I've been putting off this postmortem for too long - time to lance this boil.
We got into Wendover on September 9th, just before noon. Great day, great weather during the entire trip. The new Frontier delivered both the Midget and 14 mpg, and while it lacked the authority of the old Hemi Magnum, it held sustained speeds of 78-80 without overheating or complaining too much. It started hunting for gears as we approached Cheyenne, but I can't say I've ever made this trip without the transmission seeking to maximize the power band. Nick Martin, our designated driver, caught up with us that afternoon and we pulled the Midget into tech inspection.
Now Nick lives in Boulder, Colorado, is Kate's nephew, and while he oversaw our operations on the salt in 2013 and 2014, he had not been behind the wheel of the Midget. In the weeks proceeding, I had put together a couple of videos and some photos so Nick could familiarize himself with the confines of the Midget.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7gp74_2yyMhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evfsdPinNXc
dash right by
Chris Conrad, on Flickr
dash left_center by
Chris Conrad, on Flickr
tach warning by
Chris Conrad, on Flickr
oil pressure warning by
Chris Conrad, on Flickr
We had discussed his getting a fire suit before he left, but here's the deal. Nick just bought a Porsche GT3 RS.
Yeah, I was taken aback by that as well. The last cars of his I drove were a split-window VW Bus and a '63 Galaxie sedan with a straight 6 and a three-on-the-tree.
He's looking to race it on weekends (the Porsche, NOT the Galaxie), but probably doesn't need a 3.2A/10 suit for the club racing he wants to do, so we settled on sharing my suit.
And he was just off of a week at the Porsche Track Experience in Alabama, so anything the Midget could offer was going to be a letdown. That said, he probably had better training than I'll ever have.
Anyway, Nick and I are almost precisely the same height, and when I last ran, I was weighing in at about 225. My /15 firesuit was tight as I recall, but workable.
Nick is a former Mountain Bike racer - he actually captained the Trek Mountain Bike team out of Moab about 20 years ago, and has kept himself in fantastic shape. He's currently also at ~ 225, but he's considerably broader across the chest than I've ever been, so the suit and neck restraint wasn't a good fit. It was doable, but next time around, I'm going to recommend he go with a /5 that he can use with the Porsche and opt for the Nomex underwear option at Bonneville.
Once the pit was set, we put Nick through his paces on the bail out (bale out? - I've seen it spelled both ways). We would both be going through this procedure, and since we would be hot-cotting the suit, he practiced in his street clothes.
Steve Anderson greeted us at tech, and because he races a Austin Bantam, he was keen to tech the Midget. He was a welcome friendly face in tech who went out of his way to help us later in the weekend. Steve, again, THANK YOU.
He patiently went over the checklist, pointed out a few things that gave me pause for thought, and I suited up. I was rusty, but I got through it and made a note regarding the window latch adjustment.
We then got Nick suited up and in, but he was clearly struggling with my /15 suit.
He got out, but it was clearly a clumsy exit, and Steve took note.
It was late in the afternoon, and they were about ready to pack it in at tech when Steve took us aside and said something to the effect of "Let's try this again tomorrow". And you know, that's all the pressure that needed to be removed from Nick.
I sense Steve knew that as well.
People worry about tech, and it needs to be done right. But they also forget that the inspectors are racers as well. At the end of the day, they really DO want to see your car on the salt, rather than the tail lights of you trailer being towed by a disgruntled or humiliated racer. And the advantage to a less crazy event like WOS is that you can actually get to know these folks better. They want to see you next year- and in one piece.
On to our first in a series of technological challenges we encountered. Depending on your cell phone provider, you have a 50/50 chance of being an hour late to the driver's meeting. Kate and I encountered this in 2013 when her phone switched over to Pacific time at the Utah/Nevada Border, and mine remained on Mountain time, which is the time zone utilized for the event and by West Wendover.
Most of you know this, but for those who don't, take note -
SYNCHRONIZE WATCHES, BATMAN!
So . . . I took notes for Nick, but with a fresh cup of coffee, we both caught the last of the driver's meeting and headed to line up with the rookies for orientation. I put him at ease regailing him with the story of how I was working on the Midget engine during the driver's meeting at Maxton in 2011 and came to within a hare's breath of Joe Timney kicking my sorry ass out.
As I understand was the case with Speed Week, the starting lines were set damn near to Land's End, and Monty and the USFRA crew had groomed two really nice courses. The turnouts were clearly marked with the blue paint, and it worked fantastic.
After that, Steve stopped by our pit and Nick was able to perform the bail out to both Steve's - and more importantly - HIS OWN satisfaction. Salt 27 and 'lil Puke had stopped by - so good to catch up with those two again. We were ready for takeoff.
Now let's keep this in mind - the Midget hasn't driven 20 feet under its own power in 7 years. It had received a new engine, the driveshaft was shortened 2", the alignment was
probably good, but uncertain, the brake system had been reconfigured - EVERYTHING with the exception of the wheels and tires was an unknown.
