New England is Mean to Metal: G-Fab ST Update

I finally got a chance to look over the entire car and check for hidden damage. Despite the body being in decent shape, the car is in serious need of some rehab. Some of the rot is all the way through, but thankfully nothing too large to patch up.

Frame and Body:
The worst of it is a hole in the floor board (only 1 so far):

It almost looks like something punched through and rotted out after, but I'll grind it down to metal and patch it up. It'll have to be pretty structural due to being so close to the passenger seat mount, as well, which is somewhat scary. I may have to cut out the reinforcement from the donor car and see if it's any better.

There's also a square 3x3" hole punched through the driver's side frame rail:



The passenger side isn't swiss yet, but it's not in the greatest of conditions, either:



Finally, one spot that looks to just need some POR-15 or a wire wheel:


Oddly enough there are tons of spots on the body that I'd have expected to rust that didn't. Regardless, I'm planning on going through a lot of PB Blaster, wire wheels, and rust converting paint.

Suspension:
The traction control rods are preloaded with what looks to be the older style Energy Suspension bushings:


The rear multilink looks to have fared the weather slightly better than the frame:



Interior:
The interior isn't shabby. Just missing some plastic that I can pull from the donor car, and you can see the S-AFC, turbo timer, and crappy wiring. The water temp gauge also has to go.


Engine:
The engine bay isn't bad, just missing stuff:


I was told it ran before parts were pulled off of it, but who knows what condition its in. The car was previously turbocharged, so I'm not expecting much. The first order of business is to get it up and running and do a compression test to see if we can at least drive the car around enough to get it registered, but I'll probably pull it before the season starts to do a minor overhaul. Luckily spare KA's are easy enough to find for some reason I can't rebuild it .

Current Thoughts:
I wish I bought a Cali car :P

Jenna's Song

Prelude:
I have to start this thread by first stating that I have the best girlfriend in the world. This statement should be immediately followed up by my utter hatred of the tradition of buying engagement rings when proposing, and their utter uselessness in terms of function. The combination of the previous two statements ends with me still having to buy a ring, but somehow halving the price by also buying an 18 year old non-running car. The result: one Jenna that hasn't stopped giggling and smiling with excitement since pushing the car onto the trailer last night (her first experience "driving" a car onto a trailer). I think she's happier with the car than any rock could make her, and that's awesome.

Intro Story:
I started off in ST, which in retrospect was a great thing. Not enough power to kill yourself, and not enough grip to simply throw the car around to a decent result. The combination yields a vehicle that forces you to spend time feeling balance in the car and how you drive it. I'd like to think that it gave more opportunity to learn how to both tune a car and drive it, while still being fun to drive.

Jenna started off entirely on the wrong foot, and I'm partially (ok, maybe more) to blame. For her first year or so, she'd only driven cars on R-comps, and even when "backing off" from the monster SM 240sx, she jumped into a mildly prepped HS car on Hoosiers. It wasn't until she co-drove a couple cars at a local event on street tires that she really started seeing her driving beyond just looking at a line and driving it (which you can pretty much do with the higher grip limits and shock loading of R-comps). On top of that, the "seat time bug" had bit and she wanted more and more seat time at local (non-SCCA) events. The time had come: Jenna needed her own race car, and it would be an ST car.

The Goal:
Build an ST car that can help Jenna build confidence and driving skill. (Also if I have anything to do with it) Compete on the National level.

Enter: The new ST car and its owner/ primary driver:

The good:

+ The body is pretty good for a 17 year old (especially one found in New England) [you can read that however you want].
+ HICAS steering rack and VLSD.
+ It comes with some extras, like an S-AFC and water temp gauge.
+ Interior is in great condition.
+ It's in my driveway and I have the title.

The bad (missing lots of stuff):
- Driver's side window is missing/ broken
- No fan/ fan shroud/ AC fan
- No radiator
- No header/ cat/ exhaust
- No intake (forgot to check if it even has a MAF)
- No front brakes
- No ECU

Conclusion:
It was obviously well used, and un/fortunately already resprayed (I'll have to go over the body to see if it was ever bondo'ed). More than likely, I'll do the same for as much of the suspension/ subframe as I can, to get the car to a "like new" state before letting it loose next year at an autocross (wonder if I can make the Dixie Tour?). The only OEM parts I really need are the brakes, door window, radiator, and fan stuff, of which I think the only thing that'll be difficult to source is the fan crap (especially the shrouds). I'm planning on going to work on the car tonight and log the missing components for a big CourtesyParts/ RockAuto order. The goal is to have it running next week.

