Topic: How hard is it to pass tech after you've failed?

We've spent the last couple work days going through our car and trying to make sure that everything will pass tech, but reading through all the threads in this forum (and the things that fail tech thread in particular) it seems like there's always the possibility that we will miss something, especially since this is our first time at Lemons.

Obviously we're bringing all the tools and miscaleanous junk we can grab in case we have to do some last minute fixing, but I feel like there's no way we can be prepared enough. Have people had a lot of problems passing tech their first time through? Does it usually involve just a quick fix, a run to the autoparts store, finding a welder somewhere??

Re: How hard is it to pass tech after you've failed?

Depends on your problem!  Having a welder or access is usually the extreme what what I've seen.  But there are welders around and people are friendly.  I'm not sure I've ever seen a car that wasn't repaired enough to pass tech after it failed.

Jer / Schumacher Taxi Service
2010 Spring CMP I.O.E. winner
2010 Sebring overall winner
1996 Miata, 1991 BMW E30, 1987 coROLLa (retired), 1984 Citation (retired), 1993 Miata (retired)

Re: How hard is it to pass tech after you've failed?

Hopefully you've made sure to get the difficult things right (cage, seat, etc.).  Usually the best way to avoid problems is to over do everything.  We have 3 door bars, seat welded to the cage, stuff like that.

That being said, people trip up on the little things.  We forgot to tape up our brake lights.  No big deal, while the rest of the car was getting checked out one of us ran back to the pit and grabbed a roll of tape.  Problem solved before they finished checking our car out!

Print out the rules and, with the whole team present, read them out loud. As you cover topics have people confirm the item meets the requirements and check it off.  That's the best you can do.  If you miss something, just go back to the pit and fix it.  Everyone there is really friendly and can help you out.  Once you correct the issue get back in line and tech again.  No problem!

Mike
Lab Rats Motorsports
1988 Mitsubishi/Dodge/Fiat Colt Carpocalypse Edition

Re: How hard is it to pass tech after you've failed?

I'm planning on bringing a large portion of my tools with us to Stafford including welder(s), cutting torches, extra rollbar tubing, tubing bender, cut saw, drill press, etc.  If you, or anyone else for that matter, has a problem passing tech at Stafford and can't handle it yourself - stop over to the Craptation/Schumacher pits and we'll see what we can do to help.

--Rob Leone Schumacher Taxi Service
We won the IOE at Southern Discomfort.
We got screwed at The Real Hoopties of New Jersey  and we took cars down with us.
We got the curse at Capitol Offense but they wouldn't let us destroy the car.

Re: How hard is it to pass tech after you've failed?

RobL wrote:

I'm planning on bringing a large portion of my tools with us to Stafford including welder(s), cutting torches, extra rollbar tubing, tubing bender, cut saw, drill press, etc.  If you, or anyone else for that matter, has a problem passing tech at Stafford and can't handle it yourself - stop over to the Craptation/Schumacher pits and we'll see what we can do to help.

We'll definitely be stopping by even if we don't have any problems, just to check out the Craptation.

I really feel like we should be bringing treats for all the other teams instead of just bribing the judges, the other teams are probably going to have a bigger impact on how much fun we have this weekend then anything else. rock and roll guys (and gals)!

Re: How hard is it to pass tech after you've failed?

trlstanc wrote:

I really feel like we should be bringing treats for all the other teams instead of just bribing the judges, the other teams are probably going to have a bigger impact on how much fun we have this weekend then anything else. rock and roll guys (and gals)!

Sharing your food/drink with other teams is definitely a good idea. Also, if (by some miracle) your car is running fine and you've got a surplus of skilled mechanics just twiddling their thumbs, send them around the pits to help the teams who may be experiencing Hapless Wrench Syndrome. Getting a rep for that kind of thing will make you that much more likely to be accepted at later races, when Lemons has become the #1 sport in the world and 98% of applicants get rejected... or at least immunize you against the Curse.

Re: How hard is it to pass tech after you've failed?

trlstanc wrote:

We'll definitely be stopping by even if we don't have any problems, just to check out the Craptation.

I really feel like we should be bringing beer for all the other teams instead of just bribing the judges, the other teams are probably going to have a bigger impact on how much fun we have this weekend then anything else. rock and roll guys (and gals)!

Fixed that for you.

--Rob Leone Schumacher Taxi Service
We won the IOE at Southern Discomfort.
We got screwed at The Real Hoopties of New Jersey  and we took cars down with us.
We got the curse at Capitol Offense but they wouldn't let us destroy the car.

Re: How hard is it to pass tech after you've failed?

In New Orleans, a lot of teams had to make roll cage improvements even thought the new rules are not in affect yet.  Some extra flat steel and tubing would have gone a long ways.

I brought my welder for Arc Angel along with a grinder and a small stack of grinding wheels.  About 4 O'clock I wheeled it back over to our space where there were about 4 cars in need of roll cage improvements. 

My spool of welding wire made it just past midnight, the cord had to get spice around 1:30 in the morning and I went to bed after that.  They got more wire and I think it saw some action in the morning.  The welder had a nice tour of the paddock that night.

Guys got more grinding wheels but we went through a bunch that evening.

Arc Angel wasn't real happy about the spliced cord and the guy had gone for more wire when I went to return it to her.  It got about 6-8 cars through tech.  It was cool to see all the guys running around cutting, grinding and welding.  Best part, some other guy did the contortionist welding.

The tech guys knew where we were and came to check on things.  I think I could feel the spirit of Lemons, it was stressful but pretty cool.

Troy

#35 LRE
1973 Datsun 240Z

Re: How hard is it to pass tech after you've failed?

Yeah, I imagine that there are ~50 new teams at Stafford.  The "problem" is going to be that tech isn't until the morning of the race so it's not like there is going to be a lot of time to get things fixed.  I'm bringing about 10# of extra gasless wire plus I just swapped in a new spool.  I'll be camping at the track tonight so I can look over cars that are going to be there but I don't know if there is going to be power in case something needs to be fixed.  We'll see.

--Rob Leone Schumacher Taxi Service
We won the IOE at Southern Discomfort.
We got screwed at The Real Hoopties of New Jersey  and we took cars down with us.
We got the curse at Capitol Offense but they wouldn't let us destroy the car.