Arse-Freeze 2010, Saturday Racing 1

Originally from December 14, 2010

It drizzled rain at about 4AM so I got up and pulled a tarp over the trailer, tools, and me. The car was already under a canopy.

Early morning again, everything was wet, but it wasn't raining. You'd think that with a race starting at 10 AM that three hours would be plenty of time to get ready to grid up. Not so. All that little stuff takes time, plus there was the drivers meeting, which is probably unlike driver's meetings at any other type of race. This series provides plenty of material for jokes, and we got plenty of that, but it is also serious, and the law was laid down on things like kids running free in the paddock, fueling procedures, and the three-strikes (three hour penalty) and four strikes (put it back on the trailer) rules. With all that said, and just one hour left before the green flag drops, the mood changes from silly-jovial to serious-jovial. It's time to suit up, and have fun.

Cold, wet, and 170+ cars on track. This would be interesting.

I would take the first stint. I hadn't been on this track in years, and then we drove it in the other direction, and I did not drive in practice on Friday, but I was the most experienced driver among us. This race would be starting on wet pavement, with over 170 cars on track, so senior wisdom, or timidy, was needed. My goal, survive the start, so we could finish the weekend.

Yes, that's 170! That leaves about 50 feet per car. Turn 1 after the green flag could be a real mess. After a few laps under caution while cars filed out on track I started looking around, and there were cars as far as I could see front, rear, and around the bend and going the other direction. What a circus! And behind me was the Maserati. The big, old, Maserati. I wondered what kind of brakes it had and if the driver knew how to use them. During the remaining yellow flag laps I would survey the course for good bail-out areas to use if the traffic behind me looked like it was going to crush the little yellow Opel.

Then Zep came on the radio, "Green flag!". I was stuck in the esses, in third gear. I wasn't going anywhere just yet. One car did bolt and passed a few of us. I stayed in traffic as we picked up speed.

First turn, everyone was cautious. The track had dried a bit, but the cars and drivers were cold. Second turn, turn 1, at the end of a long straight, the perfect place for testing crumple zones, which the Opel does not have, and it was all good. No one that I saw was trying to win the race yet. Turns 2 and 3, a kink to the left followed by a really tight banked 180 degree left turn, a place where all weekend people would try to stuff as many cars into as could fit, was good. Everyone was giving everyone else room. Weird. Either I am stuck in a pack of scared ****less rookie drivers or a pack of seasoned pros, because this was good clean endurance racing. So far.

I took it easy for the first hour. The track was still drying out and the car bogged really badly, bad enough to keep me from finding any rhythm or even feeling like I could count on the car. Odd how a sick engine can make you drive like the whole car was sick. But I stuck with it, rolling through the turns quicker, going easy on it in the braking zones, and pretty much just letting everyone pass me. I'd just let this be my practice day, and I'd try to diagnose the engine.

About an hour or so in I picked up my pace. My early laps were in the 2:50-3:00 range, which is really slow, and a bit depressing. Just the fact that you spend so much of your time in the mirrors and staying out of people's way keeps you from finding your own pace. But a lot of the early slow lapping that was due to the many cautions. The field was thinning quickly. Two or three cars didn't even make it to the green flag and had to be towed off, never to be seen on track again. During the first few laps I'd guess about 8-10 more cars got towed off, but many of them would return to racing after making repairs. There was rarely a lap that didn't have a caution flag out at some corner.

Note to potential LeMons drives, if you miss a yellow flag and pass someone, you get black flagged. Get three of them and you park the car for three hours. Get four and the whole team is out of the race. So with so many yellow flags flying, this was a pretty treacherous part of the race.

Photo by racinricpix.

At some point the engine bog didn't bother me any more. And traffic had thinned. And there weren't so many caution flags. And I picked up the pace, dropping it to as low as 2:33, our team's best lap time. And I was having fracking fun! Man this car is balanced, and it sticks. Hard braking into the kink at Cotton Corners, letting turning slow the car further, grab second and shot over the rise, drifting it momentarily through Grapevine, grabbing third, full throttle through the right turn at Club Corner, wide arc and just a slight lift for the next left into the Bus Stop, knock off some speed for the left kink exiting the Bus Stop and into Riverside, holding the throttle open in third through this long banked turn, and really feeling the G's. Hold it as the banking ends, wary of how that would affect grip, grab fourth and fly down the Drag Strip to the next turn Sweeper, a tight right-hand 180, but with pavement continuing straight if you screwed up and needed a safe run-off area. Hard braking, blip and downshift into third, trail brake my turn-in, enter on the inside and sweep out so that I could hold my speed for the hook that led out onto the Esses. Full throttle through the Esses, grab fourth for a few seconds, downshift, brake hard, left through Sunset and onto the front straight. Hold third as long as the car still pulled, then fourth, then hard braking, downshift, and left, full throttle through the kink then to the tight banked Off Ramp, which by now had mud all over the entry point and after the exit. Slip and slide a little on entry, grab second and go, slip and slide a little on exit, grab third, and do it all over again, and again. Awesome! Much better than sex.

Photo by racinricpix.

It was going great. I was passing people who had passed me all morning, and was still getting passed by the guys who actually had a chance of winning. I was driving the car well, not hurting it, not making any mistakes, leaving plenty of margin all 'round so that car would last, and at one point I remember thinking, wow, I feel like I am at work, doing a job I love, and I could do this all day, no problem.

Then coming over the hump after Cotton Corners something broke. The engine was really loud. All I could hear was engine. A quick look at the gauges and all looked good. A quick look in the mirrors and there was no smoke. Throttle? The engine responds. The gauges still look good. I must have broken the exhaust. Should I stay out? Wait to get black flagged? What if the exhaust hit the pavement? What if the hot exhaust gasses managed to do its thing to the oil we had coated the bottom of the car with on Friday? On the radio, I'm coming in, probably a broken exhaust. I back off the speed and finish the lap and head for our pits. Geoff and Zep are there. I feel for the teams that don't have radios. I park, engine running, and they immediately confirm that the exhaust broke right behind the header flange. Geoff heads for the Evil Genius pits on bike and radios back to bring the car over. Clint will fix it. Zep drives it over while I unwind and get out of my suit. Man, my arms are sore. How long was I out there? By the time I going them at the EGR pits they are almost done. Clint is finishing the welding and Geoff is under that car with him tightening the header flange bolts. Meanwhile, Zep is back in our pits getting dressed and ready for his first stint.

I still owe Clint dinner.

