February 2002

Take Junkyard Wars, combine it with Battle Bots, and what do you get? Ultimate Machine Combat! Applications are now being accepted for the new show - should be incredible!

Yasu Tanaka has too much talent and time - check out his incredible paper cars. Kind of a new-fangled origami I guess. Downloadable!

At the end of January I had my Power Mechanics students build and race CO2 Dragsters. Some of the student's designs turned out really well, and there was great competition, catastrophic failures, and much fun! CO2 Racing.com

The Sinister Sentra Project

Well, I bit the bullet.

I wanted a wider set of wheels for this year, and did some researching. I couldn't find any used 13x6 or wider wheels for really cheap, and the thought of widening wheels by parting them on a lathe and re-welding them, although intriguing, was not a cost-effective use of my time.

I broke down and ordered a set of 13x7 "Light Weight" Circle Track Wheels from Pete Paulsen's out of California. $37US a piece, they weigh only 14.5 pounds and could be had with 5" backspacing (although 5.5" would have been ideal).

CACC rules require that in Super Stock there be no exposed tire tread as viewed from above (that is, tires have be under the fender). I figure that these rims will stick past the fender by 3/8". If I add another degree of negative camber (making -2°), I should be able to get the tires under and make the rules.

The next dilemma was what size tire to run next year. Since I want to run Toyo's, my choices are limited: 185/60R13 or 205/60R13.

The 205's are 0.6" wider in tread surface, but are 0.9" taller. I discussed this long and hard about this with many of my racing buddies, and have decided to run 185/60R13's for a number of reasons:

They are super cheap (cheapest R tire on the market)

They will be very square on a 7" rim, improving responsiveness

They will improve acceleration because of their reduced height

They are not significantly narrower in tread

They are lighter

They will heat up to temperature quicker

So by next month, I might even have all of this stacked up in my liming room, ready to go for the first race in March!

CACC Race Schedule: SoloMotorsports.com

OASC Race Schedule: Autocross Outlaws