alfradio
Member +
When Greg (Malibuguy) read that I was going to the track one
more time before the season ended, he was all for it but at
the last minute, had to work so, the following is what transpired
this past Saturday (December 11th) at Cecil County Dragway:
As I stumbled around, getting ready to hit the long and winding
road, one of our two cats, Jet, saw me off...
It was a little after 7am. when I left home... stopped of at
McDees to get the ritual Sausage McMuffin breakfast
(and LOCKED MY KEYS IN THE CAR... good thing the Lexan
windows have a little give to them) and then it was up I-95
where the steam exiting the Baltimore smokestack indicated
how cold it was...
A mile beyond the smokestack, you enter the Baltimore time
tunnel
...where, upon exiting (this warp in the fabric of space) you
find yourself magically transported to Cecil County Dragway:
For a moment, I thought I'd traveled backwards in time as I
found TERCEL1 parked next to the 60's Hemi-Powered Super Stock
Plymouth barracuda of Sox & Martin...
Here's a couple photos of TERCEL1 approaching the starting
line (these were the last two runs of today's 12 pass outting)
...and here's today's report card:
Despite my ailing transmission (again!) and the poor track
conditions due to the cold temperatures (a bit slippery)
TERCEL1's times were pretty respectable including a Top Five
60' time...
On the way back home, TERCEL1's exhaust started sounding a
bit loud... but, I was just too tired to crawl under the car to
see if I could find the cause... Greg... you gonna be around
Monday?
alf :waving:
A NEAR TRAGIC
SITUATION!!!!!!
Over the course of the past several weeks, I'd begun hearing
a squeaking/scarping sound as the TERCEL1 drove down the
road.. It was more noticable at slower speeds when something
on the side of the road would reflect the sound back at me...
I thought, perhaps, this due to the time a couple months ago
at Capitol Raceway, when the car slid off the jack while I was
in the process of removing my slicks. The car came to rest on
the rotor and I thought the sound I was hearing was a slight
scraping of the rotor on the backing plate?
Today, the sound was a bit more pronounced... so much that
that one of the guys in the staging lanes mentioned it to me
and also guessed that it was rubbing of the backing plate...
I told him I was aware of it and made another pass...
Upon returning to the pits, I jacked up the car and spun each
wheel to see if I could locate the source of the sound...
Without weight on the car's wheels, there was NO SOUND at
all. I thought the sound was being caused by some slight
rubbing due to the car's new lower stance...
After making another pass, I pulled into the pits and the guy
next to me mentioned the sound. I told him I was aware it but
asked if he noticed which wheel it was coming from... He told
me, "rear driver side"... I inspected the tire closely and almost
threw up....
:yikes: All the lug nuts were very, VERY loose... one of them was
held on by about a thread or two.... As loose as they were, I'd
have expected to have felt a vibration or something but, nope!
Had I made a few more passes, I probably would have wound
up going into the wall as the tire came sailing by me at 100 mph...
WHEW!!!!
Might be a good idea to get into the habit of check our lug nuts
every once in a while!!!
more time before the season ended, he was all for it but at
the last minute, had to work so, the following is what transpired
this past Saturday (December 11th) at Cecil County Dragway:
As I stumbled around, getting ready to hit the long and winding
road, one of our two cats, Jet, saw me off...
It was a little after 7am. when I left home... stopped of at
McDees to get the ritual Sausage McMuffin breakfast
(and LOCKED MY KEYS IN THE CAR... good thing the Lexan
windows have a little give to them) and then it was up I-95
where the steam exiting the Baltimore smokestack indicated
how cold it was...
A mile beyond the smokestack, you enter the Baltimore time
tunnel
...where, upon exiting (this warp in the fabric of space) you
find yourself magically transported to Cecil County Dragway:
For a moment, I thought I'd traveled backwards in time as I
found TERCEL1 parked next to the 60's Hemi-Powered Super Stock
Plymouth barracuda of Sox & Martin...
Here's a couple photos of TERCEL1 approaching the starting
line (these were the last two runs of today's 12 pass outting)
...and here's today's report card:
Despite my ailing transmission (again!) and the poor track
conditions due to the cold temperatures (a bit slippery)
TERCEL1's times were pretty respectable including a Top Five
60' time...
On the way back home, TERCEL1's exhaust started sounding a
bit loud... but, I was just too tired to crawl under the car to
see if I could find the cause... Greg... you gonna be around
Monday?
alf :waving:
A NEAR TRAGIC
SITUATION!!!!!!
Over the course of the past several weeks, I'd begun hearing
a squeaking/scarping sound as the TERCEL1 drove down the
road.. It was more noticable at slower speeds when something
on the side of the road would reflect the sound back at me...
I thought, perhaps, this due to the time a couple months ago
at Capitol Raceway, when the car slid off the jack while I was
in the process of removing my slicks. The car came to rest on
the rotor and I thought the sound I was hearing was a slight
scraping of the rotor on the backing plate?
Today, the sound was a bit more pronounced... so much that
that one of the guys in the staging lanes mentioned it to me
and also guessed that it was rubbing of the backing plate...
I told him I was aware of it and made another pass...
Upon returning to the pits, I jacked up the car and spun each
wheel to see if I could locate the source of the sound...
Without weight on the car's wheels, there was NO SOUND at
all. I thought the sound was being caused by some slight
rubbing due to the car's new lower stance...
After making another pass, I pulled into the pits and the guy
next to me mentioned the sound. I told him I was aware it but
asked if he noticed which wheel it was coming from... He told
me, "rear driver side"... I inspected the tire closely and almost
threw up....
:yikes: All the lug nuts were very, VERY loose... one of them was
held on by about a thread or two.... As loose as they were, I'd
have expected to have felt a vibration or something but, nope!
Had I made a few more passes, I probably would have wound
up going into the wall as the tire came sailing by me at 100 mph...
WHEW!!!!
Might be a good idea to get into the habit of check our lug nuts
every once in a while!!!
