Final Gear Racing 2011 - 24 Hours Of LeMons

So while the bumper is trashed, they did discover that racing with it off helped drop their engine temps by 20 degrees, which is something we've known about for over a year. This is why we only keep the nose on in the paddock area when we're taking glamor shots of the car.

I thought we ran with the nose off becuase all the retaining clips were broken from EyeMWing and I taking it on and off so many times during the build of the car. We finally got fed up with them and zip-tied the nose on. Which is not that race-safe so back off it came. At least that is how I remember it. :p
 
And sawsall'd the foglamp holes out because we were going to use them for brake ducts.. but the eventual consensus was to leave the cover off to provide lots of airflow to the brakes, radiator, and transmission cooler. No regrets doing it. Also makes it easier to get to the front jacking point.
 
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Seeing the 70 Buick GSX make it into the game helps, but I will still hold out hope for the GTP to make it in one day, don't you have any dirt on your boss that you can blackmail him with?

In LeMons news, the Chicago race (same one we wanted to go to this year and last year) went down over the weekend where the MetSHO made an appearance.

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There were also two noteworthy Oldsmobile's there as well, first was this 89 Cutlass Ciera which nabbed IOE.

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The second was this bone stock 92 98' that came in 29th. It's noteworthy to me because mechanically it's identical to an early 90's Park Avenue my dad used to have. Even with the skinny tires and undersized brakes they still managed to run all weekend without breaking down.

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And finally there was what appears to be a mid 90's Buick Roadmaster wagon run by a team called (and I'm not making this up) Punisher Racing.

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This could easily be a Caprice wagon or Olds Custom Cruiser since the only difference between them was the nose, but because it's rocking the wood grain on the sides we'll just call it a Roadmaster.

And finally, the 2012 LeMons schedule and rule changes should be coming out soon, once we have that in our hands we'll know what (if any) changes we need to make to the GTP and where we'd like to race next year. There has still been no progress on the GTP repairs, we are on the hunt for a parts car but it could take a while, we spent 3 months just trying to track down the GTP in the first place.
 
Car nerds are allowed on a car site.
 
If you remember part one of the last Long Road To LeMons, then you know that we were cut one hell of a deal by the shop that did the exhaust system on the GTP. Well I found out from Quiky this morning that they went out of business and closed up a few weeks ago. It's a damn shame to hear this happened because they did good work and were the closest thing we've ever had to a sponsor, hopefully everyone who worked there has been able to find employment somewhere else. And I did jokingly suggest to Quiky that should make an offer on the building to open up the Final Gear Monster Garage.
 
So Quiky found this in his grandma's basement today...

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It's an unused oil and fuel filter for the late 70's version of the Buick 3.8. I think it's a very good omen.
 
Will you be using those? :p
 
I doubt they would fit a modern version, but if you find the right collecter, it will pay for several of the type required.
 
I think we're using Wix filters on the GTP currently, but I could be wrong. For the Buick I stick with K&N filters because I have no way to get directly under the car and the nut they weld onto the end makes installation and removal much easier. And since I'm on the subject, while GM says to use 10w-30 in the 3800, we (along with many other LeMons teams) use a fully synthetic 20w-50 instead. The reason for this is because standard weight oil becomes too thin under race conditions (lots of heat with constant high revs) and doesn't lubricate things as well as it normally would.
 
Meanwhile, in the main bearings...
I think the overheating did it in, not the oil. We ran two full races before without issues using the same oil, and the V12 Jag teams use the same stuff every race.
 
Yeah, probably. "... Why isn't there any steam coming out" is not the sort of question you should have to ask.
 
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