Bluega on the 2014 Great Race - 10 States, 9 Days, 2,100 miles.
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My 1950 Commodore 6, taken from not running and rusting to pieces to 2500-mile trekker in 4 or so months. Greatrace.com
This is a chronicle of the Great Race we run, my navigator and I, as well as my father and his (different car). I will do my best to update every day, but please give me some leeway if it skips- both our cars are pretty much untested.
So, without further ado.
Day -1:
Today was the journey from NY to ME. As the '32 Buick my father's running is truly an antique it couldn't make the trip by itself in reasonable time, so it got thrown on a trailer and Bluega was left to make it on its own.
All went well enough, the clutch hasn't given up yet, there's no fire pouring out, etc, etc.
Two moments of minor panic: One, for about half a second the entire electrical system vanished. No lights, radio, ignition, anything. It occurred while fiddling with the radio, so I'm hoping it was a fluke. Unless it happens again I can't do much. Two, we nearly ran dry of gas. Knowing the car was supposed to carry 20 gallons, the first top-off at "E" on the gauge took 15.5 gallons, so the second time I decided to push it a little further into the gauge. Big mistake, it started sputtering as the bowl ran dry. By coasting momentarily and slowing some we managed (with three attempted stalls) to get to a gas station. Despite just barely being further down the gauge this time it took nearly 18 gallons. Definitely cutting the run limit off at the E mark.
Tomorrow we go through tech at 8AM. From there the rest of the day will be tweaking, figuring out what got forgotten, and calibrating the race speedo. Friday is a sort of 4-hour test run and official reception, Saturday is the start.
A list of the cities is here.
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Comments
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Awesome trip. I envy you and your Dad.
Looking forward to the daily updates.
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Again, I hope you are carrying the H-E-T Roster with you! Hudson people can be a ready source of hard to find parts, and surely there will be many of them living along your route.
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Good luck - you're going to need it fighting all that New England tourist traffic!!!!! I used to live about 20 miles north of Ogunquit in Kennebunk - U S 1 up thru there is a big long parking lot from Kittery to Portland in the summer months.
Local area trivia - legend says Ogunquit got it's name when a local indian shot at a moose and his musket misfired. He threw it on the ground saying "Oh gun quit!!!" Well, that's the local legend. LOL
Safe run to you and your dad.
Hudsonly,
Alex Burr
Memphis, TN
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Again, I hope you are carrying the H-E-T Roster with you! Hudson people can be a ready source of hard to find parts, and surely there will be many of them living along your route.
John Forkner, HET membership chair
Provided a Roster for use during race. The driver is a new member who had yet to receive this resource. He also knows the symbology that indicates HETers willing to assist others.
Safe travels.
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Day 0:Thanks all, we do have the roster with us. With luck we won't need it. It was registration and tech today, no problems there. My navigator and I headed out to get stuff we needed, forgot, didn't know we needed (like a dancing hula girl!)
Then the feared clutch troubles started. But not for us! The Buick was trailered here and when they went to load it onto the trailer to go return the truck and trailer to the local Uhaul, the clutch failed open. Then it turned out it wasn't the clutch. The driver's side axle sheared through. As of now they have another axle on its way overnight from MI to another racer's shop in CT. The current plan is to get it down to the shop tomorrow mucho early and get it ready for the axle tomorrow to get it back in and back here in ME before the official start at 10AM on Saturday. The car needs to go across the start line, one way or another, but if they can get it swapped and drive across they won't lose the first day of the race.For us, today went better. The speedo calibration went without a hitch, but I played with the timing again. The hotter daytime driving wasn't playing nice with the timing I had set, and had to be retarded a touch. The exhaust leak opened up slightly again, so that will have to be tightened tomorrow when it's touchable. There were some charging issues too, but some very odd ones. The regulator was putting out excess voltage, causing havoc with the gauges and popping the circuit breaker when the headlights were turned on. After playing with the rheostat that's melted and pretty broken, the dash lights went out but the voltage issue stopped. To be on the safe side, we changed the voltage regulator to a new spare (which happened to be lacking the terminal to trigger the idiot light, so no idiots allowed. Oh wait, guess we have to give it up!), but the voltage just isn't really up to snuff... It's not dying, but it's running at only 6.1-6.3 volts at the battery. Playing with the regulator isn't doing anything, the voltage/field coil isn't vibrating on either regulator, old or new... So it seems like the generator may not be 100%. I had to clean and work on the starter, I never did anything on the generator.Tomorrow is the Trophy Run, the sort of test run. The low throttle control is lacking, and on the calibration run today I found it really difficult to keep steady speed. Time-wise we were consistent though, so... It's kinda a play-it-by-ear until we have real stages to test.My navigator Nick has a lot of pictures, but he's having trouble processing them right now. At some point we'll try to get that working so we have a good set of images.1 -
Glad to hear you are ok and ready to race. Good Luck to Dad with the axle swap. Will be watching you via Great Race too.
