lol, I think I'll stick with my shoelace

You forgot stop, start in neutral, chuck into gear and purchase new transmission :p:

hahaha, i was trying for the cheaper route.

I havent seen anything amazing first hand. But, a couple years ago saw the Paris-Dakar rally on Speedvision and some of the guys there were using a neat trick to get new tires on quickly and with out tools.
They, would have the tire half on the hub and then spray lighter fluid on the inside of the tire and lite it. When the fluid caught fire the change in pressure (i guess) would suck the rest of the tire onto the rim.

Now that is nutz. I wouldn't be able to stop thinking about my tires being put on with lighter fluid.

Not an amazing fix, but it worked:

On my first race to complete my Road Race license requirements I showed up to the track early on Sunday morning only to find out that the car wouldn't start. After 20 minutes of searching for the cause... bad fuel pump (ran out of gas on the last lap the day before). Where to get a fuel pump at 8:30am on a Sunday before 9:30ish qualifying??? The junkyard across the street opens at 9... local parts stores open at 10...

As a last ditch effort I reversed the power and ground. The pump started working... put the wires on the correct way, jumped into my gear and made it to qualifying when they went green!

Like the rally above...

About 10 years ago I helped a friend mount up some big mud tires for his 4x4. His trick to get the bead to seat was a spray from a can of ether (starting fluid) and a match. The big old 44's just jumped on the rim with the beads nicley seated. He had to do it a few times out on the trails with the truck at different times. Good thing to know when your out of cell phone range...

He had all kinds of tricks like that from his old man who worked on cars his whole life.

I think it was the 24 hours at Daytona 2000. I was a gopher for Team Entropy. They were running a Camaro, I think that class lasted only 2 years at Daytona.

During the first 6 hours they broke a suspension link and the differential rammed the drive shaft into the transmission. They swapped the tranny but then the engine started making noise whenever the clutch was depressed. The drive shaft had tranferred through the tranny and destroyed the thrust bearings.

They welded a bar across the front of the engine and welded a throwout bearing to the bar so it held the crank shaft in place.

We spent over 10 hours in the garage but we were running at the end of the race. As a matter of fact we happened to be within a car length of the overall winner as he crossed the finish line. (of course many laps down)

ed

A few years earlier a friend of mine (actually the guy who welded the throwout bearing) ran his Integra at Summit Point.

He got a little crazy about removing all the weight in his racecar and he removed the front bumper core.

In the Sprint early in the day somebody checked up in front of him and he flattened the front of his car all the way to the headers.

We pulled the car into the paddock and attached a come-a-long to a tree and yanked the front of the car until it was pretty much Integra shaped again.

We borrowed a Volkswagen radiator and slapped it in. One problem - the radiator had no fill neck or radiator cap. We poured water into the top hose and then attached it before too much water could spill out.

Now we were ready for the 4 hour night enduro. Wait! what about headlights? One headlight was OK the other was cracked - we left it there. One fog light was gone, we grabbed the other one and simply bolted it to the center if the hood.

He finished the 4 hour enduro with no further drama except maybe being able to see in the dark with that dopey lighting setup. I wish I could remember what place he finished.

He then turned around and drove his racecar 5 hours home (he never trailers his car).

ed

Not An RX 7 But An Interesting Story Just The Same
 

Back in 1992 when I was running the NTN Bearings, Suzuki Canada Swift in the Firestone Firehawk Series, we had a weekend from hell. It was my first 24 hour race and it was at Mosport combined with the World Challenge Series. The Suzuki was one of the slowest straight line cars at the track, but had been extremely reliable and was usually in the top 10 at the end of the race.

Anyways my co-driver went out to qualify on Friday afternoon and went a little over the top trying to put the car in the show. He ended up rolling the car along the tire wall at the bottom of Corner 2. I went down after they red flagged the session and they rolled the car over for the tow truck to take back to the pits. I found out from the corner marshalls that the car had been idling upside down until it ran out of gas!

Well, back at the pits we tried firing it up and it started just fine and went back to an idle like normal. Whoo - hoo engine okay. Needed to get a new windshield 2 new fenders, a control arm, new hood, bang out the roof, get new driving lights, replace motor mounts and transmission mounts, new headlights, align the car and hose out the seat. And we needed to have the car ready for night practice before we were allowed out for the race starting Saturday at 11:00 am.

Luckily we had a show car that the crew cannabilized for the pieces, however we needed new headlights, windshield and driving lights before the race. My co-driver searched all of the local windshield places to see if he could get a windshield installed the next morning and I went out for night practice.

The cracked windhield had been taped together with clear helicopter tape and you sorta had to twist over in the seat to look out. We had 1 working headlight. So there I was going up the back straight at Mosport at 100 mph, can barely see out the windshield due to glare and distortion, with one working headlight I could only see the tops of the trees on my right. Trying to deal with all of this and having the World Challenge Corvettes hammer past at 60 - 70 mph faster. While I was trying to not make myself a bloody smear on the front of a Corvette or on the gaurd rail, my team owner is yelling to me over the radio to go faster as I had the car in the top 5 in Touring class and he needed the result to get Suzuki to increase there funding for the team. MY GOD :eek: .

Anyways got a new windshield installed at 9:00 am the next morning, went out and ran the whole 24 hours, buzzing that little 1300 DOHC to 9800 rpm all over the place (best motor I have ever seen) and ended up 21st overall out of 62 cars and 11th in Touring. A great life experience but I never want to go through that again. It was one of the things, along with a ton of others that season, that convinced me to not try to become a paid pro driver and run my own team. One of my teammates that year went on to win the Atlantic Championship for Players.