20v Chump Car?!

[Tony Hoffman]

Well, I guess I might as well pipe in. First of all, I still miss Montana
more than I can tell you :(

Second, I'm involved slightly [ ;-) ] with the 24hrs of Lemons crew, so I
have some practical advise for you.
I don't see any reason not to enter the car, if that's what you are looking
for and think it will be fun. Plan on spending a good bit of time going
over the roll cage rules of both series, if you build one. That is the
number one thing cars fail for. Second, make sure you have very good water
and oil cooling. I'd suspect the factory stuff is up to the task for water,
but the oil cooler needs to be significantly increased in size. Long
running plus super high oil temps equals water like viscosity and spun rod
bearings/blown engine. Seen it plenty out there.

I wouldn't spend a bunch of time/$$ on making the car faster, faster has
never won any Lemons I've been at (about 8 so far). Generally the first
cars to break, in fact. A bone stock 4000Q (stripped of course) finished
5th overall at the last one here in Houston. Never missed a beat, ran the
stock 18.5 gal so they had 3+ hr stints. The other thing to keep in mind is
clean running. You get flagged, you get penalized. Enough of them and you
are on the trailer for the rest of the event. Not fun at all :(

It's the better part of $5000 to get to your first race, by my rough
estimates. This includes the safety equip on the car, your suits (generally
four drivers) etc. And, that's being quite conservative, and figuring it's
in your town. However, after the first big hit, it's not too bad. You and
the group of guys just have to decide if the bang for the buck is worth it.
And, also think along the lines of you may get 2 hrs of running in and
break, no more racing that event. It happens (sometimes quicker than that).
But, also think that with a couple of events you will have the car pretty
well sorted, and know what spares you need to bring along. The guys that do
it over and over have a lot of fun, that's for sure.

If you do go ahead with it, definately post some updates and pics. I love
to see Audi's raced, no matter the shape/series. If I could afford it, I'd
build a car for it here. We have Lemons in Houston, and Chump car just
about an hour away.

Tony


On Fri, Nov 16, 2012 at 2:56 PM, John Cassidy <qforsail at yahoo.com> wrote:

> So this may be considered sacrilege.  I have a bone stock '91 200q that
> has been residing in the garage for a couple years with maddening
> electrical issues not at all uncommon with the type. After spending way too
> many hours and far too much money chasing these gremlins, I've surrendered.
>  The car has 250kmi, and runs, rides, and shifts nicely.
>
> I met my best friends cousin a little while back, and he's all agog about
> this chump car racing. Check out www.Chumpcar.com<http://www.chumpcar.com/> It's an endurance series designed for newbies on a budget.  The car cannot
> have a market value over $500, and can have no performance modifications.
>  The nearest race is a 24 hour even in Spokane next summer.
>
> Over a few beers, a couple gear head buddies and have come to the
> conclusion that entering the 24 hour would be a fitting end to the '91.
>  Other than the clutch and a timing belt that's would require replacing, I
> think it would have a good chance of finishing.  If we had an extra set of
> strut assemblies, we could replace a failed wheel bearing or blown strut
> cartridge fairly quickly. Stripped of all the electric motors, glass, and
> luxury bits, it would be significantly lightened.  Last summers race was
> won by a Golf. My friends cousin was in the running with a 280ZX, and they
> routinely hit 130 mph on the straight.
>
> We're still discussing the budget and feasibility.  I have a welder with a
> tubing bender interested for the roll cage.  The rules aren't too far out
> of the realm of possibility.  I have no further interest in getting this
> 20v beast back on the road, and doubt anyone is nuts enough to buy it so
> I'm thinking why the hell not?