The Plan:
Some of the missing stuff isn't so bad. I've already got an excuse to do a header/cat/exhaust. It looks like I'll be doing an Ebay header to start, and not sure what exhaust (originally planned on building one). Requirements for it are for it to be quiet (less than 90db @ 75ft) and low profile (less law-enforcement attention).

The one thing I'm pretty sorted on is the suspension. If I can get everything off to the powdercoater, I'll be re-installing with ES bushings where applicable. Unfortunately I can't use heims as the ST rules state I can't substitute rubber bushings for metallic ones. The plan for shocks and struts are NRR 8610's (or 8611's if I'm feeling ambitious) up front with Koni Yellows in back (externally adjustable Eclipse rears). It'll be a Whiteline sway up front, and stock or no rear bar to try and let the VLSD do its job.

Up next:
Less talk, more pics and general car overview/ review.

HD Mag Scan XXLmao

Scanned in the article. Probably the first time we've ever been named in SportsCar after being the ghetto-fabulous underdog for a few years.

Yay. Now if only we had won so they'd have to put a pic of the car in there.... I wouldn't have to do body work so we'll get pictured next year. Anyways, it feels like an accomplishment, albeit a small one. To think that a small mention in a magazine was something we'd hoped for, and almost dreamed about when we started out, kind of puts a perspective on how far both the car and drivers have come. See kids? Hard work and dedication and possibly alcohol can make anything possible, even if you don't have money, sponsors, a clean chassis to start with, or parts that were made by people old enough to drive anything heavier than a rickshaw.

In Case You Didn't See SportsCar...

Karting 2010

While I was busy this morning, feeling sorry for myself, telling Jenna I had nothing here to post because my Kart was mostly broken all year, she pointed out that this was G-Fab, that's pretty much what happens when you're in G-Fab. So, welcome to me being a REAL official member of G-Fab, where something broke down on my kart every event except one. Yaaaay.

After getting smoked at the end of last season by Eric Krueger (and Ian) and Paul Bowin, I came back this year with the misapprehension that this season was going to be different. Again, aside from one event, I pretty much got smoked by everyone this season too! You know things aren't going well when your idea of doing awesome is beating a 15-year-old girl at an event (hey, it was a challenge!) However, I'm going to totally blame my kart for almost EVERYTHING bad that happened this year.

The season started out pretty well, with Mr. Awesome Paul Klein delivering some Road Racing take-offs for my use, which improved my traction about elevently-billion percent. Paul also proceeded to bolt on various things, and remove other various things from my kart, thereby changing the handling entirely from "Meh", to "Meh++." We experimented the first two events with camber, castor, seat angle (and by "We," I mean that I handed Paul tools while he did all the work) and got it to where he pronounced it "Pretty OK." I think he was just being charitable.

While Paul did useful things like that, I drained all of the WATER out of the brake lines, thereby giving the Kart a reliable brake system. Hey, brakes work now, maybe that's why I'm slow. Before I couldn't stop if I had to, now maybe I'm stopping too much? MORE GO PEDAL.

The first event at Devens started off promising, only to have the kart go from full power to "Jingle jingle crunch" no power. Investigation revealed I had somehow broken the drive gear on the back of the clutch basket, something that both Eric K and Paul B assured me they'd never seen before. At least the clutch itself was OK. A quick visit to TSRacing.com, some clutch rebuilding by Paul B, and I was back in business. NHMS event went OK, no major problems. No major results either, but, hey, I'm still learning, right?

Someone told me last year that the only real expensive things to replace on a Kart were the engine and the clutch. Guess what? Yup, roasted the clutch during the July Devens event. It felt kinda slippy on launch from the start, and as I proceeded around the course, I found I was proceeding slower and slower, until I finally just pulled off the course since I was going about 8mph at full throttle, and even I can eventually tell when something's broken. Disassembling the clutch down at Paul Bowin's place later that week found two totally destroyed discs inside, and that the key that holds the clutch in place had sheared, allowing the clutch to wiggle all over the place and "make bad stuff happen." One clutch rebuild later (thanks Paul B) and it was back to NHMS for RAL weekend! I had high hopes! Ha. Ha ha ha ha.