Buttonwillow Feedback

Originally from December 8-13, 2010

Guys, congrats on the achievement...3rd in class is awesome. I think that I might have a solution to your helmet head clearance issue...albeit, stolen from the Ford GT-40 project. From what I recall, there was one tall driver of the original race team that required a "bubble" over his head on the roof of his car. Perhaps the carb. bubble from your parts car hood could be fit on the roof in the right position to help your problem.

Also, from the same car...I've been thinking about the idea of utilizing the hood "vent" idea over the radiator for increased cooling. I wasn't going to share that until I tried it first, but it just seems logical for a racing application. - Ken2, OpeltGT.com

Thanks. And "C" class was pretty big, too!

We've considered the Gurney bubble but figured that the Lemons tech folks would end up forcing us to modify the roll bar to match. We're probably going to cut the floor out and lower the seat instead.

I've wanted to do the hood vent ala ALMS Corvette for theme reasons and for cooling, but mostly for theme. If we do it, it has to look good, be well done. No Lemons sawz-all hack. Alan is not sold on that yet so it's on the back burner. We can also lift the hood near the windshield to let more air through. We are definitely going to look into re-coring the radiator or getting another one.

I've reviewing the video now. We have about 52 hours (110 GB) of video to sort through but so far it looks great. I'll try to get up a sample tonight.

I am totally impressed with your performance. We ran at Buttonwillow last year and could not even finish. Most people have no idea the preparation that is needed to keep an old car running flat out for two days. We wanted to return to Buttonwillow but we just ran at Willow Springs in the Chumpcar 10 hour race. With the holidays in full swing the wives said no more this year. Hope to see you at a race in 2011. – Ralph Coates, OpelGT.com

It would be so cool having two Opels on track together, or rather, at the same time, since we'd be competing. Should we agree now that just because one of us may end our weekend early that that doesn't automatically make the dead car a parts car? And maybe Jay should create a new class for us, class "O", for "Oh good God not another Opel". [top secret]If Alan's plan comes through there may be three by this time next year.[/top secret]

And many thanks for the compliments. It does take a lot of effort, and we have loved every minute of it and treasure every scar. Well, Alan treasures his scar.

I gather yours was the red Opel with the missing belly pan. It looked great in the photos I have seen, but I heard it had heat problems, and that it was sporting a V6. I think there was also a V6-powered Opel GT running back east that did not finish due to temperature problems, and now there is a new team preparing an ALMS-themed GT for the Texas races. They've got a thread here somewhere.

We had heat problems, and oil gusher (note merely leaks) problems, and bogging and shooting flames out of the tail pipe problems (Someone came by our spot in the paddock to compliment us on our awesome tune, not realizing we had an anti-awesome tune.) and we broke yet another tranny, but we finished.

We got some carburetion/timing tips from some passing drunks, er, revelers, on Saturday night that solved major problems for us. We also brought a spare tranny, again, and by now we have lots of experience swapping these things. We also went through four, maybe five quarts of oil, and we know where 3 of them went.

We were running an electric fan and the old radiator. We had to back off once the car started getting hot but it seemed OK with water temps at 210F all day. Oil temps were similar. We've got to make this better or else we are doomed for summer races.

I still can't decide if we are good or lucky. If good, we owe a lot of that to OGTS and to the OpelGT.com forum. On the luck side, the car had little rust and the motor has run great for two races and three track days after sitting in a field for 25 years. All we've done to is it change the oil and spark plugs and recently started putting in gaskets to help keep the oil in the engine, not on the engine, or dripping off the whole left side bottom of the car.

But seriously, I think the biggest thing our team has had going for it is our willingness to go out and ask the dumb questions. Oh, and read the manuals, which is actually Alan's job.

We're considering either re-coring or replacing our radiator, and maybe replacing the current water pump with a new one we have laying around.

We may also move the radiator forward a bit, ahead of the bulkhead it is now mounted on, to give us room to mount the electric fan behind it instead in front where it is now. Ford Cook gave us a stronger fan so we might switch to it.

I think I'll also go ahead with the splitter idea. It should help get more air in the nose and it will help complete the ALMS Corvette look.

We already have an air cooler in the nose so sticking a second radiator in the car will be difficult. If the above changes don't fix this for us then getting a larger radiator and mounting it at an angle seems to be our last option. Taking the hood off is not a good idea because of the crap you get on the windshield, plus I think 2011 LeMons rules now require an OE hood.

Short Report from Buttonwillow

Originally from December 6, 2010

Here's my short version of the weekend:

• We finished!
• We finished 58th out of 174, exactly at the 1/3 mark
• We finished 3rd in class, the slow class.
• We got one of the two Grassroots Motorsports "Most from the Least" Awards.
• We got a "Most Beautiful Car in the Race Award" from a woman who was going around the paddock with here boyfriend finding cars she liked to give awards to. Really sweet.
• We broke the exhaust Saturday morning but Clint fixed it for us. I owe you dinner Clint.
• The carburetion sucked all Saturday but we got it working much better that night.
• The tranny got stuck in 3rd gear and Geoff had to finish out the Saturday for us using only 3rd gear. We swapped in our spare that night.
• Nothing broke or went wrong on Sunday.
• No penalties, not mistakes. Good clean, if slow, driving. But then slow is relative. There were 116 cars slower than us, or broken, or too many penalties.

And here's a heroic-looking photo of us on track.

Photo by racinricpix.

My helmet kept hitting the roll bar over the door, especially when cornering in the parts where the track was rougher, like Cotton Corners. It got a bit irritating after a while but I learned to accept it. At least it was reducing the work my neck had to do to keep my head on and upright.

Once while driving I checked the clearance with the roof by putting fitting my fingers between the helmet and roof and I had very little room for my fingers there. It must have been worse for Zep.

Stats
First, the stats, us, the leaders, and the two Evil Genius cars.

• #760, POS Racing (the F'edUp car), 1st place, 312 laps, 2:14.4 fastest lap
• #111, Eyesore Racing, 2nd place (40 seconds behind the leader), 312 laps, 2:12.7 fastest lap
• #95, Model T GT, 9th place, 295 laps, 2:10.9 fastest lap
• #8, Team Tinyvette, 58th place, 222 laps, 2:33.9 fastest lap
• #34, California Mille (Red-white-green Alfa, Brian's nemesis, see the Germany vs Italy video on Vimeo), 69th place, 216 laps, 2:16.5 fastest lap
• #94, Communism R Us, 90th place, 179 laps, 2:27.8 fastest lap
• #745, The Color of Money (EGR Volvo), 93rd place, 178 laps, 2:21.2 fastest lap

Last stat - we finished third in class, the slow class, but still, third is pretty good, right?

