Finally Got Lola Racing

[ancullen]

After months and months of work on Lola, I finally got her down to Hidden Valley to go racing. Signed up and went out for some practise laps. I drag raced my mates LC Torana with XU1 motor up the straight and matched him for speed and acceleration for three-quarters of the track but he was slightly quicker at high speed (not enough to overtake), but could easily outbrake me due to a better setup.

 

I pulled the car into the pits after about six practice laps, and the radiator boiled, so I went and cooled it down with a hose. My brake pedal was also EXTREMELY soggy and had to be pushed about three quarters of the way through it's travel before there was any feel to it.

 

In the first of four three lap races (plus one lap warm-up and one lap cool-down), I took it fairly easy as I had the radiator and brake problems at the forefront of my mind. It was still a good chance to get a feel for the car. I don't have lap times yet, but they should be released in a few days. After the race I went and hosed the radiator down straight away to avoid boiling.

 

At the end of the first race we looked under the bonnet and noticed I had cracked my passenger side engine mount all the way through. This engine mount was brand new , as even though it had been in a few months, I hadn't had the car running up until a few days ago. So we're going to have to modify the mounts to make them stronger, and we're going to strap the engine down (gotta love 4A-GZE torque :D).

 

The second race was marred by rain, I started racing, but got into some rain at the end of the straight which stuffed my visibility right up due to shitty wipers. I only did two fairly slow laps, and pitted at the end of the second one due to a Lotus Exige starting to get up close behind me having finished his three laps of racing. It was during this race that I felt the car shuddering on the front right hand side whenever I braked with any real force - we put this down to the broken engine mount.

 

It was at the start of the second race that I gave a bit too much throttle off the line and the back wheels span. Unfortunately this wasn't all they did. Due to some rear suspension problems, the back end felt like it was jumping up and down. Those who were watching said it appeared that my rear wheels were moving backwards and forwards about two inches. Supposedly this could be the rear bushes, or something else (which they mentioned, I just can't remember what it was). So this will definitely need fixing.

 

In the third race I felt I did pretty well. I spun on the first lap coming out of Clubhouse Corner as I put in a little too much throttle on a corner that catches a lot of drivers (I've done it twice before in other cars). Other than that error, my laps felt fairly quick, however a brake upgrade is DEFINITELY needed.

 

All up the day had been going fairly well, and my warm up lap for the fourth race was obviously uneventful. Then at the start line, the green flag was waved for me to leave, and the wheels started spinning and I like a show-off dickhead decided to keep my boot in. The backend jumped around and I went to grab second gear, but before it got to second, I heard a loud, bad thumping/clunking noise from the back end. No drive was getting to the wheels, so I was helped off track. It could be either driveshaft, diff, or axles broken, but we're pretty sure it's the diff.

 

So I now have a fair bit of work to do over the next three months before the next race meeting. With any luck I'll be able to find a Borg-Warner diff to suit the KE55 up here at a wreckers, and I'm hoping the rear suspension issue isn't going to turn into a pain in the arse to fix.

[ROLLN'03]

Sounds like you had a really exciting day out there! :D

 

Pity to hear about all the troubles, but thats racing for ya!.....

[ancullen]

All up it was a pretty good day. I was so stoked when I dragged the Torana. If only my brakes and handling were better (they will be eventually).

[irokin]

three months before the next race meeting

:D that sucks...

[st.nick]

Its shit-loads of fun tho, eh!!

 

I remember running my ol' 323 around Symmon's Plains here in Tassie. I'm not a circuit racing fan in the slightest, but having your own car to throw around a race circuit is AWESOME fun!!

[Raven]

I got a diff if you can't find one up there. :(

[ancullen]

I was actually going to ask you about that, but when I saw the sold notice for your car, I assumed you'd sold the diff too. Is it just a standard KE55 diff, or have you improved it at all?

 

I was going to look for a T-series diff up here, as I figure if I've got to replace the diff, I might try and upgrade it at the same time (I have got three months to do the work after all). I've also been considering the F-series as an option, but it'll depend on what's available.