Burnout

[cherokee]

Do any of you suffer from burnout? I just am not in the mood to wrench on the race car. I have the thing torn down for a new motor. I have an all out IT and FP motor waiting on the engine stands. For sets of new tires just mounted. Fancy Smanchy custom rad. Custom made up IT header, all kinds of FP goodies on the way, lots of spendy 1-off bits, but I just can't make myself go work on the thing. It is not hard, just putting it back together. Spot (the car) has been sitting in the nice heated garage waiting for me to come back, I last touched it at Christmas.

Who else is in a winter slump? :snow_cool:

[JamesB]

Not me I am in winter overload. Motor to refresh, seat to mount in another car as well as a tuneup to be done on it. Lots of little inexpensive indoor house projects to complete.

[tnord]

completely the opposite for me.

i just got new blueprinted hubs, longer wheel studs, pimpy aluminum lugs, and some other "magic" in a box yesterday, and i can't wait to get home and start working on this stuff. I find myself standing around in the garage just looking for stuff to do. like last weekend i decided to take the springs/shocks off and clean up all the threads so that they are easier to adjust.

[seckerich]

Every year go to 24 at Daytona and come home cured of winter burnout!! Too late for this year but you now know the cure. Go find a race and get with it.

[its66]

Winter??? What's that?

no winter burnout problems here. :P

[Team SSR]

Every year go to 24 at Daytona and come home cured of winter burnout!! Too late for this year but you now know the cure. Go find a race and get with it.
[/b]

10-4. My driver went to the 24 and is now actually willing to work on the car.

[gsbaker]

Hey, you guys gotta stop going to the 24. It was actually a bit crowded in the infield this year. The NASCAR idol worshipers are starting to show up and they are making a mess of things.

[ddewhurst]

cherokee, I understand what your infected with. While building my first race car during early 1999 my intent was to get finished & do a double school. Guess what, it got to be a job & I said the hell with this. Building the car should be all fun & a total pleasure. Took my time fiishing the car, went to school & raced in 2000.

Today, building a new car & am infected with the same disease. When the disease is cured I'll get back to building the car.

Have Fun
David

[mustanghammer]

Cherokee,

I have this happen to me too from time to time. Here is what I do to break the slump:

Make a list of what I have to do. Sometimes this can make you feel overwelmed but later it will make it easier to get a feeling of accomplishment. Working from your list, set small goals and quit working on your car when you feel you have accomplished something - anything.

Watch a racing video - hopefully something from an in car camera. Watch a RunOffs DVD.

Go to an indoor Go Kart track and turn some laps. The ones that require a helmet at the best. St Louis has a nice one that uses electric karts - really fast!. KC has one that will get your attention as well. Nothing like a perfect pass or a little rubbing to get you motivated.

Buy some new tools or a new tool box. Nothing gets me going faster than new tools to play with and use. Organizing a new tool box is also a highlight. Get out in your shop and do something that has nothing to do with your car. Eventually you will find yourself working on your car

Buy some new music. I listen to CD's when I work on my car. New music gets me going

Sit in your racecar and day dream. I hate to admit to doing this but my racing seat is confortable and sitting in it is relaxing. It gets me in the shop and reminds me why I like my car and racing in general. Making motor noises while you do this is optional....

[Eagle7]

Oh yah. I've been working 80 hour weeks living out of a suitcase halfway across the country for most of the last 10 weeks. Racecar? Haven't seen it since Thanksgiving.

[kbrewMR2]

I got over my winter slump this weekend by hitting the track.... heh

the south is good for something!!

[tom_sprecher]

Yeah, I get it from time to time. Too much to do to the car can be overwhelming and I get tired of doing the same thing vs. some other interest.

Take a break from the car and get burned out on something else. Then come back to the car and it will be new again.

Wait a minute! You haven't touched the car since X-mas? Get yer a$$ out there at get to work and quit yer bitchin.

Seriously, it's supposed to be fun. If it ain't, take a break.

[Greg Amy]

Do any of you suffer from burnout?[/b]

Absolutely. That's exactly why I:

- Bought a Toyota MR-2 to build for ITA,
- Spent $2500 in initial parts for it,
- Stripped the interior out,
- Started working on the underside.

