Watkins Glen trip report 2008

[GreenGSX]

I hate my car. I can’t help it but its true. It’s a big pile of crap and I have no desire to work on it. When I put it away last year the alternator relocation bracket was broken, the heater core was leaking hot fluids on me, I had stolen the brake master cylinder for the Galant and the engine was crankwalked. I was totally convinced that I’d have to build another engine for this year and the reality of life is that I do not have the budget for that.

That’s the place I was in two weeks ago. I could barely walk past the car without cringing. I just had no desire left for it all. Lucky for me my wife cleared up some time for me on the weekends and I started to pick away at it.

First up was the heater core. Getting the dash out isn’t that hard but it is tedious. The thought did cross my mind to just pull out the entire HVAC system and get rid of 35lbs and a couple of hoses to have to worry about. But our season starts in April and goes to October which means that I will have to contend with 40 degree days. So I decided to keep it. The dash goes back in much quicker then it comes out and to my surprise I only have a few leftover parts and screws.

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I ordered a new brake master around Christmas time so that was pretty easy to install and my wife helped me bleed the brakes. She’s getting pretty good at it by now.

Fixing the alternator is pretty easy too. I just had to send an email and ship off the lower bracket. It came back a few days later and went on the car in about 15 minutes. While I had the intake manifold out to fix the alternator I did notice that I could use a set of injector seals. Not much of a chance getting those before the event so I just lubed them up with oil and put them back in.

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I saved the crankwalk for last. I’ve been talking to my machine shop and searching on-line to see if I couldn’t just put new main bearings in and I decided that the only way to find out is to pull the pan and main caps and see what type of damage was done. Getting the bearings out was pretty easy. Drop the cross member, drop the down pipe and finally, drop the transfer case and everything is pretty much there. Once the oil pan is off I used a screwdriver to move the crank back and forth and just like last year this pig has crankwalk. If you can see it move without your glasses it’s pretty bad. I loosened the alternator belt and pulled the main caps and basically everything looks pretty good. Now keep in mind this motor has over 60K miles of absolute abuse and it’s gone through at least three turbochargers that I can remember. You can plainly see in the pictures that chunks of stuff have gone through the motor. But what you can’t see in the crank which looks pretty good. The thrust surface on the crank shows signs of un-even wear but otherwise it’s OK. I took the bearings to my machine shop and he said it looks like you’ve been beating on this for a while. “Nope, just back and forth to church”

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I used the cap off a bic pen to push the bearings out of the engine and then used a screwdriver to pull them around the journal so I could take them out. I lubed up the new bearings and pushed them into place and using a feeler gauge I checked the crank endplay and everything was back in spec. Then I buttoned everything up by installing the main bearing caps, oil pan, etc..etc.

With my fix-it list completed I charged up the battery and she fired right up. I roll out of the garage and gently take it for a spin. The oil pressure is good and there is no sign of knocking and for 6 month old gas she is running pretty good. There is a bit of uncertainty in the front suspension but I think that has to do with the fact that car has been sitting for a while and the tires have taken a “set”. This all happens on Wednesday night and the event is on the Monday and Tuesday of the following week. I have Friday off from work and part of the weekend to fix any bugs that come up. For now I am just going to drive as much as I can to see what breaks.

Friday I find myself in an unusual position. There is nothing to do? That’s right, my POS is running perfectly. I did a little tuning and it does 21psi with no knock and it pulls like a train all the way to 8500 rpms. The front end worries seem to be fading as I put more miles on the tires. So, I cut the grass, washed the car, picked up my tools and basically just wandered around all day with nothing to do.

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Saturday was spent with my wife and daughter and Sunday around 4pm I meet up with Mike and he and I headed off to the Glen.

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[GreenGSX]

continued...

The trip down to the Glen was uneventful but beautiful none the less. That section of route 14 that goes along Seneca lake is one of my favorite drives. Maybe it’s because of the views or maybe because I know I’m going to the Glen. This year we are staying at the Seneca Lodge. Its up on the same hill as the Glen and it overlooks the Seneca valley. You can just make out the lake from the roof-top restaurant seating but mainly you get to see the valley. At check-in for the PCA event we have a few beers and find some familiar faces to talk cars with. Then Mike and I enjoy a nice easy dinner outside with a few more beers for good measure.

