Well that was a weekend which had its memorable bits, and some completely forgettable bits. Went out in Quali and found a pretty greasy track, got tapped in the drivers rear and spun around clipping Ledger on the way. Buggerall damage to both cars, just a smashed parker and bent tow hook on mine, and some paint from his.
At some point during the session the water temp gauge decided to go the way of the buffalo and jam at 80deg, subsequently i spat the fan belt somewhere down near Clubhouse. So im happily hammering around the track until the cooldown lap when the gauge magically decides to start working again and give me a brief glimpse of the fact that the coolant is around 140deg and rather unhappy. Got back to the pits and then the gauge gave up the ghost entirely and jammed off the clock 🙁 Also for some reason my passenger rear tyre pressure was 10psi more than the drivers rear when hot. Same starting pressures though. Very bloody odd and made for a rather skatey ride.
Got a new fan belt and fitted that up, and then got out for Race 1. Immediately noticed that something felt odd and that the engine was down on power, but it wasnt throwing any nasty warning lights at me, and oil pressure was still fine, so i soldiered on… to a 1:31.6… pretty clear that something was wrong. In addition as the track was now dry i quickly figured out that while the brakes were slowing me down, they certainly wern’t doing their job to the best of their ability, because despite being hard on them with my butt almost out of the seat i couldnt lock the fronts. Power was down quite significantly with the top speed into Northern being 35km/h shy of my usual.
After lunch i did Race 2 as well, just to complete my OLT so i could get my proper licence rather than having to run on temporary ones. Managed a 1:30.6 in that race. Off the start line i set the lap timer G-sensor thingy to a “powah test”. Yielded a stunning 65hp. Not sure how accurate it was as i wasnt able to give it the full distance it wanted, but regardless, thats through 3 gears, so its probably a decent enough guesstimate.
Packed up after that race yesterday and brought it all home. Havnt had much time to do any work on the car today, but i did a quick compression test and got:
1: 175psi
2: 70psi
3: 85psi
4: Dead compression tester
Arrrghhh, more stuff dying. Ohwell.
So from this weekend i now have the following to do:
- Build new engine, pretty urgent now.
- Install pedal box
- Make caliper brackets for Wilwood calipers rather than the RX7 setup
- Replace coolant temp gauge (and probably Oil temp too since they are the same brand/age).
Ohwell. I have RaceChrono data coming soon too, overlaid on video from the Contour.
On the up side though i have my OLT done, and the car is handling reasonably well, once the tyre pressures were sorted (dumped and refilled the air, perhaps something in the valve). Was a good bit of fun too. New engine time 😀