Some photos:

Wiper damage.

Dirty, dirty car.

Dirty, dirty girls. Photo source

Rolling Chicane Limo Service (photo credit?)

Photo by racinricpix.

Photo by racinricpix.

Report Just in from Buttonwillow!

Originally from December 5, 2010 - Alan Reporting

Team Tinyvette has taken the Checkered Flag at the 24 Hours of Lemons Race at Buttonwillow with a third place class finish! Great driving job by Mike, Geoff, and Zep!!

The Tinyvette was awarded the Grassroots Motorsports Magazine Award for the car that delivered the Most from the Least!! and another award for the Best Looking Most Beautiful Car in the race. Jay Lamm again expressed his profound surprise that an Opel could finish a LeMons race.

No penalties and no black flags, just good clean racing. The car had no mechanical pit stops or repairs during the race. But the team did swap trannies overnight for the second day. (Anybody want to donate a Getrag???)

I'm sure Mike will be posting a complete description of the race after he gets a good night's sleep and starts to come down from his current state of extreme joy and excitement.

Ready for Buttonwillow

Originally from December 2, 2010

You guys should drive the Tinyvette a bit to see what our experience has been like. With it stripped bare and riding a bit rough you might not think you are in an Opel GT. It feels more like a 55 gallon drum on wheels to me. But then I still haven't driven a street Opel GT so I don't know what they are supposed to feel like.

More fun than pain.

We're packed and after an errand downtown the Tinyvette goes on the trailer and we are off to Buttonwillow.

You guys do a no-rain dance for us, OK?

Oil Leaks and the Neighbors

Originally from November 30, 2010

I got the car off the jack stands yesterday and drove it around a bit. Shifts fine, the tranny feels good, and the car feels good, except that it bogs on throttle application. We'll try to get to that today or tomorrow or all throughout the race weekend.

Oil pressure seems a bit low, which has me a bit concerned. 37 psi at 2500 rpm, just under 25 psi at idle.

And we have a small leak up near the new oil cooler. We also had a bigger leak out the front pulley area that was odd. It did not leak while running the motor. We didn't see oil sprayed all over, just puddling under the car and on the cross member after we parked it. There will trails of the drips on the pulley. And behind the pulley everything was dry, so it probably was not problem with the seal. Could oil be leaking out the key-way, or under the little shim thin we slipped over the pulley to get a good seal? We removed the pulley, put gasket sealer everywhere oil could possibly get through, found a good washer and put it back together and run the motor until warm, and our neighbor complained. So far no leaks, but we still have our neighbor to keep happy.

Today we put in the wiper motor we've borrowed from Alan's car and will finish hooking up the headlights. Rain is very likely during this race.

Other than that, we're learning to ignore the odd rattles and noises and getting to appreciate how primitive this car is.

Almost Ready for Arse-Sweat

Originally from November 29, 2010

Tranny 1 of 5 has been rebuilt. We robbed the synchro out of tranny 2, which now will not get repaired because some stuff in it was broken.

We'll be working on tranny 2 today and that's what we'll take with us as a spare. They are certainly small enough that would could take a bunch.

We've got 2 DVR's in the car now, that's four cameras: in-car front and driver, on-car rear and roof views. Editing should be fun.

A little carburetor work and fixing the fuel spill problem and we're ready to go.

Oh, except for the new decals.

Why I am not married

Originally from November 22, 2010

Late yesterday and into the evening I took a look at the transmission Ford Cook gave us and it has thick pink stuff in it, like Pepto Bismol, just not as bright, and whatever it was not bothered at all by Brakeclean. Is it some sort of silicone lubricant? Otherwise it looks line and clean in there, with very little metal on the magnet, and everything seems to work OK on the bench.

The strange pink transmission oil turned out to be Redline Shockproof.

On the way out the door to NAPA to pick up a few things I saw the aftermath of last night's late night build session afresh, and it reminded me of what a friend once said when she say my place when I was in the midst of a similarly inspired project - "Now I know why you are not married."

Oh yea, the fact that the temperature in the kitchen was 17C might be another reason I am not married. I think I am starting to understand what my friend was trying to tell me. If she was here this morning this is what she would have seen.

Get back to work, guys!

Originally from November 13, 2010

I've been buried with work (I know, I don't have a "job", but still...) lately and preparations for the December race were pushed to the background, but that will change this week. That job is winding down this weekend and I'll have nothing else to do except healthy, happy, Opel Yoga. I hope everyone else on the team is up for some of the same. At least it's not 105 in the carport any more.

When we left off a few weeks ago we had ended work with a number of improvements and fixes, including an oil cooler, new ball joints and front-end bushings, a fan shroud, new motor mounts and bottom end gaskets. This was topped off with a day at Thunderhill where we got to see how everything was working out and to get Geoff some time in the car. The results were mostly good. We still have a carburetion issue, probably related to the jetting for both ports. Also, either we didn't get the fan shroud installed correctly, or the motor moves around more than we expected, or the front of the car is more flexible than it should be, but the result, the fan blades are a little shorter now. But, at least the tire rub issue has been taken care of, courtesy of Geoff's BFH.

I think I also noted that we picked up a gift of a motor, heads, more carburetors, distributors, yet another tranny, (we now have four), and race clutches. The motor is bored to 2.0L but is not stroked. The bottom end is together and has run only one short race. The heads are off but are together and ready to go. A little inspection, some measurements, cleaning, and gaskets, and we've got a like-new motor that we were told could be getting us power in the 110-120 whp range. Our current motor is good, runs steady, but is only putting out 85 whp (and we do appreciate having every single one of them), and oil pressure is in the 25-45 psi range, a bit low, but that's still OK. I'm all for running our current motor until serious problems develop, which hopefully will not happen until we're putting the car back on the trailer. The idea of a motor swap in this car, at the track, does not sound like fun. The motor comes out of the bottom of the car. Other than that, it should be easy to do, courtesy of 1960's automotive technology.

Still to do:

• Fix the tranny, and a spare tranny. They need 3rd-4th synchros and we've learned that Fiero synchros will do the job.
• Adjust valves. This will be the only motor work done so far, aside from spark plugs and gaskets.
• Minor but important electrical upgrades, such as installing a fuse between the battery and kill switch.
• Install wipers. We may not need them, but the race is in December.

The official checklist is at Geoff's house. I'm sure there are a few more items on it.

As for the race itself, there have been a few developments.