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FYI
I recall placing a pc of Emory cloth against the generator armature for a few revolutions while idling (with the band removed) sometimes would promote charging....
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Sounds like we need a Hudsonite who has a spare generator, and who lives on your route, to toss his "spare" through your open window as you drive by!
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Day 1 (Quick because the internet here isn't great and I lost the long post)The charging system issue has turned out to be a tail-light wiring issue. They are very dim and trip the breaker as soon as the lights are turned on. If we have time we'll try to fix it, but we don't run at night so it's not a major concern right now.Today's test runs went well, though we're certainly rusty. With the exception of one max 2:00 penalty leg, we had about 0:30 of error. Pretty good for the first TSD we've done since 2012. Tomorrow we run for real.The Buick is out. The axle they got in CT was the wrong one and a welded axle failed almost immediately. They're heading home...To get another car. We, nor they, know whether it will be the '61 Imperial Convertible they ran in the past or the '72 Lotus Elan +2 S130, but they'll meet us in Lowell. I'll try to write more tomorrow, but we need to be leaving the hotel in less than 8 hours and I at least haven't gotten much sleep recently.1
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Awful sorry to hear about the Buick. What a frustration for your father. You are now left, alone, to carry the banner for your family!
I hope some Hudsonites who live along the route, will learn of your participation in the GreatRace, and some out to cheer you on. Maybe, if you sense some part is about to fail, they can bring a "spare" along with them!
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First off, sorry for last night. We were up too late for reasons I shall explain. So:Day 2 - Official Start, Ogunquit to Lowell:This one won't be hugely detailed since it was a day ago and trust me, a day in this sport feels like a few.The start was on the beach parking in Ogunquit, all the cars lined up for an announced start at 10AM. We were supposed to leave every 30 seconds, or thereabouts. Unfortunately they took a while... we left over 20 minutes late. From there we had to head to the timed start, hidden on a side road. Because of the slow main start we ended up leaving late! We managed to make some time up, but it wasn't much to speak of. That leg we ended up 0:49 late, but it reset and we carried on. It wasn't a great day, but our total time was less than the previous day's trophy run, which was half the time. It was an improvement!When we rolled into the overnight stop in Lowell, the white Imperial was waiting for us! Then we noticed it's rear wheels were parked on the curb, uh-oh... Turns out they had headed home with the speedster, gotten the Imperial out, fluids changed, inspected, and drove it all the way to Lowell, no problems. Then, driving down the very road we would show on, the center bearing carrier had failed. While Dave the navi went to get a new bearing, I noticed the bearing hadn't failed as they had thought, but the metal support instead. After a lot of shuffling around, the car ended up at the wrong hotel, but the one that had the Coker semi and Hal Everett, and they got the driveshaft out and welded up the center bearing support. We had the tools and the hi-lift jack (when you stack some wood blocks on it, anyway) so we followed them (headlights clicking away) and helped out. They should be in it for sure tomorrow!There was a Great Race first, as well- four Aces (zero-second error) in a row! A perfect Ace day! Congrats to the Jasons!Day 3 - Lowell to Poughkeepsie:An early start today- the teams entering their home states start first, so we were number 7. While getting a quick breakfast, Austin Hardy, the driver of the '53 Hornet, came up to me and said "Is this you guys?" while holding his phone. On it, an image from the Great Race site:
