Racing COTA in May!!!! Chump Car. Austin. Someone please cook me some BBQ....

bgebrent

Photos and video or it didn't happen.  Please keep us up to date Carey.

nolaegghead

bgebrent said:

Photos and video or it didn't happen.  Please keep us up to date Carey.

Of course.  Lots of down time while the race is going on.  We have 4 drivers.

Reminds me...I need to order a fire suit.  Borrowed a sweaty one last time, fortunately it was cold out.  Nothing worse than wearing a sweaty racing suit.  (well, I can think of worse things...)

nolaegghead

http://www.raceimage.com/

caliking

Sea2Ski said:

You are going to have a blast!! 

My first BMW was a '82 e30 318i. I think it was an '82...  inherited it from my grandmother. Then moved on to an e46 M3, then a 335 e90, and my wife now has a F25 x3.  I really like how these cars drive. Interior is really lacking imo and needs an overhaul to get updated, but I love the way they drive, and after all, that is what is most important.

Have a great time!

Oh they overhauled it alright. Notice the pile to the right of the car. 

egger ave

COTA is south east of downtown, close to  Austin Bergstrom. Great track and pits to drive and race on. Plenty of parking and not hard to find. You will enjoy it.

fishlessman

other than stripping the cars out, can they modify for this race.

nolaegghead

fishlessman said:

other than stripping the cars out, can they modify for this race. recently seen a mod for use on an oval track with a hidden air diffuser under the car that could be turned into a wing in the corners for putting more weight on the rear tires for higher speed cornering

With Chump Car, there's a point system with a limit of 500 points.  You plug the car into a graph and get a number of points.  Also there's a calculator for engine swaps.  Then there's a checklist with mods that add points.  If the sum of points is over 500, you will incur a penalty in time or laps. 

Some cars with no mods start off well above 500 points.  Our car starts around 450. 

Some things don't add points - everything "safety" related, paint and aesthetic things.  Other mods will disqualify you from the track.

sheetmetalpete

I've been meaning to race one of these but I can never decide on which car I want to build.

fishlessman

have my name on this one, never seen it in a race    lots of rules, but lots of mods    number 30,  its built to go left. first for the season last two years and ive never seen it go round and round. i hate watching races but working with the mechanic/welder to tweek it has been interesting

thetrim

nolaegghead said:

JohnInCarolina said:

Pretty cool!  Let me just say that I have been a passenger in Nola's car when he was driving about as fast as he could (aka the way he normally drives), and I can't imagine what could possibly go wrong here...

They say it is much safer than a daily commute in Aleppo.

What.....is......A...leppo?

SGH

thetrim said:

What.....is......A...leppo?

Brother trim, I'm pretty sure that it's a gay hippo

gmbbs

Too much fun. Been racing an E30 in Lemons/chump/WRL for six seasons now. When in doubt...gas!

I've instructed at COTA, but have not raced there. Raced everywhere else though...MSRH, Harris Hill Road, No Problem, Texas Motor Speedway, Texas World, Eagles Canyon, Hallet, Road Atlanta, Heartland Park...

Racing is hard to explain to those who have not done it. With the team endurance racing (Lemons/Chump/WRL), every race is a contest against the other teams, every driving stint you do is competing against your fellow team mates, and every lap you are competing against yourself. 

And it's like riding a roller coaster. Only you are driving the roller coaster. And you're on the track with 75 other roller coasters. And each corner is like a game of chicken with the other roller coasters, and that happens 5-6 times every minute...for two hours. And when your driving stint is over, you are mentally and physically drained, but can't wait to do it again. And unlike golf, or fishing, a bad day at the track is not always better than your best day at the office!

And a BGE at a race would be great. Track food may be expensive, but it sucks.

Team Operation; http://murileemartin.com/wordpress/?p=5

FearlessTheEggNoob

Heard COTA had 107 teams running last year. Seems hard to believe.

nolaegghead

@gmbbs

That's a sweet car - I've seen it before!

If you have any sweet E30 tips, I'm all ears.

Our car is in Dallas - I need to get an update.  It should be mostly built by now.  Wish I lived closer!

DoubleEgger

Sounds like fun. Have a great time Nola. I'd love to drive on a road course one day. I was gifted the NASCAR driving package and I was bored to death after two laps. Who wants to turn left all day long? 

nolaegghead

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Nice job, Conway!

nolaegghead

nolaegghead

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Nice job, Conway!

That horse left the barn when I was banned!

HeavyG

So how'd your team fare? Good time had by all?

northGAcock

Are there any opportunities in concessions?

MaskedMarvel

We have a respectable track around my area - VIR. 

A few buddies do chump. I would but can't find any car under $500....

race well, friend!!!

nolaegghead

Long ago, in discussions in a smokey room, associates and I determined the best things about life, and enumerated them:

1) Being right
2) Skiing
3) Sex

Since then, the tables have shifted, tectonic plates moved, idiocracy reigned.  Driving a race car on an F1 track with 60 other cars, as fast as you can, for 90 minute shifts in an endurance race for 2 days (16 hours total race time)...let's just say it replaced number 2 on the above list.

We sold the old Miata, actually it was on the track with us sporting a new paint job (Orange - disappointing).