Good news: The "new" DXL clutch worked great! No more leaks, more grab on launch, good power transfer. Bad news? I had no full-power at various times of the day. I picked up an intermittent power cut-out at full throttle part way through the first day of runs at NHMS. I checked the fuel pickup, spark plug, coil wires. Cleaned various bits. No good, still had power issues. No full power in a Kart is kind of bad. However, PJ seemed to have no issues, as he took my Kart out for a buncha runs, and set the FTD for Saturday. Nice to know the Kart is fast, and it's ME that's slow.... I have GOT to lose 25lb somewhere. I could cut off a leg maybe...

Still, RAL Saturday night was totally awesome, hanging out in the "Karting Pavillion", playing Forza on my 360 and the Bowin's little TV (with steering wheel and pedals and everything) being shushed and threatened with eviction from the site by NHMS site security, playing Beer Pong, playing Beer pong with KATHY, and finally partying with the NHMS site director who essentially told security to STFU. Top that off with taking one for the team for Jenna and PJ by making sure *I* got stopped by the police on the way back to the hotel instead of them (which was really a good thing) and not getting a ticket. RAL Saturday certainly lived up to expectations.
RAL Sunday? Grrrrrr. Kart still had power issues. Top that off with having to wait until MUCH later in the day than I would have liked to run, which meant that, yup, we got to Kart in the RAIN. A Lot of Rain. On Slicks. No, I did not have a set of rims to mount my rain tires on yet, shut up! I started off the runs pissed by all the rain, and the power issues, and FuckTheWorldThisSucks, and ended up having a lot of fun. I couldn't use full power in the rain at NHMS anyway, and I could power-brake and gas and get the kart to turn a lot better than I expected in the wet conditions. Sure, I was wet. Sure, I came through the Carousel turn and a WAVE of water landed in my lap. WTF, I didn't care at that point. I finished off the day with a (wet) smile. Driving home with a pile of flapping tarps and covers on the trailer behind me? I'm sure the other drivers thought it was hilarious.

September 26th, 2010 - A day that will live... in INFAMY. Attack of the Cones. Weather was nice. Loaded up Karts and trailered out to Devens. Had done some with carbs on the assumption that the power issues were fuel-related, so I cleaned filters, blew out lines, got it all back together with no parts left over. By my second run, it was clear that it hadn't made any difference. That and the most kart-unfriendly course did wonders for my mood, but whatever, I pushed on trying to fix various things. No luck. I was losing probably 1-2 seconds on a lap on stuttering, coasting, and not having power where I needed it, only to have it BLAST BACK ON mid-corner or some stupid crap like that. Well, fine, I was just gonna drive it out and pack it up. And then... IT happened. I launch on a run, and 1/4 of the way into the run, my STUPID PROSTHETIC EYE jumps out of my face. Yeah, there, I said it. I thought it was still in my helmet, but really, I had no idea where it was, so you can imagine my time wasn't great when I couldn't concentrate too well at all. Stopping briefly after the finish line confirmed I did not have said eye in my possession, which meant it was ON COURSE somewhere.

I can't even begin to explain the look on Paul Bowin's face when I pulled back into the Kart grid, with one hand over the miss eye-socket, and said, "You need to stop the event, I lost my eye." You can probably picture the look he had, since he didn't realize I had a PROSTHETIC eye, and probably saw the Kart program going down the tubes and the story by-line in the paper, "Competitor loses eye in Go-Kart race." I will also say I've never seen Paul Bowin run faster, ever. The looks on the faces of Stacey, Brian L and a lot of other people were, in hindsight, pretty hilarious. Bob Lang had the privilege of getting on the course radio, and telling corner workers to go out and walk the course to look for a prosthetic eye on course somewhere.

I had the mishap at corner 1. The stupid eye was found at the OTHER END of the course, by someone with some prosthetic eye experience in his circle of friends, was recovered, and was back where it's supposed to be shortly after. When I returned to the pits, Paul Bowin was looking much more human than he had been before he knew what really happened.