Now, the previous day involved testing the handling limits. What we discovered is that 25MPH is about the best we can do through a 90-degree corner. What my navigator failed to tell me before this corner is that it wasn't a 90, it was sharper. As it happened it also had a rise... As we wallowed through it sideways, there was a distinct "graunch" and we thought maybe the wheel or tire had hit the road or fender. As soon as Austin showed me that I started laughing and said "Now I know what scraped!" The bump stomps front and rear are missing on that side, and the tire pressures are too low (upping them tomorrow), and coupled with the rise in the road right there I managed to lean her too far.Today we ran though VT towards Bennington for lunch. What that meant was a lot of hills. After having re-set the timing yesterday we had the power we needed... Or so I thought. The rally organizers had played nice for the old buckboard cars, Model T's and such. Every time we reached a large hill they'd have us drop down from 40 to 35 until we crested it. For those old wagons it was perfect! For us... We hit a serious gearing deficit. I could hold 40 up the hills in 3rd. I couldn't hold 35, and even if I could downshift to 2nd (I cant without nearly stopping), I can barely run 35 in 2nd without valves giving up. We hadn't yet figured out how to adjust the timed areas, so normally we'd just slowly lose speed up the hill and time it until we crested and sped up, but on a few occasions I had to clutch in with the accelerator at the floor and slam it into 2nd to prevent stalling! Amazing the clutch hasn't just said "NOPE" yet...For the last leg of our morning run, we had to run up Vermont Rt. 9 at 40 MPH, slowing to various 30-ish speeds. I don't know what even was going on today, but the number of bikers was astronomical, as was their rage and manners! I understand we held them up, but that doesn't mean you can pass on double-yellow blind corners as happened A LOT. At one point two that had been making multiple car banzai passes behind us (all in the oncoming on double yellows) finally took their opportunity to pass, shouting obscenities and the second took both hands off the bars to shoot some unpleasant fowls our way. I won't mention the one that split lanes at 55+ a few inches from the door...At lunch we had a surprise- my mother and a friend, as well as all of my navigator's family came to see us. It was a shame we had to leave quickly, but we only had 30 minutes. Back on route, we headed towards Poughkeepsie. This run wasn't as hilly, so it was a bit easier on the poor transmission. We also found out the Imperial was trying YET AGAIN to give up- the alternator bearings were whining. When they were there they ran to a parts store to get a new one. For a car that was restored less than 10 years ago and has run 4 other Great Races, it sure didn't seem to want to this year.The afternoon stages actually went well, all things considered. Some more family friends met us there, we were the second car in. (The ceremonial finish isn't in a particular order and there's gas stations and such before it that messes up the order.) In the end we got a 0:01, 0:11, 0:19, 0:06. Much improved from our first day, but still no aces. Sure having the Timewise speedo helps, but the unfamiliarity with the car and its comparably worse handling to the old VW means we're not as exact, especially as I learn the car. I drove it less than 100 miles before the race, or maybe just around there. Steady progress upwards though, 68th in the trophy run, 54th on the 1st day. In Parc Fermé the Imperial's alternator was swapped as well. My father's got ablog on the Race page, it details the whole event better, and he's better about taking images if you're looking for some. My navigator's got a lot, but we have very little time to get them off and edited, since he refuses to let me have them without editing. Hopefully afterwards I can dump a lot up here.When we headed towards the hotel the electrical system started complaining again. After thinking just a bit, I had an idea- the only wire I'd been moving a lot recently was the center marque light, every time the hood was opened. Sure enough, the covering was ruined. As I taped that up, lights on (6V is so nice to work on, the voltage is too low to get past your skin resistance unless you're really sweating up) the wire sparked on the hood! So I wrapped that up, both the wire and the hood, and so far the lights seem to be back. We won't know for sure until tomorrow after driving it all day and trying them at the end.Tomorrow we hit East Stroudsburg PA for lunch and Valley Forge for the night. For now, I'm simply leaving this here for your visual enjoyment:
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Thanks for taking the time & energy to keep us updated!!