• Brian is unable to drive for us. [Joking]This means we can take the shift-light off the check list.[/Joking] We'll miss you Brian. How about next spring?
• Alan cannot drive for this race. He has a prior commitment, the one-darned-day-of-the-year type commitment, but, if Team Tinyvette can get the corporate jet for the weekend and fly him down to Buttonwillow after his event, Alan will be able to drive. In other words, he'll be with us in spirit, plus he has offered to make his truck and trailer available, so he'll be with us in "equipment", too.
• We've asked a local kart racer Steve to drive with us. He has track experience and serious shifter-kart race experience, but so far no racing in anything that has doors. He has seen the car, and when he got in it he got that big grin that tells us he wants to do it, but it's not official yet.
• I'd like to ask John Harlen, lead instructor for TEAM Racing, to join us. When I mentioned this to him last summer he was very interested and said he'd even buy one of those fancy Italian (Sparco?) suits for something like this. He's a great guy, has the right spirit, and can drive. I'm not sure if he has any door-to-door experience, but then who does?
• Bernhard is not available, as much as he'd love to drive for us. His business in Davis will either be taking off real-soon-now, or not, and in either case it requires all of his attention.

Bribe ideas are needed. We did the booze thing last time, and booze is pretty standard for bribes, er, baksheesh, so it would be nice to do something else, something that would do well using our flip-over headlight bribe-delivery system. I was thinking maybe cute little a kitten or puppy, but on second thought, maybe not. We'd have to strap them in, hang them upside down in the pod, drive the car to the inspection station, and by them I'm sure they'd piss themselves or worse and would want to shred whoever comes close to them after the pop-up spectacle. Then I was thinking inflatable girl wearing a greasy Lemons t-shirt, some form of pants, and holding a wrench, so I went online to find one and they were pretty disgusting. I wouldn't want one of those in my house. I moved on to searching for an inflatable Danica Patrick doll, but so far no luck.

Another idea is an Opel GT model. One of the judges loves collecting models of weird and off-beat cars, and the Opel GT might qualify there, at least in his way of looking at thing. Another suggestion has been food, since these guys are inspecting cars all day and don't get to eat. (If police are associated with donuts, what would be right for judges?) Anyway, we need to think hard and long about this. It could be the single most important decision we make for this race.

And for the team promo update, besides the monthly Davis Cruise-Ins, where our car is pretty popular, last night Alan and I were at the Sacramento Auto Museum for a sneak-peek event for the new Italian cars show. While there I chatted up the automotive writer for the Bee. He wanted our postcard, which I was showing people so they could see the car I was talking about, and he wanted to keep it. We exchanged cards and I'll follow up today. Also, I talked to the curator and an event coordinator about a possible Opel show, and that looks like it will happen sometime this year, which means we can't ball up the car just yet. So, try to picture our little yellow car in a museum. Yes, it may be difficult, but try.

Accepted!

Originally from September 26, 2010

We just got accepted into the race. We're that special. Plus we got to keep our number 8. (No one had taken it yet.)

Of course, there are a total of 197 teams registered. Not sure if all got accepted, but damn, that would be 800 drivers, plus other crew and family.

Let's see, Buttonwillow is about 3 miles long, so around 15,500 feet, that's roughly 80 feet per car. Subtract the length of the car and we are have about 65 feet between each car. At 60 mph, that's less than 1 second's travel distance. By the end of Saturday when half the cars have crapped out, we'll be almost 2 seconds apart, on average.

What could go wrong?

The Meeting at Tinyvette Corporate

Originally from September 23, 2010

Last night everyone got together at Tinyvette Corporate headquarters (Alan’s house), everyone local that is, for a stop-putting-this-off strategizing session. We've got repairs to do, an oil cooler to install (we finally sold a heap of Opel GT parts last week), and we need to get seat time for our new never-been-on-track driver and for our went-off-twice-at-Arse-Sweat-and-got-us-parked-for-3.5-hours-on-Saturday driver, and of course to test the tinyvette. We think we can get everything done before Bonni's (TEAM-Racing.org) October 15 track event. We think. We have nearly all the parts we'll need, with two more spare trannys coming. We damaged two at Arse-sweat and new synchros are nearly impossible to find, except apparently in Russia and Poland.

Anyway, "we think" is maybe a bit better than Lemons-inspired optimism. We've had the car nearly completely apart before, so we've already broken all the bolts that were destined to break, and now we even know where all the leftover parts go.

October 15 will be a chance to test our repairs and "new" tranny. Thunderhill is a lot closer than Buttonwillow and Bonni's people are Lemons-friendly. We do hope to be able to get to Buttonwillow once before the race, probably for the NCRC event, assuming we don't use up what is left of the 40+ year old car before then.

Arse-Freeze Apalooza

Originally from September 18, 2010

Team Tinyvette is going to enter the car into the Arse-Freeze Apalooza, the LeMons race at Buttonwillow in early December. We'll be back with the whole team, the only change so far being that Geoff, who did a lot of fab work and wrenching for us before and during Arse-Sweat, is also going to drive this time.

Preparations for the race focus mainly on fixing stuff that went bad at the last race:

1. Cooling
2. Oil leaks
3. Transmission

We'll also do a little front-end work. Bushing and boots, basically replacing the last bits of rubber and plastic that was on the car when Alan and I bought it.

Oh, and very important, more decals, to round out the ALMS Corvette look.

Buttonwillow is quite different from Thunderhill, and I think, not the best place for a total rookie to get some racing experience. Buttonwillow is about the same length and has about the same number of turns, and like Thunderhill there is not much you can hit (unlike Infineon), there are two things our guys have t look out for:

1. Many corners are fairly sharp and quick. In traffic, that can be a lot to deal with.
2. Everything around the track is soft, meaning, if you go off the pavement, once the massive cloud of dist settles and we can see where you ended up, there is a good chance you will be upside-down.

That said, there are some really fun parts of the course, such as the long a slightly banked "NASCAR turn", and the high-speed esses, a long front straight, and a fairly high banked tight turn where in my Prelude on street tires I have logged over 1.1G, so who knows what the Tinyvette car will be able to do.

There is one boring aspect to Buttonwillow, and that is the lack of elevation changes.

Here is a video showing the start of last year's race in a car that is in the power and weight range as the Tinyvette car. It also shows a very aggressive and confident driver.



And here are two videos showing what is likely to happen if you go off track. This was at the same race as the above video, but is on the last half of the last lap, with the V8olvo posing a serious challenge to the first place car.