I apologized to a lot of people, accepted a lot of good-natured jokes at my expense, and found a new use for duct-tape.

So, yeah, that was my season. Never had a well-running kart, and lost pieces of my body on course. How's your season?

Mosst Have Forgotten to Update!

The Stirling Moss Runoff was held last Sunday. Driver of the Year was awarded, and woo hoo. Great battle I think. Though I don't really know because I didn't do all the Standard Deviation math. But more importantly, our transmission held together (all day!), and took 2nd in Pax and 3rd in raw time, right behind A Mod. That's a big deal!

Also, our replacement tranny is on its way to us from Tennessee. Are you from Tennessee? Because you're the only Ten I see! (Yes, someone actually tried to use that line on me once.) We should be seeing it within a week, and we'll have it popped in soon after that. Which leaves the single working tranny for my future ST car...hm....

Nate Whipple in his DSP ITARRRRRRRGH won the Moss. Yay Nate! He runs G-Fab magnets, and is fast enough to be in G-Fab, but I dunno why he has never received his introductory shirt. Hm. I dunno. Maybe some day Nate will get his shirt. It's a coveted thing, I tell you.

Of course the day wouldn't have been complete without some tire smoke:

I've learned from the pros. I was trying to nail a launch as soon as the flag went down...I didn't do so well, as I had about a 1.5 second delay. I actually scrubbed off about a year's worth of rubber on my launch. I'm practicing for pros! (Who taught me how to race!!!)

Aside from that, it was a great event with the region's best drivers! Team Challenge is next, and I am pretty sure we have a great team that just might win!

Before I sign out, I have to say that I had more fun in Mike Lodsin's STS CRX at the last FCSCC event, than I've had in a LONG time. I had WAY more fun than I thought I would, did better than I thought I would, and fit in the car just about as awkwardly as I expected. I would have liked to go faster, but jeez. Holy crappy shit, that car is so much fun! It was a blast to drive, so thank you Mike! It makes me (almost) want to run an ST class! Though I think I'm going to have to figure out something about the seating positions....

*All Photos except the last Courtesy of Ed Savage*

Episode VIII - Attack of the Cones

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! (OK, it's two Sundays ago by now.)

Somehow, I feel different than I did that Saturday before. Maybe it's because timing got a little hairy. Or maybe it's because we had a nearly 2.5 hour first heat. No, I think it's got something to do with the fact that we had 13 first timer Camaros show up. Yea. 13 of them. FJC was faster.

And possibly because we had the strangest delay of event ever. No, a plane didn't try to land on the taxiway, on top of one of the said Camaros, though there were some circling quite low. No, we had a delay of event because one of G-Fab's own lost a very important (prosthetic) body part on course.

Oh yeah. And one more thing. We finally had gained some confidence in the car, and decided to try it's hand in SSM and Sm...and we blew up yet another transmission. That might have something to do with it. On the other hand, I did get to take apart my first transmission, and this is what I saw:

I'm not sure, but I don't think gears are supposed to look like that....

We're never using Royal Purple again. And it's funny, an M3 friend of mine, and friends of his, swear RP is the devil. Trannys clunk, diffs asplode...no more RP for us. Amsoil is on its way to a town in CT near you.

For now, we've got the spare transmission bolted in, and it will hopefully be up and running by Saturday, for the Stirling Moss Runoffs on Sunday.

Coming up: R33 GTS25T transmission, XXR wheels.

Went to a local FCSCC autocross this weekend to goof around in Roger Whipple's ST class 1991 Civic. It's a fun little car that needs some new rear shocks. Despite being completely different from what I'm used to driving, it was a blast to drive, and probably capable of an STX class win if it wasn't for a dig-and-burn course and those pesky cones. Oh well, no excuses: my driving has been teh sux0rzes lately.

Since the Civic seems to make my head look big, I ended up taking Tim Kong's ST Impreza out for a couple runs. The AWD definitely helped, but I couldn't adapt to the floaty suspension on the first run, and hit 4 cones on what would've been the PAX FTD. Being over-confident in the ABS on run 2 led to failure of the n-th degree (O/C).

