Chump car challange

[LuckyBob]

Who ever wants to be a part of this, I'd like to have a meeting soon. I know that a lot of us are going to the Toy run on Saturday and I figured that we could talk there since the toy run is from noon to ??. I plan on us figuring out a plan on stuff like drivers, pit crew, finances, meetings, work, etc. If you want to be a part of this and can make it this Saturday that would be great. I know that this is short nitice and that some of you who want to be a part of this can't make it on Saturday and that doesn't mean that you will be excluded. We just need to get this $500 ball rolling.

 

As Tracer-X knows I'm out for the Toy Run (work holiday party and the g/f's birthday) but he and I have talked quite a bit about Chump Car, so he can represent me on Saturday.

[Tommyh]

...the Toy run on Saturday ...

 

Sounds like a plan to me.

[Spoonwacker]

Herr yes.

[LegGTLT]

I'm out of town but ZacH, Tommy, HLS, and FocuS will be my representitives. ZacH is my lead council though, so his word is final.

[Tommyh]

I'm out of town but ZacH, Tommy, HLS, and FocuS will be my representitives. ZacH is my lead council though, so his word is final.

[LegGTLT]

What? He's the lawyer!!!!!!!

[Spoonwacker]

 

 

but not yet licensed in the state of Washington

[LegGTLT]

Like I care if you're legal??? Come on!

[Spoonwacker]

[Tommyh]

but not yet licensed in the state of Washington

 

...know anything about Federal speeding tickets...

[Spoonwacker]

 

Actually...no.

 

But I do have a federal "record" from several years ago when I was cited for throwing a stone (we're talking baby-fist-sized, not a boulder) off of High Bridge up near Stehekin, literally on the border of the Lake Chelan NRA & North Cascades NP. Goddamn Hippies saw us toss the rocks, ran to get a ranger, and reported us. It was something pretty trivial like a $50 fine, and the ranger clearly felt like he had better things to do, but these people were willing to go up the ladder until they found somebody who would stop us dangerous no-good city folk I had to provide a written explanation on my Bar application since it was a non-traffic violation

 

The funny part of the encounter was that when the Goddamn Hippies came over, Goddamn Tubby Little Man Hippie said to my buddy Matt (all 6'6" of him; some of you met him at a Friday Nighter), "do you want me to throw you off the bridge and see how you feel?" And Matt said, "Go ahead and try, let's see what happens!" Then Goddamn Smelly Woman Hippie stepped in and said, "Thank God you're not my son." And he said, "Yeah, thank God!" And that's why they ran off to the ranger :lol:

[NSFW]

I'm not sure if I'll be there Saturday, so here's where I stand:

 

I figure we'll need at least $1500 for the car (including brakes and safety gear - remember, no cost limit on that stuff) and probably almost that much for stuff we didn't plan for. I think the rules require a fire-proof driving suit, for example.

 

So if we get 5 people who are each willing to put in $500, then I'm in. Hopefully we won't need all $2500 but I would be a LOT more comfortable starting this journey if we have enough funds committed to cover all of our costs even if we have an expensive surprise or two.

 

As most of you know, Easy19 introduced me to a friend of his a while back, and we used his lift for my FMIC and turbo and stuff... He's posted here as "Citka" a couple times. I bet we can use his lift for the chump car if we give him a week or two of notice. Not that there's anything wrong with Tracer's garage, or Partywagon's pit, but a lift can be really nice.... Citka is a great guy too, fun to hang out with and work with, and he might be interested in being part of the Chump car project himself.

 

I'd prefer to do this with a Subaru, but I'll also be happy with anything RWD.

 

If we go FWD, I'm still in, but I'll probably whine about it now and then.

[Spoonwacker]

Just had a thought - I've been fooling around a little bit with Google Wave, but I have precious few people to play with so I'm not sure if it'd be any use for this. It might be something we could use to keep some of the ChumpCar organizing a little more organized. Anyway, I've got 8 invites, so shoot me a pm with yer email if you want one. They say they "will not be sent out immediately," but I don't know what that means...I guess we can talk about this on Saturday, too...

[RyanGT]

I have an all-day class on Sat so I won't be able to make it to the toy run. I am interested in this.... Here are my thoughts:

 

I think it's impt that we get a car that is reliable. Something that will last 14 hrs of driving around a track with many gear changes, directional changes, braking, accelerating, etc. For me, I don't think AWD, FWD or RWD matters as long as the wheels drive for 2 * 7 hrs. Power matters only in the last couple hrs or so and only if it does not affect reliability.

