Buttonwillow Day 1 -Saturday, Dec 4th

Well, to start this blog, I have to rewind about 12 hours back to Friday evening. We walked the pits to meet people and see who was already working on their cars. So met up with the VW Jetta team, Bros from Santa Barbara, and they offered us some liquid courage, special Lemon's style! Being real race car drivers, how could we resist more courage? So, down the hatch.

And Rye too, more courage for the Magic Rabbit team! Notice how my courage is already shouting its way out of my mouth.

Here are the fine gentlemen from Santa Barbara and BROverload Racing and their racing VW Jetta with snowboards for wings!

With courage in our bellies we wandered off to sleep in the RV. Then at 2am I awake to the sound of rain on the roof. It wasn't supposed to rain tonight! Big drops, they continue, so I decide to get up, slip on some pants and shoes and go out to cover things up. Moved the tent to cover the car and all the tools that were out in the rain. Move all the chairs under the awning and other stuff. Looks OK, back to bed to listen to the rain. Oh NO, I will be the first driver in the morning in the rain. How about windshield wipers, I brought the motor and wipers but they must be installed. Lets wait until morning.

Morning dawns, still very wet, a few sprinkles, so we decide to install the wipers. Figure out the wiring, use the same switch as our red Christmas lights, good to go. Have time now to fill our fuel tanks. 8:30am drivers meeting, a charity electric car race and green flag to fall at 10am.

OK, time to form up, I am suited up ready to get in line. I start the engine and it sounds way too loud, something wrong, Murphy is still around. Very loud under the car so we know it's the exhaust system. Jack the car up and we find that the two bolts linking the exhaust header to the exhaust pipe have fallen off during practice on Friday. So I stay in the car and Paul digs up some replacement bolts and slides under the car to install them. All the time other cars are lining up for the start. Here are a few of the other competitors:

Love the 1975 Lincoln Towncar all dressed up as the horse and cowboy! The team was Phony Express-Clydesdale Edition.

BMW disguised as the 60's Plymouth Superbird from NASCAR and Richard Petty fame.

The Mazdarita, blend you a Margarita at 90mph!

And the girls favorite My Little Pony Mustang, complete with tiara and flowing train.

Here we are, exhaust all fixed, out on the track, trying to figure out just how slippery the wet course will be. Three or four pace laps as it takes that long to get everyone out on the track, close to 170 cars started on Saturday.

The 57 Variety Be-Heinz Nissan.

And the 27 foot long, Rolling Chicane Limo Service entry complete with prom queen legs and dress protruding from the sunroof and the rest of the prom dress trailing out behind. They drove the course with the cruise control set at 31 mph. Always a challenge to get around this barge.

The Air Prance Chitreon, it was driven to and from the race course.

And a Mini-Moke dressed up to look like a remote controlled lunar vehicle. Won the award for heroic fix as they had to repair fractured frame rails twice!

The Magic Rabbit coming up through the pack, got the Cheetos car in my sights. Huge traffic at the beginning until some of the cars started to break down.

Here is a typical traffic jam at each corner during that first stint on Saturday. Luckily I kept my nose clean and didn't bump anyone or get bumped.

OK, then there was the White Trash Racing Team, complete with their white trash girlfriends. Love those boots!

Lovely hair and trashy statement on her jacket.

But they love their boys, complete with their mullets! What a crazy place. You go from serious racing to laughing at the fun everyone is having.

We ran well all day Saturday, Murphy only peeked his head in twice. First time was my second stint early Saturday afternoon. I had been out about 10 laps when I started to hear a rumbling noise. Oh no, what could that be, CV joint, transmission, bearing... I slowed down for one lap, it was getting worse, so I came into the pits early. As I drove up to our area, everyone could see that my front left wheel was wobbling all over the place. All the lug bolts had worked their way loose and one out of the four had fallen out. So I was racing with just three loose bolts holding my wheel on, that could have been ugly!

We didn't have an extra lug bolt (remember to bring extras next race) so we borrowed one from the Las Vegas team, off of their team car! Everything tightened up. Since I came in early, Paul wasn't in his driver suit, Tedders was, so he jumped into take the next stint. Another lesson, all the drivers need to be suited up at all times.

