Topic: CMP Fall Hurricane Redo in the Corolla Extra
Well we made it back to CMP. This time we finally finished our first race since starting Lemons last year. It wasn't easy. I had to buy my co owner out of the car which meant we didn't have a big car hauler and a diesel tow rig to tow the car. I had to remove the back seats of my 98 land cruiser and pile it to the gills with parts and gear. I borrowed my neighbor's farm equipment open trailer to get the car to the race. The car was packed full of shit as well.
We also had to rent an RV because another teammate sold his. That was great until all the propane leaked out and we were left with no heat on Saturday night.
Test day went pretty well. Well not exactly, the first lap revealed a fuel starvation problem from our newly installed fuel cell. The fuel pickup line had broke loose but we fixed it pretty quickly and had the car back on the track.
Saturday the car started out pretty good. After around 2 hrs we changed drivers and the exhaust down pipe broke in half and the exhaust was hanging almost 3ft. off the side of the drivers door. We got black flagged and brought it to the garage where we promptly cut it in half and removed it.
Not long after the car started to run hot, but then cooled down some so it stayed on the track. The problem was the temp sensor for the gauge was in the hose in an adapter, not it the block so it was reading air and not block temp. The backup idiot light sensor was in the radiator, it too reading air, so we overheated it. Long story short, we blew the head gasket. Of course I didn't have one on hand. So we had to change the engine. Major thanks to the pink pig BMW team for letting us use their engine hoist.
I had a spare, unknown, used motor in the back of my SUV which we swapped in. We also welded back the exhaust with the help of a fellow Lemons team, (red Honda CRX doing an engine change) because there was no 220v power to be found at the track to run my machine. We wrapped it up around 2:30am on Sunday morning and headed to bed, greasy, beat, and not intoxicated enough to sleep in a cold trailer.
The next morning we checked over the car and sent it back out on track. The new motor was surprisingly more powerful than the last. We had a wheel bearing come apart and had to bring the car in to change it. When it let go the bearing ate the hub and We had to cut the inner off the spindle with the death wheel because it had welded to it. The hub itself was also eaten alive and the seal wouldn't even stay in the hole so I wrapped it in teflon tape until it was tight. It never leaked by the grace of God.
Greg Biffle got in that thing and turned a few heads. I was blown away at the lap times that thing was turning. His fastest lap was a 1:56 flat in this total piece of crap I built in my 2 car garage. He had the 4th fastest lap time of any car on the track the entire race if I'm not mistaken.
After another driver change we had another issue with a wheel bearing and had to pull it in to fix it again but we got it back on the track and finished the race. I was just so happy to finish the race. It's been my only goal really this whole time. Winning is awesome and we have always strived for that but I know my car more than anyone, and I know at the end of the day it's still a POS, and there are so many things that can and will fail.
We will be back at Road Atlanta next month minus Biffle but with the same shitty car and same low budget support means. I refuse to give up. Lemons for life.
'83 Toyota Corolla #5
Winner, Class C, Yokohama Good Try, Road Atlanta 2018