$460 festiva to run in Lemons

[russian]

Great job! What class were you in? I thought I saw your car when I was there Saturday night. My buddies were doing their first ever lemons race in the mr2 with pink flames on the front. Blew the engine on the Friday before the race and were up till 4am replacing it lol. Takes devotion!
Sent from orbital ion canon station. Le pue pue.

Your buddies are crazy to do their first lemons race at a true 24h event

Actually there were two Festivas at this race! Both were in class B. We have finished 30th, partially because of the hour we have lost with all the wheel mishaps. But with a 24h race you are a winner even if you just finish it I think. The other Festiva was waaaaay faster than we were but they had more mechanical issues, I think clutch cable was one of them. They have finished 41st.

[bob^3]

Yeah the other one is Coldhand I think. I met them last month or so, quick car, live near me. So were the different classes on the same track? Because I thought I saw both festivas, but with those giant spot lights in my eyes they could have been anything.

Edit: yes, my buddies are crazy. I was going to join them but had to back out for this year. Maybe next year...

Sent from orbital ion canon station. Le pue pue.

[russian]

Yeah the other one is Coldhand I think. I met them last month or so, quick car, live near me. So were the different classes on the same track? Because I thought I saw both festivas, but with those giant spot lights in my eyes they could have been anything.

Yep, all cars run on the same track at the same time. Fighting the speed diversity is actually super fun - you have to know how to pass super-slow cars efficiently and be safe while the super-fast cars are passing you like you are just parked there.

Right, I guess all Festivas look the same in the dark

[bob^3]

Yep, all cars run on the same track at the same time. Fighting the speed diversity is actually super fun - you have to know how to pass super-slow cars efficiently and be safe while the super-fast cars are passing you like you are just parked there.

Right, I guess all Festivas look the same in the dark

Lol it wasn't dark under the spotlights they had pointing at us. I was there around midnight and suppose they wanted to make sure the drivers could see and avoid the buildings. I saw your yellow wing go by a lot, and the blue beast went by fewer times. But mostly I saw lots of blinding lights.

Sent from orbital ion canon station. Le pue pue.

[Advancedynamix]

It was great to meet you guys! Congratulations on that award, you deserved it, the car looked great. The other Festiva did suffer from a broken clutch cable and several brake failures. I was given the chance to pilot the blue Festiva through the checkers, but after about 10 laps with only a hand brake and a slipping clutch I pulled off about 20 mins before the end of the race . Looking forward to another Lemons race though!

[russian]

several brake failures...

I am pretty sure my brakes are an overkill, but one thing I know they do not fade. I think we will finally retire our original set of carbotech xp8 which served us well for _80_ hours of racing.

I am jealous about how well the other guys drive I have a lot to learn. Finally decided to get myself a game wheel and try this as education tool

[russian]

20 seconds of glory

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z979TTIT3zQ#t=4m

[russian]

14.5 hours race, and where - at Road America, the horse power track! With a 8 seconds gap with a Camaro, we have won class B.

http://blog.caranddriver.com/lemons-wisconsin-winners-bmw-beats-acura-by-two-seconds/

[russian]

BP-4W head is still work in progress but here are some pics:







I think what Jim did here is just beautiful.

[SiliconSoul]

14.5 hours race, and where - at Road America, the horse power track! With a 8 seconds gap with a Camaro, we have won class B.

http://blog.caranddriver.com/lemons-...y-two-seconds/

Lol... "We assume the driver of the Sucker Punch car was gnawing big chunks out of the steering wheel as he tried to close that tiny gap with the little yellow Festiva on the last lap."

Very pretty pictures! Is this for something to bolt onto the BP engine?

[drddan]

This is one cool freakin' thread! :thumbs_up:

[russian]

Today we were wrenching and something pretty funny had happened.

A week ago we have added a dash bar to the roll cage - this means the remaining part of the original dash is now gone, I had a chance to take out five pounds of unneeded wires. This is still work in progress. At the same time, we have swapped the engine head - something about the valve seals, and we are also upgrading to a better head. It's actually a project by itself - we've massaged a RWD head on a FWD engine. Anyway, back to the story.

So, we are trying to crank the engine for the first time just to let the oil get to the head, and it would not crank. The starter solenoid engages, and that's it. And that's after I've cut five pounds of wires, so you can image the looks I was given. Next thing - we've got smoke around the dash area... The looks are getting gloomier.

I inspect the wires and everything looks fine! We keep trying to crank it or at least figure out where the smoke is coming from... The smoke is coming from the clutch pedal spring! We are trying to crank the car after a head swap & a major wire re-work, and we get smoke of a... PEDAL SPRING?!

To be continued.

[wflaw45]

Check your grounds

[russian]

Finally started the race car on rusEfi:

[russian]

Status update on the BP-4W head: it has worked amazingly!

We were concerned about cooling since we have re-routed cooling a bit - the extra hole on the Miata head is plugged since BP-05 has that lower rad hose hole on the block, also we had to run a custom hose from the upper rad to the oil cooler since again Miata head does not have that outlet. And we have used escort pressure regulator on Miata fuel rail - so, a lot of things could have done wrong but they did not.

That's a custom T junction for the upper rad hose:


That's Escort regular on Miata rail:


This setup has survived 8 hours on the track.

Miata head ROCKS! We do not need to use 2nd gear @ Gingerman anymore, the 3rd pulls strong enough now. Profit!