I am sorry Joe, i really don't see the ***** anywhere in this pic, could you please circle them?

 

Only thing wrong with that picture is your boost gauge doesn't read 15 psi.
-18" FTL.

 

The only thing wrong is your not leading the pack.

 

you were outqualified by a girl's car?

 

A bunch of illegally parked Miatas?

 

QFT

 

What in the hell is on the head of the passenger in front of you? Is that like a bonnet or something?

 

 

Leading is OK, but the guy at the pack gets to drive the fastest, and is IMO the most fun position.

 

This computer at my job SUCKS!!!! I can't ever get any of the pictures??????????

 

Heh. Don't worry, the boost gauge got plenty of action- with half a tank of 100 octane behind me I got ballsy and turned it up to ~14 PSI, then added 5 degrees across the board in my spark2 (boosted) map. I think Abe datalogged the whole run- maybe he can post some "best of" snapshots. There were a couple of uphill sections where I don't think I was out of boost for 3-4 minutes at a time except to brake and shift.

Unfortunately, it was somewhat difficult to take pictures while driving. I really wish I'd had a video camera on the car- it was just phenomenal. That particular shot was just a spot where our group stopped for a minute to let the tail catch up. I just happened to be struck by the beauty of that particular scene. (The ****, incidentally, are in the red '99 just behind me.)

Most of the time I was looking at nothing but the road, the cliffs with no guardrails, and the rock walls. Oh, and the CHP officer who joined our group halfway up Palomar and stayed with us nearly all the way down the mountain. At one point, we all pulled over, then the cop pulled over, and he exchanged words with the leader. Something about the fact that none of us had front license plates. Visions of a trip to the referee station were flashing through my mind...

Fortunately some bikers distracted him a short while later, but it seemed like throughout the day we encountered an abnormally large number of CHP vehicles. Fortunately none of the rest of them gave chase- I was sure the one on Palomar had radioed ahead about us...

Total of about 65 cars in six groups. We had fifteen in our run group. The yellow NB at the front was the lead, and the Porsche was one of two non-Miatas invited to the event. A hugely well-organized event; every group had a lead car and a sweep car (all with co-drivers manning the radio and map), nearly everyone carried CB radios, and nobody got seriously hurt. The SDMC really does a good job with these runs.

The course was about 140 miles in total with several stops in between, so we switched positions a good deal. The positioning was pretty much random- people ran where they were comfortable, with the slower cars tending towards the back. For example, the guy who started right ahead of me, running a '95 M with basically zero ground clearance, zero suspension travel, ultra-heavy pimp wheels and T1Rs (who also had his ~10 year old son with him) migrated towards the back after he spun out right in front of me during the first leg. At one point I was running fourth right behind the 986, and I gotta tell you- it may be a bigger chick car that the Miata, but that dude can drive. I could pretty much hold my own against him on the straighter parts, but on one mega-twisty section in particular he must have gotten about a 1/8 mile lead on me over the course of maybe 3-4 miles. Abe, by comparison, was right there with him despite shocks that were on their way out. Shameful.

Still, it was an absolute blast. I am so indescribably happy that I managed to get the car running well enough to go on it, and just in time. The "final" version of the ignition trigger went in on Saturday evening. It worked well, but still had a few mis-triggers. So I'm doing away with the whole CAS and fabricating a crank trigger.

Truthfully, the reason I love running with this group is that they put well-equipped lead cars out in front that carry a co-driver who handles navigation and radio traffic, and they maintain a very spirited pace. This way I don't have to worry about oncoming traffic or wrong turns- I plug the CB into one of my headrest speakers so I can hear what's going on ahead of me and just concentrate on driving.

Yeah, I was one of the few people who forgot to bring a hat. Despite the name, I'm pretty much a white guy, and I now look like a boiled lobster.

 

Bah. I'm a bald white guy (at 25.. lol) and never wear a hat. Just live with the sunburn.

 

^A white guy named Juan? I'll take a chinchilla!

 

It says no parking any time, what the hell are you guys doing?

 

....and what's that boxter doing in there?

 

Obviously the newb doesn't read Joe's paragraph about how the poseur p-car couldn't be kept up with by a turbo miata.

Sounds like you had fun Joe, I wish I had roads like that here, we have some good twisty bits but nothing sustained, max 10 good corners in a ~2 mile stretch and short/long gaps in between some okay corners.

 

Well, I freedly admit that a large part of that is the driver. I'm just not as skilled (or as crazy) as some of these folks...

Heh. Here's an example:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&...54245&t=p&z=15

Yes, that stretch really is as insane as it looks.

 

**** me. (Not literally Joe, even if it is a miata forum )

I have to move somewhere with mountains/canyons, none of this flat land crap.

That is insane. Is something like that what I will be greeted with when I head down to the gap this year?

 

There's a reason all the car mag's have loved the Boxster for the last 10 years. It's easy to drive fast in the twisties. It's a forgiving car that gives a reasonably good driver a lot of confidence to push the limits. Can't wait to get my car back from BEGI to start thrashing the Boxster guys at the track though!