[rs911t]

I attend the PCA AX school and first event this weekend. All-in-all it good time was had by all.

Friday night's lecture, as well as Saturday's exercises, were pulled directly out of the HPDC. The difference being the cones were setup on a huge parking lot instead of a track. The skidpad was improvised across a naturally wet part of the lot. 80% was dry and sandy! At the end of the day they laid out the course for today's event for the student to get an early run.

My Saturday unfolded differently. The car ran fine during the morning, but right before noon began to backfire badly. I fiddled with the carbs and checked all the plug wires during lunch, but things didn't improve. Then, during the first exercise after lunch, the engine stopped. We quickly discovered the distributor rotor had cracked. George Whitmore and I drove around rural Maryland for two hours looking for auto parts store before finding one 20 minutes from Six Flags. Unfortunately, it was to no avail. The car still ran poorly, a cylinder not firing all the way home. I removed the plugs, found one somewhat fouled. While better this afternoon, it still isn't good. Tomorrow it goes to Intersport.

So, today I was forced to run my first Porsche Club autocross in my '98 M3 sedan. I've never driven this car at a track event or driver school in the year-and-a-half we've owned it. It performed admirably, even with Toyo street tires!

All things considered, it was just an ok weekend. The M3 was fun, but I would rather have used the 911 today. Driving time was minimal to an extreme. Today I spent less than four-and-a-half minutes driving the course. I arrived in the morning to discover my heat wasn't until the afternoon. I'll do the other events this year, but I'll pay better attention to the time I spent at the event!

The 911 did provide one positive experience. Last Fall I ran a HPDC with the old touring tires on 5.5" steel rims. It was a hoot because the car could be easily urged into over/understeer. Well, yesterday it was wearing Yoko A032R tires mounted on 7" and 6" Fuch. The car stuck like glue!! It would push long before any oversteer. The only way I found to get the tail out (and then only briefly) was on the skidpad by waiting for the water and taking my foot off the gas. Really impressive!

That's all for now. I shot a couple rolls of film this morning. I'll eventually get some posted.

See y'all Saturday!

[Jim Richards]

Sorry to hear your 911 wasn't running well. Still, it sounds like you had an interesting weekend. I ended up working at my day job for most of the weekend, but on Saturday I managed to get in a couple of hours driving in the countryside with Lu. See you at Fun Run #4!

[Doug E]

Thanks for the update and sorry to hear about the car Greg. Too bad Kurt wasn't there or I'm sure he could have made you a new rotor.

Only 4 1/2 minutes on the course today? Don't worry, you'll make up for it next Saturday!

[BW911]

Greg, Sorry such a rough outing and so little seat time. That M3 should be a heck of a fallback car, though.

As for your new Fuchs, I'll bet you can get that rear unstuck if you follow a 928 with a busted radiator hose into a sharp turn. Don't ask me how I know.

- Bill

[rs911t]

Clogged idle jet. Just one of a zillion little things to learn. Before we looked, Charlie said "if one cylinder dies, 9 times out of 10 it's a clogged idle jet". Sure enough. Then I watched as he did a quicky carb tune.

Lot's to learn. Fortunately, I have a couple decades to catch up!

[Marc A]

Good news is that you will be driving a 911 on Saturday.

Note to self: Bring can of carb cleaner on Fun Run.

[Mackpipes]

Bill,
Kind of funny how your braking ability decreases drastically when you go deep into turn one only to find you're driving on coolant. I think water pumpers at the track should run just that; water. It was however good to use some of our classroom training so soon after.

Ted