mini TWW meet! w00t!!

8/9/2013 9:47:55 AM

Drove in my first 24 Hours of Lemons this past weekend. It was a lot of fun, although unfortunately there was a fatality when an older driver had a heart attack and went straight off at turn 14 and straight into the tire barrier at full throttle. Apparently he died from the heart attack, and the safety equipment did its job and he would've been okay otherwise, but it still put a damper on the weekend.

On the bright side my team finished 33rd out of about 115 teams, and got the heroic fix trophy for replacing the engine cover on our mid-engined V6 RWD Geo Metro. This was my first time racing wheel to wheel, so I had a lot to learn (still do) about open passing and such, but I was pretty familiar with the track (CMP) so I was able to set our fastest lap time (flat out through the kink in a 220hp RWD Geo Metro wooooo).

Unfortunately near the end of my stint there was a near-contact type incident right in front of me going into turn 11 and I locked up the brakes on the Geo (no ABS) and spun into the infield and therefore got black flagged, our only black flag of the weekend. I was pretty annoyed with myself for not leaving more room for that kind of thing to happen, especially since in the previous two laps I'd had car on car contact resulting in spins right in front of me heh.

I think I'm pretty hooked on the Lemons thing, it was a blast and they're a great group of people. Here's a picture of the Geo btw:


[Edited on September 23, 2013 at 11:45 AM. Reason : .]

9/23/2013 11:44:45 AM

That's pretty sweet man! I gotta ask though, how did you manage to create a 220hp mid engined Geo for $500?

9/23/2013 1:47:48 PM

^ They got the Geo for like $100 or $200, I forget exactly. The engine is a junkyard motor out of a Mercury Sable/Ford Escape/etc, a Ford 3.0 V6. It's in tons of vehicles in various displacements, pretty easy to get running, and available at almost any junkyard in some form. So they legitimately have around $500 in the car in terms of chassis and engine. The sub-frames are from a wrecked Ford Contour they got for scrap metal prices, and the drive train is basically a Ford Contour's FF layout with the steering rack welded and the whole thing put in the rear for MR/RR layout...more of an RR layout I suppose, since the engine is directly over the rear axle.

The cage/belts/seats and wheels/tires/brakes were all more of course, but those are all considered safety items and have an unlimited budget (tires have to be 200tw though, so we're running 225 Dunlop ZII's).

I'm guessing all told that they have a few thousand in the car with all the safety and such, but its pretty cheap for what it is. LOTS of man hours though, I felt pretty nervous racing it considering how little work I've done on it, but hopefully I can help out with the electrical system between now and the next Lemons race.

9/23/2013 3:31:01 PM

Thats pretty amazing & awesome.

9/23/2013 4:17:39 PM

I've had a few guys on here ask me to post about upcoming drift events, so:

There's another drift event at Piedmont Dragway coming up on Jan 25th.

$10 for spectators, $15 for spectators/ride-alongs, and $50 for drivers. Gates open at 9:30, on track by 11 or so, and we'll probably run until 4 or so.

No heats, no competition, hardly any rules, simple tech inspection. Cages aren't required. Tandem is allowed if you and a partner want to do it. Passenger is allowed for any/all runs (solo, tandem, no cage, doesn't matter). It's a fun grassroots drift event, so expect an absurdly laid back atmosphere and a lot of penis jokes.

There are lots of beginners out here, so don't be shy if you want to try sliding your car for a day! Also this course is very easy on rear tires. I usually don't go through more than a pair during an entire day out here, compared to easily chewing through 6 in a day at the Charlotte events. Cars with low power will easily last all day on a decent pair. Find some cheap used wheels/tires on Craigslist in your bolt pattern and bring em out!

Facebook page for more probably less info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/787258571291541/

[Edited on January 7, 2014 at 7:37 PM. Reason : .]

1/7/2014 7:35:33 PM

^ Piedmont Drift is still happening this Saturday.

There's also another one scheduled for Feb 8th. Same basic gist. Info here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/502888226495672/

Come find me for smokey ride-alongs!

1/20/2014 9:05:36 PM

One of my old friends from my car club days recently took the position of track director down at Roebling Road Raceway.

Sounds like a good excuse to take the Cayman down there

1/21/2014 11:41:57 AM

Anyone going to be at the Lemons race at Barber Feb 1-2?

