A Pre-Party

So Russ wanted to have a "Christening" party for the Colt E. Kind of like smashing that cheap bottle of champagne against the hull of a new ship. It was a way for everybody at work to come see the car before we go crash, I mean race, it next weekend. Actually it was probably just a good excuse to party. Again. But we had a good turnout and a lot of positive comments about the car, so that means all of you who are reading this, and were there, just didn't tell us what you really thought. That's OK because the poll has spoken. Only half of you think the Colt E will finish the race! Good thing we don't care what you think. Ha! Seriously, thanks to all for coming out last night. I think everyone had a great time. Chris and Mike will be at the next monthly meeting too. I promise.



Well, we're packed and ready to go. The Colt E is about as ready as she'll ever be. We checked everything off our tech inspection sheet. Before Thursday I need to make sure the camera's and camcorder's have fresh batteries and plenty of tape. I also need to get some software on the laptop if I want to post videos to this blog from the track. We'll see about that one. You'll notice in the included photos that we have sold out and are now marketing all sorts of junk for the team. If you'd like a custom mug with our logo, just send me an email and I'll place you an order with Todd (great job on the mug Todd!) We have a few extra items that we will be selling from our pit at the track.


I leave you with a few specs on our beloved Colt E. Kind of puts into perspective (or not) what we are attempting to work with.

Make: Dodge (liars, it's a Mitsubishi)
Model: Colt E (again with the lying, try Mirage)
Year: 1988
Engine: 1.5L 4 cylinder fed by an 2 bbl "carburetor like device" (the '80's sucked)
HP: 68 @ 5600rpm (I kid you not folks - sixty eight)
Transmission: 4 speed manual with counterbalanced shift knob
Weight: approx 1500 lbs without driver
0-60mph: 4.3 tries
Unique features: manual steering (yes that does exist), optional high idle package, aftermarket piston return springs (yes, I'm kidding)
Cost: I'm not quite sure, but I'm pretty sure I could have sent my wife on a weekend shopping spree and it would have cost me less.

See you at the track!

We have a driver!

The polls have closed and while we had much less activity than our "Duck" poll, we have a winner. Chris will be leading off the team in the Colt E! Considering the poor sap who starts the race has to deal with 95 other amateur driven, junk cars all smashing for position, I say "Congratulations Chris!". If ever our roll cage is going to serve it's purpose and save our life, it will probably be in the first few laps. Of course, the flipside is that if Chris wrecks the car, then none of the rest of us get to drive the race car that we just spent 8 weeks building. Oh well, let's hope for the best.

For our next poll, I want to see what kind of confidence our supporters have in the car. Vote for how many laps the Colt E will complete. Keep in mind that last years winner completed a little over 500 laps. Also, taking the checkered flag doesn't mean that we win. It just would mean that we finished the race without chucking a rod out the side of the block. Personally I think it would look pretty cool to have fire pouring out from under the hood as I blow the engine to kingdom come. Whatever, just vote.

T-Shirts

So yesterday Jeff shows up with the t-shirts we ordered. Wow, these things look great! They were designed and printed by Steve Greb over at Omega Graphics in Kannapolis. It's Steve's design that graces the top of this web page. Steve got us a great price and even threw in a few can coolers as well. For all you who ordered a t-shirt, you're going to look good hanging out in the pits! If you're ever in the market for some graphic design work, give Steve a call or visit www.omegaart.net. Thanks Steve!

Be Warned

So I felt like making a post this weekend. We didn't work on the car or anything (it's done, remember?) but there is always relevant Lemons info to be had. We spend much of our time following the sites Jalopnik and Speed:Sport:Life because the Lemons judges write for these sites and offer up all sorts of great Lemons info and coverage. So it was today that I was scanning the recent stories on Jalopnik and found one of the new devious driver penalties to be unveiled at Lemons South Spring. It is called the TNA penalty for Taiwanese National Anthem. In short, this involves a car alarm perpetually playing in the car until the next pit stop. You can read about it in detail here. Oh the diabolical evilness!! While you're there be sure to follow the links to some of the other penalties.

There have also been few posts on some of the other teams. Judge Lieberman just did an interview with TAJracing, another entrant in Lemons South Spring. I love reading about the other teams! While you can't really gather any competitve intel from the team sites or website interviews (launch the UAV!!), it is still fun to see other guys working just as frantically as we are. Plus, in many cases, we are relieved to know that we will not be the only ones out there with a piece of crap!

Well that's all for now. Be sure to cast your vote in the poll to the right. Which reminds me, I never announced the results from our first poll. After much interest and rampant cheating (y'all know who you are!) the Duck will be welded on the roof. Specifically, between the brakelights. Stay tuned this week as I'm going to try to post a feature on "Get to Know Your Rats". Oh the excitement.....

