It's been a month since the race, and I've been meaning to post this, but life has been hectic and my company internet now blocks all message boards...
Anyway, we ran my '64 Dart at the 24 Hours of LeMons race at MSR Houston at the end of September. This race was actually a full 24-hour-straight race. (The name notwithstanding, most LeMons road races are not full 24-hour.) The Dart handled great, what with all the upgrades we've done to the suspension. It's still lacking in horsepower even with the Holley 350 on it, but we managed to not break anything and kept it out there turning laps the whole time. We ended the race in 42nd place out of 94 cars (I think?), and 3rd place in Class C behind a Porsche 914 and a 1993 Mitsubishi Eclipse! We had a total of 360 laps, compared to ~500 laps for the Class C winner and ~600 laps for the overall race winner, a Nissan 280ZX.
For this accomplishment, we were awarded the Index of Effluency, which is considered the top prize of the race. The IoE is "determined by a super-secret equation including vehicle age, general hooptieness, reliability of country of origin, unlikelihood of success, and the Organizers' whim." The official race summary by Judge Phil can be found here:
http://blog.caranddriver.com/lemons-hou ... -together/
Yes, you read that right; we also volunteered to race a hand-me-down K-car in addition to the Dart. That didn't go so well, but at least it held the attention of all the gremlins. The Dart's only issue the whole race was a loose electrical connection behind the dash that cost us about half an hour to diagnose and fix. Of course, we also had a few bad driving penalties... that's why there's now a goat welded to the roof. If you're incredibly bored and want to read my full write-up, check here:
https://www.facebook.com/notes/escape-v ... 5944182420
The next steps for us:
1. Find a rear end with a better gear ratio.
2. Work on improving our driver-swap and refueling time.
3. Figure out why the car stumbles when exiting corners at full throttle. The fuel tank and hard line are completely new, but that doesn't mean the stock A-body fuel tank is great at keeping the pickup fed during high-g turns. External surge tanks are illegal in LeMons, but we may be able to get away with a couple of huge fuel filters. Modifying the stock fuel tank is also illegal, but maybe it would help to add a baffle to the carburetor bowl? I really don't want to drop the cash for a fuel cell.
4. We're also toying with the idea of putting some kind of blow-through turbo on the car. After all, you get points in this series for doing things that are stupid.