This year the garage spaces were sold in an effort to avoid the mad-dash in the morning to reasearve a spot. I thought ahead and got a space so Mike and I got there around 6:30am instead of the normal 5:30am. I get to work unloading and installing my brake cooling ducts while Mike unloads his car. After checking my tire pressures and filling all the fluids I could find we head off to the instructors meeting. There’s nothing new in the meeting. We just go over some safety issues and discuss passing zones.

Instructors always get first crack at the track so at 8:30 we head out. Now before I get into the first session I should tell you a bit about the changes I made to the car from last year, none. That’s right I haven’t changed a thing. It still has the L1R, home-made intake manifold, and runs 21psi of boost with water/alcohol injection through a Supra sidemount IC. I would guess its making ~375-400hp but that might be a little high. The only real change that was made was due to budget constraints. I am now on street tires instead of Victoracers. At $198 each without the $30/tire for heat cycling and shaving its getting pretty hard to afford track tires anymore. So, I am riding on Khumo MX’s which I’ve found from a couple of autocross experiences offer pretty good transitional grip (read slalom) but they suffer pretty badly in ultimate cornering grip (read prone to plowing).

Out I go in the first session. I am a bit nervous so I take it easy. It appears that everyone else is too as we are parade lapping around a couple of laps. The car feels OK and the tires won’t kill me so I gradually pick up the pace. The line around the Glen must be burned into my subconscious because I’m not even thinking about it and the car is just finding its way like its on auto pilot. I pass a few cars and get stuck in another train. Its not until 9 minutes into my session that I finally get to some open track. Now I can push things a bit. The car is pulling nicely and the oil pressure and water temps are right on the money. My speeds are way down from last year. That is to be expected from the street tires but it still took me a bit by surprise. I was hoping to be in the mid 2:20’s seeing how on Victoracers I was in the 2:15-2:18 range but it feels like I turning 2:30’s and that’s no more evident then going up through the esses. Last year if I nailed turn one I would flat-foot the car all the way to 350 feet where I would brake all the way into turn 5 in the buss stop at speeds over 140mph. Now I am peddling the car and although I am over 100mph out of the esses without the momentum I am only at 125mph at the end of the back strait. I am also fighting for traction going down the carousel and coming out of the boot. In those spots I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing anymore.

A couple more laps go by and I’m finding my rhythm again. I think the key to these street tires is hitting your marks. If I hit my marks and do the corner perfectly I’m fast. If I make any mistake, and I mean any mistake, I pay a big price with by…pushing, oversteering, and in the worst cases 4-wheel drifting. Now they are making all sorts of noises that one might think gives plenty of forewarning but there really isn’t any change between tires squealing and tires letting go.

Back to the action….Street tires aside I am feeling pretty good about things. The car is running perfectly with just a hint of knock over 6500 rpms which I am sure I can cure with just a bit of fuel up top. On the front strait I get passed by a cup car which always gets my blood moving. I chase him down the strait but I see a white GT3RS coming on strong so I point him by before turn 1. This kind of kills a bit of momentum but I nail turn 1 by turning in early and 4-wheel slide the car down to the apex. That allows me to mash the gas early and just track it out on my way to turn 2. That sucks the GT3RS right back into view as we head up the esses. I can see up ahead the Archer racing talon (NT with race rubber) is climbing the hill. I know I can catch him so its going to be a double pass for the GT3 and I before the buss-stop. We both get quick point bys and I keep my foot planted at I give a wave as I pass him. When my attention returns to the front of the car I see something that I really didn’t expect. The GT3RS driver is on the brakes at the 700 foot mark!...WTF!.I am on pace to brake at 250 feet which is going to put me in the buss-stop at around 70mph. This isn’t going to be good. Sure enough that GT3 was going about 50mph as he turned in and I had no way of getting ride of that 20 mph difference. I moved all the way over to the right and just put my foot through the floor. I don’t remember looking back but I thought I saw a 20 foot cloud of tire some behind me. It’s a good thing the GT3 guy had his head on because he just moved over to the left as I trailed my brakes to the back of the buss-stop where I regained control and continued on my way. That was close and seeing how his brakes are worth more than my car that would have been pretty ugly to have a $130,000 Porsche punted by my $5000 POS.

