Test'n Tune is a GREAT Sucess!!

[MacLotus]

Great job Josh. Today's event was the smoothest I've attended. Great track layouts too! Best of all... everyone rotated with their work assignments like clockwork.

VERY Fun Event!!

(I think I knocked a cone into Iowa on that long slalom?)

[JDF]

Yes - a fantastic event. I am new to MAC and wanted to get a lot of seat time to improve my driving and I thought the two courses were quite complimentary and challenged me in many ways - the West Course was fast, but had a nice rhythm to it and the East Course was very technical.

What a blast to be able to run over and over and over again - I learned a ton.

The apologies in the title of this are for a MUCH less than smooth worker transition. I worked the street section, alone (ugh - some of you were particularly fond of hitting which ever cone happened to be farthest from me!), from 2 - 3 pm. I did not have a watch and no one came out to replace me at 3. My next assignment the West Track timing. At about 3:10 I left the corner and found out from another worker that I was late (thanks to the cone shagger on the concrete slalom for moving over to fill in on the street section!)... I got to the timing trailer late, no one was there and I didn't know how to work the timing (I only signed on because it was the last open space on the sign in sheet!).

I pride myself on being dependable, on-time and proficient, so this was very frustrating. I tried to figure out the timing, but, screwed up for a bit... I finally held up the course to clear things up and then got everything in order...

SO, for those of you who ran the West Course between 3 and 4, there is a gap where no cars were entered, then a bit of scoring when I was logging cars in, but was clearly off sequence, and then finally, I got on track and the numbers were valid... for those of you interested in your real times, I would not trust anything logged in before 3:20 or 3:25 pm - after that, the times were accurate.

This is the first TNT I have done and it was awesome for me.

My sincerely apologies for anyone who missed being timed at the end - I feel really badly.

John Foley

1989 Porsche 944 S2 #757
1974 Porsche 914 2.0 (to make an appearance next year)

[JCN]

No worries, this is a relaxed event and nobody really expects times to be accurate-by-car. :rockon

In a competition event, there would be lots of help for you in the trailer!

[JCN]

1. MAC is an awesome club.
2. It's so much fun to hang out with my friends.
3. Neal is an awesome instructor (Pat is too!)
4. S2000s are fun.
5. Working the concrete slalom by yourself... not fun. (Thanks, Anna for seeing my wind sprints and pitching in).
6. I'm still a mediocre driver.
7. Street tires are good training tools, but I still dream of Hoosiers....
8. MAC is an awesome club (thanks, Ken for the drive!)
9. Autocross is still more fun when my wife is there. :(
10. Did I mention MAC is an awesome club? (Thanks Julie and Tom for buttoning up my roof and trailer while we picked up the course! It was a very welcome surprise!)

[JDF]

Thanks...

It really was a phenomenal event...

JF

[MNbiker]

...the West Course was fast, but had a nice rhythm to it and the East Course was very technical.
That was the intent. I was pretty pleased with the end result. :)

Thanks to Andres, Dave & Drew for being there early to help me set up the courses, to Mark who helped us finish setup, and Pat who assisted with a course review & a few excellent final tweaks.

-Steve

p.s. As promised, DCTC was a pin-turn free zone today. ;)

[EWAustin]

Thanks for the rides everyone!

had a blast, I WILL be at the rest of the events this year :)

[shane86]

Well, it was a busy day!
The timing problems on the west course in the morning were part equipment, part course, etc..

The issue is that we only have 1 set of wireless equipment. the wireless equipment was dedicated to the east course due to it's 1000+ run to start line. the west course had to use the wired equipment. The course designer laid out a very nice course, but the finish line was quite far from the trailer. farther than we've run a wired connection in a while. this forced us to use our LONG cable. at this point, we only have one cable long enough to make this run that is fully ended and ready to go.

