volkswagner Posted October 31, 2020 Report Share Posted October 31, 2020 (edited) This is the full race album. It's worth a flip through just to see all the varied cars we get to race with. That has to be one of the best parts of this series is the wide range of cars on track. We get to pass a CRX so that we can pull up next to a Miata only to get blown past by a Corvette. (That could just as well be written as, pass a 1.6 miata so that we can pull up next to a 1.8 miata, only to get blown past by an Ecotec miata.) https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMoFsgaM9Ohqvuq692w85demQMXs1ChpwdxIJMn4fPxRWySMIKWsvyv38zxb8ZYmA?key=S2xaUkY0X3B3b2JCVm1ESVRERGdVVmlHdTY1RTVR If you're only interested in our beautiful stallion. I have already pulled all out pictures into one album here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/5giAdSV1EWruVWmf7 Let me walk through some of my favorites. Turn 1:100+ mph approach braking down to 50mph entry. Turning in at the right time to straighten out the chicane was critical and had big consequences for the exit speed of turn 2. Too soon and you're pointed at the rather large curbing of 2, too late and you're sideways pointed at the in field wall. Very hard to get just right. Turn 2: Very easy to accidentally pole vault off that curb. Turn 3: Fast wide entry to the 4-5 sweeper combo Turn 4: 4 and 5 turned into mostly a big sweeper with some minor corrections. We would pull some good lateral force here. Take a look at our tire roll in the front! Turn 6: Really exciting if you happen to be stuck in traffic here. Everyone is on the grip limit coming out of the turn 5 right hander, and then transfer onto the grip limit into the turn 6 left hander. Lots of opportunity for error. Turn 7: Exiting 7 on to the back "straight" a real weak point for our underpowered boat. 7 was tight enough to discourage any out braking or passing attempts. So, we basically single filed up at 7 in preparation for the straight where 3/4 cars would motor on by. Turn 8: Personally I spent all of the back straight anticipation and mental prep for the high speed 9,10,11,12 corners at the end. It was just enough time for a breather though. I like this photo because we are next to Greta. A fan favorite and for good reason. The Ecotec Miata is consistently podium finisher in A class. Piloted by skilled curious drivers and a general joy to drive with. As well it has my favorite flavor of build, a nothing special light weight chassis, well prepared with just enough power to not add excessive weight. Turn 12: After breathing on the back straight, you don't really get another chance until Exiting turn 12 onto the front. We would be top of 3rd coming out of 12 and on the quick laps, edging the traction limit out to the walls. my favorite part of the course. All in all, a fun track. Edited October 31, 2020 by volkswagner 4 Quote Link to comment
volkswagner Posted November 1, 2020 Report Share Posted November 1, 2020 (edited) Our weekend hot laps in the fun split view. What sounds better than an SR20? Three harmonizing SR20's!!! Edited November 1, 2020 by volkswagner 1 Quote Link to comment
slowlearner Posted November 1, 2020 Report Share Posted November 1, 2020 What the heck was the guy in the Honda thinking!?! 😨 Quote Link to comment
carterb Posted November 2, 2020 Report Share Posted November 2, 2020 (edited) So hard keeping up with these boys! A tenth here and a tenth there sure add up over a lap. Sam and Jeff are excellent drivers. I endeavor to close the gap. That Honda hit was nuts! He completely pinched me into the wall. As noted on the previous page - afterwards, neither of us could keep our cars on the track and it was a tough lap getting back to the pits. We felt for sure we had damage. Their team went so far as to change the left rear wheel. We jacked up our car looking for bent suspension and even checked alignment. Meanwhile the race was red flagged and everyone was brought to pit lane. It turns out that one of the other cars lost an engine or rear end and doused the entire track in oil. The reason we couldn't keep our cars on the track was because we were driving on oil! Not because of damage. Both our cars turned out to be fine. And my underwear were still clean to boot! : ) Edited November 2, 2020 by carterb 2 Quote Link to comment
Icehouse Posted November 19, 2020 Author Report Share Posted November 19, 2020 Cool photo from the rear facing camera on another C class car. 4 Quote Link to comment
Lockleaf Posted November 19, 2020 Report Share Posted November 19, 2020 Great photo. Whos driving there? Quote Link to comment
Icehouse Posted November 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2020 On 11/19/2020 at 1:28 PM, Lockleaf said: Great photo. Whos driving there? I was driving. Best battle I've had yet! Here is the view from his car. 2 Quote Link to comment
slowlearner Posted November 22, 2020 Report Share Posted November 22, 2020 Awesome! So that's 900kg + SR20 verses 1100kg + 13B? Love to know your thoughts on the strengths of the 510 over the RX7, coz they're both great drivers cars. 1 Quote Link to comment