Tedders stint was good, but he too had an issue as he came in to put and for fuel. A very loud hissing noise, again didn't sound good. What could it be, Murphy smiles as we lift up the hood. Luckily we quickly diagnose an air leak in the intake system, but where. Second thing I check turns out to be the problem, an idle set screw had backed it way all the way out and fallen off, so we are sucking lots of air there. But where to get such a specialized screw? Ask our rabbit warren mates, from Powered by Bacon, in 30 seconds they hand me a used throttle body with the needed idle screw. I quickly take it off the used part and install it in our car. Start it up, perfect, Murphy goes poof!

Paul in to drive, good stint and then Rye finishes the day as it get dark at Buttonwillow. Our red Christmas lights look great in the late afternoon. Checkered flag falls at 5pm and we are sitting in 52 place, we are happy. No major breakdowns and no black flags!

So the Magic Rabbit served us well, we had fun and were very happy with our position. We all relaxed around the RV and had a cocktail and then off to Mike and Candy Bolton's motel room for more cocktails, wonderful appetizers, and continuous race day tales to share. Dinner at the local Buttonwillow BBQ, delicious. We tried to impact the Las Vegas Slot Machine racing team by buying them extra drinks. At the end of Saturday they were right in front of us in the standings. So, get them drunk and then we can pass the hungover drivers on Sunday morning. Great strategy, but it seems the Las Vegas team was very happy with our generosity.

OK, tomorrow is the second half of the Arse-Freeze Appalosa, off to bed and a good nights sleep. Tedders put ear plugs in before bed, seems the noises from Rye and me were worse than inside the race car (hard to believe, I know).

Buttonwillow-Arse Freeze Practice on Friday

Arse-Freeze Apalooza, it starts on Thursday as Rye and I pack up the RV and pick Tedders up at Sonoma Chicken restaurant near the San Jose Airport. Tedders flew in from Ketchum, Idaho (we are a national team). And drive down Interstate 5 to Buttomwillow, CA. When we arrive at the race track we expected to park and sleep at the entrance Thursday night, but instead the track personnel processed us in and allowed everyone to enter and find a spot Thursday night. So at 11pm Thursday night, in the pitch black of night we navigate the pits to find a spot. Luckily we run across our VW Rabbit friends from Chim Chim Racing, aka Powered by Bacon. So we pulled in the RV, hooked up to some power and went to bed.

Up at 7am Friday to set up shop, first things first, put up the awning and string some Christmas lights!

Now, here is Mr. Unruly on his way to sign up for Friday practice. Oh how well he fits on that Honda 50!

While we awaited the arrival of our Magic Rabbit, on its way from Sacramento in the early morning, Rye went out and snapped some pictures of an array of very interesting Lemon's competitors.

Here is the latest creation from Evil Genius in Davis, CA. A Model T GT, a Ford Model T body, on a Ford Model A frame with a modern Ford V-8 engine. This is the same guy who built the Death Cab VolvoV8.

Next is a 1958 Plymouth take-off done on a BMW E-30 series car. It is to look like the car "Christine" in the Stephen King chiller. Very well done.

OK, how about a Pac-Man themed Porsche 924 from the racing stable Fartini Racing.

Or Team Petty Cash (painted in the Richard "The King" Petty racing blue) Jeep Cherokee. This Jeep was amazingly quick.

Add in some flower power, hippee style Alfa Romero.

But the most interesting/bizzare was the Fiat 600/Moto Guzi 1000, called the Fiaguzzi 1000. This is a 1964 Fiat 600 with the tiny 600cc motor removed and replace with a 60's Moto Guzi motorcycle 1000cc engine. The huge home style air ducts you see on the roof was an attempt to funnel cooling air to the motorcycle engine in the back. During testing on Friday it was determined that this setup didn't work, more than one lap and they were overheating. They replaced this cooling setup with two large electric radiator fans under the back engine hatch blowing air directly onto the air cooled motorcycle engine. That worked, they ran both days and won the coveted IOE prize for the car "getting the most from the least" and $1501 cash.

