There were four Triumphs out of about 135 entries at Millville this
weekend. Dave Spiwak (TR2) and I (GT6) were in the same group, but did
not get to do much racing together as Dave experienced fuel/
electrical(?) troubles all weekend.
Dave Miller in his well prepared TR4 was in with the Porsches and some
of the other fast stuff, and Kent Bain was running a Spitfire in the
small bore group.
New Jersey Motorsports Park has two decent nice tracks, and VRG runs a
good event with tons of track time. Of note, in addition to this
event in the Fall next year, they will be co-sponsoring one in May
2011 with VSCCA. The tracks are on the site of a WWII era air base,
and there were vintage warbirds flying in and out all weekend,
including this polished aluminum bomber that looked amazing (ok, so I
don't know my planes). The Spring 2011 event will combine the races
with a major vintage air show, including the Blue Angels (I know,
they're not vintage). There's a really nice WWII air museum on the
base, put together by all of the pilots and crew that operated out of
Millville over the years.
Brake failure - I loaded my car right after the last event (a fifteen
lap race) without looking at it. Went to roll it out of the trailer
and into the garage - decent puddle of tan fluid on the trailer floor
in the driver's left engine bay area, and all around the tire. I
figured it was oil - hey, it's a British car - forgetting that I'm
running Brad Penn, which is green, not brown. Got it in the garage
and took a look - no oil leaking from the usual places. Opened up the
front master reservoir - bone dry!
Don't know if this was going during the race - it had not lost fluid
all weekend - or if it just cooked out after the race when the seal
gave up. I pulled the caliper and the seals were a little "dry" and
cracked on the edges where they bear on the pistons, though the seals
were still flexible and intact. Apparently this will now become at
least a seasonal rebuild - I don't think I have touched these for
three years, other than changing the fluid.
Question that I know has come up before - the bellows type dust seals
were just crispy and crumbling. Is it worth installing new ones, or
can we just run without them? I wonder if part of the reason for the
brake failure is related to these - I just put in new pads, and had to
push the pistons back into the caliper to do so. When I removed the
pistons, the outer portion that sits in the area of the dust seals had
black gunk on it - melted seals, which might have damaged the o-rings
when the pistons were pushed back in?
Corner weighting - I had been complaining of understeer, and was
contemplating different springs, anti-roll bars, etc. First I took it
to my friendly local shop and we spent a few hours with the scales.
The driver's side front wheel was 110 lb over the right, and the cross-
weights were off by almost that much. Adjusting the coil-overs and
shimming the transverse rear spring on one side got the front in
balance and the back within 40 lb (with my butt just in front of the
rear axle, I'm surprised it's that close!).
The handling difference was dramatic and amazing, especially since
most courses are clockwise and all the excess weight was on the
outside front. The car is now balanced with mild oversteer easily
induced in most circumstances. I am now a big advocate of checking
this (and of course the alignment) before you start spending money on
parts.
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