| MIATA BUILD |
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 | | August 31, 2008 - Sharp-eyed readers will have noticed an addition to the menu on the left side of the page: RACE UPDATES.
Hopefully the purpose is clear! During the race, I'm planning to make regular updates on our progress. There are no guarantees that I'll find time or have the ability to do this, and it'll only happen in the evenings if I do. But I will do the best I can.
The weather in Colorado today is almost exactly the same as in St. John's - wet (I think we got half of our 6-9" of annual precipitation last night!), cool and kinda blah. I pointed this out to Janel and she said "Uh oh".
entry 524 - tags: announcements, preparation | | | August 31, 2008 - Remember how I said the weather today was like St John's?
Well, during one heavy burst of rain, I looked at Janel and said "I should take the car out and test it in this weather". She looked back and said "I'll come along". So we buckled in and backed the nice clean car out into the storm.
Unfortunately, traffic was heavy on my Targa Simulation Road and there is absolutely no place to pass on it. So we were stymied going both up and down and didn't get a chance to feel what the RA1s were like in standing water at full chat. But it wasn't without merit. First off, I learned the car is pretty resistant to hydroplaning. I wasn't able to travel too fast (curse the luck) but my best efforts were met with dogged traction. So that's good.
We also got a chance to test the defroster. Finally! It worked a treat on my side, but it blew off one of the ducts on Janel's side and was less than effective. I'd disturbed things when working on the dash light wiring a few weeks ago and never bothered to tape it all back up again properly. It's an easy fix, but an important one. Had it happened in Newfoundland, I would have have had everything needed to fix it in the car with me.
So that's a success then. I'll crawl under the car and see if my new, improved heatshield mounting held up as well - I have high hopes for it. All I did was scrape the undercoating off in that one area so there was smooth metal for the tape to grab, and I know from experience that this tape loves the smooth metal.
It's quite refreshing to be able to spend the day just poking around like this, two weeks before the start of the race. There's no big list of problems to solve or jobs to do. The car's basically ready to load into the trailer. This is very unlike normal racing practices but exactly the way I wanted it. Tomorrow, I think I'll do some painting inside the house.
I've just jinxed myself, I know it.
entry 525 - tags: preparation, testing | | |  | September 3, 2008 - Lots of detail work today.
I needed TOW stickers for both the front and the rear and I only had them on the rear. So I cut a couple out of reflective blue vinyl. Why not? They shine!
I also spent some time chasing insurance. The latest revision of the regulations require us to carry a million dollars in liability insurance. But normal auto coverage has a half-million limit. Of course, as soon as I mentioned racing to the insurance company, they got all nervous. The coverage is only for the transit sections but they were still spooked. A call to the Targa organizers and everything was sorted out quite easily. Whew.
entry 526 - tags: preparation | | |  | September 3, 2008 - I spent the day cleaning the car and doing final prep.
The last thing I did was bolt the camera mount in to place. It's about eye level so it should be pretty good for capturing the race nicely. I'm hoping to tape every competitive stage, although this particular camera can be quite ornery.
entry 527 | | |  | September 3, 2008 - So, it's Wednesday night.
I'm leaving early on Saturday - and the car's in the trailer! This seems so wrong. Race cars don't work like this. The tools and race gear are loaded up and I'm pretty much ready to fire up the truck and head east. I should probably pack some clothes other than my race suit, though.
I forgot to mention that I cornerweighted the car on Tuesday night. It was actually just about dead on. When I throw the electric impact gun in the back, it'll be perfect. The car, with about 3/4 tank of fuel, has 49.8% of the weight on the back wheels.
So that's it then. All the documentation is gathered. The car is ready. The trailer is loaded up. It's time for the last couple of years of preparation to be put to the test.
It's important to manage expectations though - while I think the car has the potential to win the event, Janel and I do not have the experience needed. The goal is to finish and bring the car home in one piece.
entry 528 - tags: preparation | | | September 5, 2008 - I'm heading out tomorrow morning, bright and early.
