What a weekend. With the demise of the Probe’s second engine at Time Trials, we’ve been campaigning the Buick. We had an encouraging event at Atlanta Motorsports Park, with a solid 385 point performance despite the car giving us fits, basically refusing to run properly at wide open throttle. But, we did well enough, and …
Read More “Optima Search For the Ultimate Street Car at Road America, 2021!”
Long time, no write, because I’ve been BUSY. Work has not let up like it usually does towards the end of the year, but the lack of a commute due to the transition to work-at-home still leaves me time to wrench. And boy, have I been wrenching. And cutting. And welding. First, the reasons. The …
Read More “The Probe’s winter transformation has begun!”
As I write this, tomorrow will be the first day of May. You’re probably reading this on the first day of May. We’re still stuck in COVID-19 limited contact rules, but things are looking up. At the top of things, my state of residence, Kentucky, acted aggressively back in March, and it seems to be …
Read More “We’ve reached the end of April”
While my friends are still tearing up the track at NCM, I’m looking at logs. Figured out the bottleneck in my cooling system: Engine oil. You can click for a full-sized view. In the bottom chart, you can see the water temperature (green) stabilize along with the engine oil (white) while the transmssion continues to …
Read More “Cooling is a thing.”
It’s finally here: racing season! This past weekend, I loaded up and headed for beautiful Charlotte, North Carolina, where the season opening Match Tour was taking place at the ZMax Dragway. This was my first out of town tow with the new-to-me tow pig, and what an event to end up with for a tow. …
Read More “The 2018 Season has begun!”
I must be insane. Three weeks before I was slated to leave for the Optima NJMP event, I was at the National Street Rod Association Nationals in my hometown. They had an autocross course set up, and I ran on it. A lot. In fact, I burned second gear in the transmission. Oops Not to …
Read More “The road to (and from) Optima NJMP 2017”
Owing to an uneven fender overhang that’s existed since I bought my Grand National, I’ve always been suspicious as to whether or not my car was straight or had been in an accident before I got my hands on it. Even after I replaced all the body bushings and yanked the car straight (as far …
Read More “It’s Straight!”
Well, the 2016 racing season is fast approaching. Interlaced with the work on the basement I detailed in my last entry were preparations for this year’s autocross season. The Buick was re-classed into CAM-T for 2016, which moves me away from modern supercars like the Camaro SS/Z28 and the 2015+ Mustangs and toward old buckets …
Read More “2016 Racing preparations!”
After a year of wrenching on this Buick, I’d let the garage get away from me. It was a mess. Such a mess that it really wasn’t a good idea to do any intense work, and I have some intense work planned for this winter. Things like replacing the body bushings, measuring all the suspension …
Read More “A clean garage means a clean mind”