Quote:
Originally Posted by Sven7
Hey, if something didn't break it wouldn't be a VW!
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You don't know how true that statement is, Sven!
Hmmm.... let's see...
1) I spent most of Saturday afternoon re-enginnering the shift mechanism in Britt Grannis' Karmann Ghia. The 1970 had been an autostick, recently and hastily converted to a 4spd. It wouldn't go into 2nd or 4th. After one of our crew guy futst and fiddled with the shifter adjustment for an hour, I jumped in. The first fix attempt at drilling a new hole in the selector rod was a pitiful disaster on my part. Right idea, but no center punch, wrong drill size... basically the wrong tools for the job, with the roll cage in the way, and an impatient owner looking over our shoulders and offering 'encouragement'... yeah, that's the word I was looking for. . Fix #2 wasn't up to the car owner's forearm strength, he pulled the shift coupler right off the selector shaft while trying to shift into 2nd gear out on the race course. Fix #3 (not my idea) was a hail Mary and miserable failure. I showed up just as they were drawing straws for who has the best welding skills of the bunch. I won by default. Hmmmm... Welding Chinese cast steel with an unfamiliar flux core welder, driven by a dinky 2KW portable generator, with eyes protected by a non-working (and filthy) auto-darkening welding helmet? Seriously? Not even a magician can make chicken soup from chicken $hit. The owner threw in the towel and walked away. Fix #4, my design, 100% my work, worked flawlessly all weekend. Sometimes 'teamwork' isn't all it's cracked up to be
2) After having the driver chores turned over to me (the owner doesn't work or race on Sunday), after my making a 150.34 mph, then a 149.69mph blast down the 2 mile course, the engine went sour. I aborted pass #3 when it would run on more than 3-1/2 cylinders. Rather than risk hurting it, I shut it off and took the 1 mile turnout. Back to the pits where we took everything apart, pulled jets, plugs, valve covers, removed the 1970 fuel tank to gain access to the -8 AN fuel filter, strained the race gas through a shop rag. Did not find the proverbial 'smoking gun' I was looking for... The air had gotten worse, so I changed the main and air corrector jets to leaner. Also removed the rear spoiler, thinking the added down force was giving the car more stability at speed, but may be costing us the couple MPH I needed to back up the 150 pass. While waiting... and waiting in the staging lanes, I grabbed some Gorilla duct tape, and closed off the factory Ghia fresh air intakes, and increased the rear tire pressure to 50psi. Before we could make another attempt, the Sunday afternoon rain started
3) Not sure how the weather would hold later in the day Monday, and wanting desperately to back up my 150mph pass, the decision was made to
also remove the front and rear bumpers, before heading to the staging lanes for a Monday am, cool air pass. I had the engine was 'set on kill', Lean and Mean as I like to say. Sounded crisp, good idle, the dual Weber 48 IDA's had their signature 'bark' and engine a snappy throttle response. Aerodynamically it was 'cleaner' than it had ever been. I figured it was going to be fast, but might be a handful to drive. Lack of crosswinds were certainly in my favor.
As I left the starting line hard, trying to take every advantage of the now grippy salt, I had to modulate the throttle a little to keep from spinning the tires too much in 1st and 2nd gears. The 2332cc VW engine was puting out some power, now! At the 3/4 mile mark, already going a buck-thirty, I heard this 'bang'.
Startled a little, I kept my foot in it, looking out the rear view mirror for smoke, flinging shreaded tire rubber, checking the oil pressure gauge, then my mirror again. It was the second mirror check when I realized what was happening, as I saw the deck lid slooooowly lift, then slam shut again with a big bam! Now sans spoiler, the rear deck lid lifted, then snapped shut like some angry German crocodile! Now up to 144 and exiting the 1 mile timing/speed trap flags, I had a good feeling. OK, except for the deck lid, that now made the rear end wiggle as it slammed shut, 3-4 more times. Knowing what the slamming and banging was, I chose to keep my foot buried to the wood, and focus 100% on my driving <a good choice at those speeds, don't ya think?> and keeping it going in a straight line.
I entered the 2mile speed trap, glancing at the GPS and oil pressure, "over 150... YES!" I think I yelled in my helmet. If I didn't yell it, I thought it, REALLY, REALLY LOUD! After the end of the 2mile speed trap,1320ft long, I glanced at the GPS again as I shut off the ignition and fuel pump toggle switches. 157 was the max MPH registered for that pass!