Here's what's bouncing around in my head. I'm still doing some last-minute prep - printing out a checklist of things to do to the car each night so that we can make sure that one of the crew does things like fill the Camelbaks, torque the lug nuts and replace the battery in the intercom.
The load of spares is a tough one. Miatas are hardy cars and I don't anticipate a lot of breakage. I have a spare set of brake pads and rotors as well as a different rear sway and a set of lower control arms in case of a big mistake on my part. But that's about it other than the usual repair parts like racer tape, electrical connectors and hose clamps.
It looks as if the ferry service to Newfoundland is running a little slow due to weather - the sort of weather that gets given a name. Right now, it appears we won't get to St. John's until 11 am on the morning of registration and tech inspection. Normally, we'd be coming into town about 4 hours earlier which is perfect. Oh well, it's not as if Newfoundlanders aren't used to weather delays. I'll get my way through it.
For some reason, all of my focus is on the drive out there, making sure I have everything and getting through scrutineering. The race? Not even thinking about it. Although I'll probably watch my in-car footage from the Kloosterman team over and over again on the trip out. I have a week to do nothing but sit in the truck and think about the race.
On the road tomorrow - here we go!
entry 529 - tags: preparation | | | September 5, 2008 - It appears that live scoring will be available through the race.
http://rallyscoring.com/results/index.htm should keep you up to date. In fact, I expect that someone reading that site will have a better idea of what's going on than I will.
To make things interesting, there are a couple of storms moving in that might bring along some weather. Storms named Ike and Josephine. Great, just what a guy who lives in the desert needs!
entry 530 | | | September 8, 2008 - We're about halfway through the long, long drive to Sydney, NS.
My friend Trevor flew from Ottawa to Denver on Saturday and I picked him up at the airport after driving over the mountains to get there. We've been making good time, mostly because we know it's going to get slower as we hit the maritime provinces. We drove within about 45 minutes of Trevor's house this evening and kept going. Nobody said this all had to make sense. The border crossing was very easy, with no lineups and just a brief explanation.
At the moment, it looks like we might make it to Sydney a day early. That'll give me the chance to pull the car out of the trailer and make sure it's happy running at sea level.
I found out that Talk Like A Pirate Day falls in the middle of the Targa this year. I can just imagine the calls over the intercom from Janel:
"Hard to port, you scurvy dog!"
"Loose the anchors, bear to starboard then full sail! Arrrrr"
Okay, maybe not. Maybe I've been spending a bit too much time in the truck.
entry 531 - tags: pirates | | | September 10, 2008 - The trip across the country was uneventful, and we arrived in Sydney a day early.
Unfortunately, we can't head over to St. John's a day early because my parents won't be coming into to town until tomorrow, but that's not really a problem. Based on the parking lot in the hotel, only one car is heading across tomorrow anyhow.
So, tomorrow I'll pull the car out of the trailer and make sure it's happy at sea level - and hopefully work any flat spots out of the tires from the car being tied down for a week.
The weather forecast is looking pretty good for the week. All the hurricanes appear to have declined the invitation to ravage the island while we're visiting. Yay!
entry 532 | | | September 11, 2008 - Testing today went smoothly.
It wasn't a major test, simply a run down the road to make sure the car was happy at sea level. And yes, it is. My biggest concern was knock, as the higher ambient air pressure at sea level means higher cylinder pressures than before. The tuning is good, though. Nothing showed up on the knock sensor at all. The 20% increase in horsepower is quite obvious, especially when the car gets on cam. The first time I ran it through the gears, I burst out with "Yeah! THAT'S my engine! Woohoo!" Followed by a lot of laughter. Yes, I'm a complete professional.
It's good to drive the car again too. The suspension feels nice and supple and the throttle response is very sharp. This is going to be fun.
So the car's good. My parents arrived this afternoon - and if I'd known to check the ferry schedules, I'd have realized that leaving today wasn't an option anyhow. Tomorrow, we get on the ferry for the long trip over and when we land, everything shifts into high gear as we go straight into scrutineering upon arriving in St. John's. Janel will be flying in and will beat us there by about 10 hours. There are at least two other racers on the ferry with us and I expect to see a number of others tomorrow.
