Moneybags, if you don't have any grandchildren, you need to go and buy you some! You'll need someone to pass onto, all of these unique, but mostly successful racing stories and memories that you are rapidly amassing. There is always an element of luck in racing, but luck doesn't win championships. Integrity, diligence, unity and adaptability are all crucial qualities a team needs in order to secure a championship. In just a couple of short years, your team has somehow found a way to acquire all of said qualities.
I thought, and still do think that the overnight turbo car was a huge risk, bordering on foolish. But, you pulled it off big time, and in doing so, made a bold statement to your competitors that they will have to claw the championship trophy from your lactic acid deprived fingertips! Congratulations on persevering. I'm glad that I am no longer the one having to prepare a car to compete against yours.
Now that I've all but given you a knobber, I will say to you, and all teams running the XP 1000, turbo, or N/A, that an area of concern should be the rear cv joint cup where the splines engage inside of the transmission. Marc had a similar problem like you did during this race, with the inner cv joint cup somehow wedging itself inside of the transmission splines. I was told that Airdam Adam had an atv with a winch, secured it to a fixed object, chase truck I think, and the winch still couldn't pull the cup free from the transmission. Something somewhere broke instead. Either the winch mount or the tiedown strap that secured the ATV to the chase truck. They eventually had to use a piece of steel tubing, and repeatedly beat the shit out of the cup from the opposite side, through the splines of the transmission. Even then, it took awhile to break the cup free from the transmission. Possibly, there is a tolerance issue between the retaining clip at the inner grove of the cv cup, and the interface it shares with the splines inside of the transmission. Here's where sharing information is a good thing. One car, possibly a fluke. But occurring in two cars, well, that's a pretty big ko-wink-e-dink, don't you think?
When I was prepping Marc's cars, if the axle/cv joint assembly wouldn't "snap" into place after a couple of firm hits with a deadblow hammer, I would pull the axle assembly back out of the car, then slide a piece of .035" diameter tig welding rod between the installed retaining clip and the axle or cv cup splines to which it is attached. Then while holding pressure on the clip with one pair of pliers, I would use a second pair of pliers to gently squeeze the circlip on the other side of the welding wire, using the wire as a mandrel to put a small kink in the clip, in effect, decreasing the diameter of the circlip to facilitate easier installation and removal of the axle into the transmission. The circlips appear to be made from a low to mediuim carbon steel, and are more malleable than one would think. I think that when "forcing" them into the transmission, there is a risk of the wire compressing, and getting swedged inbetween the axle splines, rather than expanding or relaxing into shape once passing into the retaining groove.
Not trying to hijack your thread or anything. Just thought this was a good opportunity to share a similar experience, and possible solution. I was told that watching 3 grown men trying to remove a cv joint cup from the transmission, looked like a bunch of monkeys trying to fuck a football. LMFAO!