Also got a few runs in with some boosted cars: Justin Lau's STU STi, and Kyle Bishop's SM Evo. Both were fun cars, capable of taking the RAW FTD, although there were definitely some changes I'd make to the Evo for suspension (namely some shocks that work).

My sister finally came out to a race in her Mini. Somehow she came out to race before my cousin, Ashley, who still owes Jenna a race after a race/golf bet. Luckily for Jojo, instructor PJ comes before brother PJ, and I actually told her to do things.... and she did them. Weird, isn't it? Look, ma! Cooperating siblings! I think she'd cry if I showed her this:

One of the perks to Jojo racing is that Jenna got a chance to drive something different. Despite being the only car on all-season tires in the class, she put up a good fight. After over-driving for a few runs, she definitely started smoothing it out and separating the gas/brake/steering (very necessary on a stock low-grip car). I think the lessons learned should carry over to the Mazda 3. We'll see this coming weekend when she returns to HS.

Things I've Learned Here in Lincoln

1. The Red Fox Steakhouse is fucking awesome. Grilled cheese sandwiches for burger buns = heaven. Going there every damn year from now on.

2. Don't hit cones. They fuck you and don't even cuddle afterwards.

3. Matching G-Fab t-shirts and polos are definitely the way to go. Style points = intimidation.

4. Fuck rain.

5. Fuck oil even more, except when it leads to lack of rain.

That's about it for now.

Car is back on the ground with rebuilt shocks. Got to watch the shocks on the dyno. Excellent repeatability and zero crosstalk. Almost forgot why I went with these shocks in the first place. Turns out the upper seal was spinning and letting air in the shock. Rebuilt at no cost with labor-free service at Nationals . The Koni guys mentioned it generally happens from extreme side-loading (binding/ crashes) or using an impact wrench on the top nut. Just have to double check the alignment and pick up some race fuel. I've got a feeling we're gonna be pushing the engine pretty hard in a couple days :P

Lots of work to do because the past couple nights have been spent pretty laid back:


Yes, that's my splitter. Sitting on 4 old (40 run) Hoosiers that we just took off. Someone come buy them so I don't have to haul them home?

Not Being Left Behind At A Random Rest Stop In Ohio Sucks.

The "I'm-Not-At-Nationals" pity party guest list gets longer with every passing day. Sure, we have NER G-Fabbers that are MIA, but when more NER people and affiliates can't go, and then the competition bails...wtf.

Going and not driving would suck. But not being there sucks too. I think I'd rather have taken the chance of being left in western Ohio again.

Tamahome is home with me this year. He's sad too. He wanted to drive out in the back seat of the mighty Armada, sleeping under the Dragon Blanket. We were prepared to take Lincoln with a raging and giant Panda storm.

We even washed the car to show off its true Pandaness. So I missed a few (hundred) spots....

Oh well :(

At least I can tell everyone heading out that I really, really hope they do well. Bring back some hardware and have fun.

Top 10 List of Things to Bring to SCCA Solo Nationals

10. Bike - Lincoln is big. This isn't some dinky little plot of land like Rhode Island. There should be highways between paddock and the pits, with rest stops along the way. Walking sucks. Bring a bike.

9. Sunglasses - Forget these and you might miss a mortgage payment, or go blind. Either way, you don't want people knowing that you're looking at them, ever. Bring some sunglasses for some incognito action, and wear them at night while walking the course with a stick in your hand like a blind guy trying to slalom. That'll really psych out the competition.

8. Energy Drinks - Red Bull, Monster, or Chernobly. Don't fall asleep, ever.

7. A stack of $1 dollar bills - Hey, you never know. Crazy things happen with that much caffeine.

6. Umbrella - Let's face it. This is the single most important event for Autocrossers. Someone is going to get screwed by massive amounts of rain. If it's not you, at least don't get wet. If it's you, feel free to claim the tears are just raindrops hitting your eyes.

5. Eyedrops - You'll need an excuse if it's not raining during your heat, and to keep your eyes from drying out since you've forgotten your sunglasses already.

4. Paint scraper and heat gun - The surface at Lincoln is like a cheese grater to your tires. All the grated tire sticks to hot tires when you go fast, and the grated gum beads up and acts like a bearing for your tires, preventing you from having something called traction. Anyways, you're probably not going to be going fast enough to need these, but that doesn't mean you can't make some money scraping tires for relevant competitors. If you can't beat 'em, make money off 'em! Use those $1 dollar bills to make change since you don't want to show your tears of defeat to the strippers, and thus won't be using them otherwise.

