NASA Toy Run Dec 2-3 2017
 

I signed up. First track day in a coon's age. Wish me luck.

I imagine Flier129 and some of you other track vagrants might be going, so sound off if you are.

I'll be there, bringing several buddies as well. Somehow I managed to talk one of them into trailering his Mini from NY. Should be good times.

Excellent. I don't really like being at track days alone anymore. Where do you guys usually park? I have parked by the bridge up above the 10B viewing area for the last several times I went and really liked it as a location. Is usually a great view of the track and you aren't crammed on top of a bunch of other rigs.

I usually park right in the middle of the paddock outside of the covered shed. What group will you be running? I wouldn't like to drive that far to/from the grid, especially is shit breaks haha. Is it paved out there in case you need to work on anything?

Got your text, now that i realized that my old phone had for some reason saved half my contacts to google... and the other half to phone directly.

Boileralum and i are doing a crapcan event that weekend otherwise i'd consider coming down.

I believe @flier129 is being peer pressured into going to this event.

I'll be racing at Barber the next weekend so I won't be able to make the Toy Run unfortunately. Not possible to swing two events in two weekends, especially when one is ~15 hours of racing!

Steve! I'll be there. Arriving pretty late on Friday night, so not quite sure where I'll be paddocked. Typically I snatch a spot near the pavilion. I'm usually instructing so I like to be close to everything.

100% confident my car is going on the dyno this event as well. Yay free dyno time! Anyone wanna take bets?! My guess is 135rwhp :D

Yeah peer pressured..... It was "See you Road Atlanta, you pussy!" :rofl:


Have fun at Barber..... I'd rather run there lol.

Yes, it is paved (4 parking spaces worth) and there's good room to park several rigs and the cars they've unloaded in the gravel. There's electricity, a port-a-potty and nobody messes with you. I drive to grid so it doesn't matter how far it is. And I actually like to see some of the racing when I'm not driving. There's a reason there's grandstands there!

PM me your number so we can meet up.
134whp? What's it supposed to be?

Near the pavilion? Trying to remember the pavilion. I know the tower. (edit: found it)

PM me your phone number.

Just signed up for HPDE! Weather looks good so far and looking forward to meeting some of you

Only if you promise to spam me with #dickpics

I've literally got a bunch of noobs coming with me so I'll put them right in the middle of the paddock to make it easier for them. I'll definitely track you down before the weekend is over. We should be arriving mid-day Friday to hit reg/tech early.

For starters...

Oh, what a tease, PM incoming...

If you guys are getting there on Friday I'd love for you to save me a spot next to you big enough for my Tundra and tow dolly and my little Miata.

This may not be the place to ask, but I've been wondering... Compare Chin Motorsports vs NASA. Cost, coverage of tracks, organization. For HPDE.

I have to work all day Friday, so I won't be getting to the track until late Friday night. It'd be cool if Allen could save me a spot for truck+trailer :-D.


​​​​​​In regards to Chin vs NASA I couldn't say since I've never done Chin. But NASA does free food and free beer! It's also a great platform to progress to TT or w2w(licenses) if you want out wanted to go that route.

I have to work all day Friday, so I won't be getting to the track until late Friday night. It'd be cool if Allen could save me a spot for truck+trailer :-D.


​​​​​​In regards to Chin vs NASA I couldn't say since I've never done Chin. But NASA does free food and free beer! It's also a great platform to progress to TT or w2w(licenses) if you want out wanted to go that route.

I'll see what I can do without getting in a fight haha. I think we'll park our rigs wider than normal and use the cars to take up a space too, with some reconfiguration that'll probably be enough room for 2 spots too.

Man, it's looking like it'll be a big event. 35 in DE1, 40 in DE4, 43 in TT, and LOTS in SE30/SM.

Gonna be a good day!

I've always loved how Southeast region abuses the instructors by combining 3 + 4. Another part of the reason I'm tiring of instructing is that they often put de1 and 4 back to back with each other so the instructors lose track time if they are in level 4. I haven't looked at the schedule yet for this weekend but I assume they did it again at some point. When Jon Felton ran the Florida region he was very careful not to abuse his instructors in that way.

I'm just venting. Frustrated that I don't have the stamina to instruct and drive right now. I enjoyed certain aspects of instructing. It's nice to help people and see them improve.

Yeah, I know the feeling. I've had a DE1 student AND DE2 student, ugh that was a cluster. South-East is pretty particular about not stacking instructors sessions to DE1 sessions. I know this because we've bitched about only having 1 TT morning session and the response is usually in regards to schedule arrangement.

Looks like DE4-DE1 stacking happens once per day this weekend.

Live schedule - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it#gid=2894647

Good god that's gonna be a lot on track.... Should be fun times for sure.

Yeah, I'd hate to be naturally aspirated in those kinds of fields. Lol

The potential for 70+ cars on track in the combined DE3+4 sessions will be pretty miserable. I guess that's what happens when you have a low entry price and great December weather (and NASA wants to make as much money as they can)

Yeah, especially when under de3 passing rules. It's not NASA, but the local NASA franchise that sets the limits. What's really a pain in the ass is that southeast won't do hot pulls and local yellows like any other reasonable operation. They fuck up everybody's track time when one guy screws up. I don't want to drive 16 hours to sit and watch a red flag drill.

When did you run with NASA-SE last? They definitely do hot-pulls(I've been hot-pulled) and local yellows.

I'm just trying to give you good news for this weekend :D The weather is looking pretty damn awesome....... that TTE record is guna get reset!!

It's been about 2 years.

Yea, they unfortunately still do the red flag drill...

Correction, it's been 5 years since I was at RA.

