Andy, the racing Gods have been bad to us this season. No luck whatsoever. Here's the scoop:
We spent the offseason doing gasket matching work on the TR8, plus tracking down a special set of headers run on the car in the Playboy Endurance series in the late 80s/early90s. We also did a bunch of exhaust work. We probably had 50 hours or so in the first round of improvements. All of these were AFTER the 158hp/178tq results you saw last fall I think. I also had to get some body work done after a test day nose into a tire wall on cold tires.
First race this year at CMP, we ran a few sessions and car was AWESOME. Got a comment from a fellow competitor about how the car seemed much faster than last year.
In practice of the race, I broke the tranny.
Put in new tranny. Go to VIR. You know what happened there.
Spent the next 6 weeks tearing the motor down and doing a full IT build -- .5 compression bump and .020 pistons. Put that baby in and....ran three laps on Friday in qual at 4500 rpm and then...no oil pressure.
I'm mystifyied, frustrated and p/o'ed but committed to the car. We expect to have the problem licked and the TR8 back on track in July.
Note that the new motor felt FANTASTIC and even running only 4500 rpm I qualified 5th in ITS on the VIR Grand Course. The car TEASES me with potential.
The Z. We finally got the Z running decent at VIR in March (the one Nick came down to run). Since the TR8 was still under construction, I took it to Savannah in April. Got 4-5 laps in during qual, and qualified 10th out of 26 ITS cars. Lap one, I get taking out by a start jumper (see "Roebling Carnage" thread). Car is messed up pretty bad in the left rear quarter.
The Jensen-Healey. Car is about 90% done. The head came back from the machine shop with the valves screwed up, and had to go back. That is now corrected.
Biggest issue now is trying different springs to get the car down to the right ride height. The problem is that the front a-arm suspension requires you to use 3.5" OD springs -- try finding those at Pegasus, etc. So, we have had to have springs made custom. Not been fun. We are hoping the car makes it to the track in July as well.
Not been a good year. Fortunately, I own half a Spec Miata, which amazingly enough starts and runs every time I take it to the track.
BUT, the 8 and the Z, and I think the JH will be as well, are just so much more fun. More power, more character I guess. I really love racing the older cars against the new ones.
Build the Tiger -- in fact, get it classed in S. You'd be like the 8. A torque monster with no brakes and iffy handling, but it would be fun.
