As I recall, an '88 - '91 CRX-Si weighed about 1900 pounds in race form. That's one of the reasons it was such an outstanding race car. But the Japanese origami with sheet metal comes with a cost. Thin things flex, and flexing things crack.

This is the rack assembly and rack support subframe. So what you are looking at is the bracket above and in front (to the left) of the aluminum steering rack.

Now notice the lower A arm below the rack. What could that be connected to? Yes, the lower A arm support is one and the same as the steering rack support. That means that when you stand the car on a hard right turn, you might have 1000 pounds force transmitted into the chassis using the same bracket.

Is this a problem for a street car? Not so much unless you are making a habit of bouncing your car off of curbs. Is it a problem for a race car, probably not if you are racing the chassis a couple of times per year.

Is it a problem for an endurance race car that runs a couple of 12 hour races a year? It sure can be!

Why, well that much force flexes things. And if you flex something enough it cracks.

And when the bracket cracks, the lower A arm mount starts moving. And when it starts moving, camber changes, toe in changes mid turns and your razor sharp steering starts going away.

Here's my Frankenstein rack mount with its many repairs from years of endurance racing. I fixed it and it kept on cracking. See the last crack I found? See the start of a crack at the red arrow?

Ok, lets take a look at the hidden side. That sure wasn't going to last another race. And when it breaks, you are done at best, hurt at worse....

I guess the lesson is when you notice that things change on your race car, you need to investigate what's up before it jumps up and bites you.

This is from Huey, the best most winningest race car I have ever had.

By the way one of these days its coming out of storage after 15 years and I'm taking it vintage racing!

We won that endurance race but that is another story.....

We rented Lemons rides in our Opel Breadvan for a couple of years before Willy and I bought it. When we were renting, its theme was the Vunderbread Van.

We decided it was time to re-theme it and its Ferrari theme was born. So I started searching Breadvan images and I found this slot car and the rest was easy.

All the images were hand shot by me using my Cannon S100 and rendered by our local car wrap guy. Here are some of the many shots I've taken.

Everything from the headlights, throttle bodies on the hood, to the side air scoops, to the rear plate was taken from hand held pictures.

The artwork was done by me using powerpoint and microsoft paint.

If I say so, it came out pretty great! Pretty amazing considering that all this detail came from hand shot pictures of a 4" slot car!

Some race teams end with a bang (usually into or under the car) and some end with a whimper. The story of our team ended with a whimper.

Willy and I had been co-owning the Breadvan and lemons racing for 5 years and renting rides for 2 years prior. We had a good run with two class wins. But his interests were evolving from racing to jeep off-roading and my time demands were limiting my availability. As such by 2018 we were down to 1 race a year.

Meanwhile, we were starting run into a reliability rough patch. In our summer 24 hour Joliet race of 2017, we cracked a head at about 10 hours and it wasn't cheap to build or fast to build a new (better) engine.

So we did a Midwest Council weekend to make sure the car worked. Then in October '18 we headed off to the Lemons races at Gingerman.

The weekend started ok with a bright Friday morning test day. Steve started and did some laps. Smiles all about, new engine much better. Then Willy and then my turn. Well, when my turn came around, I got in and did a total of 1 lap when the car went completely dead. It would turn over but did not fire.

We got towed in and it was a head scratcher because nothing was wrong but the lack of ignition. Finally we pulled the distributor cap and noted the rotor was not rotating. The reason was that the roll pin that tied it to the gear broke. Fortunately, the shop at the track had one so we were back in business.

Well another round of drivers rotate through the car and about the time I am going to go out the car comes in and this time the clutch cable fails.

Its one of those failures where the cable frayed inside the sheath and we had never new it was going till it failed. So we dispatch a crew member into South Haven and find a Mustang clutch cable at a car parts store.

Granted, its not adjustable, and it has a lead slug end instead of a yoke, but its a cable. So my cousin and master fabricator Anthony and I skulch through my took box and come up with a plan.

This is what we came up with,

1. We took a 19mm socket and slit the drive end. The slug fit perfectly in the 3/8" drive hole.
2. we welded a washer to the other end and theaded a bolt and locking nut through it to hold the yoke on.
3. We assembled it and used safety wire to make sure nothing came apart.

As far as I know this is still being used as the cable today.

So Saturday's start happens and Steve goes out to do laps. We are doing decent and Tony and Willy sit outside while Janet and I watch in the van.

Unfortunately about the time Willy is supposed to go out, we don't see the car any more. Shortly it comes in on the hook.
The reason is one of our ball joints has sheared because Rockauto sent us moog ball joints with the wrong taper and the joint did not sit in the knuckle correctly. Given the leaf spring attaches through the lower ball joint, instant low rider.

