[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by Ron Sutton

Oh hell no. For me & the crew it was a rough 3 days. Thursday after Greg drove the car around the block at Randy's shop ... at speeds we won't mention here ... the throttle quit responding. We loaded anyway & went to the track. So Friday morning at the track we spent hours figuring out what the cause of the problem was. Before we accurately diagnosed the harness I had ordered two throttle bodies, harnesses & other stuff from Summit in Reno & had it "Lyfted" to us at the track in Willows, CA. 3 hours & $400 will be the answer to some questions asked here.

After we got the harness reworked & car running, the first session on track was cut short from oil blow by out of the Dry Sump breather. For anyone not there, there was a cloud of smoke that would come out. This problem haunted us all 3 days. We got it "reduced" enough on Saturday to where we could make a warm up lap & run 2-3 hard, fast laps before it reared its head. But it never went away & won't until we change the system.

We also had a cooling issue. We run a C&R extruded radiator with a heat exchanger built in to cool the engine oil. The engine got hot quicker than it should have. This amplified the oiling issue & the oiling issue amplified the cooling issue. So the crew had to do a routine of clean off the dry sump vent, any excess oil & cool down the car after every run. Friday's test day was brutal. Not good. And not the way the car should work or will work, once I get it fixed. Saturday & Sunday were "better." The crew & I never quit, so we toughed it out did what was necessary to run the best we could each session of the NASA weekend.

We did miss a session each day as well. The missed session on Saturday was to repair a broken shock mount from where Benny got off track after the bypass. This required the shock mount to be rewelded on & braced. Thank goodness there was a good shop there to fix that, or we'd have been done. We missed another session Sunday, dealing with burnt starter wires. (Engine bay was very hot).

The car was crazy fast, but it's not correct yet. The RSRT stuff I designed, like the chassis, suspension, brakes, 3rd Member & engine combo all worked well. Some of the things I just buy, also worked good, like the PPG Sequential transmission, QuarterMaster clutch & X-ineering "no lift" shift controller. But the ARE Dry Sump system had serious issues that were frustrating as Fu#$. So was the C&R cooling system. Both of those companies have awesome records of great products. But the systems they recommended that are "currently" on Greg's car did not work well at all. Gotta be fixed.

So back at the office, I'll be working with the cooling experts at C&R & the dry sump gurus at ARE to figure out what's wrong & make whatever changes are needed to Greg's car & future Track-Warriors. After we figure out what changes are needed to the dry sump system tank/plumbing/venting & cooling system, we'll bring Greg's car back to Randy's shop & make those upgrades/corrections. Well before it runs again. Frankly, we'll probably go test just to make sure the cooling system & dry sump vent don't have any issues & work as they should before going to another event.

At this time, the car is NOT plug n' play. Rob, I didn't want you to take me not posting a story with details as "all was great." I did want to announce the pool winner. As you know, it was rough. But we toughed it out & got a couple TTU wins which are really a testament to the car's capabilities & the crews perseverance. But we still have work to do.

No..... no, you won't be doing anything with the car because as you know - you were FIRED. I will post why, in detail, in the morning when I have time.