24 Hours of Lemons Buttonwillow 2009 Leader of the race rolls his car on the last lap.


Big Sausage Roll at Buttonwillow 24 Hours of Lemons

Lap Time Comparison Video

Originally from September 12, 2010

Has it been too long since the last Tinyvette video?

This one provides a comparison of four different drivers in the same car, at Arse-Sweat/Thunderhill.



“One car, one track, four different drivers with very different levels of experience. Brian knows this track well and has raced in LeMons a number of times. This video shows him turning his best lap of the weekend. Bernhard has decades of experience in the Renault Cup series, but this is his first time at Thunderhill, first time in this car, and his lap is from his first practice session in the car. Alan and Zep have driven Thunderhill, and this car, a couple of times, but their laps are from their first time racing.”

The interesting thing about this video is not the different laps times each driver turns in, but how the half second here, half second there, difference between each driver adds up.

Germany -vs- Italy

Originally from September 9, 2010

Not a wreck (sorry), but an impassioned chase.



About 19 minutes into the race Brian pits to tell us that the car is great, then heads back out. Just as he is rolling out of the pits, "it" speeds by. "It", the green/white/red Alpha from the team California Mille, manages to keep Brian at bay for 4 and a half laps. It's a great chase, with lots of exasperated hand waving, but in the German car (1969 Opel GT), and a driver that seems to be possessed. After that Brian turns some of the fastest laps of our weekend, but then comes in early with a broken transmission. And, Brian, didn't we agree to something about shifting at 5,000 rpm? That is a 41 year old motor after all, and it's coming out of 25 years of abandonment, save for an oil change and the new spark plugs it got for the race.

Finally, Video

Originally from August 25, 2010

It took a while to finish up all the loose ends with other travel and projects and then be able to set aside a day or so for my first pass at editing the video from the race, but finally I got one done.

What I did was collect clips from the weekend that show each driver's driving, some racing, both of Zeps's spins, and other stuff that depicted how our weekend went.



I am planning on doing a video for the whole build, plus race, with narration, real-soon-now.

Race Aftermath

August 15, 2010

Alan and I will be getting together tomorrow to draw up short term plans for fixing what needs to be fixed on the car now, due to last week's race, and what we want to do to make it better for Buttonwillow. Here are a few points we'll discuss:

1. Brake Rotors - It looks like the LF rotor is the only one warped, and we have parts car rotors we can use, but over the weekend we found a source for two slightly used rotors.
2. Brakes - bleed and inspect
3. Transmission - We'll be rebuilding the original tranny and fixing/rebuilding the one that is in the car now. The original tranny has 3-4 synchro issues due to the broken synchro shoe. The one from the parts car grinds getting from 2-3 unless, as I found out those weekend, you take your time and shift in the H-pattern, instead of trying to get from 2nd to 3rd in a near straight line. 4-3 down-shifts still grind, a bit. Also, we may have a source for a recently rebuilt 4-speed. Like new! Cost is so far undetermined, but we may be able to cover it in our residual.
4. Cooling - Sunday morning the water temperature was steady at 190F, but it climbed a bit in the afternoon. We had solved most of this problem on Saturday. Repeat, most of it. A too long a fan belt might have been the main cause of the problem in Saturday and Sunday. We've got a shorter one in the car now. We'll be looking into getting an oil cooler, and in this several other Opel GT owners have offered great advice, such as getting the oil cooler out of a Volvo.
5. Engine Stuttering - It got pretty bad by the end of the race to the point that it even backfired a bit, and as I've noted it seemed to happen in hard cornering situations. We may have solved this one. Before leaving for Monterey I did a quick check of the engine and other stuff, and this included pulling the spark plugs to see how they fared. All four looked great! Dry, lightly tanned, clean white ceramic, and only one needed its gap tweaked. But in the process of doing this I found that nearly all of the screw-tabs were loose, and on cylinder #2, it was off and up inside the spark plug cable. Basically, that cylinder was almost unplugged, and in high-G turns it probably was unplugged. The problem had gotten progressively worse during the last session on track so the wire must have been working its way off. I screwed the little tabs back on tight, plugged the rat-chewed cables back in, and never once did the engine sputter all this weekend (to and from Monterey). Granted, there were no high-G turns on I-80 and 680, and no runs into the 5000+ rpm range, but also - never once did the engine bog during hard acceleration, another problem we had at the track. Cross fingers, maybe that problem has been solved, too.
6. Gauge panel - We need to replace the "Main" switch. It broke during the race.
7. Oil - Change the oil and send a sample to Blackstone for analysis.
8. Oil Leaks - The leaks seem to be at the front and rear mains, plus we've developed another minor leak at the front of the valve cover. We need to take care of these things before Arse-Freeze.
9. Secure the Car - While we can drive the car on public roads, we can't really park it safely. We can take the wheel to prevent someone driving off with the car, but we have to do something to prevent anyone flicking a few switches and starting the car. We'll either install a hidden kill switch or something similar, or maybe making a bracket that will let us lock the existing cutoff switch in the off position. Also, should we find a way to lock the car in gear?

As for driving the car to and from Monterey, a few notes:

1. Having time in the car in non-race-like conditions was very useful. You got to really listen to it and monitor the sounds and gauges under steady driving conditions.
2. The water temps hovered around 150F most of the time and got to 160F during the drive home in the hot part of the day. (The thermostat has been removed.) The car was running at 3000-3500 rpm most of the way, with a few short runs up to 4000 rpm. Meanwhile, the oil pressure was steady at 40 psi at those engine speeds and 25 psi at idle. The Opel folks I talked to over the weekend said we should see pressures in the 30-50 psi range. I think we're doing OK. I did add about ½ qt on the way down but Alan and I checked the oil when we left, and I just checked it again, and we lost almost nothing. Maybe 1/8 quart. Probably less. The leaks seem to be coming from the front and rear-main seals.
3. The car makes a lot of weird noises and some seem to come and go, or maybe it is my noticing them that comes and goes. You get paranoid after a while, but all the way there and back the gauges said everything was fine. When I finally got off the freeway and either stopped or was driving slow, the engine sounded fine. Great, actually.
4. The drive down was fracking cold! 6:30 AM is cool enough, then you add freeway speeds and no windows, then you get on 680 south going through the 40 mph lateral gusts, then the chilly fog from Benicia to Monterey.... I was hugging the tunnel for warmth. On the way back I had my jacket and windbreaker on, and it was hot. No fog. August afternoon temperatures. The tunnel was hot and when there was a slowdown on 101 just north of Salinas it got pretty uncomfortable in the car. Things to remember for the December race.
5. Noise - other than the sweet sound of a race engine, and ignoring the rattles and clunks, after 3+ hours in the car you start to realize it is a pretty noisy ride.
6. Fuel - We used a bit more than ½ tank getting there, and I just checked, slightly over ½ tank getting back. That works out to be roughly 26-27 mpg during normal freeway driving.

