Wayback Machine 1: mid January

Late January was very busy, both for the cars and for the team members.

Lockjaw, the titular "Tetanus Neon," was still in good shape from the October race, but the handling needed some improvement as we've said. Despite many phone calls, a few junkyard dives, and much productivity lost to mining craigslist, we had no luck in finding a better anti-sway bar for the car. Therefore Andy spent a while working to track down a source for better springs.

Meanwhile, Juan and Junior really stepped things up on the new car, the Margarita Neon. They've hosted several all-hands car days and whittled away at race prep ever since getting the car. It was another $100 car rescued from probable junkyard disposal, and (unlike Lockjaw) was actually running when acquired (wow!). The downside of a running car was that the much higher mileage has meant fighting with corrosion more often.

The interior went away rapidly this time so the roll-cage prepwork could be done sooner than the 11th-hour job we did on Lockjaw. The 'rita neon was a slightly better starting point than the barebones SOHC sedan we started with last time-- it's a 2-door DOHC coupe, so it has higher horsepower and four-wheel disc brakes. The two-door layout should also make ingress and egress easier once the cage is in.