ChumpCar - AMP

[IROC]

Any Pelicans involved in ChumpCar? We'll be going to AMP November 1/2 and wondered if there would be any other pcar guys there...

[SiberianDVM]

I am hoping to get the #32 Supra ready by then. Already paid and accepted.

[IROC]

We'll be in the #262 S-10 pickup. I'll wander around and look for your Supra.

I've never been to AMP. I need to start watching youtube videos, I suppose.

[SiberianDVM]

It's not my favorite track. If it rains, I may sit in the paddock and drink beer.

[IROC]

Originally Posted by SiberianDVM

It's not my favorite track. If it rains, I may sit in the paddock and drink beer.

I'll join you. We have problems getting the power down as it is (no weight over the rear tires, needless to say) and we've "added some power" to the thing so it's only going to get worse.

[SiberianDVM]

Is your truck all ready to go?

I have a list of piddly things I'm going to knock out this week, and this weekend I need to pull the head and change the head gasket. I think I will have the head redone at the same time to see if I can clear up a smoking issue on decel.

It would be nice if I had some wrench help from my so called team mates.

Oh, and by the way, AMP goes counter-clockwise and beware of the turn at pit-out.

[IROC]

We have some wiring left to do but barring any unforeseen obstacles, we should be ready to go. I am a "rental driver" with some small financial stake in the whole thing. The two guys that own the truck are preparation freaks. We finished Road Atlanta with nothing more than a brake pad change.

I've heard stories of that turn. Despite the infectious optimism of my team-mates, I don't see the truck dominating...

[ipapilot]

Have a fun weekend and good luck guys!

[SiberianDVM]

We survived both days, 28th on Saturday, and 20th on Sunday.

I made a poor tire choice on Saturday that made us loose as a goose.

Sunday, my hotfoot driver late braked at T1 and had to be towed out of the kitty litter, then the car overheated. With an hour to go, the battery box broke loose, the battery fell into the spare tire well, spilling about half of the electrolyte. I scooped it up with a Gatorade bottle, poured it back in the battery, filled it up with water, bolted it back in to the box, and we took the checker.

Car is too heavy and still too loose.

[IROC]

We barely survived Saturday and didn't finish Sunday. We ran as high as 14th on Saturday, but had a number of issues. Most noticeable to our competitors was an exhaust leak that resulted in some impressive backfires right up until we lost the Y-pipe entirely at which point the truck got really loud. During my 2:00-4:00 stint Saturday, a Subaru (hit by an RX-7) spun and collected me on the front straight. The bumper sheared off the battery ground strap (battery was mounted on the passenger side floor) and killed the engine (resulting in the ride of shame on the rollback). That's the bumper sticking out of the side of the truck. Notice the Porsche decal on my helmet, though!!!



We fixed the battery and ratchet-strapped the door on and I went out and finished the race. I think we ended up 30th.

On Sunday, we lost the transmission around noon and gave up.

I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to say hey. It's amazing how busy one can get during the day. I did have the pleasure of seeing your car (the #32 Supra) doing some off-roading in the gravel trap right there at turn 1.

[SiberianDVM]

I visited the T1 gravel trap 3 times, but never got stuck, I just motored back onto the track.

My hotfoot driver only went in once, but got stuck.

See, all those agricultural excursions I have made over the years have paid off in experience.

We only had 2 guys, so we wasted a lot of time in the pits. Hope to see you guys again. We are shooting for Rd Atlanta in February.

[IROC]

We're doubtful for RA in February. We were planning on it, but with the damage/repairs to the truck along with one of the main guy's wife is having a baby in January, we're doubtful for sure.

We have this vision of doing Daytona in May...

[SiberianDVM]

We are planning on:
Rd Atlanta in Feb
Daytona in May
Sebring in Sept
VIR in December.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[cashman]

It's ONLY a $500 car .

[SiberianDVM]

Originally Posted by cashman

It's ONLY a $500 car .

Yep, with $10,000 worth of parts bolted on..........................

[IROC]

Originally Posted by SiberianDVM

Yep, with $10,000 worth of parts bolted on..........................

Absolutely. Coming from over 20 years of DE and Porsche track-related activities (time trials, etc.) one eye-opener relative to ChumpCar racing is that it is real racing. The whole $500 car thing is a joke. Sure, there are many cars out there that are inexpensively prepared, but it is probably almost impossible to put a car on the track in a ChumpCar race for less than $5k unless one is an excellent fabricator and does all of the work themselves. I would say most of them are $10k cars.

Being a Porsche guy, I think it would be fun to run a 944.

[SiberianDVM]

Originally Posted by IROC

Being a Porsche guy, I think it would be fun to run a 944.

I almost did. I had several $1500 944s lined up to look at, then got worried about the engine fragility and rebuild cost. I know crap about rebuilding engines, so I chose a platform where there is a local shop that has 7M-GE long blocks for $2096.

In hindsight, I should have bought a E30 or E36 and just learned how to rebuild an engine.

I'm gonna fart around with this Supra for another year, then re-compute.

Going to VIR next weekend with the 911, in hopes of recruiting another 2-3 guys for the CCWS team.

[IROC]

Yeah, in many ways a 944 checks a lot of boxes - cheap, reasonably plentiful and would probably be more or less competitive with no mods (just gut it, put a cage in, etc.). "Cost to maintain" would be a lot worse than many cars, but I still think a 944 would be high on my list. Either that or an E30/E36 for many of the same reasons.

Do to the large amount of prize money available in Chump , I think 90% of it is to build/run something you like and just have fun.

[SiberianDVM]

Originally Posted by IROC

Do to the large amount of prize money available in Chump , I think 90% of it is to build/run something you like and just have fun.

Speaking of which, I got a Necksgen certificate which I have already traded for a Frozen Rotors certificate.

I still have a $75 Redline certificate & $50 in Chumpchange if you have anything you might want to trade.

[cashman]

Originally Posted by SiberianDVM

Yep, with $10,000 worth of parts bolted on..........................

Why do they bother with the $500 rule any way if they don't monitor the mods?