Well we are getting close to the next race here is our first Pre-Race Report!
The Khajavi Motorsports, Control1 ST BMW #1 is in preparation for the June 5th/6th race. Based on the results of the last event we have three phases we are working through. The first phase is REPAIR, the second is UPGRADE, and the last is PREP.
REPAIR
After the last event we had two major failures due to a large mechanical over-rev during testing. The over-rev broke 2nd gear and broke one of the three spring sets on the pressure plate. Second gears pieces then took out 3rd gear. The rear output flange nut spun off the shaft and the front seal was cut from the debris for 1.5 hrs or racing with all the broken parts. The broken spring on the pressure plate acted like a knife and nearly cut the bell housing (campenola) completely off! That was all the long way of saying we needed a new transmission, the old one has dirt and flowers on top of it.
We decided to use a later transmission with stronger gears and better shifting this time which is a little heavier but should give us some added reliability. We found one locally and ordered the parts to rebuild it and intend to install it this weekend.
The clutch has been rebuilt and stronger components have been used (again) to try to keep the clutch together. This is our last attempt to keep a stock style clutch in the car. If we cant keep it together this time we will go with a multi-disc race clutch. The clutch will go in with the transmission this weekend.
The rear bumper took a nice hit from behind last race and despite the hard hit, is in pretty good shape. We have a Honda logo imprinted in it though that we need to get removed from the bumper as we don't want that to slow us down
This will be ready next week.Our rear shocks were damaged last race so we sent them back to KONI for rebuilding as we asked for some rate changes also based on our testing results. We expect them back this week.
UPGRADE
The brakes worked very well and we don't want to change that but despite functioning very well, we had little feel in the pedal. The pedal was like a rock and you just had to push hard and hold on. It was not confidence inspiring for the drivers. So we are changing the master cylinder sizes to give the pedal some movement and feel which should give us a little better performance from driver confidence alone.
We are also changing the pad compound in front to have a little more bite and will run a slightly less aggressive pad in back to avoid rear lockup on initial brake application. Overall we feel we are one of the stronger cars under breaking and don't want to make changes to something that is working so we are sticking to small changes.
The car came off the scales still around 80# lbs to heavy per the rules so we finally decided to dive into the rats nest, the original wire loom. As a reminder we are, I think, the ONLY car still running the stock fuel injection system. We hope this does not cause us any issues as there are literally 500 connection points for the loom!! We have been focusing on this for over a week and hope to get it done this weekend. Wish us luck because a problem here could mean doom for the next race! The good news is we expect to lose 50# of weight from the loss of unneeded wiring, relays, switches and boxes!
Additionally we need to either fix some bent metal from the rear end hit or simply remove it so we plan to remove it per the rules and drop a little more weight here as well. We hope for 10#-20# of removed metal.
We also decided to move the battery per the rules to reduce the amount of heavy battery cable we needed and expect another 2#-3# of weight there.
We also feel we are making great progress with the handling of the car but think we can go even stiffer with the spring rates to help control the roll. We are re-springing the car again and adding some rate in front and a lot more in back to help dial in some overstear to get the car to point better.
PREP
The week of the race we will touch up the paint, wash the car, change the oil and filters, and do a loose bolt check all over the car. We are also re-corner balancing the car and reversing the alignment for the reversed race course. We will organize our tools and get all our spares loaded for the track. We plan to be at the track Thursday (hoping that the track might be open early) for practice on the reversed course.
Wish us luck!!!!
