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On the next lap I went smoothly through turn five and about 600 feet before the crest of the straight I was bouncing off of the rev limiter again! I actually looked at the gearshift in disbelief before the red mist took over. Sensing that 200+ kph was in sight, I slammed into the next gear and let out the clutch. Instantly jumping back on the clutch and feeling like an idiot but knowing it was too late… I had found third instead of fifth and there was no power left to find that mystical 200+ kph.
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| It doesn’t matter how carefully the car has been prepped prior to the event, there is always trackside checks and maintenance that must be completed. However, in this instance we elected not to perform trackside engine repairs. |
Coasting to the pits I stopped at my RV in despair. Dave, who had helped me build the engine over the winter, was so worried that something he did broke that he did not hear me say I had mis-shifted. All hope started to fade when we opened the valve cover and saw a missing rocker, but a glimmer of possibility returned when we saw the rocker sitting virtually untouched. While some good friends offered to drive back the two hours to my home to get parts, I chose to leave the car parked so that I did not do a trackside repair that might have created further issues.
I got the car to my buddy Dave Sunday afternoon along with my boxes full of spare parts. We tested everything under the sun and it all looked great. Believe it or not, the rocker popped out and landed between the two camshafts – sitting safely out of harm's way. One valve keeper was left in place and it was jammed in, holding the valve in place and safely away from the piston. The cam showed some slight damage but still quite safe to use. Tear down, pull the cam, replace the rocker with my spare part collection (I'm saving the lucky rocker and valve keeper – they'll get a special place among my collection of parts) and the car is back and ready for action.
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| The NX GTi-R on the front straight at Shannonville Motorsport Park. |
Was I really that quick at getting the clutch back in? Was someone up there looking out for me? Does Nissan just build great, quirky little engines? Probably all of the above. I feel better but still sick at the way I have treated my engine. At the same time, to be 10 kph faster on the back straight, with the possibility of much more, than what the engine did during testing last year is exciting. After putting 200 kilometers on the engine Dave gave it another thorough check up. The lower oil pan and valve cover came off and we inspected all of the mechanical pieces we could without actually pulling the engine.
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| There are always a wide assortment of vehicles out at Ontario Time Attack events. Image courtesy of Change CRAFTER services. |
At Shannonville Motorsport Park I finished way back in class but that did not hurt; I have finished well back in the pack before. Having my best time one second SLOWER than my previous time out in the 1.6 liter powered car was what was painful. Faster on the straights but slower in the corners with the car very unpredictable – in the same corner I could be experiencing understeer once, 4 wheel drift the next time through followed by oversteer right after. I had two sets of tires and I used them all with varying air pressures and nothing helped. So new tires were ordered for our visit to Toronto Motorsport Park. Mechanically the car was running flawlessly and I was hitting a respectable 170 kph on SMP's quarter mile straight – based upon GPS data.
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| Katie, black helmet, is 258 in competition. Here she’s coming through turn one at Toronto Motorsports Park. When she was learning how to drive, I used to show her the scrub marks on the sidewall of the tires and tell her that I knew when she was driving too fast around corners in town. Image courtesy of Change CRAFTER services. |
My daughter, Katie, was home for a brief vacation (she'd been in South America with social justice group Solidarity in Action and would be heading to her new home in Melbourne, Australia to begin her teaching career) so I spent a lot of time preparing the car for action. Hankook RS3s were installed to improve our traction. We hit the track and were pleased with the grip but still not getting the power that I expected. We finished 4.5 seconds faster than our previous best times, so that's a step in the right direction but it was not enough.
