Working for the Weekend

Despite the best efforts of our Fan-Switch Dept. to grind productivity to a halt, nothing could stop the juggernaut that is the willpower of the rest of the team and just before midnight last night, the car was declared ready for the weekend MSR test-and-tune.

The evening was not without a couple of setbacks, though; one of them being surprising and potentially serious. The first was simply that the fire extinguisher bracket that I had ordered was wrong. I have no idea how I goofed that up, but it is the simple things that can end-up being so frustrating. A more serious problem is that our exhaust system failed the sound level test. At WOT, we are way over the limit. Without any spare mufflers around the shop, we resorted to an (untested) solution that is deep in the weeds of "grassroots" - we did the banana steel wool in the tailpipe trick.

At best, we will be able to pass the sound level test and be allowed to put the car on the track. At worst, we will shoot molten stainless steel at competitors who choose to pass us on the right. Whatever, it serves 'em right.

I put batteries in my camera this time and took some snaps of the car in it's (almost) finished state:

The cow-catcher.

Since the national debt clock can't keep-up anymore, I'm thinking of buying it for the team and converting it to keep track of the number of hours it takes for Eric to wire a fan switch. Here he is on hour 9, 345, 451, 029, 482 (yes, it took him nine trillion hours). Also, note the license plate cooling ducts for the oil cooler. Kitschy.

The cockpit. That's right, we're sportin' wood in our race car!


A good shot showing the sealed fuel bulkhead, the rear wiring, and some of the cage work.

Kang and Ryan attach the huge "bigmouth" grille, in keeping with Audi's current styling trend. I think it updates the looks of the car nicely.

Jimmy