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 Posted September 3rd, 2010 at 12:20AM
September 24 is when I get to drive Monticello Motor Club again. I’m starting to get the MINI ready, by addressing the clickety-clockety passenger side axle.
I had noticed earlier that there was less than a thumbs-width of clearance from that side’s inner CV joint and an integral part of the engine directly above. I can not see how the “level 2″ axle from DriveShaft Shop could possibly fit, with the beefier joint, despite their assurances that they had sold them and never heard a complaint (excepting mine last year on the driver’s side, that is).
But I discovered that they also had “level 0″ stock replacement axle stubs for $249 total, including the added option of high temp grease on the outside and other measures for ensuring survival under hot conditions. After being told the CV joint would be the same diameter, I ordered one today.
I’m going to change tires and wheels tomorrow to see whether the high pitched noise is wheel bearings or the Kumho XS tires getting louder.
Some fluid changes and it will be ready to go.
I’m actually currently investigating the possibility of purchasing a Subaru Impreza in the near future. It will be an excellent all year daily driver and rallycross vehicle. Can’t wait.
Posted July 27th, 2010 at 2:12PM
I had Sunday morning free, so I made the first heat at the McCarty Ave autocross. My first of my three runs was the fastest, a 37.1 followed by a 37.3 and then a 37.79.
That 37.1 was pretty respectable, the fastest street tire time as far as I can tell and earning me 2nd place in the three car SM class. Of interest this time around is that I recorded all of my runs and then reviewed the video that evening. It’s clear where I lost a lot of time pushing wide – a sweeper leading into the final WOT section. I’m hoping to actually begin uploading these videos, since I have a computer that can process the files now.
I also splurged for the $6.99 Trackmaster app for my android phone. I had some technical difficulties since it was a last moment decision, and I didn’t have a well-thought out place to stick the phone. The app requires you to tap the screen to begin logging, so it had to be accessible, but also someplace where it wouldn’t slide around the car. To make a boring story short, I ended up with data from only my last run, so most of the use of the data (comparing runs) went down the drain. Still, I definitely see potential in the program.
The developer of the app has solved one of the biggest problems with phone DAQ – low refresh rates. The phone’s 1hz GPS is not very accurate. Adding a bluetooth external GPS and another phone app will allow collected data to be 5hz. Maybe higher? I have to investigate. But I believe it holds promise.
Combining the video and data is still a long way off though.
Posted July 15th, 2010 at 12:11PM
I purchased a HTC Evo a few days ago, ostensibly in an attempt to figure out my internet at home issue. But coverage on Sprint is still shoddy at my home.
Still, it can do a lot of cool things when I’m not at home, so… I’ve got 30 days to make up my mind. Right now, I’m listening to my last.fm recommendations streaming and typing this up on a WordPress app. At the library WiFi.
I received a discount on Sprint, and even roaming (Verizon) at home is hit or miss. Verizon would be a decent chunk of change more, so I might just keep the Evo despite it not solving my home internet woes. It gets reception everywhere else… I live in a mini Bermuda triangle that sucks cell reception out of thin air.
Some day I might get to a 4G area and be really impressed. Rochester and Syracuse have it, NYC will probably be my first opportunity sometime this year.
Posted July 9th, 2010 at 11:57AM
I owned my 12″ PowerBook G4 since the summer of 2005. I still own it, and it still works, sorta.
But the poor thing finally took one nose dive onto the floor too many. I was working at the kitchen table (coolest room in the house during this mid-90s, heat index in the 100s heat wave) when the black-and-tan dog went into a trashcan, cherry picking a tissue to tear up. I jumped up, snagged the power cord, and down went the PowerBook.
Now, the thing seemed fine, besides being perhaps slightly more irregularly shaped than before. But after working awhile longer, I noticed the power cable wasn’t charging the battery. ruh-roh. On a five year old laptop (with a four year old battery, gratis because of that recall once upon a time), this is not a good thing. I had grown accustomed to about 30 minutes per charge, and being permanently tethered to a wall outlet. I tried an old power cord that I had, and it still did nothing.
I may or may not now have a job which kind of requires the use of a computer. So I said “F it!”, broke down, and bought a new laptop. What a difference five years makes. I bought from the Apple refurbished store, as that was where I picked up the PowerBook, and I had no issues due to that fact. You can stand to save a few hundred dollars.
I went with the 13″ MacBook Pro, with a 2.4Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4gb of RAM, 250gb of hard drive space, the GeForce 320M graphics card, etcetera etcetera. I very nearly convinced myself to go to a 15″ with an Intel i5 processor and graphics card with dedicated memory, but considering that I’m coming from a 1.5Ghz PowerPC, I honestly don’t know at what point I could justify the increase in computer power. (Probably the first time I sit down to do some video editing, but oh well. Really. The job I may have now doesn’t pay well enough for the 13″ to begin with.)
