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My 244ti @ 24 Hours of Lemons, Sonoma

pat244ti

pat244ti

Moderator
Joined
Dec 23, 2002
Location
Santa Cruz CA
I started a thread in the project forum for this a while ago but I have not been updating it, just been working away and have not had time.

I've been working on converting my 244 race car shell [I gave up on running SCCA with it because of cost] to LeMons spec since about September when I started with this



I sold off pretty much all of the engine go fast drivetrain parts that were on it to fund finishing it safety wise and other general prep mostly.

It's a squirter block with LH 2.2 and breakerless 240 Turbo ignition, stock manifolds, 15g from a 850 Turbo and other stuff.

It was a crazy few weeks leading up to the race, we even started 2 hours after the green because we were waiting on tires [the hoosiers I had on my wheels before were not legal]. Did not run a transponder so we were never being scored.

Had a few mishaps. A connector came loose at the coil for the RPM signal going to LH and caused it to stall/no start, quick fix. When Ben got towed in the airdam got taco'ed by the tow strap hooked to us [never installed a 242GT front tow hook]

A short time later after a driver change, Rob gets pushed in and a wheel comes off while getting pushed by the truck. Minor 1/4 [panel damage], 5 missing lugnuts and ovaled out stud holes on the wheel was the result.

We began coming in every few laps to retighten the lugs.

Sunday morning we did some work, Ben went out first again and missed a yellow flag coming into a hairpin, lost it and creamed the 244's left rear quarter into a GTI that had slowed for the caution. Luckily it was all cosmetic but it was still pretty agonizing to see. The rear 1/4 is destroyed but I will get it replaced, we still did not execute our theme for this race [decorating it like the Daytona USA car "Hornet"] so keeping the silver paint nice [a HS graduation gift from 2003] is officially out of the question.

For the most part Sunday went pretty good other than that. We had to get towed in once for a stuck throttle going up the hill which Rob thankfully nailed the kill switch in time before something bad could happen. We stayed on the track just about all day. Towards the end of the day the car started to run a little funky but it made it past the checkered.

The car ran pretty good, seems a little rich [running s70 t5 injectors] but I am going to dial that out with the maf screw and possibly smaller injectors and or a 2.5 bar fpr. Wideband is almost installed so I will have a better idea of whats going on. The brake lines need to be replaced on all four corners I think they are mad for sitting for so long with an open system, the car will stop fine but the pedal is spongy.

With those items fixed the car should be pretty awesome. Seemed reliable and was fast and handled great in my opinion.



I'll post more pictures later
 
Good to see you guys out there. I was in the stands early on Saturday watching our first driver and noticed your car off to the left in the pits. Glad you made it on track but sorry about all the mishaps. Rob and Ben both came and found my team in the paddock and introduced themselves which was cool. Good to meet those guys. I cruised by your pit spot on my pitbike a few times but no one was around to say hi to.

Don't get discouraged by the negatives - the fact that you were out there turning laps and had fun means it was a successful first outing in Lemons. Bang the quarter panel out or pull it with a come-along tied to a lift post or a pickup truck. If you are concerned about body damage on this car then crapcan racing isn't the right venue for it. If it's now a dedicated Lemons and/or Chump car, then it will start to pick up more and more "character" with every race. A little bit of bumpin and grindin is unavoidable.

To me that's one of the best parts of working on these cars. I can literally drop a sledgehammer on any body panel and not care. It's refreshing.

Edit: slide hammer is the go-to Lemons body tool. My dad has one called the "Morgan Nokker" that is like, his favorite tool ever. For bonus points it sounds like a porn star name.
 
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It was good to see you out there and that car looks like a blast to drive. Can't wait to turn so laps with that car once we get our 122 up and running. Are you going to be racing in March?
 
Definitely a great first step to get it to a race and out on track.

A few personal preferences of things that I would change before your next race.

Install that steering wheel spacer so the ergonomics aren't as compromised for taller drivers like yourself.

I'd prefer the car with a welded g80 or a truetrac over the welded diff, its abit more forgiving

Figure out what is up with the brake system, possibly replace the lines, and check the bias. Right now the car has way to much rear brake bias IMO. That can be easily fixed with a rear brake bias valve.

Figure out some hardware so your strut mounts aren't constantly binding causing the struts to be in bending.