demo243 Posted November 22, 2020 Report Share Posted November 22, 2020 43 minutes ago, slowlearner said: Awesome! So that's 900kg + SR20 verses 1100kg + 13B? Love to know your thoughts on the strengths of the 510 over the RX7, coz they're both great drivers cars. I’d be interested in your thoughts as well! Really want to find/build a 510... but there are a lot of ready to run rx7 race cars for sale... 1 Quote Link to comment
slowlearner Posted November 23, 2020 Report Share Posted November 23, 2020 1 hour ago, demo243 said: I’d be interested in your thoughts as well! Really want to find/build a 510... but there are a lot of ready to run rx7 race cars for sale... I looked at RX7s at the same time I was looking at Datsuns. The early Rx7s (Series 1,2,3) are great cars, but there seems to be more available for datsuns and nissans. Could also be there are lots of Rx7s for sale because they tend to break and be more expensive to fix? A good rotary is not a cheap thing. Quote Link to comment
demo243 Posted November 23, 2020 Report Share Posted November 23, 2020 1 hour ago, slowlearner said: I looked at RX7s at the same time I was looking at Datsuns. The early Rx7s (Series 1,2,3) are great cars, but there seems to be more available for datsuns and nissans. Could also be there are lots of Rx7s for sale because they tend to break and be more expensive to fix? A good rotary is not a cheap thing. There was a gen 1 RX7 that used to run with the AutoX club I raced with for a couple years. That car was super sorted and always taking home there fastest times. I have a soft spot for the RX7 - all three generations - but still like the look of the z better... and my true love is the 510. It just gets hard to justify building a race setup 510 when - at least currently - there are a number of prepped RX7s ready to go Ultimately at the end of the day I always find my self back lusting over a 510 so that’s my plan— but curious to hear OPs opinion on the two cars side by side. Quote Link to comment
carterb Posted December 22, 2020 Report Share Posted December 22, 2020 Merry Christmas to the Swamp Thing 2 Quote Link to comment
rosso Posted December 23, 2020 Report Share Posted December 23, 2020 Moar work because green panel, but moar safe because of hans. Way to go! You guys are a treat. Happy and safe holidays to the team and families. Lucky Dog 2021 ?? Quote Link to comment
carterb Posted January 9, 2021 Report Share Posted January 9, 2021 Unfortunately, our good buddy and team-mate Sam moved back to the East Coast just before new years... That means it will just be Jeff and I this year, so we are going to run a reduced calendar and see how it goes. Right now we just plan to contend the two Shelton races in April and September. This also means we won't likely pursue many upgrades this year. But it won't stop us from hard charging and having fun. We'll miss you Sam! 1 Quote Link to comment
]2eDeYe Posted January 9, 2021 Report Share Posted January 9, 2021 Let me know if you guys need any help here and there. Last time was fun 🙂 Quote Link to comment
carterb Posted February 13, 2021 Report Share Posted February 13, 2021 Can't stop thinking about racing! Our first race is less than three months away now. We better get busy Jeff! 2 Quote Link to comment
carterb Posted March 19, 2021 Report Share Posted March 19, 2021 Lucky Dog was kind enough to feature us on their Instagram feed for day 71 of 2021! And last night, we finally started preparations for our 2021 racing season! We started by putting the car on the lift and changing all the fluids. We were a bit surprised to find that only about a 1/2 quart of oil was drained from the transmission. Yikes! Did we just never fill it or did we re-seal PIR with 2 1/2 quarts of tranny lube last October? We'll have to keep an eye on that one. I didn't take a picture of our updated to-do list but we checked off a few things and made plans for next week. One of the must do items is replace our low pressure fuel pump - after all the trouble we had in Portland. I hope this is the key! It's Hecho En China so you know it's got to be good! Bought it from Rock Auto for the carbureted 720 truck. Once we confirm it does what we need, we will carry a spare. (fuel pump, not truck) Also, we removed the whale tail. I can offer it for sale if any of you want a very unique piece of racing history for your own 510 or garage. Quote Link to comment
carterb Posted April 11, 2021 Report Share Posted April 11, 2021 Finally found some new spark plug wires for the SR20. Someone told us that Sentra wires work. They do NOT. At least one wire is too short. I found these through CX Racing. Unfortunately, they were terribly made and don't fit. The wire in the boot is in a different position on every one - and NONE are in the right position. It makes the boot stick way up past the valve cover. Here you can kind of see how they the wires are in a variety of positions. The guy at CX Racing said I can try to reposition them which I will do soon. I made a reference tool from the factory plug so I will try some silicon lube and see if I can reposition the wires in the boot. Why do we have to do this sort of thing? Why don't companies just make stuff right? I'd be more than happy to pay the extra dollar! 1 Quote Link to comment
