[dkmura]

The first race report for 2021 has to do with the preparations for the race season. Yesterday was the first test of our repairs to the ECM failures of last season. Over the winter, the entire main harness for the HR was pulled, checked and repinned. There were some sections from the drive-by-wire throttle pedal to the ECM that were found to be slightly damaged and possibly causing intermittent shorts in that section of the harness. These sections were repaired/replaced and properly soldered in position and the entire wire bundle placed in a wire harness to protect it.

Obtaining a new 23710-EV12C ECM was not easy or cheap, but was loaded with a stock tune and ready to go. After plugging everything in, we crossed our fingers and turned the key. The HR started right up and ! had full throttle control. The next step was to get a fresh tune on it, and I'd been able to procure an appointment for today to get that done. All in all, we should have had this Z ready for battle exactly one week before we'd pack up for our opening race.

Unfortunately, that's not what happened. After getting the trailer hitch on, the trailer loaded and the Titan backed up, I found the HR would no longer idle smoothly and worst of all, had almost NO throttle response! Crap- we're dead in the water...AGAIN.

 

[dkmura]

The first race weekend is here and I won't make it. While there's still hope for the T3 Z, I simply cannot commit a FOURTH ECM to the effort until we develop a new hypothesis about what is causing all these failures. We're going to take Rob Fuller's (of Z Car Garage fame) advice and see whether it's a problem with reprogramming and matching the throttle bodies to the new ECM, but since the shop is on the other side of town, it'll have to wait until after the weekend.

I'm headed to LaJunta anyway, as dual roles of a tech worker and Colorado Region SCCA official. If the Z were running, I'd also be a driving instructor for the driving school that starts today. But I'm wearing enough "hats" this weekend, and after conferring with the chief instructor, decided to concentrate on the other duties for the weekend. With the loss of this weekend, it'll be difficult to defend my Rocky Mountain Divisional T3 title from last year, but that's reality.

The other project I'm working on closer to home is the resurrection of the GT3 Z project. This tubeframe car is quite different than the T3-spec Z33 (although it looks like one) and one of my good friends has been working to complete some major aero mods and maintenance/repairs to get it closer to a runner again. Who knows? Maybe I can get a few shots of it when I return next week.