Get shorter springs for the rear so you can get the ride height leveled out.
 
Duder said:
Good to see you guys out there. I was in the stands early on Saturday watching our first driver and noticed your car off to the left in the pits. Glad you made it on track but sorry about all the mishaps. Rob and Ben both came and found my team in the paddock and introduced themselves which was cool. Good to meet those guys. I cruised by your pit spot on my pitbike a few times but no one was around to say hi to.

Don't get discouraged by the negatives - the fact that you were out there turning laps and had fun means it was a successful first outing in Lemons. Bang the quarter panel out or pull it with a come-along tied to a lift post or a pickup truck. If you are concerned about body damage on this car then crapcan racing isn't the right venue for it. If it's now a dedicated Lemons and/or Chump car, then it will start to pick up more and more "character" with every race. A little bit of bumpin and grindin is unavoidable.

To me that's one of the best parts of working on these cars. I can literally drop a sledgehammer on any body panel and not care. It's refreshing.

Edit: slide hammer is the go-to Lemons body tool. My dad has one called the "Morgan Nokker" that is like, his favorite tool ever. For bonus points it sounds like a porn star name.
Click to expand...

It was nice to meet you, always odd to ask, "Are you duder?" :lol:

I was telling pat that if he wants to replace the QP, that he should rivet on a replacement one that way its easy to change if we wants to keep the car looking straight as more contact is inevitable in "crapcan" racing.

We did use a wrachet strap and Pats truck to pull the fender arch out during the race. Along with a harbor freight dead blow and some jack handles.

I think he should leave it wrinkly and just make the california raisons as his theme.
 
I think the rear brakes were the reason the rear wheel came off. I was inspecting the team dynamics wheels and noticed there wasnt a steel insert in the lug hole like the oem wheels have. I think figuring out the brakes would be the first thing on the list. I think the heat expansion and contraction on those wheels differed so much due to that fact there is no insert. Hence why the oem volans never came loose
 
cosbySweater said:
I think the rear brakes were the reason the rear wheel came off. I was inspecting the team dynamics wheels and noticed there wasnt a steel insert in the lug hole like the oem wheels have. I think figuring out the brakes would be the first thing on the list. I think the heat expansion and contraction on those wheels differed so much due to that fact there is no insert. Hence why the oem volans never came loose
Click to expand...

I don't agree. BBS doesn't put steel inserts into any of their wheels and i have never had that type of issue before.
 
blkaplan said:
Definitely a great first step to get it to a race and out on track.

A few personal preferences of things that I would change before your next race.

Install that steering wheel spacer so the ergonomics aren't as compromised for taller drivers like yourself.

I'd prefer the car with a welded g80 or a truetrac over the welded diff, its abit more forgiving

Figure out what is up with the brake system, possibly replace the lines, and check the bias. Right now the car has way to much rear brake bias IMO. That can be easily fixed with a rear brake bias valve.

Figure out some hardware so your strut mounts aren't constantly binding causing the struts to be in bending.

Get shorter springs for the rear so you can get the ride height leveled out.
Click to expand...

I completely agree with all of this aside from the welded diff, except at pit road speed and backing up I thought it was fine.

The ergonomics need work, if you think the wheel was bad for you imagine how it was for me. Between that and a lack of sleep my driving game was not at its best

Getting the brake pedal solid is the first step, I took it easy on the brakes because of the softness and didn't get enough feedback to figure out the bias

Xeroni said:
The steering wheel isn't straight, that bugs me a lot. :lol:
Click to expand...

I need to put a new column in the car and when I do I am putting a splined quick release as opposed to the hex
 
blkaplan said:
I think he should leave it wrinkly and just make the california raisons as his theme.
Click to expand...

The purple mini cooper that was out there actually had the California raisins theme. I'm still doing Daytona USA theme out of originality and preference.

Personally I just want another quarter panel on it since that one should not have been smashed that quickly, especially from an operator error.
 
pat244ti said:
The purple mini cooper that was out there actually had the California raisins theme. I'm still doing Daytona USA theme out of originality and preference.

Personally I just want another quarter panel on it since that one should not have been smashed that quickly, especially from an operator error.
Click to expand...

Cage the trunk. Problem solved.:-P
 
having a dry erase board and a checklist is very handy at the track. With so much stuff going on its very easy to overlook something.
 
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