Besides all that, the car drove well and is fun to drive, if not more work, rougher, and noisier, than what we normally drive. But most of all, the car appears to be solid. I think getting through our race weekend, except for the tranny, was not a fluke. The engine appears to be in pretty good shape, ready for a few local autox's and Arse-Freeze Apalooza!

Arse-Sweat Apalooza Race Report

Originally from August 9, 2010

OK, short recap of a very fun and very successful weekend, then I really must sleep.

Thursday
We left Davis 6 hours late after working through the night, me until 6:30 AM, the others also very late but not as crazy as me. Bernhard and I met at the track and we lined up outside the gate at 11 PM, along with 40-50 more motor homes, trucks, trailers, etc., so we could get in early to get a good spot in the paddock, or at least one that had electricity. Bernhard and I slept in his truck, got up at 5:30-6 AM, and we got both a great spot and electricity. Great start!

Friday testing 
Brian and Bernhard had never driven the car and I had only driven it for two 20 minute sessions, and that was before the new clutch and tuning, so we each paid $100 to get test-day track time. We quickly discovered an engine temperature problem and eventually solved it by tightening the fan belt and putting the fan back in. The electric pusher fan wasn't quite doing the job. It took several tries to get that worked out. We also discovered a serious transmission leak, on a tranny that had all new seals put in. ???!!! It looks like we'd be adding lots of oil to it during the race, until the inspectors discovered the oily mess under the car. Fortunately and unfortunately, Saturday would solve that problem for us in another way. We also had a clutch cable problem, but Alan got under the car, found the root cause, and we were good to go, again. In the end Bernhard got some track time, and Brian a bit more, and just before the end of the day I got a few laps. We were happy and felt guardedly optimistic about the race.

Friday Tech 
Two minor problems, easily fixed on the spot, and we passed tech. That's a great confidence builder. Remember, Alan and I had never done this sort of thing before.

Friday BS Inspection 
This is where we "explain" our build and defend our budget, but Jay, event organizer and boss of everything, took one look at our car and said, "It's an Opel, you can't do anything for these, so just tell me what your costs were." He also asked to see under the hood. He was pleased to see a crusty old Opel engine in there, instead of a V6 like the other LeMons GTs were running. I said we were $100 over budget mostly due to sway bars, and while he was mulling that over I signaled to Bernhard, who was sitting in the car, to pull the lever, and the headlights pods flipped open to reveal an excellent Scotch in one, and a "racer" brand beer in the other. He loved it, told us to close it up, called the other judges over, and told us to do it again, then again for a guy with the video camera. Result, great laughs and no penalty laps for our budget excesses.

Saturday Race 
With Brian at the wheel we took the green flag!!! I doubt I can describe how big a moment this was for Alan and I, and Geoff and Bernhard who had also put a lot of time into the car. It was big grin hour, historic, one for the autobiography.

Forty-five minutes into the race Brian was back in with the tranny stuck in 3rd gear. It wasn't the clutch this time. And hour and a half later Geoff and Zep had swapped in the tranny from the parts car. But here's the really cool part. Mr. Bob and another guy, sorry I forget names easily, but anyway, two Opel guys, came to the race to see us run the car. Even paid $20 for the privilege. Awesome! Then they joined in to help with the tranny swap. I've already used the word "awesome" here, so what can I say? What word captures this? Family?

After the tranny swap Bernhard took the car back out. The tranny was working and it did not leak oil. How lucky can you get? But soon Bernhard was in for a penalty, "passing under caution". They had us park the car with some others, probably because they wanted to put together a parade of shame, but forgot about us, then just told that "It's an Opel, that's punishment enough, go back out and race." Bernhard went back out and ran some great laps, then it was Zep's turn. Zep was doing great, knocked off a great 2:36 lap, then had an off that had something to do with avoiding another car's dive-bomb-gone-bad, but an off is an off is a penalty, so we all met in the judgment area again. The judges talked to Zep to assess things and before long they let us go again without having to do anything humiliating. I think they liked our car. But then Zep went out on track and spun in T6 of his first lap, so back in "penalty" they explained that we now had three and that got us a 3 hour penalty, which left us with one hour of driving in the day, but if we got a fourth penalty in that hour we'd be sent home. We elected to take the rest of the day off.

We used our "free time" to inspect and work on the car, and visit other teams. Zep's spin had loosened the exhaust hanger, so we fixed it. We also installed a timer for the driver, rotated the tires and did other minor things, then we discovered a problem with the right-side tie rod end. Bernhard was concerned about a catastrophic failure while Geoff thought it would be OK but we'd monitor it.

Sunday Racing
Alan drove first. Race starts are interesting, but this being his first time in a race, I thought the pre-green lapping would make for a good warm-up and chance to relax before things got hectic. Alan drove great for about 1.5 hours. A bit slow, but that was never the point. He cranked out some laps, got no penalties, the car wasn't hit or anything, the tranny was holding, temperatures were good, so that was a great start on the day.

Next up, me. I think I drove well, got passed a lot, did a fair bit of passing myself, had no problems, but figured out that the tie rod problem probably did lead to Zep's second off on Saturday. When Zep had entered T6 on Saturday he said the car pushed bad and would not turn. Normally you straighten the wheel a bit and stay on the brakes to slow the car enough that it would turn again, but this just made it worse and Zep drove off in T6 trying to get it under control. The first time this happened to me I just lifted on the brakes and the car turned fine. So that was what I did in my session. Still, it made things interesting, like when I entered T2 inside another car, and my front wheels were squealing as I got closer and closer to his door, and I know he knew I was there and heard it, but once I was off the brakes things were fine again. Other than that, it was a good session. I turned some mid-to-high 2:30 laps. Zep had been doing about the same lap times. Bernhard and Brian were in the mid-to-low 2:30 range and Brian even broke into the upper 2:20's a few times. Not bad for 85 whp on a 41 year old car that had been left out in a field for the past 25 years and whose engine we had never even looked inside.

Brian drove next but came in after about an hour after he started noticing tranny problems (crunch 3rd gear) and a new engine noise. He didn't want to break someone else's car. We added oil to the engine (it was low), checked the oil in the tranny (it was fine), checked the tie rod problem (no change, not getting worse), then Bernhard took it out again.

