In the hot pit, taken by Russell Hall
Exiting Corner 10, taken by Will Hiltebeitel
I had to work Saturday morning, and I was forced to miss the first two sessions. But, I ran out there after work and I was able to run the last 2 sessions of the day. NASA is pretty lax about HPDE rules, and actually allows passengers to ride with non-instructors. Russell and Kyle M. showed up, and were treated to rides. Luckily, I managed to avoid killing them and didn't leave the racing surface. I was again a little slower running clockwise than I thought I should be, with lap times in the 1:55-1:56 range. Not bad, but still slower than my times going CCW. I got some good passes done, and manage to avoid being passed on Saturday. NASA is also lax about their passing rules, and any straight with point by is allowed (and even if the corners if you are discrete about it :)).
In the hot pit, taken by Russell Hall
Exiting Corner 10, taken by Will Hiltebeitel
On Saturday, I had noticed the car seemed to have a miss at high rpms. I have been chasing a miss since I bought the car. The recent opti-spark replacement hadn't taken care of it. One of the few stock ignition components remaining was the coil. Stock coils were cheap ($40), so I picked one up Saturday night and replaced it Sunday morning. My first session Sunday was OK; the miss seemed unaffected by the coil change. I go out for my second session, and half way thru the warm up lap, the car picks up a serious miss. Any throttle leads to backfiring and very poor running. Shit.... I coast into the hot pit, and I have to have the car pushed back into my garage spot. A quick check shows the coil is working good, but the spark at the plugs is messed up. Oh no...not the opti. It was replaced last weekend at the track. I make the decision to pull it apart, and 45 mins later I have it in my hand. The rotor fell off. I have no idea why. The loose rotor bouncing around left the opti wheel with some minor damage. Since this sucker was still under warranty, I went ahead and took it back to Napa for a replacement. Of course, they don't have one. I end up returning it to Napa and buying one from Autozone. I finally get the car back together and running, but by then I have missed all my remaining run groups. Glad I didn't pay for this weekend. God damnit I hate opti-sparks! More of the opti saga later...
More in-car videos! Right click, save-as please (.wmv format):
A while back, I had finally removed the rest of the HVAC parts; here are some pics of the passenger side dash area. Even with half of my dash gone already, getting
to the heater core and its enclosure was still a 3 hour job. But, it was well worth the effort. The amount of space opened up is surprising. Now I just need
to do something with all those useless wires...