Tony is called into action and welds up a temporary fix to we can get it on the trailer.

Well, after the long ride home and no racing the following year, Willy and I agreed that this was more work than fun and liquidated the team.

My teams last whimper for me was a race weekend of 3 failures and one lap on the track. It was fun while it lasted but time to move on.

The first time I went endurance racing was 1986 Nelson 24 hour. Three of us built a VW Rabbit, and we had about 6 racing buddies entered as co-drivers. The amazing thing was we won our class in our first endurance race. I decided then and there I was doing a lot more endurance races. Over the next 35 years there's been a bunch of teams I've either owned, co-owned, or rented rides on.

Back in about 2006 I bought the Type R that is my present race car with my friend Dave. Dave went to my high school and was about 5 years behind me. He grew up 4 blocks from my house and I met him at the race track where we were both running CRX's in ITA. Here's me in Huey 07 and Dave back in the day.

One thing led to another and I mentioned he might enjoy a Nelson 24 race I was renting a ride in and why yes he did. We finished second in class but that is another story.

After the race I mentioned to him that we could have a lot more fun if we split a car and that led us to our Type R.

Off it went to my buddie's shop to get converted to endurance specs.

I believe we had run 5 races in the car over 2 1/2 years. By that point we had no wins and the partnership was starting to wane. It wasn't due to problems but Dave is an intense guy and at three years his focus was moving to new adventures. There was always something unexpected happening that prevented a class win (example; the oil pressure gauge fitting breaking off the block). So it was 2009 and it turned out the 12 hour at Summit Point would be our last big race as a team.

This race weekend didn't start out great with something going wrong in the transmission. So we had 0ne teammate spent what was supposed to be our testing day driving to cross country to borrow a gearbox while the rest of us pulled the box apart.

Here's co-driver Mark tearing down the box. Mark later would drive to a SCCA national championship in his own Integra.

The race itself was a blur like most. If you want to exhaust yourself, just be team owner, crew chief, head mechanic, strategist, fueler and co driver. Here was one of our stops.

This was one of Dave's Miata racing buddies who pitted next to us. The guy was a lot of fun and a hard core racer. He also was undergoing leukemia treatments. I believe he passed within a year of the race. Its a reminder to do it while you can,.....

There was the obligatory torrential thunderstorm. We had awesome rain tires, it was one of our unfair advantages. (good fuel dump cans was another).

The storm was over and they let us mount the dry tires.

About time to go back out. By the way, the car we rented four years before is two cars behind us.

Home base for the race....

Its midnight and guess what, the Type R finally won! No drama, no urgent repairs, Dave drove it to the finish!

Who is coming home with a trophy, Us Guys!

Racing is a fickle Goddess. She made us wait but boy when it finally came the win was sweet!

Dave and I talked and I bought him out. The Type R became my sprint race car that's that I race today. Two years later I started my Breadvan adventure but that is another story!

What google drive served up today

1. Huey. My '88 ex-Firehawk endurance racing '88 Honda CRX-Si. I bought this after it was retired from the series in '94. I also actually rented a ride in it in '92 at Watkins Glen. This car was the best car I've raced and won a lot of races. I haven't seen it for 18 years, its stored by me with a friend. Almost time to pull it out and get it back on the track!

2, Louie, Team co-car with Huey. I rented a ride at Road America Firehawk in '92. The Si was supposed to obsolete the CRX on the track but it never worked out that way. This car was rode hard and used up. ended up on its roof at Sebring.

3. The lemons breadvan. Best endurance car I ever owned. Opel GT with pinto motor, mustang transmission, bmw brakes, and Alfa rear axle. If I had to pick a car for a 50 hour race, this would be it. Sold it right before Covid, It now lives in Michigan.
   

Today's Onedrive activity suggests this was one of the last days of the original Oppositelock. As I recall it was supposed to be dead on Monday so here's some of the stuff I saved back to my PC on the Sunday before.

One of my snarky last posts....

