WTBRT ole 112 success

At Warner Robins ole#112 ran in Middle Georgia SCCA's solo II autocross yesterday. Scott Trunkhill and I made the decision on Saturday nite about 9 pm to give 112 a shakeout and see what would happen. Both of us were a bit apprehensive since we had never been through the "hoops" at an SCCA function. Inspection was a no brainer compared to our CORSA inspections. The inspector took a look, grabbed the battery hold down, looked in the car and saw our new 4 point harnesses and then shook our front wheels a bit and checked the master cylinder for leakage.

We walked the course 2 times, ( I should have walked it 6 ) and then were off to hear the safety speach and get our track assignments.First day out: The WTBRT at our first Autocross held by the Middle Georgia SCCA. After that, it was grab a helmet and get in line. Scott was in group #1 and did his 3 runs first. The car sounded great and boy what a difference it makes when you are able to run "R" tires. We were running yoko's on our stock steel Corvair factory rims. Scott is a very smooth driver and considering this was his first run in a "prepared" Corvair, I think he did just great. This course is only the third he has run. He drove Darth at Carlisle and was very "Sethish" at "Fire and Ice" where he very professionally mooched rides in a Fitch Sprint from Robert Landers.

Conversely, "Mr. DNF" managed to miss gates on his first 2 runs. Upon returning to the starting grid for run 3, the engine just didn't feel or sound right. I hopped out of the car and opened the engine lid to discover the fan belt had flipped upside down and somehow managed to stay on all the pulleys BUT was running on the OUTSIDE of the idler pulley and fraying rapidly. I immediately jumped back in the car and limped back to the pit area as I didn't want the car to overheat anymore than it was already since the belt was turning the fan but not nearly as fast as normal. I let the engine idle for a couple more minutes while the belt was self destructing. We discovered that both of us had missed closing the belt retainer space on the blower housing guide but neither of us has figured out how the belt got out of the idler pulley guide which was spaced correctly and still was on the guide merrily grinding itself to an early demise.

We soon had the belt changed and the belt retainer guides properly spaced. We had one other minor problem at the end of Scott's third run. We discovered the secondary carb spring rod had dropped it's retainer clip so more than likely Scott had run at least part of his third run without the help of the right cylinder bank's secondary carb. We soon found a spare retaining clip in our small parts stash and reclipped the rod. The whole day was very satisfying but the most heartwarming part was the flawless performance of ole#112's drivetrain. Twelve hard runs and everything in our backyard x-crosser held together and provided both of us MUCH FUN and many others present, there first glimpse of a Corvair and even more suprising that "they sure do sound good".

WTBRT Press Release
Dateline 23:54pm EST 09-15-03
President,
Corvair Atlanta
CORSA MEMBER