Complex Thinker

          Restoring and Maintaining vintage Trans-Am race cars is becoming very scarce although the number of people who enjoy the sport is immense.  It is not simple to keep these very historical cars in perfect running condition all of the time.  While they only attend up to around seven races a year there is plenty of work to do in between. Sometimes for a specific car that ran great all season, we run through a checklist and possibly change the motor and transmission oils, and water in the radiator.  While on other cars we will take the motor completely out and send it to someone for them to go through and make sure it is okay to keep running.  Simply taking the motor out is not really the way to describe it though, because that only entails we are doing one thing to take it out when in reality it takes tons more steps.  Removing the hood is just the place to begin, then there's the driveline, transmission linkage, transmission, radiator, hose lines, and exhaust pipes, to the headers.  Sometimes the headers can be the hardest part of the whole thing.  It takes manipulating your arm and hands into very small spaces to unbolt.  Just being able to get the head of a wrench on the bolt is never typically easy.  There can be several positions implemented before finding the one that works the most efficiently.  Sometimes it is beyond frustrating because there is barely an inch of room to turn your wrench.  So it can take three minutes of consistent wrenching to get one bolt out, when a typical car has sixteen.  Finding the way that works best in each situation has taken practice, it could be switching positions, or tools altogether.  Ratcheting wrenches are very helpful but for headers specifically there rarely is enough room for them to fit.  Other times things can go wrong during a season at the track. When that occurs there is usually a time crunch. This causes the crew to move quickly and find very efficient ways to get a job done. Coming up with strategies quickly is very important to whether a car will make out in the next session or not.  Being able to think quickly in this sort of environment has transferred into many other things in my life. Moving quickly under pressure while staying composed and achieving an end goal I have found myself doing in sports, at work, and even during school.