Today is April 7, 2025. If all goes well, we head to the track on May 1 to load-in for a May 2 test & tune day, followed by two days of racing May 3-4.
My once long list of tasks and unknowns has condensed down to installing a 3.9 diff, re-sealing the axles, and some nice-to-have-done but not mandatory things. Some of the things that have gotten done:
- Head went off to a shop to get cleaned up and valves re-seated
- Un-bent and re-wrapped the Maniflow exhaust manifold
- Installed a new Speedwell radiator and Flexlite electric fan
- Rebuilt both race transmissions
- The fuel pump was moved back to the axle hump to allow more room for a passenger seat
- New starter solenoid
- Had the throw-out bracket shortened to fix a clutch geometry issue.
- Cleaned up the mess in the front of the engine from the cam nut coming off
- De-carboned the upper edges of the cylinder walls
- Repaired and reinforced the front engine plate where it had cracked at the alternator stand-off
- Modified, cleaned up, and painted the heavy-duty alternator adjustment bracket I made at the Mission race last year.
- Touch up paint, clean cockpit
- Modified a rear SU lid to work on the front carb. This will prevent the front carb from flooding during heavy braking.
I got the car started for the first time since September on April 5.
After a lot of deliberation, and some encouragement from my wife, I ordered a Quaife ATB limited slip differential that is currently being setup with a 3.9 ring and pinion by Northwest Vintage & Classic. After changing the engine, tires, seat position, a-arms, rebuilding the shocks, and other handling aspects of the car prior to and during 2024, I’d promised myself not to change anything that requires re-learning the car this year. The LSD violates that. It’s a test. If I like it I’ll get a 4.22 setup with one. If not, we’ll put the original internals back in the 3.9 and weld it.
My wife ginned up a nice 2025 schedule for me again this year. I’m not certain we’re going to do all these events (I never planned to be a seven-weekend racer), but here’s the list:
The engine went back in on March 30.
I’m looking forward to see how the car handles at track-out with a nice LSD.
This is the clearance between the a-arm nut and the front downpipe of the exahust manifold after we fixed it. The manifold had been bent forward all the way to the a-arm support; the nut was embedded in the pipe.
Sometimes (usually) when you change one thing it cascades into other things. The new radiator has different geometry, so the inlet hose I’d cut down for the other one was too short.
Land of over-size pulleys: Slowing down the water pump to decrease cavitation, slowing down the alternator to reduce HP drain.
In 2025 I’ll have a full-time rear camera like I did for one race at Road America. A generous donor provided the second camera.
Jonathan came up with the clever idea to bolt the manifold to the head upside down to straighten it. He manned the come-along while Aiden and I played with fire. We actually over-did it the first go and had to take some bend out of it once it was under the car.