3. A Smartphone - Smartphones have all sorts of uses, like being able to tell your friends about how bored you are at work while bored at work, and then updating it when you're bored at home! You'll also be able to watch the rain as it slowly comes in right in time for the second half of first runs in your heat, and dries out right as you come through the finish. You'll also be able to look up the top 10 list of things you've already forgot! Finally, you'll be able to look up the nearest establishment to drink away your sorrows.

2. Golf clubs - You're going to be out there a while, and you'll need a break from the constant exposure to high octane fuels. Why not play some golf where you can lie about how well you did to everyone who was too busy changing tires? Timing and scoring can't reach you on the course, so Mulligan away those drives that DNF (Did Not Fairway).

1. A car - Because I only had 9 things to think of before getting bored of making this list. Guess I should update FB to reflect that....

Trust me. I'm a professional.

Racing Against Leukemia!

RAL 2010 comes to an end. Well, 5 days ago, but who's counting?

ME, THAT'S WHO.

• $285 raised by G-Fab.
• 30 runs taken by 8 different people. Only 2 did not spin epically.
• 1 set of eBay LCA's came undone.
• 2 bike tires that are too big for my bike (and are therefore really funny to look at).
• $30 worth of raffle tickets (we did not win a damn thing).
• 4 corded tires between the 3 and the 240.

• 7 games of beer pong. One team of champions.
• 1 money shot.

• 2 incidents of getting Shhhhhhhhhhhed! (yes again)
• 1 bag of chocolate chip cookies from Lara Shields. Thanks Lara :)
• $3500 raised by Solo
• LOTS of extremely noticeably absent G-Fab members and associates. We missed you. (That means you, Thurz, Eric, Todd, Steph, Charlie, Nate....)

All in all, the event was a great success. Yay to next year!

I Give Up

Dear Self:

Saw your driving on Sunday. Not too bad. Even Bud Collins said you are a pretty good driver. However. I did notice a few things and wanted to offer you a few pointers:

• STOP HITTING CONES.
• When you hit cones, DO NOT look in your mirror to see how many people are running after them. Even for a second.
• Safe and slow sucks. Drive fast, take chances.

Thanks for listening.

Yeah. I suck.

Due to my less-than-stellar performance this past Sunday (results are here), I think I will hang up my driving shoes and get some pedaling shoes:

At least I won't have to walk to the porta-potties anymore.

Why does my Flickr get so many hits???


Hmmmmmmmmmm...................

Time for CHANGE

But only if CHANGE means MOD. Street Mod is back with more go-fast. We updated the rear end with beefier beefyness. It's beefy. 18mm of it. Big, long, and black. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Raise the roll-center like the roof, and bring the CoG down to the floor. Re-welded motor mounts drop the weight down like the times.

Hacked motor mounts for a lowered engine, along with some bling. Jenna and Paul put a good spitshine on the tranny while I was playing with fire:

Hooked up with a direct clutch line. No more funky pedal play for us!

Theere's more, but we'll keep that a sekrit until next time.

I'm not bored enough to entertain you right now.

Late Toledo Recap

Forgot to copy this over to the blog like a month ago. Here it is in all its glory: Toledo FAIL

Too frustrated to really post much now, but we're on the way home having pretty much rode the failboat into a rock. Saturday started off well enough, with Dave positioning himself in 2nd with lots of room for improvement. I got a clean first run in, but on my next run the tranny popped out of gear and made lots of noise. I coasted it in and we checked it out.

Put it in 1st gear and tried to roll it: OK
Put it in 2nd gear and tried to roll it: FAIL

After lots of noise we did a little more testing to make sure it wasn't the clutch, and also tried pushing it around with the engine off and in gear. You're not supposed to be able to freely push the car around with it in second gear....

After about an hour of phone calls, we found a transmission, but it was 3 hours away and they were closing in: 3 hours. Dave went to get it while I pulled the old tranny. Drained a lot of fluid and gear bits, showing fully that the tranny was toast.

