Tuesday, December 29
We're rich and famous!
Well, in all honesty, we haven't exactly won the lottery, or through a stroke of good luck, become famous, but our hard work has paid off, and we've got what we've never thought was possible, Grassroots Motorsports Magazine (www.grassrootsmotorsports.com) has an article about our car in their latest issue! Its actually about the car as it appeared in the 2008 GRM challenge. I've uploaded the low resolution proof for those of you too cheap to go out and buy the real thing! Enjoy, and go out and tell alll your friends!
Wednesday, December 16
Last autox event of the Year!
After all the issues we had at the Bank Atlantic autox, we wanted to finish the year off with a bang, and that's just what we did. Jimmy and I signed up for the Homestead autox. After our spectacular radiator failure at the last event, we made sure the car was running "tip top" at this event. Jimmy spent some time the week before replacing the busted radiator and hose, he tightened up the shifter with some o-rings our friend Bartley gave us, and when Sunday morning arrived, we hooked the car to the back of the truck, and were off to Homestead.
Christy, like always was at home helping us swap wheels.
We had lots of good help when my sister and her family showed up!
Our newest pit crew member hard at work.
A drive-by video I shot of Jimmy driving using my phone.
A better quality in car video of one run.
We had some stiff competition in our class, a Mitsu Evo IX, Subaru STI, and a Corvette Z06!
When the dust settled, we had the best results to date an an autox.
Christy, like always was at home helping us swap wheels.
We had lots of good help when my sister and her family showed up!
Our newest pit crew member hard at work.
A drive-by video I shot of Jimmy driving using my phone.
A better quality in car video of one run.
We had some stiff competition in our class, a Mitsu Evo IX, Subaru STI, and a Corvette Z06!
When the dust settled, we had the best results to date an an autox.Monday, November 16
Back in the saddle again.
We heard that the Porsche club was holding an autox a few miles from where we live. We signed up and were ready to go at 8 am.... not without the usual few glitches, like getting to the event and realizing the keys to the car were still at home! Christy was nice enough to go pick them up for us while we prepared the car for the tech inspection.
We both signed up, so we had a total of 8 runs each. 4 in the morning set, and 4 in the afternoon set. Jimmy's first 4 runs went without any issues other than the car running very hot due to a broken fan clutch.
Little by little he chipped away at his times, and between both the morning session and the afternoon session, he ended running a best time of 54.486.
Because of the broken fan clutch, we were running on borrowed time... with coolant temps in the 230's.
My runs were after Jimmy's and unfortunately the car had no time to cool down.
I spun on my first run, running a 60.081. On the second run I ran a 52.991, but hit a cone, so a second was added. My best time came on my 3rd run, a 52.451, good enough to put us in 14th position.
On my final run of the morning session, I cracked the hose connector off the radiator
We thought that was the end of our day, but fortunately Bartley and his son Sven were kind enough to lend us a spare radiator they had in their garage down the street. We swapped radiators, filled up the coolant, and made it just in time for Jimmy to go out and do his second session.
On Jimmy's final run, the car burst the lower radiator hose. With no spare, that was the end of our day and I wasn't able to do my last 4 runs. Even with the cooling issues, we had a blast, and were able to hang out with some really cool people, while giving the car a good shakedown. We know what we need to improve on, and what needs to be replaced/repaired before our next autox on December the 13th in Homestead. Our fastest time was good enough for 14th out of 52 cars in our class.
A bunch of our buddies came out to the event to support us and take some pictures(thanks Rolando). Christy fired the grill up and cooked some chicken, It was a nice day in the parking lot ;)
We both signed up, so we had a total of 8 runs each. 4 in the morning set, and 4 in the afternoon set. Jimmy's first 4 runs went without any issues other than the car running very hot due to a broken fan clutch.
Little by little he chipped away at his times, and between both the morning session and the afternoon session, he ended running a best time of 54.486.
Because of the broken fan clutch, we were running on borrowed time... with coolant temps in the 230's.
My runs were after Jimmy's and unfortunately the car had no time to cool down.
I spun on my first run, running a 60.081. On the second run I ran a 52.991, but hit a cone, so a second was added. My best time came on my 3rd run, a 52.451, good enough to put us in 14th position.
On my final run of the morning session, I cracked the hose connector off the radiator
We thought that was the end of our day, but fortunately Bartley and his son Sven were kind enough to lend us a spare radiator they had in their garage down the street. We swapped radiators, filled up the coolant, and made it just in time for Jimmy to go out and do his second session.
On Jimmy's final run, the car burst the lower radiator hose. With no spare, that was the end of our day and I wasn't able to do my last 4 runs. Even with the cooling issues, we had a blast, and were able to hang out with some really cool people, while giving the car a good shakedown. We know what we need to improve on, and what needs to be replaced/repaired before our next autox on December the 13th in Homestead. Our fastest time was good enough for 14th out of 52 cars in our class.
