Sometimes things just work out

Looking back over these blog posts reminds about about what has had to happen over the last few months to get everything together. So much of it had to be accomplished over the last month and a half. I had to have a lot of things go right the first time and a lot of help from others. Fortunately, I got plenty of both and it all worked out.

A week and a half before my first race I handed the car over to a couple of guys in the paint department at the Haddock's body shop next door. They cleaned it up a little, scuffed it down, and gave it a new coat of black paint. It came out looking better than it ever has during my ownership. It wasn't perfect, but this ain't no show queen.

Before:

After:

After reassembling everything that had to come off during paint (bumpers, wing, trim), I turned my attention to finishing up the safety stuff. The mocked up window net and center net were finalized and tightened down. The driver's side harnesses were replaced with brand new versions. The seat was adjusted to a better position. The fire extinguisher and mount were installed. The kill switch and remaining wiring were finished. With all that done and time continuing to run out, vinyl was next.

Extreme Vinyl came through with all my required stickers and a few more. Here's the entire order before application:

Thank goodness I have a very detail oriented wife. She was willing to help me install the vinyl and ended up doing most of it herself. She took so much extra time making sure it was perfect. I know I would have likely just slapped it on and been unhappy with the result. Instead, it turned out looking better than I had hoped.

Next up was going through the dyno testing. This part terrified me. Since the car isn't street legal, I can't go out and drive it around to find out how the rebuild worked and how the car is running. All I could do was run in around the parking lot. Going to the dyno meant finding out, with numbers, exactly how healthy the engine was. It could also mean blowing the thing up again and destroying my hopes for starting the race season anytime soon.

I decided to go to Mayhem Motorsports in Raleigh for the dyno testing. I had dyno'd the car with them before, so I knew they were good folks and that they would also have my previous data for comparison. I could not have been happier with the experience. In all, I made 12 runs on the dyno over an hour and a half. After diagnosing and fixing a dragging left rear brake, the engine topped out at 226/217; gains of 7 hp and 17 lb-ft over my last runs in 2009!

I then focused on getting the power down to where it needed to be for my class. I went through several different sizes of restrictor plates and eventually settled on this plate at 204/205:

This puts me at at 14.58 hp/wt ratio with no gas in the car. With my max class ratio set at 14.5, I'd call that perfect. I may find the desire to increase weight and increase power down the road, but for now, this is exactly what I was hoping for.

With the dyno runs complete and some satisfaction that the engine was going to detonate when it hit the track, it was time to go through NASA's annual safety inspection process. A local guy who does inspection and issues log books was recommended to me by a racing buddy. He met me at the shop on Wednesday night to go over the car. Thankfully, all my efforts at preparing the car had paid off and he issued me a log book with no hassle.

With everything done and all my paperwork in hand, I loaded up the car and my trusty rental van from Triangle Rentacar the next afternoon and set off for Carolina Motorsports Park. My Comp School and first two races were now close at hand. I couldn't wait to hit the track Friday morning.