You have to be a car guy to understand...

[James OLC]

As I write this RTTC is barely 3 days away and the OLC is sitting on a lift - with a really cool but completely untested variety of new parts - broken. I'm probably being harsh but it's 50/50 that we make RTTC but we're going to try. Despite that, I'm pretty happy with my car and was thinking about that this morning...

My car breaks. Not a lot and so far (knock on wood) never in a way that has caused me or her any serious damage. But it breaks.

It's frustrating and it never seems to happen at a good time and it always seems to cause more stress that any car seems to be worth but it happens. I shout, I pout, and then I drop an F-bomb or 5 (not necessarily in that order). I screw on a smile and make light of it to my friends while I silently try to figure out how I'm going to get stuff fixed, where I'm going to get parts and how I'm going to pay for them (again not necessarily in that order). There is an hour of despair and panic, followed by two more of scrambling to the phone and to the internet - reaching out to anyone who might have an idea, a solution, or the parts that you need and then there is 5 minutes of perfect clarity. Those 5 minutes are like the calm before the storm - the eye of the hurricane - and in those 5 minutes - as the solution comes together - it's like nothing else. Unfortunately those 5 minutes are usually followed by an eternity of waiting to see if the parts make it, if they are right, and if they solve the problem.

But that's not what I was thinking about this morning...

When our rear axle seal went last year during OLOA we had "plenty" of warning that there was an issue. We had stopped for gas and the rear of the car was covered in oil. We looked for the source, we came up with elaborate explanations and, ultimately, we chose do drive on (it was 11:30 PM in the middle of Georgia - it's not like we had a ton of choices). Less than an hour later the bearing failed and we were parked on the shoulder. At that point in time I realized that cars can talk; when something is wrong they usually try to tell us. And they don't lie. But my car does more than that - I think that it tries to look after itself...

At the first RTTC we beat on the car as a final test before OLOA and when we loaded the car on to the trailer we found that a shock was broken. We had about a million other things go wrong that weekend (we were running Bad Penny’s rear wheels and tires because ours were being repaired at HRE and weren't done in time) and we had about 10 days to get the shock (ultimately shocks) fixed before leaving. But if we hadn't run at RTTC and if the shock hadn't broken then we would have dusted the car off, put it in the trailer and left for OLOA as is. And in all likelihood would have missed the event.

Last year at Del Mar I allowed the OLC to be used (flogged) in the editors challenge autocross where an unnamed editor blew the clutch up badly enough to make people think the car was on fire (the trunk still smells funky when it gets hot). Again - two weeks before the car had to leave for OLOA - and again, I have to wonder if the car would have made it through One Lap as is... call it 50/50.

And then during the OLOA was the wheel bearing issue. If you followed our progress last year you'd know that the failure happened on our way to Daytona where we were going be running the Rolex-24 course - the one event that both of us were looking forward to more than any other. We were having troubles with our brakes (a warped rotor) and (obviously) we had a wheel bearing going. But if we had made it to Daytona we would have run - it was Daytona and I was not going to miss it. Jimi Day had an issue in the Z06 coming off the back stretch at 165 and spun the car due to nothing more than a split second error on the brakes. I shudder to think what would have happened if we had run the car as is rather than spending the day at Franks getting it fixed.

Last year at OUSCI we grenaded our slave cylinder in the speed stop challenge. Second run and, at the time, we had the best time of the day and I knew we could do better. Instead we got to learn that an LS7 starter has enough oomph to bump start the car with a little help. If the slave cylinder had not failed we would have tried another run. It's 50/50 that the car would have survived one more run.

And so yesterday David is checking the alignment and finds it "off"... for no apparent reason. We had both noted that the wheel was a bit off and he felt that the car had been pulling a bit in his test drive the day before and so he starts looking. And looking. And looking. And ultimately finds that one of the lower ball joints is holding on by only a couple of threads. Again I shudder to think about what could have happened if I tried one more run at OUSCI.

So yeah... my car breaks... but I think that she's looking out for us both when she does.

This is probably just my way of trying to deal with the frustration right now but I'm guessing that if you are a car person you've probably been there too.

So for now - fingers crossed - we're going to work to make RTTC. We need a spindle - fortunately I have a pair on the OLC2 project at Ironworks - and we need some good luck but we should make it - I hope. And as always, my sincerest thanks to David and Mary - possibly the best team that anyone could ask for.