We were entering the closing phase of the race now and the guys did this while I was off doing something else - they decided that I should take the last stint and the checkered flag. Alan would pass on his stint, and Zep, who felt he was in the dog house anyway, passed on his. I encouraged Alan to take his stint, and told Zep he was not in the dog house, and I think I had Zep ready to drive again. We'd split whatever time was left after Bernhard came back in. Then Clint, from Evil Genius Racing, the guy who built the cage and did other work on the car, asked for a short stint in the car. So that's what we would do. Clint would drive for 20-30 minutes once Bernhard was back in, Zep declined his stint, and I'd take the last hour and a half.

I am driving now. When Bernhard brought the car in the tranny problem had gotten worse. It was a bit crunchy getting into 3rd on up-shifts and down-shifts, plus the rotors were warped or acted like they were warped, and now an engine problem had been developing and was now pretty bad and had the engine was missing in high-G turns. Fueling? Electrical? No time to fix it, just drive and monitor it. So that was the car I finished the day with, except now it was also using a lot more fuel. An hour later the gauge was hitting "E" (Actually it was hitting "F" on our 0-90 ohm gauge/90-0 ohm sender combo.) so I pitted for fuel.

Normally after a stint that long you'd change drivers. Not this time. They wanted me back in the car. Repeat - they wanted ME back in the car. That's the kind of team you want to be at the track with. People who will back you.

With 20 or so minutes left on the clock I took the car back out, drove as well as one could with power cutting out in T2 and T11 and a few other turns, mostly left-handers, if I recall correctly, and with a shaking front end during braking, and some grind in 2-3 and 4-3 shifts. Even so, I found some cars to chase, and cars to avoid.

Damn if the last few minutes of this kind of race doesn't get nutty! The cars in the lead positions were racing each other hard and slow cars like mine were not going to be an obstacle. If I left 6 inches between me and the edge of the track, one of these cars would get in there and make a pass. It was great to watch, though. They looked like they were really having fun, and I considered every pass made on me as a successful pass I played a part in. Does that sound weird? Anyway, I had a great chase going with an MR2 that it turns out had 50% more power at the wheels than our little Opel, so I guess I was doing pretty good. I'd reel him in in the turns and he'd inch away in the straights. Give me another lap or two and I'd get him! Then the checkered flag came out.

It was bit emotional. Really. Not because it was a big race, or that we had won, because we certainly didn't, or almost won, because we certainly didn't, but because for something that intense to end so abruptly does trigger some emotions. Plus, the guys had sent me out to that the checkered flag, plus at each corner workers station they were waving all of their pretty flags, giving thumbs up and waves, all that stuff, celebrating the successful completion of this 2-day crapcan race, plus this project that Alan and I took on back on May 23 was a grand success. We had rescued that car, got it ready to race, started the race, and finished the race. And people like Geoff and Brian jumped in to wrench and drive with us, Zep (Alan's son) joined to wrench and drive, Alan drove in his first race, Zep in his first, me in my second, and Gill at OGTS had supported us, and folks on the OpelGT.com forum had supported and encouraged us... it was all a bit much.

Back in the paddock we all reflected on this, and how great the weekend had been, took pictures standing next to the car, and I put on my sun glasses to hide the tears that kept showing up if I thought about it all too much.

Not a bad weekend.

Credits for the photos below go to Head-on Photos, Judge Phil, and me.

From left to right: Mike Meier, Geoff Straw, Bernhard Wagener, Zep Brattesani, Alan Brattesani, Brian Doty.

We knew exactly what those headlight buckets would be good for at our first race.

“Wow! What a great story! I am proud of your little Opel, and glad that I could play a tiny roll in it! Good going guys, it sounds like you did great! And, great photos, the Opel looks great!” – Jim (JimVonBaden, OpelGT.com)

“Hey Mike, What can I say? Yellow Opel with a wing on the rear, can relate to both!!!!!!! This story told from the first post to the completion of the LeMons race was really a treat for me and would say to a lot of others on this forum. You made us feel included, and involved in the rebuild, rolled paint job (Jim), T1 to the checkered flag. Thanks, to you and the team for a job well done.

PS. Your first picture from the above post will be my new screen saver!!!!!!!” – Micah1, OpelGT,com

AMAZING JOB GUYS!!!! And congratz on the finish. I live in Oklahoma and they are having a ChumpCar race later this month. I would say you have the car to run if you can. The track is Hallett Raceway in Hallett, Oklahoma. I am buying a '75 Manta this weekend if I am able to get off this drilling rig.

I have to say you have inspired me to live a dream and do just what you all have done. Thank you for all your great pictures and to see a bunch of normal guys like the rest of us, can build and race a car and have a lot of fun!! Thank you very much!! - JOZ1973GT, OpelGT.com

Thanks a lot. I am also building a Lemons race car out of an Opel and have been using this site for most of my tech info. (I posted on your Lemons forum also)

I have read your whole thread and it was very informative. I will be racing my car in September. It was my intention to put a bunch of pics of my suspension and brakes up on this site after I have proven them to work. Hopefully mine will be as successful as yours. - Team Unter Puff, OpelGT.com

Almost Done!

Originally from August 5, 2010

Done, almost.

Decals haven't arrived. We'll have our neighbors keep a look out and I'll drive back to pick them up if they arrive before Saturday.

Some photos, done except the decals and racing it.

“Looks great! Not bad for a roll paint job!
I even like the painted front bumper. Not so crazy about the wing, though I understand why you have it.
Good luck guys!!!! Jim” – JimVonBadden, OpelGT.com forum

“It seems clear to me that whatever the results, you will have the best looking car at the event, though I admit to being somewhat biased......” – CDN Opelnut, OpelGT.com forum

It looks pretty good in bad lights and from 25 feet away. The roller we used left a lot of lint on the car. Oh well. Maybe after the race I'll clean it up. Lots of little dents too. Character flaws.

The wing actually looks pretty good set off against the yellow and with the black roll cage. I want a big black splitter too but I can't get Alan to go along with me, yet.

Oh, and the newspaper is out with our article. I haven't had time to read it yet, but here's a link: mobile.davisenterprise.com

Finally Yellow

Originally from August 3, 2010

It may shine, but it won't be smooth. We won't have time to do any more dent removal or wet sanding. Yellow paint goes on tonight at 7pm, and a second coat in the morning.

