Frigid Ho's at CMP
12-24-2008, 08:42 PM
#1
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
Frigid Ho's at CMP
Monday at CMP was cold, not chilly, not uncomfortable, not brisk but bone chilling cold. The temperature did not get all the way up to 32 till late in the afternoon and the stiff 10-15 mph wind made it nice to be on the lee side of something. But the rumble of horsepower, the smell of hot brakes and the scream of cold soaked tires makes those annoyances fade away quickly for the tru track faithful. The rather large turnout of the Track Ho faithful even made it better. The Corvette contingent was well represented with Spidey, Pat, Dave, Jason, Mike Werner, ZO6cool, Beerkat and Team England all there with C5s to keep all the brand X cars at bay. There was even a C6Z there but I did not get a chance to talk to him. The Pantas clan arrived carrying all the running cars in the stable I believe (the Pink Panther). Jon K, and a few others, were there driving a preproduction 370Z and a 2010 Mustang for some video.
Jake, Josh, Dave, Tim, Jason and I rolled in Sunday, after blowing and replacing a trailer tire enroute, for a chilly night in the trailers. Being able to see Sylvia for a little while left us all warm inside though. We went to the Bantam Chef for the famous Kershaw Pounder to fuel the furnace to fend off the cold. There was a large cow sacrificed to feed the Ho's that night. Toby brought us in a large sack of sausage biscuits for the breakfast on Monday. Some guys know how to treat Ho's is all I have to say.
Registration, tech, and the driver's meeting went smoothly. The Mustang had a little bit of an issue with oil smoke from the left fender but everything checked out OK. I took Mike out for a few laps in the ZO6 since he had never been there and then rode with him. Have I ever mentioned riding with Mike is a lot like riding with TimZO6, Jake and Toby? He is a passive aggressive fading into throttle aggressive. I really felt the HANs was a great investment. I also noticed Beerkat's car had the right rear tire on its own toe and camber setting - Jason corrected it in the paddock since the orginal settings were marked.
I lucked out, but I think Sylvia may have been involved, in getting Nicole in the Pink Panther. What a pleasure it was to have a someone in the car who applied throttle, delayed braking and shifted gears when I advised - unlike some others I know who argue with me on the execution of every corner. It was readily apparent Nicole has never been instructed by Jim. She knows the line and is extremely smooth - things Jim seems to struggle with. The Pink Panther is amazing for a BMW Spec E30 car and drove very well. I did notice the holes in the floorboard ducting air into my pants legs though as I was hugging the trans tunnel for a little heat. Nicole really picked up the pace and with a little heel-toe practice will make her Dad look even worse.
Tim was there in his first gen CRX working on his senior project. Jake was his instructor and the car looked really good on the track - since it is an ex-Team England car we are not impartial. It developed an overheating problem so Tim swapped over to Dave's 2000 C5 to finish off the day. After their spin on pit exit, in the first session in the C5, Tim seemed to be doing well.
I went out for a session before lunch with some street tires (turns out they were corded) running with Jason and Khoi. It seems Khoi thought I must have been on touring laps. I can honestly say the seat leather is extremely resilant in a C5Z since my tension was high. It may have been slow laps but it was all the car could do on those tires. Soon afterward Beerkat took a slide into the tires between T10 and T11. Somewhere in there Josh took the Mustang off at T12 after hitting some oil laid down by a white STi. Jim in the Pink Panther witnessed the spin and said he saw no oil there. Not to defend Josh, but since he was likely running the "Pantas" line it is unlikely the oil would be there.
At lunch time, with more food then even my two could eat, we switched to Avons on front and Kumhos in the rear. Khoi attempted to keep us in the paddock with the jack through the radiator trick - but it did not work out for him. It was a close call due to jacking on the sand. The Avons liked the cold fairly well and worked nicely initially. The Kumhos did not like the cold and I got really loose in T1 on pit exit. But when the tires warmed up I "schooled" ZO6Cool on running CMP. It seems a fresh engine, headers, big brakes, 335 tires and T1 bars are not enough advantage to whip up on my poor 50,000 mile ZO6.
Jake had the car in the next session and I warned him about the tires, gators and track - but he, as normal, pointed out he was faster at CMP and for me to lighten up. Here is the video link of him spinning in T2 http://www.vimeo.com/2617873 . Sometimes I am right....
