[DeTomaso] BBORR report

[michael frazier]

  We got back yesterday afternoon with everyone safe and sound.  John Taphorn and Tom Di Iulio ran strong and I think we all had a great time. This is the first time in 8 years I've had to spend time on the side of the course.  I'm putting all the clues together and trying to remember exactly what happened when.  We can all give our best guess prior to the post mortem.  

  Here is what I've put together.  1) The car ran great in Sanderson on Thursday. 2) Trailered it to Sanderson and filled it with Chevron Supreme. 3) Car ran well in route to the driver's meetings on Friday but it was low speed in town. 4) John Taphorn drove it later and noticed bad detonation.  I had bumped the timing up before we left San Antonio.  We backed the timing back down and it seemed OK. It had never done that before. 5) Oil pressure gauge was reading too high, pegged, then OK again. 6) When John drove the car I saw short puffs of smoke that I never noticed before but couldn't tell if it was just when he accelerated or backed off. 7) The car ran strong out to about 20 miles when IT happened...I don't know if it was a misfire or a mechanical event but it felt like 2 sharp misses or pulses right after one another.  I'm not sure if I heard anything or just felt it.  There may have been a pop. 8) Looked down and no oil pressure.  It was in a sweeper so I couldn't shut it off immediately but did clutch and coasted off the course...dramatically I might add, lots of gravel and dust.  Shut it off as soon as I could.  It was running at idle when I did.  9)  There was a little oil at the back of the block and on the bell housing.  Not much underneath at the time.  10)  After things calmed down a little I restarted it and some oil was being slung out the inspection hole on the bell housing.  I only ran it for a moment and it seemed pretty ragged. 11) There is about a cup of oil on the trailer but the engine oil lever is in the safe zone just under where it was originally.

  That about all I remember at this point but the things that stick in my head are the sudden onset of detonation.  The new fuel.

The strange oil pressure readings and the oil in the bell housing.  At first I though I may have blown a rear seal or oil gallery plug at the back of the block but I'm not so sure now. I'm hoping there are no big holes in anything especially the transaxle!! the fluid seems too thin to be gear lube.  There is no water in the oil.  I'm not sure if it had zero oil pressure at the time because of the 

weird gauge readings the day before.  Right now I don't have any strong opinions about what happened. Let the theories start!

  Even with this happening we had a great time and I have absolutely no regrets.  This event is the best of the lot and I hope more of you can enjoy it in the future.  We put a Pantera on the podium again for the 8th straight year which is nothing to sneeze about.  There are many many people who have never been there although they've been trying for longer than that.  Again, I hope

some more of you will be able to try this out someday.  You won't be the same afterwards.  Thanks guys.

Michael

Gruppo Rompiculi Corsa!!!!  Y'all.

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