The local newspaper ran an article covering the local SCCA region, and chose one of Jane Quinn’s photos of my car for the article. Nothing big, but still pretty cool.
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Waiting for the poured foam seat to cure
Been a long winter, but didn’t do much on the car. For the spring I’ve found little that needed work, and just had to fill all the fluids and do a systems check. I have done a couple upgrades however.
Last year I struggled with my driving position – namely I was working so hard to hold my self still that I couldn’t really concentrate on placing the car where I wanted it. To combat this, this year I made a poured two-part foam seat insert (see picture). With the insert and belts in place, I basically can’t move in the car, which should allow me to concentrate on the driving. I still have a few details to work on with the seat (cutting belt holes, and covering it in duct tape to make it more durable), but the seat itself is now ready.
The other upgrade I did was to rebuild my wheels, and mount the “new” tires I got from Brian. The tires themselves are actually a few years (and many events) old, but they’re still miles better than the 11 year old dry rotted ”tires” I had before. Also my 2-piece wheels leaked horribly where the two parts were bolted together. To fix this, I disassembled them, and put them back together with some aluminum-specific silicone caulk. They look much better, and seem to be holding air better as well (although I just mounted the tires last night).
The first event for the new car this year will be Sunday – if the weather holds. If it turns out to be a cold & rainy day, I may be tempted to trump the PAX and run the STI for the day. More details to follow.
Last weekend Garrison and I campaigned the Porsche in the SCCA National Tour event at the Seneca Army Depot. Despite typically running in CSP, I decided to run the car in FP (for which it is also legal). This turned out to be a great idea as all of us in FP had a great time. We were all off the “pace” relative to other classes, yet we were all within a second of each other going into our last runs.
Garrison picked up pace VERY quickly in the Porsche, taking off several seconds on each of his first three runs. Unfortunately he only had three runs on the first day, which wasn’t quite enough for him to “come up to pace” in the car. By the end of the first day he was within 0.5 seconds of me however. He improved even more the second day, and took home 2nd in the class.
My Saturday runs were much more consistent, but not astonishing. I coned my last two runs, effectively making my first “bank” run my best run of the day. On the second day I had two solid first runs, which were very close to each other on times (and also very close to Garrison). However, on my last run of the second day, I was able to take off a solid 3 seconds! This was enough to secure 1st place within the class, taking my first national-level win.
Also a big thank you to Jeff Blumenthal and Brian Ciarlei (and crew) who were very helpful in letting me “poke around” their cars. I hoped to come home with a better understanding of how to put together my F440, and I feel I did. I’ve still got plenty of things to figure out, but I feel more confident now. I can’t wait to get my car on the road!!
Here’s some links to photo galleries:
My Photos
Rich Hutchinson’s Photos
FLR Region Photos
Mageep (?)’s Photos