At that point I started removing the plastic undertrays (the entire underside of the car is covered in nice smooth plastic trays.) The first small bolt was rusted and broke off. Then the second one broke. Then the third. Then I looked under the car and made a quick count of how many of those were left.

Then I went inside and read through my blogs of five years of building the NX2000. Then I opened up Quicken and totalled what I'd spent developing the NX2000. Then I opened up a web browser and put the Toyota MR-2 up for sale. It's gone now...

I decided I really didn't want to go through that journey all over again, at least not now. Too much of my life has been spent on this, it was time for a change.

I've burned out many times over the last two decades of club racing. The big one was 1992, when I literally hung up the race helmet after the podium finish at the '92 Runoffs. I decided then and there I was not going to do this again until I could afford to pay someone to do it right. I got really tired of spending every waking hour working on my car, just so I could go around in circles a few times a weekend.

Believe me, brother, I know how you feel.

But, there's that sense of accomplishment that "mustanghammer" mentions. I've always got some project hanging around to work on, especially over the winter. Last year it was rebuilding two Honda Gyros from parts (one is for sale!), the year before that it was building a Spec Miata, the year before that rebuilding the Honda CB550. Before that it was totally rebuilding and turbocharging a Rabbit Diesel. A couple year before it was a K100RS, and there was an Audi 200tq and an E-250. Somewhere back there was an airplane project, and a few house and garage projects, and some diesel van projects.

The key thing, though, for those projects was a complete lack of deadlines. I could finish those whenever I felt like it, I didn't HAVE to get them done in time for racing season. And that's the big difference. I like those; I'll probably build a kit car someday soon (SR20DET or VE-powered Lotus 7 sounds nice). But they'll always be "whenever" projects.

The ideas others presented above are very good for getting over the "blahs". You can choose to put off racing for awhile, or you can do what it takes to get motivated and going. Choice is, truly, yours...

[Joe Harlan]

I put race gas in my golf cart so I get the smell of race gas. When things get real bad you can always put and old hawk pad on the surface belt .....Kind of a winter racing potpourri. Getting a little sunlight is a big deal also this time of year. If you can't find a good light source go hit a tanning bed for 15mins. The effect of sunlight really does help to kick those winter bleh's.

[tnord]

i agree joe. you can get anywhere you need to go on the work campus under an awning, but anytime the sun is out in the winter, i go out of my way to take a walk in the sun.

i totally agree with the smells thing too. just tonight i put a new "magic" engine part on, and i really didn't have any doubts that the car would run fine, but i went ahead and started it, let it warm up, and hit the loud pedal up to 3500 a couple times to make sure everything was kosher. since it's damn cold outside i did this with the garage doors shut, and now i smell like race car exhaust. i like it.

i think i'll fire up that FP Runoffs race on the DVR before bed. there's no doubt i'm excited for this season.

[CaptainWho]

Yeah, I'm suffering burnout big time. We've rebuilt the engine on the IT7 car twice since September (long story omitted for brevity). Don't even pick up the car until tomorrow (today). Plus, I just ordered an AFR system and need to install it, and started working on the "To Do" list, and I'm just majorly bummed ... gonna be a tall order to get everything done by mid March for our first event.

[JLawton]

I don't know if I get "burned out". I HATE to work on the car in general, but when it's 20 degrees in the garage, you have to go out and start the heater ahead of time, dress like the Stay Puff Marshmello Man :snow_cool: and still freez your a$$ off........Hard to get motivated...........

I&#39;d rather do nothing for 3 months, wait til the last minute and then flog on the car night and day to get it ready in time!! <_<

[cherokee]

I cleaned the garage a little last night. I need to be ready by March-April, it still snows here in March and I have done one race in sleet and it was no fun, so I will see what mother nature has for us.

Just getting the junk cleaned up helped, now all I have to do is fix the mower bent valve (how that happened I will never know) and move the generator, Lost power just yesterday, it is so easy to start if it is inside. After I get both of those things out of there I can walk around the car again.