The Commuting Challenge: Week 1

Driving Impressions of my first week in commuting in the Turbo Brick.

So far so good.

I haven't dynoed the car yet, but I'm guessing it makes peak power somewhere near idle, because there's certainly none in the rest the rev range.

That's possibly a little unfair, because she cruises on the motorway quite happily and between 3-4000 there is a gentle push of turbo, (though the redline must have faded because 5500rpm seems wildly optimistic).

Oil continues it's desperate escape from the car, but hopefully it's the result of an clogged oil separator, which is next on the list.

Summer is tough. I notice I'm becoming jealous of people with working windows.

Smug bastards.

Oil

Oil, oil everywhere.

In the intake, coming out of the filler cap, leaking around the gearbox, coming out of the diff, the underside of the car is a glistening coating of fresh oil.

In fact it's everywhere except in the engine.

Probably should look into that.

Introducing the Crew

"The most International LeMons team Ever Assembled."*

*Probably not.

Tiago aka 'El Santos'
Portugal - The Instigator

The brains of the operation. Which is either unkind to him, or unkind to us. Tiago is a spiritual guide on our quest to find peace and solitude amongst the chaos of Thunderhill raceway.




John aka 'JC'
New Zealand - Co-owner

McLaren, Amon, Dixon. As a kiwi, racing is in the blood. (All New Zealanders must complete a mandatory season in an open wheeler before their 18th birthday). Entering the LeMons may give John the credibility to be let back into NZ.




Moritz aka 'Das German'
Germany - Ministry of Transport

Strengths: Precision, speed & control.
Weaknesses: Germans do not have weaknesses.
Combine coming from a country that houses the Nordschleife with the invaluable skill of owning a truck & Moritz is an obvious addition.



Dan aka 'The Chainsaw'
London, UK - Pit Chief

Dan's car control skills are unparalleled among his peers; which is surprising as he doesn't actually own a car. Or a license.

Either way, all we know is this: Don't make Dan angry.

Fuel Problems... no more.

WE MENDED IT!

A dodgy ground was the cause of our fuel problems.

New wires and a solid connection and we're back in business.

Fuel Problems

Just finished day two of trouble shooting the fuel system.

The buzzing main pump & hesitation lead us to believe there's an issue with the in-tank fuel pump. Since there was also spare pump in the box of spares that came with the car, we deduced that must be it.

We pull the pump and decide to test it before swapping it over... and it runs fine. But there's a broken ground leaving the top of the tank. Aha! Success.

But we need another spade connector so down to the hardware store for a $2 part.

$20 later (crimper, more wire, hand cleaner, WD40) we return, fix the wire and put it back together.

Connecting the outgoing fuel line proves tricky. The line is brittle plastic, impossible to put back on, so down to the hardware store for fuel line.

Back at base, Tiago installs the new fuel line and we're in business.

Start her up and.... fail.

Maybe it's electrical. We'll try again tomorrow.