Novice School

[///MCoupe]

I'm so excited for the school this weekend, I can't hardly wait! I put the summer tires on yesterday, I forgot how loud the Pilot Sports are.

Unfortunately, the weather calls for rain on Sunday. Anyway, will we be able to register as a member and reserve numbers on Saturday? Also, what do you recommend for numbers? Painters tape, magnetic, etc...I'm sure this will be answered tomorrow, but if most people use magnetic numbers I'd like to get a jump on ordering them so I have them in time for next weekends event. But, I don't want to be the guy that sticks out with all the fancy equipment but slowest times.

Thanks
Derrick
2000 ///Mcoupe

[Darryl]

Derrick,

You and 49 others won't sleep tonight.

Letters and Numbers. I used www.solotime.com this year. Ordered on Monday and received them the following Monday. They do offer overnight but I didn't need it. My numbers are 38 and 138. So my order consisted 8" 138 and 4"CS, one set per side, the total with shipping was 41.50. They were half of anyone else I could find.

Yes, another option is painters tape. It works but magnetic letters and numbers are the ticket!

See you in the morning. If it rains you will learn more than you would on a dry surface. Maybe we'll get lucky and get both

Darryl:)

[MattD]

Aw come on. I'll sleep just fine. It's the waking up so early that'll be hard to do. :zzz

-Nighttime MattD

[murph]

Much fun!

Derrick your M Coupe was awesome, though I kept looking back at it thinking it was a Z3 Coupe... Is the M coupe the M series version of the Z3, or is the Z3 the Z series version of the M coupe or are they totally different and I'm losing my mind? (might be the turkey talking) I remember test driving a Z3 coupe a bit back and it totally rocked.

Matt
(the stock MSP)

[///MCoupe]

I had a blast today! Thanks to everyone involved in putting this together, instructors, coordinators, lady with the sandwichs, etc.... I'm already thinking about next Sunday. Is it too soon to be addicted?

M Coupe or Z3, what came first the chicken or the egg? The Z3. The M Coupe was actually designed by some BMW designers as an after hours project trying to design a coupe version of the Z3, it was never really intened to go into production. The M coupes have the same engine as the 95-99 M3s. www.368s.com everything you ever wanted to know about the m coupe.

Thanks again!
Derrick

[MattD]

Why can't Mazda designers do this with the Miata, and the Honda designers with the S2000? Put a nice big turbo onto either of those engines, along with a roof. I'd save my pennies... (edit: yeah yeah. The Mazdaspeed Miata has a turbo...BUT NOT a ROOF)

As for the event/school. From a participant's point of view, everything went flawlessly, and the weather couldn't have been better except for the little amount of rain, and the sand blast towards the end...

If we even get half of these novices to show up next weekend, it should be a fairly large event. :dancin:

-MattD

[scoobrs]

Hey guys,

My thanks go out to everyone who helped put this thing on. I attended last year and came back today to improve my AutoX line after a year of RallyX. This year, my time was within one second of my instructor's time in my car. I was glad to see everything about the event went so smoothly and everyone got their six runs.

Oh yeah and I don't get to make some silly comment about drifting the sweeper like last year's fun runs, since I was spending all my runs really learning technique and was not pretending the asphalt was dirt.

Colin Lee
Silver 2001 Subaru 2.5RS Sedan (only mods are 17" wheels, 6 yr old Z-rated tires, AGX struts, and a trunk light =P)

[phile]

Originally posted by ///MCoupe


lady with the sandwichs
Derrick

She is Sue Ethier.

[DCM]

Yes, and thanks to Pat Washburn and Bob Fogt for 'doing' this school as well.
This was 'Evoution like' school at bargain basement pricing.
But isn't there something that could have been done about the weather?
That sand blasting was murder.
What a crew!
Dwight da prez

[xotis]

Originally posted by MattD
Why can't Mazda designers do this with the Miata, and the Honda designers with the S2000? Put a nice big turbo onto either of those engines, along with a roof. I'd save my pennies... (edit: yeah yeah. The Mazdaspeed Miata has a turbo...BUT NOT a ROOF)


You mean something like this?

http://www.mazda.co.jp/customize/roadstercoupe/

or

http://www.miata.net/news/editions.html#coupe

:)

Sadly it sounds like it wont be available in the States.

