More Sim Racing - PS4 - T300 and Project CARS - Sold the Spitfire

So I am back at it.. (sim racing that is) with new equipment and a new title... but more importantly my father and I made the joint decision to sell the Team Sex Pistons Triumph Spitfire LeMons race car. It had been sitting in the garage untouched since December 2013 so it was time. A group of younger more enthusiastic guys bought it and I am glad it will continue to be abused and thrashed as we intended. Not going to get sentimental, but I was a bit sad. We had a lot of fun and that was the point.


Good Bye you awesome British hunk of tin scrap - it was fun while it lasted

With the Spitfire sold, there was some extra cash for sim racing stuff... I have a new wheel stand, a TH8a shifter, and new T3PA-Pro pedals on the way. Once they are all setup I will eventually take some pictures and write proper reviews. For now I have to say Project CARS with the T300 wheel is an absolute blast. It is the most realistic racing title to ever be on a console. - Quick clip of me trying to drive the Formula A (Formula 1) car on the famous Spa track..LINK TO VIDEO

Anyways.. life is good.


Wife and I in Sequoia

The rest of the funds normally spent on racing will go towards travel for my wife and I. We recently took a weekend up at the Sequoia National Park, will be going to visit friends in the Cali Bay Area soon, shortly after a trip to visit some family in Colorado, then a cruise to Alaska. All before October this year. Bonus note from Sequoia - we saw some bears and I took a pretty OK photo of one between freaking out..



More to come later!

Spank the Builder - 24 Hour of LeMons - Thunderhill Race - September 13th-14th 2014

What an awesome weekend! The Moke ran great and everyone loved Mike's (Spank) theme based on the Bob the Builder children's show. It was wonderful to be back at a 24 hour of LeMons race again and being on this team just made it all the sweeter. Thunderhill is a really fun track, and the new section bringing it to over 5 miles per lap just added to the enjoyment. On top of all that, there was also something quiet special going on at this race...


Starting Grid Photo - Judge Phil (AKA Murilee Martin)



This event had so many cars start that it was officially a world record attempt for the most cars in an endurance race! As long as the data is accepted it will soon become official. There were some 222 cars in the picture above, but the recorded number was 217 as a handful of cars broke down before the green flag dropped. So many fantastic piles of junk...





In the typical 24 hour of LeMons event fashion, there were lots of great themes and things to see.. but damn it was hot so I did not spend much time away taking pictures. There was one team (besides ours) that really stood out beyond all the rest...




Limping around Peugeot Photo - Judge Phil (AKA Murilee Martin)

The Peugeot Daddy 1963 Peugeot 404 sedan - this team was horrible in all the right ways.. slow awesome car, annoying yet well done theme, and they even played french music out of the car all weekend. Man did that car look awesome racing limping around the track. Word is their fastest lap time was actually under full course caution! Congrats to this team for completely dominating...


ZomBee Hauling Ass Photo - Judge Phil (AKA Murilee Martin)

Just because I like the car and the team so much.. it was great to see the ZomBees back on track whom, by the way, got a rebuilt motor put in and ran some amazingly fast laps for a little british car. Shout out to ZomBee Nation! Sadly though, with all this greatness there were a few bad moments of the weekend..


Damaged Volvo 1800 Photo - Judge Phil (AKA Murilee Martin)

The guys who run a Volo 1800 put their car into the wall, but thankfully no one was hurt. The car had a well built cage by the Evil Genius Racing shop that stood up to the hard impact. Hopefully the team will shake it off and return with an equally sexy ride. Also a VW rabbit flipped and I heard a lady crashed her quad in the pits.. Yikes!


Tractor on track Photo - Judge Phil (AKA Murilee Martin)

Now back to the grand team I was a part of.. we were told many times over how sweet the tractor looked going around the track and course we all agreed. The theme came together nicely, Spank's Moke ran great all weekend, and was so damn much fun to drive. I remember clearly the first 15mins of my last stint on Sunday just smiling and laughing while racing the Moke Tractor side by side with the other cars.. it was surprisingly quick and handled pretty nicely to boot! Well and would't you just know it....?



We won an award!!! The highly desired "Organizer's Choice". This basically means you're team & car put smiles on the faces of the event organizers and kept out of trouble.. from all the positive feedback, it was not just the organizers that were smiling, many others at the event got a lot of childhood joy seeing a tractor go around the race track. I am just glad I was apart of it and that people liked my Spud the Scarecrow costume head.

Ah what a weekend but for now it is.. back to the cubicle.

More LeMons Race Prep - Mini Moke for Thunderhill

It was a hot weekend - lots of wrenching and sweat on Saturday. We got the better seat in to be more comfortable, some brake work done, had pizza, a few beers, and lots more bull shitting around.



The car was running, the brakes worked, and was basically ready for tech.. but then I decided to start taking the cooling system off the car because Mike/Spank had a better radiator to put on. But, well... I did not get very far, it is only half mounted, and the hoses are not hooked up yet. It won't take much more to get it running again. Hopefully Mike can get more done this week, but we always have Friday night at the track. The theme work has not been started yet on the car either... so there is still that. Speaking of theme work, I finally got started on mine.



