Chump Car Project! Thelma, the Chumpster - First race under her belt!

[NigelStu]

Head issues have been corrected - ended up using an entirely different head due to sever cam journal / lobe damage (all signs point to very poor maintenance by a PO - oil starvation, and/or lack of proper oil). Great news is that she runs again and sounds better than ever! Smoother idle, peppier RPM pickup - I'd say that the cam lobe / rocker arm wear was choking off the engine and causing a lack of power with a few valves that were maybe opening 50%.

It was a DAMN big sigh of relief when she fired right up and settled quickly into a nice smooth idle!




And now, only 2 days to go before we take off and descend upon the glory that is the Chump Car 25 hour, 25 minute, 25 second endurance race at Nelson's Ledges!

Few more things to do to finish her up (kill switch, mount lights, fix rear brake lights (doh! not sure what happened to those...), finish window net mount, wire in oil pressure/water temp, install plexi, add some numbers, try to lighten hood up a bit more, add some block-off plates up front and I'm sure a few other things....

More pics coming soon. Likely all from Nelson's; hopefully mostly action shots!

[NigelStu]

Its time!!!!!

We "finished" the car yesterday and headed out. Arrived at Nelson ledges about 7pm. Got out on track this morning for practice. By now all the drivers should have had a chance behind the wheel.

Car seems to be doing well. Conservative lap times by our 3 fast drivers are in the 1:25 range, fastest cars are running ~1:22. Looks like we can run for 1.5 hours before fuel starvation. Overall, things look decent. Should be a fun race tomorrow.


Damn did it ever feel good to get the car running on track!!!!

[CabrioPunk]

Looks great. I would love to go for a spin around the track.... Be a racecar driver. Seems like a very rewarding hobby.

[NigelStu]

This race is ridiculous! And damn lot of fun.!!!

I ran the first stint, about an hour 35. With ~80 cars on track, traffic was rather interesting. 3 cars have already managed to try out their roll cages....

Car is running well. Engine is feeling good and making some good power, we are one of the faster teams, and I believe we were 7th when I came in to pit. WAY better than I was expecting :)

[NigelStu]

Thelma's inaugural race event has come and past.

We were able to drive the car across the finish line under her own power to a final finishing position of 20th! 74 cars took the green flag. Not bad for first endurance race for the team and Thelma's first real outing.

We had a strong pace and potential to be well into the top 10 (I'm calculating 5th or 6th if we had NO issues), but we had a few big issues. Alternator rubbing the lower rad hose which sprung a leak (that fancy silicon tape is AWESOME!!!! held the 20+ hours after the repair!), a sudden severe increase in oil consumption (added half a quart every 1.5-2 hours - pretty sure head warped with the coolant leak...), brake caliper guide pins (converted to the brass slides) loosening (lost 1), outer-CV joint spewing grease (not from the boot...), exhaust falling off the car (exhaust tube broke just after the cat - that happened to me, 1 hour into my nighttime stint, scarred the crap out of me thinking I just blew up a CV joint. Still don't know where the back half of the exhaust ended up...), trans support nuts falling off, a flat tire (driver ran over a screw or something), one light meeting with a tire wall which required a tow out of the mud (during the night, on the drivers out lap...), 2 blown front shocks (and possibly both rear), a diff that went open, loss of 3rd gear and the one big issue -

We had the Turner 75mm wheel stud kit (installed exactly per instructions) loosen ALL 16 studs, 3 of which fell out of the left front hub, stranding the driver with an un-drivable and broken car. brought in with a tow truck, that cost us 1.5 hours to fix/replace stuff. Had to replace left front hub, wheel, brake rotor, brake pads, check/re-torque all studs, and disconnect the sway bar (ripped the mounting off the subframe).


After we got back on track from the wheel stud incident, we had dropped from our high of 4th place down to 46th. after 3 5 lap stints to come in a check wheel torque, we finally let the drivers have at it again and slowly moved our way up to our final 20th place finish.

Amazingly enough, I ran the fastest lap for the car in lap 632 - after ALL the issues had happened, no sway bars and no damping to speak of.

All in all, that was a HELL of a lot of fun!!!!! More pics/stories coming once I have some time to catch up on sleep....


I'm taking a break for a week, and then will start rebuilding Thelma and making some improvements. Basically, EVERYTHING under the car is coming off, inspected, and rebuilt/replaced.

[CabrioPunk]

Eeesh. That house is might close to the track. Good work.

[87944turbo]

Congrats on the Chumpcar result. We were there in the Dragon Somethin' Porsche 944. Looking to move to an E30 or a Civic though after all the trouble we had (head gasket, sheared off ball joints, brakes, radiator, etc...).



Any thoughts or suggestions on building an E30 for chumpcar? They seem to be pretty strong and certainly are quick!

[dnick]

what an adventure!

[NigelStu]

Hey Dragon!

Thanks! Our results were better than we had expected, and I'm pumped that we were able to take the checkered flag under our own power. It was quite the first experience! Wish I could have actually met you guys out at the track, but holy cow an endurance race is a lot of busy-busy stuff! We will be out for more races in 2012 for sure!

We had a bunch of our own little issues (otherwise I'm sure we would have made top 10 easy, but that's all part of endurance racing, right?) but yes, the E30s do seem to be pretty stout and potentially very quick. Parts are mostly cheap and easy to get. Chassis is good base for that type of racing and power is very good (data showed ~112 at the kink, and we were braking a bit due to suspension). Brakes were more than adequate for Nelsons (the Cobalt Friction brake pads were awesome; still have ~75-80% rear pad and ~60-70% front pad!).

