I'm still looking for something to turn into a "kill" sticker to put on the car. Anyone seen a good picture of a deer with a tire track across his neck? Or something similar?
Showing posts with label one lap of america. Show all posts
Showing posts with label one lap of america. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
I love this.
I'm still looking for something to turn into a "kill" sticker to put on the car. Anyone seen a good picture of a deer with a tire track across his neck? Or something similar?
Saturday, May 10, 2008
One Lap: The Carnage
Here are some pics of the damage (yeah, I know, "finally!").
The hose in the picture below appears to be a drain for the washer fluid reservoir.
And a short video. (WARNING: Some animals were definitely harmed in the making of this video. Badly harmed. Some would say killed. Dead. Very dead. But no acts of violence happen in the actual video.)
The hose in the picture below appears to be a drain for the washer fluid reservoir.
And a short video. (WARNING: Some animals were definitely harmed in the making of this video. Badly harmed. Some would say killed. Dead. Very dead. But no acts of violence happen in the actual video.)
One Lap: Would I do it again?
Yeah, pretty sure I'll try to do it again next year. I'm not entirely sure what I'll do to the Cayman, but it's likely going to get a significant horsepower boost. While Leh and I had a great time, I think he'll likely do something a little different, so I'll be looking out for a codriver. There's a few things I'll change otherwise, but nothing terribly significant.
On the trailer front, I'll likely build version 2.0 of the trailer (well, have it built) and then speed test it at CMP. I'm thinking about putting full data acquisition on it as well as video and perhaps even a crash test dummy. It'll have a full aerodynamic package that's wind tunnel tested, too.
Or perhaps I'll just add some storage and lower the center of gravity some and not go too fast for the trailer around corners. *cough*
On the trailer front, I'll likely build version 2.0 of the trailer (well, have it built) and then speed test it at CMP. I'm thinking about putting full data acquisition on it as well as video and perhaps even a crash test dummy. It'll have a full aerodynamic package that's wind tunnel tested, too.
Or perhaps I'll just add some storage and lower the center of gravity some and not go too fast for the trailer around corners. *cough*
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
One Lap: We're done.
Karma. Had to be.
I didn't have to tell a few of my fellow One Lap competitors that I would get a good night of sleep in my own bed between CMP and VIR tonight, but I did. They were probably annoyed at me, and rightfully so...I was throwing my luck in their faces that the route of the race went near my house with perfect timing for a good night of sleep in my own bed.
So I'm driving the last stint in since I know the roads well, but I'm a bit tired and in a little bit of a hurry to hit the hay. It's 10:30pm. I turn what is really the next to the last turn before my house and do it a little fast. The trailer rolls in the road, all but ripping free of the car (strangely, the safety chains that didn't seem well designed from the hitch company kept it attached). The tool box rips off and scatters tools in the road. Now, this time of night isn't busy around here, which was good. We jump out and get everything gathered up and out of the road and agree to leave Leh there with the stuff while I run home in the Cayman to get a truck and trailer, which would have taken a total of 15 minutes, max (yes, we were that close to my house).
That wasn't meant to be, though, as a deer ran out in front of me leaving me no choice but to hit it. I got on the brakes pretty good, but there was just nothing that could have been done short of ditching the car, which wasn't an option. The damage appears to be only body work and a radiator, but it's enough to keep us out of the race.
I suppose the good news in all of this is that if you're going to crash, it's obviously better to do it near home instead of 2,000 miles away, which was certainly possible. Plus nobody was hurt. Well, other than the deer and a little bit of ego.
I didn't have to tell a few of my fellow One Lap competitors that I would get a good night of sleep in my own bed between CMP and VIR tonight, but I did. They were probably annoyed at me, and rightfully so...I was throwing my luck in their faces that the route of the race went near my house with perfect timing for a good night of sleep in my own bed.
So I'm driving the last stint in since I know the roads well, but I'm a bit tired and in a little bit of a hurry to hit the hay. It's 10:30pm. I turn what is really the next to the last turn before my house and do it a little fast. The trailer rolls in the road, all but ripping free of the car (strangely, the safety chains that didn't seem well designed from the hitch company kept it attached). The tool box rips off and scatters tools in the road. Now, this time of night isn't busy around here, which was good. We jump out and get everything gathered up and out of the road and agree to leave Leh there with the stuff while I run home in the Cayman to get a truck and trailer, which would have taken a total of 15 minutes, max (yes, we were that close to my house).