So, we whipped it out, ran it out... and it tested fine. we gave the thumbs up and all was running well... for a few min. then we started to get massive false trips from the finish light. the one with the massive run. Crap. not good. hoping it was something simple, we trekked out to the lights with another set of fresh batteries. sadly working around the timing lights puts us in a dangerous position. we can't run cars at the same time. so after about 10-15 min of fiddling though quick fixes, it looks like the issue is the cable. i tried to put a fresh end on it to replace a damaged one, but it didn't take. i needed to drag the whole spool back to the trailer and whip out the cable tester. thankfully along the way, i noticed a massive kink about 10 cable feet downline. pulled out the cable tester, ran it through, and we're missing some communications. i re-crimped both ends of the cable, cutting out the big kink. ran it through the tester, lights up like a champ, and ran it through a site test before rolling it out again.

everything came back green, we took the long walk out to the finish, stopped cars, replaced the lights, aligned them, and ran a test. still working. send em! walk back to the trailer feeling pretty good. then someone noted the display isn't working. CRAP CRAP. okay... quick fix there... we restarted the software at one point, and didn't reactivate the display. Bam. fixed. west course=perfect. i actually had no further problems with the west course all day.

after this whole crap fest, i checked the east course.. just as i walked up there... started to get some out of sync times. had to hold the start, reset, and test again. okay, back on track. don't know where it came from...but we handled it, and i didn't hear a peap about it further.

so now, after all this... it's 11:00. been on site since 8, haven't touched my car. i did get a course ride in on the west course after pumping up the bike tires. missed the drivers meeting, missed a couple messages that would have been nice to hear.

So, i apologize for the down time, but i hope this post helps you all understand what it takes to handle this crap.

[Daynja]

I had a lot of fun today. Thanks to everyone involved. It was great to be able to work on specific things without worrying about wasting one of only five runs. The west course was very fun, but I had more difficulty with the east course so I spent most of my time over there. I thought having two courses instead of one would mean they would both be mediocre. That was not the case, they were both excellent.

Also, thanks to Pat Washburn for helping me. I have a lot of things to take with me to the next event.

pic 1: I filled up the night before the event and then again when I got back home. This event did wonders for my gas mileage. :lol: I drove 34 miles while at DCTC and used over half a tank.

pic 2: A certain blue miata was a few feet away from breaking something important. ;)

[engifineer]

AWESOME event! Had a blast and it was great to see everyone again.

Even with the timing errors, everything went really smooth. I am completely worn out. Going to finish this beer and maybe a few more and crash!

[AndyR]

yeah had a great time, learned a lot about the evo...so it was deff a success for me

[914 Dave]

A day of great promise until it started. And ended a little early. With a broken Birkin. We had great plans of conquest and advancement of the species, but it was not to be. Steve took the beast out for a couple runs to warm up the tires, and data log some engine operation, then we discovered a little problem with the camber. Way to much in the left front. What might be the problem? Oh, the lower control arm/frame junction no longer being as from the factory.

Yup, the frame broke. (Special thanks to Mark for the ride/trailer home)

Steve is in a state of shock and awe. Shock that it happened, and awe/amazement that once again, our tagline has come to haunt us... fix it till its broke.

I'm sure once the post-mortum is complete, he'll have more details and plans of how to repair it. And check out the other 3 corners for similar faults/issues. There may be a pull the motor party coming up, as there looks to be some dis-assembly on the horizon.

The rest of the day? Total blast- riding with Lee in the boosted M, driving the TT, vette, S2K, MR2, Larry's car, others as offered... bummer we didn't get to dial in the Birkin as planned, but playing musical chairs with cars was great fun.

[turbod16]

It was a blast, thanks MAC. I finally got to know my car and what it can do after 30+ runs at this event:) I wish I had little better tires so I could push some more.

[VanFab]

What a great event!

Thanks to Josh for EMing, Steve for excellent course designs, and all the workers for helping the event run smoothly.

Jake

[oldtoyota]

It was a good day. I got some seat time in the F500 and feel like I am closer to getting it done in 3. We have to get the F500 camber set and realligned before next Tuesday. I'm hoping we can get in the TNT runs at Nats to dial out all of the understeer we had by not running having the camber set and running narrow tires on front.

We brought a newbie out that has not tired autox in 5 or 6 years. His eyes were opened to the open wheel world the his NSX might have to find a new home. Anyone interested in 93 NSX with 33k on it?

[MAYcar]

Josh, thanks for taking on the EM duties at the TNT, great job keeping it running smoothly. Steve G. the course layouts were great for working on the car setup.