After a sumptuous breakfast somewhere on I5 Paul, Nancy and Darrell arrive with our Magic Rabbit.

Off loading and getting it prepared for inspection and practice.

First, we go through inspection, here is the team all dressed up and heading for tech inspection.

Paul and Darrell are carrying the surprise bribe package.

We were lucky to end up with Jay Lamm, the Chief Perpetrator, to do our tech and BS inspection. We flew through the tech inspection, no problems. Then Jay started the BS inspection and wanted to know how much we spend on our crapcan. So here I am showing Jay our books. We started with a residue value of $225 (a determination by Jay himself of what our car was worth immediately after our Thunderhill race in August). To this residue value our books show what we added to the car or at least what we were willing to disclose to Jay that we had done. Our books showed a new total less than $500, of course what else would we say. Jay was suspicious as he should be.

However, at this moment Paul interjected while Jay pondered our calculations, to declare to Jay that we had a bribe for Jay. Jay unwrapped the bribe to find this fabulously printed, mounted and lemonly framed portrait of himself!! Perfect bribe, no further discussions needed. Jay was all smiles and so were we.

This portrait of Jay, the Renaissance Man, Lamm was from a Road and Track article about Jay and his new racing series 24 Hours of Lemons.

The team posed with Jay and his potrait.

Next on our list of to-do's is to get all our safety gear checked, racing suit, helmet, gloves and shoes.

While we were getting checked another marvelous entry appeared, a 1985 Maserati Quattroportte, ie 4 door Maserati and the owner, shown here in his finest Purple Rain, formerly know as the artist Prince, bought this Maserati for only $500. So he claims. It was a favorite of the Lemon's staff, they all got to drive it on the track. Yes, they put in a full racing roll cage inside of this Grand Touring car and its Italian leather seating!

OK, all inspected, check in and ready to race. The Magic Rabbit team stops to pose for the growing team of photographers!

A couple of more interesting entries, the Lincoln Towncar complete with "horsehide and saddle". This car was driven down I5 looking like this, must have impressed a few CHP officers and drivers along the way!.

And here is the Time Bandits, if you watch TV and the "Deadliest Catch" series you will know that "Time Bandits" was the name of a boat in that series. And here is the Time Bandits decked out to catch the Alaskan crabs. Well done.

This banner just made us laugh, "we don't like us either".

Here is our VW Rabbit Warren neighbors, Chim Chim Racing with their new theme, a play on UPS delivery, called JewPS, We Deliver on Christmas. Brilliant, along with their UPS brown uniforms offsite so well with their Hasidic Jewish hats and curls!

OK, here Mr. Unruly looks like a true racer in his pink tux tshirt and his 24 Hours of Lemons knit cap. What a site.

For this race we added a co-pilot, who else but Bug Bunny belongs in the Magic Rabbit. He is tied in, ready to race!

Friday night, after practice, the red Christmas lights show up on the race car.

And the final task, put new "sticker" tires on the front. They aren't any stickier, they just have the paper sticker still on them. A NASCAR term for brand new tires. We only put them on the front since the front tires on a front wheel drive car, like our GTI, does most of the work and therefore wear the fastest. So here is Tedders putting the new tires on the front before we called it day and got a good nights rest before the start of the race on Saturday.

That was our first day. More as I post our race days. Sorry for the delay in posting, just been very busy.

1st video of LeMons Arse-Freeze-Apalooza

Here is our 1st video, some highlights from LeMons Arse-Freeze-Apalooza at Buttonwillow raceway.

Enjoy!

-Sreddet.

Dirty Duck Racing, LeMons Arse-Freeze-Apalooza from Sreddet on Vimeo.

Murphy is my Copilot

As the smooth voice says on TV, "Previously, our fearless Dirty Duck Racing team purchased a new (used) 2.0 liter motor and delivered it to the workshop for implanting into the Magic Rabbit."

