Our 1936 Packard (which my navigator wife calls Molly Maroon) is almost ready to go.  Since rebuilding the engine, I have been fighting various little problems.  I now know more about tuning a Packard than I thought possible.  Had the car all ready for a car show last weekend and on the way to the show, the clip that attaches the distributor shaft to the oil pump shaft came off and left the car stranded.  Better for it to fail now, than during the race.  Got it fixed and the car now seems to be running OK.  Now the pressure is on to finish all of the little things to be sure the car is reliable and then get as many miles on the car as possible. 

The next big step is to get the car calibrated.  I calibrated the Timewise speedometer today using the tire rotation-measurement method.  That will be the last speedometer calibration until the actual calibration during the speedometer check at the race.  Now we will begin the car calibration with establishing the acceleration and deceleration times for all various speeds anticipated for the race.  The next step will be to calibrate the car for stop and go’s.  We use the calibration method described on the VCRA website where a course is set up on a straight road and then the time is measured over several runs at a set speed.  We then run the same course and do a stop and go.  The difference between the two times establishes the time it takes us to do a stop and go at that particular speed.  Then we repeat at various speeds.   Since we are limited on time, for corners we will probably use the method of measuring our deceleration times from various speeds down to 15 mph and acceleration times from 15 mph to various speeds.  This is not the most accurate method, but will be sufficient since we are getting used to a new car and my navigator is fairly new at this sport.

Not much time left for preparations since we have to leave early for the long drive from California to Chattanooga.