Here's a rear hub or rotor failure on an s2000 at turn 10b.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...202_084941.jpg

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...202_085643.jpg

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...202_085648.jpg

I've seen Black Bandit and Flier129 so far. HRK is here in the Lotus 7 with the turbo BP but I haven't met him yet.

I bet it was the knuckle that failed.

We had multiple rear knuckle failures on our S2000s when we used to race them in SCCA T3. The cast iron knuckle would crack all the way through the "arm" that went up to the upper A-arm. After the first couple failures we started checking the knuckles after every weekend. Die-penetrant was the best method for checking for the cracks.

When I yelled to the driver over the fence when he was walking over to pick up his wheel I asked if it was a hub failure and he said "no it looks like a rotor."


Black Bandit's car in the paddock with Flier129's white and black one in the distance.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...2233360613.jpg

Well, hrk was involved in a pretty big wreck. I helped put his car in the trailer but his condition it's currently unknown to us.


https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...202_164925.jpg

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...202_164825.jpg

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...202_164838.jpg

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...202_164830.jpg

First session Saturday, late to the grid.

Then this happens.



Off to a great start this weekend.

The Miata that went off of T1 and got stuck is our buddy Black Bandit!

Fun weekend! Steve I wish we coulda hung out more. I got busy with student, trying to get my car on the dyno, then repairing my rear caliper, etc, etc. I never got a session together to beat my PB, but James did reset the TTE record in my car, down to a 1:42.4xx.

It was definitely a crowded weekend across the board. When they combined DE1/DE2 it was PACKED. I can imagine DE3/4 was the same.

Joel, in the white TTC s2k, did have a rear hub failure. I was behind him when it happened! I saw some smoke and a tire flying in the air, then turned into 10A to see Joel off on the side. Flash-backs to Barber bummed me out, so I came into the pits then lol. He fixed it and was back out by Saturday afternoon. He was 0.100 off the TTC record this weekend, so close yet so far away.

So Heikki had a bit of an accident coming into T12, went into the back of Dez (TT1 911 *fast*). I didn't see the wreck, but based on the explanations I've heard Heikki was at fault for his contact with Dez, the Corvette in front of them both wrecked on his own.

Someone else in a Miata went off on Saturday afternoon.

I wasn't in the kitty litter this time. That was Will haha.

Had a blast this weekend dudes, even though 3/4 sessions were a massive cluster.

Great to meet Marcus, James, Allen and his Miata crew! The DE3/4 groups were about as busy as we expected, but Will (yet another 99 red NB) and I stuck around for the last two Sunday sessions and it opened up a bit more.

I finally got a full lap in that last session without having to deal with any traffic and put together a dirty (literally) 1:48.6. Fortunately the Ohlins work about as well off track as they do on track! Hope to see you guys more at future events


-Ryan

Planting taters outside of turn seven I see. Much better showing than my efforts on the wet track in the morning.

I decided I would get up on the paint outside of turn 5 first thing in the morning like I had done many times before but it was wet and I didn't realize how much difference that would make. My nerves were already getting the better of me before this happened. After that I was waving everybody by and looking for a clean seat.

I lacked courage this weekend. It's been a long time since I was on track and even longer since I went to RA. My balance is still a little screwy and I thought a lot about self preservation, my wife, and my elderly parents. I didn't trust myself, my car, or my comfort level with the track. It kinda took the fun out of it. All of the major wrecks on Saturday didn't help my mindset.

Anyway, here is the video with the cool, damp track.

This is the only afternoon session on Saturday. Things were going pretty well and I was trying to get a grip on some of the driving lines. It was almost over when it was red flagged. My brakes were hot when they stopped us on track and after a couple of minutes the pedal went soft when the fluid finally boiled. I tried to let the car roll a little so the pads wouldn't cook to the rotor or crack the rotor. I ended up waiting for a flatbed rather than taking a chance on having brakes when they waved us in.

Last time I went to a track I was running 13-15 psi. Now I have 21ish.
This allows me to hide poor driving skill behind the extra horses. It also means I am tripping the high oil temp alarm occasionally. Needs more hood vents and such I guess. Always something to tinker with.

Great meeting you too Ryan! Thanks again for the dramamine, didn't get sick the rest of the day :rofl:

1:48s is pretty good with stock-ish power. I'd use 3rd gear for T3 and T5, though.

Here's James' 1:42.4xx

Nice meeting you Ryan, wish I would have stuck around for the afternoon sessions now haha. I'll definitely let you know when I plan to hit up AMP.

jZilla's pre-MATG on Aug 2, of course! There's also a jZilla AMP event on March 18th.

I Think I can share my video without anyone getting mad. almost the lap record 1:32.8 needed a 1:32.49 to beat the record.

Wait, who has a 1:32.49?

Looks like you picked up quite a bit of time with those r-comps :bigtu:

Danny George's Pikes peak build. he told me it had 900hp with the help of a 300 shot. I'm .3 off with half the power, half the tire, and half the aero.

Those Slicks are no freaking joke. you have tons of grip right up until you have none. I now know why they are called 'crack'.

Wow, you hit 156 on the back straight!

I rode shotgun with an instructor who took me 158 in a street driven Porsche GT3 there on grooved street tires. He took my buddy Gary to 161 when the air was cooler.

No pressure.

I don't think there is much more I can do to this engine. We already worked the thing over twice and have all the heavy breathing parts installed. I think next step would be to stroke it and get a LS7/3 block. I wouldn't mind some Spray but nasa says no no no.

Ahem. Really?

This is still a turbo forum, isn't it?

this car is already a pig. if you can find me a 'carbon fiber' turbo system, i'll do it.

can't imagine how this happened....
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5748e44753.png

Great lap, nice work!