Dave eventually got back and we got the tranny in within an hour from then, but in order to do so we had to jack the engine all sorts of angles. This would bite us in the ass later. I also pretty much forced the tranny in, so I think it may be slightly off, as the clutch is stuttering a bit. Grrreaaat.

Anyways, Sunday rolls around and we eventually get to our heat. Dave starts off fine but looks slow. He comes in complaining the clutch is slipping or something, and I check the fork and it seems to be fine. The pedal throw is all weird from the clutch stop no longer being at the correct height, but other than that it looks fine. He swears we're burning up clutches but says he can't get it past 4500rpm, which confuses the **** out of me. All he can really say is the clutch doesn't feel right.

I get up for my runs and instantly find out that I've got no boost. Turbo is spinning and I can hear it, and figure out it's a blown intercooler coupler (just pulled off from jacking the engine around). By then it's too late, and we can't fix it. My runs are over and we're sitting 4th and 5th, without enough points to be able to do any damage at this year's Pro Finale.

So, our year is pretty much shot. We're still debating on if we'll be at Nationals or not. I want to go still, but we'll see if the team as a whole wants to head out.

So I lied, that was pretty long. I might post some vids later, but I'm shot right now.

FML.

-PJ

I Want an S Chassis

A weekend alone means I need to keep myself busy. And busy I did keep.

Saturday brought the annual meet at 240sxMotoring in Milford, CT. Good fun, and nice to meet people, but damn. It was so hot, I felt like I could have been in Hell. You know what, maybe I was. There were these Genesi (?) that kept making their BOV's go off at like 2 mph. How cool of you. When it comes to motor vehicles, I have zero national pride.

NER on Sunday. I run around like a chicken with my head cut off. But I get shit done. 6 runs, (yes we were late to start), minimal reruns, excellent timing and scoring peoples, and NO ARGUMENTS from any other place. Well, except a certain someone that has made a reappearance to NER that is obnoxiously irritating. Yeah. You all know who I mean. Damn. Was hoping that ship had sailed to some other club.

As for the driving part of racing (because sometimes you have to do that), I think I channeled my inner suck. I ran a 70.5 for my second run, and then couldn't touch it all day. I also took a run in 4th gear...awesomely fast I was not. On the plus side, I was only just a little over 3 seconds behind PZ, which is much closer than normal. On the double plus side, I didn't end up spinning, or in the grass. Triple plus was that fastest run= in the first 3.

No pictures. Ass kicking. Again. Plus I worked a lot.

Due to some upsetting phone calls, I got lots of hugs. Thanks everyone. I needed them.

Renegade Miata next. First time running with them, in a car I've never driven. Woo hoo! Maybe I will suck less.

There's No Place Like Cones

If only this weekend was as incredible as my Droid Incredible, which is remarkably faster than Jenna's Droid Incredible, which is still incredible but not to the incredible credibility that is within my incredible Incredible. Dave wants a Droid Incredible like mine, but unfortunately since he's afraid of Walmart (and subsequently the people of Walmart) he's settling for a Motorola Droid X. Sorry Dave, nobody likes their ex.

It's kind of like how nobody likes their powerband falling flat on its face, akin to how the 240sx has been when it blows out spark while retarding timing like an incredible flux-capacitor enabled DeLorean. With incredible vigor, we finally conquered the beast of retardation and finally got the AEM EMS firing the LS7 coils to the tune of 19psi. The incredible happy fun pedal is back!!

However, as someone-who-used-to-drive-an-incredibly-front-wheel-drive-car-but-needs-to-play-golf-again-sometime-soon knows, power is nothing if you can't put it down. Poor suspension geometry plays a big role in that, and being an engineer, I'm supposed to be good at geometry! After an incredible amount of calculation which I can credit to my credo as an engineer, I devised a plan to ripoff someone else's work. Taking notes from Def over at Nissan Road Racing, I popped in some cheap lower control arms, drilled out my spindles (with my bare hands), and spaced out the outer ball joints as far as possible. The result: Incredible.