So that's it for the pre-race. The next reports will all be on the race page. Here we go!
entry 533 - tags: engine, preparation | | |  | September 13, 2008 - After the long haul across Canada and the US, the race car was finally unloaded in Newfoundland.
The car survived the trip just fine thanks to the covered trailer - I didn't even have to dust it off. I drove it directly into the arena where registration, scrutineering and the first "car show" were taking place. The car's not very happy idling when cold at sea level, but I don't have a lot of time to mess with the tuning to fix that up right now. It pulls nice and hard though.
entry 534 - tags: registration | | |  | September 13, 2008 - Inside the arena, the most impressive aspect was the range of machinery present.
The Targa Newfoundland is a historic event that also allows modern machinery. The E-Type (or XK-E, I always forget) in is the Grand Touring class and is gorgeous. The Porsche is one of many, with BMW also very well represented. Later arrivals had to park outside and that included a number of Mitsubishis and Subarus as well as a heavily modified Challenger with an intake bursting through the hood. Yes, the new Challenger. I'll get a picture of it later when it's not completely mobbed.
I do have to say that the Miata presents pretty well. The livery gets a lot of attention - as it's supposed to! - and it's gratifying to see how many people know the car. It's a very friendly bunch.
The variety of cars and the friendliness of competitors is not a surprise. That's how everyone describes the Targa. Well, it's true.
entry 535 - tags: registration | | |  | September 13, 2008 - My biggest worry before the event was making it through scrutineering.
Missing something small (or big!) in the regulations could make for a very busy day. That's why I'd been reading them very carefully and repeatedly, and emailing the organizers with questions. The car breezed through with no problem at all. Less than 15 minutes after pulling into the arena, I was done. Wow.
Not everyone was so lucky. I saw a number of cars who had missed the labelling requirements, including a beautiful Porsche Carrera 4 with a towing arrow made out of duct tape! I took pity and gave him my spare tow stickers. I also saw a Touring-class Porsche with the driver's name written on the windshield frame in marker. Another team had a scare when they were initially told their helmets were not legal. The regulations for Grand Touring helmets weren't clearly written so they had some anxious moments.
entry 536 - tags: registration | | |  | September 13, 2008 - We're only allowed 6 tires for the event.
All of my tires were marked with a special magical orange blob as well as my car number. Eww.
The other aspect of registration was paperwork, of course. Copies of driver's licenses, competition licenses, first aid certificates, etc were traded for a big stack of route books, jackets, hats and stickers. Many stickers.
I then spent the rest of the afternoon putting stickers all over my poor car. It's not a big car, and there are a lot of sponsors involved in this race! I did my best to make sure they looked good and not just slapped on.
entry 537 - tags: registration | | | September 13, 2008 - We had the chance to get out on the roads today for a bit, calibrating the odometer.
It's going to be difficult to drive some of these roads without stopping to take pictures, as it's a gorgeous area. And we have gorgeous weather right now, sunny and warm.
Tomorrow is the Prologue. That's three stages that are not timed, to give us the chance to get into the rhythm of the race. It's exactly what we need. Janel is doing her homework, analyzing the route books and translating the tulip diagrams into her instructions. "Does this look like a sharp right at a Y, or a square left at a T?" We're discussing the distinction between "easy right over crest" and "easy right into crest". It's all well and good for me to discuss that here in the hotel room, we'll see how I deal with it at speed!
We had a reception tonight to welcome everyone. Like a bunch of nerds, we showed up first right on time. Yeah, I'm that guy. An hour later, the place was hopping. We took off right after the speeches because Janel's exhausted from a late-night arrival into town. Trevor's off in the morning after being a huge help on the drive out.
So, a good first day. The only problem we had was with a stripped screw inside the trailer jack that could not be fixed despite the best efforts of the support crew. No worries, it can be sorted when I get back home. The expected chaos and problems did not happen. The car's legal, everyone's friendly and we're all ready for the first shot at a closed stage tomorrow.
entry 538 - tags: registration | | |  | September 14, 2008 - This is the obvious solution for how to carry two cars to the Targa.
