Saturday, November 19, 2011

Revenge of the Spider

It’s been a while, but there is much to report. The car came back from A2B with the refurbished shocks and shiny front and rear bumpers, and went straight into Skyline for the exhaust system to be repaired. They have replaced the broken Y-section and the silencer box, and added a flexible section as well.
From there it went into Saluki Motorsport, for stainless steel top and bottom radiator hoses, and a revamp of the intake system which was seemingly letting dust through the filter. The new system includes a complete new air-cleaner box, leading to a long section of 3” aluminium pipe which exits towards the bulkhead, through a new restrictor (36mm for 2012), over the back of the engine, and then forwards to connect with the plenum at the front. This circuitous route gives us additional post-restrictor air volume, which is a Good Thing.
Then Rick at Saluki found various other things, which had either not been completed or not noticed before. The fuse and relay boxes weren’t anchored to the new inner wing, the compressor wasn’t working, two bolts were missing from one engine mount, and there was a nasty noise coming from the thrust bearing of the clutch.
Now, those of you who have been paying attention will recall that last year we replaced the clutch, thrust bearing and the adaptor plate, because its integral spider (which supports the thrust bearing) had fractured. Well, guess what – it’s déjà vu all over again. Thrust bearing has seized due to dust ingress, and the spider is broken.
The whole thing came from Marks 4x4 in Oz. It’s cast in aluminium, which is fine for the adaptor plate, but not so clever for the spider. The casting is horribly porous and brittle, and clearly not man enough for the job. So Robbie, Saluki’s brilliant fabricator, has managed somehow to weld it back together, and four additional steel legs will be bolted to the adaptor and welded to a new steel ring which will support the new bearing. It’s not the most elegant solution, but should hold together until we can fabricate a complete new all-steel spider. All of this should be complete tomorrow (Sunday).
Plan A had been to send the race car by car transporter to Doha, and fly down to meet it. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the minimum 6 cars to make this viable, so we have reverted to Plan B – trailer the race car to Doha. The trailer now has four new boots, and a new jockey wheel assembly to replace the one which got twatted some time ago. I’m in the process of getting a transit visa for Saudi Arabia, which inconveniently lies between the UAE and Qatar. Leaving Wednesday (23rd) morning, I should be there by evening, while Sheila and Richard will fly, getting there in time to complete documentation. We’ll only need to sticker the car before scrutineering on Thursday.
It’s all ended up being another last-minute panic, but assuming the Saudi Embassy and Saluki Motorsport do ‘the needful’, we’ll be racing next weekend.

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