Roll Cage has Arrived

Two days after I placed an order for a new bolt-in cage from Kirk Racing, I found a user Autopower 6-point cage on Craigslist. The only problem - it was in Philadelphia. After a briefly considering making a road trip to Philly with Patrick, we concluded that shipping it was the best route. As luck would have it, the seller, Kyle, was more than willing to help us figure out how to get the cage freighted down.

Kirk Racing had not started building our cage yet, so I canceled the order. I contacted Freightquote.com and was quoted $130 to ship. With that, the total cost was still considerably cheaper than the new one from Kirk. Again, Kyle was extremely helpful on his end in getting the cage strapped to a pallet and prepared for shipment from the loading dock at his company. Freightquote.com made sure I had everything I needed to make the shipment go. Patrick assured me that we could have the pallet delivered to the loading dock at his office. With that, we were all set. The cage was picked up on Monday afternoon and delivered to us on Tuesday afternoon.

Here's Patrick with the cage.

MRS2 Goes to the Track

MRS2 went for her initial shakedown at VIR with Audi Club on November 14th and 15th. Overall, it was a good first outing, but we did learn a few things.

First, the lower half of the radiator is clogged, so I could only run her for 15 minutes before she would boil over. We will install a new radiator before we track again.

Second, the brake bias is way too far forward - especially on a slippery track when you simply cannot transfer much weight forward under braking. (I learned this the hard way by having a brief encounter with the tire wall at turn 4 - no real damage done.) Of course, running race pads on the front and street pads on the back wasn't the best idea, but we have an issue to work out nonetheless.

Third, LeMons cars attract a lot of attention at driving schools. I was stunned how many people stopped by to chat with me about my $400 MR2. "Are you preparing that for LeMons?", I was asked time and again. It is very amusing to take a $400 car to an event that features many $100k cars, and have no many people clamor to see your clunker.

Fourth, the car handles well. It is really nicely balanced. Of course, that's why we sought a mid-engine car, but I was quite pleased. We installed the tiny factory rear sway bar and cut off the springs, but otherwise, the suspension is stock. I had read that the handling can be twitchy, but I did not experience that at all. Perhaps it is all relative. I normally drive a Mini Cooper S with a huge rear sway bar. Compared to the Mini, the MR2 seemed docile.

Fifth, 112 bhp ain't much. The little motor sounds good and it likes to rev, but I was running the climbing esses flat out with no issues. Granted, I was running Toyo r-compounds, but still. My Mini would eat this little car alive on the straights. What the heck. It's a LeMon. It is a blast to drive, and LeMon courses are always tight and low-speed. I think this will be a good Lemons starter car.

Before we track again, we will install the rollcage, racing seat, harnesses, a new radiator, and cockpit adjustable proportioning valve (bypassing the factory one). We'll also prepare it with the tires and pads that we intend to race. We are currently targeting March with Track Daze as our final shakedown run before the April Chumpcar race.