It was cold out on the lake Sunday. Not the: “Hey – are you cold?” So much as the “Hey can you tell me if my nose turns black?” A tire swap in the summer takes me alone about 10 minutes. With help it took us about 25 minutes to swap tires. It was like working in space.
Once on the lake, I slowly rolled forward checking for clearance issues. We had a slight rubbing on the rear struts. The inside studs were buzzing against the edge of the spring perch. I expected a clearance issue in the front, but was surprised when one developed in the rear.
So, what’s it like to drive?! I started heading out across the lake. 1st gear had a lot of wheel spin. 2nd gear began to catch as I rapidly gained speed. In 3rd gear, I started into a number of slow sweeping turns. I accelerated turning right, lifted off the gas, and steered left. The car rotated quite predictably and I was back on the throttle in a long controlled drift. The best description I can come up with is; A really big, flat field, with 2″ of loose gravel on it. In a FWD car it’s hard to get moving at first – but once you have momentum, you can change your direction with ease. Stopping happens a bit faster with four wheels grabbing for traction vs. one wheel of acceleration.
Fastest time of the day @ 1:14. 1st place modified. I turned a 2 minute course into ice crunchy mayhem! “It sounds like a thousand ‘angry bees’!” Christine exclaimed as I buzzed by. In the car, the loud crunching sound was intoxicating. The sound was closely followed by a cloud of white snow & ice. Runs on the practice course got faster and faster with more confidence, and by the end of the day I was blowing the car sideways at 50+ MPH, with giddy screams coming from my passengers.
The tires worked awesome! Only a slight loss in pressure from the right rear tire, even after several runs. Four bottles of Slime, were used to ensure any leaks were sealed up quickly. I kept 30psi of air in the front tires, and 25psi in the rear tires. I will lower this the next time to get a bit more traction – now that I know the tires are sealed, and are not losing pressure.
Video… I should have a teaser up by the end of this week. Knowing me – I will go home tonight, and spend until 2AM editing. This will be the first in a series of “teaser” videos – leading up to the grand finale video of 2004.
Shouts out’ to the following: Christine, James, Seanmonkey, Igg, Johndog, Andrew & Sabrina, The Jackson’s (Stan Sr., Stan Jr., Steve, Sarah), Steve B. (my competition), The techs @ Town Fair Tire, Slime.com, and everyone else who helped make this possible. – Kris
Victory donuts after the last timed run!