RE: lime rock

["Brian Shorey" <bshorey@domain.elided>]

> Lime Rock was Excellent today!! Got to see a ton of GTV's GTV6's,
> spyders etc... and a few ferraris and misc other cars!!

yes!  best weather we've ever had, too.

here's my lime rock trip report, for those who may care.  there might be
some tidbits of useful technical data, otherwise if you don't like to read
these things page down.

after having driven the spider pretty much unchanged for the past 15 - 17
years, this year i made a few significant changes.  some work to the rear
suspension, lightened gears and close ratio transmission, lighter late model
starter, lightened flywheel and porsche pressure plate, custom made seat
bottom, and an autopower race height bar, modified and enhanced with a
fore/aft brace.  oh, and new soft compound tires (five year old r1's tend to
get a little bit hard).

first, the rear suspension.  the updates consisted of the performatech
trunnion bushings, early trailing arms (small bushings), and a rebushed
t-bar.  i'd highly recommend the above.  i've been looking at a competitors
panyard rod and thinking of doing the same, but the rear is tightened up
enough that i don't think i'll bother now.

next, the starter.  some may remember the inquiry on the digest a while
back, it's from a late model spider and bolts right into the earlier spider,
as long as you have a 131 tooth ring gear (that means any spider '75 and
later, i think).  the new starter weighs about half what the old one did,
and spins quicker.

thanks to andy kress for pulling one out of his parts collection and lending
it to me on short notice!

as for the transmission, i'm almost speechless (collective raised eyebrows
from the digest, *bs* without words?).  somebody made a comment on the
digest a few months ago that there were no guru's on the digest.  well, you
need to try driving a car with a gearbox built by tom sahines.  tom built me
a close ratio gearbox with lightened gears, and it's difficult to put into
words what a difference it makes.  there is *no* pause to shift into any
gear, upshifting or downshifting.  the box is silky smooth and
instantaneous.  i highly recommend to anybody who is having a box rebuilt to
look into having this done.

thanks tom, this box is amazing!

next was the roll bar.  we were informed that the helmet height rules were
going to be enforced this year (they weren't), but either way it pays to be
safe and this is something i should have done a long time ago.  as jim hayes
used to say, "what's you're head worth?".

we started with an off the shelf autopower race height bar, and paul glynn
did some modifications.  first, he welded in some 5/8" thick plate to the
rear parcel shelf, the parcel shelf lip (vertical surface), and the sides.
the plates were drilled and tapped so that the bar can be removed by one
person without getting underneath the car.  paul then modified the bar
itself, first adding a horizontal bar behind the drivers seat and then
adding a removable brace from the top of the main hoop to the passenger side
floor, right next to the inner rocker.  this fore/aft brace makes a
noticeable difference in the rigidity of the entire car, more so than the
chassis stiffener.  but most important, i now have real clearance above the
helmet, and feel really protected.

i looked at some aftermarket seats, but couldn't find any that would lower
my butt any more than the stock seat.  on the advice of nick fonte, and
based on some input from russ neely, i ended up getting some of that
modeling foam from pegasus racing, removing the seat bottom cushion, and
making my own seat bottom.  this was actually pretty easy, and worked well.
basically, the process consists of putting your seat frame into a garbage
bag, mixing up the foam, pouring it into the bag as it starts to expand,
then sitting on it to mold it around your body.  you can match the contour
of your butt, plus you can work in some side bolsters.

after it dries you can trim and shape with a hacksaw, utility knife, and
rasp.  racers cover it with duct tape to protect it from crumbling, i ended
up gluing on a piece of carpet padding and then part of a seat cover, and it
doesn't look bad.  i think i bought another half inch to an inch of
clearance.

last, but not least, the flywheel and pressure plate.  we got the flywheel
and ring gear down to less than 17 lbs.  the porche pressure plate weighs
about half of what the stock one does.  after balancing, we bolted it all
together and the friction disk would not unclamp.  it turned out that there
was a .090" difference between the face of the porche pp and the stock one,
so we turned the mating surface of the flywheel .045" and measured again.
still wouldn't unclamp, so we took off the other .045" and it worked.

i had gotten a throwout bearing from a supplier that deals in these things,
and prior to installation paul commented that he thought that the radius was
wrong and that the throw was wrong also.  sure enough, once installed the
lever was almost up against the edge of the hole in the bellhousing, so
apart it came once again.

as a sidebar, i've found one more reason for installing an electric fan in
front of the radiator - without the fan and shroud between the engine and
the radiator, the engine can be tilted back big time - enough to remove
*all* of the bellhousing bolts from underneath the car.  we had the tranny
in and out about a half dozen times wed and thurs (just enough to install
the slave cylinder), and it was a breeze.

paul ended up making a throwout bearing by sleeving a stock one and using
the mating surface of a real porsche one.  pretty impressive..

finally got it all bolted together and were out of there at around 6 on
thursday, stopped home to pack and headed straight for the hotel.  the
clutch started slipping almost immediately, i adjusted free play and it
helped.

i really like the lightened flywheel, there is noticeably better response
and there are *no* problems starting the car from a standstill.  i wish i
had never heard of the porsche pressure plate, however.  after spending two
track sessions adjusting the clutch master, trying to get the slipping to
stop (and still be able to engage/disengage), i adjusted in more than enough
freeplay, started the car in gear, and ran my next session in fourth gear,
no shifting.  about half way through the session it started to slip!
definitely a problem with the pressure plate..

so, although i put up a valiant fight, for the first time i can remember i
lost the spider challenge!  it surely would have been in jeopardy anyhow, as
jim scutti had an awesome drive and turned in an impressive 1.07 and change,
less than three seconds off the modified 3.0 gtv6 times!  hats off to jim,
i'll be back next year to challenge him for the crown!

jonathan kirschtein, as usual <yawn> turned in the fastest alfa time - very
low 1.05's.  car and driver both continue to amaze.  team shoestring is
getting close, however.

with all that was going on i didn't have a lot of time to pay a lot of
attention to the results, but one that i did catch wind of that i think
deserves mention was bob brady.  i think this was his first session on a
track (any track), in a gtv running on street tires, and i believe the time
was in the 1:08's.  looks like some natural ability (or some incredible
luck!), it takes most people quite a while to break the 1:10 barrier.  nice
driving bob!

i also had the good fortune to meet a lot of digesters.  david tallerico,
ron ewing (new caretaker for earnest the alfetta), jay hinton, megan
caverly, bob brady, tony brucia, kevin murphy, plus the usual cast of
characters.

thanks again to tom sahines, andy kress, the folks at glynn motorsports,
gene durso (for helping with the final assembly), and all others that helped
with the last minute heroics in getting the spider together.

thanks also to the connecticut alfa club for a great event!

bs

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End of alfa-digest V7 #719
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