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High-altitude cone-dodging

Sunday was the first autocross in the Saab, with the RGRSCCA running in Santa Fe this month (a bit less than an hour's drive from Albuquerque). Thanks to some tire pressure advice from Jay Balducci, former "plain-'ol-WRX-on-street-tires" driver, the car felt pretty good. Well...not at first. You see, it was a bit of a slow course. Slow enough that you put it in second, then you wonder why you ever did such a thing.

First run I shift into second at the first turn, and boooooog. I don't shift the rest of the run, and it's like the car has a 2000rpm redline that it just will not exceed under any circumstances. Finish with a 63.3, Teresa has a 64.4.

Second run I decide that I better at least downshift for the clump - yep, it's not just Arizona, apparently New Mexico has them too. Ok, so it was one cone, but it was reeeealy tight, and not a bit of fun. I think Teresa took the clump cone better than me all day. I take off some time though, 61.4 for me, another 64.4 for Teresa, but +1.

Third run, the lag is pretty frustrating, and there are just so many slow turns on this course, plus the tires aren't offering much. First gear it is! I don't shift into second until the very end of the course, which is essentially a straight. I finally break into the 60s with a 59.8, but Teresa takes off loads of time with a 60.3. Hmm...only a half second back.

Fourth run, more of the same. First gear, trying to be smooth with the throttle, blah blah blah. Go a bit faster, 59.4. Teresa improves more though, to a 59.5. Only a tenth behind me. Was I worried? Does Ron Burgundy play jazz flute? You bet.

Fifth and final run. I know I need to take off a LOT of time, lest I bear the brunt of much scorn come Monday morning. I don't know what was happening this time, I think I just pushed a little more everywhere, turned a bit earlier, and the car just kind of floated around the cones and through the gates. It was actually kind of nice. ;-) I crossed the finish line, not knowing where I would stand, hoping I would widen the gap just enough. As I rolled up to the timing lights, I saw the glow of the five-eight-oh, which I knew was plenty. Teresa's next run was a couple tenths faster. She congratulated me on the good run, then I think she hit me. Something like that. :-D

How does that stack up to everyone else? It was a totally stock car on big tall RE92s, how do you think? S-L-O-W. Results sorted by pax are here. I was 19th with a 916. Paul Brown takes top pax in a small car on a course with a bunch of slow turns? Unpossible! :-P

That said, there were some things left to be desired about how things were run. I think this was a bigger event than they usually put on, and it was a new location, so there are always problems associated with that. 40-second (est.) overlap + 5 runs + 2 run groups = long day. The course doubled-back on itself a couple times, so it took a while before you could send the next car. 36 cars in a run group meant that it was a long time before you could run again, too. Of course, it was much worse if you were a course worker, as I was standing out there in the sun for about 3.5 hours for the afternoon work assignment. I'm a bit red now, as we didn't have a chance to pick up some sunscreen before the event. Bad idea.

A few of the cool cars I thought I'd mention. There was a Conquest (see below) in all it's 80's-retro glory, 2 red FD's, including one in SM2 that looked absolutely perfect, and an SM2 NSX that looked almost as gorgeous. Oh, and there was a new C6 that put a wheel up on a curb while trying to pull into a parking space. Nice.

Onward with pics!
This is ALL of the stuff we brought to the event, including two jackets in case it rained. Weird!

Grid lineup.

The curb-hopping C6.

The fender-ful Conquest.

Ah, an actual picture of the car!

And in motion.

Teresa attacking the clump cone, while Ben wishes he had a better zoom (you'll have to click to see anything):

Hey, who took all my camber!

More on course.

Me pretending I got something out of my Evolution school.

And finally, a shot for the sponsors. You listening OMP? I need a new helmet bag! :-D

Clutch and flywheel are in

With much wrench-turning from Clint and Brian, my new clutch and flywheel are in. Brian was originally going to be the event photographer, but I think he couldn't stand to see Clint and I have all the fun, so that's why there aren't any pictures. ;-)

Removing the old parts, it looked like the original clutch was still in pretty decent shape, and I bet I could have driven at least another 5-10k miles (well, if I wanted to drive it until the material was gone). The worn stock clutch weighed just over 12 lbs, the new Exedy weighed just under 12. Stock flywheel weighed about 18 lbs (I think the scale was reading a bit light), and the Fidanza weighed just under 8. Pretty good improvement!

