Defined as a very long, low percentage pass made in sheer desperation, the term Hail Mary is perfectly fitting of Project 240LSR's journey to Speed Week. While Eric Hsu and “Team America” were making their Hail Mary attempt to make it to World Time Attack, the perhaps lesser known, yet equally determined team behind Moto IQ's Project 240LSR were simultaneously in pursuit of their own Hail Mary pass. Let's face it though; this is par for the course. If it wasn't for race day, almost every race car would be forever damned to a hellish state of incompletion. This is the story of how we made it.
Three months before speed week, Project 240 LSR remained in a menacing and rather depressing state of disarray. Over 30' of factory wiring harness lay strewed about the garage and we had still yet to put the finishing touches on the brake and suspension systems.
An abundant amount of fabrication work remained and to make things worse, we had yet to ever see Project 240LSR move under its own power. At that point, Mike Kojima advised we throw in the towel and reset our sights on Speed Week 2013; however, the rest of us were either too stubborn or too stupid to listen.
When we last left off, we had just sacrificed my beautiful street driven S13 and installed its powertrain into Project 240SX Land Speed Racer. Although the powertrain was previously operational, the intercooler and plumbing had been damaged in the accident, which committed us to finishing the install of our Spearco air to liquid intercooler.
With John Kuchta, of Specialty Cars Fab, tied up on another gig, Costa Gialamas of GTI stepped in to lend us a hand. Costa fabbed up an intercooler bracket, which mounted the intercooler off of the engine block. We chose this location to mount the Spearco intercooler to minimize the length of the intercooler plumbing, optimizing boost response, and simplifying the packaging.
Mike worried that the engine's vibration might cause the premature failure of our Spearco air to liquid intercooler. Again, perhaps too stupid or too stubborn to listen, we did it anyway arguing that the intercooler wouldn't experience high enough stress or number of cyclic loads to result in a failure. Just in case though, we lined the intercooler mount with some anti-vibration adhesive backed foam sourced from McMaster Carr.
Three months before speed week, Project 240 LSR remained in a menacing and rather depressing state of disarray. Over 30' of factory wiring harness lay strewed about the garage and we had still yet to put the finishing touches on the brake and suspension systems.
An abundant amount of fabrication work remained and to make things worse, we had yet to ever see Project 240LSR move under its own power. At that point, Mike Kojima advised we throw in the towel and reset our sights on Speed Week 2013; however, the rest of us were either too stubborn or too stupid to listen.
When we last left off, we had just sacrificed my beautiful street driven S13 and installed its powertrain into Project 240SX Land Speed Racer. Although the powertrain was previously operational, the intercooler and plumbing had been damaged in the accident, which committed us to finishing the install of our Spearco air to liquid intercooler.
With John Kuchta, of Specialty Cars Fab, tied up on another gig, Costa Gialamas of GTI stepped in to lend us a hand. Costa fabbed up an intercooler bracket, which mounted the intercooler off of the engine block. We chose this location to mount the Spearco intercooler to minimize the length of the intercooler plumbing, optimizing boost response, and simplifying the packaging.
Mike worried that the engine's vibration might cause the premature failure of our Spearco air to liquid intercooler. Again, perhaps too stupid or too stubborn to listen, we did it anyway arguing that the intercooler wouldn't experience high enough stress or number of cyclic loads to result in a failure. Just in case though, we lined the intercooler mount with some anti-vibration adhesive backed foam sourced from McMaster Carr.
