BEAVERUN ONE LAP TRACK EVENT
5 April 2008
It was a wet rainy day on the trip to the BeaveRun 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. 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.
However 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 Yenko Stinger 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.
Rick