Topic: Ideas for safely/legally shaking down a new build?

What's up Lemons?  Fred here!  First time caller, long time listener!
Newbie team here of myself and 3 buddies and we are fielding a 2023 team from New Hampshire (Concord area).

I've done some searching, but haven't found a direct answer to a question I have.
"Where/how do you recommend doing INITIAL shakedowns of a new build?"

Context:
None of us have ever done this kind of thing before, and I'm thinking about when we first get the car back together, and in race ready configuration, how best to shake it down?  The obvious answers are go do an autocross, which is cheap and plenty of options, but I'm actually talking more about just establishing the car can drive for a few miles, has no major leaks, and isn't going to die in the first 10 minutes of driving.  Ideally I'd like to establish that before we take it anywhere like an actual event.  Also, I don't really want to be "that guy" that has a car spill its guts on a track/auto-x course and cause delay/inconvenience for everyone else.

We've done some initial idle tests to check for leaks (found/fixed a few), and the car runs well enough up to temp while stationary.  But, when we're ready (and we're not yet), I'd love to be able to drive it a bit as sort of a first test before we actually start pushing on it.

Some ideas:
- Find a big industrial complex with a parking lot, trailer there, and just drive around the lot.  (Seems kinda sketchy though and I'm a rule follower)
- Register the car, then go get a failed inspection, which gives us something like a 30 day window where we can drive it until it would need to pass.  (team came up with that one, and I am wary about what happens if we got pulled over with a stripped out "race car" that has no intention of ever actually passing inspection)
- Hoping to find someone with an empty stretch of pavement on private property we could trailer to and drive up and down for a bit
- Look to find someone with an old airfield runway we could get permission to poke around on

I could be way off in left field, and if doing an autocross is the best option then we can do that, I just don't think that initially I want to be hammering on the car until we're sure that it actually isn't going to explode (and by explode I mean burst coolant lines, gaskets failing, etc..., not *actually* explode smile ).  Again, my intention here is just slower paced driving, test out the gears, play with the brakes, etc...  Nothing fast, probably not above 30 mph.  Just want to catch anything obvious before we actually go somewhere (like auto-x) where we'd start actually driving quickly.  We don't currently own a trailer (so rented uhauls are our current option), so we have to do a little bit of planning for any option.

We're super pumped to be doing this, after 3+ years of us talking about doing Lemons.  We bought a car that's been sitting in my neighbors driveway since 2009, which I've been looking at longingly every afternoon when I walk my dog around the neighborhood.  We're learning a ton from the process, and having a blast! 

Thanks for any/all help or suggestions,
-Freddyo

Re: Ideas for safely/legally shaking down a new build?

Call your local drag strip that has a reasonable size parking lot. Call them and ask really nicely if you can drive circles around said parking lot.

Autocross is a good option, fill your tank and leave it running between laps to see if there is obvious mechanical failure from sitting still. One idea is to note where autocross events are taking place and try to rent those same places for yourself.

Call your local go kart track to see if you can rent it for a few hours.

Risk just driving on the open road as-is and pleading with the NHSHP to not tow your car and hopefully laugh at it driving around the backroads of NH.

For your idea of industrial park, might work on the weekends. You might have better luck if you find a place that has a car-sympathetic business, EG: garage, detailer, tire shop, body shop tuning shop, etc.. Make sure the parking lot is significant and empty enough before reaching out to said business.

The registration/inspection idea only works if you have a title, and may only work one time, but not terribly familiar with NH rules.

Getting titled/inspected/plated/insured is a great option that most teams don't have if you can swing it. Would certainly make it easy to just "go drive somewhere" to test adjustments.

1989 Merkur XR4Ti: Project Merkur Space Program - Wins: Class C - Colonel and the Sinkhole 2023 | "Heroic Fix" The Pitt Maneuver 2023 | "Halloween Meets Gasoline" The Pitt Maneuver 2022
1980 Dodge Challenger: Most Extreme eLemonAtion Challenger (Rust Belt Ramble 2021 Dishonorable Mention)

Re: Ideas for safely/legally shaking down a new build?

Not sure what you vision is for your car , but my Lemons car is state inspected and It really, really helps for testing. I get some funny looks on the road but......

My car is also slow and is C class.



Some guys get Vermont registrations. Apparently Vermont allows out of state residents to get registrations. I don't know the details but its worth a look.


Good luck with your build!  Don't hesitate to ask the forum  - it certainly helped me starting out ( and still does)

Cordoba

Re: Ideas for safely/legally shaking down a new build?

Open test day at NHIS, Lime Rock, or Thompson?

Re: Ideas for safely/legally shaking down a new build?

How involved is your state inspection?  Where I live now we don't have inspections, but used to live near DC and MD inspection was pretty involved, VA inspection was really easy to pass.

Maybe talk to an inspector to find out what you need to pass.  I've never heard of an inspection requiring airbags or 2 seats or an interior.