That wasn't meant to be, though, as a deer ran out in front of me leaving me no choice but to hit it. I got on the brakes pretty good, but there was just nothing that could have been done short of ditching the car, which wasn't an option. The damage appears to be only body work and a radiator, but it's enough to keep us out of the race.
I suppose the good news in all of this is that if you're going to crash, it's obviously better to do it near home instead of 2,000 miles away, which was certainly possible. Plus nobody was hurt. Well, other than the deer and a little bit of ego.
One Lap: Motor Update
No joy getting our motor situation sorted out. We may dyno the car tonight to see what kind of power we're really making, though. Should be interesting.
One Lap: UGH!
Got roasted at the two CMP events. Ninth in the first, probably about the same in the second. On our way now to the BMW facility, but the real development is we think we have a better clue now as to what's wrong with the motor and even better is we may have the ability to get someone to attempt to fix it. More on that later, but there's hope yet...
Darth Vader rides again:
Darth Vader rides again:
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
One Lap: Didn't go so well today...
We had a seventh and eighth place at No Problem Raceway in Baton Rouge, LA. That wasn't so bad. What was bad was that they decided to do the drag race here since they have a strip. So we did that at the end, even though we also had 800 miles to drive today to get to the next track. Ugh. What's worse with that is that we're down on power for some strange reason and thus placed like 27th in the drag race. The combination of those three events dropped us from second to sixth!
Here's the video blog about it:
Here's the video blog about it:
Monday, May 5, 2008
One Lap: Events five and six done!
Event seven won't happen...the drag strip was canceled due to weather. We ran both events at Texas World Speedway pretty much in the pouring rain. The first group of the morning session had a wet track, but not much actual rain going on. Their cars had no rooster tails. Leh was in the second group, however, and it started raining pretty good for that group and those cars all had big rooster tails for the entire run. Leh ended up seventh, which was pretty good considering.
In the next session it was pretty much just raining continually for everyone, which was fine since it was equal for everyone. The gaps were much closer and Leh wasn't far out of second, but ended up fourth. Those two strong finishes moved us up to second overall, but third and fourth are gaining on us fast as they are both doing very well. We'll need some luck to stay this far up, but there's still a lot to go.
After a bad start to the event with a poor wet skid pad showing, Ian Stewart has really gotten that GT3 humming. The car looks great and he's driving great. If he would have had some skid pad practice beforehand, he'd probably be leading now. Great job, Ian!
And now for something you're really gonna dislike:
In the next session it was pretty much just raining continually for everyone, which was fine since it was equal for everyone. The gaps were much closer and Leh wasn't far out of second, but ended up fourth. Those two strong finishes moved us up to second overall, but third and fourth are gaining on us fast as they are both doing very well. We'll need some luck to stay this far up, but there's still a lot to go.
After a bad start to the event with a poor wet skid pad showing, Ian Stewart has really gotten that GT3 humming. The car looks great and he's driving great. If he would have had some skid pad practice beforehand, he'd probably be leading now. Great job, Ian!
And now for something you're really gonna dislike:
Day two bonus post
Okay, this is a bonus post. No video on this one. One video per day. I know you're all saying "aw", but that's life. I'm tired and we're getting close enough to the end of our journey for today that I couldn't get a video uploaded anyway.
People seem to want to know more about my car. It's a 2006 Porsche Cayman S that had 295HP stock. I ordered it with all the go fast options including ceramic brakes and such, but it still didn't quite "do it" for me. So I sent it to Farnbacher Loles for their "GTR" conversion. That includes things like the 911 (997) front end for looks, but more importantly the X51 engine and limited slip differential (LSD). It's also got Moton Club Sport shocks, custom spring rates and lots of 997 and Cup Car suspension parts. To save weight we've replaced the rear decklid with a carbon fiber unit with a lexan window. There are lots of other little things I've done, but I won't bore with those details NOW. Maybe later.
