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[924RACR]

It sucked. That's why, no surprise, this report has been a little slow in coming.

We struggled to maintain at the back of the pack, qualified 19th out of a field of 20, and retired on the 11th (of 1 lap when the driver screwed up by dropping 2 wheels in the dirt in the braking zone for the right-hander, losing control and running off in the gravel. The gravel was deep and freshly graded, preventing any hope of resuming the race.

During the race the car was without power as compared to the rest of the field, though performing much the same as it always has. It was also pushing (understeering) throughout, though not unbearably - just enough to be a little slow.

Fortunately, further investigation in the shop afterwards has turned up a 22 and a 20mm front swaybar, which can be used to replace the 23mm front bar currently on there, giving plenty of options to deal with the understeer. Additionally I have a pair of 350# springs that could be swapped in, as a last resort, to replace the 400# springs that are in there. However, this would affect more than just handling balance, so will not be tried as a first step.

Further checks on the engine, as posted elsewhere, have shown that the reason the engine's not running properly and making no power is that the control pressure regulator was not functioning at all, preventing proper mixture control anywhere other than idle. A functional spare was found after throwing 2 spares away, and the engine is running much better now.

Between the engine tuning, the chassis tuning chances, and a little work on lightening the car, there may be hope yet for the last race of the season, the NASA 944Cup race at Beaverun, PA, 10/19-20.

Hopefully we'll be able to conserve rubber enough to finish a race... though that's still TBD...

_________________
Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype