Glen updates?

[StephenB]

Blethan was fighting problems all weekend with putting the power down. They traced to a bad diff, changed out the diff Saturday to a stock part, but still had the problem Sunday. Watching the Pro-IT race from Turn One Sunday I respectfully suggest the problem is a slipping clutch, not a rear end or tires.

As Greg mentioned I had problems hitting the gas and it wasn't just because I was scared It was weird... I could turn left and apply full throttle basically at turn in, but if I tried to turn right I could barely touch the gas at all and something would slip. The car was also very loose on right turns when I applied the throttle but felt great when I turned left. I got a ton of great suggestions as lots of people stopped buy to give us some ideas. We changed the entire suspension including taking the sway bar completely off. Nothing changed. We (I) was convinced it had to do with the rear end. The rear we put in the car during the build is the mazdaspeed 5.12 rear end and it was originally on a car that was hit extrememly hard in the right rear. So long story short I figured it was broken and had the guys drive out with my spare diff from home, then spent 3-4hrs changing the damn thing... shitty job that will go much faster next time! When changing it we noticed a bunch of axle grease from the inner joint. After some reflection we realized that the rear end we just replaced the mazdaspeed one with was from an automatic which we think is an open diff. We also realized that the axles we had were out of the car that diff came out of and maybe just maybe the automatic ones are different then the manuals... not sure on that yet but they do have different part numbers. In the end the diff from the automatic acted exactly like the original one, fine in left turns but horrible in right turns. Greg and Dick had the suggestion that maybe it was a clutch which it does feel like, but I am not 100% sure since it is honestly only right hand turns. At this point we have no idea but we are going to be ordering some axles for $400 bucks each (That my wife is thrilled about) and see if they are different.

The other issue we had was that I could smell gas and it seemed to use a ton of it! During warm-ups we used 4 gallons of gas. then in the race after 20minutes the car started to sputter. I thought the gas smell was from over filling it but I am not convinced. We are going to take the tank out, inspect it and all the lines then possibly put a stock tank back in it. This one was modified for a quick fill system compliant to continental challenge rules. We possibly could have damamged this in the build process and gas is just something I am not willing to fool around with. I chose to end my race early and take some pictures

Overall it was a fantastic weekend for me. I got to drive a car that I put together with my friends and it actually drove! I got to do 130mph and not worry about a speeding ticket in a nice controlled environment and for a few laps I had a great battle with Ann in her BMW M3. Plus being in the Watkins Glen area with family and friends is my dream vacation