Scott McIntyre
DSM Wiseman
- 309
- 44
- Mar 15, 2002
-
Halifax,
NS, Canada
This was our first weekday evening event of the season. These evening events have pros & cons. One is that the venue (3/10-mile D-oval track) is close to the city, so less of a commute. Plus it being on a weekday frees up the weekend for other activities. These two factors usually help to draw a larger number of competitors, another bonus. The cons are that most people have to take-off work early to get to the event before registration closes, and we can only run until dusk, regardless of whether we’ve got all 4 runs in or not.
That being said, it was our best attended event so far this year with 44 competitors, a fair number of them being newbies. With all those people there, we only had time for 3 runs each before it got too dark to continue.
Here’s a map of the layout from my datalogger. The bold “X†is the start:
I had a co-driver again for this event, but a different person from last time. Lucian only has a couple years experience, but he has raw natural talent and has even captured FTD before.
Again the competitors were broke up into two run groups, with Lucian & I within the second. While it was good to have the first group clean off the track for us, it also meant that we would be driving in the cooling temperatures, dwindling light, and a sunset shining in our eyes. Not so advantageous this time around.
Heading into our first runs, FTD had already been set by a supercharged Miata. His time (42.22) was a good second better than the next quickest competitor. My goal was to better it, and while winning my class of 5 ESP competitors.
Run #1: The tires were cold and I understeered into a cone at the beginning of my run. But aside from that one cone, I got a pretty good raw time of 43.3 which would put me 4th overall and only 1/10 off 2nd overall. People were coming up to me saying “Good run! You’re right there… Just clean it up!†Things were looking promising!
Run #2: I cleaned up the section where I had hit the cone, only to overdo it in a faster section where I hit the outside cone of a gate. D’oh! But my raw time improved to a 43.2 which would put me 2nd overall. However, Lucian was now getting a feel for the car and not hitting any cones. With my cone penalty, he was beating me.
Run #3: Now the sun had set, it was getting dark, and the temperature was dropping. Both my co-driver and an ESP Mustang were ahead of me due to my cone penalties. I just needed to get a clean run at my previous pace and I’d easily have a class win. So what did I do? I hit a cone! Then knowing I’d need to make up about 1 second to compensate for that cone, I pressed even harder which resulted in another cone and an eventual off course. Ugh.
So the end result was Lucian got 1st in ESP and 11th overall, and I got 4th in ESP and 14th overall. So much for that “promising†first run. Lol
But that’s only ½ the story…
While Lucian & I were running the car, two unusual things began happening. One was that the car started popping out of 2nd gear while on the course. Second was that occasionally a loud banging noise was coming from the rear somewhere. The sound was very reminiscent to when I blew my center diff....
As I was swapping the wheels after the event, I discovered that I could slide the rear driver’s side axle in/out nearly 2â€. That didn’t seem right to me!
After I packed up and started to leave the event, the car would barely mover under its own power, like a severely slipping clutch. Closer inspection revealed that the driver's real axle was spinning freely under load. So I had the car flatbeded home.
I took it apart last weekend and there was no real damage. Just some dinged up axle splines where it fits into the outer CV joint. Somehow the axle had popped out.
I'm still not sure how the axle could have popped out of the CV joint like that. My best guess is that it wasn't fully reinserted when I had it apart about 4 years ago. Doesn't seem likely though. But as it stands now, it looks like all I need to do is take a file and clean up those splines a bit, then pop it together again. *shrug*
As for the gear popping out issue, I'm pretty sure it’s just some loose / worn bearings in the tranny. The bearings on the intermediate shaft were a little on the loose side when I had the tranny apart last year for my busted center diff. I don't really feel like rebuilding this one mid-season, so I’m looking for a replacement (Let me know if you have one for sale.).
And then there's my engine... It's been making a weird hum / whine noise in the timing belt area. It sounds like a bad bearing. Could be the alternator, timing belt tensioner or idler, water pump, or oil pump. Still gotta diagnose that. Ugh.
So that’s the latest adventure. Hopefully I can get these issues straightened out quickly and get back into the action. There’s a double regional in two weeks time, so that’s my goal.
Here’s some of Gordon’s pics of the event. His full album can be see here: http://pics.spoon.org/gallery2/v/Motorsports/Slalom/ASCC-20090617
Here's a video from the event. It's hard to see anything in one direction due to the sunset: http://vimeo.com/5290504
I have other videos of both Lucian & I but when I tried to upload them to YouTube, it cut them down to < 10 seconds. Dunno what's going on there, but eventually I'll figure it out.
