Re: Can we bring a spare car?

TheEngineer wrote:
jmas wrote:

Thanks!
I think we will definitely do this.  Probably easier to bring a 2nd car than to bring the spare engine and all the tools to do a swap at the track.


You need a more adventurous attitude. Engine swaps are not that hard. Go practice once. Half the point of this series is to see how long you can keep a car going. We want heroic fixes, not piles of money solving problems.


That said, yes. I've seen teams go fetch their second car once the first was damaged beyond repair.

You also learn what parts of your build make it harder to swap engines and if you are smart about it, you make changes to your setup to allow for faster swaps. Here's what I learned after my team's first (failed) engine swap

1)  It would be faster if all the electrical connections between the engine and chassis came from the same side of the car in the same spot and they are long enough to easily get at them as you pull the engine up. This goes for both the engine's stock wiring as well as whatever sensors you have added to the engine. DONE.

2) For our tbird (longitudinal engine w/ trans and RWD), it is easier to swap the engine+transmission as one big unit than trying to stab the engine to mate to the trans. DONE.

3) Pay close attention to how the transmission is connected to the car. My transmission stock hydraulic line required a disconnect inside the bell housing. I had a customer clutch hose made with a compression fitting in the middle so I coudl disconnect the clutch slave from the clutch master easily.

4) make your exhaust system easily boltable/unboltable in SECTIONS so you aren't trying to wrangle a 10-15' long. pipe from underneath the car. Use antisieze and chase the threads of any old bolts.

5) Pack the load leveler and not just the crane. This will save you time begging for a load leveler/crane from another team when you really need it.

The clutch line was what foiled us in our first engine swap attempt. We were much more successful (and a ton faster) with our second attempt and I'm confident we could shave down our swap time from 6 hrs down to maybe 4. I'm pretty happy with that considering that none of us on our team are professional mechanics.

Of course, the really smart people make these considerations before they try the first time.

Myopic Motorsport's #888 Ceci n'est pas une Citron Thunderbird ("This is not a lemon" but a 1995 tbird w/ 93 V8 swap + shopping cart rear wing + engine mounted frito maker)
2017 Sears Pointless Organizer’s Choice
Frito Making Tbird from 2018 Sears Pointless Engine Heat BBQ - http://goo.gl/csaet4

Re: Can we bring a spare car?

Judge Phil wrote:

If you bring a spare car, we won't charge you anything to switch cars but the spare will need to pass a full tech inspection before it goes out on the track. Once you have a tech sticker on the spare, just swap transponders, let the tower know the new car number, and you should be good.

This doesn't mean that you can switch back and forth between the two cars all weekend, just that you can switch to the second car if you blow up the first one.

There goes my thought about having a team setup like a relay: One car running on empty rolls in, a team member swaps transponders, and the fueled up second car with the fresh driver roars out (to pickup a black flag for speeding in the pits).

-g

Myopic Motorsport's #888 Ceci n'est pas une Citron Thunderbird ("This is not a lemon" but a 1995 tbird w/ 93 V8 swap + shopping cart rear wing + engine mounted frito maker)
2017 Sears Pointless Organizer’s Choice
Frito Making Tbird from 2018 Sears Pointless Engine Heat BBQ - http://goo.gl/csaet4

Re: Can we bring a spare car?

I bring a spare car all the time. I do a lot of A&D so if a car fails drivers are out I want them to get seat time.

Last year when I raced the Shaguar 74 jag Xjs painted like British flag had a smoking rear end , I drove home and got extra car and then with instruction of my wife and 4 guys with spray paint we painted extra car like British flag and etched and then raced it .

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Re: Can we bring a spare car?

"Can we bring a spare car?"

I don't know, can you? smile

You're allowed, just not sure if you are able.

/ english rant

LemonAid - Changing kids lives one lap at a time.

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Re: Can we bring a spare car?

TeamLemon-aid wrote:

"Can we bring a spare car?"

I don't know, can you? smile

You're allowed, just not sure if you are able.

/ english rant

Actually this is a really valid question.  Think of how hard it is for a team to prep 1 car, now it will be twice as much work to prep 2 cars, and cost twice as much especially if they are completely different cars and no sharing any parts.

Racing 4 Nickels - 1989 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera
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Re: Can we bring a spare car?

BoB wrote:
TeamLemon-aid wrote:

"Can we bring a spare car?"

I don't know, can you? smile

You're allowed, just not sure if you are able.

/ english rant

Actually this is a really valid question.  Think of how hard it is for a team to prep 1 car, now it will be twice as much work to prep 2 cars, and cost twice as much especially if they are completely different cars and no sharing any parts.

Yes, I've experienced that pain where the Imp, XJ12 & RX7 didn't share a thing.  Not even bolts.  That's where I think Spank is on to something where he'll bring 3 completely different appearing cars but they all share the same drivetrain.  But if you have a spare car ready and sitting, I see no reason why not to bring it.  When you've got several teams members who all have spent a fair bit of money to get a car to the track, in the overall scheme of things it's not a bunch more money to drag another car there in case the primary dies before everyone had a chance to drive.

"Are we allowed to bring a spare car?"  Yes.

1990 RX7 "Mazdarita"  1964 Sunbeam Imp (IOE 2013 Sears Pointless) 2002 Jaguar x-type (Winner C-Class 2021 Sears Pointless)
Gone bye-bye
1994 Jaguar XJ12 (Winner C-Class 2013 Sears Pointless)  1980 Rover SD1 (I Got Screwed 2014 Return of Lemonites)