Needless to say I took it easy for the next two laps before pitting. I stopped to talk to the GT3RS driver to apologize and to see what happened. He said that after I passed the Archer Talon he didn’t think I would have been able to stop so he took early evasive maneuvers and slowed up. It wasn’t until I got home Tuesday night and review the video that I figured out what had happened. If that guy would have just kept driving at his normal pace nothing would have happened. But he was on the brakes way, way to early and my attention was to my arm waving out the window and I didn’t see his brake lights. If I did I would have braked early too. I guess he just underestimated my braking ability. Silly Porsche owners just never learn. Unfortunately for me, that would not be the last incident of the day…

I have two students this year both of which are named Steve. First up is tall Steve who is a Navy officer that drives a pretty much stock 944 turbo and short Steve who owns his own general contracting company and drives a 995 (bug-eyed 911 turbo). Tall Steve has track experience and has soloed before so I wasn’t worried about him. My first session with tall Steve was uneventful. He was a good driver and his only issue was running up on the back of slower moving cars which I quickly cured for him. I knew I would be signing him off after lunch so I just showed him a few refinements to his line that helped his lap times. Short Steve is a track virgin. He’s done Skip Barber and the super car dream ride but hasn’t ever been to the Glen. The first session was uneventful. Basically I drove the first three laps and showed him the line and then he drove a few laps in parade style with everyone else. No passing this time around.

Second sessions of the day start with tall Steve. I tweaked his line and helped him brake later and harder. Otherwise there was little left for me to do with him until he got more track time and could pick up his pace. Again, I was going to sign him off that afternoon so I was really just making sure he was safe and had a good eye for other drivers. My second session with short Steve started fine. He has natural ability to drive and its starting to come out. As we pick up the pace he responds by driving better. He has a good awareness of the other drivers and can maintain his line while letter faster cars by. His car is quick too. I would suspect its in the 325hp range and the brakes are up to the task. The turbo on the car is very liniear and it comes on like a 50-trim, nice and easy. About 2/3rds of the way into the session our pace is quick and the track is clear. He’s putting some turns together and I have him flying down the front strait and he does very well into turn 1. I hold him back up the esses but on the exit he gets a quick pass and he storms down the back strait. We did a good job through the buss-stop and down the carousel and by now, he’s yelling “yeah...yeah…yeah” as he rockets through the laces. Coming into the toe of the boot I can see something is wrong. He’s not moving over as quickly as he should. I make a hand signal for him to track out left but he’s not doing it. I yell “left..left..left” and my hand goes to grab the wheel but by that time its to late. We enter the toe of the boot from the middle and he actually flicks the car to the left so as to have two front tires on the concrete. Both he and I realize that not only are we out of position he has forgotten to brake as well. “Brakes..brakes..brakes..” is all I could get out of my mouth. He mashes the brakes and then does what I would have expected any rookie driver to do…he turns the wheel. I can feel the back tires coming out and its like slow motion. Can anybody guess what he does next?...anyone?. Yep, he lifts off the brakes which completes the maneuver and allows us to a picture perfect 180 in the toe of the boot. We end up track left looking down hill while two cars pass us. It took him a few minutes (seconds) to get the car started and when we do we limp back into the pits for a good talking to. He is a bit shaken and honestly that was a first time spinning for me too. We go over what went wrong and try my best not to make him feel bad about what’s happened but I will have my work cut out for me to get him back out and up to speed that afternoon.

to be continued...

 

[GreenGSX]

continued...

After de-briefing short Steve I get myself collected and ready for my second session of the day. To be honest I am a bit nervous myself. I strap myself in, turn the camera on, and head on out. I like to take it easy for the first lap of two so I can get some heat in the brakes and tires. It also gives me a chance to settle myself and find my pace. Climbing up the esses I see a yellow GT3 hauling up on me so I prepare to be passed as I enter the back strait. I let him by with lots of room for both of us to enter the buss stop. I think to myself that this is a good first test of me and the new tires. All I have to do is keep up and I'd be happy. But then again, passing would be cool too. I easily match his speed through the buss stop and as we go down the carousel we run into slower traffic (914 "jam cars"). He gets by before the chute, I have to wait. I figure I would get that room back by out braking him into the toe but a blue cup car has come up on me so I lift and let him pass. Funny thing is the cup car hugs the inside line up the toe and I take my normal line yet, he still is faster through the turn and he is "nutty" faster out of the toe. Still I manage to keep him (yellow GT3) in sight but as we get to the front strait I get really stuck behind a 1960's speedster and I can see I'm loosing sight of him. To rub it in a bit I get passed by a ZO6 before I get to turn one. That really gets my blood going and little light goes off in my head "game on"...