Nick is recently married, a new father, is a GREAT dad, and there was NO WAY IN HELL I was going to let him take the shakedown run, because there is NO WAY IN HELL I was going to make that call to Elizabeth if things went south.
All this time, Kate's been taking photos. Before we took off, she stopped by the camera shop she worked at when we first started dating and bought herself a really nice Leica - and don't ask me the model - I'm not even worthy to touch the box it came in. When she gets around to downloading the photos, I'll make a point to post some up. She would have liked to have shared it with Freud - we all three miss him.
And we got in line just in time for the wind delay.
At this time, I need to, once again, acknowledge Gus for taking care of our tent remnants. I might have recognized them as ours if they had blown across the course, but that didn't become necessary due to the quick thinking of Mr. Ryan.
Unbeknownst to us, the USFRA decided to open up the salt early on Saturday in order to compensate for the close-down on Friday. I found out about it via Stainless' post here on the site and informed Kate and Nick that we'd be up a little earlier.
We put the car in line, I got suited up, and one of the Burkdol kids stopped by with a camera person and conducted an interview with me for the USFRA. I felt like I was on the Wide World of Sports or something. It's my understanding that the audio file got corrupted, and the interview never played - a technical foreshadowing of what would continue to plague our efforts for the rest of the weekend.
The weather was cool, the sun was out but hadn't impacted the day yet, and the plan was getting this shakedown behind us, putting Nick behind the wheel, getting his rookie run under his belt and visiting Dan over in impound.
So imagine the look on my face when, set for takeoff, I hit the starter and it wouldn't run!
Monty let us push off to the side, I got out of the suit, and Steve Anderson came over and helped us try to find the electro-gremlin.
We checked connections and continuity - nothing obvious or simple. I plugged the computer into the ecu, and the battery lasted all of about 10 minutes before the laptop shut down. I pulled out the generator and ran an extension cord to the charger for the computer - and the charger put out ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Yes, the generator was putting out 110V AC, but there was no output on the laptop charger! This would be the last time I would use my computer until September 19th. Any adjustability, method of recovery, data collection or diagnosis was locked up in a brick.
We towed it back to the pit - the sun was beating down on us by now, and we needed shade if we were going to get it running.
Wayno had made time in his schedule to leave the tank behind and take in the event - it was good seeing him, and Gus, once again, was there to help us try to get things going. We actually got it running, and while we were still unclear as to precisely where the issue lay, we were good to launch.
We got back in line, and I ripped into it. I hit 114 and change in third at 9,500, and the shift to 4th provided no additional speed. I think - and I still haven't been into the ecu to check - but I think I had the rev limiter on. But the car was tracking straight, sounding good, stopping okay - Nick's up next morning - we'll at least get his rookie pass in.
So Nick's suited up, he's behind the wheel, and while it starts, we can't get it to launch. Idle was poor, mixture smelled rich, and even a push-off wouldn't clear the engine. Back to the pit.
At this time, Stainless and his merry band of warriors, all of whom had changed their legal mailing address to "Impound", stopped by and painstakingly helped us go through the wiring again.
Stainless had pulled down the Holley HP V5 software onto his computer, and while he and the Utah Valley University LSR team were able to open up the ecu, there weren't any logs available to analyze or compare, and even if there were, there would have been nothing to compare the logs to.
Once again, we got it running, but now Nick was unable to disengage the clutch. We were up on jackstands, so I got under the car and instructed Nick to hit the clutch. The slave was working properly, the linkage was moving, but something isn't working under the bellhousing. I wasn't about to try to figure this one out on the salt, so we pulled the plug on 2021.
I already posted up about the trailer issue. What I wound up doing is VERY CAREFULLY towing the Midget back to Milwaukee from Madison on the tow bar I used to drag the car around the salt.
It wasn't until last week that I finally had the ambition to put it up on jackstands and desalinated it with my garden sprinkler - not a lot of salt, but then, not a lot of opportunity to capture any, either. This week, I drained the transmission and differential - I'll be pulling that on Sunday and returning it to Mr. Salisbury next week, and hopefully catching up with Fordboy as well.
Here's the tentative plan moving forward.
I must figure out what happened with the clutch, and that, unfortunately, requires pulling the engine. I hope to have it out before Halloween. I suspect an overextended throwout or bent fingers.
Once that's sorted, I'll reinstall it and get it running again.
I'm looking for a tuner to get the entire package dialed in. The basics of the engine are right, but all problems started occurring when the motor was reinstalled in the car. It won't travel any farther west than Waukesha until I get it figured out.
I've also charged Nick with finding a chassis dyno facility in the Boulder area where I can come out early with the car and actually have him row through the gears and talk through strategy. I want to simulate runs with him driving and get him accustomed to the surroundings. I think that would be worth the expense of a dyno day, and I know it would make him more comfortable.
So that's the saga. My only regrets are that neither Fordboy or my Dad could make it out this year. In retrospect, it's just as well, but still, despite the team that came to our rescue on the salt, the roster had a couple of big holes in it.
