24 Hours of Lemons - Thunderhill arsesweatapolooza 2011
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Yes, apologies for the extra large pics. It was tough to get them uploaded while at the event. 
So, Sunday...
We get up nice and early to head to the track before the drivers meeting. They have a dynojet at the track and our Z guy wants to tune this motor on the dyno because it is of "unkown origin". Basically they found this motor in their garage way in the back buried somewhere. While they were down at the shop to get a motor they partially tore down about 6 motors and this was the cleanest they had. (This is Z Car Garage in San Jose and they have a ton of these old L motors) And we had noticed when draining the oil out, it came out like molasas.. lol. So, there is a friend there who has known these guys for many years and says "hey, that is my old motor". The thing has been sitting for 13 years right? Ok, back to the dyno story. So we get this thing on the dyno and tune it the best we can (carbs baby) and it makes 30whp and 30wtq less than our old L motor. We don't have time for compression and leak down so we run with it. At least fuel and timing is good for now.
Our first driver goes out who is most experienced with these old Z's to make sure everything appears to be running ok. So far so good, he only stays out for about an hour because he has been fighting a bad cold and is getting fatigued. So we bring him in. As soon as he stops and we get him out about to start fueling we see steam coming from the hood. Pop the hood and water is shooting out of the radiator overflow like a freakin gyser.. great.. So we decide to say fuck it, keep running it. Get fuled, new driver in (our noob driver) and try to start it. Damn, vapor lock on the cabs from all the damn heat. So we pour cold water on the carbs and that does the trick (along with some starter fluid down the carb) and our noobie driver is out on track. About 45 minutes go by and he has a 4 wheel off excursion on Turn 1 resulting in a black flag. We decide to swap drivers at that point and fuel again. But awesome, more over heating and vapor lock again. So we have to push this car from the penatly area back to our pit.
Once in the pit the Z guys discover the fan clutch is not engaging, so they swap that on a hot motor while we get the next driver ready. During this time the car cools enough for us to add more water too. Cool!
3rd driver is out for about 1 hour and 30 minutes incident free and I'm suiting up for my stint in the car. He comes in and we swap drivers and I'm in ready to go, but damn we can't get the car started again. Thank god the cool suit is working while I wait for them to start this POS. After about 10 minutes we get it started. And of course I stall it pulling out of the pit to head out. Thank god it started right back up and I'm off.
Out on track it is later in the day Sunday so the field has shrunk a little due to attrition. Still quite a bit of traffic and drivers who have no idea WTF they're doing. The unpredictibility of it is a little scary at times. I'm glad they mandate street tires to keep speeds reasonable.
It is nice to get the full course yellows when people contact or too many cars break down at once on track. This gives me time to relax a little and get the straws in my mouth under my helmet for the gatorades we keep in the cool suit cooler. Ah yes.
I did have an "oh shit" moment. Coming through turn 8 which is about a 100mph turn, I see this ugly Opel dead at track exit. I see this before entering the turn and dial back my speed some to avoid tracking all the way out to him. Well for some reason it seemed like I apexed too early and was headed straight for his rear end. He's parked, I'm doing about 85 at this point. I barely missed him. Scared me, I be this guy shit his pants seeing me coming at him like this.
The car was severly down on power. My times reflected it by being about 6 seconds slower than usual. But I'm driving the piss out of this thing anyways. I make up some good time and they call me in after 1 hour and 40 minutes of driving. Good the car is starting to cut out because I'm so low on fuel anyways.
Once I come in again this thing is a gyser of water coming out of the overflow. Well we can take our time doing driver change since this thing needs to cool down now.
Final driver is out for the last 1 hour and 30 minutes of the race. After about 45 minutes he radios in that the car feels like it is now running on 5 cylinders. Our team captain says "drive it until it dies", the driver replies "ok". With 25 minutes left until checker we get the radio in that the car has died and he is parked off the track. Tow truck brings her in and we load the POS onto the trailer. We did not get to finish..
Dang! Oh well, the weekend was still a lot of fun. I enjoyed being part of an engine swap in the paddock at 10:00 p.m. and hearing the thing come to life again. The team was great, we just need to better prepare our drivetrain for next time (bring a known good spare engine next time).
So here are some pictures I took. I forgot my camera for 1 day and was quite busy helping in the pits while I wasn't driving so I didn't get as many photos as I had hoped.
So, Sunday...
We get up nice and early to head to the track before the drivers meeting. They have a dynojet at the track and our Z guy wants to tune this motor on the dyno because it is of "unkown origin". Basically they found this motor in their garage way in the back buried somewhere. While they were down at the shop to get a motor they partially tore down about 6 motors and this was the cleanest they had. (This is Z Car Garage in San Jose and they have a ton of these old L motors) And we had noticed when draining the oil out, it came out like molasas.. lol. So, there is a friend there who has known these guys for many years and says "hey, that is my old motor". The thing has been sitting for 13 years right? Ok, back to the dyno story. So we get this thing on the dyno and tune it the best we can (carbs baby) and it makes 30whp and 30wtq less than our old L motor.
