Rookie of the Year?

Quoted from the MoHud SCCA's website:

Novice of the year.
The 2010 winner was the toughest pick of the year. We had several nominees that made impressive debuts. For the winner, while some of his finishes were not as good as the other nominees; they were respectable for what was arguably the most difficult car to drive. To quote one of the committee members “His driving is pretty consistent, and I think he’s got a real good mix of aggression and calculation. I did not witness him “pushing through a push”. He looks smooth, reasonably early and close to the cones”. What was the deciding factor for picking this nominee was his willingness to help out in both setting up and tearing down the event. This year’s winner is Allan Varcoe.

Event 6 Fortitech/My Driving

This past Sunday 9/19/10 was MoHud region's 6th event held at Fortitech, a company with a sweet parking lot that is used/used to be used for NY State Trooper Driving training. So it was more of a tour style event in the sence that the course was longer.

This course highlighted one of my biggest weaknesses as a driver.
The Slalom.
I used to almost ALWAYS take out cones on the passenger side. I then over compensate by leaving a few feet between the passenger rear wheel and the cone. This makes my slalom's choppy and the wagon usualy goes bonkers. This course had 3 slalom's and it was a higher speed course so I had to do or die. Trust me I tried dying a few times but then it just seemed to click. I was keeping the car flatter through the cones and coming out at what seemed like a more speed. Strange how when forced to do something you can get better at it.

As for the wagon, I am totaly realizing that it can do more than I can do to it! I want to have one of the advanced drivers at the next event drive it with me. Anything to learn more about driving and seeing what the wagon can do sounds good to me.

I also got a ride in EJ's Evo (driven by Jeff K.) HOLY SHIT! That car is VERY impressive. It runs in SM class on some WIDE 285mm tires with a ton of mods. I noticed how much better a good set of seats are over the FLAT stock Jetta seats. This EVO has factory seats however they are Recaro's and very nicely bolstered. After my ridealong I realilzed that I move my body around a LOT while on the course. I may try to find some GTI seats over the winter.

I also got to use the camera mount I made.
THE PROOF

Test-n-Tune Time

This past Saturday was a MoHud Region Test-n-Tune and my first TnT.

We got like 10 runs in... idk I lost count. Got a few pointers from some experienced racers and I really think I made improvments or at least am awaer of what I am doing wrong! :)

My strut brace is finally done. Once I mount it I'll post pics!

Wagon is doing great! Have a new urathane dogbone mount too now. That seems to get the power to the ground a bit firmer. So far I like it!

EDIT:

Brace pics!

Event 2 at OGS

Over a week late but hey...
Had the second MoHud event in the wagon. It was raining as we got there, then it stopped just before the 1st group. Mid way through the first group we had to stop because of lightening. After a 1.5 hour delay we were back at it. Finished up the first group and then we got our first runs in. The course was still wet and I plowed a couple of cones. I tried to turn too fast and just kept going straight. Ah well.

The sun had come out and the day was starting to turn beautiful for the first group's second set when the sky turned BLACK and a wall of water dumped out of the sky. We scurried to shelter where we stayed for probably another hour. Then the sun came out with a vengeance! We finished up with the first group and the course was actually getting dry!

Time for the wagon's second chance. 3 of us in ST class were neck and neck! A 2 door Saturn, Civic DX Coupe and I were all within a couple of tenths.

My runs in the wagon were getting better and better with my last run hitting 40.050! I think with 1 more lap I could have broken into the 39's.

In the end of the day after cone violations I got 2nd! Not bad! I was psyched!

So far I like the low end power of the VR6. Is it front heavy? I don't really know but I feel it's controllable. I'd like to try a TDI or 1.8T wagon for comparison.

I am making a strut brace at work. I'm a machinist and I have access to a TIG welder so we'll see how it comes out. I'll post pics when I'm done.

Somewhat dry.


Wet 3 wheeling!

Sport Utinity Wagon

Lets see this happen in any other autocross car! HAHA!

This is what I love about this car! It's a Chaze chair.

RACE DAY!

This past Sunday was our/my first event and OMFG it was FUN!

Picked up my Dad (who used to race in the 70's & 80's) at 7am and we were an hour north in 45 minutes! When we got there the course designers were just finishing the set-up and it was nice to see that we weren't using the rough section of the course at all except to slow down after the finish line.

Shortly after My Dad and I got there the rest of the crew from ROFLwagens.com showed up. There was a great VW turnout. Hell, there was a great euro turn out. BMW and Porsche were there in full effect as well.

The course was VERY easy to follow (for me at least) even though is crossed over itself a couple of times. There was a nice hard right turn down in the back of the course that was fun to go into hot and nail the gas on the way out of.

The wagon did well for me. The tires seemed to push a lot but I could have been oversteering. The rear sway bar did it's job and the exhaust sounded good on the video my dad took. I may get some up soon. Anyways I wound up 3rd out of 4 in ST class! I'll take it! Got 31st with PAX out of 56! I'll take that too!

Again the Mo-Hud SCCA group runs such a great event! Thank you guys for making this happen!

Thanks to my Dad for the photos! :)

Muffled

Back to the exhaust issue.
Today I went to Broadway Auto in Schenectady to have the resinator bypassed. I got there first thing in the morning and by the time I walked up a couple blocks to Dunkin Doughnuts for an Iced Coffee and got back they were done.
$40 later it sounds... good... I guess. I'm on the fence on the sound to be honest. There is a rattle in the factory parts somewhere and it sounds a tad fart cannon-ish. IDK if it's just when it's cold or what but... We'll see.