Now we start the transformation of the 1995 2.0 liter engine into a hybrid. Not the kind of electric/gas hybrid of those annoying Prius cars! No, this is a hybrid of two motors, the 2.0 liter 1995 engine and the 1.8 liter 1983 engine. That's right, combine two motors that are 12 years apart. Amazingly it can be done, and rather easily. Thanks to the internet all the info to marry to two engines is laid out for us. Just goes to show you, 12 years of development of the VW motor from 1983 to 1995 and it is still basically the same! And used by VW and Audi's, the name of the game in automotive industry, design it, use it for ever and put it in every vehicle you can think of for as long as you can! All equals profits, but I am going astray here!

Back to the garage, 1995 2.0 liter block to marry up with 1991 1.8 liter head. So what goes in between, a head gasket. So, it obvious, you use a head gasket from a 1991 16 valve (we have 8 valves) motor! Again thank you internet and the VW forums that told us all these kind of details and more to come. With the 1995 block on the engine stand, the 1991 head gasket and the 1983 head from Car #3, we have the basic engine together!

The next step is to put on the peripheral parts, first is the aluminum oil pan taken off of our original race engine. Here is Paul, Nash and myself finishing up the oil pan installation. And yes, the engine is upside down. Everyone looks happy, well not sure about me! I think Murphy is lurking behind me somewhere.

We also purchased some parts to improve the handling of our Magic Rabbit. First to be installed are rear wheel camber plates or shims. These plates are tapered so that when you install them with the thick side at the bottom it will make the rear wheels splay outwards a little bit. And I mean little, 1/2 of a degree. Here is a picture of one shim plate being held by a mysterious black hand, must be The Stig! Love those red brake drums!

And here is a picture with the plate installed, thicker side at the bottom. Now when we drive the Magic Rabbit into the corner, our rear tires will have more rubber in contact with the road as the forces push the outside tires to roll in and offset that 1/2 degree of negative camber. Got it? The expected result is more contact, more grip, fast corner speed, faster exit speed, and higher straight away speeds. Wow, who knew that 1/2 degree would make us so fast!!

OK, it that is so good for the rear, lets do it on the front too! Great, so we also got new front camber adjustment bolts. The stock bolt will allow 1 1/2 degree negative camber and the new bolt will allow 3 degrees of negative camber! 100% increase, just imagine the amount of new speed this will create! And being an good engineer, I know that the front and back camber increases must be multiplicative, right! Here is the picture of the old and new camber bolts, new on the right. If nothing else, they are shiny and clean! That alone should make us faster.

OK, suspension modifications done. In the meantime, our most helpful Lemons competitor from Chim Chim Racing team, Powered by Bacon race VW Rabbit, Jeff Moss (who also lives in the Santa Cruz mountains) stopped by to offer up a used exhaust header for us to use on the new hybrid 2.0/1.8 motor. While he was there he had too comments, first our car is too clean (we like it that way, but may cause the BS Judges to think we have too good of stuff in this car). Second comment was, take that vent tray out of there you will have loads more room to work. Brilliant! Loved that idea, so pull out the angle grinder, put on a cutting wheel and lets destroy some stuff!! I love this kind of work. Look at these picture, how good is this! Sparks flying, hot metal ripping off, new found workspace!

This picture I am making the first cut to remove the vent tray. This tray in the street car kept the nice clean fresh air on the back side away from hot, smelly air from the motor on the front side. We are RACERS, we want to smell that hot, burnt, oily exhaust right in our face!! Get rid of that tray! OK, not really, we faithfully plug up every hole between the engine bay and drivers area just so that engine fumes and heat don't get to us. But it sounded good!

Photo op supreme, sparks coming right at you!! Photog Rye put himself in harms way to get this shot.

Can't get enough of sparks, it's like fire! Close up picture of final touch up of the cut metal edges so we don't slice open our hands against the ragged edge. Safety third.

The new power plant is ready to be installed, here is the motor on the engine hoist just as its being lifted off the floor into the engine bay.

Here I am guiding the engine up and into place on four engine mounts. Up very slowly to get it into place.

Couldn't be done without a professional lift operator. Look at that concentration, glasses down to the end of his nose, eyes riveted to every move! A deft touch of his right hand on the control rod and his left hand over the hydraulic ram so he can feel every movement! A true professional, atta-boy Paul.