I nail turn one and the two of us head toward the esses only to be slowed by a four door Audi 500 something. I figure we'll both get a pass on the back strait and we do. Into the buss stop at about 70mph and the Vette looks to be doing 75mph. Down into the laces we pass another car and head into the toe of the boot with me right on his tail. This is the horsepower test, up out of the toe of the boot against a ZO6. I pick up half a car length through the corner but on corner exit he gets that back. With my foot to the floor I match his speed down to the 200 foot mark where he gets on the brakes. Now I know he is hustling because his line through turn 9 is ugly. I'm on his tail through 10, 11, and 12 as we blast onto the front strait. Up through 4th I am with him but as I click into 5th he starts pulling on me a bit. I pulled him back with the brakes into turn 1 and put the hammer down going into the esses. This is where the ZO6 shines. I can't flat foot my way up the esses and I have to "peddle" the car between 2-3 and 3-4. I would guess he's got 5-10mph on me out of the esses as he's pulling away on the back strait. We hit another "jam car" in the carousel and he gets by before the chute while I have to wait until after. That gives him some space between us that I am not able to get back. I can see him in turn 12 but he pulls on me up till 1 and has a good advantage up the esses. I score this as ZO6=1, timmy=0.

As I enter the esses I can see a familiar red Supra coming up the front strait. I let go of the idea of catching the ZO6 and I slow up so I can play with Mike for a while. He passes me before the buss stop and by then I realized I should have made him earn it because he's doing 80 mph while I can only manage 70 mph through turn 5. I hustle down the carousel and I am pacing him through the chute, laces and into the toe. I pulled back some of the space between us braking into the toe and we set ourselves to charge up the hill. As I hit the apex cone the car 4 wheel drifts a bit as the boost comes on strong. I lift the gas then punch it as the car regains traction but I've lost some momentum and more importantly, room to track out. I can feel the front tire going off and I know this isn't a time to lift so I keep my foot to the floor and just drive through it. The car sticks and with just a little bit of wiggle gets back under way. The good news is that I am matching his speed and again I am able to make up some room before turn 9 with the brakes. As we go through 10, 11, and 12 it's becoming pretty clear that I don't have either the traction or horsepower to overtake Mike. His line is clean and his car, although running rich, is making more power than mine. I am hanging with him on the front strait but we both are quickly coming up on the Archer racing Talon. Mike takes a really late pass signal into turn one and he tries to take the inside line all the way through. He is carrying to much speed and as the car tracks out is stops responding to Mikes desire to turn right and it makes a beeline off course. The car does manage to turn but as he goes from two on the rumble strip to four it looks like he's just fallen off the face of the earth To Mikes credit he drives the car off and then back on without missing a beat. I know he's on the hammer because I can see the black smoke and he pulls strongly up the esses. The Archer car is all that stands between Mike and I so exiting the esses I pass him on the back strait. That little delay is all Mike needed to put some distance on and I am falling behind down the carousel. Again, using the brakes, I gained back some of that space braking into the chute. Heading into the toe I pick back another good chunk of space with the brakes as I hustle up the hill. Just like the last time as I near the apex and the turbo hits I start 4-wheel drifting. This time its worse. I know I have my hands full and as I approach the apex cone it lets go. I am drifting sideways right off the track. I lifted a bit hoping to regain grip but it's still sliding. Now I know I'm in trouble so I get back on the gas but its still sliding. As two wheels go off in the dirt I can hear the stones and debris hitting the car as the Armco is right in my face. The good news is that I am now at least pointing the right way and I drive the car back on track. "Drive" is figurative because what it felt like was hop back on track. When it landed it wiggled and slid to the other side of the track before I got control again. Boy can that put the fear of God into you. I eased my pace I got a "meatball" flag at turn 9. I slow down to cool the car and head off to see the track official in pit lane. Mike gets off too and when I get there he's talking to the official. Mike drives off and she comes over to talk to me. I guess they though Mike was the one who went off but when I told her it was me she said with a chuckle "I heard you were having trouble in the toe". The session was over so I just eased it back into the pits.