It's called the "car camel".
entry 539 - tags: registration | | |  | September 14, 2008 - The first day of driving is the Prologue.
This gives us a chance to get a feel for how the stages work and lets the organizers seed the cars for the timed stages, starting tomorrow. The slowest cars go off first, the faster ones later. If you're seeded too early, you spend a lot of time passing people. If you're seeded too late, you'll be pulling over constantly.
The first stage was Flatrock, a fairly quick one along the coast and into the forest. We drove it yesterday as part of our odometer check and we'd had the chance to watch it on video - so it wasn't a stranger to us. It's just as well that I was comfortable with it as it gave Janel a chance to settle in with her instructions. It went pretty well. Not super-fast, of course, but you can't win the Targa on the Prologue. You can, however, lose it by crashing. It was all over in a bit of a blur.
We stopped for lunch at a school, much to the delight of the local kids. This is a common theme in the Targa. We're basically a rolling car show. We all knew what our appropriate time was to leave the control, but everybody was eager and peeled out a bit early. This would have consequences at the next stage start, as there was limited space for staging and we collectively caused a big traffic jam. Whoops.
entry 540 - tags: prologue | | |  | September 14, 2008 - If Janel looks happy, things must have gone well.
And they did. The second Prologue stage was Torbay, a tight one that tweaks up and down through narrow streets in a neighbourhood. It wasn't as fast as Flatrock and I felt more comfortable. It was basically a big, blind autocross! The Miata's perfect for this, and I laughed out loud on one corner - as we entered it, I could see how it was going to tighten up. The car tucked right in and the back end smeared around the corner just enough to exit me perfectly down the next straight. It was exactly what I expected it to do and I was able to use it just as I needed it. That's the benefit of years of racing and autocrossing the same kind of car as well as all the development time. There was also one piece of the road covered in gravel kicked up by earlier cars that I was able to set up for nicely.
It wasn't perfect, though. At one point, the back end felt loose on braking and the car was bobbing around too much on the battered roads. Janel had trouble with how quickly the instructions were coming up although she was able to communicate everything important to me. I had to come to grip with the level of speed on very narrow streets and little visibility. There's a lot of trust involved!
We then went to a short "meet and greet" which was really to ease congestion at stage start, as we were running the same stage again. And once again, everyone bolted early and caused a traffic jam. Nice to see we can all learn from our mistakes! I took the time at the stop to stiffen up the rebound damping to keep things under control a bit more.
The second time through the stage, Janel was more comfortable with the pace. She realized that she had to simply run off the notes and the odometer, instead of looking up to see how I dealt with whatever she'd just called. We launched off fairly hard and were working pretty well together, but found out there was a whole lot more gravel on the roads. We'd been followed through the stage by the Open class cars, mostly piloted by very competitive rally drivers. I did get the tail out enough to get a little squeak out of Janel, but overall it went very well. We cut some time off and finished the stage in sight of the car that had started 30 seconds in front of us. More importantly, we had better communication in terms of accuracy and timing. The pre-race navigation school said that the navigator had to paint an "accurate and unambiguous picture in the driver's head", and we're getting better at that. I'm definitely more comfortable in the tight confines of the street stages than in the high-speed open ones, but I'll get that sorted. The car was much better in terms of suspension control and didn't get upset by the bumps at all.
So that's all good then. Janel and I were really happy with how things had gone, and I'd had a whole lot of fun. Time to head back to the arena for the car show.
entry 541 - tags: prologue | | |  | September 14, 2008 - So who's the fast guy at Targa this year?
We'll know more after the seeding, but Frank Sprongl in his monster Audi is a good bet. The car sure sounds angry, and you can tell it's a real weapon.
entry 542 - tags: prologue | | |  | September 14, 2008 - One of the stars of the show so far is this Challenger.
It's not just any Challenger, either. It's got a 392 version of the Hemi with a high-rise intake manifold that puts the filter under a big hood bulge. It's beautifully built with the nicest coat of metallic green paint on the roll cage. And it's driven by Ralph Gillies, who happens to be the VP of Design at Chrysler. Very fast.
entry 543 - tags: prologue | | |
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