| MIATA BUILD |
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 | | May 7, 2008 - I spent the weekend at the Walter Mitty historic races.
It was gratifying to meet so many people who were aware of the car!
One of the cars there was a 911 with Martini livery. I was glad to see that the stripe width varies slightly, just like it does on my car. It's part of the hand-painted character! Of course, this car had also been carefully sanded and clearcoated unlike mine, but I'm willing to accept that. However, it became obvious to me that I need larger Martini logos on the doors.
I've been considering how to get the car to Newfoundland for the race. The plan was to ship the car out and I'd fly to meet it. But this causes problems with spare parts, tools and tires. So now I'm thinking of driving out, towing the car on a trailer. It'll be a long, long drive (about 5 days) but it'll save a bit of money as well as let me carry more things with me. My friend Trevor is willing to ride along as a copilot. Ah, all the complexities of taking part in a big race...
entry 454 - tags: martini, logistics | | | May 14, 2008 - "Volume 2" of the 2008 Targa regulations came out this week.
I'm going to have to go through them all to make sure everything's correct. One change is that we apparently no longer need interior door panels, so there's one job off my list. We're also allowed to carry a space-saver spare, which I don't believe was the case before. That would make packaging a lot easier, but anyone who starts a stage with a space-saver mounted gets hit with some huge time penalties. I expect that's to keep the driver from trying to drive quickly, but it might be worth taking the weight penalty instead.
I also spent another 90 minutes on the phone with Expedia. That makes for a total of (I believe) 5.5 hours that I've spent on the phone with them, trying to deal with various problems associated with Janel's flight out to Newfoundland for the race. It's been frustrating to say the least. It's difficult to get someone from a small town in Colorado to a fairly remote part of Canada in the course of a day, and the airlines keep monkeying with the flights. Lots of frustration to put it mildly.
entry 455 - tags: logistics | | | July 1, 2008 - I haven't had the chance to do much work on the car for the past week due to Real Life getting in the way.
But the good news is that it's actually getting pretty close to being ready. My to-do list on the whiteboard is getting shorter and more trivial. There are still some logistical questions to be answered such as getting the car to Newfoundland (time to do a little work on the trailer) and how we do everything when we're there, but it's coming along.
The most productive thing I did last week was go to an interview with USCIS, previously known as the INS. It turns out that Janel and I are as married as we think we are, and I was approved for a green card. This is what prevented me from taking part in the Targa last year, of course. So it's a big relief. That delay did work in my favor, allowing me to build a better car and change codrivers. It's hard to believe that a year ago, the car was barely self-propelled!
entry 487 - tags: logistics | | |  | July 22, 2008 - I bought a new garage.
Well, sort of. The time has finally come to get a real grown up trailer. One with brakes, two axles and has not been abused for the last 32 years. Thinking about the long tow to and from Newfoundland had me a bit worried, and after some serious prodding from Janel we picked this up on Monday. It's 7' wide and 16.5' long, and it's the perfect size for a Miata. No bigger than it has to be, but big enough for the car, some tools and a set of tires. I'll do something clever inside to help with storage of the latter. The only thing that would have been better would have been if it was one of the low trailers designed for motorcycles to cut down on frontal area. I'm tempted to chop this one down by a couple of feet. First, though, I need to pull out the motorcycle chocks and mounting points and move them to be more appropriate for something that doesn't fall over quite so easily.
Why was Janel pushing for an enclosed trailer? Because now I can park a car in it, and that opens up another space in the garage for her Miata.
entry 499 - tags: logistics | | |  | August 27, 2011 - Hero cards!
We didn't have these with us in 2008, and we regretted it the entire time. Not only are they great advertising for the sponsors, but they make a lot of kids smile. This time, we didn't make the same mistake.
Pretty much everything we need is now ready to go. The logistics in fielding a two-car team are much more difficult than a single car. You should see the team calendar - the team is going to arrive in St. John's via one ferry and six different airplane flights, arriving on four different days. I'm even picking up Janel en route to Newfoundland, as she's working out of town next week.
entry 928 - tags: hero cards, logistics | | |
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