[Hunter]

Originally Posted by baneff

Many thanks to TR for spotting a jumping spark in my engine bay at tech Saturday morning. I missed the first session applying a fix, but that's much better than an engine fire.

Also thanks to Vicegrip for giving me some great feedback on my car. Since I'd never driven a 911 before, let alone with a track setup, I had no reference point for what I was experiencing. It turns out that the bump steer feedback was excessive; now I have a winter project to try and tame it. Kurt pointed out that some of it may be due to the large wheel spacers used to make the later model wheels fit the car. For Sunday morning's wet session I switched to my rain tires which don't require the spacers and the bump steer was substantially reduced. It felt so much better that I left them on for the dry sessions later. I was chasing the correct tire pressures for the rest of the day, but it was still much better. With my tire pressures getting away from me, I managed to lock it up braking for turn 1 and had to drive off into the gravel. My apologies for causing the black flag.

Baneff,

I believe I have a video of that if you want to see it?

[Hunter]

Mike,

It was nice to meet you out there. Glad it worked out for you. Next time don't talk about taking the car off the track; they hear you...................

Originally Posted by 94teener

In the end, I had a great time at the event. A little eventful for me, but thanks to some great people it ended on a really high note going into the winter.

The very first session for me ended after 4 laps or so when I had just made a pass after T9 and going into 10 hit the gas and .... nothing ... just the whistling of the wind in the car. Hit the gas again as I'm starting down the front straight and nothing, no gauges, no engine, nothing ... I go from low horsepower to no horsepower, so I pull over to the left as far as I can and wait. Get a tow back into the pits (sorry about the black flag ), pop the engine lid. Everything looks OK, but no power. Turn the ignition key halfway, and jiggle the positive battery cable and viola, everthing comes to life. Undo the positive battery connector, clean everything, put it back together and I'm in business .... or so it seems.

Second session, my instructor was nowhere to be found, OK I say, it's gonna be one of those weekends. I had him paged twice, still no instructor, I find Dirk and explain my predicament. Blue is out now for 4 or 5 laps and I'm not.
Fortunately, Tony graciously offers to ride with me for the remainder of the session. I get a few laps in and at the end of the session, going through the pit to exit into the paddock, I'm stopped and pointed to park on the right ... what did I do now??? I'm asked, "You wanna go out in green to get some more time?" So they find another instructor for me as I'm sitting there watching the green group go out. Tuffy walks over to my car and says, "OK, let's go!" Tony and Tuffy back to back, I would've really liked this ... but the car had NO GRIP!! I'm really, really slow, drifting, sliding, didn't even feel like it was my car ... great way to show what little driving skill I have to Tony and Tuffy .

Last session of the day, my instructor is finally reunited with me. As I'm going to pick him up, my prescription glasses literally fall apart. C'mon, you gotta be kidding me! I remember that I have a pair of prescription shades in the glove box.. whew. Session starts, the track is pretty wet, and even more treacherous with my lack of tire grip. Not a really great first day. Sunday has gotta be better.

Sunday morning I reduce the tire pressure, instructor is at the designated meeting place. Alright ... we're one a roll! Car feels good again, have some grip, make a couple of passes, playing around with John Fort, keeping the Pfeiffer orange 914 in site ... great. Then as I getting on the gas around 6-7-8-9 the car feels like it's missing, John is waiting for me to pass again, but I've got nothing, car is sputtering, not the battery this time. OK, I guess I broke something in the engine for real. As I pull into my paddock spot, comptemplating my next move I hear shouts "TURN IT OFF!! TURN IT OFF!!" Fuel is dripping, no, pouring out on the ground by the driver's side rar tire. Turns out one of the float pivot screws came undone and created a mileage reducing orafice squirting fuel out as fast as I could feed it with the gas pedal. The tank was full at the beginning of the session, it was half empty by the end of the session. Unknowingly, I was on the way to becoming a human barbeque going down the front straight.