Steve B. I was sorry to see the Birken broken, glad to help out getting the car home. Keep at it and you'll get the bugs worked out and that will be one great car! Let me know if I can give you a hand with it.

As for the BMod car, ran into a couple of small problems that we got fixed on site and kept it running. Probably had 30 plus runs in on the day between me and Mark M. (Muskrat). Played around with tire pressures all day and couldn't find a setting that we both liked. Mark M. worked the last hour and I went out made a couple runs, changed tire pressures and repeated. Didn't like anything that we had done all day so I made a big change and wow, the car came to life! Could turn it with either end of the car, nicely balanced, easy to drive. Unfortunately Mark M. didn't get a chance to drive it until the COM event on Sunday. At Sunday's event I ran first so he could see how the pressure settings felt with warm tires. Mark M. came back from his first run with a huge grin! He proceeded to kick my butt by almost 1.5 seconds, think the team has a new lead driver for Nationals!

[oldtoyota]

I made a big change and wow, the car came to life! Could turn it with either end of the car, nicely balanced, easy to drive.

Congrats! That must be a good feeling to get it dialed in and just in time to kick but at nationals.

[Groo]

I thought the event was great, loved the seat time. Both courses were a lot of fun, weather was great-- it was a perfect autox day as far as I'm concerned.

I know we are already pretty thin on workers at a DCTC TnT, but I would love to see a worker spot opened for an instructor. Having the opportunity to run the course so many times, driving tips would really make a difference. TnT = Test n' Tune the car AND driver :-)

[MNbiker]

I know we are already pretty thin on workers at a DCTC TnT, but I would love to see a worker spot opened for an instructor. Having the opportunity to run the course so many times, driving tips would really make a difference. TnT = Test n' Tune the car AND driver :-)
Not really neccessary - there were (and typically are at all TnT's) plenty of instructors at the event. Just grab one of us any time you want some help.

[sbuetow]

Steve B. I was sorry to see the Birken broken, glad to help out getting the car home. Keep at it and you'll get the bugs worked out and that will be one great car! Let me know if I can give you a hand with it.


I finally got the B up on saw horses, the tires, fenders, fan, and radiator removed to survey the problem. The lower back A arm attachment bolt was merely a hole in a tube in single shear. It pulled out of the frame and severed the upright. The damage appears to be reparable. It has happened before to a racer in Texas who dominates with a Hayabusa powered Birkin. He has a solution that provides double shear and doesn't require removal of the aluminum body panels. We'll see.

Thanks again for the ride home for the Birkin.

Steve

[MAYcar]

I finally got the B up on saw horses, the tires, fenders, fan, and radiator removed to survey the problem. The lower back A arm attachment bolt was merely a hole in a tube in single shear. It pulled out of the frame and severed the upright. The damage appears to be reparable. It has happened before to a racer in Texas who dominates with a Hayabusa powered Birkin. He has a solution that provides double shear and doesn't require removal of the aluminum body panels. We'll see.

Thanks again for the ride home for the Birkin.

Steve

Your welcome, it looks worse in the picture! Glad to hear that someone else has experienced this before and has a fix. Good luck, and the offer of help still stands.

[914 Dave]

I finally got the B up on saw horses, the tires, fenders, fan, and radiator removed to survey the problem. The lower back A arm attachment bolt was merely a hole in a tube in single shear. It pulled out of the frame and severed the upright. The damage appears to be reparable. It has happened before to a racer in Texas who dominates with a Hayabusa powered Birkin. He has a solution that provides double shear and doesn't require removal of the aluminum body panels. We'll see.

Thanks again for the ride home for the Birkin.

Steve

WOW Steve, that is a painful photo to look at. Stilll can't believe how lucky you/we were that this happened in the pits. Good to hear there is a fix out there. Keep me/us posted on the repair process, what needs to be done, and how it will end up being repaired. That will be a curious fix to hear about from the 'busa dude.

[the tick]

The lower back A arm attachment bolt was merely a hole in a tube in single shear. It pulled out of the frame and severed the upright.

Steve, Glad to see/hear it isn't a deal (or car or person) killer, just a big bummer...

My help is still available as well. Just let me know.