Topless Asset Racing Program

More details later.

Oh, we got #2 instead of #7.  Just glad we got a single digit.

It all began with a Craigslist posting:

We had to replace the 3rd-gear-only “aftermarket shifter” aka rusty vicegrips

The brakes were pretty damn scary until we got them worked out.

One fine spring day became Drive Your Hooptie to Work Day

Then the real work began at Big Pete’s

Maybe we got a bit carried away:

We are trying to get into a race full of novices (most of us included).  Sr. did an AMAZING cage job

And today you would hardly recognize this topless beauty!

Unfortunately, we don’t have it running again, yet. We still have to push it to anywhere we want to put it.

Here’s one to better approximate how it could look on the hood. Background color isn’t an exact match but close enough to give you the right idea. The white outline really makes it pop; without it, it’s just meh. Stevo, you like this top one best?

Continue reading Vargas Hood

Do you think we could sneak that hood scoop in behind the driver over his left shoulder in the clean air?  It could sit between  the B and C pillars of the cage and run into into the engine bay.  Thoughts?  I’m bringing the hood scoop over tomorrow for measurements.

Murl, I have a good job for you.  How about we get matching t-shirts as our costume?  Team name, etc on the back and something like this on the front:

First off, wow, the cage looks great with the padding in place.  I’d like to get everyone in the seat on Saturday and we can decide on the foam padding vs. Kirkey pad.  It being an enduro, I think we will want to err on the side of comfort and fit.  When you are hurting in the seat, you lose some concentration.  Two hours with something banging away at you, pinching a rib, cutting off circulation, etc, can be more than unpleasant.  It can hurt your performance.  That being said, if the foam padding seems right, lets do it.

Speaking of hurting in the seat, I got some nice bruises from carting with Pete on Thursday night.  I’m also glad to (likely only temporarily) give up my title of 6th Fastest Driver On The Team after clicking off a 24.4.  But wow, by the end of the second heat, I was really hanging in the straps huffing and puffing.  A lil workout regimen should be the order of the day if we get in this thing.

It sure seems like a lot of teams are going out for LeMons at Nelson Ledges, including Pedo Bear.  Saturday we can review our final application draft and maybe take some pictures of the car.  I’ll bring the sweet hood scoop that will can mount somewhere other than the hood.  Drivers, don’t forget to bring your monies.

Nice Ledges ride along movie.  You can see some of the paddock area, too.  Its gonna be dark, dark out there at night.

Why the scare quotes? Take a look for yourself. Pete the Younger sent these along today to show the world that (a) progress on the car continues, and (b) “progress” is an awfully slippery term.  This first photo is the seat that was donated (or loaned?) to the cause. Senior has lined the inside of this Kirkey seat with some sort of foam padding. Now, I know better than to question Senior, but I am familiar with Kirkey seat covers and I’m pretty sure that I’d prefer the contoured seat foam of the Kirkey cover. I’m sure if Senior were running this race alone we would just have a milk crate to sit on and a rope to tie around his waist to hold him in the car and it would still be better driven than it will be with the rest of us sharing driving duties with him. If this were a 30 minute sprint race I think this would be okay, but we’ll be sitting in this seat for loooong spells, sometimes not even at high speed when we’re on a full-course yellow. I think this will be about as comfortable as a church pew after about 30 minutes, but that’s just me. I have a cushy desk job and like a cushy desk chair. I’m a candy-ass, what can I say.

Continue reading The Car Keeps Getting “Better”

I revised the girl stencil a little bit (I’ll send that along in an email) to smooth out a couple of abnormalities that were creeping up when imported into Illustrator. But here’s the revised logo. I couldn’t figure out how to get it where it needed to be for the website header, Stevo, so I’ll leave that up to you. This one is sized the same (100 px tall x 125 px wide) as the one in the upper-left corner. Enjoy:

The Petes have completed the cage in the car. I’ve seen a lot of LeMons roll cage photos and I think it’s probably fair to say that the Topless Special has a more stout roll cage than any other car in LeMons history. Kudos to the Petes, this cage looks incredible. I’m pretty sure that at this point, this car would be safer upside down than if it’s on all four wheels. Here are the first photos that Pete Jr. has sent along. The top photos show the cage unpainted and progress to painted cage photos at the bottom. Enjoy!

Continue reading Cage Complete

Pete, here are the photos that I shot of the engine wiring in the TARP Special. I think I’ve got it set up so that if you click on the photo, a full-size version should come up.  Here’s a link to the wiring diagram from the 1989 AW11, this should get you through any questions that you might have but if not we can probably run down the right one for whatever year is correct for the Topless Special. You might want to print this out and scotch tape the edges together, or at least that’s what works best for me.

If you have any questions tomorrow or Friday, please don’t hesitate to call me on my mobile. Email me if you don’t have that number.

Here’s the ECU and a control box. Don’t know if that box is critical or not:

I’ll put a break in here so we don’t take up the whole first page of the blog with this:

Continue reading Engine Wiring Stuff