Spec V in Speed World Challenge update

[Tim Rogers]

Today was the official qualifying session at Road Atlanta, and our boys
found another deficit in the car: the cooling system.
The temperature sensor that fed the aftermarket dash gauge was installed in
a 1" stub of the heater hose (everything under the dash is gutted).  Well,
this placed the sensor in a dead end area that saw no coolant flow, so the
dash gauge never saw the true coolant temperature.  After about 5 laps, the
car started to lose power on track, so the driver - Joe Hermes - pulled off
course to avoid damaging the engine, but it was already too late.
The owner of Sunbelt Performance Engines - Jim Thompson - checked the
Motec's data log and found that the recorded maximum temp. was 260F!  The
head gasket had blown and all of the cylinders had filled with coolant after
the engine was shut down.
With the fire and oil pressure sensor trouble from the day before, the car
had only about 10 laps of total track time at this event, so Joe had
qualified last in the 42 car field.  Unfortunately, the car won't be in the
race as there is no spare engine and there is a pretty good chance that
there is some (or a lot) of warpage of engine parts.  The qualifying results
are here:  http://www.world-challenge.com/2002/rat/tc-qual.html  for anyone
who is interested.
Remember that this is the beginning of a development program, so don't
despair.  This car will be at the SEMA show next week and will be at a track
near you next year as Nissan is behind this program to a good extent.
BTW, yesterday I stated that I thought the car might have dry sump oiling.
It actually has the stock oiling.  Also, Jim Thompson is wary of the "Silent
Timing Chain," he thinks that it could be a weak point.

Tim Rogers