ChumpCar Roebling Report

#1

Darwin Wrenching, with team principles Fred Switzer, Jim Levie, Al K, and I made it thru tech easy enough today. They didn’t even want to see the documentation re. the $$ value of our $500 car. They said “that shit-box? You’re good.”

We did have a bit of a suspension adventure tho. Jim did some work to cut down our OEM springs a bit and found on Wed that all of our shocks were shot. So shot that the shock rods moved freely in the piston bodies.

On Thur morning we ordered some replacement Bilsteins overnight. Jim got to my place at about 0100 Friday morning, got some rack, and the Bilsteins were there in the morning. He and Al then headed to the track and installed all 4 shocks.

There seem to be some obvious differences about ChumpCar vs. Lemons. The Chumpcar types seem to be pretty serious about their racing. Some of the cars are prepped a helova lot more then any Lemons car you’ll see. And apparently there’s no silly penalties. You don’t have to come in and spend 15min doing some silly penalty just because you went 2 wheels off.

#2

Ranger wrote:

The first indication was the edlebrock LS1 camero

#3

rackeu wrote:

[quote]Ranger wrote:

The first indication was the edlebrock LS1 camero[/quote]

Ya, the camaro’s carburator was worth more then our car.

#4

I think you mean “team principals” cuz we know your team has no principles. :wink:

#5

Steve D wrote:

Didn’t you ever learn the phrase “Your principle is your ple?” Sheeze.

In other news…
We did pretty well today. In a car that was near uncontrollable we got 8th of 31.

After swapping out the not-shocks for new Bilstien Sports we found that the rear end sits about 6" higher then it should. It looked like some kind of 1970 muscle car dragster. The rear end hopped alarmingly all the way around turns.

Oh, and when ever you hit the brakes the car’s rear end would try to come around. It was not at all subtle. It was bad.

As soon as the track went cold Al launched out for home, an hour away, and grabbed the rear springs off of his SpecE30. They were already off because he had removed the subframe to install a camber/toe kit.

Tonight, under a canopy in the pouring rain, we replaced the rear springs. The car sits normally now.

There’s lots of fast cars here. The top 6 are running 1:31 or better on street tires. One guy did a 1:26. So Lemons may be entirely crappy cars, but Chump has some that are less crappy.

Some of our success was due to our fuel plan. We stretched each tank just as far as it would go, and finished the 8hr race with about a teaspoon of gas left.

There were only a few penalties handed out to folks. They were for aggressive driving, passing under yellow, and that kind of stuff. Penalties consisted of stop and go type things. We did not get any penalties.

We’ve high hopes for tomorrow. Hopefully our rear end won’t hop all of the damned place. We never really figured out what was up with the brakes, but one thing at a time.

#6

sounds fun with less of the BS… good luck tomorrow!

#7

Pic [file name=Group800X600.jpg size=62109]http://spece30.com/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/files/Group800X600.jpg[/file]

#8

Pic and file upload are broke.

http://a.imageshack.us/img818/508/group800x600.jpg
http://a.imageshack.us/img295/1686/img00049201008211039.jpg

#9

I was there running with the Rust Riders in a '78 280Z. Car was really quick in a straight line. That was all that was good about it. It was a real handful with no rear lateral grip to speak of on Saturday and a bit better on Sunday after some Saturday nite Chump tweaks.

Finished 12/32 on Saturday and 9/29 on Sunday. Note to self - tighten lug nuts every pit stop! We would have finished 6th on Sunday if not for loosing 2 left front lug nuts with one hour to go.

It was great to see/meet Jim, Al, Fred and Scott.

#10

Gresstale posted at http://www.Gress.org/Home/Cars/TrackTales/Tales.htm

#11

entertaining write up as usual scott! you guys doing lemons south fall?

#12

Yes!

#13

I hope you guys aren’t planning on showing up at CMP with H&R race springs paired with bilstein sports on that thing.

#14

I love the gauge cluster zip tied in place. Correction: the non-operational gauge cluster. :laugh: Looks like the interior of our Lemons racer.