Rockingham Chump Car Race
 

Last minute preparations are being finished for our Lemons/Chump car Mitsubishi GT3000 for the Chump Car race at Rockinham N.C. March 12-13. Twin 7 hour races on the Roval (Road course + oval).

We've upgraded the front brakes to bigger VR4s. New rules required a new fuel cell (can and bladder), which required a reconfiguration of the rear end of the car which required a new exhaust system. It's always somethin. The new fuel cell is lower down for a better CG. The side exhaust exits on the passenger side now instead of the rear and the rat's nest cockpit wiring has been upgraded to an elegant shrubery.

Currently 39 degrees there at night. I hope it warms up, Florida boys don't like no cold weather:run: We ain't got no antifreeze (by rule) either.

Chumpcar now requires a fuel cell? Ugh...

No they don't require a fuel cell if you still have the OEM tank/pump. But for us boneheads who for one reason or another switched to an aftermarket tank, they now require a certified fuel cell with a bladder.

Before I got on the team, my predecessors had unwisely elected to dump the OEM fuel tank/pump for an aftermarket aluminum fuel tank with internal foam. There were a number of drawbacks to this including,
1. requiring fabrication of mounting system
2. requiring a swirl tank and 2 fuel pumps
3. the aluminum tank was mounted on inadequate aluminum tabs welded to the tank skin.
4. the foam deteriorates when exposed to pump gas with 10% alcohol which is everywhere now. This caused us no end of fuel supply problems.
5. the tanks welds kept cracking and leaking.

The rule changes only apply to cars with non DOT-non OEM tanks which = us.
The new rules require approved tanks with bladders. This is a good thing.
1. The tank desing is safer.
2. The tank is mounted with steel straps surrounding it bolted to the frame. In retrospect during a rollover crash I'm pretty sure the inertia of the mass in a full tank of gas would have ripped those aluminun mounting tabs off of the old tank, likely tearing it and causing a dangerous potential for fire hazard.
3. The tank is less likely to leak.
4. We ditched the foam.

We still have the swirl tank and double pumps which are necessary for external pumps (not in the tank) for multi-port FI.

good luck!

we're scrambling to get our MR2 done for Lemons @ NJMP.

Well we managed 2 second place finishes at Rockingham, that's the good news. The bad news is that 15 minutes before the end of the second race the clutch and the transmission packed up. We were stuck in 4th gear which allowed us to finish in second. However, we can't get it out of gear now. The clutch pedal seems stuck and the gear lever won't pull it out of gear into neutral or any other gear.

We will probably rebuild the clutch and transmission as the synchros were dodgy anyway. We could really use a higher final drive ratio for road course races as the OEM seems geared too tall for our purposes.

Gained a new respect for NASCAR, as driving 3 wide on a banked turn has a certain PUCKER FACTOR that needs to be experienced to be fully appreciated:eek: The car ran good until the last 15 minutes and we led the entire first half of the second race. I was able to keep up with and occasionally pass 2 spec miatas that were allowed to participate (not for position) in the races.