Getting there

There are few things as glorifying as the sound of your recently reassembled engine firing up (successfully) for the first time.

Everything seemed to go OK with getting the head mounted back onto the block and putting the timing set back together. After all that was buttoned up it was time to turn the key. When I turned it for the first time I got...nothing. Well, nothing except one click from the starter solenoid. I didn't think it could be the starter since it was working just fine when I turned the car off back in October. I went through all the power wiring and grounds as well as the recently installed kill switch and everything looked fine. It pained me to do, but I dove back into the engine bay and pulled out the intake manifold to get to the starter. Fortunately, my local Advance Auto Parts had a reman'd starter in stock.

Old one out, new one in. I put everything back together and turned the key again. This time, the garage was filled with the sound of 240 horses coming out of hibernation. It is hard to find the words to describe how much stress can be lifted from one's shoulders by that sound.

Other things have been getting worked on as well. The time table is so short now that I can't really do things in stages and have to do many things at once instead. Window net is in. Center net is in. Vinyl has been chosen and sent off to Extreme Vinyl for production. I've gotten a new helmet and a different racing suit (which is much lighter and better fitting than my first choice). Now the car is at Haddock's Collision getting a new coat of black paint. I'm very excited about this as the car has never really been "pretty" while I've owned it. And while it won't be perfect (it is a race car after all), I'm looking forward to have a car that is a little easier on the eyes. Still several important things to be done, the two most important of which are dyno testing and putting the vinyl on the car. Not out of the woods yet, but we are getting there.

Window net

Center net

Early stages of vinyl scheme (required stuff only)

A busy new year

Welcome to 2011 everyone! Another year in the books and another track season looming in the not to distant future. So much for all that free time during the offseason to get things ready on the car.

Those of us who do this "racing" thing as a hobby must be gluttons for punishment. Although we typically schedule events months in advance, things always seem to sneak up on us somehow. Go ahead and try to find a fellow racer who has his/her car ready to go well before the event. It's not going to happen. We will wait until we are basically forced to work on the car just so it will be ready at the last minute. We'll all pull onto track at that first event with things having just been tightened down and lots of offseason to-do list items still not checked off. We probably wouldn't feel normal if there wasn't some kind of last minute thrash to get the car to an event.

While I know this fact all to well, here I sit with a massive list of things left to do to the car over the next 30 days. Engine reassembly, window nets, dyno testing, corner weighting, alignment, paint and a myriad of smaller things have to be done before I roll out toward CMP and Comp School on February 10th. If things go according to plan, I'll likely be finishing it up as I pull it onto the trailer. Stay tuned...