Pedal effort is increased, but it's not uncomfortable by any means. The clutch seems to engage smoothly, it feels pretty good. Supposed to drive 750 miles of "city driving" for break-in...that'll take a while, at the rate I drive. From what little I drove the car last night, I noticed the car does seem to rev quicker under acceleration, and rpms fall noticeably faster during shifts (though not so fast that it's a problem). I'm happy with the parts, though I know I've only had them about 10 hours at this point. :-P

This might be what gets me a PSP...

Looks like Sony will be releasing firmware for the PSP that enables web browsing (including WPA support), among other things. I'll have to try it out to see what web browsing is like on a screen like that, but hey, if I can get to azsolo2.com from anywhere with an open wireless connection, it might just be worth it. ;-)

A Miata-related dream

Weird, right? Me, having a dream about Miatas? Well, sorta.

For most people that like cars, if they were to have a dream related to Miatas, it would probably involve driving one with the top down on some winding mountain road. Not me, it seems. Instead, I had was standing outside a building where some company made aftermarket Miata parts. There were two doors where you could enter - one for inquiries about parts or sales, and the other door was for people that wanted to complain about the fact that the company used child labor to build all of their parts. Wait, what? That was it.

Like I said, it was weird.

A sad moment

I was at Tempe Acura yesterday, buying a couple things for the upcoming clutch change. I stopped by their refrigerator for my complimentary soda (as I always do when paying $arm+leg for factory parts), when I decided against it, realizing that it just wouldn't taste good anyway. :-(

So instead, I took a couple extra cookies. :-D

No Sleep Till Casa Grande

You'd think I'd learn, but no. I knew I had to get up early for the autocross on Sunday, especially since I was riding down there with Evan, and he somehow got stuck doing course setup. So I set the alarm for 3:45, as I get into bed around 12:45*. Really smart.

I wake up at 3:45, get out of bed, and stare at my clock for a few minutes. I think, "3:45, what does that mean? Is that a time, or is that a weight?" I'm not kidding, a weight. I don't know what kind of weight 3:45 would represent, but perhaps it made sense at the time. So you can tell what my level of awareness was like.

All I can say about changing tires on a Camaro is that after dealing with a 3400lb car with heavy 5-lug 16" wheels, it'll be nice to go back to a 2600lb car with 4-lug 15" and 13" wheels. :-D

First run, we don't really know what the tire pressures should be. It might not matter much anyway, because I think we may have been running a wheel and tire package like this:

Seriously, the tires are at least 3 years old*.

I think my first run, I put down a 62.4 or something - pretty slow, but I haven't driven the car in a while*. Evan follows that up with a 62.2, but that's not a big deal, he has more experience with the car obviously*.

Second run I take off a bunch of time, with a 61.0, and I think Evan follows with a 62.0. We're not even checking tire pressures*, but whatever, I'm up by a second! :-P Well...maybe we should be checking tire pressures, I think. Check the fronts, they're at 45*! Bleed those down to about 38. Evan checks the rears, I have no idea what they were, but he dropped them down to about 38 as well. Note that the tire pressure gauge the region gave out for trophies one summer series bleed air slower than anything imagineable.

Third run I drop another half second, down to a 60.5, so I'm feeling pretty good about my 1.5-second lead. Then Evan hits me with a 60.4, bah! My last run I cone the slalom, and that's it. He does the same, so we stand on our third runs, and I lose by a tenth, translating to one pax point. Maybe next time.

All this time, the engine was getting pretty hot during the course of the run*. We really shouldn't have been in the same group, and I don't know when his coolant was last changed. Next event we'll definitely split it up though, assuming he still wants to go.

It seems that most of the day I was looking ahead just the wrong amount*, too, as I felt like the A-pillar was always in the wrong spot. ;-) Of course, I hadn't autocrossed in a couple months*, so that certainly didn't help either.

By now you should have figured it out, but every * represents an excuse - I figure each one is good for about 5 pax points. :-D

DDR-alicious

Decided to get out the DDR pad again, as I've been pretty bad about doing cardio for the last few months (and it shows), and I had a few free hours tonight. Played for about 90 minutes - no headaches, so that's good. Only tried one song on Heavy, one that I had AA'd in the past, and I didn't do too well. Definitely out of practice, but that's to be expected. Maybe if I keep playing more and talk it up a little, I can talk some of my friends into modifying their pads properly...you know who you are. ;-)

New parts, bad news, good news

Parts have arrived! Clutch showed up on Friday, flywheel on Saturday.
Exedy Organic:



Fidanza flywheel:

Hopefully they'll make their way onto the car shortly, to be broken in before the Fall series.

