Mika, Erno and helpers Harri ja Pete worked long hours the days before the event to get the car ready for the track. The work included making a new oil pan because the old one started leaking around the oil stick tube, and we also had to get working lights.
The race taxi being pulled to the track.
Race taxi and the service car. Finally at the track.
Erno took the first turn to drive. The car worked flawlessly for half an lap, after which it started to sputter. The water temp gauge read 130 degrees, so it was driven calmly back to the pits. At the pit it was noticed that the china made gauge was in metric for oil pressure, but the temperature read in imperial, so 130 degrees Fahrenheit wasn't that bad after all.
Mika continued to drive, and as soon as the engine got into boost it started to sputter. The day went mostly when trying to sort this out. Mika went to the track 4-5 times and drove approximately 10 laps with good and bad success. Sometimes the engine worked, but mostly not. The day was ended with an engine failure. The engine started making noise like the connecting rod bearings would have broken.
Even though the engine didn't function properly, the few friends that got a ride were really impressed how well it went on the track. The suspension also worked surprisingly well considering that we didn't get stiff enough springs for the front in time for this event.
Thanks for the on track photos to Toni Lari. More of his photos can be seen at: http://toni.dnsf.org/
Big thanks to all who helped! After the visit on the track we have a better picture of what to do next with the car. A couple weeks until the event at Artukainen street track in Turku!
.JPG)
At the starting line. Everything was still good at this point..JPG)
Returning from the strip. Engine broken....JPG)
The sound from the engine is the same as the last engine damage. Probably a broken connecting rod bearing again. Felt bad that the engine only gave us one half run on the strip after the strong performance it had on the dyno.
The race taxi being pulled to the track.
Race taxi and the service car. Finally at the track.
Right after the car show Mika took an angle grinder and removed the front wheelarches. New ones were made by removing arches from another car, welding on a 50mm strip of steel and the new wheelarch was then pop riveted into place.
Widened side door hinge. It is 22mm wider than original to clear the center lug. We tested with just the new wheel that the side door had plenty of space, but the massive nut for the wheel wasn't taken into account. :)
The tool to tighten the wheel nuts. 75mm. Borrowed from Pekka.
A picture from under the car. We took the car to Erno's car lift so we could do some minor details under the car. We ended up spending a week there when we rerouted everything under the car. It was so uncomfortable doing it in our own garage, and getting the whole picture when the car was lifted up was enough to convince us of doing it again.
