam

Saturday Statistics:

Average Lap Time: 3:36.1

Fastest Lap Time: 3:29.7 on lap 12

Slowest Lap Time: 3:45.4

Number of Laps: 16

Sunday Statistics:

Average Lap Time: 3:31.2

Fastest Lap Time: 3:26.1 on lap 9

Slowest Lap Time: 3:39.1

Number of Laps: 10

Total Laps Across Both Days: 27

Driver: Brad

No data available for Saturday

Sunday Statistics:

Average Lap Time: 3:38.8

Fastest Lap Time: 3:27.5 on lap 7

Slowest Lap Time: 4:29.3

Number of Laps: 13

Total Laps Across Both Days: 16

For me this meant taking the lifted Miata to a unplanned and cheap day over in Sonoma. Super surpised by how reasonable the car handled considering it has no sway bars and roughly 8” of wheel travel all on skinny winter tires trying to put down the supercharged torque.

Biggest trick I learned was to let her roll! The roll would eventually stop at which point it lifts the inner tire and back end will step out with a bit of throttle. Goal was to keep slides as long as possible essentially mild drifts from corner to corner without getting too sideways. Leveraging the Scandinavian flick to initiate rotation.

I keep finding things that aren’t a major issue now, but will likely become a problem in the future or at minimum a headache. The latest one is our fuel filling necks. As provided from Ultima they don’t correctly fit because of a modification they made. They added a vent fitting via a wheel valve stem, while clever I don’t understand how they shipped it. With the stem installed it is impossible to close the filler cap. Solution is to purchase a new set of them directly from the vendor, ones without a vent hole.

Aero 400 Connecting Neck 2" 50mm - FL-AE-018

Additionally I need to replace the provided bolts because they were too short to properly engage the lock nuts. Yet another order from McMaster!

Fire Suppression System

I’m confident I will never need it as this is mostly a street car with track visits in mind. But you should never say never and with so many custom parts and pieces there is a possibility of failures. Mounted the bottle nice and securely out of way behind drivers seat for a few reasons. First; I can quickly check the gauge when getting in/out of car. Second it greatly simplifies the routing of pull cable to the drivers side of dash. I opted for drivers side such that an external safety crew can more easily pull it if for some reason I’m not able AND it is on my path of egress.

As for line routing in engine bay, they are tucked neatly behind and through other brackets to protect from accidental contact or damage from belts. Not sure how much it matters in a crash as there are fuel lines all over the firewall. The lines split and make way up to down tubes with the nozzles to be aimed directly at the top of engine/headers/fuel cells i.e. fire sources. They should be close enough to firewall to additionally provide mitigation to cabin.

Bottle is mounted through floor pan with stainless steel bolts and counter sunk washers to minimize damage or catching on debris/road objects.

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Last piece of the interior puzzle is attempting to protect the raw aluminum panels since I’m running them exposed, no carpet.

Enter big awkward pieces of 3M PPF. Nothing too exciting here other than it takes fucking forever to cut out each rivet hole. Even using a leather hole punch doesn’t help greatly. Anyways its done now, many hours later… Stoked on the result and if for whatever reason I want to change later I can peel off.

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Moving forward. Minor other note during this phase, I keep tapping on random parts and panels to find any possible rattles. The CAE shifter mount panel sort of had one so a piece of cork was cut and added a spacer before installing and bolt marking. All non-visible hardware is marked once torqued. Yes racecar vibes, I don’t want any loose/vibrations after the body is attached. Another example of this is the passenger foot panel, adhered with bolts and pieces of double sided foam tape to minimize rattles and possibility of coming loose.

They told you to either cut off the factory connector and butt splice in something or worse yet you have to shove in two connectors and hope you don’t wire them backwards?!?!?

Fear not, I have the answer! After searching various electronic suppliers I found the correct plug.

Yazaki #7122182440 Primary connector housing (x1)

Yazaki #71141232 Male Pins (x2)

Yazaki #7157379160 Pin Seals (x2)

Yazaki #7157652080 Rear Securing Clip (x1)

With this set you can save your factory harness and merely replace the Spal or other aftermarket fan’s connector. In my case I opted to actually just make an adapter so in an emergency I can toss on a factory fan or put in a new Spal. Off-roading in the middle of nowhere tends to lead me to keeping options open.

