We were really lucky to make it to this
event on time. On Sunday, on the long drive to Bowmanville, somewhere
on the New York State Thruway the van started making a funny noise.
Nate pulled off onto the shoulder to check it out, and the engine
died and wouldn't restart. A little troubleshooting revealed a
seized alternator - the same problem that had stopped us at Lime
Rock a year ago!
There aren't many auto parts stores open on Sunday afternoons, and not many mechanics at work either. Plus, the correct alternator had proved difficult to find last year in Connecticut. It wasn't looking good!
Fortunately AAA put us in touch with a tow truck operator who could not only haul the van and the trailer, but who also knew where we could find both a new alternator and a shop to install it. The mechanics looked at it skeptically - by the time we got to them, it was only an hour till they knocked off for the day - but they finished the job with 15 minutes to spare, and we were on our way.
We were also lucky with the weather; a huge rainstorm passed by during the days before the event. There was still rain in the area on the first day, but we had only a few sprinkles when we were out on the track. After that, it became beautiful and sunny, not too hot either.
Finally we had the long-awaited reworked spindles in the Cobra! After many weeks of research, design, machine work, and assembly, we've finally eliminated all the flexible bushings in the rear suspension in favor of spherical bearings. I had also found that the rod ends on the front tie rods were worn, and had replaced them. Finally, because we figured the car would be more stable, I reconnected the rear anti-roll bar, which we'd disconnected last year to help deal with the twitching. This should help reduce the power-on understeer that had always plagued the car in slow corners.
After all these changes, the car felt
much better when I tried it on the street just before we left.
Now on the track the car should be rock stable in transients and
over bumps, right?
Wrong! Nate took the car out first, and when he returned he said the car was quite twitchy, especially under braking and over bumps. He felt it might be even worse than before! Augh!
I felt the same way. Under power, it was superb, with terrific grip and excellent stability. But as soon as you touched the brake, it darted one way or the other. Nasty! And going up the bumpy Andretti Straight, at well over 100 mph, at each bump the wheel tugged one way or the other and the car tried to take off toward the edge of the track. Arrrgh!
Still, the car was a blast to drive, and the Mosport circuit is magnificent. It is enormously intimidating, with several fast corners with blind downhill entries. A small mistake will likely put you at high speed into a tirewall - but getting it right is extremely rewarding.
Before the event, Nate and I had practiced together in the Grand Prix Legends racing simulation so we were quite familiar with the track layout. The simulated version of the track proved to be quite accurate in most areas. Only the elevation treatment in the Turn 5 area was markedly different in real life, and it was not difficult to adapt to this.
This helped us a great deal in learning the track. Neither of us had been there before, but Nate was quickly into the 1:44 range, and finished with a 1:41.86 in the time trial. He was delighted; this was the first time he'd ever set his best time of an event during the officially timed laps of the time trial.
I loved driving such a magnificent track. I am sure this will be a cherished memory for me.
Despite this, however, the event was discouraging for me in several ways. Of course, I was disappointed that the expensive and time-consuming spherical bearing mod had not cured the twitchiness. But that wasn't all.
During the event, our lack of horsepower
was even more apparent than at Summit Point. We knew there was
no way we could keep up with the fast cars in SPA, a Corvette
and a turbocharged Porsche 968. Nate did well to get within a
couple of seconds of the Porsche, but the 'Vette blew us off by
7 seconds!
Worse, we couldn't even stay with the theoretically slower SPB cars. A couple of times I found myself behind Louis Milanazzo's turbocharged four-cylinder Dodge Omni GLH. Louis walked away from me down the straight, and try as I might, I couldn't make up the difference through the corners.
I had a student again this weekend, but I found I simply didn't have the endurance to cope with the extra expenditure of energy that this entailed. By the middle of the first day, I was exhausted, and struggled through the rest of the event. I've decided to suspend instructing until my health improves.
My loss of confidence seemed to have carried over from Summit Point, and despite riding for a couple of laps with Nate, the best I could do was a 1:43.05, midway through the first day. After that, fatigue seemed to affect me, and I couldn't improve.
I still have cause for optimism, though. I've got some ideas about what might be causing the Cobra's unsettling twitchiness, and I plan to try to address them before the next event at the Glen.