Cobra Club Track Day?

TigerBlue

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As it turned out it was not Track days (2) for me. More on why later.

The drive out from San Clemente was without a hitch. About 2.5 hours including a pit stop. On arrival I found the Tiger brake lights were in always on mode. Fortunately I had packed a switch and fixed it.

In attendance Buck and Claudia with SCF 74 Tiger, Tom Sakai with two Tigers. # 65 racer and the black street Tiger. New Member Tiffany Rogers with her Tiger acquired only this summer. All of these were entered and would run on the track. Dan Walters was also on hand wrenching and?or driving the race cars.

Also Former Fearless Leader, Larry Young came from Bakersfield in his beautiful Mk1 with 5 speed and Dales fab front suspension. Mat Thiebaud of nearby Acton dropped by too.

I enjoyed getting TigerBlue out on the track four times Saturday. In the fourth noticed that my speed down the front straight was not "slow" but seemed slower. Paying more attention on the next lap confirmed that max rpm was off even from the last.

Degraded valve springs is my educated guess. The cam is from Summit and was the nastiest most aggressive flat tappet hydraulic cam I could find when I bought it. The original valve springs I had when I installed the cam were packaged with the assembled World Product heads that were bolted on at the same time cam was fitted. They did not last and I chalked it up to the third world manufacturer. But I think the installed replacements have too. I think I will try a roller cam this time around and maybe the valve springs will live longer.

So.. I canceled my room reservation, packed it in and drove home.

Here are some pics from Saturday. Maybe someone will have more including Sunday. Tiffany drives with a black helmet. The driver with her in the green Tiger is J. Morton (06). The three green Tigers at Turn 4 are the same seconds apart. Larry's Mk1 is green w/top up.

Rick
 
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Rick, I wondered what happened to you. I just posted a youtube video,,,see it in the "videos" section. Enjoyed seeing you all again. Mat
 
Matt,

I enjoyed your video and replied with a bit of commentary.

I have never seen better weather at Willow Springs. We had temps near 80 and gentle breezes during all our run sessions.

Mike Michels couldn't make it due to some family obligations and poor Bob Josten spent a couple weeks making sure his car was good to go and had it all ready only to get sick on Friday.

However for those who showed it was great. The weeken's only Tiger problem was Rick's previously mentioned valve train.

My only goal for our SCF Tiger was to do some cornering testing and John Morton got great results with it right off the trailer. Hopefully the problem is fixed. Since the SCF Tiger was working good we decided to park it. This freed John to help out other Tiger owners (and to autograph dozens of books).

First he did a "ride along" with Tiffany. Then they switched places, & he demo'ed how her car handles as she rode shotgun.

Then John evaluated several other Tigers. After driving Tom's #65 race Tiger, he encouraged Tom to install a larger rear bar to decrease the understeer. Tom complied and John then tested it. John reported the bar decreased the understeer but that the 65 still had a lot more than the SCF 74.

Today Tom drove both his yellow 65 with the larger bar and the SCF 74 Tiger. Tom liked the feel of both and now intends to install front and rear bars in his black street Tiger.

Tiffany did several sessions today "following the leader" Dan Walters. Tiffany earned "an A+" from Dan by sticking on his bumper as Dan sped up the laps.

All in all it was a really great weekend. (It was hosted by Lynn Parks and the LA Cobra Club). Their next weekend at Willow will be in the spring on the Mother's day weekend. Mark you calendars!

bt
at the beach
 
I had so much fun! Totally hooked now. Everyone was really helpful and great to hang out with.
 
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