Testing, testing, 1 2 3… NASA American Iron Javelin update

Well I got the MSD distributor in and got the car running and set the timing around 34*. Then I had to figure out whether I was going to try to get a test in before the next race. Kind of last minute I decided to see if I could sneak into the test at Sears Pt. today (Monday). You’re supposed to call 48hrs before the test session to reserve a spot. But it was the weekend and no one was answering. I left a msg explaining that I wanted to get in for the afternoon session (1pm to 4pm) and left my number. Monday morning I got the call that I could come if I wanted. So I loaded up and headed to the track.

First session I was just feeling the car out. Seemed to be running ok. I had forgotten my lap timer so I didn’t know what kind of times I was running. My friend Matt came to help out and after my first session we re-timed the car just to make sure I was still at 34*. Second session I did another 6 laps or so. I was rev’ing the car higher with the new motor and at the end of the session I realized that I was bogging coming out of 6 and coming out of 11. I *thought* I ran the whole track in 3rd and 4th (can’t remember for sure, I’ll have to go back and check some videos). But I realized I needed to downshift to 3rd in turn 6 and down to 2nd in turn 11.

After the 2nd session I decided I wanted to see if my cool shirt setup was working. In a previous post I explained how I bought a little “cycle timer” board so that I could run the pump for say 30 seconds and then stop it for a couple of minutes and then repeat. The one time I used the cool shirt was at Buttonwillow in April and I didn’t have the cycle timer. I noticed that by the end of the race I didn’t feel like the setup was cooling any more. Not sure why this is but after mentioning it to Corey he said his switch allowed you to control the “amount” of cooling. After doing a little research I found out they sell a switch that does the cycling. But it’s over $100 for the switch! So I found this cycle timer kit for $25 and wired it up. Anyway, I got a bag of ice from the cafe at the track and got the cooler in the car.

Went out for the 3rd session and had a couple of clean laps, then I slowed to let a Ferrari by. Then I got back on it. But on the 4th or 5th lap when I got just past turn 2 I saw my oil light come on?! I’ve been plagued with oil pressure issues since day one and it looked like I was back to square one. The light comes on at 20psi at that’s where the gauge was. So I thought, well, it’s low but not zero and it was just for a moment, let’s see what happens. I did another lap and there was no problem until I crested turn 2 again and then the light went on again. And this time the gauge read almost zero. So I slowed up till the pressure recovered and cruised around and got off track.

At that point there was only about 20 minutes left so I packed up and headed home. I was running my traqmate/gopro camera setup for the first time (I ran the traqmate at Buttonwillow but it wasn’t connected to the gopro). I’ll have to load up the data and see what lap times I did…

1974 Javelin-road race, American Iron, Track Events

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