A bunch of our buddies came out to the event to support us and take some pictures(thanks Rolando). Christy fired the grill up and cooked some chicken, It was a nice day in the parking lot ;)
Tuesday, November 10
Parts cars are never boring!
After a hard days work, actually only 3 hours , we decided to have a bit of fun... as if completely dismantling a car isn't fun ;)
If you look at the second bounce, the tire left the ground, before the spring popped out!
If you look at the second bounce, the tire left the ground, before the spring popped out!
Prep for 2010 begins!
Its been a little over a month since the 2009 Grassroots Motorsports Challenge. We have had time to relax and do everything we didn't have time to do in the months leading up to the event. Needless to say we are still motivated, and have big plans for 2010. The first step of our plan includes finding a good parts car where we can source some good metal panels for our new widebody. We recieved really good feedback on our fiberglass fenders, but I was never happy with the undercoating treatment that we had to resort to because of time constraints. I really would have liked to finish them correctly by smoothing them out with fiberglass filler and a light coat of bondo. Rather than strip them down and finish them, and still not be 100% happy with the shape, we are planning on creating a steel widebody similar to the e30 M3 widebody, only much more extreme.
Some friends of ours purchased this non running automatic 325is for $250. They want it for the LSD, wheels, headlights, spoiler and complete interior. Once they are done with it they offered it to us for next to nothing. Its got quite a bit of rust, and the paint is pretty far gone.
At this point the stripping has just begun, We have only pulled the front fenders and trunk lid for our challenge car.
A few days later we were back at it with a cutting wheel and a sawzall. We cut out both Quarterpanels and the inner wheel wells in one piece.
We also cut out the rear section of the roof panel for our sunroof delete mod that we will be performing in the near future.
I also took the headliner and quarterpanel windows for my 318is project which can be seen here, www.rede30.blogspot.com.
Some friends of ours purchased this non running automatic 325is for $250. They want it for the LSD, wheels, headlights, spoiler and complete interior. Once they are done with it they offered it to us for next to nothing. Its got quite a bit of rust, and the paint is pretty far gone.
At this point the stripping has just begun, We have only pulled the front fenders and trunk lid for our challenge car.
A few days later we were back at it with a cutting wheel and a sawzall. We cut out both Quarterpanels and the inner wheel wells in one piece.
We also cut out the rear section of the roof panel for our sunroof delete mod that we will be performing in the near future.
I also took the headliner and quarterpanel windows for my 318is project which can be seen here, www.rede30.blogspot.com.
Monday, October 26
At the 2009 Grassroots motorsports Challenge
Day 1 Thursday morning we were all packed up and on the road by 10:30 am. We had a 6 hour drive to Gainesville ahead of us.
Things went smoothly for the first 5 hours.
About 60 miles from Gainesville, the driver's side front of the car began to bounce. We pulled over to see what the problem was and discovered our tire was grossly disfigured! We jacked the car up swapped the wheel with our only spare.
Check out the lump on it!
We had a good laugh and put things back together.
Day 2 At the event. The first thing we did after getting the car through Tech inspection was get in line for the Concours portion of the event.
Later that day we did all of our Autox runs
Bartley and his son Sven were nice enough to meet us at the event, and give us a hand whenever we needed some help.
Day 3 Drags.
Andy Nelson set the fastest time of the day in his Beetle.
Team Gutty's CRX was fast on the Autox and on the drag, and ended up taking the overall win.
Some Drag pics
Below is a Vid of the Awards ceremony showing Jimmy and I receiving our 2nd place Autox plaque. I want to thank my dad, Carlos Mendez, for taking the time to create our aluminum adapters so we could run such wide wheels and do so well.
A pic of our plaques!
Day 4 Heading home with a 3rd place finish, already planning for next year.
Things went smoothly for the first 5 hours.
About 60 miles from Gainesville, the driver's side front of the car began to bounce. We pulled over to see what the problem was and discovered our tire was grossly disfigured! We jacked the car up swapped the wheel with our only spare.
Check out the lump on it!
We had a good laugh and put things back together.
Day 2 At the event. The first thing we did after getting the car through Tech inspection was get in line for the Concours portion of the event.
Later that day we did all of our Autox runs
Bartley and his son Sven were nice enough to meet us at the event, and give us a hand whenever we needed some help.
Day 3 Drags.
Andy Nelson set the fastest time of the day in his Beetle.
Team Gutty's CRX was fast on the Autox and on the drag, and ended up taking the overall win.
Some Drag pics
Below is a Vid of the Awards ceremony showing Jimmy and I receiving our 2nd place Autox plaque. I want to thank my dad, Carlos Mendez, for taking the time to create our aluminum adapters so we could run such wide wheels and do so well.
A pic of our plaques!
Day 4 Heading home with a 3rd place finish, already planning for next year.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