I’m useless as recording the unique history of these vehicles, but here are a handful I found intriguing and will have comments added if I remember. ;)

1948 Davis Divan

If you are a connoisseur you will quickly notice the differences. Cool to see this here.

ZZ Tops car

Extra awesome in Glut Orange, my inspiration for Cremesicle’s paint.

Saddam’s ride.

Ultima RS you’ve got nothing on this beast.

Can you imagine doing 150 mph in this? No real safety gear, probably no useful brakes. Just meager horsepower and guts.

Love EV’s, but not Tesla’s boring ass cars.

Maybe this year is Piastri’s title…. time will tell.

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2nd Floor of the rest of the amazing museum

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3rd Floor because I can’t count

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The final boss - 1st floor; enter the 80s

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After we walked around for what seems like forever, the day had to end. We had to drive 5+ hrs home, testing some of the WRX bricks speed. Finally wandering through the gift shop. Many items are generic trinkets, but the Peterson does fortunately have a number of really neat items labeled with ‘Peterson’ for a cool reminder of their origin and your journey through time.

The Peterson is the official home of the Time Machine. Be sure to visit.

After our morning meeting and guidance from Dillon we started into the dusty trails. They were wonderful aside from the extra dry dirt. Whenever you were able to lead you had a wonderful track, but anyone behind was covered in dust.

None the less we had a blast until the first trail failure. Flat tires lead to friends discussing and watching the smart/prepared person doing work. We all hang out to lend a hand, but only so many people can help change a tire.

Looks like we found another job for Matt’s Offroad recovery!

38°15'06.5"N 120°12'18.5"W

Surprisingly this wasn’t a suspension failure, just a routine destroyed tire.

Apparently more than 5 because they ended up giving up in favor of swapping tires.

Time for a beverage and snacks. Hero of the morning was David with all the needed tools to pop off a good tire and reinstall onto the Porsche wheel. Thanks to Carrie for lending her spare. Go teamwork.

Nothing to see here, we will catch you later!

38°20'32.5"N 119°55'32.2"W

Beware of the 25% grade, it gains 3,200 ft in 9.1 miles. For comparison, the most prestigious hill climb in the US is 4,700 ft over 12.4 miles. Difference in 360ft/mi vs 379ft/mi. Very steep!!!

Tiny little town with nice residence. Do not speed! Their sheriff will hunt you down and catch you. Also avoid the local Big Meadow Brewing Company, very boring beer and they don’t allow dogs on their patio. :(

Time for some high speeds and sliding about. Loving the Fox shocks.

Whiteclaw, mac n’ cheese and sausages. Only the best when camping. Not healthy, but very tasty after a long day of dirt and driving.

Click Here to See Where We Wandered!

Click Here to See Where We Wandered!

Did you know you don’t need anything more than some friends, a bit of gas and food. Nothing more is required for adventure! Gamblers are a blast with quirky friends.

First things first…. cleaning out the rat turds and nut storage. I hate leaving her outside, but don’t have any better spot. Thus every time I uncover her I wonder what might be chewed through of covered in nasties. This time wasn’t too bad since I tried for a track day 6 months ago. Afternoon with the vacuum, hose and some cleaner and everything was mostly clean and sanitary.

Next up was safety gear. Firebottle is still holding a charge, but the passenger harness is wildly out of date and of shitty quality from when I first build Cremesicle over a decade ago. Paychecks increase with time and so I stole the Schroth 6 point harnesses out of Brapmobile. They just expired, but have been in storage for basically their entire live with only 3 races. Like new for HPDE events.

Final real concern was the random misfire. This turned out to be pretty easy. The Toyota Corolla coil packs I am running barely fit into the valve cover holes and therefore tend to crack with the whole metal expansion different than plastic. Thank past me, I had a handful of spares. Opened up the valve cover holes a bit more for security with a brake cylinder hone. changed to new plugs and voila everything was back to the happy revving NA engine.. As part of that process I confirmed cylinder compression and they were 220-240psi across the board.

Next stop the race track!

