1990 Troyer Modified Hillclimber

Adding holes to the radiator support would expose the bottom of the radiator to a sharp rock in the pits and turning around off the road. I once broke a dry sump fitting right off the pump just driving around in the Burke campground. One rock sticking up got me. I'd rather have the radiator more completely protected since it's made of thin wall aluminium and one tiny hole will ruin a weekend.

I'm also working on a aluminium skid plate that will cover the whole motor area. The car sits fairly low with 3-3.5" of ground clearance. A bit less than a normal car. At Mt Washington I had to be careful in the parking area at the top. There are rocks there that the tourists drive over every day that would probably take out the bottom of my oil pan. So basically I want the car low but also armored so I don't worry about it hitting stuff.

DaveEstey wrote: The road is shaped for drainage there and you were riding both sides of the hump. I'm fairly certain that contributed. It was good to see the damage was light given your pace.

So I'll blame the road crew. They should have contoured the road so my Troyer could take that corner at 90. lol

Actually one of my philosophies is not having to worry about stuff. So armoring the radiator means I don't worry about hidden rocks (Like the ones I kept hitting in the Washington pits. They hide in the grass.) I also don't want a car that needs constant attention. Washington before the crash was an almost perfect event. The car had zero problems. I never even opened the hood. And because I filled the fuel cell to the top before the event I didn't even add fuel. All I did to the car for four days was drive it.

And that is really what I want. I'm not a professional racer. I don't have a crew of people to wrench on the car. I just want to go racing several weekends a year and have fun. Of course I want the car to be fast but I don't want it to be fragile and need lots of work while racing it. That takes all the fun out of it.

GREAT build! This thing looks like a blast. I can't wait to start hillclimbing.

KevinGale wrote: Front clip now available in Gold!

What are you using for the gold paint?

chknhwk wrote: GREAT build! This thing looks like a blast. I can't wait to start hillclimbing. What are you using for the gold paint?

Hillclimbing is a blast!

Funny you should ask about the paint. I was using Rustoleum Gold Rush but for some reason my local stores stopped carrying it all the time so just tried Krylon Dual and I like it better. The color is slightly lighter but it covers so much better. So nothing fancy just rattle cans.

Lol, Just had FedEx and UPS in the driveway at the same time delivering parts. First time that has happened.

New snout is coming together.

Getting closer to finished

Snout back on just waiting for paint to set and the radiator can go back in. If I get the new spindle tomorrow I should make Burke. Probably be working all night tomorrow getting the front suspension back together and doing the front end alignment. I may be mounting tires at the Burke Hillclimb this weekend we'll see.

The new spindle came in! Just finished the two hour round trip drive to pick it up. Now to put it in tonight and maybe I can leave for Burke Hillclimb tomorrow. Caster, Camber and Toe and no sleep are in my future. :-)

It's 9am I haven't slept but it is a car again. Now to just pack and load for Burke.

Good luck!

Awesome! Good luck man. I was only able to spectate (and provide split times) at Mt. Ascutney one time (in 2010) but I know hillclimbs are in my future. Threads like this one only cement my desire, thanks for being an enabler! Stay safe and finish well!

Back from a great Burke hillclimb event. It was an uneven start. On Friday morning after being up all night installing a new spindle I made a mistake drilling a rivet hole an put the drill bit into the radiator. No leak so I thought I was Ok. Hours later still no leak so I'm good right? Nope, after I loaded the car on the trailer it started leaking. I hauled the car up to Burke since it was already on the trailer. I figured I'd fix it there or just keep filling up the radiator and deal with the drip. Sherman Baumann had JB Weld and he believed that would fix it. So I pulled the radiator out and patched it with JB weld. At one point this involved walking to the campground bathroom with a radiator tucked under my arm and a hair dryer in my other hand. But it was all racers in the campground so this hardly even caused people to comment. The JB Weld patch held! (Note: Seven years later it is still holding) Sunday first run I ran out of fuel. First time that has ever happened. I actually couldn't figure out why. I thought the car should have plenty of fuel but it wasn't getting any to the carb. I borrowed some fuel and that fixed the problem. I ran a 2:05 for second fastest overall on my second run. I was happy enough with that to stop right there. I REALLY wanted the car home in one piece. I'm getting tired of working on it all night every night. Congrats to Paul Tingaud and the Super Chicken 237 for being only the second person to make it under the 2 minute mark. Paul is only 1 second off the record. I'm sure it will fall to him sooner or later.

And no video this time. On Saturday I didn't even think about the GoPro. I was more worried about he radiator. On Sunday I got the camera out and discovered it wasn't charged! I wasn't able to get it charged in time for my second run. Still getting used to having a camera and I need to plan ahead to use it.

I have some fuel cell issues I'm going to have to figure out at some point.

At Burke I ran out of fuel first run on Sunday. I dumped in a couple of gallons of fuel and it started right up. In all I added 4.5 gallons and then made another timed run. I usually mix 3 gallons of 93 unleaded with 1 gallon of 112 leaded race fuel. So on the way home I figured I had about 3.5-4 gallons of race fuel in the cell so I decided add about 10 gallons of unleaded. However when I got to 9 gallons the fuel cell overflowed. The cell is a 22 gallon cell so that means when I was "out" of fuel there was really still 9 gallons or so in the cell. To make matters worse the foam in the cell shifted a while ago and it is wiping the dip stick off and making it pretty much impossible to read. That is why I thought maybe I screwed up and the cell was in fact empty. Something isn't adding up.

I'm wondering if the pickup is broken so it isn't reaching the bottom of the cell. Sooner or later I'm going to have to pull the cell and open it up. Good time to replace the foam since I'm years overdue for that anyway. But since I can see the cell is full and the mix is good I can probably run the next event (Okemo) as is and do it later.

Flashback! This is the modified I was driving with my sister in-law back in 2003. We were halfway through doing a new body in yellow.

Sadly that one ended up in a tree. Karen was driving it when this happened.

Good lord, how many times has this poor car wrecked?

That was a different car and I wasn't driving that particular crash.

But since the late 90's I think I've had to do three front clips. One on the old car and two on the current car. For some reason I always seem to hit in the front. There have also been a few more minor offs. But I've also gone years between crashes. 2010-2013 for example was a good run that included many event wins and a series championship.

Some people seems to be able to do it but I haven't found a way to go fast without stepping over the limits sometimes. At warp speeds things go wrong quickly when they go wrong and I seem to run out of talent just about the same time the car runs out traction and pavement.

Good Mt Washington video. I do appear in it. The car is in the background at one point and another shows my crash from the copter.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/vG6_TxwaWlg

This is hillclimbing! Twisty road and not a safety barrier in sight.

Of course most of our hills have trees but this is Mt Washington above tree line where you could go off the road and fall for a while.

This is a pretty nice shot as well

The Launch Control video was pretty entertaining. I spotted your car once, but it was nice to see them cover some of the history and details of Mt. Washington. Thanks for posting!

THIS IS SO COOL

Mezzanine wrote: The Launch Control video was pretty entertaining. I spotted your car once, but it was nice to see them cover some of the history and details of Mt. Washington. Thanks for posting!

Apparently one way to make it into any video is to crash!