DMS Racing: Lemons MSR Houston 2015

Brandon_Green · August 28, 2015, 5:37pm

We will be attempting to register for the next 24 Hours of Lemons race in houston, I submitted an application but the official selection of who gets in isn’t announced until the end of September.

For those who don’t know, 24 Hours of Lemons is a 2 day ~14 hour endurance road race where your car can only be ‘worth’ $500 and must have an interesting theme.

We will need up to 6 drivers (previous drivers will get first chance to rejoin), being a driver is open to any DMS member, you must have a valid drivers license, understand the strict no whining rules, have been on a road course before, and be able to afford buying / renting safety equipment and travelling to Houston on November 12-15th.

At our previous attempt the race got cancelled because it looked like this:

The car is sitting in a storage locker waiting for us to replace the gas tank, but other than that I think it is ready to race.

breckenedge · August 28, 2015, 8:50pm

If we fill up the DMS 240SX team, I have a 93 Sentra ready to be transformed into another DMS-based Lemons car. It needs to be race-prepped with a cage and safety equipment (I have a seat and harness), and some light maintenance is needed on the transmission and fuel system. It could be a strong contender for C Class, and I have paperwork including the original CL ad where I found the car.

sunnyt · September 3, 2015, 8:52pm

I’m in, put me on the list please

dallasmagna · September 7, 2015, 1:42am

If you need another driver to make the quota, put me down.

Ferman · September 9, 2015, 2:39am

I’d be interested in learning more, and possibly join.

BrettC · September 13, 2015, 2:54pm

Count me in for a driver spot, Brandon. Are we going to use a new tank this time or do you think the issue is not strictly the tank (the tank straps)?

Brandon_Green · September 13, 2015, 6:11pm

A new OE tank should fix it, it cracked in a common failure spot

Adam_Oas · September 16, 2015, 4:22pm

I have a bit of experience on both ECR and MSR Cresson for driving. Am also interested in helping out with prepping either the 240sx or another car if someone is interested in an extra pair of hands. I’ll be at the lift training this evening.

apparently_weird · September 17, 2015, 9:00pm

I am happy to assist in any way I can. Is there a normal get together to work on the car?

Brandon_Green · September 17, 2015, 9:11pm

Thanks, we will be having a kickoff meeting at the beginning of october and then will likely meet on saturdays to work on the car some (will be doing things like rebuild rear diff seals, replace fuel tank, whatever else we think would be interesting)

Brandon_Green · September 22, 2015, 3:45pm

Good news:

DMS Racing has been officially ACCEPTED for Gator-O-Rama at MSR Houston, Angleton TX on November 14 - November 15.

apparently_weird · September 22, 2015, 4:11pm

Great, let’s start wrenching

Brandon_Green · September 24, 2015, 2:21am

I scheduled the kickoff meeting for October 10th, 3pm in the workshop. (I won’t be available the next two weekends)

We will be discussing what things we want to do to the car in the 5 weeks(from oct 10th) before the November 14th race weekend. We want to have as many classes and projects as we can(gas tank, diff rebuild, potentially telemetry), including hopefully posting some videos detailing what we are doing. I will try to acquire the replacement gas tank before the 10th.

apparently_weird · September 24, 2015, 11:37am

I would by happy to bring in my equipment and do the videos.

Adam_Oas · September 24, 2015, 2:59pm

I can assist with both gear and expertise on videos…

Shawn_R · September 30, 2015, 1:03am

I would be glad to help, I will be at the meeting on the 10th.
Been on a most of tracks around Texas and autocross almost every month.
If I had known sooner I could have got the car on MSR in Cresson for free a few weeks ago.

kdial · September 30, 2015, 5:40pm

I’ve been dying to do this for a while!! I was going to finance it myself among my friends, but finding out DMS is doing this is awesome. When will we be meeting on this?

Kent

Brandon_Green · October 4, 2015, 9:09pm

After researching rebuilding the r200 open diff (if you include bearings) the only kits I could find are ~$300, you could buy a whole used open diff for less than that on ebay. Could buy the 3 seals and gasket individually for ~50. The more popular thing to do is swapping in a vlsd, the complication coming from our car being non abs, most vlsd available are from abs cars and the diff is a different size, so we would have to swap the driveshaft also to use one of those.

Instead of rebuilding the diff we could instead rebuild the powersteering pump and rack, which I think is also leaking a bit and the seal kits are cheap.

Brandon_Green · October 8, 2015, 4:26pm

I ordered the new gas tank from nissan of grapevine and should have it before this saturday, it was even on ‘sale’ and only cost 400. I am hoping all the ancillary parts and connections will be a direct swap between the tanks. I haven’t ordered any other parts pending our kickoff meeting this weekend.

apparently_weird · October 8, 2015, 5:20pm

@Brandon_Green Good thing the new gas tank falls under safety equipment