Along with that they were required to change the material of the roll cage pads, add a net, repair a hole in the bulkhead, extend the fuel tank inlet vent, add a throttle spring, amongst a range of other adjustments. The majority of these were concerning safety, the most important of which was the requirement to weld a 6mm iron plate called a “scatter shield” to the outside of the transmission tunnel to protect the driver’s feet in case the flywheel and clutch came apart. The SCTA official carried out an extremely comprehensive vehicle inspection that took over 2 hours, after which they were informed that there were 13 modifications of various scale that they would be required to carry out. The approximately 1000km trip took them around 13 hours and they arrived at the closest town to the salt flat, Wendover, at about 2:00am. They fired up the engine on the morning of the 9th, carried out alignment adjustments on the morning of the 11th, and then, at 1:00pm on the same day, they made way for Bonneville. Crew chief, Irie arrived in Los Angeles from Japan on August 8th. In June we received an update on Bonneville Speedweek from Okamoto stating “For the time being we will be going through vehicle inspection and carrying out a shakedown on the salt flats.” This meant that they would be officially taking part in the event and Okamoto’s “salt fever” began. However this year Okamoto, who has been steadily building up his machine, finally got his chance to take on the challenge. However that year and the following year the conditions of the salt flats were effected by unseasonable weather which left the event being cancelled two years in a row. It was in the beginning of spring 2014 when Los Angeles resident, Sam Okamoto attempted to challenge the Bonneville Speedweek in a 13B rotary engine mounted first generation MX-5.
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