Mikelly

So my car sits on the trailer broke, again. I have no clutch pedal, or I should say a clutch pedal that won't press in at all. The car was fine in session one, but session two of the first day (Today) after about 6 laps of fighting traction (Street tires) the clutch pedal stuck to the floor and then wouldn't go down at all... I was fortunate to get the car into neutral and cost off at the access road at the North course cutoff.

This car has been a great car, and has new parts that equal a huge chunk of change, but I'm done. I'm simply tired of wrenching on it. This little episode is the final straw and this car will be gone within a month.

Very frustrated at this point.

Mike

varkwso

Sorry to hear that - I have had a Porsche and Mustang that also put me to that point

larryfs

I've been there, done that !
Now I keep them as stock as possible. The results are reliable track cars.

John Shiels

My car had a tranny problem at Pocono which I fixed for near 2,000 then I went to VIR and the same thing happen. More money so after 55,000 on one tranny and 6,000 on a rebuilt Z tranny I go 140 miles and it pops at VIR. I was sick at VIR but glad I got a few runs before it blew after driving 13 hr each way. Now it is the spring and I am not motivated. I have new Wilwoods for the back but never installed them. Not hot on working on it. I will have to cancel the events I signed for soon if I don't get going. I know how you feel. Tons of money and not much fun.

They said clutch may be dragging and damaging the tranny 2-3. Disgusted and it didn't wear off over the winter. I was going to go to Lime Rock to get pumped but weather was supposed to be bad so I said screw it. Now the clutch I want is 1600 in parts, 1200 labor, winch 800, take the car apart to install hooks for winch

sleeper02Z06

I don't think you should give up on the car, just fix it, enjoy it as a daily driver ( and I know you do ). Focus on the Z car as the track setup and have that be the one that gets beat on all the time. It's all in what you want though! Might be time to try and enjoy a different type of car, or perhaps a C6!

Joe

Cobra4B

Well all need to aspire to be as rich as mike's buddy w/ the Porsche GT-3... things go wrong... just drop it off at the shop and pick it up when those things are right

Mike like I said today I know how you feel... Early '05 I had my car break on me 3-times in a row... it was sickening and I was about done withit.

1. New clutch breaks due to poor install on the highway, car flatbedded to dealer, had to buy another LUK Stage-II and deal with the balance (or imbalance) headaches.

2. Remote bleeder line chafes through fuel line b/c nobody every mentioned that that could happen. I didn't know it needed to be covered. I'm at a Corvette BBQ up in NOVA when I smell feul. Well fuel was pissing out directly on the headers! I'm luck the car didn't go up in flames. $400 flatbed back to Newport News chevy dealer. It was only $400 b/c a guy knew a guy.

3. Next... the driver's side fuel injector harness chafed through on the bracket at the back left of the head... car starts to missfire, run rich and throw p0300 and p0200 codes... again flatbedded to dealer.

All of this happened over the course of 1 month... GM wouldn't pay any of the tows b/c the extended warranty I have doesn't over the tows.

I was fed up w/ the car.... however I saw it all through and have had a blast with it for awhile no w/o issue

Gatorac

I understand where your coming from. I got pretty frustrated with my prior car. I got the Z for a "dependable" track *****. Kind of an oxymoron. The only mods I have done are to make it more dependable on the track. So far, so good. Seat time is the ultimate goal.

I still think the FFR spec racer is a great choice for a dependable cheap track car.

Procrastination Racing

Sometimes it happens. Sometimes it is best to sell and go a different direction, and sometimes it is best to put it in a garage and not open it for a month or two, doing other things in the meantime.

For one two year period, my races went like this:

• Sebring, Feb. - broke motor, smoking like crazy.
• Moroso, May. - new 427, monsoons at Lap 1, jack not working, had to run on slicks.
• Sebring, Jun. - blew clutch
• Daytona, Aug. - new triple disc clutch, wouldn't engage, spent Saturday fixing, blew 427 (rod) halfway through race.
• Sebring, Oct. - rebuilt 327 under street light night before race
• Sebring, Nov. - froze to death, forgot coats, it was 85 at Deerfield, 40 at Sebring
• Sebring, next year - broke harmonic balancer, other parts, drove back to Deerfield overnight for parts
• Sebring, Jun. - wiped bearings on new 302
• Daytona, Aug - engine overheated on pace, wiped bearings in 302
• August - where you are now - parked car, jumped on bike, didn't look at car for 2-1/2 months.
• Sebring, Nov - got bottom end right, 302 ran like a dream, shifting at 9000.

Selling while you are mad or frustrated is not the thing to do. Put it away, cool off, then think about it. If you have to, rent a storage area, put it in there, and don't go back for 2 or 3 months. Then decide what you want to do.

BTW, the next year went MUCH better for us.

AU N EGL

Arrive and drives are looking a whole lot better now.

Good Luck Mike

John Shiels

yes, but if you push them they die also.

Mikelly

Well on the plus side I'm getting ready to head out to the paddock and chat with a guy I met last night. He rents out his spec miata. I'm gonna chat with Dave Nuggent and his crew and my instructor and see if I can get signed off and go turn some laps...

Wish me luck, and thanks to Jim (GT3) for funding this little experience with the miata. He wants to prove to me that I won't be happy in such a low HP car... He may well be correct... We'll see.

Mike

ghoffman

Most Vette guys will not be happy in a Spec Miata. It is fun the first couple of races especially since the racing is very close. The guys that I know that are in SM and happy run about the same lap times in the SM as they did in their Vette. At LRP the SM's run 64 second lap times so they are pretty quick but you only have 2 throttle positions i.e. on or off. The guy I am thinking of only ran 63 in his Vette. They teach momemtum which is always important but throttle control is not necessary. I drove one at NHIS and from turn 12 (last corner before the front NASCAR straight) you floor it all the way around the oval then brake into turn 3 then floor it again. The session I drove it, I ran within a second of the SM track record. Yes, a second is alot, but with some seat time and precise setup you would get very close fast. I think that you could cheat by having a kill button on the steering wheel and have it either on or off. If you tried to do the above in a Vette you would exit the track in a way that would make the Air Force think a ballistic missle was launched from New Hampshire. It is fun to listen to the SM guys, it is like the game show "Name that tune". One will brag that he ran the whole season on a set of tires, then another will brag that he has the same brake pads, another will say they ran the same air in the tires all year and so on. On the other hand they have a very high fun to $$$ ratio. If you can rent one, then by all means do so, but try it before you buy one.

95jersey

I always said that someday I will lease some car, but tires and brakes and that would be it. I would beat the living hell out of it and turn it back in after 30k miles, sell the parts

C5ontrack

After 76,000 miles and 3 years of daily drive and DE's without incident I broke down at SP. Nothing serious but cracked rotors, blown water pump, and bared a tire made me think about all the other stuff that would eventually go.

So I rented a track FFR Cobra thinkin I would buy a dedicated track car that was cheap to maintain. Well the almost new Cobra (with SOME NEW AND SOME USED parts) broke down twice that weekend despite having a 'crew'. Didn't like the seating and tiny pedals, brakes suck, about half of what I was used to with the Vet. The car accels like a vet but very twitchy and wandering over 120. Did not feel as safe as the Vet. Anyway $2000 + arrive and drive is way out of my budget.

My thoughts are to buy new every couple years or when your car starts choking so you can have more seat time than wrenching time.

Cobra4B

Well Mike really liked the SM today... I think he's still set on letting the coupe go.

G'night folks.