IT guy, weekend SCCA racer, new Subaru owner, Foursquare SU3, PSU alum, gadget lover, Apple user, all-around regular guy.
Going into any autox season is usually a pretty exciting time for me… and with a brand new car that (at the time) was just 6 months old, there was a whole other level of anticipation involved. I was going from a 160-ish HP, FWD, naturally aspirated car with quite a few suspension modifications to a 100% stock, 265 HP, AWD, turbo monster. Time to throw out the rule book. Everything I had learned in [...]
It’s been 2 weeks since we closed up the first event of the season. It’ll be about 5 weeks until we hit event #3 (6/19 at the Arnot Mall). And let’s hope that after those 5 weeks, we get a little bit better weather. To say that the 5th event was a wet one would be quite an understatement. It was a soggy one. It was beyond soggy actually. It was whatever that next level [...]
It’s a new season. With a new car. And…. not much else has changed. Well… one other thing has changed. We lost a great competitor and friend a couple weeks ago. And the event was not the same without him. We definitely missed you, Tom. But Tom wouldn’t want us to stop the show on account of him. So we proceeded as normally as we could. And turns out, the event was great. We had [...]
If you’ve read anything here recently, you’ll know I’m still in the process of tearing my car apart to get ready to trade. At least the interior and some other bits. Two of the things I’ve removed are technically suspension pieces – front and rear strut bars. The rear one actually goes inside the car and is visible in the trunk. The front one goes in the engine bay and connects the two strut towers [...]
Going back to my previous post for a few minutes, I’ve been looking at a lot of different specs and stats on each of the cars. I’ve actually now started getting beyond manufacturer specs and looking at relevant details that might become important to me along the way. The first thing I added to my spreadsheet was the current SCCA Solo (autox) class each car would be in. Currently I’m in ST with my tC [...]
If you’ve read ANY car website or blog in the last few weeks you’ve no doubt seen Mini’s “challenge” to Porsche to race them at Road America. The idea was the race a Porsche 911 Carrera S against a Mini Cooper S and see who wins. It really came off as just a light-hearted, let’s have some fun kind of challenge. The President of Mini USA (Jim McDowell) was directly challenging the CEO of Porsche [...]
Forgive my ramblings here… but whenever I think of what I want to be “when I grow up” – this is what always goes through my head. They say that if you try hard enough, you can have or be anything… I disagree. Not that someone should not be optimistic about things – because there are a lot of things people could do if they were to try. It’s just that the list is not [...]
For those of you that have not been paying attention (or don’t follow me on Twitter), the Glen Region hosted their second Solo event of the 2010 season yesterday (the first that I have been able to attend). The event was held at our largest available venue, the Seneca Army Depot airstrip. We typically expect fast, fun, and tricky courses here. Yesterday did not disappoint. Jen and I both went up and both raced. The [...]
This is normally the time of year I’d be all excited that autox season has started. But I’m not. I’m too busy. The first Glen Region event was this past Sunday at The Shops at Ithaca Mall and I missed it. That was for good reason though – was coming home from Chad & Pam’s wedding. Their wedding > autox. I also have a fancy new DG-Spec rear sway bar to install at some point. [...]
When it comes to autox, I would call it one of the very few things that I truly enjoy doing anytime I get to do it. Even on a bad day I’m still having a good time. Normally every year you would try to improve in some way – whether it is the car or the driver or both. Usually you try for both. It’s common that many drivers spend their off season buying parts, [...]