Official Lab Rats Gear

The topic of Lab Rats Motorsports branded gear has come up quite a bit recently. We have ordered custom lab coats, T-shirts and decals for ourselves already. We have even talked about hats and coozi's (can insulator thing). So I'm going to put out an offer to those of you following us. If anyone is interested in purchasing a T-shirt, decal or any other items send me an email at mchisek@gmail.com. I'd like to have all orders in by next Friday, 3/27 so that I can bring all of the items to the race for delivery. I think it would be great if the pits were flooded with fans sporting Lab Rats gear!

Another Thank You

On the heels of today's earlier message, I wanted to extend a personal thank you to Rob Hall. Rob has been providing us with free racing gear from the beginning of this project. He has hooked us up with two full sets of tires and wheels, our Butler racing seat and a full set of radios for driver/pit communications. Seeing as how most of us are married with kids (read: broke), these expensive items have been a real boost to the team. And for all of this stuff what does Rob want in return? Nothing (well maybe our beer). Thanks Rob, see you at the race!

A Big Thank You

I just wanted to make a quick mid-week post to send out a thank you to Chris Rogers Motorsports of Concord, NC. Chris hooked us up with a full set of tires and wheels for the race. CRM deals in Legends and Bandolero cars and provides a wide range of services to the newbie racer all the way up to the veteran racer. If you're looking to get started in racing, give Chris a call!

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!

It has finally happened. The car is finished! Hard to believe, especially if you think back to what we started with. And all in 8 weeks no less. So even though it was cold and rainy again here in Charlotte, we were all pumped! We didn't have to work long or hard today. Chris installed the muffler, Phil mounted the rear shocks, Jeff welded up the grill,Russ and Russell applied stickers and numbers and I modified the wiring. Everyone kind of stood around and watched paint dry while we waited for the rain to let up. It never did (and still hasn't) so we eventually said screw it and decided to take her out for a drive anyway. So for this week's update I'll let the photos and video do the talking.

I'll probably add one or two more updates before the race and then for race weekend I'll try to post updates and picks a few times a day. We'll see about that one. In your face Dirk Ramrod!!

Finally!!

It is with much excitement that I present this mid-week update on the Colt E. It seems that the nice weather and perhaps some other forces have come together and convinced Russ that Wednesday night would be a good night to paint the race car! We were all highly skeptical, mind you, but eye witness accounts and spy photos that we’ve acquired confirm the unbelievable. Russ has finally painted the car! This is no joke as you can see from the photos. Russ labored intensely into the night laying multiple coats of high dollar Rustoleum white paint. Ladies and gentlemen I am speechless as I behold the beauty that is the COLT E!

Correction

Apparently I made a mistake in the telling of the injured finger story. Phil has since corrected me and , in his own words, retells the grizzly tale:

Just wanted to clear up the injured finger thing. While holding up the last state of the art decorative Bud Light taillight cover to drill and mark the body, with my left hand the 1/8” harbor freight high quality steel drill bit broke. The broke drill bit with the drill, my right hand, and all of my slim trim body weight struck my left pinky finger causing the injury. If anyone ask we now can truthfully say we have put our blood sweat and tears into this car.

That's all for today. Now I had better get back to work (the kind of work that pays the bills, not makes more of them).

A Race Car is Born

What a weekend! I mean, besides the awesome weather we saw great progress on the car. We got together on Thursday and knocked out one project each and then I installed the brake lights on Friday. Saturday morning we were at it early. Our story begins at Pull-A-Part.

What better a place to get parts for a $500 race car than a junk yard! Chris, Phil and I drove up first thing Saturday morning looking for a brake proportioning valve. They didn't have any Colts but they did have two Mirage's. We nabbed both valves just to make sure we got a good one. What a place! I saw many potential race cars in there, all they needed was a few parts!

The three of us got back to the shop and started working on some of the final issues. Chris used the new found brake valve to repair and bleed the brakes. Phil and I re-installed the gas tank and ran the return fuel line. Jeff finally arrived (he had to work in the morning) with our new dashboard. This has to be about the coolest part of the car! It uses our top secret starter button and is a real piece of art.

Meanwhile Russ was scouring the internet for our long awaited rear shocks. He was successful in finding a pair of shorter shocks that almost fit. Hey, nothing an adapter can't fix (read: washers). Chris and Phil then focused their attention on the tail lights, or more accurately the tail light covers. Remember our recycling program? Did you know that recycling can be hazardous to your health? Phil now understands the dangers of recycling. You see, Phil managed to splatter his blood all over Russ' garage. I didn't see it (thankfully), but I guess when you hook a cut open Bud Light can on the end of a drill and spin it through your finger, it tends to cut pretty deep. Ouch. We're thinking of leaving the blood as part of our paint job, what do you think?