Time for the mid-week track cure to all woes. Since I prefer to not be stuck in morning commute I opted for an evening drive over from Concord to Sonoma. Quick easy drive with truck/trailer. Say hi to the guard, sign their wavier and setup camp for the evening. You too should turn a race trailer into you race RV. A few batteries, air mattress, blankets, pillow and your off to sweet dreamland. Just remember to keep your car clean and leak free, nothing is worse than waking up reeking of burnt oil…

Hi Friends!!!

Gary (GR Corolla - 1st track day!!) | Me (Cremesicle - forgetting how many) | Greg (Morgan - ditto on forgetting track days)

Today ended up being a really great day and I’m super glad that our lazy ass friend Chris convinced these schmucks to sign up. We had fun without him. I attempted to instruct Gary about how to not crash his car, Greg attempted to not be passed by all the Porches and I opted to ruin all the front hub bearings. Overall it was a great success. Gary had fun with his GR, still working on building up confidence in speed. Building up to driving faster is a much safer and rewarding path to fun. Looking forward to more HPDE as he gets faster before Vintage racing his Elva.

I was able to ride shotgun with Greg for the first time on track and I 1000% understand the appeal in racing it. There is so much going on, the car feels lively yet obedient. The wind testing your neck strength as you power down each straight, but then the light and compliant chassis handles corners quicker than expected for something 67 years old (not made of wood). Big thanks for the ride along!

Cremesicle was great for so much neglect. Managed to lock up the front tires multiple times before deciding to dial in more rear bias. Successfully didn’t pull a BMW, no crashing and proper use of blinkers… oh wait I don’t have blinkers. Yeah I didn’t crash. Ruined both front hubs, for which I’m not even mad. Pretty sure they are 10 years old and had plenty of races on them. Glad I was able to feel the vibration and come in before catastrophic failures. Reminder if you feel something, say something. Relatively quick trip home to grab a new set of hubs and the day continued, except you should always replace hubs in pairs because well they fail in pairs. Overall I had a great time, fastest lap on my very heat cycled and old RS4’s was a 1:58.3. I think that is pretty good for my second time around Sonoma in Cremesicle. There is more out there and I’ve been reinvigorated for how great to drive this little Miata is. Shifting at 7600 rpm just feels right. Enjoy a lap onboard and few pics around the course.

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What a wonderful day!

Seeing what I passed

While I could have just opted for the factory mirror option, I didn’t feel their price tag was justified when there are a handful of carbon mirror manufacturers for race cars. Cheaper and easier to replace if an issue arises.

Amusingly the factory doesn’t indicate where to mount their mirrors, just have a handful of pictures that sort of show you. Thus changing mirrors didn’t really impact install time. A few things I considered; driver visibility, clearance from doors when fully opened, vibration, symmetry. The passenger side was pretty easy to find placements, but drivers side is really difficult because of the seat position and A-pillar relative location. I may end up bending the mirror stem or ordering one with a bend to move it further left. Other benefit from these mirrors, convex lenses allowing me to see behind the car and cover all blind spots.

CIS GT Series Convex Mirror, Straight Stem, Carbon Fiber

Final prototype on the engine with loom secured. Had some minor adjustments before the final print in PAHT-CF. Supposed to be rated for temperatures around 194°C with minimal deflection. In theory the engine bay will never get remotely this warm, at least not during normal operation. Even if the heat is too much this is just a guide and doesn’t secure any critical items.

Love finding new uses for 3D printing beyond just little toys or prototyping. This wire loom bracket will be in use, time will tell if it was bad idea.

While I continue to leverage the 3D printer I keep thinking about new uses. This is a great simple use for installing and snugging down the locking rings on buttons. Easy to make your own versions, but uploading this for anyone who might be using BilletButtons.

Alternator Standoff

As part of the belt routing challenges I needed to space it forward. Most of the bolts just need to be replaced with longer ones, but the bottom securing bolt required a custom part to retain the secure installation. Enter another test print then getting parts machined by 2 Feet In Fabrication.

Onward and upward! Keep chipping away each week as I can.

Starting with migration from larger front-engine cars to light and nimble mid-engines. At some point they started playing with aerodynamics beginning with simple wings and evolving into the modern insanity of flaps and add-ons.

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Yet another Scion is now in my ‘possession’. Fred had his other white K swapped one with a Turbo moved out here and first order of business is to look it over. See what is what and where I’ll need to fix or adjust things. I highly recommend you do this before buying a car and definitely before driving a car in any spirited fashion.

