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Just got back from the 24 hours of lemons and thought I'd share the story. No RX-7 content but whatever.
Anyways, over the summer some friends and I prepped our donated 1995 Dodge stratus. It started out with a 2.0 and a 5 speed. Before it would even move fuses had to be put in it, after it got started we noticed a TERRIBLE oil leak. In the range of liters per minute. We pulled the motor and decided to swap in a 2.4 DOHC out of a better stratus. Since we had no money into the car we figured it would be quite affordable. Turns out it was - we actually made money on the swap. Our total expenditure per the rules by the time it was race ready was $37. All we did otherwise for mods was to cut the springs and modify the front upper control arms for some extra camber. Car dynoed at 150WHP incase anyone is wondering. Pretty good for a stratus!
So last weekend was the big race. Nelson Ledges, ohio. Noon saturday till Noon sunday.
We got there late thursday night and slept.
Friday morning we unpacked the awesome race rig. One of the other team members has an 8 second car and a SWEET ass toterhome setup. We were warm and dry all weekend, which is good because it rained all day friday and was a mud pit the rest of the time. Set up the 12' canopy and unpacked the race car and pit vehicles (golf cart, ATV and a 1984 innocenti turbo).
Practice friday night went well. Our tires sucked in the rain (we just had all seasons on it at that point) but the car felt strong and seemed to corner well. Came back from a run and the car shut off. We investigated and decided it must be the crank angle sensor overheating. Found a spare and decided to run hoodless just to be sure.
Saturday - Race day
Driver's meeting at 10:30. Pretty normal, common sense stuff.
Race starts at Noon. Car goes out at 11:45 for parade laps. 12:10 and the car is back in the pits. BRAND NEW CLUTCH blew up.
The guy with the 8 second car happens to be a career mechanic and kicks ass at working on cars. We have the trans out in about 30 minutes. I walked around the pits and begged/borrowed us a clutch from some fellows with a green neon. (later paid for it in a case of alexander keiths). Another 45 minutes and the car was back together with the used clutch in. Seems to work well but sometimes slips a bit on upshifts. Most of the 3-4 upshifts from that point on were done clutchlessly to try and make the clutch live longer.
I go out for my first stint around 3-4PM. Still on the crappy tires. The car is fast. Really fast. Only cars that can outdrag it are an old caprice, a Turbo/AWD dsm and a supra.. And none of them can get it by much.
In the turns however is a whole new story. Despite having crappy blown struts it looks like our handling mods were dead on. I was able to get around the carousel in the top of 3rd gear and the other sweeper I was exiting near the top of 4th! One time going around I passed a spec miata on the outside. The sheer amount of grip the car had was amazing.
First half hour I'm out the car is great. Too bad I get a black flag - our 2nd of the day. I got hit and ended up putting 4 wheels off. Judges decided I should write lines, on the car, in sharpie. Oops.
Another one of our drivers had got us a black flag earlier but we just got a warning.
Next driver goes out and gets us ANOTHER black flag. THis time we got a tire bolted to the roof. Luckily, our last one of the night.
I went out around dusk with fresh tires (falken azenis RT615's) and if the car was good before, it was incredible now. I spent most of that hour following the #28 black supra, who along with us were the fastest there. I could pass him but he'd always get me in traffic, he was a bit better driver IMO - at least at getting through traffic. After about an hour I'm running low on fuel so I come in and we change drivers. I go off to bed and come back out around 11, another successful run and great fun. We've worked our way up to around 60th, up from 120th when we came out of the pits.
I go off to sleep and get woke up at 2:51AM... stratus is dead. We finished 90th.
I can't wait to go again next year. Aside from our reliability issues the car was fantastic. never thought I'd stay that about a dodge stratus.
Anyways, over the summer some friends and I prepped our donated 1995 Dodge stratus. It started out with a 2.0 and a 5 speed. Before it would even move fuses had to be put in it, after it got started we noticed a TERRIBLE oil leak. In the range of liters per minute. We pulled the motor and decided to swap in a 2.4 DOHC out of a better stratus. Since we had no money into the car we figured it would be quite affordable. Turns out it was - we actually made money on the swap. Our total expenditure per the rules by the time it was race ready was $37. All we did otherwise for mods was to cut the springs and modify the front upper control arms for some extra camber. Car dynoed at 150WHP incase anyone is wondering. Pretty good for a stratus!
So last weekend was the big race. Nelson Ledges, ohio. Noon saturday till Noon sunday.
We got there late thursday night and slept.
Friday morning we unpacked the awesome race rig. One of the other team members has an 8 second car and a SWEET ass toterhome setup. We were warm and dry all weekend, which is good because it rained all day friday and was a mud pit the rest of the time. Set up the 12' canopy and unpacked the race car and pit vehicles (golf cart, ATV and a 1984 innocenti turbo).
Practice friday night went well. Our tires sucked in the rain (we just had all seasons on it at that point) but the car felt strong and seemed to corner well. Came back from a run and the car shut off. We investigated and decided it must be the crank angle sensor overheating. Found a spare and decided to run hoodless just to be sure.
Saturday - Race day
Driver's meeting at 10:30. Pretty normal, common sense stuff.
Race starts at Noon. Car goes out at 11:45 for parade laps. 12:10 and the car is back in the pits. BRAND NEW CLUTCH blew up.
The guy with the 8 second car happens to be a career mechanic and kicks ass at working on cars. We have the trans out in about 30 minutes. I walked around the pits and begged/borrowed us a clutch from some fellows with a green neon. (later paid for it in a case of alexander keiths). Another 45 minutes and the car was back together with the used clutch in. Seems to work well but sometimes slips a bit on upshifts. Most of the 3-4 upshifts from that point on were done clutchlessly to try and make the clutch live longer.
I go out for my first stint around 3-4PM. Still on the crappy tires. The car is fast. Really fast. Only cars that can outdrag it are an old caprice, a Turbo/AWD dsm and a supra.. And none of them can get it by much.
In the turns however is a whole new story. Despite having crappy blown struts it looks like our handling mods were dead on. I was able to get around the carousel in the top of 3rd gear and the other sweeper I was exiting near the top of 4th! One time going around I passed a spec miata on the outside. The sheer amount of grip the car had was amazing.
First half hour I'm out the car is great. Too bad I get a black flag - our 2nd of the day. I got hit and ended up putting 4 wheels off. Judges decided I should write lines, on the car, in sharpie. Oops.
Another one of our drivers had got us a black flag earlier but we just got a warning.
Next driver goes out and gets us ANOTHER black flag. THis time we got a tire bolted to the roof. Luckily, our last one of the night.
I went out around dusk with fresh tires (falken azenis RT615's) and if the car was good before, it was incredible now. I spent most of that hour following the #28 black supra, who along with us were the fastest there. I could pass him but he'd always get me in traffic, he was a bit better driver IMO - at least at getting through traffic. After about an hour I'm running low on fuel so I come in and we change drivers. I go off to bed and come back out around 11, another successful run and great fun. We've worked our way up to around 60th, up from 120th when we came out of the pits.
I go off to sleep and get woke up at 2:51AM... stratus is dead. We finished 90th.
I can't wait to go again next year. Aside from our reliability issues the car was fantastic. never thought I'd stay that about a dodge stratus.
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