Good luck & Happy Hudsoning
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I can be pretty bad about it, I know. Some days it's just a flop-into-bed kind of evening.Day 4 - Poughkeepsie, NY to Valley Forge, PA:After a relatively late (in terms of when the official start usually is, not because we were late) start today, we headed off towards Stroudsburg, and ran a good first leg! After that we had some trouble, in the form of a deer, a harvester, and later a damn gauge...In the second leg, coming down a hill with good sight lines, we spotted a deer lolligagging in the center of the road! Since we had plenty of time, I laid into the horn, hoping to get it to move. As we got closer it did start to meander off away, then just as we reached it it turned and decided it had to be in front of us! A little later, we had ended up behind a car that was supposed to be behind us, they were blowing by people, missing some instructions and hitting others in the wrong spot. Between the two our count says we were about 15 seconds behind, so we submitted a time allowance for 10 seconds. Little did we know we actually had a DAMN ACE! Literally threw it away... Damn.Lunch was too short, we had no time to get gas. Unfortunately that would come back to bite us... We knew the gauge lied, but we had to get to the start, so we did what we could, up until we missed a turn and we had to backtrack. We were about 3 minutes out, so I laid the hammer down to get back in place, and with about a minute-thirty left to make up we started up a long hill. A quarter of the way up, boom, no power. Obviously we're out. Cursing our bad luck I hopped out while my navigator held the foot brake and I squeezed the 2 gallon backup I had into the main tank. In the process about 4 cars passed us, so we were now 7+ minute behind!Once again, hammer down. It was at this point we pulled off some daring passes and my navigator said "well I can understand why they made a Hornet, this one moves". We managed to make up about 5 minutes before we hit a timing checkpoint, which started an untimed zone. First right I took, the oil pressure light fluttered on. Oh crap... we made best possible time towards the nearest gas station, filled it from the two, and added 6 quarts of oil. Unfortunately it wasn't enough... We started over 10 minutes late. Another banzai run (which got us complemented on our passing and bravado) got us up to about 3 minutes out before we hit the end of timing for the day.In the end, we had a 0:01, 0:10 (was truly a 0), 2:00 and 1:51. On the plus side, we didn't have a wire wheel explode and shred tires and spokes on the highway like my father did, so there's that. Having increased the tire pressures 40/45 F/R, the handling is hugely improved and worthy of what it's rumored to be.But either way, the brakes were really becoming a sticking point (or should that be NOT sticking point?) and it felt as though we were running on the rears only. I hadn't been able to lock the up for days, save the rears. We bled the brakes tonight and they are good enough I can lock them. Seems like the time I moved it with the master cylinder lid slightly open got some water in there...Anyway, start time tomorrow at 8:31, up in 5.5 hours. Away to bed with me, tomorrow is a new day into VA.1
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Ethan... Thanks for taking the time to let us "ride along". Your chronicle of events should be an inspiration for those reading who have Hudson cars that rarely leave the garage or driveway to drive their cars. Taking on the task of preparing your Hudson and then driving from Maine to Florida embodies the tenants on which the HET Club was originally founded. Find them, Fix them and have FUN driving them...
Good luck and keep posting. Hope to reconnect with you after the race is finished.
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Exactly! So jealous, while my 49 has seemingly grown roots on the lift. I've heard the term cornering like its on rails but I didn't realize they were referring to frame rails. Lol. Careful with that lower bump stop missing, it can be murder on the lower shock mounts. Go man go.
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I did do a general check, but let me correct some things. One, no, I did not replace the sway bar bushings or panhard bushings. While the latter ones aren't so good, the swaybar bushings are actually new-looking... No cracks or tears and still firm. Two, calling it a road race isn't exactly accurate. We are never required by the instructions to go over 50MPH. This is a TSD rally, based on consistency, not speed. It's sometimes referred to as a "precision pace race". As such I decided making sure the clutch would hold was more important than getting the best out of the chassis. It may be lacking, but it's more than quick and planted enough to surprise some of the 60's muscle cars we've had with us, on the occasion they were in our way on making up time.The preparations for this were more in the reliability and safety category, not maximization. Along with the clutch there's new shocks, bumpstops, bushings, etc. to be replaced. None of them strictly necessary items, so they were pushed to the "if there's time" list, and... There wasn't.The steering is a bit loose at the center pivot. I wish I'd had time to deal with that, but it's only noticeable when the roadway pulls left or right. It's also greased heavily, so it shouldn't get worse.Day 5 - Valley Forge PA to Norfolk VA:A very early start that we had a very late start time for. 91 minutes after official, and we left at 8:20. After a LOT of highway driving (getting very old), we finally started in on the legs. Nothing too notable actually happened in terms of the legs, they weren't awful and weren't great, though we should really be doing better. 0:59 raw time.Some more mechanical issues reared their heads- the brakes went out again, and the sputtering at low RPM part throttle came back. I just came back in from adjusting the front shoes to improve the brakes again. The sputtering I think may be from the engine running too cool and long stretches of highway driving.I wish I could remember more, but it's really late and it was a long hot day. Tomorrow we hit North Carolina.1
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Here's a shot of each of the four Hudson's as they came into Portsmouth last night. Sorry Corey's, didn't have a chance to say hello. You were engaged pretty good with a few others when we walked by, but we didn't have time at that point to stay around.Tidbit, that's Humpy Wheeler riding shotgun in the 53. He walked up to me and my daughter and told us to be sure I took her by to see 'Doc'. Also mentioned that Hudson's had been banned from 5 different tracks back in the day. I had not heard that one before. His picture is a bit fuzzy as they rolled by at a better clip than most of the others.Good luck and safe travels the rest of the way to Florida.1
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You DO have spare points, condensers and distributor caps, right? For some reason nowadays, condensers seem to be of inferior quality to those of yesteryear, and a bad condenser will stop you dead. If you don't have one they're still available at parts stores I believe, but maybe a good-hearted Hudsonite could toss you a couple as you drive by.
