BEAVERUN ONE LAP TRACK EVENT

5 April 2008

Well folks,
It was a wet rainy day on the trip to the Beverun Motorsports track which is just North of Pittsburgh, PA.
This was a two day school for the participants of the Car & Driver One Lap of America deal.
It was open to the public and I had a credit from last fall so this provided the perfect opportunity to knock the rust of me and see how the changes I made to the car worked. We drove up Friday and ran Saturday only as I did not want to run both days.

Spring ain't sprung in PA yet! It was cold and damp but the more the day wore on the better it got. The track was very wet with lots of water running across it but the ground crew went out with brooms and a tractor mounted blower and got it in fair shape.

The first thing I wanted to see was if the carb rotators worked. I'm here to say VERY well! The improved feel of the linkage was noticeable and being able to hit turns nine and ten with no cut out was great!
Also I had increased the stiffness of the rear bar slightly. I don't know if that did anything or not.
Last fall when I ran the Beaver my brakes were fading after several hard laps, especially coming in to turn ten and turn one after the main straight.
I installed some Carbotec racing linings, increased the wheel cylinder size and added a prop valve to the rear wheels. The brakes are much better and so far have proved to be stable.
How ever we had a problem. During my third run it ate the fan belt. I have had no problems in this area until now. I changed the belt in the pits and went back out. (Note to self, do not use strong wire tie to hold spare belt in engine compartment, especially if you do not carry a sharp knife!)
The second belt didn't last very long either so I came in to the paddock. I had one belt left. We went out for the fourth run (there were five track times) and things went okay....then it ate my last belt. At this point I knew something was wrong. After some investigation and while unwinding some belt chunks from the blower I noticed the blower was hitting the bottom of the shroud! BINGO! The blower bearing shaft had wobbled loose and was climbing out of the top cover. I have never had that happen on any Corvair. After we got home today (Sunday) and I got it apart and I could see it had come out about half an inch. Also I could see what appeared to be red Loctite on the shaft. I don't believe that is the correct Loctite for a press fit. I don't remember where I got the bearing and cover but it was together.
Other than that the car ran strong but developed a clicky lifter. I'll check that too and be ready to haul down to Talladega GP.

Oh, almost forgot. The Corvair was a big hit with all the One Lappers! These guys are serious car guys! I got lots of questions, mainly revolving around if it was a real one or not. I had the oldest car there too.
We were very comfortable amongst all the fancy fast cars like Ferraris, Porches, BMW's, an Ariel, Caddy GTS, Cobra GT replica...etc., also met Brock Yates JR.