Other Uses For Safety Equipment

Well there wasn't much racing for me this year. Too much summer "fun". So what else can I use my racing equipment for?

Better Late Than Never

Here we are less than 2 weeks to opening day and what have I done? Not much. I got some of the barn cleaned out. I can actually move around out there without having to squeeze between boxes and stuff.

I did get it fired up. It at least runs and oh it sounds and smells so sweet.

So the plans are to get the radiator filled with water, lash the valves, check the timing, air the tires, fill the tank, load the trailer, ...simple normal weekly stuff. The car was ready for another race when I had to put it on hold for moving last year and being out of town so much. But seeing this may be my only time out this year I am going to move the panhard bar mount from the left to the right. I just ordered a new bar off eBay for $25. That will arrive either late this week or early next week and I need to get it on for racing Friday May 1. I want to run this as a test. There will be no new tires. These will be 2 year old tires. I did set my fastest time on them last year with them being a year old last year. So 2 year old tires must be that much better? (CheapRacer logic).

If you know you aren't going to win, I suggest turning your time at the track into a paid test run. This one will be to see how the car reacts from a left hand chassis mounted panhard bar to a right hand mount like most asphalt cars. I of course will have to take the tire situation into account.

The next thing to do is take the upper torque absorber spring from a 1600lb spring down to maybe a 1200lb spring to soften the tire shock. It will also induce more rear steer with how I have the trailing arms set up to keep the rear end under me.

Let's hope we see an improvement with the panhard bar move.

Organization & Water

The winter is the time reorganize the shop. Sometimes during the racing season things are crazy and hectic. The winter offers that break you need to get everything back in its place or create better organization.

For me, I have a huge task ahead of me at the new place. This place in the winter is under constant water intrusion not to mention all the stuff from moving that is still in the pole barn. I will be addressing this through better gutter drainage and possibly a sump pump since the guy who built the pole barn put the floor below grade.

Once we have that licked we will tackle the rest of the stuff filling my shop. First up will be removing everything that is not car related. Get this stuff out of there. It will never be needed here. Next to free up space are the items you rarely if ever use. To the house basement with those. Tools and things that are used weekly will have shelves built and placed up high to leave the floor free and clear for car work.

Down the road I would like to add a spray booth to the barn so I can get back to painting cars. One of my joys.

Of course organizing is free and it will feel like you have so much more room to work in making your car work time more enjoyable.