My approach

Grab my tablet to take notes, paper and pencil also works great. If you can get the car up on a lift its better, but not required for most things. Walk around taking notes on all items, body work, wheels, lights, fitment. Then move to under the hood and check for leaks, filter and fluids. When tracking a car you’ll also need to look at cooling and heat management. Finally move inside the car and check behind, under and inside everything as well as poke all the buttons and knobs to find if working. Below are my inspection notes.

Looks to be a build more focused on shiny parts installed vs potentially installed correctly for track oriented abuse.  I could be completely wrong, there are just various signs pointing this way.  Nothing looks mechanically wrong and all parts look good.  Will know more as its inspected and driven.

Sort term I can inspect the car to clarify any items in Orange below.  Have no bandwidth for repairs or maintenance until September.

Red - Need to be addressed asap

Orange - Further investigation, could become a concern

Yellow - Low priority

Green - Good

Mechanical Inspection:

• Wheels - 3 are silver, 1 is black.  Need to check for damage later.

• Tires - Very old, 2019 date code.  320 treadwear.  Needs to be replaced.

• Engine Bay - pretty tidy overall. Appears to be a light film on all surfaces, meaning oil vaporization.  Assuming catch can breather.  Need to clean and reinspect after driving.

• Noticed what appears to be a loose bolt on top of transmission tunnel.  Confirm/Remove.

• Engine Oil - Appears clean and full.  Carfax indicates serviced 10/24. Noted dipstick does not appear to fit properly, as if hitting a baffle or something in the pan.  Borescope to investigate.

• Engine Air Filter - Nice and clean.

• Placement is directly behind radiator, this will quickly saturate and become heat soaked.  Consider moving.

• Radiator shroud/ducting - non-existant.  I’d be worried this car overheats at the first sign of any load.  Add foam or some type of shroud.

• Hood - the struts are really nice.  Cool.

• Valve Cover - Noticed one of the vent ports are blocked off, unsure if this is okay or part of the reason for oil vapor covering engine bay. Investigate further.

• Wiring - injector plug water seals aren't installed correctly

• Coolant - Need to check level and color.

• Battery/alternator - seems okay.  Was charging when I drove.  No concerns.

• Clutch - Pedal itself feels fine, but clutch makes lots of noise when pedal is pressed.  Unsure if this is normal or out of adjustment.  Clutch engagement is very narrow and harsh, challenging to pull away in 1st.  Presuming race type dual clutch.

• Transmission - Need to drive to feel.  Should check fluid level.

• Differential - Need to drive to feel.  Should check fluid level.

• Brakes - Brembo big brakes up front with slotted rotors, no meaningful wear.  Front pads have plenty of life.   Need to inspect rear for wear.  Bleed fluid.

• Suspension - No idea on quality of ride or handling.  Need to drive.  First need to raise ride height at least 5-10mm to prevent rubbing and risk of cutting tire, especially on rear.

• Exhaust system - Need to inspect for mounting, don’t want to bottom out or have a stress fracture from vibration and too rigid mounting.  Inspect.

• Hood slightly misaligned on sides.  Seems to be a Scion issue as the other cars were similar.  No concerns.

Interior Inspection:

• Shift boot open near shift knob, want to inspect to see if any insulation between transmission and interior.  Inspect boot with borescope.

• ECU loose in glove box.  Need to secure before driving.  Velcro should work fine.

• Wires loose under dash near passenger footwell.  Go to wideband O2.  Need to tidy/secure.

• Lots of spare parts in back seat and trunk.  Organize into container(s) and put in storage unit.

• Window tint on drivers door is coming off on top edge.  Low priority, just could be annoying.

• Some sort of light bar is crudely installed on rear window.  Need to investigate.

• Center console appears to have been incorrectly reinstalled.  See how to correctly clip in.

• Not very dirty, but Vacuum/clean interior.

• Cruise control missing.  Haltech ECU can support this, unsure why removed.  Inspect further and install $30 part.

• HVAC seems to work fine.

• Windows work without issue.

Misc Exterior/Fitment:

• Drivers front marker light held in with tape.  Replace.

• Front bumper appears misaligned.  Inspect and reclip in or replace clips.

• Crack on front edge of drivers side plastic, inner wheel well.