Usually it's like ALL lights work has a functional exhaust (with cat) (or what sure looks like a cat) has working brakes steering no play no cords showing on tires (in va you had to measure less than 2/32 tread in 3 places to fail) I think horn had to work, some form of defrost and drivers window must roll down (so you can talk to cops?)

What car?  You may also be able to register it has an antique or historic and skip inspection.

Re: Ideas for safely/legally shaking down a new build?

Thanks for all the ideas/suggestions!  Notably I like the idea of talking to the dragway nearby (New England Dragway in Exeter, NH) which has a huge facility, and asking if we can poke around in the lot.

The register/inspection thing is an interesting idea.  The car is exempt from emissions (due to being >20 years old), but does have a handful of other requirements that the car won't currently pass (side mirrors for one, and a defrost system, oh and no headlights).  Fixable, but would be money spent on things we didn't plan to.

I'll also look into the open test day suggestion, though beyond NHMS I feel like a multi hour drive just to see if the car functions may be a bit much for us.  This gave us several things to think on, much appreciated everyone!
-Fred

Re: Ideas for safely/legally shaking down a new build?

We also have some anxiety in showing up to a relatively expensive race without testing our stuff.  We switched from fuel injected to carb this winter, here is our plan:

1. The car is licensed and insured, fortunately, Indiana doesn’t have state inspection, hopefully you are lucky like this, too. But this doesn’t let you drive it in too much anger, so the next two are important.

2. There is a Lemons group in the Midwest that rents some of the local road courses for a day and then sells off individual spots. We are going to give that a try. It’s something like $275 for 5 - 20 minute sessions.  We are looking forward to this because it will be a lot of Lemons cars instead of our other local track days, which are much more high-performance and faster vehicle’s. Maybe you have something similar at a local track, hopefully?

3. We have always purchased the practice day for the weekend of our Lemons races. We like it for a few reasons, for one there are only about 20 or 25 cars on the track so it’s much more comfortable for people who haven’t driven much. In three of our four practice days we have found pretty big problems that we have been able to fix and have so far been able to take the green flag in all races.  The best example is that in one of our practices we melted the hydraulic line for the clutch about five laps in. it took us two hours to get a new one and replace it, and then we finished the five remaining hours of practice, and got to race the entire weekend without losing any laps to it.

Good luck!

2021 Gingerman-I:  IOE (Strickland Propane)
2021 Gingerman-II:  20 seconds of footage on the wrap-up!
95 Chevy S-10

8 (edited by Lemon_Newton-Metre 2023-02-19 03:01 PM)

Re: Ideas for safely/legally shaking down a new build?

Self storage facility near you. There's one with a 10x40 available at one location,  $59/mo. Try to _not_ speed when there are others around. Evenings work out pretty well for me. I also picked up a garage type unit for parts and tools storage.

Re: Ideas for safely/legally shaking down a new build?

freddyo wrote:

...I'll also look into the open test day suggestion...

Open test days are the best way. Going to the race is expense and non-refundable. Going to an open test day before you pay your race entry fees gives you some confidence that your car will not blow up and it gives all your drivers some track time to get familiar with the car.

Our test days uncovered many issues in our car that would have stopped us from racing. We found the issues before the race and fixed them...and as a result we've kept the car out racing for the entire race for 3 races now.

Many teams that don't test spend lots of time in the pit working on their cars.

EPA Racing - #40 Supercharged Dodge Caliber

Re: Ideas for safely/legally shaking down a new build?

Limonaid wrote:
freddyo wrote:

...I'll also look into the open test day suggestion...

Open test days are the best way. Going to the race is expense and non-refundable. Going to an open test day before you pay your race entry fees gives you some confidence that your car will not blow up and it gives all your drivers some track time to get familiar with the car.

Our test days uncovered many issues in our car that would have stopped us from racing. We found the issues before the race and fixed them...and as a result we've kept the car out racing for the entire race for 3 races now.

Many teams that don't test spend lots of time in the pit working on their cars.


This is really helpful perspective, thank you!  Totally makes sense to me.  I'm going to prioritize as much testing as we can manage, however we can do it.  Thank you!

11 (edited by bigamonsta 2023-02-19 06:57 PM)

Re: Ideas for safely/legally shaking down a new build?

Hey- I'm in NH also and did my shakedowns with SCCNH (sccnh.org)- there's a bunch of Lemons racers in the group and they welcome everybody. Mainly you're just trying to find out if there's anything that's gonna fall off the car- the rest of the stuff will go wrong during the race and is inevitable.  They do autocross at Caanan also which is a small but good track that will get you into at least 3rd/4th gear. I don't know how anyone gets a Lemons car to be NH state inspection legal but Squidrope does it with their old BMW somehow.
The practice days before the races are cheap for what you get and are really the best shakedown.

