The Coupes first race of the year

I finally got the coupe up to the race track with big expectations, and ended up with a let down really. The one thing I neglected to do this whole time was change the spark plugs and it came back to bite me on the first time run. But first there's the issue of getting the car through tech inspection and this did not go well, but my fault not theirs. So the first thing they tell me is I have to completely fill out the tech card and I'm thinking why I've already filled out one each race I've been to this year, all be it with different cars, and the coupe is the same as it was last year so I'm thinking waste of time and holding me up here. I fill it out and a different tech comes over and starts going over the car, finds nothing wrong and sends me over to the tech shack to get my yearly tech sticker, only to be denied it there. It turns out the seat belts were expired and needed to be replaced which I was able to do there at the track and finally get the tech sticker.

Well I'm driving the race car down and back from tech and it's not running real great, it has a miss in it and I'm not sure where to look for it. So I get back to the pits and change the seat belts out, all good there now, and start messing with the carburetor and it's all ok and it's time to make the first time run so I go down and give it a shot. The launch of the car was really soft, it didn't want to rpm and that miss was there in spades so it ran really slow. I had bought new spark plugs and intended to put them in before I got to the track but just didn't get it done so I decided to do that now and see if that helped, boy did it. It turns out the gap on the #4 spark plug was completely closed up so it was only running on 7 cylinders, but all the other plugs were fine. I put in the new set and fired it up and it sounded like it's old self again and ran like it too.

Overall the car's running slower than I would have expected since I took almost 100 pds off the front of the car. Last year with the stock K frame in it weighed 2645 with me in it and this year with the new tubular K frame in it weighs 2585 with me in it. So I was expecting to run a little quicker this year but the car ran about the same times it did last year for the air conditions. I also red lit in the first round, still having problems leaving on a good light.

So today is All Ford day and I'll be up there trying to win some rounds and get the car running better. Last year at this event I made it to the semi-finals so I'm hoping to repeat that success this year if not better it.

Truly forgettable day

Well it started with Thursday really, we had a series of really nasty thunderstorms roll through that included hail. I had both Mustangs parked outside because I was cleaning the garage and there was some flooring material in the way. I didn't give it much thought to move it out of the way so I could pull the Mach 1 in until I found out it also hailed on Thursday. I've also had the race trailer parked here because we were going racing Saturday, which we didn't because all it's done today is rain. Anyways, I go out this morning to get a couple of parts I need out of the trailer and I find water all over the floor. I looked up and the hail had trashed one of my skylights, broke it in 3 places, so now I'm worried the Mach might have hail damage. Well I managed to get a plastic bag over the broken skylight and then took the trailer back to the storage yard and parked it.

I decided to run an errand for a friend and as I'm driving around town in my big black truck, the speedometer starts going crazy then stops working all together. Great, now what's wrong? I checked all the fuses thinking it might be a short somewhere and didn't find one so now what? I sat down and google is your friend and found it's most likely the VSS, Vehicle Speed Sensor. It's about $20 from Auto Zone and pretty easy to replace so I'll take a shot at it tomorrow and let you know.

I then got up the courage to take the car cover off the Mach 1 and see how bad it might be. It was nice to see it didn't break any glass so I pulled it in the garage and started to clean the dirt off it when I saw them. I counted 3 dimples on the roof and one on the fender so far. I haven't been over the whole car yet because it was getting dark, so I'll have to do a more detailed inspection on a better day.

I never thought I'd say, I'll be glad when this weekend is over, and I will be. On the bright side though, we go on a mini vacation starting Wednesday. We're going to Steamboat for the

Rocky Mountain Mustang Roundup and the long range weather report looks very good. Cross your fingers for us it stays that way.

So how crappy was your weekend?

Race car update

The new, correct A arms are now on the car and boy is that a long job for a rookie. I tried to do it without removing the rotors which wasn't happening at all, so I had to totally disassemble both sides and go from there. I'll tell ya, doing this by yourself on your garage floor sucks! Many times I wished I'd had an extra pair of hands to hold a wrench, but no one available so I went it alone.

I'd like to know how in the hell they expect you to torque the A arm bolts down to 200 ft-pds, there's no frigging way with that thing down on the floor. I also managed to break my one good torque wrench too, so I'll be looking to get a new one of those. Tomorrow will be the big test when I take it out of the garage and put it in the trailer, cross your fingers I put it together right, I am.