• Missing Scion badge

• Wheel has a unique locking lug nut.

• Front side marker missing on passenger side.

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• Something rattling in trunk deck lid.

• Key fob battery is dead.  Replace battery.

ECU/Dash:

• Both are Haltech.  No obvious concerns.  Check tune/settings to ensure appropriate safeties are enabled.

• All settings on ECU are locked out.  Need passcode.

• Need to see what is on dash screens, adjust if necessary to show useful information.

• Seems to be a discrepancy on dash reporting of battery voltage, jumps to 12 randomly.  Maybe a setting?

• Throttle response is very very slow, assuming its the big turbo.  Unclear if this can be tuned out.  Noticed just when sitting idling and blipping throttle.

• AC idle up settings could be adjusted so they don’t bog the motor as much.  Minor item, but creature comfort.

• Odometer appears functional and accurate on dash.  Good.

Administrative:

• Registration is past due (11-2024)

• No insurance or registration paperwork in the car.

• Is there a build history on the car?

First drive notes:

Very short drive, maybe 5 miles total.

• Lots of rattles while driving

• Suspension may have an issue, on mild bumps it is very darty to the right.  No steering input.

• Suspension and steering wheel felt tight, not sure what's causing this issue.  Maybe just alignment.

• Turbo was faintly smoking after a 4 mile drive at 60mph.  Looks to be a small oil leak.

• Difficult to get into 5th.  Didn't try for 6th, worried the rev interlock might not be working...could be fine, just didn't feel right.

• Clutch engagement is incredibly difficult to modulate, we will burn this clutch up with any reasonable amount of street driving.

• Shift knob has weird loud vibration in 2nd at around 3-4k rpm.

• Brakes felt reasonable/smooth but didn't push on them at all though.

• Oil pressure 90psi at 3000rpm even after water temps up to 195F.  Seems high.  Wondering if sensor calibration is correct.

• Engine vitals all looked good on the drive to storage.

Suspension before adjustments:

Front Right

Preload length 150mm

Height adjustment 27mm

Rear Right

Preload length 177mm

Height adjustment 43mm

Front Left

Preload length 148mm

Height adjustment 35mm

Rear Left

Preload length 159mm

Height adjustment 52mm

Suspension after adjustments:

Front Right

Preload length 147mm

Height adjustment 48mm

Rear Right

Preload length 172mm

Height adjustment 60mm

Front Left

Preload length 147mm

Height adjustment 48mm

Rear Left

Preload length 172mm

Height adjustment 60mm

This must be done…..I must drill holes….

But I remembered I have lasers, CAD and a 3D printer. I can be like all those fancy YouTubers with their BambuLab Carbon X1s.

Here are the final designs, I’ll explain the plan for each.

Primary task was to perfectly align the laser as the reference line. I ended up the laser roughly 20’ away from the transmission, centered on one of the linoleum titles. I’ve hated these stupid tiles which keep breaking off, but for this was extremely helpful as a reference line after confirming they were straight with a laser. From here using minor adjustments I was able to align the gearbox to the laser lines.

This was a reference point for everything to be measured off. I checked each pre-cast embossing for the GT2 slave cylinder (Porsche already had extra embossing for the studs to be mounted). This was the guide on centering and setting the angle of slave cylinder. Measure twice, drill once.

1. Checking the CAD model is accurate compared with the clutch slave cylinder. This intentionally is thin and has embossing equal to the diameter of the mounting holes. Labeled ‘Alignment Guide’ above. This confirmed all my dimensions were good before making the next parts.

2. Guide for the pilot holes. Effectively a longer extrusion with the narrow 1/8” holes for pilot hole drilling to ensure absolutely centered holes. Leveraging clamps to secure the tool/guide to the housing after using lots of lasers and tape measures (see below).

3. Now to drill the correct size holes for an M8x1.25 tap. Key step here was keep it clamped and slowly drill through one side. Pin one side with a close drill bit then drill the other hole. At this point I drilled the center hole for later hole saw usage.

4. I really wanted to keep the tap straight as possible, so printed a final guide that can be clamped and ensure complete perpendicularity of the tap.

Alignment Tools for Bambu Studio

Overall the drilling process by hand wasn’t terribly difficult. Just took a number of steps to keep everything aligned.