Another question is about my codriver. His name is Leh Keen, and he's a professional driver from the Farnbacher Rolex GT Grand Am series team. I actually never met him until the weekend before the One Lap started at a Grand Am race at VIR (where he finished third). We had already arranged the codrive deal before then, which is odd. Yes, I agreed to spend a week in tight quarters with someone I had never met. Crazy, but true. How did we come together? Through Farnbacher. I wanted to do this race for quite a while, but as you might guess from the mod list, I have a lot of money invested in this car (I love the word "invested" in this context...it's so wrong, but yet feels so, err, wrong!). I just didn't want to do it with someone who couldn't afford to pay for any damage they might inflict. When I couldn't find anyone willing and able, Farnbacher offered to provide me someone that THEY would stand behind. And here we are! Don't tell Leh, but I'm glad I did it, too. It's been fun so far, and I don't think I'll kill him before it's over. He might kill me, though!
I want to thank Casey Lewis and all his employees at Beechwood Metalworks for designing and building the trailer we're pulling on this little adventure, too. These folks are talented artists in every sense of the word. I feel bad asking them to make something as uninteresting as a trailer, in fact. But we're great friends and they knocked it out for me and it's working great. I don't know what I'd do without their help (on things other than just this little race, too!). I've come up with some major changes I'd like to make already if I do this again in regards to the trailer, but I'm going to keep those a secret until it's time to build that one. *cough*
The one thing I miss outside of the normal stuff (kids, wife, etc) is EXERCISE. This week is going to be hard on my body, I know it. There's simply no way to work hardly any of that in.
People seem to want to know more about my car. It's a 2006 Porsche Cayman S that had 295HP stock. I ordered it with all the go fast options including ceramic brakes and such, but it still didn't quite "do it" for me. So I sent it to Farnbacher Loles for their "GTR" conversion. That includes things like the 911 (997) front end for looks, but more importantly the X51 engine and limited slip differential (LSD). It's also got Moton Club Sport shocks, custom spring rates and lots of 997 and Cup Car suspension parts. To save weight we've replaced the rear decklid with a carbon fiber unit with a lexan window. There are lots of other little things I've done, but I won't bore with those details NOW. Maybe later.
Another question is about my codriver. His name is Leh Keen, and he's a professional driver from the Farnbacher Rolex GT Grand Am series team. I actually never met him until the weekend before the One Lap started at a Grand Am race at VIR (where he finished third). We had already arranged the codrive deal before then, which is odd. Yes, I agreed to spend a week in tight quarters with someone I had never met. Crazy, but true. How did we come together? Through Farnbacher. I wanted to do this race for quite a while, but as you might guess from the mod list, I have a lot of money invested in this car (I love the word "invested" in this context...it's so wrong, but yet feels so, err, wrong!). I just didn't want to do it with someone who couldn't afford to pay for any damage they might inflict. When I couldn't find anyone willing and able, Farnbacher offered to provide me someone that THEY would stand behind. And here we are! Don't tell Leh, but I'm glad I did it, too. It's been fun so far, and I don't think I'll kill him before it's over. He might kill me, though!
I want to thank Casey Lewis and all his employees at Beechwood Metalworks for designing and building the trailer we're pulling on this little adventure, too. These folks are talented artists in every sense of the word. I feel bad asking them to make something as uninteresting as a trailer, in fact. But we're great friends and they knocked it out for me and it's working great. I don't know what I'd do without their help (on things other than just this little race, too!). I've come up with some major changes I'd like to make already if I do this again in regards to the trailer, but I'm going to keep those a secret until it's time to build that one. *cough*
The one thing I miss outside of the normal stuff (kids, wife, etc) is EXERCISE. This week is going to be hard on my body, I know it. There's simply no way to work hardly any of that in.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
One Lap: Events three and four in the books!
Well, yesterday was a long day, but we did get in bed just before midnight and got up at 6am to make it to the track on time. Leh went out in the third run group (little demotion!), but set eighth fastest time for the morning event, which moved us back to fourth overall and first in class. We had time to kill before we ran the same thing again at 12:30, so we watched some race video and talked to folks.
