[Amc-list] 24 Hours of LeMons -- we're back

[Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

Just got back. This is off-topic, so I'll keep it to one post.

We had a GREAT!! time.

We did REALLY!! well.

We finished 33rd out of a field of 100 cars, in 12 hours of
endurance racing at Altamont, in our (ta da) 1993 Ford Escort
LX with automatic transmission. None of us had ever raced before.

We'd set our goal 10 weeks ago when we entered at:

1) Complete the race
2) Finish in the top 50%

We were slow (duh) but stayed on the track all but 15 minutes
due to a wheel flying off in a slalom (torqued out the center
of a steel wheel). Towed back to the pit, we juggled wheels to
put the loss on the rear, and stuck on a 13" scunion junk wheel
and tire which we filled to 45psi and did another 4 hours on.

We did good planning, our team was tight, all drivers were pretty
good for crap-a** rank amateurs. None of us had ever raced before
(though I did some SOLO II about 15 years back, it was helpful).


Tech stuff -- AMC content -- Hey Mark, we used your crazy idea of
the A/C condenser as tranny cooler -- the hot fluid entering the
cooler never got over 180 degrees, peak! Two radiator fans on it.

Exhaust was wrapped with a roll of kitchen aluminum foil,
you could put your hand on the exhaust manifold when hot. Did
a lot of ducting under the engine and added a second fan to the
hood, under-hood never even got hot, and engine temp NEVER got
above low-normal.

Basically pegged the 1.9L motor at 5000 rpm and left it there
the whole time 'cept for braked corners.

THe basic car cost $500 (rules). We went over only a bit... there
was a LOT of cheating but it t'weren't us.


More AMC content: man, if you want a crowd that will appreciate
AMC cars for what they are, great cars made by a peculiar
and historically notable company, this was the crowd. Never
had some many people (non-AMCers, non-my-mother-had-one) (1)
know what a Hornet and AMC was and (2) know about the motor,
nice lines, asked about AMXs, 4.0s, etc.

Most definitely not your Ford vs. Chevy crowd. Sad note: there
was a special category of 'American car', since there were so
few big boats.

This week lots of post-race photos at our team's site

http://www.makewayracing.com

Also likely lots of s**t talk on http://jalopnik.com

This was the race: http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/



Oh man, we're going back next year!!! We're probably gonna run
this hunk'o'junk again -- but I'm gonna turbo it!
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