Back from The Beaver.
I survived and the car mostly survived.
We met up with Dave (WhatsThatNoise) on Saturday morning and got to see his very fine Elva up close. It’s a beauty!
Lots of other people noticed it too……one even asked me if “I’d seen the ‘Elvis’” (a Honda driver, of course).
I have to note that Dave came in his Elva with no top, despite the foreboding weather. Just a cockpit cover for parking (Dave: I hope it you didn’t get too wet on the ride home….and thanks for flagging for us!)
I ran the 2-hour Enduro…actually, most of it. Well, really, I caused the Enduro to end prematurely.
About 15 minutes or so, before the end, I was entering Turn Two; a nice right-hander. As usual, the car was at redline in third gear, drifting slightly.
Then the left rear wheel came off.
Then I went around.
And around.
And around.
I think I did about six 360s…felt like it anyway.
BeaveRun has really good areas for run-off, so I didn’t hit anything trackside….it’s much better than Lime Rock or Watkins Glen in this regard.
The closest flagger (“BMW Barry”) told me that the Spridget was partly in the air at one point and he thought it might roll. Thankfully, it didn’t
After #11 was pulled back to the pits, it was too late to re-start the event, so it was declared as over. I was leading in the small-bore class, so I won (no big deal since the only other small-bore car in the event was so pathetic, I won’t even tell you what it was).
So I have another five dollar trophy.
The post-mortem revealed that all the wheel studs had sheared and the wheel had huge cracks in it. Not sure which caused which. Kind of a chicken or egg situation.
There was slight body damage under the door (from sliding on the ground) plus the rear shackle for the leaf spring was bent like a pretzel. Brake backing plate was brutally disfigured. And the brake drum departed for points unknown. It may have ended up in Ohio….probably in a zillion pieces.
Honestly, I think it was the studs. I just changed them on both rear hubs last week so that I could add a ¼” spacer (my new Hoosiers were rubbing just slightly). I got replacement studs that were just slightly longer (intended for a Cooper “S” I think). Whereas my old studs said “England” on them, the new ones were unmarked (maybe made in India or China….who knows?)
Anyway, the old UK studs are going back on and I’ll run the skinny Yoko 175 A032Rs for now. The Hoosiers were much stickier, so that probably increased the loading as well. I’d really like to ditch the Spridget rear and use something like a narrowed disk brake rear from an RX7. Winter project.
I didn’t run the planned double sprints (20 laps each) the second day so we headed back to NJ around noon. It poured on the way home, but the Ford towed nicely and we got home in reasonable time (and almost 20 mpg).
Pocono’s next. The car will be repaired by then.
Carl: Thanks for the offer, but even if I had the parts, I wouldn't have fixed it. Once I get some weird failure like this, I want to go home and study it for a while before fixing anything.
WhatsThatNoise Elva
Gridding for the enduro. I beat the red Cobra (mechanical retirement)
Climbing up after the hairpin towards the S/F line. The car was around 5500 in third at this point.
One of the best things about our Enduros is that they are mixed. Not just big or small cars…I get to run with a little of everything. This FF Daytona Replica ran with me. Cool to see him whizzing past me on the back straight at mungo speeds. He eventually retired due to clutch failure. Which means I beat two Cobras in this event. The pink 944 in the background belongs to his wife (she also has a pink driving suit). She ran pretty well in the 944Cup Series race we had both days. They have a tractor-trailer transporter setup that must have cost half a mill. He has a nice Viper too. And a Mooney. And they're nice folks too.
Rich or poor, it’s good to have money.
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