My Avatar at that time

My cousin Anthony shows that you can use a sawsall to come up with an easier way to change the heater blend door on a Silverado My last race of my Citation X-11, proving that pigs can fly (but they don't stop or turn very well) However an X-11 made a very satisfactory tow vehicle for 8 years. A post about Comic Ozzie's site. He's got 25 years of race pictures posted here, and if you attended a pro race or did Ice Races in the upper midwest he probably has it here. Our Ice Racing Rabbit John Menard's Shelby Our Opel GT Breadvan after its sale. RacinBob with our SAAB 99 Ice Racer rocking the white tennis shoe look... One of my favorite shots taken of an old repair shop that dates back to the Model T being torn down in Bloomington Wisconsin. The picture from one of my last original OPPO posts "10 seconds before I almost got killed". It told the story of me towing at about 70 mph when a Hyundai pulled out in front of me at the cross over in the picture at about 45 mph and leisurely accelerated in front of me with me being blocked into the right lane. I passed him with trailer on the shoulder. My Uplander packed for a 24 hour Lemons race. Me driving the Breadvan at Blackhawk Cousin Anthony's late great Camry. It died in the last year due to a dropped valve seat at 300,000 miles. Don't cry for it, he got about $3500 scrap value for it including the air bags he sold off of it! The earliest known competition picture for RacinBob. I am driving a icekhana in a '71 V8 Maverick, perhaps the worst icekhana car ever built having the directional stability of as claw hammer.

RacinBob's luck expired today. Known for his scornful attitude for brake maintenance, he was last seen going through his collection of brake pads dating back to the 90's looking for a set that had one more race in them. Bob, always the optimist, when asked when he was going to change his fuel cell bladder (which dated back the the George Bush 41 administration) Bob always had a cheerful answer of "next year".

He leaves behind RacinJanet and a "hair trigger" stopwatch that he never got around to replacing for her. She is now wondering how to dispose of his 16 trombones.

RacinBob leaves behind a collection of hand tools that dates back to the Nixon administration. Tools that reflects the least expensive tools available for that time. RacinBob will be missed by his many friends at Harbor Freight.

In leu of a celebration of life event, RacinJanet will be holding an "All You Can Carry" garage sale at a later date.

My great grandfather Pierre was born in Luxembourg in 1871 in a small town that his family had lived in according to church records from 1600. He emigrated to the US as the youngest boy in the family with the assistance of his brothers who were 10 years older and had established plant nursery businesses in Chicago who offered to pay for his medical education in about 1890.

He did not enjoy Chicago and moved to Bancroft Iowa where the Luxembourger Mayor was looking for a "German" Doctor.

Here's Pierre (left) with his cousin 1908

His Model T

Him in '52

and a professional photo.

Pierre inspected the newborn RacinBob in '56. And I believe my grandfather at the age of 14 drove his Model T the 300 miles to Chicago to visit the family.

This picture is from the first race of 2021 taken a year ago at Blackhawk farms outside of Beloit Wi. Same place I showed up for my drivers school with a showroom stock VW Rabbit that was also my street car in April of 1984.

It felt kind of funny missing that first race of the season this year. Unfortunately RacinDad passed away this Spring at the well lived age of 91 so I've been busy with other priorities. All is good.

But this is a reminder; Like Ferris Bueller says "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it"

I was pleased to share the track with him.

RacinBob

Me at age 33 and at peak auto ownership in 1989.

I was about to be married, and I was working as an engineer. We were buying a house and I didn't have the storage. So this is the Alfa part of my fleet that included an '84 Omni GLH, a '80 Rabbit race car, and a '75 Alfa Alfetta Sedan, a '69 Alfa Berlina Sedan and a '74 Alfa Spider.

In two years all except the Spider would be sold. The only one I didn't regret selling was the GLH. It was worn out at only 6 years and 90,000 miles of age.

2006 or newer Civic SI

@AestheticsInMotion what is your heating system?

@Snakesm13 He has a total of 12 cars on his website. Must be some sort of low level flipper.......

@Bandit said in RIP Cruze (?):

pick up some used replacement parts from car-part.com and fix it for cheap. No need to buy new parts when used OEM stuff should be readily available.

I agree. Get a used bumper skin, and fender in the same color and pry the headlight back into alignment and consider it fixed. Heck with the insurance money and used parts you might even make money,.....

@BritsnSwedes-was-MINIGTI Absolutely, and if you looked across the street you saw Davenport Central high school!

@Krusty-Walnut Yep. the 04 team driver must be gutted as he had it won but looked to me he tried to draft the LMP3 car. Maybe the LMP3 car lifted to let him by or maybe he just miss-timed the draft but it looked to me he had to lift to pass and that was it.....

@Shop-Teacher 4 Hours at 75 mph. I 90 start to finish. I can do that drive in my sleep.

Lot of truck for $6500... LINK

@Shop-Teacher Your south of Racine correct? If so, its about a 3 and 1/2 hour drive at 75 or so. You get off at the West Salem Wisconsin exit. I haven't run one in 20+ year but I assume they will plow a 1+ mile course and do 4 to 5 runs a day. Then once the runs are done they go to a local bar for trophies or if you are so inclined, its probably ok to stay and run laps.

@Shop-Teacher Keep an eye on the Facebook page, if the ice is good in two weeks, they will probably run then too.