Whew,, we made it!!! (well so far)

So we’re now ensconsed in that which is Altamont Motorsports Park.

It is a crazy sight that is just tough to manage, so here are a few word based snippets (having trouble linking the video right now).

Pimps and Ho’s, the ride, a sweet CRX and their crazy crew (the video is awesome) they had one heck of an entrance at tech.

Everyone has been so nice to each other (wait till we all get on the track)

Every kind of car, with every prep level,, from tight paint masking and nascar level trim, to cars that looked like they were dropped off a cliff to look better.

Finding people you already know, (and didn’t know they were into lemons racing)

Getting to meet the famous Murilee of Jalopnik in person finally (after talking via phone and email for so long).

The owner over at AltaMont Motorsports Park, John,, a great guy! He took me for a ride around the track and showed me what’s where this afternoon (shhhhh!!!)  Genuinely cares about getting people good information, being safe, and having a great time.  His car is he and a bunch of first time lemons people (and they’ve got a supermodified wing on a miata!)

I’m bushed and have forgotten things all through the day (like to eat) so I’m going to do that now.  If you see this post with any video,, it’s cause I finally got it to work.

Oh yeah, and the best news of all,,,

WE PASSED TECH INSPECTION!!!!

We’ll see you at altamont with an operational car!

Yes, we’re operational. Subscribe to us over at Youtube. Have fun ignoring it! (watch the next video!)

Livery, I hate Livery!

Here’s the layered .pdf of the car (the file).  Check it out and give your drawing skills a go!

280z-liverya

Above this,, that’s where the file is

You’ve gone too far! Back up there!

It’s ALIVE!!!! (slightly)

Work, was definitely accomplished this week.

We got the engine to begin that wonderful belching noise that means, that some way, some how,, it could come to life!

Watch the video to get really excited about just how awesome it’s going to be!

Also, we finally got to meet our crew chief in person, he even approved of the car. Typically this wouldn’t be a big deal, but our crew chief is none other than racer Scott Schroeder, (he’s a little bit of awesome).

So check the video, think of pledging all your money to sponsor us for no good reason whatsoever, (seriously, others have!)

Tires!! (We got the Special Round ones!)

Well today, on my way to get fitted at the dentist for a face fixing device (apparently they don’t come in size “missing a brain”) I picked up the tires for our racer to be.

At Tires to Go in West Sacramento (we can’t recommend them enough!) Thanks to Dave Komaromi (a noted commenter) and the rest of the gang, we’re now set up with 6 T-rated tires that will fit our erstwhile racer.

I foolishly didn’t write down the guys names (why I didn’t do that I’ll never know) but I did get some mighty fine pics of the gang at Tires to Go, so if you’re in West Sacramento (3001 Evergreen Avenue 95619 is the address) please stop by and buy a whole bunch of tires, they’ll thank you for it, and we’d really appreciate it too!

It also looks like we’ll be going with the standard Z seat (a nice one for something older than some of our racers!) and having a removable steering wheel (it’s a safety device right?!) Oh it is, because if it’s missing you can’t control the car! Perfect! (At least I convinced me right?)

I can do this with my eyes closed (said Jaime)

A lot got done today, from the left rear suspension (we yanked the old one, once it decided it wanted to leave) by the simple process of:

1. Remove muffler

2. Remove a bunch of other bolts

3. There are more bolts apparently

4. Suspension parts are really heavy, when you put them back in the car, have a whole jack to lift a car and the parts, Jaime does,, whew,, without Jaime,, we’d be SCREWED!

5.Put everything back in, pay attention to what you did

At this point I did:

6.Leave muffler unattached on floor, and various parts strewn about his shop. Apologize and go visit my best buddy down the street who’s wife just had their second child (what a cutie! Hi Nora!)

We also removed the fan mount and fan clutch, then mounted the radiator (with hoses), then placed the fan in front of the radiator, (that thing rips, we’re just going to use one).

We also fussed about a bit with the clutch (it was clearly out of fluid). We’re not out of the woods there yet, but things are looking up.

Mike worked online (buy our stuff!)

More happened I’m sure,, but that’s what I know so far.

All parts accounted for, let’s make it run!

So we finally got the rest of the running parts at the junkyard.

Do they work?! We have no idea!! But they should be the right parts,, maybe.

The best part is we couldn’t have found them without the wisdom and knowledge provided by the great Murilee Martin of Jalopnik, whose sage advice and rockin tunes always bring us delight and remind us to have a beer and cheer for our Oakland A’s.

At Pick n Pull, we met a cool guy named Dennis (who may buy our seats!) who took the tranny from the same car. He was a blast!

This weekend we’ll be blasting it back in Patterson hopefully to turn a wheel in a modicum of anger for the first time. The level of excitement we’ll experience at that point in time,, well, we’ll put it on video, so don’t worry (if it doesn’t blow up).

Also we’re starting to get racing gear. Look for the next post to show us humans in driving gear!

Finally, thursday (this thursday 3-27-08) we’ll be at gokartracer, well, go karting. It’s enduro night, if you’re a lemons head, or just a driving nut, show up, say Hi, have fun!

Cheers!

Alas poor Numskull, I am him,, true.

Yes, I (Fred) am an idiot (but you really knew that already didn’t you).

When applying I brilliantly left out the fact that I needed the temp license too (my team’s laughter in the background).

I also remarkable just noticed that we need to come together as a team to set up exactly how many crew members we’re going to have and pre-pay them as well!

The “secured crew members” we have so far are:

Our great and all knowing crew chief Scott Schroeder.

My violent and beautiful wife Shannon Schechter (she’s in charge of pounding sheet metal,, not neccesarily our car, but that’s her job).

Likely other crew members who we’ll have to cajole properly

The Jukka-ette’s.

Shaun’s robot army (we will finish,, or others will not.)

Jaime’s partner in crime Beth.

and possibly some other surprise humans (I’ll try and get some serious muscle for jackmen).

More info soon (we’re rapidly hunting a seat, belts, fuel gauge, and left rear hub-brake assembly).

We’re # 29,, That’s like Kevin Harvick,, but,, totally different

So we’ve got a number,, after some heavy angling by certain teammates for numbers of varying ahem,, significance.  It turned out 29 was available,, so,, here it is.

so far (the video)