Phil isn't the only one who learned some things this weekend. Yours truly got some lessons as well. Luckily mine didn't cost any blood though. Did you know that starter solenoid's are not rated for continuous duty? Bad idea for a remote ignition switch. Anyway, I proceeded to finish the car's electrical system while Chris gave us all a headache as he pounded out new fender flares in the rear. They look pretty good though and we later found out they work too.


We finished up Saturday by firing up the engine and setting the base timing. And yes, she runs great! Granted I wish we had a 600HP small block Chevy under the hood, but we're not rich so we'll run with what we've got.

Sunday comes along and Chris wakes me up early with phone call. Wants to know when I'm going over to work on the car. I'm thinking "It's morning already?". So we work again, and I'm glad we did. We picked up our muffler and attempted to mount that up but we're missing an adapter. But, we finally got out tires and wheels! After a quick coat of fresh paint we mount those bad boys up and dropped her on the ground. WOW!! She looks great! Chris and I stared at her for a couple of hours and dreampt of racing glory. I can't wait for the race!

So what's left? We need to mount our steering wheel, mount the rear shocks, install the muffler, paint the car and install the windshield. There are probably a few other things I'm forgetting but we'll get them knocked out as well. With three weeks to go we also need to start focusing on our supplies and tools for the weekend. So while we've got the car close the done, we still have a lot to do. But we're still focused on the goal!

Are we done yet???

This is not easy. Fun, yes (in a twisted sort of way), but definitely not easy. Everyone but Russ has to travel to work on the car, we have to budget our time and money so that we don't piss off our wives, the car keeps throwing us curve balls and the weather has just sucked lately. AND we only have one month left. I love this!

I'm happy with this weekend's progress. We had some issues that elbow grease or money can fix for us pretty quick, so we're not really that worried. We started off by finishing the roll cage, including welding both doors shut. This has taken quite a few weekends, but the end result was worth it. Everyone agrees that this car is a tank and we all feel very safe in it. Jeff did an outstanding job fabricating and welding it all together. Even the seat mount is great, simple yet tied securely to the cage structure itself. I'm not saying go ahead and hit me, but if you do I'll be alright!

With the cage complete I went ahead and put a quick basecoat of paint down on the inside of the car. We'll lay a finish coat when we spray the outside. It's just been too cold lately for painting outside. We also need it to roll so that we can take it outside. Chris then started fitting the roll cage padding into place. With so many tubes in the cage he came up a bit short, so we'll have to order a little bit more. And yes, the steering wheel is missing. We have a quick disconnect steering wheel setup on the car to make it easier and safer to get in and out of the car (how did Bo and Luke do it so easily?).

Chris also managed to get the front suspension put back together. The strut coils have been trimmed down like the backs and there is all new brake hardware and bearings. Ask Chris why one of the rotors is new and one is an old turned down one. We then proceeded to flush and bleed the brake system. The front brakes went quick but then we ran into problems. The back brakes wouldn't bleed. After doing some checks we found out the proportioning valve was seized and not letting fluid to rear brakes. Add that to the shopping list.

And what about that engine? What about it! Back off! Leave me alone! Seriously, it's weird. I screwed with it a few nights during the week, and all night Friday. It acts like it has a bad vacuum leak. I plugged all vacuum passages and ports and retorqued all the bolts and screws in and around the carb. It still wasn't running right. Saturday afternoon Jeff and I decide to screw with it some more and it fires up and runs perfectly. I kid you not. After about 5 minutes though it starts to run rough again. I play with for about a half hour and then can't stand the exhaust fumes anymore so I shut it off. I can't find the problem. Fast forward to about 9pm and Chris and Phil want to hear it run. So I give it a try. Perfect again. This time it runs for about 10 minutes without issue. It idles, it revs smoothly and shows no signs of trouble. I shut it down for the night and go home. At this point, who freakin' knows what the problem is. But if it fixes itself by just warming the engine up and then letting it cool down, great. I can't wait to replace this piece of crap with bigger FI engine.

What else? We ran the new fuel line along the frame rail, plugged all the holes in the body, hung the rear view mirror, finished the new top secret engine start switch and began to recycle the empty beer cans that are beginning to fill up the garage. Believe it or not beer cans make great filler panels for body work. Think about it, they're lightweight, readily available and come prepainted with your sponsor's logo on them (no, Budweiser is not sponsoring us). Russ was missing most of the weekend (buying a car or something) so we had to leave the supervisor duties up to my dog Chika. "Work faster you vile human infidels!! Woof!!"