I also strongly favor the smaller footprint of the 13″. One thing about the 12″ PowerBook was it’s small size, and comparisons between the two on that subject are about a zero sum game. The MacBook is distinctively wider (wider screen = clearly worth it!), but it is also slimmer, top-down. I also appreciate the fact that the metal casing is simplified (not “one piece” exactly I see now, the bottom is removable) so that when I do start dropping it, it will not get bent out of shape as easily as the PowerBook. I’ll need to take a photo or two of its current status so that the world can see what I mean here.
OSX 10.6 is clearly a step up from 10.4, and everything I’ve done so far has been without fault. Fedex shipped overnight and I only received it yesterday morning.
Now I need to work on getting all the programs and miscellaneous other things back up and working on the new computer. I believe that I was able to save 90% of everything that was on the old laptop, transferring files to my external 500gb hard drive on the last remaining charge. At some point I need to either take apart the PowerBook and try to discern the cause for why it won’t charge, or source yet another charger to determine if it’s just that at fault. Either way, for now it’s deader than a door nail and laying on the floor by my desk. I’ve been tripping on it.
One quibble? I forgot when ordering that the new Macs don’t even include a telephone jack anymore. This means my pathetic dial-up at home is definitely on the way out.
To be replaced with a highly expensive cell plan and Droid smartphone. Oops, cat out of the bag for the next post’s subject? Unsure at the moment whether I’ll be going with Verizon, Sprint, or another company. They all seem prohibitively expensive, but for all of the useful purposes that a new Droid phone will function as, it seems like I’ll finally need to break down and get shackled to a 2-year phone contract. At least we won’t need to pay NetZero $15 a month for the worst imaginable internet experience, ever. I pray that tethering will have at least some semblance of being quicker.
Till the next one, faithful readers. (Yes, I know you all just arrived here with random Google queries, it’s O-K.)
Posted June 17th, 2010 at 1:34PM
I had planned June 14-15 to be my return to Watkins Glen with Patroon BMWCCA. I was going to camp at the state campground in town with my folks and the two dogs, just like last year. Instead, emergency repaving of turn 1 canceled the track event. So, despite a rotty weather forecast, we still decided to go camping – just a little closer to home, Adirondacks region to be specific. With two kayaks and plenty of other gear loaded on the truck, we set out for the Speculator / Indian Lake area, eventually settling into a site between Lewey and Indian Lakes, right on the water. The weather turned out better than expected, showering only Saturday, and I got plenty more time in our ill-used kayaks we picked up used several seasons back. Tuesday, the day before we left, my father and I (with my dog riding along as co-pilot) set off for the Indian Lake islands to plan for future trips. There are maybe half a dozen islands of varying size, and we picked out some prime spots for future visits – although we’ll need to rent a canoe to get all the gear over!
I was able to get my dog, Baja, to ride in front of me in the kayak last year, and he didn’t miss a beat this year. Our other dog was a little more hesitant and didn’t quite catch on this trip, but she ought to be game with a more spacious canoe. I’ve got some photos from camping which will be uploaded to my Flickr account in due time.
So I have a credit with Patroon for a future track event, which I may or may not cash in on their July event up at Calabogie. I need to see if any of these ongoing job application processes pan out, but it’s a track I’ve been wanting to drive ever since working the event last year. We’ll see what happens.
Posted June 10th, 2010 at 12:00PM
Going back to street tires has been an adjustment I’m still working on. I’ve found myself seriously blowing some corners, and I believe it’s my expectations of instant turn-in from the r-comps clouding my judgement. The XS have high levels of grip, evidenced by the times I can still post, but they can’t be pitched into the corners like the V710.
At the first official event of the season, I placed 3rd in class, three-tenths of a second behind an e36 M3 on r-compound tires that I could still be beating with better driving on my part (the local, tight courses favor the MINI’s size and bulk). I was nearly two seconds off the blue EVO and the FTD winning CP Mustang, but posted the quickest times on street tires, for what that’s worth. I have video of all six runs, should be posting it to YouTube someday.