I know this is long winded, and I really don't talk a whole lot, but I just wanted to really thank everyone this weekend and especially Dave Coleman. As I was walking around the paddock saying I needed a screw (yea, that didn't sound too good), Marvin points out Dave to me and says ... that's your man. Dave not only had the part, but ushered me into his '54 Studebaker, took me to his shop, gave me the tour, really good advice (about an hour's worth), drove me back to the track, disassembled my carb, replaced the screw, reassembled and adjusted it. He says "Now you're taken care of". I say, "Now I want to take care of you" (when this all began I asked if he took credit cards. He says "NO, cash only"). So natrually I want to give him compensation for his time and trouble. All he says is "Go have some fun". No really Dave, I want to take care of you for your efforts. " Go have some fun" he says again. I'm really floored and speechless. Stand up guy as far as I'm concerned.

So now I can make the last session. I had told my instructor earlier I was done for the day so I get yet another instructor for the last run ... John ?? can't remember his last name. I tell him what I need to work on T3, T5, shifting. After a few laps he says, I really don't see anything wrong ... just don't tilt your head. I had grip, carrying a lot of momentum, car ran flawlessly, great run for me.

Four instructors, two mechanical failures, almost two mental breakdowns, wrong car setup ... but as someone earlier said, Alls well that ends well.

Sorry this post is so long, but again, just want to give a really BIG THANKS to such a great group of people and again, especially Dave Coleman. See you next season!

[whayes]

Originally Posted by VaSteve

That's me in the black 944 in the later photos. You were flying in that M3. It was a lot of fun giving chase.

That was great fun...I think i took turn 10 offline the first 4 laps in session 2 on Sunday.

[APKhaos]

Mike,
So, summing up your weekend, you did very well:
- picked up last year's president as an emergency instructor
- picked up this year's president as an emergency instructor
- picked up a racing legend and Porsche technical genius to replace the bits that fell out of your carbs.

Looks like you were just trying to get too much attention, and succeeded!

[whayes]

Originally Posted by spazegun2213

This was my first event with Potomac as well and I must say I rather enjoyed it. I was a bit shocked that they combined the red and black groups for the least session on sunday which resulted in a TON of cars on track!!! Honestly i think it was a bit much as there was a ton of traffic, and I'm not sure we all were expecting that.

I'm very accustom to passing everywhere as I do it in other groups, and when i race. I thought that PCA had the 80/20 as described in the drivers/instructors meeting. 80% of the guys were more than willing to go 2 wide with me anywhere which is great. 20% of them were not so willing and thats fine, it takes time to learn that you can go 2 and sometimes 3 wide in places.

whayes, it was great meeting you and borrowing your torque wrench saturday, what a life saver! I met some over dorki members this weekend and really enjoyed myself. As for the incident in black, by the time i came around i only saw the other car in the wall in 2. Stuff like this does not happen often and when it does it can tear a community apart. I'm not saying what is correct/incorrect for people to do, but if i had hit anyone, I would not want to show my face around here for a LONG time. I would hope that an apology would come sometime, and offline as well. But in the end, we all take that risk everytime we go out there. I'm also VERY glad everyone is OK! that the important part, we cant replace people.... cars can be fixed.

Good meeting you too.

-Webb

[Trak Ratt]

Originally Posted by APKhaos

Mike,
So, summing up your weekend, you did very well:
- picked up last year's president as an emergency instructor
- picked up this year's president as an emergency instructor
- picked up a racing legend and Porsche technical genius to replace the bits that fell out of your carbs.

Looks like you were just trying to get too much attention, and succeeded!

X2

[whayes]

Anyone going to be there this weekend with NASA?

-Webb

[HoodPin]

Originally Posted by whayes

Anyone going to be there this weekend with NASA?

-Webb

Prolly best to start another thread.

[whayes]

sorry. i am new here

[LPM911]

don't have any pics on hand, but that low slung burgundy colored kit car that showed up on Sunday to watch was one of these:

http://www.factoryfive.com/gtmhome.html