Above: Jamrod smokes all four tires late braking in the hairpin.
This is not about a Ghia, but the Blitzwagen is part of the RetroRacing Ghia team. It's all in the family.
01Feb19; Friday.
LeMons Barber practice day dawns cool, sunny, with low wind.
Above: A LeMons race is nothing if not photogenic.
Above: The 2.38 mile up & down elevation Barber Motorsports Park is a landscape masterpiece.
We're running our standard engine configuration, 78mm stoke by 94mm bore. This will be our second race on this engine. We've swapped from our usual SCAT C95 to an Engle 125 on 1.25 rockers. The Blitzwagen's Kads are 36mm venturis, and 155 mains.
Above: The Blitzwagen sports a different, new, "slant nose" profile from CMP last year.
We run two sessions, tune the handling with 22/28psi tire pressures on our 205/50R15 Nitto NeoGens, and begin to bed in a new set of Porterfield Stock Car R4E (Endurance) pads. The drivers report the new pads are grabby and cause early lockup. We hope we can adapt or the pad feel will improve with wear.
The driver's also report they don't like the midrange power transition. I had replaced the fatter 60 idle jets with a set of new, stock (45) size after CMP to lessen overrich load-up in long idle periods. The Solex 40/44EIS (aka Kadron) rides on its idle jet up past 2500 RPM where the main jet power circuit kicks in. A leaner idle jet affects the feel of the transition. Just in case it's timing, I ask David to crosscheck me on setting the points. He gets a smooth drag on a .016" feeler blade. We've been running points recently, because when points fail, they tend to fail gradually. Hall-effect ignition modules just suddenly die.
Justin and I take the Blitzwagen through LeMons tech at sunset. "Can't you do something about the noise from this thing?" an official asks me, referring to the 18-inch megaphone stinger.
"We're not the loudest car out there," I counter.
"Yeah, but you're the most annoying."
This is what happens when you get too fast, even in LeMons. VW's should know their place. As a Bug, you're cute until you're a threat. We've been getting faster, threatening to win C class, the largest of the three (A-B-C ) LeMons classes.
02Feb19; Sat. Great weather ahead, warming up after the night freeze. The team coffee pot has been bubbling since dawn and Jamrod has the dry sump oil-tank heater plugged in. Driver's meeting at 0800 hrs. We are racing this weekend on Sunoco 93 octane, our endurance engines built for 9:1 compression.
9:00 AM. There are 80 cars pace-lapping this cool, calm, morning. Jamrod is first out, and happens to be directly in sight of the green flag just as it whips in the sun. He stands on it for the next hour and by refuel time, has us in 1st in class. Remember, I said we were faster.
Justin goes out for the next stint and keeps us in 1st place. He is making 2:05 to 2:07 laps, but he notices a possible problem. The oil warning light is flickering in turn 16, a fast corner. We don't know it at the moment, but the replacement auxiliary 96 plate Mesa oil cooler is leaking from its body, not a fitting, and we're getting low on oil.
Above: The Blitzwagen runs ahead of the white Escape Velocity Dodge.
Johan takes the next shift and notices the oil warning light is flickering more and more frequently. The new Porterfield pads seem to be easing up, still a little grabby, but getting better. The overall news is good. Handling is exceptional, the oil temps have been 220° F. average -- but creeping up to 240° F. as the oil quantity is being diminished. This is at 60° F. ambient.
The rules do not allow us to fix anything or add oil or even brake fluid in a refuel stop, so we have to wait for another reason to stop and kill two problems at once.
Then at 1:15 PM (still holding 1st in class) as Johan is getting ready to pit for fuel, he hears a loud banging sound and brings the Blitzwagen in under our dual garage tents. The right J-tube (connecting to #1 cyl exhaust) has fallen off the car and is out on the track somewhere. We get the Blitzwagen up on jackstands pronto. The upper exhaust stud is gone. The lower stud is okay but the nut vibrated loose.
Above: David fixes the exhaust stud.
While scrambling to fix the stripped hole, we discover the right rear constant velocity joint is also getting loose. David retightens the CV joint bolts.
We refill the oil tank, and finally see the auxiliary cooler is dripping. But we do not see the equally small drip from the oil filter adapter. The drip is only when the system is pressurized. The adapter is one of those cast aluminum generic types, and is bolted to the square-tube steel box frame around the engine. The big HP-1 filter is heavy and hangs straight down. We've already cracked one adapter, replaced it, and this is the second. The next adapter on this car will be stronger.
The amount of vibration in the rear box frame is tremendous. the engine and transaxle are bolted to it, metal on metal. We've fought all kinds of vibration inflicted failures back there. At one point we couldn't keep screw-on connectors on our VDO dual oil temp and pressure sensor. Soft transmission mounts are looking pretty good right now. We rob the complete exhaust off the backup engine and get it changed over to the Blitzwagen, and the exhaust stud is jammed in enough to get us to the 5:00 PM overnight break.