 

Perhaps we can talk to other ppl who have done this before. Is it gonna be an exercise of attrition when the race finally ends?

 

I agree with NSFW that we need to be aware of the budget up front so there won't be too many surprises that may pop up.

[Spoonwacker]

Question that dawned on me as I began searching Forza 3 for Escort-esque cars for "practice" purposes: does the Escort have a slippy diff currently, and if not is that a viable option without busting the bank? LSD would be nice to have in any case, and would be verrrrry good if we end up going the turbo route...

[Tracer-X]

Kyle would be able to answer this better then me but there is something called the Phantom Grip. It does LSD stuff via friction but is not a true LSD. I think that it is about $400.

 

FYI, if we turbo the Escort it will only have 150-160 HP at the crank with 5psi. We'll need to keep the boost low to keep things cheap and reliable. We might not need an LSD for that little bit of HP???

[Spoonwacker]

Yikes, that's pricey. We wouldn't necessarily need it, but I'm thinking that even with only ~150-60 hp in a 2,000-ish lb car we may have some trouble getting the power down out of the corners, especially if it's wet. If $400 is the best deal we can get, though, it's not worth it. I was hoping there might've been a higher-end Escort model we could just take it off of

[Tracer-X]

The Mazdaspeed Protege had a LSD and some how someone thought of a way to use it some how but I know of no such way.

 

And what's a "higher-end Escort model"? There's no such thing.

[Spoonwacker]

And what's a "higher-end Escort model"? There's no such thing.

 

I thought we discussed this yesterday - wagons are higher-end models

[Spoonwacker]

Potential team name if we use the "escort" theme: "You, Me, and Ashley Alexandre Dupre"

[Tommyh]

I thought we discussed this yesterday - wagons are higher-end models

[Spoonwacker]

A few other things:

 

1) I've now used up all of my Google Wave invites. As we get further along with this project, I think it could be a useful place to have worklists/checklists/accounting/anything else, so if you haven't gotten an invite, post here. If you have gotten an invite, get on there so we can add you to the ChumpCar wave.

 

2) For ****s and giggles I fiddled with LSD on a Golf MkII (139hp, but I didn't do any weight reduction so it was the full 2,524lbs w/cage) in Forza 3 for a few minutes; a 1-way LSD was worth maybe .5-1sec over a 1.8 mile course with two longish straights and a small technical section (Catalunya National - looked like the most PIR-ish track on there). Pretty small gain that would be worthwhile if we didn't have a spending limit, but as it is we'd be better of spending time and money elsewhere. Like on driver prep. Which brings us to...

 

3) Track familiarization: we have a couple of options in addition to doing a trackday (which I think would be valuable experience for all the drivers). PIR is apparently in Need for Speed ProStreet, which EA bills as a sim. Having played the demo I think they're on crack. Our other option is the plethora of PC racing sims with good communities uploading tracks. The only thing I've been able to find tonight is a track for rFactor that the makers call Vanport. It looks like a very faithful representation of PIR. It was last updated Jan. '09, so it should have the most recent revisions to the track (last year they widened some turns, did some repaving, and added FIA curbing).

 

Here's a CART car at Vanport:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN6E9DLWo2E]YouTube- rFactor Vanport CART 1998 Onboard[/ame]

 

And for comparison, here are some onboards from the '94 CART race at PIR:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=235OT9RAq-I]YouTube- 1994 CART Portland Onboard Cams[/ame]

 

And because I'm posting videos, here's a ChumpCar vid...and what's that they're passing at 1:27?

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P38e3lLBxD0]YouTube- Eh! Team ChumpCar Race at Portland International Raceway[/ame]

[NSFW]

I have Wave invites now. If anybody needs one, let me know...

[ScoobyDoobyRex]

No stock LSD options on the Escort. We could do a Mazdaspeed Protege diff if we changed out to a G-series gear box from a 3rd Gen but they run about the same price as a Phantom grip.

 

Accepted my wave invite.

[RyanGT]

Someone pls school me on Google Wave. What's that all about and how can we use it for this Chumpcar event/prep? I tried reading the article on Wiki but reading and comprehension fail me today! Must have been the tequila shots, hard cider, beer and wine consumed over the weekend.... and plus a cigar.