Gormless Racing MGB-GT takes Real Hoopties of NJ Index of Effluency (Page 1 of 2)

Nothing happened...the Galaxie ran all weekend (small oil fire aside). It's way less crappy than that MGB.

I know slow - My daily driver is a 83 Mercedes 300SD.  I got pulled over for running a stop light in it because the officer said I was going too slow thru the intersection.   I said I had it floored and the turbo was still spooling up and the engine was cold and the sun was in my eyes... He let me go after a snicker and some snyde remark about Goldie.  Oh the humiliation.

Thanks! I hope we kept out of the way most of the time. I actually was able to pass a few cars during the weekend - mostly when there was one dead on the side of the track.  I got the team's only black flag on Saturday when about 20 of you faster cars decided you were all going to pass me on the back blind hilly turn before the bridge. I kept moving to the outside and ran out of pavement, hooked the driver tires and collided with the closest of 3 cars going by - the cougar/leopard Volvo station wagon. My apologies - but hey give me a bit of room. We really were gormless about wining anything as we simply were having some fun. Being on another team that has been trying to win Lemons since 2009 in a BMW, I now have a new attitude about picking something older and more stinky and making it last for a race. Sorry the Fiat had a catastrophe as I believe the IOE was theirs till the explosion. Great fun with all of you! Thanks to team #999 for welding our tech failure spot! The MGB should be at Summit for another rolling chicane!

The little MGB-GT that could. Congratulations guys and, in my opinion, you did a pretty good job of staying out of the way and letting the faster cars through.

From one of our drivers...

What I learned about MGB-GTs this weekend:

1) The early 70 engines are actually air-cooled and the structure that looks like a radiator is actually a humidifier that can be filled when driving in dryer climates.

2) gauges cause needless worrying, telling you things like "your humidifier is empty."

3) tightening the gas cap is only required if you want the gas to stay inside the fuel cell.

4) running with only 3 out of 4 spark plug wires connected doesn't necessarily save gas (see above).

5) Proper oil to be used in MGB-GT racing engine, in this order: Classic Car 20w 50, Mobile 10w 40, Castrol High Mileage 20w 50, and finally Motorcraft 15w 40 Heavy duty oil.

6) Tightening lug nuts should always be number 1 on any action items list, even above attaching hopelessly wobbly mirrors.

7) electric starters are optional (With Lucas electronics, electric is optional).

8) Drywall anchors work just fine for holding down K&N air filter covers.

9) Hood bouncing can be a strangely soothing distraction while being passed by a smoking Saab going 130 mph.

and last, but not least,

10) don't let a 58 year old cancer researcher drive on your team if you want lap times faster than it takes, on average, two coats of oil-based paint to dry.

Thanks B.  I think we're coming to the conclusion that we spent too much time making it too nice looking and (more to the point) that we haven't yet kept it out on the track for >75% of the weekend.  That's probably what cost the Fiat the IOE and what won the MGB the prize.  Both were really great IOE contenders... really impressed w/ the cars and the teams.

Saturday we started about 45 min late, but ran really strong all day long after that (edit: maybe with the exception of me spinning the Galaxie at/over the top of turn one (video to follow)); Sunday we just missed the green, but later lost 45 min due to my going off / black flag / repairs (discovered we had a loose RF wheel nut and axle seal leak that gear oiled our one (rr) drive wheel) and then about two hours out after we thought we blew the motor... billowing smoke and maybe a small fire that turned out to be a loose oil filter, a burned through oil pressure line and a cracked high pressure power steering line all of which were spewing oil towards the exact same spot on the block.   Thankfully we were able to get back out there, but by that point I was just trying to get our drivers and friends some more stints... so we were constantly in doing driver changes.

I had a blast this weekend.  Saturday was possibly one of the highlights of my life.  I was walking around in a haze of adrenaline for most of the day.  All our guys got solid seat-time and I ran two stints that frankly blew my mind.  I was running the Galaxie at 1:35-1:37's and pulled a couple of 1:32's.... doing a considerable amount of passing and keeping it pretty tight - even in the turns - with a lot of the class A/B cars.  Surprisingly, the Galaxie was faster than the Lancia until their last stints on Sunday.

LOVED the Lightning track at NJMP!  Hope we can keep running there.

Heh, what do the shirts say? I have a "Now Panic and Freak Out" version myself.

We have the even more Englishy version; they say "Bloody Hell we're Buggered Now"

It's a play on "Keep Calm and Carry On", which was a poster produced by the British government in 1939 during the beginning of the Second World War, intended to raise the morale of the British public under the threat of impending invasion. (as per wiki)

At the NJMP race last weekend our Volvo was promoted from Class Bad (B) to Class Ugly (C), which thrilled us to no end. Sadly, it's much too reliable to ever contend for the coveted IOE.

Same for us, we were put in A in Florida, but this time we were in B.  To quote Phil: "What's the worst that could happen, a Volvo wins?"  He was twice right.

We had a tough race with more problems than the past two races combined, but others around us had problems too and I guess we did just enough to hold on.  2qt of oil went in at each of our 3 stops Sunday, and I saw zero pressure in the left under the bridge on my in-lap around mid day.  Our last driver called in no oil pressure with 3min to go, but he stayed out and limped it home...then we did burnouts (after adding some oil).

Can't wait for Summit Point

Most Volvo 240s aren't terrible enough to get Class C. 140s, 260s, Amazons, etc- those can be Class C.