ITR Z3 rebuild thread

[Z3_GoCar]

Has a successfu, but long, day yesterday. I left the house at 4 dark 30, and made it to Buttonwillow 3 hours later. The run groups were alternated between open wheel and closed wheel, and closed wheel was up for the first run, but before the track was opened we were allowed to take "Sedan Laps" because of fog. I took the last sedan lap.

With everything seeming to be going well, I got in line for the first run group. My main objective for the day was to just run some break in laps and get the oil warm. So during the first couple of sessions I kept the motor below 5000 rpm. After the first session, as I was driving in I was hearing a cricket like sound, which I found to be comming from the body. Once I opneed the hood I found a little oil leak, with a little drip hanging off a banjo bolt, I found the source, tightened it up, and cleaned the leaked oil up with a little simple green.

[Marcus Miller]

Congrats James!

[Z3_GoCar]

Congrats James!

Thanks Marcus:026:

Here's a little vid

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lvVAbEg9rY[/ame]

[Z3_GoCar]

Since my first race is this weekend at Willow Springs, I spent last Sunday with Speed Ventures doing one of their track days. Here's some video from my third session:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KNkXo2pFF8[/ame]

I know that my laps times were good, for a fast ITB car

I'll need to shave off about 15seconds if I plan to stay ahead of Naji in ITA.

[Z3_GoCar]

This is some video for my qualifying session. I move the bullet camera, zip-tied it to the wink mirror actually, and get a better exposure. Note the ITE Vette that catches fire at the apex of turn #7.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUqPvOFFYVs[/ame]

I'll post video from the race later....

Well it's later and here it is:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDLkalACITQ[/ame]

[Z3_GoCar]

Since I raced my car two weeks ago, this will be my last post in this thread. As my rebuild is all but over. But I wanted to post a few final thoughts about my the rebuild and race at Willow Springs.

First of all, I couldn't have finished my rebuild without the help of many. The assistance of my friend Richard Kirshner, who's councile and help has been invaluable. Also, Luca Paindelli helped me with installing and timing my cams and Gilbert Magana helped me with installing my new windshield.

This was the first weekend where we had a full podium in ITR. John Norris and Brian Lampe also ran in ITR, both driving 325's. I was looking forward to racing with both of them in May, after my budget recovered. Unfortunetly during the race on Sunday Brian's car rolled, he walked away, but the damage to his car is much more extensive than mine. So he'll be building a new car, I hope he's back soon, but probably not before next season. Finally, I'd like to thank everyone who either posted or checked in here to see my progress. Race safe, and have fun, and keep the rubber side down

[JoshS]

Congrats on "done" and welcome to ITR!