I've decided to retire from general software development and from working for a company! I'm in the process of leaving my current employer, UIEvolution and have begun some new activities, all of them oriented toward high performance cars and driving them on race tracks! Go figure...
I'm currently redoing the Cantrell Motorsports website; check it out.
I'm also planning to get back into photography. First, I'm taking quite a few pictures of the cars and activities at Cantrell Motorsports. I also plan to do some track side photography at Pacific Raceways and hopefully sell pictures of people's cars to them as part of their day at the track.
Driving on the right side for the brain these days :)
Lastly, I'm leaving tomorrow for Thunderhill Raceway with the Cobra. Several friends from Seattle and Portland are also going, so it will be a lot of fun! I'll be taking the Cobra in my new enclosed Interstate Cargo trailer (pics to come later).
Here is the map of the 700 mile journey ahead:
View Larger Map
And a map of the track:
View Larger Map
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Sunday, October 14, 2007
NIRWANA Engine Blows!
After many thousands of track driving miles, I finally performed a "money shift"; in the Porsche Turbo no less!
I tried to shift from 3rd to 4th but accidentally got 2nd. The problem with that is if you shift at red line from 3rd, which is about 7000RPM, and you shift into 2nd and let the clutch out, the tires force the engine to spin at about 9500RPM!!!
Bad things happen when an engine is over-revved in such a way. The most common thing is that the valve springs don't exert enough force to close the valves fast enough so a piston or two end up colliding with the partially open valve which typically breaks the valve.
Cantrell Motorsports dropped the motor out of the car last week and performed a leakdown test which shows that 2 cylinders have likely been damaged. So, on we go with tearing down the engine to fix broken bits; and take the opportunity to upgrade a few :)
As you can imagine, this is all going to cost a wee bit of money; hence the term "money shift"... ugh.
Here is the sad photo of the motor below its proper home (the under-exposure is intentional to convey to mood):
I tried to shift from 3rd to 4th but accidentally got 2nd. The problem with that is if you shift at red line from 3rd, which is about 7000RPM, and you shift into 2nd and let the clutch out, the tires force the engine to spin at about 9500RPM!!!
Bad things happen when an engine is over-revved in such a way. The most common thing is that the valve springs don't exert enough force to close the valves fast enough so a piston or two end up colliding with the partially open valve which typically breaks the valve.
Cantrell Motorsports dropped the motor out of the car last week and performed a leakdown test which shows that 2 cylinders have likely been damaged. So, on we go with tearing down the engine to fix broken bits; and take the opportunity to upgrade a few :)
As you can imagine, this is all going to cost a wee bit of money; hence the term "money shift"... ugh.
Here is the sad photo of the motor below its proper home (the under-exposure is intentional to convey to mood):
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