Above: Knox Vega's Lowballer's Triumph.
We are off-track about an hour, which is roughly 30 laps. It helped a bit that the previously second place car, a Triumph TR-7 with an aluminum TR-8 V6 Rover engine, spins while we're working. But now we're 17th or some such back-marker number.
David goes out, flying, posting 2:02 laps, making up time fast. David slices through traffic, shooting between cars, steering with the throttle and clutch.
Jamrod takes over. The oil light is beginning to flash again but the now fully bedded, Porterfield pads have relented and become more predictable. The stinger is roaring, the simple, reliable Solexes are doing everything right. The spirit of Dr. Porsche is with us.
At the 5:00 PM checkered flag, Jamrod crosses the finish line with us now in 3rd. We're 8 laps behind 2nd place and 14 behind 1st.
Above: Justin installs the big Fluidyne NASCAR oil cooler.
A LeMons feature is breaking their typical 14-hour enduro race into two days, Saturday and Sunday. That gives you Saturday night to party or fix your ride. Justin finds a dusty but unused Fluidyne oil cooler at his shop, and our team of driver mechanics unbolt the leaking Mesa cooler and plug in the Fluidyne using the same rubber-cushioned mounting studs. They also recheck the exhaust stud repair (good), points and timing (good), the Porterfield pads front and rear (good), but there is nothing we can do about the oil filter adapter leak except keep feeding it oil. Luckily, we have several 5-qt jugs of Lucas Hot Rod and Classic Car (10w30) on hand.
Our sights are set on winning this class. #878, the Knox Vegas Lowballer's Rover V6-powered Triumph is fast and handles well, and #13, the Dodge of Escape Velocity Racing is reliable. We think #13 has a strong straight-6 in it.
03Feb 2019; Sunday. Today, many of yesterday's racers are non-starters. There's been the usual collisions, rubbin' is racin' fender benders, and blown engines. By comparison we're looking good.
Above: The Retro Racing team Victory calculator.
Justin is to be first out. He belts in. The morning is even more perfect, if that's possible. Warmer, clearer, fresher. We are more on edge, if that's possible. Yesterday we showed the Blitzwagen, on an even playing field, could run first in class. Now we have to regain it.
When the green flag went down at 9:00 AM, Justin took off from the field in a super effort. Even under Justin's full-throttle, full-brake, slide-sideways moves (and a full oil tank) the oil temp never exceeded 220° F.
Then Jamrod took over at 10:00 AM and drove to "quiet time," the 11:00 AM to noon break, scheduled to not interfere with any local church services. We've picked up some laps, so we feel good. The crew checks the points gap again (still good), tightens the right rear axle nut one quarter turn worrying it might not have been tight enough on assembly, and rechecks the front brake pads. They are worn to about half thickness. It takes a little over two quarts to top off the oil tank. We're leaking a quart an hour.
Above: We have been using points because they give warning before failing.
David fires up the grill, Jamrod makes more coffee, and we have eggs and sausage for lunch.
The race resumes at noon. David takes the wheel again. He turned our first 2:00 flat lap at Barber. Previous best was 2:02 yesterday, and 2:04 last year.
The afternoon becomes an unrelenting drill of driver changes, refueling, and laptime watching. Johan gives it his best, then David again, and for the last hour plus, back to Justin. No one makes an error. No one spins. Our drivers stay on their lines, sweating inside their Nomex even in the cool ambient weather.
Anything can happen in a race, right up to and including the last minute. We do not slack. We race and feel every minute pass. We've had things break that made people say "I've never seen that before." We are so tired of bad luck. The weak February sun gets lower in the sky with each refuel stop.
The survival trick is to get oil into a car in which we cannot afford a garage stop, and to do it with safety officials just a few feet away. To get the oil we need, Jamrod devises a trick we had to use at each refuel stop. This will explain why he wasn't driving the final shifts. He cleverly [censored censored censored] and it worked. He should have been a stage magician.
Above: Laptimes and finishing positions, calculated off 1st place.
Johan is glued to his phone, watching as the laps are posted in real time. We are catching up, but not fast enough. And neither the Triumph or the Dodge are having trouble. We're in mental overdrive but we can still count. At 4:30 PM, with what time we have left to race, 1st is not possible. 2nd is possible, stays possible, until it isn't. The checkered flag waves at 5:00 PM in the emerging sunset.
We finish third overall, two laps out of second place (the Dodge) and 8 laps out of 1st (the Triumph). Our C-Class 1-2-3 race has been epic. The 4th place car is 67 laps behind 1st. The lap chart shows we finished 27th overall of 80 cars, completed 349 laps, and 2:00 was our fastest lap. The 50 frantic minutes we spent fixing the exhaust lost us the race.
It was still our best race ever, a real driver's race.
FJC
