If There's One Thing I Learned About Money and Time, It's That They Never Run Out!

It's interesting how expenses and time, much like the Ultimate Warrior, seems grab you and gorilla press slam you back into the stone age. You and I both know that at some moment you watched professional wrestling. I mean, how could you not? It was AWESOME!

Seriously though, we have entered crunch time here at Team I Wanna Roc. With only 32 days left until the race it is becoming quickly apparent that we have a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it. Here's a short list of what we have to complete by May 22nd:

• Install the roll cage
• Fabricate and install dash and instrument cluster
• Reroute battery location
• Install electrical system kill switch
• Install seat bracket, seat, and harness
• Patch holes in firewall
• Reroute and install remaining portion of the exhaust (glasspack, muffler, etc)
• Install fire extinguisher/fire suppression system
• Install front brake pads
• Buy and mount racing tires
• Route cooling ducts for rotors

When you write it all down it becomes very real. Luckily we have been working diligently on ordering and finding parts and should begin working on the car full throttle in the coming weeks. A great source of used parts and other things that a budget race team needs is Craigslist. It is pretty amazing what you can find if you do a little homework and you can deal with what we have coined as the "flake factor" of many Craigslist posters. In my search for a Corbeau racing seat, not once but twice seats were sold right out from under me before I could make it out to see them. Often times you will only get a response from 50% of the ads you inquire about. And probably the most frustrating part of Craigslist is the lack of basic communication skills or knowledge regarding the items that they are selling. With all that being said, the simple fact remains that I was able to find, over the course of a couple weeks and several dozen emails, a used Corbeau racing seat and seat bracket that fit our vehicle for only $75 (which is a steal when compared to buying new would have cost us $400+).

Another thing that we have been working on for the last couple of weeks has been tracing and cleaning up our electrical system. As those of you who drive know, more often than not when you car goes down for the count it has to do with something in the electrical system. Bad connection, faulty wires, blown fuses, damaged relay, etc. So with our "crew chief" David and some schematics of the wiring diagrams for a 1989 IROC-Z Camaro, we have been systematically testing, removing, and re-soldering the wiring in the car. I may or may not have grabbed the business end of the soldering iron while working on the car at some point and suffered some 2nd degree burns. Thankfully only 3/5ths of the team was there to watch me humiliate myself.

Another fun fact about buying used vehicles: People are stupid. To say that we ripped out a 5 gallon bucket's worth of wires from inside the car would not be an understatement. Furthermore, while it is common knowledge that duct tape might hold the universe together, do not for any reason use it to cover electrical connections. It has a tendency to turn very, very sticky when say, oh I don't know, electrical current is running through the wires it is covering. Seriously, electrical tape is like $0.50 at the dollar store, its used for a reason.

Other team members have also been working on the car. Eric and Pat came over one day and magically found the reason why the car wasn't running after our first round of working on the engine. I say "magically" because no one really knows what was done to get the car fired up and no one is really sure that it won't die again. It's the first rule we all learned at magicians camp - never reveal the trick.

Curtis has also been hard at work getting this hunk of Detroit iron running. Just look at him dive into attaching the exhaust manifolds. Sorry ladies, he's already taken.

In other news, some tactful negotiations have been underway between teams I Wanna Roc and Huey Newis and the Lose. With an unprecedented move by any team in the history of Lemons racing, an agreement has been struck between these two bitter rivals that may shake the racing world to its core. Should one team's vehicle be rendered inoperable to the point that they can no longer continue racing, they will be allowed to join the other team and finish out the weekend. Furthermore, the stranded team must listen to the other teams' music the rest of the weekend without complaint no matter how much Phil Collins' music rapes your ears and kills kittens.

Damn I'm getting excited for this race.