As mentioned previously, a side effect of my new medication is a change in how sodas taste, and I'm afraid that's definitely happened. Imagine a regular soda with about 85% less carbonation and 65% less sweetness - that's what it tastes like to me. Not so good.

But what's the good news, you ask? Beer tastes exactly the same! :-D

HD > *

Last night I was about to go to bed, was flipping through some of the HD channels, and I noticed that Universal HD was having a Battlestar Galactica marathon. I had seen bits and pieces of the show before, but this was the first time I had seen an episode from beginning to end. Not only was the show itself enjoyable, but between the HD video and 5.1 channel DD audio, it was quite the experience. :-D Unfortunately the marathon ends right as I get home from work today, and it probably wouldn't have been the best idea to stay up all night watching it. I'll definitely have to catch the show when it's on again though.

On the not-so-good side of HD, I found out that TNT has an HD station, and they're showing British Open coverage on it. Unfortunately, Cox doesn't give us TNT-HD. >:-O

Woo drugs! :-P I'm now taking Topamax for my headaches, which should be interesting. It was originally prescribed for people with epileptic seizures, but a 5-10x smaller dose is given out now for headaches. The side effects seem to be an odd combination of the good and the bad:
* Taste alteration - or as my doctor said, "carbonated drinks will probably start to taste kind of weird". I think I'm starting to notice this, but I'm not sure yet.
* Reduced appetite/weight loss - can't really go wrong with that.
* Tingling/loss of feeling in extremeties - uh...wha? Oddly enough, my doctor said that taking a vitamin c supplement fixes this, which I don't quite understand. But then, I'm no doctor. ;-)
* Confusion - this one should be particularly interesting. I guess the most common form of this is a slight inability to find the right word when you want it, while some say that it just makes them stupid. Time will tell!

Once I'm over this cough I'm going to try playing tennis again, see if the headaches come back. Autocrossing this weekend should be interesting as well, but I'm betting it'll be ok, and things are generally looking up. At the same time, it's a little discouraging to think that I may have to take these forever. :-\

MRI results and exhaust fumes

The two are completely unrelated, other than the timeline in which they occurred.

Fortunately the MRI said my brain was ok, which was quite the relief. I'm going to have to take some medication to keep the headaches away, but whatever works. I'm really looking forward to getting back to the things I used to do - going to the gym, tennis, DDR, just sports in general. I still have a couple races on my card for F1 Race Factory to use as well. Alas, I still lack the picture of my brain. I forgot to ask for it when I went in, but I'll have another chance when I go again in a couple weeks.

Got my header back on this past weekend, thanks to a good guy at Full Race that fixed it up for me (their Evo 8 manifold increases my Evo-lust significantly). Now I'm significantly less embarassed to drive my car, as it sounds pretty normal. ;-) I bought a small container of anti-seize for a couple of the bolts that backed out of the head (the ones that broke when the original exhaust manifold was removed), and now I have enough to last me until I'm 240 years old. Awesome.

After my last couple purchases being for maintenance, it felt good to order actual performance parts the other day. Ordered an Exedy Organic clutch kit and Fidanza flywheel, and they should be here either late this week or early next week. After looking at what Subaru parts cost (thanks to the 9-2X purchase), I have a greater appreciation for economies of scale and the cost of Honda parts. I was able to buy those parts for only $434 shipped. :-D

After being introduced to the idea of wearing latex gloves during car repair, I have to say that I like it. Hard to beat that combination of dexterity and cleanliness, provided you can keep them in one piece, and you're not working on anything hot. With that in mind, I picked up a box of nitrile gloves at Harbor Freight last week when they were running a sale on them (about 40% off or so). Supposed to be more puncture- and solvent-resistant than latex...and they're blue. As good as they are though, have you ever tried using them in a 120° garage? Within minutes you can hear the water moving around inside the gloves, as your hands do their best impression of a high school wrestler trying to make weight. :-P The gloves just hold in the heat, and your hands keep sweating. Makes it really interesting when you go to take off said gloves, and you spray this disgusting hand-glove-water everywhere that has been collecting for the last 20 minutes. Oh, and your hands look like you just got out of an hour-long bath. Sweet.

Checking my head

Due to the headaches I've been having for the past few weeks, my doctor recommended I have an MRI done to see if there was anything seriously wrong up there.

It was an interesting experience, to say the least. In fact, it was almost like I was in some sort of hallucinogenic dream state while the scan was being performed. The machine made lots of noise, and the whole process lasted about 20 minutes. The type of noise was what made it weird though. Despite having only seen 2001 once (and I fell asleep before the end), the sounds reminded me very much of that movie. Very mechanical, but electronic at the same time.

