C5 Corvette Called ‘Leroy the Savage’ has a Bad Day at the Track
C5 Corvette Called ‘Leroy the Savage’ has a Bad Day at the Track
Once stoically reliable, Leroy experienced an entire day of bad passes.
Considering many bone stock cars can have a bad day at the strip, it’s rather astonishing that Cleetus McFarland has gone this far with relatively calm days at the track. That changed though after a mysterious issue crept up during a test and tune day at Bradenton Motorsport Park.
Everything seemed OK for the first pass, so McFarland went out, and the car had its first hiccup going into third gear. At first it was thought that a flat-foot shift may have been the culprit, but a repeat of the third gear issue started to raise concerns. Back in the paddock to look over the car, McFarland gives us the news; “Oh boy. We’ve got diff fluid on the track, Leroy the Savage is breaking up like crazy… whole mess of things we gotta try and work out.”
After some searching for an issue, we get an update: “What we found was that passenger side axle was actually coming out, so we were a little worried that the diff might be broken since this thing has had so many passes, but we have the seal back in and the axle pushed back in.”
Unfortunately, after fixing those issues, the problem persisted. Again, the car lurched once it reached 3rd gear, meaning the problem may actually be engine, rather than transmission related. McFarland confirmed that, saying “we think we have a bad boost solenoid. It has to be getting stuck open or something because Leroy the Savage is literally getting as much boost as possible.”
At least a bright side was seen, as the event was just a test and tune, rather than an actual competition. So, he’ll take the car back to the shop, and do some more diagnosis and be back at the strip before you know it.
