2007 NASA-X Championship #1

Well here are the official times. I got flat-out romped on. Seriously, I placed 50 out of 76 entrants and I was 9th out of 10 in NASA-X D. I was destroyed outright by 2/3rds of the people that showed up. What can I say? The course was super challenging this time. I had a lot of grip from my tires in the high speed transitions, but I was plagued by excessive body roll in the decreasing radius turns and through the slalom. I've seen video where my inside rear tire is literally off the ground as I'm going through the turn. That's bad body roll. Don't start me on trying to lug out of the chicago box off boost, it's painful. To make matters worse, my tires were overheating after the 4th run and went from super sticky near-race rubber, to something with about as much grip as melting butter. My car's just plain not competitive in its current state of tune. At least not against the group that decided to show up last sunday. And I have a feeling I'll be seeing a lot more of them in the coming year. Those are enough excuses for now.

NASA HolidayCross Official Times

Official times for last Sunday’s autocross at VMP have been posted here. http://www.get-fast.net/nasacross/

I’m extremely pumped about where I placed. 36^th out of a field of 74 cars! And if I’m reading the chart correctly I was the fasted novice out there!

HolidayCross!

Here's my records from the latest round of auto-abuse! Writeup to follow.

Just a bit late

Okay, so this autocross was way back on October 29th. It was at the Diamond again. SUPER tight course this time. I took a stab at running in second gear for the first two runs. But as you can see from run number 3, leaving it in first and bouncing off the rev limiter 2 or 3 times was definitely the fast way around the course in my car. Don't worry, she likes it.

I signed up for double fun runs on this day. That's when I race 2 heats instead of one. On the left you can see my first heat. I actually had 10 runs, not 7, but the wind was blowing debris across the timing sensors and screwed up runs 4, 5 and 6. As you can see from the 2 columns on the right, I did have my fastest runs of the day in my final heat. Makes sense since I had a lot of time to get used to the course at that point.

This was the last time I would run on my old, warn out (cords exposed) BFGs and equally warn out brake pads. Overall I was very happy with my times. They were all really consistent and that's always good to see.

Speed Racer

I finally got to drop the hammer in full on automotive competition. Okay, well maybe not full competition since it was just a test & tune day. But damnit it I didn't dump my clutch at 6,000 rpm and race through a field of cones! I'll post more later. For now here's my times.

Stone Vertical Epic '06

It's another beer review!!! Sorry Davis, I know you'll be here in 27 hours but I couldn't wait any longer to crack this one open. Glassware is a heavy glass beer mug. Serving is a little on the cold side, but I've been letting it sit out for a while so it's warming up nicely. It's a very dark beer, but not thick. Tastes very much like a dark Belgian ale. Now that I read the back label they actually used Belgian yeast so I guess that explains it. Malty, but easily drinkable. I like this beer a lot. Also according to the label it was designed to be aged until 2012. In a way I wish I could have hung onto it that long. Maybe I can scrounge another one up somewhere... Well that's enough of a review, I'm going to go back to drinking my beer and watching the Venture Brothers. But that's a review for another day.

Swing Low

Pony Cars

For some reason I keep pulling for Ford. It’s like rooting for the home team even though the Isotopes haven’t won a game in years. They keep dropping the ball on so many great automotive opportunities. But every so often something clicks and they put out a great car. Monkeys typing Shakespeare? Perhaps.

The latest mustang (solid rear axle and all) has interested me since the day it was launched. When Ford went racing with the FR500C and showed the mustang could run with the very best I was impressed. The car has always had great looks and great potential, but as it rolls out of the factory it struck me as a bit too soft, a little too friendly to the least common denominator. The drivetrain is great and responds to mods well, but the suspension was tuned by lawyers, not enthusiasts. Understeer and body-roll, woo hoo.

It seems like the monkeys have listened and now I’m more interested that ever. Have you heard they’ll be offering up a version of the Shelby GT-H for public consumption in 2007 badged as the Shelby GT? Same ford racing power and handling packs turning it basically into a club-racer, but with a Hurst short-throw 5-speed and a lower final drive ratio. And it looks absolutely wicked in black. If they can keep it priced right around $30,000 (and keep the dealers from price gouging the shit out of it, $20,000 markup on a GT500 anyone?) I would seriously consider trading in my WRX and going old-school muscle.

And did I mention it’s only a supercharger away from 462 horsepower?

I’d hold out for the Boss 302 but something tells me that it’s going to be priced between $35,000 and $40,000. For that much I’d be too scared to damage the vehicle to really drive it the way I want.