That was my first real off road experience at the Glen. What surprised me the most was how far I went across the track when I got it back? In the car it felt like 6 feet but when I looked back at the video and saw that I almost went off the other side I realized that I had just made it through a "big time" incident. I think the all-wheel drive saved me and staying on the gas helped a lot too. I rolled back into the pits and I felt surprisingly good but I knew that I would have to dial it down a notch in order to make it home in one piece. I guess I expected more out of the tires. That afternoon I was going to work on my line and my green student and save some racing for tomorrow.


to be continued...

 

[GreenGSX]

After reading it again I realized that turn 9 generally doesn't mean anything to most people so I've attatched a track map to help you better understand where the references in the report.

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[GreenGSX]

continued...

The rest of day one was uneventful. We had lunch and then set out for our afternoon sessions. I got my white student, tall Steve, signed off to run solo so I was down to just short Steve in the green group. His two sessions were pretty good. He picked up his rhythm quickly and showed a real awareness of the other drivers out there. I kept on him about charging up on the back of cars and by explaining to him that slower cars normally mean the "driver" is having issues. By filling there rear view mirror all you do is spook them and put not only them at risk but yourself as well. I think he got the point. By the end of the day he was teaching back to me the mantra "lift, brake, gas, turn, back on the gas" and his pace showed it.

The last session of the day Mike limped in early and after getting the car in the air we found a nicely split IC coupler. It was one of those 3" to 2.5" transition couplers so finding one in my spares box or locally would be impossible. We decided that after dinner we would set out on the hunt for a Fernco coupler to patch up the Supra. The PCA club throws a nice after event party in the paddock with beer, pizza, and wings. Just the sort of things you need after a good day of tearing up the track. We traded some stories and drank our fair share of beer before we decided to pull off the broken coupler and head out to find its replacement. I think we went to Elmira but everything looks the same down there so I have no idea where we went. We did find the coupler and we made it back in time to get a night-cap at Seneca Lodge bar.

The next day we take it easy getting in and we have the Supra up and running before the 7:30am instructors meeting. The weather forecast was calling for thunder showers all day but somebody was looking out for us and it was 70 and sunny. My first session was fun. I had learned from the first day not to overdrive the tires and in fact if I pushed things too hard I should expect trouble. So, I concentrated on my line and pushed my braking points back. I also worked on not trailing the brakes into the braking zones. I had worked with my students the day before telling them that the only way to keep street pads alive at the track was to brake late and hard. That keeps the heat down and that makes them last longer. Now I had to follow my own advice. I should listen to myself more often because that session was much faster then day before. Smoothing out my line and hitting my marks also didn't punish the tires and they held up longer and worked much better. The real test would be a time but without video all I can go on is fuel usage. The first day I was using just over a 1\4 tank per session but on the second day I was near 1\2 a tank of gas and over a gallon of methanol\water mix in my 1 gallon water injection tank. When I got back to the pits I saw that Mike had come in early. It seems that when I put the Fernco coupler on I had to loosen another section of IC piping and I had forgotten to tighten that up enough so it popped. You can't get good help these days...Mike fixed my mistake and he was ready for the second session.

Before my second session I met with my white group student, tall Steve, and went over some things and made sure he was in the right frame of mind to finish the day. My second session with my green student, short Steve, was a lot of fun. We were having a blast and he was really starting to get it. I was pushing his braking points deeper and deeper and boy did that pick up the pace for us. By the end of the session I could see his hands shaking. He had just had driven a monster session. We de-briefed a bit before I headed out.

