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Re: Justin VanAbrahams: 24 hours of LeMons????? Posted by Justin VanAbrahams [Email]  (#32) [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Justin VanAbrahams) on Tue, 10 Oct 2006 12:24:20
In Reply to: Justin VanAbrahams: 24 hours of LeMons?????, Fish, Tue, 10 Oct 2006 10:52:24 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
It's a long story... :)
Our car was awesome... possibly not the best handling, but it was up there. There was never a problem with traction or brakes, and we had a pretty good advantage in acceleration. The track was less than 1/2 mile long, so the whole thing was 2nd/3rd gear, and maybe a little 4th on the straight if evertything went perfectly. A 2100lb 900T with 14psi and a complete open exhaust is bloody fast. There was an E28 535i and a couple V8-powered beasts that could keep up, but there really wasn't anything faster than we were.
We took a couple good hits on Saturday - a couple in the corners, and a push/slide into a barrier that bent the rear axle a little. I had a very low-speed t-bone with Milano that got spun, but the damage was purely cosmetic. We made it through the first day in 9th place, off 111 laps from the leader, but with the 2nd fastest lap time.
We spent most of the night and some of the next morning repairing body panels and swapping the rear axle. The car had at some point developed a very small leak at the radiator end tank which netted some warmer running temps, but nothing worth worrying about. It also developed some sort of engine problem - possibly the bottom end, but who knows? It gave a little more lag than we were used to, and we could not get the car to start with the starter. Fortunately, it was downhill to the track, so push starting was easy. :D
Nothing was a dealbreaker, so we headed back out Sunday morning. We had some handling issues that resulted from a combination of a dirty track and the various hits, but nothing too bad. We took a couple more minor hits, but everything was going pretty well on the whole... Around noon or so I got into a gnarly tangle with the Camaro - he clipped my front and spun me sideways just in time to take an Oldsmobile at speed in the driver's door. Ouch. I was fine - the door actually took the hit leaving the roll cage unscatched, but the smack broke the steering rack internally and more or less knocked us out.
We fixed things as best we could, but nobody felt like "racing" a car that wasn't safe to drive at speed, so we parked it. Right before the race ended we sent the car back out for a few laps just so it could finish with dignity, then threw it on the trailer and headed back.
In the end, we finished 18th out of 33, and held onto the 2nd fastest lap time. We got a lot of compliments on the car, and quite a bit of curiosity as well. There were a good number of ex Saab drivers, and some current ones, so it was cool to be out there... General reaction to the car ran from "I never knew Saabs were fast" to "Haha, POS Saab" to "That car is totally unfair."
It was a very good event, lots of fun, and a good end to a car that was never gonna see the roads again anyway. Actually, the car more or less survived, so chances are with a new steering rack it may see future track days.
We made good friends with a camera guy from CurrentTV (an ex Saab driver as well :) so you can probably see some of the action on that channel, or their section on video.yahoo.com.
posted by 216.57....
, Fri, 13 Oct 2006 08:52:45, Fri, 13 Oct 2006 10:54:03, Fri, 13 Oct 2006 10:57:11
, Mon, 16 Oct 2006 08:48:59
, Mon, 16 Oct 2006 08:51:56, Thu, 12 Oct 2006 19:04:03, Fri, 13 Oct 2006 09:17:50, Tue, 10 Oct 2006 12:24:20 <-- Viewing This Message, Wed, 11 Oct 2006 11:01:15
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