Speaking of video, does anyone know how to embed it here on DSMTuners? The code supplied by YouTube & Vimeo doesn't appear to work, yet I've seen embedded YouTube posts on here from other members.
That being said, it was our best attended event so far this year with 44 competitors, a fair number of them being newbies. With all those people there, we only had time for 3 runs each before it got too dark to continue.
Here’s a map of the layout from my datalogger. The bold “X†is the start:
I had a co-driver again for this event, but a different person from last time. Lucian only has a couple years experience, but he has raw natural talent and has even captured FTD before.
Again the competitors were broke up into two run groups, with Lucian & I within the second. While it was good to have the first group clean off the track for us, it also meant that we would be driving in the cooling temperatures, dwindling light, and a sunset shining in our eyes. Not so advantageous this time around.
Heading into our first runs, FTD had already been set by a supercharged Miata. His time (42.22) was a good second better than the next quickest competitor. My goal was to better it, and while winning my class of 5 ESP competitors.
Run #1: The tires were cold and I understeered into a cone at the beginning of my run. But aside from that one cone, I got a pretty good raw time of 43.3 which would put me 4th overall and only 1/10 off 2nd overall. People were coming up to me saying “Good run! You’re right there… Just clean it up!†Things were looking promising!
Run #2: I cleaned up the section where I had hit the cone, only to overdo it in a faster section where I hit the outside cone of a gate. D’oh! But my raw time improved to a 43.2 which would put me 2nd overall. However, Lucian was now getting a feel for the car and not hitting any cones. With my cone penalty, he was beating me.
Run #3: Now the sun had set, it was getting dark, and the temperature was dropping. Both my co-driver and an ESP Mustang were ahead of me due to my cone penalties. I just needed to get a clean run at my previous pace and I’d easily have a class win. So what did I do? I hit a cone! Then knowing I’d need to make up about 1 second to compensate for that cone, I pressed even harder which resulted in another cone and an eventual off course. Ugh.
So the end result was Lucian got 1st in ESP and 11th overall, and I got 4th in ESP and 14th overall. So much for that “promising†first run. Lol
But that’s only ½ the story…
While Lucian & I were running the car, two unusual things began happening. One was that the car started popping out of 2nd gear while on the course. Second was that occasionally a loud banging noise was coming from the rear somewhere. The sound was very reminiscent to when I blew my center diff....
As I was swapping the wheels after the event, I discovered that I could slide the rear driver’s side axle in/out nearly 2â€. That didn’t seem right to me!
After I packed up and started to leave the event, the car would barely mover under its own power, like a severely slipping clutch. Closer inspection revealed that the driver's real axle was spinning freely under load. So I had the car flatbeded home.
I took it apart last weekend and there was no real damage. Just some dinged up axle splines where it fits into the outer CV joint. Somehow the axle had popped out.
I'm still not sure how the axle could have popped out of the CV joint like that. My best guess is that it wasn't fully reinserted when I had it apart about 4 years ago. Doesn't seem likely though. But as it stands now, it looks like all I need to do is take a file and clean up those splines a bit, then pop it together again. *shrug*
As for the gear popping out issue, I'm pretty sure it’s just some loose / worn bearings in the tranny. The bearings on the intermediate shaft were a little on the loose side when I had the tranny apart last year for my busted center diff. I don't really feel like rebuilding this one mid-season, so I’m looking for a replacement (Let me know if you have one for sale.).
And then there's my engine... It's been making a weird hum / whine noise in the timing belt area. It sounds like a bad bearing. Could be the alternator, timing belt tensioner or idler, water pump, or oil pump. Still gotta diagnose that. Ugh.
So that’s the latest adventure. Hopefully I can get these issues straightened out quickly and get back into the action. There’s a double regional in two weeks time, so that’s my goal.
Here’s some of Gordon’s pics of the event. His full album can be see here: http://pics.spoon.org/gallery2/v/Motorsports/Slalom/ASCC-20090617
Here's a video from the event. It's hard to see anything in one direction due to the sunset: http://vimeo.com/5290504
I have other videos of both Lucian & I but when I tried to upload them to YouTube, it cut them down to < 10 seconds. Dunno what's going on there, but eventually I'll figure it out.
Speaking of video, does anyone know how to embed it here on DSMTuners? The code supplied by YouTube & Vimeo doesn't appear to work, yet I've seen embedded YouTube posts on here from other members.
