Hard-a-Port

Based on research, I may have to admit that I underestimated the benefits of head porting on the 1.9 L CVH engine. It still would require a different throttle body, benefit from a different cam, needs an exhaust header, and requires reprograming the ECM. I think turbocharging might be cheaper, but less stealth.

The New Theme

Per Capt. Vogler, a new theme is needed. Perhaps due to the fact that there are no more t-shirts available from http://www.teamstevemcqueenracing.co.uk/

Your author's lame ideas:

• Copy one of the BMW Art Cars - perhaps Alexander Calder's?
• AviCar (shamless play on Avitar). Paint car blue. Wear blue morph suits. Drivers to wear green contact lenses. Fans to wear 3-D glasses
• Sponsorship from Tide (the detergent)
• Spiderman theme, with webs across window openings. Eric to wear spandex.
• Plaid car, or striped car, or polka dot car (Wonder Bread theme?)
• Jagermeister Racing. Jager Bomb.
• Strip car to bare metal. No additional development on this plan
• Martini and Rossi. Classic livery with red and blue stripes. Natural progression from Gulf.
• Portray car as Mercury Tracer ('stead of Escort), capitalize on rich 50's Mercury lead slead heritige (think Hirohata Merc) with fender skirts, flames, lake pipes, fuzzy dice, curb feelers. Captain Vogler to wear fish net stockings.

I dunno - anyone else got any ideas?

I have a dream

Recent suggestion to make the car faster:
We need to find a way to add 50 hp and take out another 300 lbs, preferably from the front end.
There have been some serious discussions to adding a turbo charger - but pessimistic team members refuse to believe that this will increase the car's reliability.

Third time?

Breaking official news:

Right now it looks like we will be entering the LeMons race at Gingerman Raceway on the west side of Michigan, July 15-->
17th.  Kevin

LeMons 2010

Since I don't plan to attend next year, the other guys are free to run wild with the theme.

Kevin wants to take the Gulf Oil livery thing further, with a transporter and 70's hair.

Dr. Jared (son-of-Rod) wants to dress like a doctor, while everyone else dresses like tele-tubbies. The car would be dressed like Noo-noo.

Another Update from Captain Vogler

Again, Captain Vogler fills in the blanks, while I concentrate on selling automotive tooling in an attempt to turn around the economy:

• All light switches have been installed – most of the lights work. I will troubleshoot tomorrow. (I think Kevin planned on all the lights working)
• Marty Reckker came over and confirmed that in fact the kill switch wiring was right all along. Marty used to build alternators at Ford and it was the alternator connection to the kill switch that was giving Dave concerns.
• Dave finished the rear brakes – hopefully they only work when we want them to work. (the brakes seem a bit tight - I have asked Kevin to put some miles on the car today)
• Picked up backup upper and lower radiator hoses today. (note skillfull use of "up" 3 times in this sentence)
• Started installing the rear light assemblies on the Kalis Beam. (Kevin is convinced that adding "lights" will make the Kalis beam weigh less)
• The car still runs!

We have five ‘must haves’ to complete:

• Bracket over repaired gas line
• Drain coolant and replace with only water
• Install Ranger battery
• Paint # 20 on roof
• Finish rear brake lights
• Finish testing all lights

Updates from Captain Vogler

In a blatant attempt to keep people from voting for him in the "who will park the car last" poll, the senior team member has been sending out what appear to be factual updates on a nightly basis. I will publish these here:
Adeline and Olivia touched up the car with a Picasso style paint job. The number ‘20’ on the roof is ½ complete.
The Kalis Beam was installed between the rear shock towers. We will put the OEM tail lights on the beam. This way the lights will be protected from damage when Eric drives too slow and people rear end him.
The hatchback/liftgate was removed. With the Kalis Beam in place we should not need the liftgate’s structural benefits (if there were any) and removing the liftgate significantly improves rear visibility.
We realized we have a new problem – we have no rear driving lights. When we removed the light switches with the old steering column last year we also removed the ability to turn on all the driving lights. The rear lights will have to be tied into the front low beam power.
Dave finished replacing the rear left brakes and is almost done with the rear right brakes.
The fire extinguisher and mounting bracket was installed in the car.
Tonight we are having a special guest appearance by Marty Reckker. Marty built alternators for years and hopefully can shed some light on how we wire the kill switch and allow the battery to charge at the same time without frying the alternator.
And how could I forget – Eric took a die grinder and removed the right door inner panel for a phenomenal weight savings of 3.4 ounces. Somehow he created mass from nothing, since he left about 5 pounds of metal filings on the garage floor.
Yoda Pug flies in on Tuesday. I’m sure he will know how to wire the kill switch if we haven’t figured it out by then.
Brian flies in on Thursday, just in time to sign some autographs and hit the track.