In the second event Leh went out and kicked butt pretty good to get fifth overall and keep us in fourth for the event overall. Mid America only has one straight that isn't terribly long, so the big HP cars didn't have a huge advantage on us. We're also helped by the fact that DaVia is having some trouble with his ECU and isn't able to run at near full power (he still has more HP than us even in his detuned state, though he was still handicapped more in the afternoon today because he didn't detune it enough to avoid bigger problems).
We're in pretty great shape right now as we keep hitting the road faster than just about everyone and we just don't stop for anything other than fuel, food, and bathroom and we almost always make each stop entail some combination of those things. We should be in the bed by 1:30am localtime tonight and won't need to be up until 6:30 or so, maybe even a bit later. So we're in great shape in the sleep department. Well, at least compared to most folks. We heard stories today of people mostly not getting in to bed until well after 2am on average with some sleeping in the bathroom at the track and stuff. Sleeping in cars wasn't much of an option last night where we were as it got a little below freezing!
And for more evidence of my natural videography talent:
In the second event Leh went out and kicked butt pretty good to get fifth overall and keep us in fourth for the event overall. Mid America only has one straight that isn't terribly long, so the big HP cars didn't have a huge advantage on us. We're also helped by the fact that DaVia is having some trouble with his ECU and isn't able to run at near full power (he still has more HP than us even in his detuned state, though he was still handicapped more in the afternoon today because he didn't detune it enough to avoid bigger problems).
We're in pretty great shape right now as we keep hitting the road faster than just about everyone and we just don't stop for anything other than fuel, food, and bathroom and we almost always make each stop entail some combination of those things. We should be in the bed by 1:30am localtime tonight and won't need to be up until 6:30 or so, maybe even a bit later. So we're in great shape in the sleep department. Well, at least compared to most folks. We heard stories today of people mostly not getting in to bed until well after 2am on average with some sleeping in the bathroom at the track and stuff. Sleeping in cars wasn't much of an option last night where we were as it got a little below freezing!
And for more evidence of my natural videography talent:
Saturday, May 3, 2008
One Lap: Second Event Down
Well, this one didn't go as well as the first, but we're still in good shape. We finished 13th in this event, but Road America is a horsepower track and we don't have as much as many of the cars here. So this was somewhat expected. We're still in great shape in fifth place overall. Leh ran Mid America last year in the One Lap, so he's got some experience there. We should be pretty good at CMP at VIR, too, so if we can keep getting decent finishes and keep everything in one piece, we're fine.
And now for what everyone really wants, VIDEO!
And now for what everyone really wants, VIDEO!
One Lap: First Event Done!
Leh went out and kicked some serious butt in the wet skidpad and when we left we were in the lead, which people seemed to think would hold. He was a .921G and second place was a .902.
Video blog:
Video blog:
Friday, May 2, 2008
One Lap about to start...
Well, we made it to South Bend and got registered today. The event officially starts tomorrow. The One Lap folks let you pick a charity to "sponsor" and mine is, of course, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Please take a minute to help find a cure!
Look for upcoming pics with the personalized JDRF license plate!
And now for the first in a LONG video blog series! Aren't you just giddy with anticipation?
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Racing update from VIR this weekend
I think this was the first weekend I've ever been to VIR where I wasn't racing or instructing...I was merely a spectator. I went on Saturday to watch Jason Saini run in the World Challenge Touring Car race. Sadly, before the race started, they were forecasting a bad storm with 60MPH winds and large hail that was to hit right in the middle of the race. I decided I didn't want to watch that bad and left. Turns out it only sprinkled at the end of the race with no big storm. Argh. Probably not a big deal since Jason started last thanks to a broken transmission in qualifying and could only work his way from 16th to 11th in the race.
Today I went back to watch the Rolex race, which features GT and DP cars. Of particular interest was the Farnbacher Loles team. I'm running the One Lap of America in a week and my partner is Leh Keen, who drives a Farnbacher 911 in GT. Leh did great and ended up in third today. Nice job, Leh!
Off to continue One Lap preparations...
Today I went back to watch the Rolex race, which features GT and DP cars. Of particular interest was the Farnbacher Loles team. I'm running the One Lap of America in a week and my partner is Leh Keen, who drives a Farnbacher 911 in GT. Leh did great and ended up in third today. Nice job, Leh!
Off to continue One Lap preparations...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)