My car had some unfortunate mechanical problems, so I was unable to compete.  So I took the time to try my hand at some photography.  Here are some of my favorite photos from the day.  The full photo set is available on Picasa

Andrew and Andy went to NORA’s season opener at Geauga Lake this past Sunday. Despite issues with the region’s timing software and a pretty sizable delay, the guys managed to get 4 runs each and got some footage with Andy’s new video camera. 2 weeks til the NWOR season opener at Chrysler! Links below for 2 of Andrew’s runs.

Andrew’s second run…whoops!

Andrew’s third run

Toledo FSAE 2012

There was much more to the show, and it was a nice mix of motorsport.  From Sprint cars, boasting nearly 700hp engines, wings, and specially engineered chassis

Sprint Car

To some twin engine vintage dragsters.  Nothing like 16 cylinders, and 12 carbs to get the blood pumping!

Twin engine vintage dragster

Check out the rest in the gallery below!

got the engine back in the car today.  big thanks to Carmen for the hand in putting it in.

engine installed

Might as well post up a few other fun things, like Nick welding up my thermostat housing

NICK! WELDING!

sheet metal work

sheet metal work!

Rust and 30 year old brakes were defiantly a problem.

restored the caliper and reloaded it with some porter field R-4s pads.

Installed and looking good!

Old Hood

What do you do with a beat up, old carbon fiber hood?  Recycle it!  It’s fairly easy to gather the tools needed.  All you need is some cardboard to make a template, knife, something to cut the carbon (I used a high speed air cutting tool), a measuring tape, and a brain.

Start by creating a template out of cardboard, get it perfect, sometimes this involves adding material back onto the template.

Template

Then place the template on the piece of carbon.  While it looks like this is just slapped in the middle, I placed it so it would use the ridges in the existing hood.  S13 hoods work pretty well as they are mostly flat.

Template on Hood

Cut it out! be careful not to harm the “good” side of the carbon, aka the inside of the template.

Old hood

Successfully ruined!

Panel

Here is the cut and sanded panel.  The next step is to add your attachment method.  I chose to use Dzus fasteners.

Installed Panel

Here is the final product.  I wanted a divider separating the driving compartment and trunk since there will be no back seat.  Hopefully this will cut down on noise, and I think it has a cool look!

on the lift!

Dropped the rear end out of the car as well.  In place of the stock rear end will go a GTS rear end, complete with disk brakes, LSD, and 4.77 ring.  This should wake the engine up a bit, and make the car better on the track.

old rear end

Out with the old! In with the new.  Ditch the drum brakes.

Poly

Lots of poly for the car!  Thanks to the press, the old bushings are coming out fairly quickly.

Thats all for now!  Hopefully more to come soon.

The second car out was a 1963 e-type.  This is the highly sought after “serries 1″ e-type, with glass covered headlights.  It has an amazing dash, something not seen on many modern cars.  This one is complete with Nardi wood steering wheel.  Nothing like grippin’ grain while switchin’ lanes!

e-type interior

Step one of the exercise was to fuel up the beast.  In preparation for the longer storage time of winter, its important to fill the tanks, and try to stabilize the fuel as much as possible to keep the carbs alive for the following season.  This of course required the obligatory ”gas station shot”.

e-type gas station

Soon Terry and I set off on our drive.  The country roads of northwest ohio arent the best when it comes to fun, but we were both enjoying ourselves.

Terry and Jason

Here is a video of the e-type on the on-ramp.  Such a great sound!!!

Thats all for today!  A great break from what I thought was going to be the winter blues.  Now I have some inspiration to keep me going when the snow starts flying.

Amazing Profile

After talking with the builder & owner, this was no ordinary hot rod.  This was a complete custom job, with the car perched on adjustable coilovers.  Yes, you read correctly, coilovers.  This is the static ride height of the car.  The best part, the owner drove it here from his shop.  The owner was a true artist, and when asked about why certain things were built the way they were he simply replied “Because I felt like doing it that way”  To me, this is the best and most pure form of automotive creation and modification.

Stance!

The car speaks for itself, so I’m going to let the photos do the rest of the talking.