We ran right up to quitting time and had no complaints. The Mustang had to be push started at the gas station but it made it on the trialer under its own power. Josh drove the ZO6 home with R compounds on to try to finally kill them. Mike had the dreaded steering column lock, also at the gas station, but it unlocked finally and he drove it home. Brain Smith finally stopped by to make sure all the riff raff cleared the paddock.
Except for Kim's incident bumming everybody out it was a great day. Kim broke a rib so Patches is even letting him kick back a little.
We need to get the cars ready for Feb 6,7 & 8 at CMP.
Jake, Josh, Dave, Tim, Jason and I rolled in Sunday, after blowing and replacing a trailer tire enroute, for a chilly night in the trailers. Being able to see Sylvia for a little while left us all warm inside though. We went to the Bantam Chef for the famous Kershaw Pounder to fuel the furnace to fend off the cold. There was a large cow sacrificed to feed the Ho's that night. Toby brought us in a large sack of sausage biscuits for the breakfast on Monday. Some guys know how to treat Ho's is all I have to say.
Registration, tech, and the driver's meeting went smoothly. The Mustang had a little bit of an issue with oil smoke from the left fender but everything checked out OK. I took Mike out for a few laps in the ZO6 since he had never been there and then rode with him. Have I ever mentioned riding with Mike is a lot like riding with TimZO6, Jake and Toby? He is a passive aggressive fading into throttle aggressive. I really felt the HANs was a great investment. I also noticed Beerkat's car had the right rear tire on its own toe and camber setting - Jason corrected it in the paddock since the orginal settings were marked.
I lucked out, but I think Sylvia may have been involved, in getting Nicole in the Pink Panther. What a pleasure it was to have a someone in the car who applied throttle, delayed braking and shifted gears when I advised - unlike some others I know who argue with me on the execution of every corner. It was readily apparent Nicole has never been instructed by Jim. She knows the line and is extremely smooth - things Jim seems to struggle with. The Pink Panther is amazing for a BMW Spec E30 car and drove very well. I did notice the holes in the floorboard ducting air into my pants legs though as I was hugging the trans tunnel for a little heat. Nicole really picked up the pace and with a little heel-toe practice will make her Dad look even worse.
Tim was there in his first gen CRX working on his senior project. Jake was his instructor and the car looked really good on the track - since it is an ex-Team England car we are not impartial. It developed an overheating problem so Tim swapped over to Dave's 2000 C5 to finish off the day. After their spin on pit exit, in the first session in the C5, Tim seemed to be doing well.
I went out for a session before lunch with some street tires (turns out they were corded) running with Jason and Khoi. It seems Khoi thought I must have been on touring laps. I can honestly say the seat leather is extremely resilant in a C5Z since my tension was high. It may have been slow laps but it was all the car could do on those tires. Soon afterward Beerkat took a slide into the tires between T10 and T11. Somewhere in there Josh took the Mustang off at T12 after hitting some oil laid down by a white STi. Jim in the Pink Panther witnessed the spin and said he saw no oil there. Not to defend Josh, but since he was likely running the "Pantas" line it is unlikely the oil would be there.
At lunch time, with more food then even my two could eat, we switched to Avons on front and Kumhos in the rear. Khoi attempted to keep us in the paddock with the jack through the radiator trick - but it did not work out for him. It was a close call due to jacking on the sand. The Avons liked the cold fairly well and worked nicely initially. The Kumhos did not like the cold and I got really loose in T1 on pit exit. But when the tires warmed up I "schooled" ZO6Cool on running CMP. It seems a fresh engine, headers, big brakes, 335 tires and T1 bars are not enough advantage to whip up on my poor 50,000 mile ZO6.
Jake had the car in the next session and I warned him about the tires, gators and track - but he, as normal, pointed out he was faster at CMP and for me to lighten up. Here is the video link of him spinning in T2 http://www.vimeo.com/2617873 . Sometimes I am right....
We ran right up to quitting time and had no complaints. The Mustang had to be push started at the gas station but it made it on the trialer under its own power. Josh drove the ZO6 home with R compounds on to try to finally kill them. Mike had the dreaded steering column lock, also at the gas station, but it unlocked finally and he drove it home. Brain Smith finally stopped by to make sure all the riff raff cleared the paddock.
Except for Kim's incident bumming everybody out it was a great day. Kim broke a rib so Patches is even letting him kick back a little.
We need to get the cars ready for Feb 6,7 & 8 at CMP.
12-25-2008, 06:16 AM
#3
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
12-25-2008, 07:35 AM
#4
Racer