Our driving: Incredibly poor. Dave was incredibly fast. Dave was also incredibly dirty. He must've been drinking too much Cognac (Cone-yak?). Cones on each run pushed him into the 3rd spot, with raw times that were fast enough to scare XP cars. I was incredibly slow. Can't really say much about that. I can't drive, 55, but slow is at least better than dirty, putting me in second in SM. Todd was in it on Saturday, but incredibly copied my Saturday performance on Sunday much to our dismay. His first two runs were dirty, with a bad cone that would've had him safely in 2nd on his second run by a couple seconds. That left a 3rd run to not go for it and play it almost-too-safe to not hit cones, putting him in second place in SSM by 0.010 seconds, an incredibly small margin, if you ask me.

Up next: Holy Toledo

Spin or Win:: The Story of Finger Lakes

I'm really good at spinning cars. Especially cars I haven't driven in a year, that are a different drivetrain than what I've been driving, that are on street tires, that are way tighter than I'm used to, on pavement that sucks. And I'm really good at letting one stupid spin get to me for an entire weekend. I was like...10 seconds off pace on Sunday, just because I was being super slow and cautious. All that Need for Speed training did nothing.

Ok, the spin was epic. Agricultural, even. There was still grass on the trailer hitch, and mud everywhere, on Sunday afternoon.

Photo courtesy of minibeetle

Yeah. Hilaaaaaaarious. I am not smooth. I am not confident after a run like that. My inputs are stabby, and I can't drive for shit on street tires. And I am SUNBURNED. Yeah.

Otherwise, it was fun. Setting up tents in the torrential rain is always a good time. Also, the Finger Lakes should probably be renamed to Disgustingly Dirty and Full Of Seaweed Lakes. They were literally raking and shoveling it out. No swim for you.

Nate Whipple ghetto rigged some springs, so now owns G-Fab magnets. It was second places all around for NER, with a few 1's and 3's too...results are here.

No pictures. Sorry. I was way too busy getting my ass kicked.

Thank GFab it's Friday!

All the cops has lazerbeams!! Pew pew pew! Lots of cops on I-90. Watch out if you're heading to Finger Lakes from New England!!

We're an hour out from the Seneca Army Depot, site of the 2010 SCCA National Tour at Finger Lakes. Just ahead of Mike Steer (who we passed), and a ways behind Scott Thursbadges (save us a spot!). More to come when we're all unloaded and stuff. I forgot to take pictures of the awesomeness of upstate NY....

Fourth of July weekend. Usually a time for cookouts, fireworks, and drinking. Heavily.

We got the cookout part down. And the drinking part. Us G-Fabbers is good at that game. The fireworks part, not so much. Note to self: no more setting them off inside the car:

Due to a change in the 2010 rules, we can now remove the airbags and everything related to them. It was a process. I am never taking a dash apart again. We also decided to take out speakers, amp, and AC evaporator. (The power door locks were too hard to get to in 90 bazillion degree weather.) Total weight savings: 25 lbs. Was it worth it? Maybe.

While I was playing in plastic, PJ was busy with the second half of the Project Panda Diet: hoodpins so the new hood doesn't fly up while racing and a) ruin the run, and b) waste $500.

We bought a cheap Harbor Freight dremmel, which proved useless due to its cordlessness. It came with some spiffy attachments though, so it wasn't all bad.

Aerocatch is full of win. Yay. Looks pretty good, huh?

PJ was so happy, he did flips.

New LCA's come in today, and the race to install before Finger Lakes will be on.

2000. 10. Till Now.

As an interjection to DC Pro stories, let's catch you up, shall we?

2010 started off with (another) bang:

I think NER might rename the first event of every season to "PJ's Speedy Dry Shuffle."

We somehow learned from our mistakes, and instead of going with just a spare, and bolting everything on, there was some engine building going on:

Eagle rods and a fully built bottom end to try to combat the monster known as torque:

Finally painted the engine bay:

Needed MOAR downforce, so splitter to split the air, and because it was looking a little wide around the ass area, we put the car on a high carbonfiber diet:

In the meantime, my old clutch had finally reached the end:

Replaced it with a Stage 1 and a lightweight flywheel:

No Sweetiepies were harmed in the installation of this clutch, but there was one casualty:

Due to stupid OBDII, and stupid sensors, and stupid RI inspection laws, I threw a code and failed inspection. Apparently the sensor likes my old 109-tooth flywheel, and the new 108-tooth one just isn't going to allow me to pass.

And for the record, replacing FWD clutches sucks.