Team Stampie $50 Q45 Challenge build

In reply to singleslammer :

I laugh every time Lil Stampie refers to you as the guy with the turbo in the passenger seat. Can't promise that I won't continue to make the Q better next year. 

In reply to Stampie :

We will see if I can keep it under budget.

Man was that a tough Challenge from 6 miles before getting there until today getting home after 100 miles in 14 hours. I'll tell the story later but leave you with these cause they're what is all about.

It's all about carol?

Carol's the official picture taker and it's rare that she lets you post a picture of her so you take it when you can get it.

The weekend was fun but we had a lot of issues.

Lil Stampie and I were towing the car to the hotel early Thursday afternoon. We got on 75 about six miles from the hotel and I immediately lost power. I said berk it I'm getting to the hotel and at one point we were going 3mph on the side of 75. Made it but had to get a tow up the hill on the back side of the hotel to park.  No big deal as Chris was coming with his truck so we just switched the trailer over. My truck started in the morning and ran fine the next two days.

Next issue happened in the middle of the first autocross run. I was just entering the slalom when I started losing power.   My first thought was try to get a timed run in so that we didn't DNF the autocross. That thought went away 50 yards later when it died. I pulled off course and a quick look under the hood showed liquid pouring out from the cool 2lbs battery. This is where the team really showed how well we work together. While we removed the battery and battery box Carol found us a Tractor Supply Company near by. We ran over there and bought a $30 battery and some bolts we'd need to convert the terminals. We rushed back and got the battery in with a racket strap holding it down. Then we discovered why the battery died. The alternator was putting out 18 volts. We disconnected it, Chris left to go find an alternator while Carol ran back to the hotel to grab our bed rail angle iron.  I took the car up to the autocross grid to get a pro to at least do one run. He got it in and a good one for us so I went back to the pits, charged the battery for a bit, and had the pro so three more runs on battery.

By now Chris was back with the alternator.  Carol's Dad and I started swapping the alternator when they called me to do course duty. I left them to finish that and hung out with Pete on the course.

To be continued ...

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So far now we've pushed the car a lot, here's FIMS helping us push as it was the theme for the weekend.

I shouldn't be because it's GRM but I'm still surprised at how helpful all the teams are to each other. It's common for teams to be looking for something and if someone doesn't have it they help them ask other teams for it. 

While I was doing course duty they got the alternator in and did a few fun runs to make sure everything was ok. Carol did her first autocross and I was impressed with her ability to drive a high powered car with limited traction. 

I knew I had to build a new battery box cause I wasn't going to be that guy that ran the drags with a racket strap holding the battery.  Most of down time between autocross and dinner was spent cutting up my beautiful box and doing a hack job making another. We had no way to drill a hole to bolt it together on the top so I just weld the battery in. We'll have to cut it to get the battery out.

As I posted before we removed the radiator fan for weight. So far we hadn't had any issues which made us a little complacent about it. Drags plan was first run I'd drive with Carol as a passenger so she could see the steps, next run we'd switch seats, then she'd do a run by herself.  After that I'd do three runs and Chris would do three.

First run we hooked of the line and it went smooth. I laid off early just in case we passed the 14 second limit with a passenger. Carol laid down a solid 15 on both of her runs.  We removed the passenger seat and my first run was a 14.6. When I got up to burn out on my second run something didn't sound right. I knew we were hot but I wasn't expecting limp mode right off the line. I did a parade pass at 15mph and headed to the pits. I started dumping water and ice from the cooler on the radiator.  Once everyone got back we got the blower on her and I went out to do my third run.  

I got a good burnout, lined up, hit it for 60 feet, and limp mode.

To be continued ...

Time to switch driver's and game plan better. Carol's Dad was real helpful in bouncing ideas and we came up with a plan. We'd posh it in the staging lanes engine off until the last minute. At the same time Carol was walking backwards with a leaf blower strapped to her back blowing the radiator. That plan combined with the staging lanes having less cars let us get 5 or 6 more runs in. Chris got the fastest with a 14.3 and Carol beat my good run with a 14.5. That was the end of our Challenge problems.

After the banquet Saturday we all headed out in a caravan. Almost in the same exact place on 75 going in the opposite direction the truck starts cutting out again. I nurse it to an exit and hoping that a fuller tank will help fill it up. That lead to an hour of low speeds until getting about half way home when she dies on a hill. We leave her behind a bank and come back Sunday to get her. I'm pretty sure the fuel pump can't pump enough and some experimenting shows that she'll do 35 but anything above that leads to more issues. We final get home and I take a nap. 

The Q45s report card comes tonight. 

Just found out that we have footage of our burning battery. 