carterb Posted April 11, 2021 Report Share Posted April 11, 2021 Found a night to do some race prep. The Ridge is only 2 weeks away! Jeff fixed the broken door latch and swapped out the main power switch (we were hoping this was the reason our car won't start occasionally) while I swapped in the new fuel pump. The "meth lab" doesn't look any prettier this year but hopefully it works. Fuel starving at PIR was NOT fun. This *may* have had something to do with the original fuel pump failure. Look how much garbage was in there. That was before we tapped it out of the filter too! Yikes! It's possible this one still worked. I took the end of the Holley fuel pump we bought down there and it was still clean as a whistle. This one just died from starvation apparently. Sorry little fuel pump. Back on the ground and testing seemed to confirm that the new fuel pump is doing its job. Unfortunately, the power switch replacement did not fix the starter issue. Maybe it is the starter button? Hopefully not the starter itself. Anyway, the car needed a wash job in a bad way! Now it is sparkly clean (well...) and ready to race! Still a few things on the list though... 7 Quote Link to comment
]2eDeYe Posted April 11, 2021 Report Share Posted April 11, 2021 Looking good B) Quote Link to comment
carterb Posted April 20, 2021 Report Share Posted April 20, 2021 Did I mention my wife Brenda got us a radio for Christmas? I laid it all out to see what would be involved in the installation. I saw no instructions. So I called Evan at www.speedcomracing.com for guidance. He said it's easy, there is only one way you can connect everything. Well okay then! I worked on the radio while Jeff worked on the body... I won! (the roof was already dented there - honest!) But Jeff had the bigger job I think. So I straightened out and re-mounted our chin spoiler - and drained the water out of the right headlight (?) While Jeff made pretty sparky thingies... I think we've done about all we can do before the race this weekend. We need to pack it all up Thursday to get ready for the EARLY Friday trek. Weather not looking awesome. : ( 1 Quote Link to comment
]2eDeYe Posted April 21, 2021 Report Share Posted April 21, 2021 Less than 50%, you should be good lol Plus that is way too far out to trust any sort of forecast. 🙂 Quote Link to comment
carterb Posted April 21, 2021 Report Share Posted April 21, 2021 Not getting any better... 1 Quote Link to comment
carterb Posted April 28, 2021 Report Share Posted April 28, 2021 You have to get up pretty early in the morning to get to Shelton by 7am when the gates open! Brenda came down with me in the 620 while Christel came down with Jeff in the D21. Not only was The Ridge hosting a Friday track day and weekend Luckydog race, it was also hosting an Olympus Rally race. Man was the paddock full! 81 cars in Luckydog, A couple dozen additional track day cars, and probably 40-50 rally cars. Jeff went out first and we didn't really know what to say with the new radio at our disposal but after 45 minutes or so he figured it out... "Fuel starvation!!!" Then this was how we spent most of the rest of the weekend. We pulled the fuel tank three times on Friday, reaming the pick-up with anything we could find to stuff in there And making no headway. We verified we had no fuel flowing from the tank, then we'd ream it, back blow it, verify we have fuel, put it back in, then get fuel starvation. Repeat. One time we swapped the lines and fed the pump from the return fitting but it's so much higher in the tank, that didn't work any better. We got in as much driving time as we could. Friday was dry but the sessions were interrupted by many black flags and our own fuel tank issues. Once the track day was over, it came time to get the car through tech for the race so Brenda and I did that as Jeff and Christel drove to Tenino to buy another 510 gas tank. They got back pretty late and we determined that the other tank was more questionable than the one we were running so we figured we'd just put it all back in and race 1 hour stints through the weekend. That wouldn't be terrible since Jeff and I are the only drivers now so the break might be nice. So we buttoned everything back up and went to bed... 1 Quote Link to comment
carterb Posted April 28, 2021 Report Share Posted April 28, 2021 Saturday was WET right from the get-go! I went out to qualify and unfortunately put is in group B. Oh well. With all of our additional stops ahead, we were not going to be competitive even if we were in C as usual. Jeff started the race and was doing great! https://datsun510.com/uploads/monthly_2021_04/63621168_04242021swampthing(1).MOV.1e1ff15509d9b3c25d12d9a4eba8b11a.MOV We took turns driving for the day - staying out 'till we'd start to get fuel starvation. We were both really impressed with the grip in the car and were raving that almost felt more comfortable driving on Saturday in the wet than we did on Friday in the dry! I think the reality was that Friday we were quite rusty after not racing for 6 months and Saturday we were just going slower due to the rain so it felt better but really, the car was awesome to drive in the rain and we finished the day 15th in B, right in the middle of the 81 car field, even with all our extra pit stops! 2 Quote Link to comment
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