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. He walked up to me and my daughter and told us to be sure I took her by to see 'Doc'. Also mentioned that Hudson's had been banned from 5 different tracks back in the day.
bull - you didn't know about Hudsons being banned?? That happened a lot at local tracks back then. They changed the rules making it illegal to run a 308 (so most just ran 262's that were souped up) so then they changed the rules again making it illegal to run uni-body cars. LOL Hudsons won to much and track owners were tired of hearing everybody complain about the Hudsons.
Hudsonly,
Alex Burr
Memphis, TN
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For what it's worth, condensers can easily go bad just sitting on the shelf. So don't assume a NOS condenser is good. Better to get a known-good one from a running car if you can't find new. And Jon is right, a condenser can cause a severe case of non-running. You should have a cap, rotor, condenser and points in your kit. Better yet a whole good distributor, since they are so easy to swap out in a Hudson 6. Just my .02.0
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Bull, thanks for proving we really were there!
Humpy lets his grandson drive the Hornet a lot, though I believe he drives on the actual legs. Humpy's a real character, I personally find Austin, his grandson, a bit more approachable, but then that's not too surprising.As for ignition parts- Including the parts on the car, I have three coils (two are old VW ones), three sets of points and condensers, and 2.5 spark plugs changes worth. I have a cap, but the rotor and cap are new back when I was starting to work on the engine.
Day 6 - Norfolk VA to New Bern NC:
Today we finally had our first really hot day, and it's humid like you wouldn't believe. I haven't a clue what the temperature is, but it's too high for the level of water in the air...
Last night's work included looking at the plugs (and spewing fuel all over the running(!) engine)- they're pretty blackened. Our theory is that running without a thermostat is causing the fouling. The likely source of our miss.
The morning was a shambles, but at least an entertaining one. After a 10-minute late start because my RedBull-dependent navigator claimed he was "too tired to do math correctly", we attempted to make up some time. The first checkpoint was almost immediate though, and we ended up passing a car as we went through (at some speed, too!). The problem is, as the time resets at the checkpoints, we ended up barely a car's WIDTH apart. We would have to run at that spot pretty much until the lunch stop when we reset timing completely and go off of starting position again. It was manageable, but hard, we swapped leading positions as the time and speed changes were performed differently between us and them. As we were in a loop though... We ended up running afoul of a THIRD car! Now we had three cars in about 100 feet of space, and one of them was going a different speed since he was on a different set of instructions. We were leapfrogging in and out of the loop, it was a crazy setup for a while.
Then we hit the construction zone, followed by three separate combine harvesters! Wow it was just getting crazier... We were laughing the whole time, it was all so ridiculous.
Lunch was a lovely river spot in Elizabeth City, where we finally got to relax and talk to some of the teams we had traded positions with for a while. Everybody was all mixed up, we ended up behind an expert (and I mean an EXPERT, though not a winner) who we watched miss some instructions and then re-time off of US!
In the afternoon we started correctly, running generally where we were supposed to. After running through a transit zone (a section where we needed to be at the re-start by a time but not with a set speed through the directions), I pulled up to wait. As we pulled out, the tall grass in front hid a ditch the front passenger wheel dropped into. OOPS! Rocking the car back on reverse, I was just about to get it out when another team pushed us the last bit out. Thanks guys!
