It's been a while! haha
This post still wont get us caught up til today but I wanted to get the next couple months of the journey and the trip out to Texas on a post...
Once the car was tuned/sorted/driving I started doing longer and longer trips in the car to build confidence in it.
IMG_9527 by
pacotaco345, on Flickr
IMG_9672 by
pacotaco345, on Flickr
IMG_9555 by
pacotaco345, on Flickr
Never found any major issues so I signed up for a local/smaller drift event to shake down the car and get a few laps in (sorry no action pictures).
IMG_9791 by
pacotaco345, on Flickr
IMG_9794 by
pacotaco345, on Flickr
I did about 15 laps that day with no issues before my friend's transmission got stuck in gear. Decided to make the smart choice and called it quits early, loaded his car up on my trailer and street drove the red car about 120 miles home. Over the course of the next week I did some general maintenance, bolt checks, etc. then loaded the car up again for the trek from norcal out to Texas.
IMG_9877 by
pacotaco345, on Flickr
IMG_9881 by
pacotaco345, on Flickr
Two days later I made it to North Texas, a few days ahead of final bout beginning so I could spend some time catching up with old friends. In the meantime I got a new windshield installed, mounted a couple tires, and just enjoyed the first couple days I'd had off from work since January of the previous year.
IMG_9916 by
pacotaco345, on Flickr
Loaded the car up again and made the trip from Fort Worth down to our Air b&b in Houston.
IMG_9938 by
pacotaco345, on Flickr
IMG_9945 by
pacotaco345, on Flickr
That day and the next I probably put another 200 miles on the car driving around Houston, again with no issues. Racing scat packs on the freeway, drifting corners here and there, just having a good time. The group left SpeedSportz after tech inspection to go to the pre meet in downtown and I noticed a small puddle of water under the car. It was still running cool so I paid no mind to it and drove downtown, then back to the air b&b, and the next morning back to the track with no issues.. Can you guess where this is going?
Untitled by
pacotaco345, on Flickr
My water pump shit the bed third lap. Pissed like half the coolant out of the weep hole. ON THE THIRD LAP. I was pissed, hauled my car halfway across the country, dumped who knows how much money, worked countless hours for the car to shit the bed. No one likes to say it out loud but I'm sure people can relate, between trying to fake a smile for the next hour, people stopping by and saying "oh sucks man I'm really sorry car looks awesome wish you were out there", and running through the pits like a man possessed trying to look for a spare water pump, I was in a shit mood.
A friend of a friend of a friend ended up having a used water pump, awesome guy was halfway to the track when he turned around to go back home and pick it up and hand deliver it to me. I jammed the next half hour throwing the car back together, didn't even give the RTV 5 minutes to dry before I filled it up with water and went back out on track. I missed all of practice and the parade lap and drove straight into the "competition" with no time on track but I just wanted to drive. The first laps before the water pump died I had been taking it easy, but this time I immediately started driving in anger.
Untitled by
pacotaco345, on Flickr
Untitled by
pacotaco345, on Flickr
Untitled by
pacotaco345, on Flickr
Untitled by
pacotaco345, on Flickr
Untitled by
pacotaco345, on Flickr
Got about 15 laps in and then . . . my transmission broke. The first corner at speedsportz is a pretty tight hairpin, the track works awesome for low power, low grip cars, or even cars with a higher rear end ratio, but stubborn me wanted to run 265s in the back for no reason, and with stock gearing it just put me in a weird part of the RPM range if I didn't get the line and my timing just right. The lap I broke the trans I distinctly remember throwing the car in and being slightly off line, let the clutch out and the car bogged. On one shoulder I had the angel telling me "just drive out, you aren't in the powerband, SR transmissions are glass", on the other shoulder the devil was telling me "rev it to the moon, dump the clutch, let 'er eat" - you can guess what I did. That ended my day for good. We loaded the car back up, hung out a little longer, had dinner and the next day I called it a weekend and headed back home.
That's where I'll leave off for now but here's a spoiler for my next post in 2 months:
IMG_1260 by
pacotaco345, on Flickr
Hint, I didn't pull the whole motor out just to replace the transmission