“Racing” involves a lot more than driving the car on a track. It’s similar to my other hobby, mountaineering, in that for every hour of actual racing (or climbing), there are many hours of preparation: Repairs, modifications, improvements, inspection, cleaning, and maintenance of the car. Watching in-car video from tracks that are new to me, sim time when I can finagle it.
On top of that, the car I race sat for 37 years. Cars don’t do well not moving, especially for that long, so there was a large amount of work to just get passably ready to race. Since that point in 2022 I’ve been slowly plunking away at some improvements that weren’t strictly necessary.
Oh, and learning to work on these cars quasi-competently…in a ‘drinking-from-the-firehose’ manner.
With the professionally built race engine from MCCS and the full refurbishment of the front of the car, a good bit of the “this has to be fixed before the next race weekend” sort of issues are sorted. Not entirely, and a lot.
Over the seven weeks from August 10-11 to the end of September I am planning to race four weekends in two countries and three states, including a 2000 mile tow to and from Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin for VSCDA’s “Ariens Art on Wheels” vintage weekend and the Austin Healey National Conclave.
It’s really more than I ever planned to race or want to…and the Elkhart event at Road America is going to be a generational happening that I want to be a part of.
Spring Sprints in April was my first weekend with the new engine and front end. But Historics, and the end of June, was the first dry-track racing with it, and I left the weekend with some things to work on. So here’s what’s been going on in my garage over the last month.
After every race weekend the car comes home and goes into the garage for an oil and filter change. And the trailer gets unloaded…I don’t have a set of tools just for the trailer. I also download the GoPro videos, edit them, and upload to my racing channel on YouTube.
After Historics, Rod and Owen stayed over and we got started restoring the other Bugeye racer, which I’m currently calling “The Arnold Car”, after the first person who raced it, Arnold Eilers.
I also made the switch from the red trailer to the black trailer. The latter is taller and has drop spindle axles so it sits lower; the race car can be driven on and off without jacking up the nose of the trailer. No more banging my head on rear door threshold. But before move-in I first put polyurethane on the walls, installed a tire rack, and supplies cabinet, and removed the Z-track we put in to haul tools, parts, and the Arnold racer up from Tucson in 2023. Then the Arnold car and a bunch of parts went into the red trailer and it was stashed away at a buddy’s place, waiting for the next time Rod and Owen are here to work on it with me.
The transmission in the #12 car wasn’t behaving in 2nd gear, so we pulled the engine and swapped to my spare transmission. While the engine was out I did a light clean of the engine bay. Even the best-prepared A-Series engine leaks fluids.
The next race weekend is at Mission, BC, a tight, short track. So I pulled the 4.22 differential and installed the 4.55 I ran in 22 and 23 with the 948 engines. The 4.22 or a 3.9 will go in for Portland and Road America. With the axles out for the diff swap, I inspected the brake shoes and springs. With the oversize double-bearing hubs on the back the shoe retaining springs don’t fit well, so I’ve been keeping a special eye on them.
I also had the 205 R888 Toyos I tried earlier this year removed from the VTO wheels and had a new set of Hoosier HOTDs mounted. Those went on the car after a front brake inspection (pads look great).
Some remaining unused holes between the engine bay and cockpit have been patched/covered for safety.
The Maniflow exhaust manifold has was removed while the engine was out and wrapped with fiberglass insulation. I also insulated the float bowls on the SU carbs. This was done to try to prevent the vapor lock issue I had when trying to restart the car while it was hot.
When Aiden and I took the engine out we found that the MiniMania “competition” alternator bracket had literally shattered. A chunk was missing and another otherwise loose chunk was being held in place by the washer on the alternator bolt. I found a steel bracket on a spare engine that was long enough and installed before the radiator was reinstalled.
I’d already registered for the three days of racing at Road America, but had neglected to register for the Conclave. Got that done. The Gymkhaha rules for that event state that there has to be a bulkhead/firewall between the fuel cell and the cockpit. This is not a trivial task in a Bugeye with a roll cage, but as of July 29, I have a design and Masonite template that fits nicely. Just need to get some fasteners and cut the final piece from a sheet of 1/8″ aluminum. It’s such a pleasure to be able to work on a project like the firewall not at the last minute and/or at 2:00 AM on a Wednesday morning.
I touched up some paint that had been chipped by the bonnet before I replaced the cowl seal. Unfortunately, the color isn’t quite right and it shows a bit, so I’ll need to fix. But slightly wrong color is better than exposed metal.
I swapped in my spare starter and took apart the one that had been in the car. As others have experienced, it was full of oil. The WOSP high-torque starters use Denso motors on a custom bracket. The folks at Denso never imagined them in an environment as leaky as a 65 year-old British race car, so they aren’t exactly well-sealed. I managed to disassemble the pinion gear and added an o-ring to the shaft. Hosed out with brake-clean, I reassembled and put back in the spares box on the trailer.
Heck, I even got around to tidying up my work bench and reorganizing our yard tool storage.
I have a few more little projects on the list, and there will be a couple bigger projects this winter. Here is the “Little List”:
- Put the 5G hotspot on a toggle switch. I’ve flatted the battery twice by accidentally leaving the master switch on. And at some tracks I don’t use it. The T-Mobile service at Thunderhill wasn’t good enough to live-stream and the track at Mission apparently doesn’t allow it.
- Safety wire the oil pan and trans drain plugs.
- Improve the safety-wire setup for the oil filter.
- Patch/cover a few more holes in the engine bay.
- Reinstall the choke linkage on the carbs. It fell out in a rush at Historics when I was changing the throttle linkage. I don’t use it much, but sometimes it does help get the car started when it’s cold.