JBaz, does your team do Lemons too or just Chump?

My Lemons Contour SVT is coming along, it'll look much different for the race of course once I add the theme:


[Edited on January 21, 2014 at 1:31 PM. Reason : Image ended up huge but I can't scale it here, deal with it I guess lol]

1/21/2014 1:29:29 PM

Anyone going to be at VIR with chin on march 8/9? First weekend the repaved track surface is open.

1/31/2014 2:56:25 PM

Quote :

"There's also another {Piedmont Drift event} scheduled for Feb 8th. Same basic gist. Info here: https://www.facebook.com/events/502888226495672/"

bump. coming up this saturday.

come do smoky drifty things with us. or at least come ride along. it's fun as shit, i swear.

2/3/2014 5:50:33 PM

Got a source on some 205-235 17's or a cheap set of 5x114 wheels/tires?

2/3/2014 10:02:01 PM

^ my source for tires is almost always craigslist

or if you have buddies that work at tire shops, give them a list of sizes and beg them the keep the good ones.

2/4/2014 6:02:11 AM

I just want to say, I went to this event. Many thanks, good times were had. Your car’s awesome, etc.

Wish I got to ride in one of these 240SXs w/300(?)hp in a straight line, get a feel for how much power they have/can put down. I’m starting to get stupid ideas again. :/

2/10/2014 10:02:37 PM

RallyX event today canceled due to quicksand-esque surface, boo

On a hilarious note, I was Google image searching for "Civic rally car" for the hell of it and found this POS in the first three rows:

2/16/2014 11:51:42 PM

Can you rally x a jeep?

2/17/2014 7:02:50 AM

^ If stock height or lower, probably. If lifted, probably not, but depends on the lift. A Wrangler would have to have a hardtop, no convertibles / soft tops allowed.

The final call comes down to the safety steward at the site and depends on the surface and the individual vehicle. There are videos of Jeeps/Tacomas/etc rally crossing though.

2/17/2014 9:16:30 AM

Stock height 4 door hard top

2/17/2014 11:53:13 AM

^^^^civic rally car, s0ns. greatest car ever.

my first rallyX

2/17/2014 10:00:47 PM

Another Piedmont Drift event is happening this Saturday, March 8th.

Same deal as always. Gates open around 9:30am, on track around 11 until probably 4 or 5pm. $10 at the gate for everyone. $5 for a passenger wristband (good for the entire day, ride along with whoever has an open passenger seat), $40 for a driver wristband (also good for the entire day, burn off whatever tires you bring).

If any of you come, make sure to find me. I'll gladly give you a few rides.

3/4/2014 5:38:32 PM

Not much of a track event, but THSCC is holding a RallyX event at the Fayetteville Motor Speedway this Sunday

baonest and myself will be in attendance

9one9

3/5/2014 9:40:35 AM

^^Take this man up on his offer!

I'd love to come to another event, though I'm getting too jealous of not being able to drive myself. Work has been taking up most of my time and I have a race that weekend anyway. Darn March 8th!

3/5/2014 9:53:43 AM

Ran my 3rd LeMons race this past weekend, 2nd in my Ford Contour and 2nd with 2 cars on the team. Both cars were placed into B class, and for a while on Saturday we were running #1 and #2 in the class. The Contour went out on track without the fuel cap on properly after a pit stop and got black flagged, and then we couldn't get it started again for a little bit so that cost us. Here's a cool shot of us doing a double car simultaneous pit stop on day 1:


On day 2 we were running #3 and #5 in B class (out of 28) when the Contour lost the front right wheel with one of my paid drivers out on track, oops. Luckily she felt some vibration and was running much slower than usual and was able to just head straight off into the grass when it happened at the exit of turn 8. I felt pretty bad about it happening, I'm definitely going to invest in new studs and lugnuts all around, we think the lugs were fatigued, or potentially a lugnut was cross-threaded at some point. Here's the damage:


Luckily our Geo teammates had enough spare lugs and lug nuts to get the car back on track, we finished out the day taking it relatively easy but still moved back up a few positions and ended up 8th (out of 28) in B class and 20th (out of 87) overall, with our Geo teammates ending up 3rd in B class and 7th overall.

