Lisa Devlin's Racing Diary

The Old and the New

by Lisa Devlin

Status:
It's gone!!!!

As of last Saturday, the RX7 has a new home. She went to a really nice guy named Don, who is going to turn her into an ITA car. It was so cool when I handed her over. I backed her out of the garage (which is a pain), got out and gestured towards the driver's seat. He hesitated at first, then as soon as he got in, he broke out in this big old ear to ear grin.

Her next outing will be at the SF Region SCCA driver's school, where Don and his brother plan to share the driving duties. If you haven't yet checked out the last pictures of the car that I scanned in about a month ago, they're up at the Thunder Valley Racing site.

Remember I mentioned we had an RX7 that we'd never seen? Well, we've seen it now. This is the car that "runs but won't pass smog" that Ted traded for a three wheeler about a year ago. Saturday as soon as the taillights of the race car trailer were gone, Ted and I were off to Wheatland to pick up the unknown RX7.

It was about a 3 1/2 hour drive each way, but we weren't disappointed. The brakes are shot and the interior needs some cleaning, but the sheet metal is good, and it runs and doesn't smoke. So now we have two running RX7's to sell... as is... we'll deliver in the Bay Area...

And that leaves the DSR... We officially started it on Labor Day, complete with a video camera to video tape the process. We have the outline of what we're going to do and Ted's sister (who does professional video and editing) gave us some ideas on how to get TV interest and subsequently sponsors. So I should be working on that instead of writing this, but what the heck...

First thing to do is build the frame. It's made of 4130 chrome moly tubing of various sizes. Frame building starts with the bulkheads, which Ted made last year. The bulkheads are clamped to the table and aligned down the center and let the fun begin.

From there it's kind of fill in the blanks with tubes. I've been cutting and fitting, while Ted's been welding and directing. I had been cutting and fitting faster than Ted was welding until we got to the round tubing.

What a pain in the butt! Try to fit a smaller round tube to a larger round tube at an angle into a corner. Of course, the first one takes forever, and then when I get to the second one, I've got it down and then I'm done with that configuration and I have to figure out the next set of tubes.

While I'm swearing at round tubes, Ted has caught up on welding tubes, so he's started welding on all the suspension and mounting brackets. You might remember all these pieces that I made this past year - all that boring and repetitive work I've been doing. But it is starting to look like a car!

And you know things are really getting serious now that I have a lunch bet with Bob. Bob is the guy who designed the chassis and he hangs out at the shop with us on Tuesdays. Bob makes lunch bets with everyone about getting their car on the track. So my bet with Bob is that I'll be testing my car at driver's school next February. I think this is easy, but Bob doesn't make bets he might lose, so we'll see... I don't think he understands how motivated I am.

So that's what's been happening. I'll keep you informed as more interesting things happen. I even think I got Ted to let me race his car in Las Vegas in November...

To send a letter to Lisa, email to devlin@thunval.com

Check out the Distant Thunder archives for previous entries from Lisa Devlin's racing diary