Rough Draft

I gave our car gimp paint job today.

13 Days Before The Race

What a beautiful day. Paul came over with a spiff new compression tester that told us our engine is in good shape. He painted the wheels while I cleaned the engine.

After he left I finished painting. I ran out of paint with just a small part of the front bumper remaining and had to go back to the store for a fifth can of industrial Rustoleum. The car looks great in black. Very industrial. Here are a couple before/after shots against the day we purchased the car.

14 Days Before The Race

The car hasn't left my driveway since the day we brought it home back in Feb, until today. This morning I wanted to back the car in to make access easier. I backed it onto the street to turn it around, and as I shifted from reverse to first gear and brought my hand back to the wheel, I looked down my street and felt compelled to drive. I sat and struggled with this urge for a moment, then pulled forward a few yards, and deliberately looked away from the street, and maneuvered backwards into my driveway. Getting the car impounded 2 weeks before the race, after all the work the team has put in, would suck in the worst way.

We're winding down on prep tasks. Today's tasks:

• Swapped CV joints
• Goofed around with the battery
• Replaced antifreeze with water
• Started painting

We're all getting excited about the race. The engine is sounding good. Our last fees have been paid. We've got all our safety gear, ...oh. Except my gloves.

19 Days Before The Race

While I was off camping this weekend, the other guys were on task:

• Padded cage.
• Lowered car 1.5 inches with coil clamps.
• Moved extinguisher within reach of a strapped in driver, with human arms, who may or may not be on fire.
• Finished yanking the parking brakes.
• Radiator and fans flushed, repaired, and secured without all the bailing wire.
• Rear stabilizer bar installed.
• Started prepping a tool box for the race.

Our test day has been postponed until next week. I want to start painting this week.

23 Days Before Race

Paul finished the roll-cage, harness, and seat today.

A couple of us are taking a weekend off from car prep, but we plan to haul the car to a track for some testing next week.

Videos

I've been checking out Google's video service. I think I like it better than YouTube because:

• You can download videos to iPod, and more importantly, to Playstation Portable.
• Larger size.
• Better image quality.

Here's a clip of firing up our car after doing a bunch of engine work.

Should it sound like a tractor?

Here's a clip of a Joe's car, the Snowspeeder, doing a couple laps at Altamont October 2007 24HL.

Many Almost Done Tasks

26 days before the race.

I mailed my taxes today, one day before the deadline. Not bad. If we can have everything done on the car one day before the race I'll be happy. For someone who loathes stress, I sure do procrastinate.

The weekend was productive again. Friday I drove 15 miles in about 50 minutes to get tires down in the suburbia end of the valley. Who knew rush-hour starts at 4:30? Got the tires. They cost more than the car even though my neighbor's brother hooked us up with a prime deal.

Saturday AM we converged on the Pick-N-Pull (that place is a rip-off!) where I had found an '85 MR2. We yanked odds and ends that we need or expect to need after plowing a tire-barricade.

Back at the ranch Paul was bending and welding. He came back today and has the cage done except 2 welds. Seat needs to be bolted in first. Harness tabs are done. He's also got a good start on mounting our beefy rear stabilizer bar.

The rest of us were on other tasks:

• Replaced bent control link.
• Flushed coolant.
• Charged battery.
• Replaced ignition coil.
• Installed O2 sensor.
• Mostly yanked parking brake system.
• Almost fixed hood latch.
  
• Ate sandwiches.
• Looked busy.

My big concerns now are paint and decor, and testing. Paint is just more work and time. Testing I'm stumped on. This thing will get impounded so fast if we take it on the street, unregistered, uninsured, unemissioned, unmuffled, and very conspicuous. We're renting a trailer for the race but don't have an easy way to haul the car out to the local track. I'd like to know the car has power before we race. I'm stumped.

After working on the car this weekend I had my first night where it was hard to fall asleep because I was getting excited about racing. I've since lapsed back to the race being some distant, vague experience I know will be fun hypothetically. Even my memory of the 10-2007 race is dreamy and insignificant.

Working on cars is filthy. It's so foreign after 15 years of jockying computers for a living. I get a little grimy working on my bikes and I've done a bit of wrenching on boats and trucks back in my blue collar days. But I'm loving it. I love the comradeship and watching the transformation.

Getting there is 1/10th the fun.

The race.



T-Minus 2 months… Plenty of time. Really. No worries.



T-Minus 5 weeks.



Haul car to shop.

Send out email to all race team members asking them to cough up their entry fees… I'm feeling a bit tight on cash since I just paid $975 in entry fees and $600 for total rule violating camshafts and pulleys. We believe we have burnt valves from the last race and know we have a shifting problem.



T-Minus 2 weeks. 3rd driver is starting to flake. He tells Randal that he will do it but if we could find someone else we would be helping him out.



"Hey Randal, Joe again. Is the car out of the shop yet? If you want to work on it this weekend together we need to pick it up from the shop this week. I'm leaving town for Christmas next week, K? Also what up with your buddy? Is he in our out… I'm sure we can get someone else if we get on it CALL ME" click.



The organizers, in a continuing demonstration of masochism have scheduled this race 6 days after Christmas.



T-Minus 7 days. I leave on a roughly 800 mile drive to Utah with GF and Child. That's Beth and Avery respectively. I proceed to call Randal with growing frequency and urgency every day for the next 5 days. Lots of messages left. No communication. Is the car out of the shop? Do we have our 3rd driver? I don't know.



