Racing

Willow Springs AROSC Time Trial Driving School

I had a great time at the driving school. The instructors were great, and I learned a lot. On the way over thorugh Bakersfield I even go propositioned for a street race. The car did great in the morning, both on the skid pad and the track.
Here are some shots of the car in the pit area:

Here are some shots of the car on the skid pad and track:

Here are some links to movies of the car on the track.
Taking the tower turn
Taking the tower turn with the 7's
You may need the DivX player to view these .avi files.

We all headed to the China Empire for dinner, and were entertained by stories from the legendary Tony Adamowicz. What a great guy. Besides creating and running the real Cannonball race, he's had a long and exciting career racing cars.

I was also able to bend the ear of one of my instructors who ran the Silver State Classic Challenge several years ago. Thanks. Not sure if I'll get to this year, but I definitely plan on running that route.

Unfortunately I practically blew my engine the first day and was unable to participate the second. On the way to lunch, my friend and I heard what sounded like a bolt hit the underside of the car. Upon further inspection, it was a popped exhaust manifold stud. Later I found that I had also blown the head gasket. Gotta be careful with that boost pressure. I also learned, that you really want to run just straight water, with water wetter, at the track. Oh well. It gives me the excuse I've been looking for to experiment with copper head gaskets. For the newbies, the oil turns into a creamy white substance and white smoke comes out the tailpipe because the coolant and oil have mixed. Since I hadn't brought my truck and trailer, I got to drive this beauty home 300miles. I changed the oil before I left the track. I had to stop about every 30 minutes to release the coolant pressure and add water and oil. I went through about 7 gallons of water on the way back.

Here are some shots of the oil stick and exhaust manifold when I got home.

And here are a few shots of the blown head gasket. You can see the #2 cylinder is nice and clean from all the water.

In order to get on the track, most racing organizations require braided fuel lines. The stock fuel lines are made from a very brittle nylon tubing - totally inappropriate for the track. I've cracked two of these inadvertantly while working on my car. I couldn't find anyone that would sell me a new set of braided fuel lines. Apparently the liability is pretty high on this type of item. I'd heard that Aeroquip and Paragon Performance will sell them, but even they said that they couldn't build them for me. I turned to the junkyard. I'd noticed that several cars using the same fuel injection system used braided fuel lines. The VW Rabbit Cabriolet's use lines that are just the right length for use on a Saab. I pulled two sets of lines, and used the two shorter lines from each set. I also replaced the fuel distributor at the same time, just because. All of the other fuel lines in the engine compartment are already braided. Here's a shot of the revised fuel line configuration:

Here's a shot of the old lines with a tape measure:

Page 1 - Summary
Page 2 - Tuning
Page 3 - Wheels
Page 4 - Water Injection
Page 5 - Brakes
Page 6 - Interior
Page 7 - H.I.N.
Page 8 - Racing