In-between my first and second sessions I put new front brake pads on. I didn't have enough time to go out a bed them in so I would have to do that on track. I tried that last year and I pushed things to early and almost ended up running out of the toe of the boot. This year I'm going to take it easier. So for 4 or 5 laps I just puttered around with my arm out the window passing everything in sight. Before the end of the session I picked up the pace a bit and the brakes held strong. When I pull into the pits I filled both my water injection tank and the gas tank. I want to have everything ready to go for my third session which I am planning on hauling ass in. Mike had gone down and picked up lunch for us so we were able to just take it easy in the paddock. The strange thing is that a cold front moved in and the temperature dropped for 70F to what felt like 45F in a matter of minutes. We had to close the garage door just to keep warm. It also looked like it was going to rain any minute so I went to both my students to go over the "what happens when it rains" speech. Tall Steve was cool and was just going to take it easy. My green student, short Steve, decided that after his hot second session he had enough. Not that he didn't enjoy the event but he had a 5 hour ride to Cleveland to get home and he just didn't want to take the risk. I was happy that he showed good judgment and knew his limits. He said he would be back in October and we can continue our work then.

The third session of the day starts with anticipation. I am itching to get out before the rain. Keep in mind that what seems like bad news with the temperature drop and humidity actually means that turbo cars are going to be flying. And mine was. This session is missing a bunch of cars as people left early anticipating the rain. That means lots of open track. As I start to get into it and hit my pace I come up behind a light blue 965 with race rubber and a cage and a GT3 on race rubber. This was in the chute and by the toe of the boot I had put myself fully into the rear view mirror of the light blue 965. That got his pace going which in turn put the GT3 on high alert. I matched there speed out of the boot and storm down to turn 9. I'm keeping both of them in my sights and its becoming apparent that I am quicker than the 965. I can see him pushing it and I plan for a pass coming out of 12 onto the front strait. I nailed 11 without lifting and I hit 12 in forth which resulted in a quick pass signal and I was onto the GT3. I use the brakes again to pull the GT3 in and we head up the esses. He's faster on the way up and I'm stuck peddling to keep control. As a result he pulls on me on the way to the buss stop. I pick up some of that slack with the brakes but he's got more mph through the stop than I do. It takes me until the toe to pull him back in and we race our way up the hill. I can match his speed but I can't catch him. By this time I've gone through over a 1\4 tank of gas and I am out of water\alky fluid. That means I can't hold WOT to the redline without knock so I have to peddle the car on the straits. It also means that when I hit turn 7 and 10 (hard lefts) the fuel pump starves and the car goes dead for a second. Not exactly what you want when your trying to catch a GT3! We continue this dance for another lap and a half before the checker flag flies and I know my event is over. The 965 I passed stayed with us but was falling behind. When I got back to the pits I walked over to talk to both drivers and I let the GT3 driver know that I thought his line was perfect and without a mistake I had no chance of overtaking him. I thank the 965 driver for the pass signal and he said he couldn't hold me off. I think the three of us realized that we were flying out there and pretty equally matched. Of course I got the typical "what you got in there" question to which I just say a little 2.0L..(insert evil grin)...to which everyone says "yeah right...that's gotta be turbo". "Yep, turbo all wheel drive!" (insert another evil grin). The 965 driver really floored me when he said that the three of us were doing sub 2:20 laps. I said no way and he said he timed us at 2:20 when both the GT3 and I were pulling away from him. Now that just made my day. Last year my best with worn Victoracers was 2:18 and now I've equaled that mark on crappy street tires!...Nice.

Not only did I do a sub 2:20 on street tires but the car didn't break. Yep, that's right!. Nothing broke! I can hardly believe it myself but that POS pile held together and brought me home safe and sound. Overall the car went through 37 gallons of gas and almost 10 gallons of water\alky mix. That makes for just about 5.8 miles per gallon. That's almost a mile per gallon improvement over last year. I think my overall speed, especially on the first day, was slower. It also ate 3 quarts of oil but it looks like the main bearings I installed are still on the job. The brakes were great as usual and were on par with the GT3's. The tires I have mixed feelings about. On the first day they were shit. When I locked up the tires into the buss-stop one "entire" tread block ripped off the front driver tire. It was a bit wobbly after that so I moved it to the rear. By the second day my opinion changed. As I honed in my line they picked up speed and lasted longer before getting greasy. For a final grade I would give them a B. They did hold up well, not counting the torn tread block, and when driven with precision they did a sub 2:20 lap. so I would guess the potential is there. The heater core held up fine. The car never got over 200F and like I said nothing broke. I spent more time fixing Mike's car than I did changing the front brakes on mine. I like my car again.

