Jump to content

Road Atlanta and my MR2


Bill Strong

Recommended Posts

  • Administrators

Blew engine at Nelson Ledges at the 20 hours mark.

Purchased engine from local salvage yard.

10 days before Road Atlanta. Ran for 17 seconds and seized.

Got replacement under warranty. Rush to get it MR2 ready. Idles well. Done. Load onto trailer. Clutch wont disengage.

Pulled car out of the trailer at Road Atlanta. Tried playing with the cable adjustments. Installed longer slave cylinder shaft. Still wont work.

Discover that the front transmission mount bolts are stripped. And one of the slave cylinder bolts are stripped. And they all work together to keep the slave working as it should.

Quick trip to Ace Hardware we had the trans case tapped for SAE bolts and the whole assembly reassembled.

It worked.

Now we had never driven this engine at more than idle speed. So I went through tech. Passed. Then went and drove it around the skid pad and actually went into second. sweet.

Still worried that my car wont last 2 laps.

Race starts and a few laps in and we are 4th. keeping up with Biohazard. Even doing faster laps than Bio, though only by a few thousandths of a second!

We had a couple of black flag issues. One of them was not for us, but our driver came in thinking it was. We fell back, but were working our way back up.

During all this we were developing a small oil leak on the cam cover. So we would stop and and review the oil level. I am so afraid of losing another engine due to losing the oil.

at the 100 lap mark my driver radios in that he can't find 3rd and 4th. We bring it in and inspect the cables, all the bolts and discover that most likely the shift fork for 3 and 4 is busted. Something that happens with high mileage MR2 transmissions.

Our race was over.

But, I have finally built a car that can be competitive in ChumpCar. and that makes me very very happy. Luckily we have have 3 or 4 spare trans laying around my shops. See you guys at Watkins Glen!

IMAGE_8E746762-96F7-4433-A8DD-7102E0980044.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Administrators

Ya, it looked much better than the guys that got through tech with duct tape/electrical tape as numbers. I really enjoyed that. Helvetica / Arial, the tallent required to make that type font with tape is just awesome.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ya, it looked much better than the guys that got through tech with duct tape/electrical tape as numbers. I really enjoyed that. Helvetica / Arial, the tallent required to make that type font with tape is just awesome.

That's nothing -- when The SO and The Me stopped at Willows, CA during the Big Road Trip last September, we tripped over a meeting of the local branch of PCA; it's the first time I ever saw a drop-shadow done with duct tape....

(Side note: When we stopped there, I had *no idea* that was where Thunderhill was; so was somewhat befuddled at seeing cars with numbers in the parking lot. The SO, of course, still does not believe me.... :) )

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest David Hawkins

Do your lights go on the hood or bumper? Looks like there's nubs on the hood that might be light mounts.

We have a 4 light bar that mounts to the hood. There are 2 7-wire trailer quick disconnects and the light bar has the female end wired. 4 bolts and a plug and the lights are on.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...