This leg went as normal as the day could let it be, right up until we missed a turn. Luckily we noticed it as I drove past, so we knew exactly how long we were off course and how long we had to make up. One car had made the corner after us, so we had to pass them- a 64-1/2 Mustang (with a lead foot). We didn't really have a safe spot to pass, but luckily we knew what they were going to do, so we knew they were going to stop at an upcoming stop sign for 10 or so seconds... And the sight lines here in flat-farmland-country were a mile each way- no traffic. Right, let's do this! As the 'stang pulled up, I slowed to half speed (easy for Nick to calculate the percentage of lost time), about 25 I think, and pulled out and made the turn without stopping around their left, tooting the horn before hand. Got the boat sideways in front of a Mustang, and managed to keep them off our tail under acceleration. Later we even got some accidental wheelspin puling away from a stop- there's a lot more power there today! Eventually we got back on time, then hit another transit zone.
As we pulled up to the re-start point, Nick (the navigator- have I named him before?) started shouting, "it's past our minute! Go! Go! Go!" so I took off. We started making up time. After a while of travelling 20% over to gain some time, we hadn't seen the quagmire of cars we should have been a part of, and when we finally saw a car it wasn't the right one ahead. Hmm, what time were were hitting the transit zone? 11:29. 45 minutes of transit. Wait, why did we start at 12:10?! Oh ****! We left 5 minutes early and we made up the 5 we thought we were late! We’re 10 minutes early! Lucky early is easier to correct than late, but the next instruction was the end of timing, and we knew there had to be a checkpoint DAMN soon- if you come to a stop in view of the checkpoint they’ll hit you with max penalty, 3:00 early. We had to stop now!
Rounding the corner REALLY slowly, looking for the green timing sign, we didn’t see anything. Pulling up in a perfect little pull-off we started waiting the right amount of time. Sure enough, 9-ish minutes later the right cars passed us, and our calculated time lined up. We took off again, back in the right spot, and rounding the next corner in the road, less than half a mile from where we stopped, we saw the checkpoint. Couldn’t have gotten luckier if we tried.
So today was a proper fuster-cluck, as they say, but everybody fell prey to it, and for some reason it was just funny. Later we were swapping stories, lots of people got stuck at a raised drawbridge, etc. The little Mustang that we had to pass was a father-daughter and friend team (running as a college X-cup team), and they were commenting on how similar his driving style is to mine, despite some very different car abilities… The Mustang could barely catch us, and it is a V8-equipped one. As I explained to my navigator, give me four wheels and some form of propellence, and I’ll make it go faster than you think it can. Maybe that's why the weak brakes didn't really bug me...
After the parc fermé, we hung around because the road had opened back up and there was an Austin-Healey 3000 in the middle of an intersection, locked up and in gear. When the owners showed up, they couldn’t get it started, so we stayed to help. Even starter fluid could barely get a response. Once it managed to light it would run, but not idle. After the local help left (“Disconnect the coil to distributor lead and try, it’ll make the spark stronger!” “Just floor and and crank, it’ll catch up. The accelerator pump will clear it!”) we managed to determine that somehow the points had closed up. After adjusting it out again, it fired and idled fine.
Mechanically we had no real problems beyond the brakes (again). The sputtering wasn’t too bad today, I expect because the hotter exterior temps kept it close to operating ranges and didn’t let the plugs foul. The brakes were great for 3/4 of the day… Then they got bad again. Because of time delays with the Healey, we didn’t have time to adjust them again, but I noticed when I accidentally drove away with the parking brake pulled that the pedal was much better! Ah, the rear brakes are out of adjustment (didn’t adjust them yesterday). But it’s 11:30… Okay, we’ll leave the parking brake pulled, it doesn’t drag, go to bed, and fix them tomorrow. With the later start time (9:30 for us) I may even get to it before lunch.
As for times, we had a 2:00, 0:05, 0:33, 0:04,0:10, 0:04, 0:13. We’re currently in 45th overall, pretty good for a car that’s changed every characteristic every day, and the first year with the uber-sensitive speedometer that I’m still getting used to and getting driven NUTS by.
So not a brilliant day, but not too bad all told. Tomorrow we head to Clinton and then Wilmington NC.