My buddy Pete was chatting with another racer who raced and E30.  Since this is our first E30, he was trying to get tips and tricks on the new car.  Guy said "so you replaced your rocker arms, right?".  Pete: "uhhhh...huh?"  Guy: "WTF?!  Google that year E30 and it's a known flaw...you're going to break at least one rocker arm today".  Pete: "we sort of focused on the suspension..."

Later that morning....  Phil was driving, about 3 hours into the first day of the endurance race, came in to the pit early.  (yelling, because it's FVCKING LOUD) "HEY, THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG!  I LOST POWER, I THINK WE DROPPED A CYLINDER!" 

The track nazis won't let you work on your car in the pit and ran us off the track, so we headed out to our paddock spot, pulled the valve cover and, lo and behold, broken rocker arm in #4 cylinder.

We found the same guy who predicted our failure and he came by with a bag of rocker arms, a metal rod, a hole saw and a single feeler gauge.  Spent 10 minutes describing the best method of attack to replace the rocker arm.

"Take all the sh!it off the front of the engine, oil cooler, radiator, distributor, etc.  Saw a hole behind the head in the firewall, loosen the rocker arm rod bolts, pound the MF-er out through the firewall into the car until you can get your new rocker arm on."  (lemme say this is not something you would do to your daily driver as holes in the firewall are normally eschewed).

Anyway, 2 hours later we were back on the track, hauling ass and were fortunate we didn't lose any other rocker arms that day, nor all day Sunday.  (it's a 16 hour endurance race over 2 days). 

Beautiful track.  Helluvalotta fun.

nolaegghead

HeavyG said:

So how'd your team fare? Good time had by all?

First race in a new car.  The Miata retired after a decade of racing, it was not terribly fast in the acceleration department, but cornered like it was on rails.  So my buddy Pete, who I went to HS and college with, decided they wanted something more fun to race.  The E30 BMW is the second most popular car at this level of racing.  The Miata is the first. 

The E30 is a level up on the Miata in acceleration.  In race form, our car weighed in at 2080 pounds wet.  With around 180 HP, that makes it fairly spirited compared to the Miata coming out of turns.

We went crazy on the suspension - adjustable on all 4 corners.  Lots of modifications.   We knew these would make the car fast, but not necessary competitive in Chump Car.  Going into the race, we knew we'd have a big penalty - it's a point system and they dock you laps or bump you into a higher class where you're not going to be competitive unless you spend a lot of money.

So after the car inspection and disclosure, we were way over our point limit and had a 19 lap penalty.  That's about an hour on this track.  We elected to be bumped into the "EC" class so our laps would at least count.  We raced for fun.  And it was.

Overall, despite the rocker arm failure, and a few other mechanical issues that we dealt with (brakes wore out first day, the adjustable suspension had some issues, etc), the car was quick and fun to drive.  Unfortunately the ABS never worked and we trashed the tires with some lockups, but we knocked 10 seconds off our quickest lap time on COTA in the Miata.

The fun level was off that charts.

HeavyG

"The fun level was off that charts."

Primary objective met then.

Is the "24 hours of LeMons" racing still a thing these days?

nolaegghead

HeavyG said:

"The fun level was off that charts."

Primary objective met then.

Is the "24 hours of LeMons" racing still a thing these days?

It is.  I'm just a stand-in driver on this team.  They race both, they both have the same basic rules.  The lemons is a lot of fun in the same way the Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus is fun.  Pageantry.  Chump car is much more about the racing.  Less slow cars with inflatable sex dolls on the roof to dodge.  It's all fun, and I was never one to watch car racing.  But I'm a motor head grease monkey from my teens.

20stone

nolaegghead said:

HeavyG said:

So how'd your team fare? Good time had by all?

First race in a new car.  The Miata retired after a decade of racing, it was not terribly fast in the acceleration department, but cornered like it was on rails.  So my buddy Pete, who I went to HS and college with, decided they wanted something more fun to race.  The E30 BMW is the second most popular car at this level of racing.  The Miata is the first. 

The E30 is a level up on the Miata in acceleration.  In race form, our car weighed in at 2080 pounds wet.  With around 180 HP, that makes it fairly spirited compared to the Miata coming out of turns.

We went crazy on the suspension - adjustable on all 4 corners.  Lots of modifications.   We knew these would make the car fast, but not necessary competitive in Chump Car.  Going into the race, we knew we'd have a big penalty - it's a point system and they dock you laps or bump you into a higher class where you're not going to be competitive unless you spend a lot of money.

So after the car inspection and disclosure, we were way over our point limit and had a 19 lap penalty.  That's about an hour on this track.  We elected to be bumped into the "EC" class so our laps would at least count.  We raced for fun.  And it was.

Overall, despite the rocker arm failure, and a few other mechanical issues that we dealt with (brakes wore out first day, the adjustable suspension had some issues, etc), the car was quick and fun to drive.  Unfortunately the ABS never worked and we trashed the tires with some lockups, but we knocked 10 seconds off our quickest lap time on COTA in the Miata.

The fun level was off that charts.

Sounds like you guys had a great time.

Once I get a few of my other hobbies back under control, I need to climb back in a ChumpCar.  Wheel to wheel racing is the bees knees, though, to your original post, still behind being right.