Engine in place, OK now lets put in the exhaust header. Here is Rye about to install our 4 into 1 header, same header as used on out old motor. With a smile on his face, full of confidence, he slides the header onto the motor.

Now, check the blog title, Murphy is my Copilot, here is his first appearance. I knew he was lurking, now he strikes. The exhaust header doesn't fit. Hits the steering system. A little more technical poop. In order to increase the engine size from 1.8 to 2.0 liters the pistons travel higher and therefore the 2.0 liter block is taller by about 3/4". That is enough to cause the exhaust header to not clear. Murphy, strike 1.

Now take out the 4 into 1 header and lets try the old 4-2-1 header that Jeff Moss and his Powered by Bacon team brought us. We put that header on and it just fits, by 1/16". That 1/16" clearance improves to 3/8" when we press the engine up against the limits of the motor mounts. But now we don't have a transition piece of the exhaust from the 4-2-1 header to our existing tail pipe. But we figure we can handle that problem later.

After the engine is in the car I hook up all the electrical wires, fill with water and oil, hook up the fuel system. Oh yeah, I take the throttle body off of car #2, 1985 GTI, it is bigger and will give us more air and fuel, bigger bang! Get everything ready so we can start this bad boy up, get the wheels on and do some test laps around the Redwood Estates Grand Prix circuit!!

Another piece of the 2.0/1.8 hybrid puzzle is blocking off an opening in the 2.0 block that is no longer need in a race engine, something to do about emissions control and crankcase blow-by. We all figure this issue is over rated, so just block it off. Well, we didn't figure, the experts on the internet told us again what to do. Buy a nice shiny new billet aluminum plate from Techtonics Tunning, OK, bought, delivered to my door and installed in three days. I love on-line shopping. Here is that beauty installed.

Now, that is the end of our pictures. Again, I refer you back to the title. Murphy strikes again and things get very dark. Therefore no pictures!!

But first, one last little ray of brightness, first thing Saturday morning I drive down the hill into San Jose to Classic Muffle Shop to meet Andy. Andy is a one man muffler shop who I found on the internet with all 5 star Yelp ratings. I take the two headers and the transition pipe to Andy and he tells me in his broken Asian english, "No Probrum". And he was right! Bing, bang, boom, he cuts, welds and flares the pipes and makes a perfect solution to our exhaust transition. How much? $25, I leave with a smile, the world is great, the sun is shining. I tell Andy I will be back with any muffle work I every need, thanks. Back up the him and the sun starts to dim, I think I see Murphy hiding behind the redwood tree as I drive up.

It is Saturday, Paul and Rye are with me, everything is ready. The moment is near, we have everything ready for the first start. We decide to run the motor over without any spark plugs to give the oil pump and chance to prime everything with oil and get oil pressure up. So while we are turning the motor over we decide to also do a compression check. All set, cylinder #1, hit it. The starter motor spins (well not at first as we had and issue with a ground cable, not an issue just not attached...Murphy getting closer). OK try again, hit the start button, motor spins, pistons up and down, watch the compression guage, wait, wait for it, wait....WHAT, 20 psi? HOW CAN THAT BE??? 20 psi, I can blow more than that! Murphy has struck again, strike 2!!

And test for cylinder #2 only reads 60 psi, what has happened? Cylinders #3 and #4 are 150, normal.

In shock we all sit back and start questioning, how can this be. Paul starts, we bought a Lemon of a 2.0 liter engine from Lou! Nice start! Rye and I both hear something funny as we recheck the compression of 1 and 2. I say it is either the head or the gasket. So we have everything questioned, block, gasket and head. In other words, everything we have!

Our first attempt at solving is to take the head off, assuming there must be a break in the head gasket between #1 and #2 cylinders, obvious. Head off, gasket is perfect! Murphy just chuckles.