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Until we get an finishing update from Ethan on how the car did the last few days, here's the link to the great race website:The rally ended yesterday, and from a blog (Ethan's father blogged regularly on the main site), it sounds like Ethan and Nick aced one of the legs. Congrats! Something to build on for next year!0
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Yes, I lapsed badly there. On Day 7, we got to bed after midnight. On Day 8 we had no internet and on the final day we were doing our best to get enough sleep to be competitive.To be honest, I don't remember much about day 7 or 8 now, though I do remember the oil loss worse. It's up to about 5 qts a day now, and the headgasket started weeping.I do recall that on Day 7 we had a no-start issue at the start, once we'd arrived. I assumed it was vapor locked, but ether didn't help. Turned out the points closed themselves completely somehow. I just sort of fiddled with them for half a second until it sparked, then threw it all together and took off. At lunch I spent time adjusting them properly, and suddenly it picked up a lot of low end. Weak spark will do that. Unfortunately it didn't cure our sputtering issue, but it did improve it.Also, the brakes were adjusted correctly at the back, and equalized at the front, it was pulling rightward. While the pedal travel improved, the car now pulled leftward. While at the back we discovered the axle seals are bad, there's gear oil on the backer plates. I topped off the gear oil (very little had been lost yet), and we soldered on.We did try improving the wipers some, thread taping fittings and installing a vacuum canister we made from PVC. It now managed to make a full wipe and return about one out of 50 times, off throttle. I suspect the motor valve is failed, because when we turn the wipers off they snap back to home just fine. It also buzzes. Something to take a look at later, but the wiper issue did come back to bite us... At the evening stop, the heavens opened after we had dinner aboard the USS Yorktown, and we found ourselves stuck in Patriot's Point while waiting for the rain to stop. No wipers could have been worked around, but the windows fogged instantly and the defroster doesn't work because I didn't have a chance to order the necessary tubing to replace the rotted old stuff. So it was sit and wait.Day 8 began true vapor lock issues. It refused to start after sitting waiting for our start time, and we had to get it fired on ether. I had a few days where I could have just made it, ordered a 6V pump and installed it, but I just didn't think I'd need it. Mistake, that was...As the day went on we had it worse and worse. At idle, sitting at lights, the idle would get lumpier and lumpier, and while it accelerated smoothly, it was common to suddenly lose power and have to wait for the fuel pump to fill the bowl with liquid, not gas. It was a real challenge, because we had to start the car early at starts so we'd have enough time to get it started if it locked, but that made it hot underhood and we had trouble getting up to speed in time.To add insult to injury, we had a strange brake problem. The left pull I was just dealing with, it made braking very interesting to say the least, but the pedal got damaged when I kicked it hard. The taper fit where the pedal rod installs into the lever got loosened- I tried to remove the pedal months ago to remove the floor, but didn't have the puller, and when I went to reinstall the nut, it tightened but spun. It was stripped. However, it was still holding tightly, so I ignored it. I managed to break the taper free, but couldn't get the nut off to try and fix the threads. So we ran with a wobbly brake pedal.On Day 9, I got smart about vapor lock. We bought some exhaust wrap with the intent to wrap the fuel lines. Never got around to it, but I had a different solution. I would open the hood and manually activate the electric fan whenever we had to sit engine off. It worked well enough.
The brake pedal was a source of worry, but the way everything is built when you apply the brakes the pedal is trapped anyway, so we just ran with it. It's merely one more thing on a long list of things I have to fix.However, we screwed up our start. It was an early morning start, and we were both pushing on empty. We started a minute late, not a bad start at all, but while making up the time, we missed the first corner, pushing us another minute out. We ended up passing the same car twice in a few minutes. It was our only bad leg, 0:34, and it hurt the score a lot because on the last two days you don't get to drop any legs.But yes, we FINALLY got our Ace! It was literally down to the last second of the race, as it was on the last leg. Truly a legit ace as well, no hacking off other cars, no time allowances, and on an hour-twenty-two minute long leg, nonetheless!
In the end we finished 41st overall and 19th in Sportsman, out of 51 finishing Sportsmen (+ rookies, who are part of the Sportsman class), and 98 cars. We also thoroughly trounced my father, even ignoring the first day when they were off collecting their replacement car. I'll post our full results later, the Great Race site should have all the scores.Next year is 50/50. While a much better sounding route, I'm not sure I'll be able to get the time to do this. It may have to wait until 2016 again, but I already have some ideas I'm cooking up for period-correct improvements to our trusty steed.Nick took a huge amount of pictures and some video, so once he's done looking through all that (of which I saw some, and looked very good) I'll post them or link to wherever he's put them.Here's most of what I took.