It began with me reading up on how to make a mascot costume head and the main parts where a cheap hard hat and stiff insulation foam board.. so I bought the foam insulation board, the hard hat, and opted for duct tape over glue because LeMons. I figured, how hard could it really be?



Well I got to work and what a mess.. I did not have the proper tool to cut the foam, which would be an electric hot knife, and used a small hand saw to cut the starting shape. The head of my character is basically big and round.



I knew that the center and widest part of the head needed to be just above my eye level so the hard hat would have to go above it. I cut a hole in the center to fit my head. Following, with absolute detailed precision, I cut some arches to make a frame for the top.



As I started to duct tape the hard hat in place, I thought it would be smart to use some stick shaped objects to hold things in place better.. really not needed but figured, this shit is serious so might as well. It all was then cleanly secured with duct tape.





With the top frame complete, I cut out some more pieces for the bottom and also, with my amazing handy work, securely attached them. Now the frame was done. Mind you this was hours later in humid hot weather, I believed getting to this point would only be 30-45mins.. haha no.





Using the high quality materials at my disposal, whatever scrap was laying around in my father's garage and some more duct tape, the top of the head took form. Things were coming along so nicely, I was in awe of my artistic abilities. (At this point, my back hurt and I was sweating and needed a beer. It was a Lagunitas IPA, which was damn good too. There went 15mins.)



Once stuffed, it was sealed up using exactly measured and placed strips of duct tape.. just look at it.. are you impressed yet? I had to give it a test ride to see how it would work..



Totally freaking rad, am I right? Damn I'm sexy... It takes time and effort to achieve such greatness, but of course it is not complete. The details of the face must be applied and are to be finished over the next few nights after work. To see the costume completed, you will have to check back next week as this is my last post until after the race. Only a few days left!

For now, it's back to the cubicle

The Mini Moke - Prepping for the LeMon's Race at Thunderhill

The team got together to work on this fine racing machine in preparation for the 24 hour of LeMons - Vodden the Hell Are We Doing? race at Thunderhill Raceway Park. The first plan was to pull the motor out of another Mini to swap in the race motor to test.



While Spank worked on the race motor, the rest of the team (Rob-above right, my Dad-above left, and I) took the motor out of the other Mini. Pretty much that was about as far as we got before my Dad and I had to take off.



Pretty basic day.. was nice to get wrenching again and b.s. with the team. Next weekend we have a lot more to accomplish but also more time to work. Being on a team with the two guys who got me started into this wonderful mess of a racing league, is a great spot to be in.



No matter the result and as long as no one gets injured, the race should be a blast. I have raced a classic Mini before, but never this heavily modified beast crap can. Still haven't started my theme costume and the race is only 8 days away.. time to get busy.

The Serious Prep Work for a 24 Hour of LeMons Race

So with one of the main aspects of Lemons racing being the goofy themes, I have about a month to design and create a costume that contains a large stuffed head. Don't worry, it has nothing to do with a phallic object, or should I say, Sadly it has nothing to do with a phallic object... Either way, there will be many hours of arts and crafts put in due to my character choice for the team's theme, but I won't give away any details about it yet.

I will however display just a few examples of greatness derived from blood, sweat, tears, and more importantly inner child, that I can only hope to come close to achieving.


Photo - Judge Phil (AKA Murilee Martin)


Photo - Judge Phil (AKA Murilee Martin)


Photo - Judge Phil (AKA Murilee Martin)


Photo - David Moore

Is the LeMons racing culture crazy? Maybe.. well yes, but it is sure damn fun! Going to need to start making some runs to the craft store and dig deep for greatness...

24 hour of LeMons - Thunderhill - Sept 2014 - Vodden the Hell Are We Doing?

Ann Arbor MI -- Today Car and Driver reported that Colin Craft, against the advice of mental-health professionals, will compete in the 24 Hours of LeMons -- a wheel-to-wheel car race for heaps that cost $500 or less. Craft's team -- the unpromisingly named "idioti curse o masina pentru idioti" -- hits your local track on 09/13/2014 to 09/14/2014, where therapists and junkyard operators are already standing by. 

One relative, on condition of anonymity, described Craft's family as "...saddened but unsurprised" by the news. "Unfortunately, we've come to expect such lapses in judgment," the source told C/D.

Friends, coworkes, and relatives interested in staging an intervention and/or watching Craft do something incredibly embarrassing can find more information at Car and Driver's LeMons minisite or LeMons' race-info page.

Yes you read that right.. I will be joining up with a different team for my next 24 hour of LeMons race. It will be at Thunderhill Raceway on the new 5 mile long track September 13th-14th. The team owner and captain is none other than the famous Spank. I have not driven and wrenched for him since back in 2010 at my first LeMons race when we failed to get the Spitfire to the starting line. He was kind enough to give me some wheel time in a Citroen DS which was one of his many awesome cars. This race for me will be about fun (wrenching, driving, and partying)and I can't wait!