So anyway, I'd lay there with my eyes closed, listening to these sounds, and I would sort of start to fall asleep, but not really, like it was a very light sleep. I don't remember what I'd dream about, but it always included the sounds of the machine. Then the sound would pause, or change, and I couldn't always tell if the machine really changed, or if I was imagining it. Very strange indeed.

No instant results, so I'll have to go see my doctor again in a couple days to find out how it went. I'm really hoping to get an electronic copy of the scan of my brain though, and if I do, you can be sure I'll post it here. :-D

A few extras

First off, if you ever get a Scrabble rack worse than this, let me know.

Taco Bell's "Cheesy Fiesta Potatos", found at the Taco Bell in Holbrook. Potatos, nacho cheese, sour cream, and green onions. Everything's better with a little nacho cheese. ;-)

Also, I regret not using the phrase "speed holes" somewhere in my last post.

Let's see, that's probably not good.

Since the new gasket didn't work, I took off the header this afternoon to see if it was cracked or something. Well, I wouldn't exactly call it "cracked" I suppose...

Events of Grandeur

Well, not so much.

I was invited to another poker night with some friends last week...turns out I only knew one person there, but whatever. Two of the people claimed to play regularly online, but whatever. My beginner's luck continued, and I won. :-D Unfortunately the rules for the night were that the top 3 positions were paid, so I only took home about half as much as I could have. That, and we weren't able to get 8 players, only 6. Had a good time though!

The joy that goes with working on cars didn't go unnoticed this weekend, oh no. Err, wait, perhaps it did. One thing went perfect, and that was replacing a trim piece on the passenger side grab handle in my car. :-P

First up, gasket between header and cat. Old one comes out ok, new one goes in, all is right with the world. Or not. When I eventually started up the car later that day, the exhaust sounded exactly as bad as it did before. So it seems that the gasket probably isn't the issue, but the header and cat are both enjoying the feel of a brand new $15+ gasket, I'm sure. Worse though, is my guess that the header has a crack in it somewhere near that flange, and if that's the case, then it has had a crack in it all this time! It always made a bit of noise, but it wasn't too bad until recently. I'll try to find a place that maybe can fix it, I don't know. I didn't really want to buy a shiny new SMSP header right now, but if I have to...

Next, clutch slave cylinder on the Integra. It wasn't too big a deal to replace this, but for some reason we (Evan had shown up by this point) must have been idiots when it came to bleeding the thing. It just wouldn't work for a while, then all of the sudden it worked. Fantastic. So that feels a little better, but I think the clutch really suffered hauling Teresa's stuff up the mountains to ABQ. :-\

Radiator hoses. Easy, right? Not when oem hoses seem WAY too small to actually fit. Woo. Oh, and I find out that my radiator cap is in about 6 pieces (which wasn't the case just a couple weeks earlier). Off to the dealership to see if they have another one. How about I drive the Neon over there? Sure! Add some coolant since I still hadn't replaced the slowly leaking coolant tank, and off we go. Driving, driving...temperature needle just goes up up up. Shut the car down right in front of the Acura dealer. Pop the hood, and coolant is bubbling out of the hose that goes to the heater core. Great. Keep in mind that the Acura dealer is less than a mile from my apartment. Evan has AAA, so he calls them up and they send out a tow truck to get it back to my place. Fortunately the Acura dealer was right there, and while the parts counter was closed, the refridgerator was not. :-D So it was a good place to hang out while waiting for the tow truck.

Back to the apartment. Push the Neon back in the garage, hop in the Camaro to pick up a cap from Autozone so that I at least have one working car. Replace that, then it's time to figure out what to do with the Neon. Out comes the airbox, as it's just in the way. I notice that the hose clamp for the line to the heater core really isn't all that tight. I knew the hose was too big (by a whopping 1mm), but I thought tightening it down sufficiently would be fine. Apparently it wasn't tight enough...of course, this is all assuming that the actual pipe into the heater core isn't cracked. Which would be wonderful, you know.

While the airbox is out, it's a good time to replace that coolant tank. Need to remove two nuts to take it out. First one? Lost. Second one? Fell to a visible but inaccessible place in the engine bay, and I don't have a magnet on a stick. Great. It looked oddly damaged though, so I may just be buying a couple of those.

So that's it for the weekend. Still have to go get the exhaust issue fixed on the Integra, and address the Neon issues. All sorts of fun. :-P