June 6th was our second event, and it alternated between blue skies and torrential downpours spiked with lightening. Things had to be shut down twice but with the low turn-out everyone still got their six runs. Conditions were disparate between run groups and morning and afternoon heats, but I was able to post the fastest time in the morning as the r-compound shod could not generate grip due to conditions (curious, since our last runs in the morning were pretty dry). In the afternoon I forgot how to drive entirely. I was nearly a second and a half slower than the EVO by the end, and the SSM CRX coned away a run with a similar time. His best clean was a tenth better than mine. So I had the third fastest raw time, but due bragging rights for this event go to the GS club racing prepped Dodge Neon .04 seconds off of me. I recorded my last three runs, which unfortunately showcase some lamer driving. Although one has me pegging a cone just under the camera and dragging it, with a course worker running up and snagging it finally at the finish. Worth a few laughs, hopefully they’ll be posted at some point.
A ton of photos were uploaded to Flickr of the June 6th event, with quite a few of the MINI I’ll need to sort through. Here’s one teaser. All of these pics of the car under load are suggesting to me that higher spring rates are in order.
Posted June 1st, 2010 at 1:19PM
As par for the course, this post is coming several weeks after the fact. As hinted to in various other posts and Twitter, I was able to make it down to Monticello recently to drive the fairly new track there. Billed on their website as “a luxury automotive lifestyle resort and track located 90 minutes from Manhattan,” the drive for me was nearly three hours and I had to be out the door by 4:30 in the morning. (Hitting the sack by 9 the preceding night made it bearable.) If there had been any incidents, you would have heard it by now, so rest assured up front that I had a blast and that the MINI performed without fault.
Monticello Motor Club (MMC) was conceived as an exclusive members-only millionaire’s resort, but for the past year or two they’ve allowed the rabble in to drive. This event was with SCDA, my first outing with them. We were able to get a dozen or more MINIs out this particular day, qualifying for a 10% discount – unfortunately there were only two of us in the novice run group. I spent a bit of time beforehand studying videos and course walkthroughs, so I was fairly comfortable with the track before arrival. Machinery was varied, but with slow corners at regular intervals, the MINI was not outgunned and just about the only car I regularly had to point by was the Ford GT. There were the usual suspects – late model BMWs and Porsches – slowing the pace, and I spent more time than not following in trains (you get one guy who won’t point by an overtaking car, and soon you get a bunched up line of aggravated quicker cars – choo choo!). But never was it an infuriatingly slow pace for long, and there are enough passing zones (or even the option of coasting through the pits) so that my blood never boiled. And heck – I’m fully cognizant of the fact that once I’m into the upper level run groups, these guys with twice the horsepower will know how to use it, and I’ll no longer be the one passing. For now, I enjoy my David v. Goliath moments!
With 20 turns planted in the 3.8 mile full course, MMC is technical and demands that you compromise earlier corners to maximize speeds onto the straights. Speeds by the end of the long back straight match or exceed those of the back straight at Watkins Glen; my speedometer was ticking past the 120 mark, but that’s suspect considering another MINI with more experience, better tires, and data logging showing max speeds in the low 120s also. Course maps of the corkscrew at the end of the long straight don’t do it justice – it’s a quick, right – left – right as you blindly crest the hill, bombing over the curbing and keeping your inputs smooth, as warranted by the elevation changes. I had a wheel or two off here once or twice and have to say it’s probably my favorite element! The hairpin before the next short straight is probably my least favorite, mostly since it’s arduously slow, requiring 2nd gear, and I was early here all day long. I also crunched the succeeding 2nd to 3rd shift twice; it happens as you’re WOT, drifting back to the right, and getting it into gear was taking a tenth of a second longer than my brain would allow.
I remember someone over the course of the day describing MMC as if the designers had a list of different elements they wanted to include, and went about incorporating them as the plot of land dictated. This ends up being a track that’s fast, slow, and everything in between, at different spots. This isn’t a negative in my mind, and I can’t wait to go back! Track Time Photos was there, as was another photographer with some photos included in the SCDA recap (first photo is of me, looking far, far – maybe too far – ahead through a corner).
The Kumho XS held up admirably through the day. My butt still has the imprint of absolute grip from my Kumho V710 autocross tires, but the XS give good feedback and feel the same from start to finish. I might be able to find slightly better pressures – been keeping them at 36psi hot, which looks spot-on as far as rollover is concerned. Brakes were similarly rock solid, and I believe my pads will make it through two more days at the Glen, no sweat. Rotors are a little chewed up and I’ll be watching them. I kept an eye on water temps via my Scangauge, and I was surprised to find temperatures barely above those of daily driving! With a 70/30 water / antifreeze mix, and half a bottle of Water Wetter, the car sits in the low 190*s from day to day, and wasn’t much above 200* while on the track! Ambient temps were comfortable and the tiny little stock intercooler was doing its job. This is another indication that autocross is harder on the car in some respects, since water temps were higher at the autocross May 23rd. More to come on that, later.
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