El Capitan of Team Corky
94 Miata transitioning to BRG because she now identifies as a Lotus previously covered in cork as Mazda/Toyo Kogyo tribute then painted like the Queen's coffin
4 time tire raffle winner. (So I got that goin for me which is nice)

12 (edited by Mkotzias 2023-02-20 08:08 AM)

Re: Ideas for safely/legally shaking down a new build?

(but does have a handful of other requirements that the car won't currently pass (side mirrors for one, and a defrost system, oh and no headlights)

I would highly recommend you put on mirrors and suggest you put some type of defroster if you are planning on NH in October!


I don't want to speak for him, but you might want to  reach out to Squidrope and ask if he can look over your build. He is from NH as I remember and has a well sorted Team/Car.

Manny

Re: Ideas for safely/legally shaking down a new build?

I wouldn't recommend an autocross... it's not very helpful in shaking it down for what you'll actually be using it for. It's very hard to overheat, fade brakes, and realize how uncomfortable your car is by running sub-minute stints. You need longer stint lengths to really find out how awful your car will be. Similar to getting it street legal, the stress of driving it on the highway isn't nearly as high as the stress it will see on a track.

Definitely get it out to an open lapping or test day... it'll be great practice for your team on what to expect during your race, and it's the best way to work out all the issues of your car without commiting to the time and finances of a race weekend. See if there's any coordinators that offer open track days/no sessions.. they're a bit pricier, but most of them will work with you on a reasonable price for 1 car/4 drivers (most open day coordinators out here charge my team $500 for a whole day). You'll get 7-8 hours of open track time and you can run it like a mock enduro.

We just had out first shakedown on Friday for the 7Turdy5i... it only broke once while idling in the garage, once in the middle of loading it into the trailer, then broke two more times between unloading it off the trailer and the start of the track day, and finally it only broke two more times while the track was hot!

Full Ass Racing
#455 Piñata Miata - 1990 Miata
#735 BMDollhÜr 7Turdy5i - 1990 735i

Re: Ideas for safely/legally shaking down a new build?

That_Noise_Is_Normal wrote:

2. There is a Lemons group in the Midwest that rents some of the local road courses for a day and then sells off individual spots. We are going to give that a try. It’s something like $275 for 5 - 20 minute sessions.  We are looking forward to this because it will be a lot of Lemons cars instead of our other local track days, which are much more high-performance and faster vehicle’s. Maybe you have something similar at a local track, hopefully?

Any more details on this?  We are in the Midwest and would like to be apart of this.

Re: Ideas for safely/legally shaking down a new build?

In our area, the autox people do a test and tune day before their season. Basically, run as much or as little as you want for a flat fee. So we will drive and throw other random people in the car and see how it does running almost none stop all day. Has it found some issue with the car? Yes. Do we still blow up a lot? Also yes.

Re: Ideas for safely/legally shaking down a new build?

AT-JeffT wrote:
That_Noise_Is_Normal wrote:

2. There is a Lemons group in the Midwest that rents some of the local road courses for a day and then sells off individual spots. We are going to give that a try. It’s something like $275 for 5 - 20 minute sessions.  We are looking forward to this because it will be a lot of Lemons cars instead of our other local track days, which are much more high-performance and faster vehicle’s. Maybe you have something similar at a local track, hopefully?

Any more details on this?  We are in the Midwest and would like to be apart of this.

So we have not attended one of these yet, but I have messaged with them a little bit. It’s 3 balls racing and they’ve got a website where you can go and join one of their events. I think there are two different tracks in Michigan at least (Grattan, Gingerman). Not sure what else. There’s a good chance somebody from that group is on this forum who can tell you more, but we’re likely going to give it a shot in April.

2021 Gingerman-I:  IOE (Strickland Propane)
2021 Gingerman-II:  20 seconds of footage on the wrap-up!
95 Chevy S-10

Re: Ideas for safely/legally shaking down a new build?

I second everyone who said OTDs. Driving on a closed track will allow you to find the limits of your car and skill which will surface any issues in your build. As a bonus the track will have all of the necessary equipment to pull you back to the pits once something breaks. They are also much more forgiving than the local police.

Re: Ideas for safely/legally shaking down a new build?

That_Noise_Is_Normal wrote:
AT-JeffT wrote:
That_Noise_Is_Normal wrote:

2. There is a Lemons group in the Midwest that rents some of the local road courses for a day and then sells off individual spots. We are going to give that a try. It’s something like $275 for 5 - 20 minute sessions.  We are looking forward to this because it will be a lot of Lemons cars instead of our other local track days, which are much more high-performance and faster vehicle’s. Maybe you have something similar at a local track, hopefully?

Any more details on this?  We are in the Midwest and would like to be apart of this.

So we have not attended one of these yet, but I have messaged with them a little bit. It’s 3 balls racing and they’ve got a website where you can go and join one of their events. I think there are two different tracks in Michigan at least (Grattan, Gingerman). Not sure what else. There’s a good chance somebody from that group is on this forum who can tell you more, but we’re likely going to give it a shot in April.


Waterford Hills is also a good track to attend an OTD - that is where we test our car.