-Craig
'99 Green MX-5

[Bob Fogt]

Dwight,

I think I can safely reply for both Pat and myself here in thanking you for the mention, but what really made it all work so well were the contributions of so many other people. It was both fun and instructive for the novices to have timing set up for this event, and all the experienced instructors who donated their time and energy, and "Susie's Sandwiches" great lunch catering. To you for getting the trailer out there at 7:00! And to the students, too, who pitched in to help with tech and cone marking and cleanup at the end, and who just generally were such an attentive and enthusiastic bunch. Boy, was that fun!

Bob

[phile]

Originally posted by DCM


But isn't there something that could have been done about the weather?
That sand blasting was murder.



I'll take it, instead of the pounding rain we were supposed to get.

We may not realize how lucky we were. Sue reports that around 11:00 in the morning at our place on the West Side, just about 6 miles to the southeast of the site, there was a full-bore pitchforks-and-hammerhandles downpour.

[Darryl]

Pat and Bob,

You guys do a great job putting together this event. What a great opportunity to introduce Autocross to new people. It was fun working with students and seeing such a dramatic improvement in such a short period of time. The course layout included most of the elements a driver will see at a typical Autocross event. I hope to see a bunch of novice drivers next weekend back at Midway. FYI, for the Novice driver, we do allow instructors to ride along if you want one to. (please correct me if I'm wrong)

Well done!

Sign me up for next year.

Pat, 40.2 in the STI, not bad considering you were at 80%!!!:D

Darryl

[MattD]

Originally posted by xotis



Originally posted by MattD
Why can't Mazda designers do this with the Miata, and the Honda designers with the S2000? Put a nice big turbo onto either of those engines, along with a roof. I'd save my pennies... (edit: yeah yeah. The Mazdaspeed Miata has a turbo...BUT NOT a ROOF)


You mean something like this?

http://www.mazda.co.jp/customize/roadstercoupe/

or

http://www.miata.net/news/editions.html#coupe

:)

Sadly it sounds like it wont be available in the States.

-Craig
'99 Green MX-5


...I knew about that, and like it, but it's still not turbo. I guess I could have emphasized that... Anyway, I'd even "settle" for one of those. :D

MattD

[///MCoupe]

...then again there are some who would say a turbo on a stock car is a manufactures own admission that they built a weak engine. Don't flame me...I didn't say it.

[tytanium]

Here are pics! http://mail.tc-tech.com/gallery/albums.php
Thanks for hosting Matt M. Videos soon to come. :dancin:

[Blue03CivicSi]

Originally posted by ///MCoupe


...then again there are some who would say a turbo on a stock car is a manufactures own admission that they built a weak engine. Don't flame me...I didn't say it.

Ah.... NA vs. FI, the ultimate flame war. Didn't you ask me yesterday what kind of brakes that 300ZX had, and I had to explain to you what sound a blow off valve makes? :p

[thrash]

Originally posted by tytanium


Here are pics! http://mail.tc-tech.com/gallery/NovicesNoMore
Thanks for hosting Matt. Videos soon to come. :dancin:

Wow thanks to whomever took these, and thanks to whomever is hosting them. I was really hoping someone might post pictures from the event. Lo and behold, i click the link and the first five pictures are of me! :)

Thanks!

Matt
88 BMW M5

[///MCoupe]

Originally posted by Blue03CivicSi
... and I had to explain to you what sound a blow off valve makes? :p

ha, ha, ha, remember I'm not the one who said it. In fact, the people who do are probably just jealous they don't have a turbo and saying that helps them sleep. I was just trying to point out to that not having a turbo isn't a bad thing.:D

Now, having your shifter located on the dash...that's strange. JK! It actually felt surprising normal for its location.

:p

[tytanium]

Originally posted by thrash



Originally posted by tytanium


Here are pics! http://mail.tc-tech.com/gallery/NovicesNoMore
Thanks for hosting Matt. Videos soon to come. :dancin:

Wow thanks to whomever took these, and thanks to whomever is hosting them. I was really hoping someone might post pictures from the event. Lo and behold, i click the link and the first five pictures are of me! :)

Thanks!

Matt
88 BMW M5


Matt,
As it says on the gallery summary page I took them and Matt M. is nice enough to host them. Glad you like them. Nice M5!

[///MCoupe]

Originally posted by tytanium
Videos soon to come. :dancin:

Video's too? That would be very cool.

Thanks for posting the pics!

[tytanium]

No problem, I still need to find someone to host them, the largest is about 33MB.