Team Size Matters Prepares for the Toledo 24 Hours of Lemons

Last weekend, Team Size Matters took the big Mopar out to Portland International Raceway in preparation for the Toledo 24 Hours of Lemons race on September 13 & 14. The track day was put on by the Cascade Car Club of Portland, and was more of a training day for new drivers. But it was a great opportunity for Team Size Matters to do some testing and tuning. Here’s the full story from Tom at Rocket Restorations:

We took the car down to Vancouver, WA the night before to do a little tweaking to it. For this race we put the radiator behind the driver instead of the front of the car like before to balance the car out. As most of you know a big block C-Body Mopar is not a 50/50 balanced car. After some tweaking including bolting two cylinder heads into the passenger side of the trunk we got the car so it is almost a 50/50 weight balance, the car is amazingly balanced and easy to drive. I know nobody will believe us, but ask anybody who has driven the car. Continue reading…

The test day started at a lovely 6:45 AM in the morning and we got all lined up and ready to go. I went out first since the forecast called for 105 degree temps and I had to leave early. After getting the lectures about how it was only a training day and to not mess up (everybody is supposed to go out with an instructor the first time out that day, but we don’t have a passenger seat). We have race brake pads on the car that take a long time to warm up, so I was taking it pretty easy around the track following a 3-Series BMW.

After the 2nd lap I starting going faster and faster having a lot of fun (you got a 20 minute track session). About half-way through my 4th lap I look down at the temp gauge and it was at 210, not good. By the back straight it was up to 220 and not going down. It got to 230 by the time the car got shut off, looks like the rear mount radiator didn’t work quite as well as we had hoped. We had exhaust tube bent to bring the water to the back of the car and we are pretty sure it had air in it we couldn’t get out. Air flow should have been enough. We had to scramble now to drive the rest of the day. A friend came to the track with us and happened to have an extra radiator close to the track. Mike, the head mechanic, went out and got a new used radiator which we had replaced about an hour after the overheating situation. After that the car ran great, well, other than issues related to the 105 degree heat.

It’s funny, when we were lined up to go out the first time a bright yellow Pantera was parked in front of us and the crowd was around our car. It seems like racers in the know know about the 24 Hours of Lemons race and all want to do it, they just don’t know how much work it takes! You can’t throw money at a car in this race, you have to scrounge up used parts all over the place to make it work. Our car is almost ready for the Toledo race although not looking forward to the 35 hour drive out.

Stay tuned for more on Team Size Matters and their next run at the 24 Hours of Lemons.