Friday was practice and I bought 8 practice runs. On my 2nd run though the engine started bogging. As I pulled into paddock the car stalled out :-( I pulled off the fuel cell filler neck flange and shook the pump feed line as well as the wiring. Once I did this the pump started moving fuel again!!! I got through practice ok and seemed to be setting decent times.
On Day 1 the car was a handful. I was nearly 6 seconds off of Joe with Justin a few tenths behind me. The car was bouncing all over the course like a pogo stick and bottoming the chassis out on the asphalt. The motor was bogging out as well near the end of the runs. Not a good first day.
After the day's competition I took the body off to address the fueling issue where Joe and I noticed the front control arms where sitting at an inclined angle from horizontal. The rear control arms where found to be the same way. This isn't good for the suspension geometry and expains why the car was handling the way it was (and has been so far) also explains why the chassis was bottoming out. As for the fueling issue, I found that the cell bladder had begun to deteriorate but, I didn't realize how bad until a few nights ago.... More on that in the next blog.
So I got the cell situated and raised the ride height. Day 2 came and went and man what a difference!!! My goal entering day 2 was to get within 4 seconds of Joe... I ended up within a second!!! I was ecstatic to say the least. The rest of the time was in gearing. I had switched to a 13 tooth front gear, down from a 16 (with a 44 rear) but, still was able to do the entire course in first gear, which was killing me time wise. I just ordered a 12 gear and am looking forward to feeling the difference.
Here are a few videos from the event:
Here are a few pictures from the event as well:
Adam,
ReplyDeleteGreat blog. Your earlier photos are some of the best that I've seen of the LeGrand Mk25 chassis.
Tom Clayton
sportsracer.info