After that session I knew my day was over. I did have 4th session I could have taken but after a run like that I just wanted to go home while I was ahead. I looked over a few photos of my little girl and I knew it was the right choice. So I packed up and headed out early. When I got home my daughter (2 years old) was waiting for me and ran into the garage to greet me. She climbed up into the car as I struggled to get out of my harness and gave me the nicest hug you could imagine. Those little arms and hands just flew around me and she hugged as hard as she could. I darn near cried...

Another year at the track and with good friends, lots of beer, and a car that didn't break life can be pretty sweet sometimes.

 

[underradar92]

Mmmm, track days. Back next season, that is what I have to keep telling myself to keep from going insane.

Thanks for the writeup again Tim.

 

[schemauer]

Do you know the owner of the Archer car you referenced? I'm not familiar with any that were NT. I'd be interested in contacting the owner.

 

[GreenGSX]

Do you know the owner of the Archer car you referenced? I'm not familiar with any that were NT. I'd be interested in contacting the owner.

I don't know his name although I've talked to him quite a bit. He is a regular with both the PCA and Trackmasters so I am sure I will see him again this year. Just PM me your contact info and I will pass it along. I should snap a few pictures of it while I'm there just for documentation purposes. Its a really simple car but its quick and rock solid dependable.

 

[underradar92]

Has anyone found a useable street tire that works well for track days? Not likeing the chunking idea a whole lot.

I know that asian312 likes his RE050's, & I like my RE01R's a lot but I'm slow & so far my only track day on them was in mid 50's -mid 60's with a rather cool track temp.

 

[GreenGSX]

Has anyone found a useable street tire that works well for track days? Not likeing the chunking idea a whole lot.

I know that asian312 likes his RE050's, & I like my RE01R's a lot but I'm slow & so far my only track day on them was in mid 50's -mid 60's with a rather cool track temp.

Be careful, I wouldn't say the Khumo's have a chunking problem more like a driver error problem. I locked up all four going into the bus stop on concrete which would chunk any tire. I was actually impressed that they didn't flat-spot. Now if they just had more grip and a higher temp range. That $130/tire is just to hard to beat.

 

[Highbooost]

Is that that famous Archer bros you are talking about? I didn't know they were still racing DSMs. Great story I loved it, I like that fact that you think of you car as a POS, ALL DSMs are POS.

Later Dr Turbo

 

[STM tuned]

phew, long read! Very well written write up, glad you got working on your car too!

always happens that way, until you actually sit down and start doing stuff its hards to get sucked into working on it.

Makes me want to road race like yourself!

-Brian
STM - Street Tuned Motorsports.com - Rochester NY

 

[GreenGSX]

Is that that famous Archer bros you are talking about? I didn't know they were still racing DSMs. Great story I loved it, I like that fact that you think of you car as a POS, ALL DSMs are POS.

Later Dr Turbo

The Archer Bros. are not racing Talons anymore I think they are on to Vipers. This is a car they built and when they moved on to better things they sold it. Now it does DE days and like I said, I'll try to get a few pictures of it next time.

 

[GreenGSX]

phew, long read! Very well written write up, glad you got working on your car too!

always happens that way, until you actually sit down and start doing stuff its hards to get sucked into working on it.

Makes me want to road race like yourself!

-Brian
STM - Street Tuned Motorsports.com - Rochester NY

Brian, with all the cars, parts, and experience at STM I'm surprised that one of you guys isn't roadracing already. Maybe you could sponsor me and then live vicariously through me? Better yet, get Shawna to do a few mods to her POS and let her loose on the Glen.

 

[underradar92]

Be careful, I wouldn't say the Khumo's have a chunking problem more like a driver error problem. I locked up all four going into the bus stop on concrete which would chunk any tire. I was actually impressed that they didn't flat-spot. Now if they just had more grip and a higher temp range. That $130/tire is just to hard to beat.

Point taken. I didn't intend to imply a problem with the tire.

Highbooost, there are a few Archer Bros. cars in use as track day toys, there is one near here too.

 

[HIGHWAY]

Wow great write up bro. Sounds like one hell of a great time.