"feather-throttle-not-hair" (feather-throttle-not-hair)
03/29/2018 at 13:24 • Filed to: 24 Hours of Lemons
5
11|
"feather-throttle-not-hair" (feather-throttle-not-hair)
03/29/2018 at 13:24 • Filed to: 24 Hours of Lemons | 5
| 11 |
I got back from Sonoma Raceway the other day after driving in the 24 Hours of Lemons and pulled the video from one of my stints. I didn’t cut anything out, other than a couple of caution flags, so you’ll get to see me:
1. Completely forget how to shift gears (around the 15 minute mark, for 2 whole turns)
2. Run off the track while no one was around as i was trying to set a fast lap. (end of the video)
The car is a 1976 Pontiac Sunbird, roughly 110 hp, revs to not quite 5K and sticks like its on rails. In general, it was awesome on the first part of the track where it could use momentum to keep up speed. However the second part of the track was less nice to the little Pontiac, where the straightaways and braking zones didn’t play to our strengths.
We came away with the coveted “Index of Effluency” prize at the end of the weekend, despite utterly exploding our front left brake with about 15 minutes left in the race.
Highlights: 5:50 - I had a stupid pass i shouldn’t have done, but that now looks cool. 8:30 - a good lap. I passed like 3 people in one corner at one point.
Good job car
RacinBob
> feather-throttle-not-hair
04/03/2018 at 21:10 |
|
What engine? Iron Duke?
|
feather-throttle-not-hair
> RacinBob
04/04/2018 at 12:28 |
|
Oddfire V6, so torque but no power and no revs.
|
RacinBob
> feather-throttle-not-hair
04/04/2018 at 13:42 |
|
Which V6, 4.3?
|
feather-throttle-not-hair
> RacinBob
04/04/2018 at 18:58 |
|
Nope, the old 3.8L. Not a good picture, but the only one i have in front of me unfortunately.
|
RacinBob
> feather-throttle-not-hair
04/04/2018 at 19:17 |
|
Ah good Lemons choice, I had a 3.8 Pontiac transport. Those engines are 200 hp so your car should be faster than most which is what it appears to be.
I co-own a Ford 2.3 powered Opel GT and run in midwest Lemons.
|
RacinBob
> feather-throttle-not-hair
04/04/2018 at 19:32 |
|
You found a fortunate place to lose your brakes. If you can find a longer 2nd gear, you might really like it as it would let you stay in 2nd longer. I agree, a S10 brake swap would pay dividends in better pad wear and better stopping.
|
feather-throttle-not-hair
> RacinBob
04/04/2018 at 19:40 |
|
Yes! The Opel breadwagon! That thing is rad, i’ve seen a couple of opel GT’s at my local race (i’m Seattle based) but none of them were nearly as cool as yours. Although, if you’re racing any Opel GT, you’re doing lemons correctly IMHO.
It would take a lot of work to get my old 3.8 up to 200 hp unfortunately. Back when they made the sunbird, it was rated at 110 hp, and i’m kind of more interested in keeping it reliable than making it fast. Which isn’t to say i don’t want to go fast! Our team keeps adding cars (already had a Mustang II, currently making a 1979 AMC Spirit AMX into a lemons car) so ideally we’re going to end up with a beginner car, an intermediate car and an advanced car. The Spirit should be pretty fast, as its got a 360cid V8 in there. Which should be good for like....almost maybe 200 hp!
|
feather-throttle-not-hair
> RacinBob
04/04/2018 at 19:59 |
|
Yup, the gear ratios are kinda bad sometimes, oddly enough, its a dogleg 5-speed, so that was actually 3rd i was using most of the time (down and toward the driver.) Never even saw 5th in sonoma, just weren’t really any straights long enough and in fact you’re not even really pulling in 4th up that hill at the end of the main straight.
At our local race in Seattle see’s 5th briefly at the end of the main straight, so its not a total loss, but my team and I are definitely considering a transmission swap. The 5 speed is garbage as far as reliability goes and it doesn’t suit the powerband very well. Borg Warner T50, don’t ever put one in your Opel!
Also...heh...i didn’t lose the brakes, it was pure driver error. I did however, make the error there knowing i could mess up and be okay. Not that the brakes survived the weekend, but they lasted at least another 4 or 5 hours!
Anyway thanks for watching, its fun talking about this kind of stuff with someone who
really
gets it!
|
RacinBob
> feather-throttle-not-hair
04/04/2018 at 20:04 |
|
I wonder if the spirit will be much faster than the pontiac. Your pontiac runs better through the turns than most cars and has impressive brakes, And that is before putting S10 brakes on the front. I noticed you passed a Miata and were running with a 3 series BMW so it’s no slouch.
It will be interesting to see whether the V8 HP will offset the cost of weight to handling and braking. Remember these cars are really tire limited. A bit of a cam and getting about 10 to one compression ought to uncork that engine a bit.
Of course easy for me to say, as it’s not my car......
|
RacinBob
> feather-throttle-not-hair
04/04/2018 at 20:23 |
|
Yep. Our Opel was built by a guy who loves building Lemons cars. It has s ford 2.3, A mustang T5, Alfa Spider rear axle and rear brakes and older BMW vented front brakes. He built all three of these cars below
|
RacinBob
> RacinBob
04/04/2018 at 20:34 |
|
Here’s me at Gingerman