10/9/07

Well, it appears as though I am once again able to send the rant in a format Spiderman can use to post on Blogspot. Huzzahs all around, I guess. Of course now I can’t think of anything to say. I suppose I could tell y’all about the track day at Mineral Wells. I'm just going to cut and paste what I said yesterday rather than retype it all. What do I mean, “What I said yesterday?” See, even though I couldn’t send this off to be posted, I was still making entries into a “Miscellaneous Ramblings” file on the new laptop. So here it is again if you are reading this on my laptop, and for the first time in the blog. Well, Gregg and I went to Mineral Wells on Saturday. Pat came along and Tony Calvert showed up with his Brunton Stalker. We, mainly Gregg, managed to dial in my car’s state of tune to the point where it is at least drivable again. I mean it performs great for a street car but still isn’t in any state of “perfect” tune. It won’t win any races. Well, it will probably still outrun a lot of cars out there from an acceleration standpoint and it will surely out turn 95% of the automotive population. Ok, so it might win a race or two but it is no track car by any stretch of the imagination. Anyhoo, I did manage to avoid having to drive Gregg’s 510 by playing the “lazy man” card. I did make a semi-honest attempt to enter the car but gave up really quickly. “Oh come on,” Gregg and Pat both said. “You can fit in there!” To which I replied, “I think you underestimate just exactly how lazy I am.” All in all, it was a very good day at the track. Ok, so that was where I left off yesterday. I think I might go into a bit more detail now. First off, Gregg and I planned to meet at MW around 0800 h Saturday morning. I planned to head out from my house at 0700 h to arrive whenever I got there. I spoke to Pat and invited him to swing by my house and pick up Matilda so I'd have something to hoon if we couldn’t get the Seven running right. Oh, as an aside, it may be a while before I get the quotes or parenthesis back around the car names. I'm not 100% sure I really liked it anyway so it might be even longer than that, actually. Where was I? Ok, so Pat was possibly coming to the house at 0700 h to drive Matilda out for me while I drove Fifi and towed the Seven on the trailer. When he hadn’t shown up by 0715 h, I left. I got as far as Loop 820 and had to go back to take a dump. I did so. He still hadn’t shown by 0730 h so I left again. I stopped at the Exxon on I-20 in Weatherford, the one with a Taco Casa in it, and filled up the Seven’s tank. I rolled on towards the track. I had called Tony Calvert the night before to “remind” him of the event but it turns out we had forgotten to tell him in the first place. Oops. I wasn’t sure if I'd get to the track and be the only one there, be there with Tony, Gregg, Pat, or any combination thereof. I got there and was the only one. I did a lap with the tow rig and was met by the track owner. I paid the fee and told him how many cars we were expecting. I unloaded the Seven and took it around the track. It was worse than last week. Well, it was back to the performance level it had before the “tune up” I should say. I did about five or ten laps, in both directions, and then parked to wait for the others. Tony called to say he was on his way and ask if it was raining. It was not. Pat called to say he was on his way and ask if it was raining. It still was not. Gregg called to say he was on his way and, you guessed it, ask if it was raining. It still, still was not. Pat arrived first and I put him in the Seven so I could adjust the mixture then send him back out. We ran the screws all the way in and it ran worse, duh. We turned them out a turn and it improved, over all the way in I should say, but it was still bad. Another turn out and it got better. Another turn and it was better still. Another turn and it got worse. Half a turn back in and it was better. It still fell flat but the point on the tachometer kept getting higher. We stopped messing with it when Tony and Gregg arrived. I put Gregg in and sent him out to see what he thought. He wanted a few degrees more timing so I cranked the distributor up a notch. I hopped in and went out. It was a night and day difference! Gregg suggested some more timing but I was happy with it as it for the time being. I'll bring a 10mm wrench with me this weekend and give it a touch more perhaps. We’ll see. With that, I declared the Seven “fixed” and went hooning. Gregg wanted to make some filters for the carburetors on his 510 so we cut up an air conditioner filter and zip tied it to the air horns. It almost immediately sucked itself into the engine as soon as it fired up. He decided to run them open for the day. That car kept improving as the day wore on. Gregg would go for a hoon and it would cough and sputter almost all the way round. The next lap it got a bit better. By the time he came in it sounded pretty good almost all the way around the track. The next time he took it out, or perhaps it was when Pat drove it, it sounded a bit better. The next time it was even better, until one lap when it sputtered and died. He coasted in and we diagnosed the problem. Once we topped up the fuel tank the car fired right back up and drove better and better as the day wore on. Tony’s car was impeccable all day. He put on a set of slicks and went for a hoon. It stuck like glue. I took it around the track a few times but could never get used to the low revving torque motor. It just wasn’t right in a Seven. I drew blood on my left arm from the rocks flying off his front tires and they gave me grief for going too slow. I don’t care. It was a good time. Eventually we all loaded up our cars and headed home. So, there you have it. I'll have a report on this weekend’s trip to MW with the Datsun club next week. Until then, have a day.