We don't have time for compression and leak down so we run with it. At least fuel and timing is good for now.Our first driver goes out who is most experienced with these old Z's to make sure everything appears to be running ok. So far so good, he only stays out for about an hour because he has been fighting a bad cold and is getting fatigued. So we bring him in. As soon as he stops and we get him out about to start fueling we see steam coming from the hood. Pop the hood and water is shooting out of the radiator overflow like a freakin gyser.. great.. So we decide to say fuck it, keep running it. Get fuled, new driver in (our noob driver) and try to start it. Damn, vapor lock on the cabs from all the damn heat. So we pour cold water on the carbs and that does the trick (along with some starter fluid down the carb) and our noobie driver is out on track. About 45 minutes go by and he has a 4 wheel off excursion on Turn 1 resulting in a black flag. We decide to swap drivers at that point and fuel again. But awesome, more over heating and vapor lock again. So we have to push this car from the penatly area back to our pit.
Once in the pit the Z guys discover the fan clutch is not engaging, so they swap that on a hot motor while we get the next driver ready. During this time the car cools enough for us to add more water too. Cool!
3rd driver is out for about 1 hour and 30 minutes incident free and I'm suiting up for my stint in the car. He comes in and we swap drivers and I'm in ready to go, but damn we can't get the car started again. Thank god the cool suit is working while I wait for them to start this POS.
After about 10 minutes we get it started. And of course I stall it pulling out of the pit to head out. Thank god it started right back up and I'm off.Out on track it is later in the day Sunday so the field has shrunk a little due to attrition. Still quite a bit of traffic and drivers who have no idea WTF they're doing. The unpredictibility of it is a little scary at times. I'm glad they mandate street tires to keep speeds reasonable.
It is nice to get the full course yellows when people contact or too many cars break down at once on track. This gives me time to relax a little and get the straws in my mouth under my helmet for the gatorades we keep in the cool suit cooler. Ah yes.
I did have an "oh shit" moment. Coming through turn 8 which is about a 100mph turn, I see this ugly Opel dead at track exit. I see this before entering the turn and dial back my speed some to avoid tracking all the way out to him. Well for some reason it seemed like I apexed too early and was headed straight for his rear end. He's parked, I'm doing about 85 at this point. I barely missed him. Scared me, I be this guy shit his pants seeing me coming at him like this.
The car was severly down on power. My times reflected it by being about 6 seconds slower than usual. But I'm driving the piss out of this thing anyways. I make up some good time and they call me in after 1 hour and 40 minutes of driving. Good the car is starting to cut out because I'm so low on fuel anyways.
Once I come in again this thing is a gyser of water coming out of the overflow. Well we can take our time doing driver change since this thing needs to cool down now.
Final driver is out for the last 1 hour and 30 minutes of the race. After about 45 minutes he radios in that the car feels like it is now running on 5 cylinders. Our team captain says "drive it until it dies", the driver replies "ok". With 25 minutes left until checker we get the radio in that the car has died and he is parked off the track. Tow truck brings her in and we load the POS onto the trailer.
We did not get to finish.. Dang! Oh well, the weekend was still a lot of fun. I enjoyed being part of an engine swap in the paddock at 10:00 p.m. and hearing the thing come to life again. The team was great, we just need to better prepare our drivetrain for next time (bring a known good spare engine next time).
So here are some pictures I took. I forgot my camera for 1 day and was quite busy helping in the pits while I wasn't driving so I didn't get as many photos as I had hoped.
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More pics of the engine transplant fun!
Lemons Thunderhill 2011 pictures by skk4r3kkr0w - Photobucket
Lemons Thunderhill 2011 pictures by skk4r3kkr0w - Photobucket
92stoccord
Big Member
^werd^
This thing is givin' me wood.
This thing is givin' me wood.
Yes, and that thing was the fastest car out there by a long shot. It probably would have won the race if it didn't have transmission issues. It ran most of the race with only 4th gear available. It also came in 3rd for the peoples curse award which gave them 50 penalty laps.
Tires are not included in the cost since it is considered a safety item. Same with wheels, brakes, roll cage, seats, harness, radios, cool suits, etc. Only restriction on tires is a 200 treadwear.
We like to run the Dunlop Direzza's which were out of stock so we settled for Azenis 615k's.
HELL NO!
2 other engines are currently being built out of other spares laying around the shop. We will be running buttonwillow at the end of this year. This team does not give up. Especially when we have the support of one of the best Z shops in the nation.
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For that race, ya we got a DNF.. But we are not giving up on Lemons as a whole. Hell there were 23 other cars that didn't finish either.. lol. We have lots of spare motors, those are easy to come by.
