Here is the latest with good quality.
'Marines' Car Updates
Teufelauto
#26
uh60fixer wrote:
I’ll be at the Summit Point DE later this month. Euroimage will probably be there.?
Right now I’m struggling with the sunroof cartridge delete. I really gotta get this car done before my seatbelts and other safety equipment go out of date!:lol:
Carter
#27
Jamie:
If Euroimage is there, you pick the photo and I’ll pay for it. It’ll be my pleasure to offer a gift to someone who is serving our country.
Carter 
Teufelauto
#28
Carter wrote:
[quote]Jamie:
If Euroimage is there, you pick the photo and I’ll pay for it. It’ll be my pleasure to offer a gift to someone who is serving our country.
Carter [/quote]
That’s very generous, Carter. Thank you!
It would make a nice start to a race photo album like my father’s. It was great to hear him tell the stories that went along with the photo finishes. He drove standard bred harness horses. The best was seeing the betting odds change as one horse, Hobo’s Gale, won 5 in a row.
It is our responsibility to foster interest in the next generation!:silly:
Teufelauto
#29
This past weekend I made a significant investment in my racing. I did a Skip Barber race school at VIR. We had 13 drivers split in to two groups. Six drivers on all of VIR South is pretty well spaced! The classroom information was similar to the ‘Going Faster’ book, but the information was immediately put to use in the car after every lesson. Sometimes the time between your stints was spent at a corner to observe the good, bad and ugly accompanied by an instructor to tell you which was what and why.
The braking exercise on day 2 was phenomenal. I believe driving the formula car helped my learning since I could see exactly what the tires were doing. (Becoming square) Pressing the brake pedal immediately to 100% traction rather than building pressure was challenging for me. “Brake harder, earlier,” was a common sound on the radio.
When the sun came out on Monday, day 3, the surface got progressively slicker. We were in the cars from 9 to 5, swapping with about half hour stints. About mid day the ambient outside air temperature peaked at about 10 degrees south of ‘BROIL’. The braking points moved back predictably.
My big moment was with two laps to go for the last session. The previous lap I spun into the grass at Fish Hook. The only turns after that were the kink (no braking) and Oak Tree (light braking) before pulling into the pits for a quick look over by the mechanics and some feedback from the instructor watching that corner. Leaving the pits I proceeded to saw my way through the gears and up the hill for big threshold braking at the double apex. I was cooking. I slammed the brake to ten tenths at my braking point and got some lockup after about 50 feet so modulated a little off, blipping down into third. The affect was a rock back to a complete coast attitude. I increased the brake pressure marginally and locked up briefly before another rock back to what felt like acceleration.
I was at turn-in with almost no braking accomplished. Forget the turn. Go Straight! Now, this weekend AMA Superbikes were on VIR North so there are barriers half way to the other track on the Full Course straight. While turning the brakes on and off (lock-up or nothing) I was able to zoom around it in the grass and get back on pavement on the other side. Now that I didn’t have to worry about hitting anything I was able to figure out that the brake pedal had made it to the bulkhead and jammed. There is so little room up there I was giving it throttle trying to push past it against the brake. With a combination of engine braking and pressing on the brake with the clutch pushed in I came to a stop and turned back the way I came. No one could see if I had even made it around the barrier. I slowly came within sight of the corner station in the braking zone and was waved on. So as to not drive counter course, and to get out of the way of every one, I pulled behind the tire wall at the top of the spiral, killed the motor and put it in gear to keep from rolling down the hill.
Here’s the funny part. My ‘co-driver’, George, with whom I was sharing the car, had the EXACT same experience before I did. Same spin, same zippy-da-zip past the barrier. He decided to limp it back around to the pits but I didn’t care to take any chances of getting whacked from behind. Formula Barber cars make awful bulldozers. Rocks, dirt and grass were jammed in the controls.
I’ll see many of you next week, and until then,
nasaregistrar
#30
Carter wrote:
[quote]Jamie:
If Euroimage is there, you pick the photo and I’ll pay for it. It’ll be my pleasure to offer a gift to someone who is serving our country.
Carter [/quote]
Very generous Carter…and Yes, Jim will be there but remember he only shoots Saturdays do do your best posing then B)
jlevie
#31
I was also at VIR for the Skip Barber school this past weekend and the Marines car looks better in the flesh than in the pictures. Like Jamie I had an awesome and very educational experience…
mrussell
#32
Here are some shots of the Marines car on track at T10 yesterday morning. Car looks great!
nasaregistrar
#34
I saw Jamie’s car this past weekend. It does look good…add one more cool E30 to the stable.
Teufelauto
#35
Bringing this topic back to the top with some cage photos. Jerry Fair is building it. Tacked together now, it still needs 2nd door bars and foot protection. Also included is a picture of my helmet:blush:
jblack
#37
Teufelauto wrote:
[quote]And here are two more pictures.
[/quote]
Nice build - looks promising! Always looks like open heart surgery with the dash open like that! Scary and exciting. Looks like quality work.
Teufelauto
#38
So I’m here in Michigan just a day before Easter. I have my car pre-positioned here for Mid Ohio in a few weeks. The indignity! At least there’s a little anti-freeze in it.
ilateapex
#39
Is that Mid-Ohio with NASA? You running Spec E30? We need more racers.
Michael
#36 Great Lakes Region