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.