Silkworm

Hey folks,

Kinda late on writing this up, sorry..

As you probably remember, I had an unfortunate tire wall to metal interface at Sears Point back in May that ended with me hanging upside down from my straps

Since that time, I spent a great deal of time wrenching on the car. Since I was essentially in thrash mode, I didn't take any progress photos, and I can't seem to find the wreck photos anywhere. However, SEA Hag on Honda-Tech did snap a picture, found here .

The butcher's bill turned out to be a new passenger fender, new headlight door cover (didn't feel like pounding it out when a junkyard one was 5 bucks), both doors and the rear bumper cover. I needed a new roof, which we cut off a car (no sunroof now!). replaced the doors (couldn't shut them all the way, the lowered roof was forcing the doors to not line up properly), installed the fender and bumper cover, and sent the carcass over to Miracle Auto Body in NAPA for a racer's special paint job and a roof replacement. All things considered, the cost wasn't bad at all, but I'd think hard about doing it again. It would probably be cheaper to get a new shell and get a cage welded in.

I figure that was a 2000$ mistake.

Anyway, we didnt' manage to get the car to the shop in time to make the Sears Point event in June, but we had plenty of time to be ready for the new Reno Fernley track July 19/20th. So with a new coat of paint (and some spiffy S5 tail lights), we hauled on up there.

This weekend was my licensing test to finally get my race license and actually race, instead of the school/driving events that I've been doing. I heard plenty of stories already about the new track, essentially it's an 1.5 mile oval, with hairpins on each end, one side with a straight and a set of 4 esses, with the other side being some off camber high speed corners. So essentially you drove the track with your foot to the floor, braked hard for the hairpins, and back on the gas.

The track is very new, without a lot of runoff room and some interesting obstacles in the infield. Very soft, almost powder like dirt and mini boulders the size of your head. You did NOT want to go off track, the two people I know of that did ended up with fine dirt everywhere in their car (the lucky one), with the other ending up with 3 flat tires, rocks strewn everywhere. Not sure if he bent anything suspension wise, but I'd bet he did.

Anyway, Saturday was uneventful. It was hot, daaaamn hot. Real Hot. Not fun in a driving suit zipped up to your neck. You don't notice it after a few laps. What I did notice was the RX-7 was running high temps. 230 on the water, 240 on oil. Not good.. Short shifting wasn't helping at all, by the end of the day the water temps had reached 250 and I decided to end the day. I don't know if I can trust the gauge though, it read 180* just after engine start Sunday morning. But the stock temp guage was just a needle width under H, so it wasn't that far off.

After talking it over with some friends, I think it's time for an airdam (I keep putting that off), and an electric fan. I'll have pics up of both sooner or later. I probably will need to switch to dual oil coolers as well, we'll see after Thunderhill in September.

The K2RD guys were there at the track, wwwwway faster than I am Smoking fast. Unfortunately they ended up blowing up the motor during the enduro. Hopefully they can get it repaired and back out there, I want to learn as much as I can from them.

Sunday, I decided, just get the license, so two sessions only, and I passed my driving test. The written test was next and I passed that with flying colors, so I'm officially a licensed racer.. Look out world RX-Heven showed up Sunday with his soon to be T2 Vert, and did really well, and apparently didn't have any cooling problems. Hopefully the fan fixes stuff.

Anyway, thought you guys might like to see pics of the car it is now..




I"ll gin up some video soon..

PaulC

tims

Paul,

good to see you and your car back in action. As for it being cheaper or easier to start over I don't think so. it is much cheaper and a hell of alot easier to repair the car if it is not to heavily damaged. I crashed my car much worse than yours and bent all the rear suspension pickup points. it cost me roughly triple what you spent to repair your car to switch out all the race parts to a new chassis. I even cut the cage out and installed it into the new chassis. if nothing is badly bend chassis wise then I would always repair it than swap it to a new chassis.