September 14, 2011 - A great start to day 3: two fast, simple and fairly short stages.
They were fairly easy zeros for us, although we were moving pretty fast to do it. Fast enough that a new problem with the car manifested itself. The hood was lifting dramatically at 200 km/h. Some of the adhesive holding the remaining underhood bracing had let go. The temporary fix was some hockey tape holding the lip down, which worked. The more permanent fix was a few more rivets. Hey, race cars like rivets, right?
We did have a bit of a problem. This area of Newfoundland doesn't have a lot of gas stations that carry premium fuel. And those that do, didn't have any. We ended up pumping regular fuel into the tank and topping it up with octane enhancer. Not ideal, but Steve at V8R Spec anticipated this and our engine is slightly lower compression than his usual motor.
On to Musgrave Harbour. And our first penalties of the day. It's a fairly smooth run through town (new pavement since last time) with a quick detour around a school. I made a navigational error and misjudged the entrance to the detour, but luckily I misjudged it early so it only cost us a short moment of indecision before I spotted the right spot and leapt towards it. The detour was fun with lots of gravel and we danced around it pretty well. By the end of the stage, we'd picked up 5 seconds. Not bad, really. Especially in retrospect.
Here's what I said about Musgrave Harbour in 2008:
"Terrible. Rough and bouncy with a speed bump in the middle. Very hard on the car, and on our penalties. 31 seconds late. Not fun at all. We finished on the Corvette's butt."
It's been repaved! The roads are generally much better this year. What's missing is that one stage every day that had me fearing for the safety of the car. The suspension's also working extremely well. The skid plates have come in to play a couple of times, but very rarely. They've done their job well.
tags: targa, 2011 race, exotics, tuning |
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