In reply to Stampie :

I'm surprised you were wearing shoes for that. 

In reply to Pete Gossett :

Unfortunately I didn't have any time to take off my driving shoes from end of run to smoking battery. 

Sorry about last night, I feel asleep on the couch at 7pm. Nice night of sleep finally. 

So the report card. I like to spend a few days thinking about what went right and what we need to work on.

The main things we wanted to fix going in was better handling and better traction in the drags. Both were fix but they didn't improve her enough to make a big difference.  We can't complain as we finished 11th dynamic. That's kick ass for a big luxury sedan.  The only improvements we can do here is drop more weight (not much left on the bone), lower her a little, and add power (turbo).  We got an 11.75 in the Concourse. Being honest with ourselves that's what she deserves. She's an average car. Turbo might help that but I doubt much. 

It's come down to where we feel to improve her will take increasing amounts of work. That's work better spent on a better platform. It makes me sad but she's being retired to back up car status.

How much did the Q45 weigh? I was at 3527 in mine.

Instead of a turbo how about nitrous it’s easier to install under budget. Then you can keep up with my first generation. We both need to figure out how to lay down a decent 60’ time. Mine may make a comeback next year in its final form...

We were at 3158 without driver. I can junkyard a turbo and stay half budget but I'm pretty sure I can't do half budget with nitrous. 

She awoke from her long nap with a tow to Chris's house and a gentle tap on the starter with a hammer just like last year. We did a quick test fit of our new wheels and then off to lunch. 

Stampie said:

The only improvements we can do here is drop more weight (not much left on the bone), 

Not sure if I agree with that. 

I still see glass, hood, trunk, doors, headlights, taillights..... 

You’d be surprised how much difference a little weight can make in the handling, especially if it’s up high. 

When I brought the Mini, I was shocked how much difference I could feel in the handling when I swapped the windshield for Lexan. It was only a few pounds, but it came off the car up high, and it made a noticeable difference. 

Think if it like this... if you hold a wrench in your hand, it’s light- only a pound or 2. But if you tie it to a string and swing it around, it feels much heavier. 

In the drags it takes 100 lbs to gain a tenth of a second- that is negligible for a car like yours.  But it will make a pretty big difference in the handling on the Autocross.

...I think you can get that car down to 2800 lbs...

... another thing people don’t think of is the height of the tires. We always think of the wheels, but overlook the tires. 

Steel belted tires can be 10 lbs  or more heavier than their non-belted counterparts. On that car, I’ll bet it’s at least 15 lbs. That’s 60 lbs of rotational mass, at the outermost diameter of the tires. 

Hoosiers are lighter than most DOT legals. 

In reply to SVreX :

Stampie said: We test fit our new wheels

We also have lexan front and rear and remove the front windows for the autocross and drags. 

Way lighter than mine was and I cut the top off.

Stampie said:

In reply to SVreX :

Stampie said: We test fit our new wheels

We also have lexan front and rear and remove the front windows for the autocross and drags. 

That’s good. 

The Mumpkin ran 3 or 4 mph faster with the hardtop on than with it off. 

Apparently the weight reduction didn’t override the bad aero (which was improved with the top)

Just a thought...

In reply to SVreX :

I've thought about that but the climate control computer is long gone and it gets hot in there. One of the things on the list is wiring the blower to high. If we can work that out then we might run windows in during drags.  Two years ago I was surprised by a loud pop at the end of the strip. Too a few runs to figure out it was the rear window popping back out from being sucked in. 

In the interest of saving weight we ground a bunch off a front caliper. 

Still a little tight. We'll get the rest tomorrow. 

Ground some more and then we noticed that the caliper bracket had witness marks on it. So I ground a little more and got this.

At this point Chris overruled my redneck method of grind until it fits and said let's berkeleying measure it. Turns out we really need a 1/2 inch spacer on there or grind the bracket until it's spaghetti. So about to hit eBay.

Where are these new wheels at?  All I see is a bunch of caliper destruction.

In reply to pres589 :

Just for you and you only here's a picture of the Team Stampie top secret wheel stash.

Oh you wanted to see what they were?  First we have four Jeep 15 inchers for autocross.

And two Lexus 17 inchers for drags.

We grabbed these on the Memorial Day 1/2 off sale.  With spacers all 6 should be $50 cheaper than what we had in wheels last year.  Even better I think we're going to gain another $150 in tires from last year's budget.  Autocross wheels/tires should be significantly lighter than last year but drag tires may be heavier as we're going to a 28 inch drag tire.

In reply to Stampie :

Could I have those Jeep wheels when you are done? They’d look better on my RX7 anyways.