Finally I end my Christmas Vacation half a day early and begin the 800 mile drive back toward my race car and non-communicative racing partner. As we approach Reno my phone lights up with a txt message from Randal… hurt back, dumped by GF, injured over Christmas and has been hallucinating on pain killers for about 4 days. But he wants to go racing. GAME ON. With Randal in your corner most things are possible.



All doubt about weather we will make it to the race is washed away.



We stop at one of the worst hotels in Reno for long night of pretending to sleep. I'm ready to hit the road @ 6:30AM. Its Wednesday AM I'm roughly 300 miles from home. We cut the long way through California due poor road conditions in south eastern Oregon. Roads are beautiful until hit the mountains in near the state line, which are under white out conditions. Sternly worded, flashing signs advise us that if we don't have 4 wheel drive or chains we will NOT be allow over the pass. California DOT has traffic closed down to one lane and they are asking every driver of a vehicle without chains on it if they have four wheel drive. I'm thinking we screwed. They have to know that a Honda Odyssey is not 4 wheel drive. The man asks and Beth calmly leans over from the passenger seat and lies her beautiful face off. The rest of our trip to Medford is uneventful. I arrive in the same city as my race car Thursday afternoon still no verbal contact with Randal.



T-Minus 28 Hours: 8 AM Friday. Dial Randal. Voicemail. Drive to his house. He looks like shit. Thin. Kind of pale. Disjointed. The car is not out of the shop. Valves have not been ordered. We are not getting direct answers about the status of the transmission.



I begin to doubt.



I print a list of phone numbers to junk yards. I print a craigslist add for a 80's corolla with a 4age motor in it.





T-Minus 23 hours: I drive to the shop.



The transmission is not in the car. They got it back from their transmission shop this morning and installed it only to find a loose output shaft as they started hooking up the half shafts. Head is still on the car. Head parts have not been ordered yet. They are not available in town for any price.



We. Are. Screwed.



Shop owner questions me further about our burnt valve symptoms and advises me to stand by for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes of tinkering he tells me we don't have burnt valves and don't need any head work. He found a distributor/plug/wire problem that matches our symptoms.



His transmission shop will drop everything and re-fix the "fixed" transmission.



We're un-screwed.



Randal arrives with his truck looking more human. We transport Mr. Grouchy 5 speed across town to the transmission shop. Owner advises us to call him in an hour. We go buy lights, drain pan, windshield wipers and a set of tires. Transmission shop calls: An output shaft bearing race had fallen out in transit and is easily repairable as soon it can be retrieved from his wife's car. Apparently our "fixed" transmission was transported to the shop in his wife's Chevy sedan.



We go get lunch. Randal is fading. He drops me at the auto shop and heads home to pack. I get my car, retrieve Mr. Grouchy head home to pack after dropping the cursed transmission off at the shop.



T-minus 19 hours: Head to Randal's to help sort out the trailer. At 6:30 PM the shop calls to tell us our car is back together and running. 7:45 pm we are rolling out of town. Randal mentions an upset stomach and look a bit pale… nothing new. 70 miles later Randal stops at a gas station and asks me to get him something to munch on. When I get back in the truck he is shaking. He informs me that I'll be driving. At this point I realize how sick he is. Did I mention we were driving through a bizzard? I get him a cup of soup, water, airborn, alkesetzer cold meds and ease his gianormaous truck with 2 axle, 20 foot trailer into the storm. Within 10 miles Randal calmly advise me pull the truck over, NOW. I slow the 13 thousand pounds worth of truck, trailer, tools and race car as quickly as possible on the snow covered road. As we approach 15mph Randal executes a beautiful rolling vomit out his open passenger side door. The rest of our journey to Willows is uneventful. We arrive around 1 AM.

Ferarri 599 GTB Fiorino

The Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano is Ferrari's 2-seat Gran Turismo flagship model, replacing the 575M Maranello in 2006 as a 2007 model. The 599 GTB debuted at the Geneva Motor Show on February 28, 2006. Styling of the 599 GTB was handled by Pininfarina, under the direction of Ferrari stylist, Frank Stephenson. It is named for its total engine displacement (5999 cc), Gran Turismo Berlinetta nature, and the Fiorano Circuit test track used by Ferrari.

33 Days Before Race

Paul came and worked today after the storm. It looks like he completed the passenger side of the cage with only the driver's side remaining.

I took some more photos after work because I want to show Joe the cage, bent control arm, and leaky transmission.

While I was uploading I noticed that we are at 33 days in our count down to Altamont. Then I went through the photo album and added "XX days before race" captions to the first of each day's photos.

Despite forecasts the weather didn't crap on us and we made more progress this weekend:

• More roll-cage progress.
• Battery moved to frunk.
• Air intake done.
• Checked wheel bearings, brakes, and replaced front pads.
• Changed plugs and wires.
• Fixed driver door hinge.
• Finished cutting out fenders.
• Changed oil.
  

Some new issues:

• Radiator is full of sludge.
• Spark plug cover doesn't seal and is collecting water
  

Put the car on blocks and left it up blocking my whole driveway since I want to take the wheels to buy tires this week. We really need a compression test done. Maybe a temp registration will allow us to get this wedgie out for a test drive before the race. We had another wet snow storm this morning. Only four weekends left to work on the car.