OK, Paul keeps hammering that the Livingston boys bought a Lemon of a block (well that is the name of this whole affair, so what's the problem?). We both say no way, Lou (the seller) even gave us a written 30 day warranty on the receipt. We argue it must be the head. Paul counters, "How can that be, you tested the head and had 135 psi in every cylinder?" True statement. The arguments and theories continue. We send Rye upstairs to locate a new head gasket, he finds one in stock at Kragen's. That is Kragen's on Story Road, the east side of San Jose, open until midnight. Gasket put in the on-hold basket for us. Oh great, east side San Jose at night, in the middle of a storm. That worst part of town, will have to keep the motor running and heaven's sake, don't make eye contact with ANYONE!! Murphy's grin is getting larger.

Rye has to leave to go to a party with Kristin in San Francisco, leaving Paul and I to continue pondering our problems. We take a break and figure a large dose of Seagram's gin and Johnny Walker scotch will solve the problem. We even call in the experts, Ted Blake is called into conference. Ted tells us, three things make compression, cylinders, gasket and valves. Same logic; if cylinders-bad motor from Lou, if gasket-trip to the bad lands of East San Jose required, if head-some how the compression readings were wrong when checking Car #3. The discussion goes round and round. Finally we agree (enough booze and we can agree on anything) on another test.

Lets take the head off of our Car #1 engine, we know that is good, albeit a little tired. Put that head on the 2.0 liter block, with the same gasket (ie, no way did we want to go to East San Jose at night!!) and see if we have compression. That will confirm if there is a problem with the Car#3 head. We agree and head to bed. Is that Murphy in the darkness?

Sunday, pull off Car #3 head, unbolt Car #1 head from old block and install on 2.0 liter block. After lightly torquing the head down to the block we do a slow turning of the engine with a ratchet handle and the compression testing in cylinder #1. As it turns we hold our breath, I can hear Murphy in my ear, but then he goes poof, as I feel compression against the handle. We have compression!! Test cylinder #2, its good too. Turn with the starter we get 120 to 130 psi in all four cylinders. Success!

So it turns out that somehow, yet to be determined, the intake valves on the Car #3 head went bad while waiting to be installed. Many, many theories exist, but who cares now. We have a working engine and Murphy is now gone from sight!

Everything back together, lets fire it up for real. OK, everyone clear, contact. Engine turns and turns and turns, a little sputter (or was that Murphy sputtering again?). Hmmm, check spark-good, check fuel supply-good, must be timing. So with a number of turns and Paul twisting the distributor, the prime mover finally fires!!!! Rough at first, another turn of distributor and things are running fine. And then........screeeeeeech.....the most annoying high, high pitched sound starts up. What is it, crankshaft bearing, camshaft bearing, idler pulley bearing...our minds race and Murphy is laughing out loud!! We fiddle and test, maybe the belts are squealing? Nope. It is so loud and annoying, seems to be coming from the throttle body, but what could possibly squeal in there. Keep looking, a hour latter (Murphy is yawning) we decide to take the throttle body off. Sure enough, some old gasket matter on the throttle body created a space so the new gasket was acting like a reed in a clarinet, only an extremely high pitched one! You learn a new one every time you do an engine. Old gasket gone along with Murphy again!

Fired up again, squeal is gone, everything sounds good and normal. Can you believe it!? Let it run, engine comes up to temp, fans come on, things work as expected! Horray, that deserves a toast. More gin and scotch and Paul and I toast our final success. Things look good again, a few more items to complete and we are ready.

The Dirty Duck Racing team members are now heading off in different directions. Rye and Kristin are with the boys and Kristin's family in Oregon for Thanksgiving. Paul and Nancy down to Carmel with their family. Son Ted is staying in Ketchum, ID to face the cold on Thanksgiving. Forecast is for below zero temps. Stay warm Tedders, keep those racing muscles loose! Nancy and her mom will be joining me at DDR headquarters for a quiet and restful Thanksgiving. I look forward to that.

Also, the entire team and our entire fan base is thinking of Darrell today as his planned surgery took place this morning. Hoping all is well and maybe we will see you at Buttonwillow to cheer us on. Get well Darrell and take care of yourself.

That's all for now. Excuse me if I rambled on too long, but it has been another fun adventure with Murphy as my copilot as we prepare the Magic Rabbit.