CMP thread

#1

Fred will be the man. I have a family gig this weekend that I can’t get out of. Well, and remain married anyways.

Coolant freezing. The weekend looks to be cold and clear. Might want to run your engine a bit before going to bed at night. A 450deg lump of metal takes a while to cool so that should get it thru the night ok. Could even take an old blanket and throw it over your engine after turning it off for the night. Another solution is sticking a trouble-light under your engine. Don’t listen to folks that get all excited about this. Just take a logical precaution or two and your coolant won’t freeze. Of greater concern is ensuring that your beer stash doesn’t freeze.

As of this moment we do not have a greenlight for anti-freeze. I’ll get the word out immed if that changes.

14 signed up as of 7Feb. http://nasa-se.com/weblist.php?evd=2016-02-13&eventid=2016%20Winter%20Meltdown&sortby=r.class

If you need to get your car teched, contact Fred, switzef (at) clemson (dot) edu, to work out an opportunity. Cost for tech is you pay for one of the SpecE30 lunches later this year.

A couple changes from the normal routine:
NASA HQ will be near the tower, not the garage.
Saturday night chow will be in the classroom. That’s the big building across the street from the front gate admin building.

#2

A 450 degree lump of metal is of no consequence since it will never run again anyway:laugh:

A 100W light bulb around the fan should work. If not and my motor froze, I would expect NASA to reimburse me for my loss because I could not use readily available items to prevent damage:sick:

#3

+1 as Ken Wilkinson will be running Kelly Childress’ old car this weekend. Go easy on him because it’s a shared car! :wink:

#4

14 people…I have a legitimate chance at a top 10!!!

#5

[quote=“Rob in VA” post=82420]+1 as Ken Wilkinson will be running Kelly Childress’ old car this weekend. Go easy on him because it’s a shared car! ;)[/quote]Don’t know Ken yet but looking forward to meeting him somewhere down the road (no CMP for me), and also great to see Kelly’s car back in our neck of the woods.

#6

I, for one, was too busy drinking beer/tequila Saturday night to ensure my motor didn’t freeze. Missed qualifying because my water pump found that churning ice was too great a task. Fortunately, removing the accessory belt and running the engine until things freed up was the way to go.

Great weekend. Lots of new folks. I wasn’t as quick as I would have liked given the conditions, but there was some great racing to be had. Set some personal bests as well.

Kudos to Sandro for destroying the track record by something like 3 seconds. Also, kudos to Jim and NASA for having the awards ceremony and after-party in the classroom building near the entrance to the track. Great facility for keeping people warm with the cold weather conditions.

#7

No kudos to me for bringing you coffee two days in row? You suck at kudos.

#8

Crap, I totally forgot about that. The coffee helped me not suck as much. Thanks, and I’ll get you back at Roebling.

#9

I’m assuming the track surface that they reworked dropped lap times across the board? Also how was tire wear?

#10

Another great weekend. We missed a lot of great peeps, but we still partied it up hard.

Lots of new faces, Tony and Cody are legit fast and will be at the podium soon, showed up with a car they had just bought a week earlier and were competitive.

Lako and I had a great race Saturday, but an even better time later that night :laugh:

It was cold as hell and it just made the engines scream with power. I didn’t notice a dang thing about grip, actually I felt better grip in November, the diamond cut was supposed to get rid of ripples in the pavement and it did, but grip was the same. It needs black stuff to grip better, period!

It was Sumpter’s birthday Sunday and he grabbed his first podium :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: we were really happy to have him back after a 9 month sabbatical.

Can’t wait for Rd Atlanta. I have a buddy joining us, he’ll do HPDE1 in the Unicorn. Keep recruiting!!!

#11

Sandro, thanks for the write-up. Congratulations on both wins, Saturday you came from the last position to win the race. Wow.

Learned something at CMP and freezing temperatures. I’ll not steal Colin’s thunder and I’ll let him tell the story.

My news from the event: we sold Laura’s car and now we drive the #230 as a team. So, the team had me qualify the car and she raced it…and the old guy qualified the car in second. New tires matter (at least we had new tires on the rear). At the meeting I handed over the keys to Pantas, it doesn’t get any better the second with this group.

Seriously speaking, in qualifying on Saturday Lako was first but Sandro’s transponder wasn’t working. And Ryan wasn’t there, nor Alex, nor Skeen, nor Walsh, nor Johan, nor Grace, nor Eric P, nor Julio P., nor Travis, nor Big Al, nor Indy Jim, nor DeVinney, nor Cobetto, nor Taylor, nor Fred, nor …you get the picture, guess I really would have qualified 31st. Wait, where was Eskew? There have been some great racers through the turnstile here in the SE.

And there are more to come. Newcommers Cody, Tony and James know how to wheel a car. I chased Tony on Saturday in the PTD race and once we cleared traffic I could not keep the gap constant…bye Tony. Be on the lookout for these guys at the next event. Likewise if Hunter Gahl builds a car he will have some good races too.

Watched from the tower both days, good races throughout the pack, with a minimum of stupid stuff. No car-to-car contact, that’s the way it is supposed to be. Look forward to seeing the old and new faces at the next event.

RP

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#12

Tire wear sucks as bad as before. Seemed like there was better grip in the carosel and at t14, less grip at t8 and through the back carosel. However, forget what seemed and look at the shattered lap times and personal best for our guys. Great driving.

RP

#13

Yea, what is the story with the frozen motor?? Took the belt off to warm it up? sounds like a good idea. I have been in -10 degree’s lately and a shoplight under the hood really helps.

And anyone who brings coffee in or has it at the track is a saint…without it I am a total zombie, PP, Ranger and Colin (plus others I am forgetting) have hooked me up in the past. Hope to see yall at CMP in May.

Al

#14

Yeah early race on Sunday equals early qualifying. Showed up early Sunday morning to play around with the sway bar set up. Found that my water pump was seized and ice in the expansion tank. Missed quali and put a small space heater in the engine bay. An hour later it was still frozen. Finally decided to loosen the alternator tensioner and pull the belt. Fired up the engine to heat soak things and we were golden after a minute or so. Good tool to have for those Jan/Feb races. Thanks to Mr Patton for his support. The coffee also helped.
Ended up nearly starting DFL, but Laura gave me the lucky bump. Had a great start and was barely able to hold off Hartridge for 7th. Great race and lots of new talent coming in.