My fastest lap time (and the fastest of either of our team's cars) was a 2:02.9, which I was pretty happy with considering the amount of traffic. The fastest time of the weekend was a 1:57 by a Mercedes 190E 2.3W16, which is a crazy fast and well set up car. I think our Contour can get there with some suspension work and driver improvement. Overall it was a great weekend!

I'll be back at CMP May 17th-18th for the NASA weekend running my M3 in HPDE2. Anyone else going to be there?

5/5/2014 11:42:23 AM

Man I can't wait to get my 7 on the track, but it needs some considerable suspension sorting first. It will never be docile, but I need it to be manageable.

5/5/2014 6:27:17 PM

Quote :

"Can you rally x a jeep?"

you could do off-road adventure rallies

5/5/2014 7:03:39 PM

Is that like the King Of the Hammers stuff? Wide variety of terrain, some high-speed stuff, some gnarly crawly stuff?

5/5/2014 9:13:42 PM

^^^ Oh come on I thought the idea was to get a docile DD so you could have an insane track car

5/5/2014 9:34:58 PM

It's insane in a Charles Manson sort of way. I want to make it insane in a Howard Hughes or maybe Johnny Knoxville sort of way.

[Edited on May 5, 2014 at 10:18 PM. Reason : Wild and a little unhinged, but not evil and murderous]

5/5/2014 10:17:23 PM

Doubt I'll make it to the track this year. Cayman's gonna need new front pads/rotors and rear tires before it's track ready, and I'm still feeling the $4600 hit from my wreck last November

5/6/2014 8:09:30 AM

Next spring... hopefully... I've ordered half the parts. Can't go back now!

5/6/2014 6:57:55 PM

OK...so I think the 7 is finally ready for the track. Now I just need to find time when there's an event at NOLA or Barber (or if Jennings GP ever has a car-day), and rent a truck & trailer to haul the thing there and back.

________________

How cool would it be to have something like a Formula Mazda as a track car? Hell, you could even port the 13b and make it silly fast as long as you didn't care about keeping it legal for racing.

5/7/2015 8:05:23 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxUx6qi0I_k

DO WANT!

5/8/2015 9:06:42 AM

I will be at;

CMP May 15-16
VIR June 1-2

A couple of friends are coming, one from TWW. More the merrier, anybody care to join us?

5/8/2015 10:35:08 AM

Can't make those events. After July I should be singing a different tune

5/8/2015 11:36:25 AM

today was a load of fun. got to meet glasssss and jawhitak. Two really cool dudes, and both can drift the hell out of their 240s!!!

I've got a second set of rims coming in tomorrow and I'm gonna get some cheapo tires mounted on them for next months drift event. I'm hooked. i'd post the vids, but they are so bad. You can't even tell I'm drifting...

[Edited on May 9, 2015 at 6:25 PM. Reason : .]

5/9/2015 6:24:22 PM

jawhitak's drift. EPIC Ridealong
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZwQ1pSMJw8

5/9/2015 7:02:30 PM

today was awesome
Hiro doesnt play..
driving home from the drift event:

quick pic when we were lined up behind [user]jaywhitak[/user] wide ass

also got some good videos ill post later

[Edited on May 9, 2015 at 7:15 PM. Reason : .]

5/9/2015 7:13:48 PM

LOL

5/9/2015 7:56:27 PM

I was hitting G forces so hard connecting drifts that my go pro flew off my car.

Okay, that was all sarcasm, except the gopro flying part.

Check out this hoss I drove by earlier...



[Edited on May 9, 2015 at 9:18 PM. Reason : .]

5/9/2015 9:02:45 PM

haha my C5 Z06 spat a GoPro right out the window one time at CMP. GoPro (2) still works fine to this day.

5/9/2015 11:41:04 PM

---jawhitak---

https://youtu.be/YQWyvFb8-Iw

https://youtu.be/lzIQH8TCjpA

https://youtu.be/kTnj6qohdXo


---glassssssss---

http://youtu.be/bwyiAMdWQ98

[Edited on May 10, 2015 at 2:29 PM. Reason : .]

[Edited on May 10, 2015 at 2:30 PM. Reason : .]