If you have lots of $$$ burning holes in pockets you also could have sent off the gearbox to California Motorsports for all the money. I opted for diy solutions with a drill instead of CNC insanity. Very happy with the end results.

How you ask?

We don’t entirely know how three noobs didn’t put the car out to pasture or the lights didn’t blind a poor soul into brake checking us or the Getrag gearbox didn’t say enough is enough, but alas all held together and twas amazing.

I started the race to set a benchmark and mark sure nothing was going to vibrate off the car. Everything was going smoothly until I lost all response on the tablet dash. Nevermind this, radioed into pits reporting the issue and indicating I would drive by feel. Green flag drops, cars were passed and I was delighted. Everything was great and even better the dash thought it would start working too. Thus began the grueling many many hours of driving. We aimed for 1.5 hour stints knowing the stock fuel tank couldn’t last any longer with led foots. Everyone for the first 6-7 stints were perfectly on target. Working into the night there was a few mistakes and black flags, but nothing that would stop the team.

Going through Light Tech

Those 8-9 revisions of the lighting shrouds paid off. We flew through inspection without any concerns. The lights were wonderful on track. Plenty of confidence into all corners aside from T8.

Zaid, Matt, Colleen, Emil, Michael

Buddies passing on track

Not sure whom was driving or whom was passing, but they gave plenty of space.

Making our way into the evening hours

Was still running like a champ, team putting in laps.

We didn't even need to!!!

Pre-race fun.

Almost like we knew what we were doing

No we were figuring it out with each stop, by the end we had a rhythm. Super thank you to Murat for being a fueling champ!

Judge Doodling

We actually got a few stewards and judges to draw on the car. Been awhile, but always fun to see what’s in their mind…

Get Back Out there Matt

Sending him back out after a minor black flag on his out lap. Shake it off, its dark, wake up and drive!

Fuck Nazis

Always love racing with the Bernal Dad’s. Mike is great, but apparently one of their drivers was a bit too eager and broke wheels on a crown vic.

Sweet evening underglow

Thanks Zaid for the fun classy glow. Drivers couldn’t see it, but others knew we were cool.

Mmm brakes

Planned front brake replacement

This went really smoothly. We know the brakes lasts two 8 hour days, but didn’t want to risk destroying rotors and calipers so swapped around 3 am, giving fresh brakes for the morning stints.

BMW Sadness

I was replacing a broken stud while Greg’s team troubleshot their 5 series. Unfortunately they ended up retiring the car.

Hi Steward!

We are sorry for whatever my driver’s did this time….

Race nap time

Emil attempting to rest before his session.

Survived the darkeness

Just needed to keep putting in those laps.

Holy shit we brought it home!

Good job everyone. 25:01 hours.

Take Aways

Huge thank you to the team for their support and overall clean driving. Yes there were some black flags, but most were trivial and you were all nice to our black flag stewards. After 25 hours of racing in our questionable 325i…. we actually finished. This alone is a huge accomplishment for mechanical and driver reliability. Secondarily we finished in 20th overall of 118 cars. 11th in class A. There is plenty to improve with driver times and our pit stops, but nothing of importance. I had a great weekend and enjoyed bringing a few new drivers into the world of endurance racing. Hopefully we see them at the next race.

Also big thanks to the those whom joined us in the horribly hot weather to help and hang out.

Murat - You are a fueling master, thank you for getting petrol into the tank safely for almost every stop.

Chris and Lisa - Your radio schnanigan’s were appreciated and helping to refill fuel jugs.

Mat and Heather - Thank you for hydration and the company! We drank so much liquid this weekend.

Mike - Glad you came out to hang out! Need to get you out in a passenger seat asap!

Finally, I’m sure the drivers want to know how fast/slow they were

Michael

Average Lap Time: 2:25.1

Fastest Lap Time: 2:14.2

Xin

Average Lap Time: 2:25.8

Fastest Lap Time: 2:15.8

Zaid

Average Lap Time: 2:28.4

Fastest Lap Time: 2:21.5

Emil

Average Lap Time: 2:39.1

Fastest Lap Time: 2:22.0

Fred

Average Lap Time: 2:35.3

Fastest Lap Time: 2:22.1

Matt

Average Lap Time: 2:42.2

Fastest Lap Time: 2:26.5

Thank you everyone!!!