Arse-Freeze-Apalooza Dec 7-8th 2013 - Sonoma Raceway

It was a mess of a weekend... things went wrong from the start with the Spitwad and ended wrong in the RX7..



The weather was not so bad during the day, the sun was out and there was no rain. The nights were freaking cold.. As for the race.. The 1300 motor in the Spitfire did not last the first green flag lap of the race. So we ended up spenind a majority of the track time Saturday swapping back in old faithful, which got us through it, allowing each driver to get their share of seat time.



There was some confusion and conflicts on our team, and between the two teams (RX7 and Spitfire) that took a lot of the joy out of the weekend. Don't get me wrong, I had my fun, got my wheel time, and had some laughs.. but this race has brought me to understand some people just don't see eye to eye, and it was not even all about the racing.. some of it was about personal space. Basically from now on.. no more cramming into the same RVs.. Lucky for us our friend Paul, who raced the RX7, let us sleep in his RV or I don't know how we would have gotten through the cold. My dad also had two guests sleeping in his RV. The cost.. well I took a pretty large hit this race. It is going to be hard.. but I will now have to require people to pay more because I was not including other expenses. I also will be arranging my own space to sleep as well. It is just not worth the conflict. We do this to have fun.. and when the fun is stripped away because of the social aspect.. why bother. So we will take a long brake and only do a single race in 2014, with a single car. The RX7 is finished and being parted out.



Now enough with the downside.. Before the wreck in the RX7.. it was hauling BUTT! The drivers were having a blast in it. My dad had finally got that thing sorted and out. I wish I could have had a chance to give it a go before it demise. .. Also once we swapped the motor in the spitfire, it ran great till the last 10mins of the race when something in the drive train failed.. Sure it was a little loose in the rear, but it was still fun to drive. I learned some more lessons with the setup and have a plan to get it hooked back up right before it hits the track again.



Paul made it out just fine.. not even a scratch from the crash. Understandably though, he likely wont be returning to race LeMons with us anymore. Every race he has been in with us, he gets hit, and now this one.. someone spun in front of him with no where to go. From his prospective it is just not worth it, he has a classic MGB to race anyways. It sucks because he is great to have around, but that is just how shit goes.

I took some photos at the race, some of them I uploaded HERE. I will go through the rest of them eventually, collect others from cellphones, and get them uploaded later. I also have some video to work on.. only one is done so far... check it out HERE. The video of the RX7 crash can be found HERE

Racing is something I will continue doing.. More LeMons races for sure, but a much needed break is going to be taken. I have a wonderful girl to marry in 2014 and that is much more important.

Getting Ready for 24 hour of LeMons Arse-Freeze '13 @ Sonoma Raceway!

Well.. we have been working on the car, did some things here and there, the car is running well at the moment. Tomorrow morning we leave to head up to Sonoma Raceway for the 24 hour of LeMons season ender, Arse-Freeze-Apalooza! And man is it going to be a freeze... Weather reports are showing temps in the low 20s°F. Good thing is the chances for rain are very low!





We got some tires, fixed problems we found, had some laughs.. It's not perfect.. but hell this is LeMons.



I set up the old xbox 360 with Forza 4 so everyone could get in some laps and learn their way around the track before we actually get there. Not the greatest simulator, the game wheel sucks, but better than nothing!.



We are as ready as we are gonna be.. if we can manage to keep the car running most of the race and not freeze to death, good times will be had!

We will be taking lots of video and photos at the race.. once we return and the dust settles, I will share the story of our hopeless adventure.

Spitwad Motor Swap - Getting ready for 24 hr of LeMons Arse Freeze '13 - 11/2/2013

So it was a long work day for us but we got the motor swapped in the Spitwad! The old motor served us well and ran strong for 5 LeMons races and 1 Chump Car race, but began to develop a wicked bad blow by. It had got to the point where oil was spewing out of the dipstick hole at our last race. Side note.. thought I was really smart and wrapped my camera in a plastic bag so I could use it with greasy hands but failed to notice the autofocus was off.. so yeah the pictures are blurry.



We had our new team member come over and help us out. Good guy, easy going, and can turn a wrench. Also a fellow Triumph fan who owns a TR6. Glad to have him on the team.





The old motor came out.. with only one snag.. Kinda forgot to unhook the exhaust mount from the trans. After that though, we got it out pretty easy. Hopefully some day I will finally rebuild one of the 1500 motors. With three of them now needing a rebuild, I should get at least one done.



We got the flywheel, clutch, pressure plate, and trans mounted to the new (old) motor and got it in the car. With a few small things to change, it took us a bit longer to swap.



But... she did finally start up and ran nice! Really gotta thank my dad for freshening up this old motor. I am excited and a bit relieved that it is done.



We still have a few things to get done before the race: put on a muffler, finish reworking the brakes, putting the old stiffer & shorter rear shocks back on, some bushings in the rear to tighten things back up... but I am going on vacation so they will have to wait....

Great day!