We worked, but the car doesn't

I got to Phil's house at 8:30am this morning. The rest of the crew got there shortly thereafter. We didn't leave until 5:30pm. In those many hours we all accomplished quite a bit. Not enough to get the car to run yet, but close I must say. How many weeks until the race you ask? Two more working weekends until showtime. Some of us may be taking some extra unplanned vacation time soon.

But on to the good news. The brakes are done! It took eight weeks, and phone calls all over the country, but have we got a set of great brakes. We have upgraded from the stock tiny solid rotor, to a beefy cross drilled and vented aftermarket rotor for a 1.6L turbo Colt. To go along with that we installed bigger calipers, and top of the line brake pads. I have the utmost confidence that our brakes will perform flawlessly on race day.


Another major accomplishment, and one of our prime off season modifications, was the installation of our new custom intake manifold for our SU carburetor. Jeff designed and built this thing from scratch and it looks awesome! This took Jeff and Quinn most of the day to install and set up the accessories, but it is worth it. The SU is going to be a great replacement for our old junk carb. There will still be some tuning once we get the car running, but the worst is over.


Other completed projects include the installation of the larger radiator, the final installation of the exhaust (again) and the main hoop diagonal bar is tacked in place. We attempted to start the car for the first time with the new intake, but we have a little electrical problem. Phil will be tracking that down at night this week and hopefully next weekend we can fire her up. With two working weekends to go and the Colt needing some test and tune time, we're cutting it close. We got it covered!

Do stickers count as work?

You read that right. Stickers. That's about all we got done on Saturday. Well, actually we did accomplish a little more than that. Our exhuast system that had broke off last race is now fixed. Chris and Jeff welded the whole thing up and used heavy bolts to hold it in the car. It sits a little low, but should work fine.

Myself, I started trying to fit the radiator in the car. It fits OK, but I have to modify the lower hose a little bit so that it doesn't interfere with the transmission. I'll get it......eventually. Phil got a little farther on his battery relocation project. That should be done during the week.

The really good news is that the front brakes are on their way! Chris finally found what he was looking for on Ebay. They should arrive this week. With those on the car, we can put the tires back on and set her on the ground. So I guess we're making progress, it just doesn't seem like as much as we did the first time. As long as we're ready for the race, right?

Where's the motivation?

So Chris and I worked on Friday night. Phil was at the dirt track races and Jeff was with his girl. So what did Chris and I do? Drank beer (well Coke for me). It appears that converting the front brakes to 1.6 turbo jobs may not happen. Chris has called two companies to order the calipers and both have been out of stock. Forever. We'll give it another shot, but 1.5 stuff may be our only choice for this race.

We did test fit our $30 Pull-A-Part special radiator, and installed the coolant catch can. Jeff needs to get the intake manifold done for our carburetor installation, but in the mean time we checked our valve lash and timing. About the only other thing we've accomplished in cutting out the fenders. It seems that during the last race our fenders were riding the top of the tires in the turns. A sort of anti-sway bar if you will, at least until you saw your tire in half. Problem fixed.

Maybe we work better under pressure....

Chump Car World Series

So is this a post about all the amazing work we're getting done? Not hardly. In fact we haven't done a thing. Chris hasn't even finished ordering our new brakes (in his defense though, the retailer was sold out). However we do have plans to work this Friday night. Can't promise that we'll accomplish anything, but at least we'll be in the same room as the car for a change!

Anyway, on to more important news. We here at Lab Rats HQ have discovered a new way to go bankrupt have fun racing. Enter Chump Car! What is this "Chump Car" you ask? Click on the link to find out, or if you're too lazy I'll give you the quick and dirty version. Chump Car is 95% identical to The 24 Hours of Lemons. The primary differences are in the penalties and the tracks used. Chump Car has already scheduled 16 events for the 2009-2010 season with the closest one to us being Rockingham. There's also a race in Georgia which we'll probably crash participate in as well. Many of the races are true 24 hour endurance events as well, so there will be much more opportunity for hoonage! Since the two series are so similar, we figure that many of the same cars and teams will be participating in both (like us!). Frankly, we're pumped about the opportunity to add Chump Car to our annual racing experiences!

Alright, back to thinking about working on the car. We'll let you know how we do.....

We're Back!

Just got the word from the head honcho today. We're accepted! Sweet. I tell you, it's a lot nicer getting in right from the start than having to sit on the waitlist and hope someone else drops out.

Of course as you know, there are ten weeks until the race. This is usually the time that everyone is scrambling frantically to build their car in time for the race. Not us. Our car is mostly done since it's the same car from the last race. We're currently cleaning the gas tank, and we need to put new pads on the front of the car, but that's it. Actually I think we need to add a brace to our cage per the new rules, but that will only take Jeff a few minutes.

I think the biggest project is going to be mounting the cameras on the car. I haven't decided whether to use DV camcorders or web cams with a PC yet. Ten weeks goes quick though, so I better get on it. We'll keep you posted!

And to Honorable Supreme Court Justices Lieberman and Martin (pen name), we'll see you in September!

Demotivational Posters

So I was surfing around and I came upon the site Despair Inc. You can upload your own photos and turn them into demotivational posters to commemorate your Lemons experience. The creative juices are flowing already....

Meet the Fiat Colt E

While perusing my favorite automotive news site, Jalopnik, I found out that we Lab rats will no longer be racing our Dodge Colt E. Instead we will now be sporting our Fiat Colt E. It appears that in light of the Chrysler bankruptcy, and the Fiat acquisition, the powers that be at Lemons HQ have decided to rebadge all Chrysler products as Fiats. Not only does this not bother us, but we in fact embrace the change! I mean our car already has an identity crisis. It's a Mitsubishi Mirage with a Dodge Colt emblem slapped on it. Add to that the array of strange parts that have found it's way on the car and the rebadging to Fiat seems to fit just fine! Does this mean we are now in the European/Italian class?