So yea... Saturday was a mess! The car pushed bad and didn't have much more grip on the rear. I knew my tires were used up, but damn!! The car was also too loud causing me to end ITA qual early I added a turn down(out) for STU quali, but even after a tire pressure change and then a toe change, I still struggled with the car's handling. I don't know the track real well and didn't expect to set records, but it was awful!!!! It also didn't help that the gearing wasn't working out very well for me. I felt like I was rowing the car around the track and if I found ANY more speed I was going to need to shift to 5th on the front straight or buzz the rev limiter in 4th!! I had known from looking at DL1 files that this would be an issue, and purchased a whole 'nother rear end, but I'd not had time to install it yet :/

The ITA qual race was exciting as I started at back. I was able to make some progress, had a decent race with a couple guys, but I was still giving up alot in the turns. Then with a few laps to go I ended up by myself and the sound guys got me again!!! The temperature had also just spiked a couple times, so I pulled in what turned out to be two laps early...

As soon as I turned the car off I found the cause of the temp spikes, a leaking rad!!! Just a pin hole, but I could hear and then feel the steam pushing out the top corner of the rad!

Needless to say, I didn't make the STU race and Saturday night was very busy! We changed the whole rear dif housing to one I'd just purchased and picked up (on the way to the track!). This unit had a 4.1 vs the 4.6 that was in the car. We removed and repaired the rad with some JB weld, (LOL) Undid the front toe change I had made trying to get the car to turn, unhooked the front bar (Mark Gregory made me do it), installed a 90 on the exhuast, readied the "good" tires (rain was likely so we didn't install them), and did all the usual night checks. Oh and we threw on some vinyl that Stephen Blethen had been nice enough to make up on short notice!

Time for a snack, more to come soon and some vids!