Days Before Lemons
- diego valle
- Mar 2, 2024
- 2 min read
The days are getting longer for the Aggie Lemons as race day is coming up fast. 10 days before the race it seems as if everything has gone wrong for the team.
On February 16 while I was away, the engine of their engine busted and needed to be replaced. With the engine needing to be replaced the Lemons' chances of competing in the 24 Hours of Lemons race are in jeopardy.
So the team was split up with one half working on the car and the other half sent to scavenge the local junkyard for a new engine.
I would not be able to explain what happened with the engine so I asked the head engineer of the Aggie Lemons junior in Electronics System Technology Engineering major Krishanu Ray.

"Normally you run a mix of antifreeze and water in the cooling system. But the problem is antifreeze is slippery so during races they want you to run just pure water," Ray said. "So that if or when a lemon car spills all the coolant there is not a slick mess on the track."
Ray said a few months ago before everyone left for winter break they parked the car without draining the cooling system.
"We had plain water with no antifreeze and well this winter it froze," Ray said. "The block turned to ice and we cracked our engine block."
Ray said he was disappointed because the engine busted in the most undramatic way and they might not get to race.
"That kind of ruined our plans of doing a champ car race this semester," Ray said. "We've done a race every semester since we started except for this one."
The team did not feel comfortable rushing an engine swap so the team has decided to rebuild the car Ray said, but they still have planned events for later in the semester.
"We're actually sponsored by a track in Houston called MSR, they let us access their track for track days so we're trying to go for a weekend on April 12," Ray said. "That's gonna be an opportunity to test drive our car before a race which is a little bit helpful."
About a month away from their original race date, Ray said the track day would be the perfect opportunity to test out their car after they repair it and they also have plans to attend a car meet.

"We have always been talking about taking our car out to some of the local car meets and showing our car off," Ray said. "We've never done it but now that we have a little bit more time on our hands we're
gonna see about trying to do that as well."
Ray said part of the reasoning for the car meet is to do more community outreach interactions.
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