Our big shortfall was the suspension - unknown age/condition front dampers (they were 'ok' when installed) went away early in the race, the super cheap monroe $12 rear dampers became ineffective mid-way. Our wheel stud issue took the front sway bar out of contention. But even with the cars suspension in that state (aka, no damping) and only having 4th gear, we were running lap times in the top 15.



If you want to go E30 route (do it!!!! better/more fun than a Honduh!), go for either a 318 (like Duct Tape Motorsports) or an 'i' series. Best thing to do would be to pick up an 'is' and and 'es' like I did and build 1 good car. Trans and rocker arms from the es should have less stress on them.


If you're ever up in the Detroit area, let me know and you can come out to my shop and check out the car; I can go over some of the small details then. And if you do decide to go the E30 route, I can always assist you in your build.


If you want more specific info, shoot me an email.

[NigelStu]

Had a chance to check out lap times and the Data Acquisition we had in the car. We had a very high potential car out there that pleasantly surprises me. I figured it would be quick, but wasn't expecting these results!

Actual fast lap time was 16th fastest of all the cars (based on MyLaps info).

Only having 4th gear slowed us down by ~.7 seconds per lap, all on the front straight. Take that time off and we would be top 10 for times.

Theoretical best lap time was over a second faster that actual fast lap (2 fastest drivers, which had never raced at Nelsons, were faster than each other in 2 distinct and unrelated areas, so easily improvable times for both drivers). Combine that with having a 3rd gear would have taken our fast lap time to second fastest overall and within 0.5 second off of the fastest lap of the winning car - another E30!

I am impressed at how well the car did, and am looking forward to making some improvements in both reliability and speed (handling!!!!) for next year... :D

[87944turbo]

It was a lot of fun out there, though this race was certainly rougher than the others we have attended. This was our sixth race with that car (Nelson Ledges 2009, VIR 2010, Putnam 2010, Road America 2011, VIR 2011, and Nelson Ledges 2011). It was reasonably well sorted, but obviously still had its fair share of issues.

Endurance racing is a blast, and as you said, just finishing a 24 (or 25+) hour race is a huge accomplishment. Especially when you are running cars 20+ years old! The races certainly are exhausting and it really pays to have as much help at the track as you can. Seems like there is always something to do.

112MPH at the kink is hauling the mail, love that corner! Hard to believe that running in 4th would cost so little in time as well, I am sure getting around the key hole in 4th was painful!
Can you tell me a little more about why you would suggest the 318? I am pretty ignorant when it comes to E30s, but figured the 325 would be the top choice (has the 2.5L six right?).

Also, thanks for the offer to drop by and provide input on a build, I will certainly be in touch if I make it out that way.
Time to start searching craigslist for a candidate… 

[NigelStu]

We kept it in 4th the entire rest of the track to save wear/tear on the car/trans - apparently it wasn't enough since 3rd gear still went... I'm sure a few teams were saying "wtf, they blow by us on the back straight and park it coming onto the front straight..." oh well, something to rebuild and make stronger for the next one!

the 2.5L from the i or is (or 2.7L with "i" head/intake/electronics) is my top choice, but the winning team proved that a 4 cyl is more than capable. Not sure exactly what they had in their car (other than my understanding is it was a 318is, so 4 cyl) but it was potent. With enough work, (or maybe a newer 4 cyl?) power is not that far off from a bone stock 6 (basically what we had). And the 4 cyl is lighter with a better weight balance on the car (this is what I have gathered - someone PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong!). Either power-plant is a good choice, and with proper maint will be solid.

Maybe one of the guys from Duct Tape Motorsports is on here and can chime in with what they had for a power-plant - all I know is that car was very well prepped, had suspension that was dialed in and was driven very well! They deserve the win and have become my benchmark!

[NigelStu]

Race pics!

About time I started going through some pics and post them up. Not the best pics; I'll have to see what I have on my camera (these came from one of the other drivers)

Before, leaded up and ready to go:


and after - just after driver pulled into the pits. Yes, for those who know Nelson's, the car is stopped in front of the crapper. 2 hours can be a long time in the car for some



Nice shot along with one of the other bavarians - just after crossing the finish line!



And lastly (for now) the car/team!

[XvillainousX]

Pretty cool build and glad you're enjoying chump/lemons racing. My team almost won Chump car's very first event if it werent for a blown hose an subsequent cooked motor.

I recommend converting your car to a 2.7i. Search for a euro 2.3 motor and you'll have enough parts to make a m20 torque monster. The 2.3 head on a ETA block will give your a decent compression ratio and allow you to rev to I rpms. The cam from the 2.3 has more lift but less duration then a I cam but not by much. You'd have increase torque with the cam over standard I cam. The flywheel is MUCH lighter than a standard m20 as well. I recommend the flywheel the most.

The crankshaft can be put into m20 2.5 and have a high compression 2.6 (spare motor) with a better rod ratio then your 2.7i.

There was a video of my team passing a v8 Camaro uphill at infineon.. So you'll be happy with the torque when you get into lap traffic. My philosophy when building our team car was make it easier to drive to get longer stints. Only to pull in for gas. We came close to winning on many occasions.

Since you have a pre 88 model you'll eventually have fuel starvation on hard turns with 1/4 tank. You might want to consider converting to a late model tank and pump system. Instead of the duel pump in yours.

A very inexpensive suspension for e30 is summit racing coil springs. We tethered the rear suspension to control droop. The fronts had welded perch and got ebay sleeves. Beefier front sway with no rear sway. Struts were from our old track hand me downs.. *Cough* Custom valved Koni adjustables.

As for the roll cage, the location of your back stays are fine. Since the load of your rear springs is to the floor. Welding your stays to the towers yields no benefits.