I registered the car with DMV today, so theoretically I can drive it to Monterey for the meet and Concourse d'LeMons. I've wired in the rear lights and I'll need to add front turn signals and a horn. Do I really need a speedo? Anyway, it's looking like I may be able to bring the car to Monterey. Assuming it survives this weekend.

Also, not sure if I mentioned it, but we're getting a write-up in the local paper. The story will be out Thursday or Friday.

“You guys should definitely be proud of your accomplishment. You certainly had me geared up and rooting for ya', and it sounds like you had community support around you.

As far as the speedometer goes, I don't remember you saying that you changed any gearings, so if I remember right(I'm sure I will get corrected if wrong), the tach in second gear will correspond with the speed,(4000 RPM =40mph), and in 4th it will be doubled roughly(4000 rpm= 80mph). It would be ballpark anyway. Good luck and keep us posted of results.” – Ken2, OpelGT.com forum

Later that evening – Rollering a car just feels weird, but it is fun.

How small is this car? Less than one quart of paint covers it. That makes it smaller than a typical bedroom wall, surface area-wise.

Tip - don't paint under lights at night in the carport. Bugs love yellow.

Stinking Success Within Our Grasp

August 2, 2010 (late evening)

We can barely believe we got this done in 9 weeks. It was a stinking mess when we got the car and now it is all snowy white under its first coat of primer, and it has been to Thunderhill twice, and nothing has broken or blown up. Granted, tracking it helped us find things that needed fixing, like oil leaking out of every seal of the transmission. But, we have a car!

We'll be bringing a few cases of spare parts to the track with us. It seems very unlikely that we'd be able to find parts at and auto parts store or bone yard.

The car will be yellow this time tomorrow, and sporting decals on Wednesday.

Looks like our t-shirt plans are bust and I'm not doing well getting Pratt&Miller to sell us crew shirts. We might have to fall back on disco/porn king Corvette sleaze for costumes, which would work for a standard Corvette, though probably not for this car.

Make sure to drop by our trailer to say hi. Thanks again for the interest and support. Seriously. THANKS.

Bernhard rollering the hood while Alan looks on in giddy amazement.

So snowy white, so clean, it has come so far in 9 weeks!

Three to Go!

Originally from August 2, 2010

It's Monday. Three more days until Thursday. Thursday at 5 PM we'll be at Thunderhill to camp and get a good spot in the paddock when the track opens Friday morning. Friday is test/inspection day, Saturday/Sunday is for racing. All that is left for us is paint and the splitter, and reassembling the dash/electronics. It looks like we're going to make it!

The car is sanded but needs a little more prep today, mostly some bondo and sanding on the nose, plus sanding in the doors and other tight spaces. I wish we had more time for this part of the project.

The archeology of the sanding reveals - blue, a thin layer of brown bondo everywhere, some white bondo in patches all over, blue, cream, then metal.

Decals are being made now and we should have them tomorrow or Wednesday.

Metal, bondo, bondo skin, blue 1, blue 2, cream... Opel archeology!

Logistics and Last Minutes

Originally from July 28, 2010

We'll be heading up to Thunderhill next Thursday afternoon so we can get a good spot near the pits where we can get electrical hookups. We'll be using Bernhard's white 24' long air conditioned trailer. My black Honda Prelude will be parked nearby. We'll have drinks and snacks and a chair for all, even a tent for relief from the August sun.

The event starts on Friday with the tech inspection, aka, BS inspection, where the "judges" listen to our BS reasons why the cars are indeed $500 cars, that they won't blow up on the first lap, that we can drive them, and that we can pass the fire drill test if one is administered.

Racing starts mid-morning Saturday, usually around 10 AM, emphasis on usually. After all 150+ cars are out on track, all of the transponders are verified and working, and some random synapse in Jay's head fires, the green flag drops. After clearing the track of cars that were unable to complete the first 2-3 laps of the race, the green flag drops again and "normal" racing resumes.

At the end of the day Saturday a bunch of teams will be packing up their heaps to leave while others will be sending team members all over Glen County and farther looking for parts, or will have engine guts spread all over the paddock, and will get it all back together in time to resume racing on Sunday morning.

Sunday racing starts at around 9 AM and continues until 4, or 5, or 6 PM. depending on how long the day is and when the track wants us out of there. The field is thinner on Sunday and once in a while you can even get a clear lap or two.

These are cheap cars, but LeMons is very different from its early Altamont days. The racing is good and clean. Good sportsmanship is valued and the spirit of competition never, or, well, rarely, descends into the nastiness you might see in the big leagues where sponsor dollars and careers are on the line. This is for fun. Genuine fun. And a creative release for frustrated gazetteers. It's the burning man of motor sports.

Alan, Zep, Brian, Bernhard, Geoff, and I hope to see you there.

Other items in our final to-do list:

• Got the decals list and image files done today. Our friend in Florida will make them for us.
• The shroud for the electric fan is in, and the original fan is out.
• The electrical connector panel is done and goes in tomorrow.
• The fire extinguisher mount and the cool-suit/seat cooler base is installed.
• Tires are mounted and on the car. We'll polish up the C4-style wheels this weekend.
• The new tie rod end has been installed. The steering is much more responsive, as best as we can tell with the car on jack stands.
• Shirts, etc. will be ordered tomorrow. We have to be in costume for this. Some of the guys were hoping for a disco or porn-king Corvette theme and had their Hawaiian shirts picked out and everything, but alas, were serious wannabe Corvette Racing guys.
• We must have done more today. It's past 11 PM and we just quit working.

Here are two pics from today.

Decal placements on the hood and nose.

Decal placements on the driver's side door.

Danika, Where are you?

Originally from July 27, 2010

Danika Patrick was part of this build, sort of. Early in all this when Alan and I would ask each other if some part needed to be removed, or cleaned, or painted, we'd ask ourselves what a real race car driver would do, or a (stereotypical) woman, and that soon became Danika. "Well, what would Danika want, do, expect?" would be our answer. So, I wrote her a very nice letter telling her about our pretty little parody of a real race car, about LeMons, and how fun it would be, and how she was already part of the team, in spirit, and I offered her a seat. I thought it was a really nice letter, and offered to keep it secret and everything, and to set up far from the main crowd to avoid creating a scene. Of course she was not exempt from the $550 we charge our arrive-and-drive people, and recommended she review the LeMons rules and regs. But, we have not heard back from her. Not even an autographed photo, so her seat has gone to a guy who once raced in the Renault Cup in Europe, back in the day. Oh, well. Maybe we'll just put one of her slinkier posters on the fuel bulkhead.