Now, this one... I suspect this was one of our passes to make up time where we had to run into the grass.
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Lucky no one got hurt. Nice that you were able to compete, but driving a car knowing it is unsafe is not something to be proud of. I hope you take more time to prepare next time. Just my opinion.-1
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Wooo Whooo! Congrats on finishing in the top half of the field. Even the best prepped cars can and do suffer catastrophic failures.I would classify most of your troubles as nuisance issues mostly because I've driven worse, especially at your age. Truly an adventure that you will likely relate to your kids and grandkids someday. If you run into the dreaded vapor lock again keep this in mind. A cup of ice dumped into the navigators donated sock and zip tied on top the fuel pump will get you to the starting line on time. Thank you for taking the time to share your trials and tribulations here with us. For your efforts and my appreciation you have won a pair of new axle seals for Bluega. If you'll PM me a mailing address I'll get them headed your way.
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What exactly have I written that makes people assume this is a deathtrap? This was one of the safest cars on the race- we have open 1916's that have zero driver protection. This year we had a Ford highboy of some type grenade its transmission, lock the rears and flip 90* onto its side. Brakes that pull slightly, something ALL of these drum-equipped cars suffer from, is hardly a significant concern. The brake pedal was a concern, but as I couldn't dislodge the nut, the pedal also couldn't come off in any situation I could conceive of under normal driving, since the nut holds the pedal in. If you're referencing the leaving it stripped, again, how can the pedal come off if the nut can't come off? The pedal and rod has to be pulled from the linkage to remove, but it's only ever pushed on by foot or by spring, never pulled. The bushings, while worn, weren't missing, there was no metal-metal contact where there wasn't supposed to be...Is this just a general feeling that driving an old car hard is a cocky young person thing to do? I'd never claim to be an expert on anything like a car from the 50's, but I have been around enough cars (on the side of the road and in the garage) to know what can and can't be dealt with, nothing we had pushed past that barrier. Was I gentler on the pedal once it was a little loose? Sure, but it's not like I could have just given up there either, left the car on the side of the road in South Carolina. We had transport arranged, but at the end in Florida, so come hell or high water, we were making it there. After all "To finish is to win" and "Ride. Repair. Repeat." are the race's mottos.So, I ask again, what did I say?Anyway, enough with the confusion-
Wooo Whooo! Congrats on finishing in the top half of the field. Even the best prepped cars can and do suffer catastrophic failures.I would classify most of your troubles as nuisance issues mostly because I've driven worse, especially at your age. Truly an adventure that you will likely relate to your kids and grandkids someday. If you run into the dreaded vapor lock again keep this in mind. A cup of ice dumped into the navigators donated sock and zip tied on top the fuel pump will get you to the starting line on time. Thank you for taking the time to share your trials and tribulations here with us. For your efforts and my appreciation you have won a pair of new axle seals for Bluega. If you'll PM me a mailing address I'll get them headed your way.
Thanks TwinH, I'll certainly PM you! You're not kidding either- This year, a 1916 Hudson racer finally finished after three years of trying! Every year previous he'd spun a bearing, and that was a car run by the owner of the restoration shop that my father took the Buick to, not someone you'd expect to have such problems.I'll keep the ice trick in mind, though considering the heat we were running through, I'm not sure we could have kept the ice solid long enough to use, and my navigator's socks are too well-used to handle water!2 -
Thank you for your entertaining description of the race! I do hope you'll contact our WTN editor, Sam Jackson, and offer him a version of this (with some photos) so that the entire Hudson network can enjoy your story, not just the ones on-line.
You did exceptionally well given the relatively short preparation time. I hope you'll be able to enter this car in a future GreatRace. I know that by that time you'll have had the time to iron out every kink, plus collect a goodly number of "spares" so that any breakdowns will be short-lived!
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and I was worried about driving my '51 perfectly running Hornet on a 300 mile round trip to Back to the Fifties car show.......0
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As Ethan has shown us all, HUDSON automobiles were indeed built as everyday driving machines with the technologies of the 40s and 50s. Just think most of the roads then were not paved and the on every corner service stations were yet too come and of course the most replacement parts came from the dealers.
Appreciate you Hudson, drive it everywhere!
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HydroThanks for posting your Great Race,I have a good friend who ran a support truck for a LaSalle this year.I am envious of those who can find the time for such adventures.0
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