7-19-15

John, Ian, Jason and I took several cars out on this sunny Sunday to have a little fun at Camden.  I towed the '99 & '06.  Ian towed the '12 and Jason towed the '05.  We were joined by several members of the recent / future team (Brian S., Andrew D. and David O.) who stopped by my place and picked up the '08.  So we had a bunch of cars and even more people which was great.

Jason drove the '05 until it's temperature related issue rear it's head again.  Ian and John drove the '12 until it required a fuel pump transplant, the '05 offered up its pump.  The '12 continued to run until it decided to ventilate it's exhaust! (See Picture)

The new guys got to spend some time in Torch, which is great because it is such a easy and quick car to drive.  Torch ran well all day until the engine mysteriously quit.  After some subsequent investigation it was determined that one of the igniters had melted off of the controller, not good.  This hopefully repairable, but the bigger question is what caused it.

I monopolized the seat time in the '99, the car is very easy to drive and it feels great throwing it around after all the work that has gone into making it run again.  Jason got in the '99 after me and promptly had the misfortune of the car breaking on him for the second time, he's 2 for 2.  The failure this time was the left front hub breaking sending the lug nut and threads flying and subsequently loosing the wheel.  Luckily no one was in the path of the wheel, damage to the car was minor.  Repairing the car was done by pressing and welding a sleeve into the hub, then pressing and welding the threaded portion of the hub back on.  The completed repair is pictured below.

Overall a very good day with many laps turned.

Here are two projects that I had recently completed on the '99 prior to the 7/19 outing.  The first is the crush zone for the '99.  This was constructed by making a foam plug, taking a fiberglass mold off of the plug then doing a wet lay-up carbon fiber in the mold.

Vacuum bagging the mold / part

Completed part

The other part was a cover for the damper under the drivers legs.  The mold was fashioned using all my poster board and painters tape tricks.  Then the part was wet lay-up and bagged on the mold.  Interesting thing about this part is that it includes an aluminum insert in the front to fasten it to the frame.

Mold / part in vacuum bag

Completed part