5/10/2015 2:29:39 PM

here are a couple videos of Hiro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeagd_sv9Fo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auYAEo_RQmM

and one of jawhitak

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fadL70oIhuk

5/10/2015 3:11:15 PM

Getting down in the "pit" area and connecting drifts is hard. I'm terrible at it, but the "service active handling" error coming up can definitely kill the drift, as you can see in the second vid. It's a notorious problem with C6 vettes, and though I'm still doing research, I believe it's linked to the steering column sensor. To clarify, if the system detects a glitch in any sensor, it will activate Active Handling and ABS to safely bring your car to a stop, even if you have TC/AH disabled. You can reset the system by restarting the car. Totally annoying and happened on every other drift.

C6 has a lot of grip. I need to man up, carry more speed, and have a smoother right foot. Oh and find out what I can do to circumvent the SAH issue, if it's even possible.

I'm probably not going to drift the c6 much more if these issues persist, and just keep it an HPDE car.


[Edited on May 10, 2015 at 5:56 PM. Reason : .]

5/10/2015 5:51:26 PM

^you sure about more speed? from the looks of it, you almost tagged two light poles

5/10/2015 8:41:12 PM

Did you turn traction control off by holding the button down more than 5 seconds?

5/10/2015 9:32:37 PM

nope. I did traction Control off and Competition mode. Imma give it one more shot and see what happens. I think there's maybe kinda sorta a drift even 2 or 3 weeks from now. we'll see...

But i did find that feature after some searching online. I thought competition mode and Traction COntrol off would be enough to let me drift freely... Guess not. :/

5/10/2015 9:45:12 PM

Stop messying up my track event thread with drift junk!

Since that’s not going to happen, here are my thoughts:

You’re power sliding your Corvette, not really drifting it. Which is OK, and fun and all that but drifting is a different thing. From where I’m looking, you need something that is lighter on it’s feet than a Corvette for that. I don’t intend to bring my GT3 out there anymore. -AND- please bring your Corvette to a track event, you’ll have a lot more fun there in that chassis. If you want to drift -like I do-, a better suited tool is probably a good idea.

As for your suspension shenanigans, I remember I had a similar error message in my C5 Corvette. Great chassis, and could power slide till the cows came home. I think with the C5, it was an electrical ground problem.

5/10/2015 11:30:06 PM

I just can't get fired up about drifting. I mean, sliding around is fun, and no doubt it requires skill to drift well, but I just can't get excited about it. It's the car equivalent of sportbike stunt riding...Yeah, they can do stuff on a motorcycle that I can't do, but that's fine. I have no interest in doing it other than a normal wheelie or stoppie here and there.

[Edited on May 11, 2015 at 12:00 AM. Reason : ]

5/10/2015 11:59:45 PM

More actual track stuff, not that drifting crap (I kid, I kid, drifting looks fun )

But anyways, did a LeMons race last weekend with my team the Knoxvegas Lowballers. We took 3 cars this time, the rear engine RWD Geo, my boring Ford Contour, and a Mazda MPV minivan with the same Duratec 3.0L V6 but dual-engined with two manual transmissions (crazy ass van heh). I was driving my Contour along with the co-owner and 2 more drivers.

Both the Geo and the Contour (which is now a station wagon with some creative chopping of a Taurus wagon at a junkyard and some welding) were put into class B (the middle class of the 3 LeMons classes). The Geo ended up winning class B and taking 3rd place (out of 77) overall, and the Contour came in 2nd in class B by a few laps and 6th place/77 overall. All in all, a pretty amazing weekend for us. Here's a shot of me driving the Contour that made Car and Driver's website:


A few articles on Car and Driver's website about the race:
Inspections: http://blog.caranddriver.com/lemons-southern-discomfort-inspections-ranchero-fairlane-valiant-monza-many-mustangs-and-miatas/
Day 1 results: http://blog.caranddriver.com/lemons-southern-discomfort-day-1-vw-golf-vs-volvo-262c-bertone-drama-duratec-powered-geo-metro-leads-class-b/
Final results: http://blog.caranddriver.com/24-hours-of-lemons-southern-discomfort-2015-the-winners/

Ahmet, you need to come try LeMons sometime...wheel to wheel for cheap, it's pretty great

5/11/2015 12:52:56 AM

How does glassssssss avoid getting harassed by cops with his license plate hanging like that?

5/11/2015 7:24:18 AM