Champ Car race photos

 These are from the Champ Car event I did in 2024. RadAir Racing was fool enough to rent me a seat in their Neon. I nearly wrecked twice, but saved it each time. 

Update on the 2001 911

 It is now December 2024. I have had the 911 for 6 years. In that time I have done a lot with the car. I have continued to autocross, mainly with the SCCA and not the PCA. I have done a number of HPDE with the car at Nelson's, PittRace and MidOhio. I have been competing with the SCCA in TimeTrials - which are a sort of timed HPDE. It is a competition, not just driving on track for fun, but it is not wheel to wheel racing. I have even done some wheel to wheel racing - just one weekend, at Nelson's. I rented a seat in a Neon, at a ChampCar event with RadAir Racing.

Some photos from various events of the 911. 

Skyrim Thanksgiving

 

Another "new" 911

I sold my old 911 in 2014. I raised money from the sale to pay for renovations on my then current house. I sold the house and bought a new one. I was able to save some money, and I bought another 911 midlife crisis car.

I looked at a lot of different cars in my price range. Duffy was adamant that the car have a back seat, so that eliminated Lotus Elises, Corvettes, Boxters, S2000's and quite a few other fun cars. In the end, I kept discarding cars cause the 911 was in my mind.

New car is a 2001 Lapis Blue, grey interior RWD 996. The IMS bearing has been replaced with a LN Engineering IMS Solution. The RMS was checked at the time, as was the clutch.

I purchased it last year around this time as a 50th birthday gift to myself.I drove out to West Virginia to pick the car up. I took Duffy and Teddy with me to the location. I think Teddy was more excited than I was to see the car. Some pictures below.

I've put a few thousand miles on the car since I bought it. I have done 3 Track Nights at PittRace, and a full season of Autocross with the SCCA. I won my class every event at my home region, but that was mainly due to there being no one else in AS. When I went to bigger events at Toledo or Pittsburgh, I was bottom of the AS class.

I'm enjoying this more, but that may be because I can drive it more. I'm less worried about rust, dings and other issues. Now that I have said that, I have jinxed myself.

For Sale - 1979 Porsche SC Sunroof coupe

I've decided that it is time for the long journey with the 911 to come to an end. I love this car, it has been a blast owning it, but I want to buy a new house. 

I'm asking $17,500 and will gladly keep the car if I cannot get a reasonable offer. 

I'm uploading photos as people request them to this folder - https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B1cm_bOITz_nYkxFTjRMbnNJTTA&usp=sharing

You should be able to see a set of detailed photos of any flaws I am aware of, detail of the trunk and engine compartment, detail of the rear wing Porsche branding and detail of the headlight washers. 

I also uploaded various other photos I have taken. I plan on having the car detailed this weekend and will take some more photos then. 

The mileage on the car is just over 107K but I will get the exact mileage tonight. 

I will be glad to talk about the car any time. I had the clutch, the oil tubes and the first post purchase work done at Steinel's on the east side of Cleveland. You can see some of the posts at that time in this blog.  

If we reach the point of a pre purchase inspection, there are three main options I am aware of in the Cleveland area. Steinel's, the local dealer, or Autobahn Extremists. Everyone I have spoken to at the local PCA group is very impressed with the work at Steinel's. 

New car test drives

Had the day off and went to test drive some cars. One was the Lexus IS250 (http://www.edmunds.com/lexus/is-250/). One was the BMW 328 (http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/03/review-2012-bmw-328i-luxury-line-sedan/). And the third was a Mustang GT (http://www.autoweek.com/article/20120319/carreviews/120319824). The best car, bar none - best interior, best ride on rough roads, most engaging? Surprisingly - the Ford Mustang.

The Vortex Room

I had an interesting trip to the Vortex Room when I was in San Fransisco last month. I recently described this for a friend, and thought it worth posting.

I was scanning the local weekly looking for something to do the one night I was in town. There was a small snippet article about these two movies, which were described as "Tomorrow People meets James Bond" and "Time Travel meets James Bond". There was no address for the location, just a note that they were playing at the Vortex room. Some Google - fu later, I found a address 1082 Howard Street (I think) in the SOMA neighborhood. It looked walkable from my hotel, so I headed out. The MySpace page and Yelp entries indicated the place fills up quickly, so best to get there before the 9:00 show time, so I left to be there at 8:30. Howard started fairly upscale with a very nice hotel / restaurant district. There was a Bear Republic brew pub along there that looked nice, but I skipped it in case I was running late. The neighborhood drifted from very nice, to nice, to sketchy, to adult entertainment, to broken windows and no streetlights fairly quickly. When I got to where the place should be, there were no lights, no sign, just a boarded up warehouse looking place. On the wall, there were two chalk arrows pointing to a call box. I was debating pushing the buzzer when a smartly dressed young lady brushed past me and walked through the door. I followed her in. Behind the door there was a maitre ‘d stand with a bud vase, a reservation book and a gentleman with a dark suit, dark shirt and red tie. The lady walked up to him and said in a sotto voice "I'm a friend of Scott's". The gentleman behind the stand waved her through. I walked up, said "I'm not anyone's friend - I'm just Ed". He said "Well, no one's friend gets a special discount . . . $5". I paid the man, and moved to follow the lady. Just around the corner there was a corridor. On one side there were black out drapes, on the other a brick wall. The corridor was fairly narrow. Periodically along the wall there were works of art, impressionist stuff mainly. Strong colors, spot lit to draw the eye. Just before the end, there was a bathroom on the left side. Small, cramped - looked like some one's basement toilet, not a club/theater/art gallery toilet. At this point, I am starting to wonder what exactly I have let myself in for. The corridor dead ended, with a small opening on the left. Moving into the opening, I see a room about the size of my basement. On the wall near me there were psychedelic color wheel images being projected. There were various pop art pieces on the walls, many of them of Charles Bronson. In the back there was a bar, with a bartender attired similar to the maitre ‘d. Scattered across the floor was various seating arrangements, some booths, some pews. The woman I had followed was nowhere to be seen. I ordered a beer. I told the bartender that I must be early; I had aimed to be there at 8:30. "No, you are right on time" he said, as he started the pinball table for me. People trickled in over the next 30 minutes, a very eclectic crowd of art students, patrons of art, movie buffs and stoners. The bartender made me a few different cocktails, all excellent. The movies were original 16 mm prints of obscure films. ESPY was as advertised, a Japanese film about a group of various "talented" / powered people who protect the world from evil spies. Dimension 5 was a rough American James Bond film that featured as its main gadget a time belt, and a strong Asian bent to the villains and love interests.

Great start to a Saturday

I had a great experience driving into work today. I saw another SC - bronze, targa headed somewhere as well. We ran together for a bit at high speed - just enjoying our cars. Just a great start to the day!

Warped Tour

Going to Warped Tour tomorrow. Hoping to catch:

Band
3OH!3
A Rocket To The Moon
Anti-Flag
Bad Religion
Big D and the Kids Table
Flogging Molly
Gallows
Less Than Jake
NOFX
Scary Kids Scaring Kids
Senses Fail
Streetlight Manifesto
The A.K.A.s
The Maine
Westbound Train

911 woes

So I went to Columbus for an autocross. Took 2nd, I think, in my class. . . out of 2. On the way back, I stopped for a burger in BFE. Came out to the car, did not start. Checked all the fuses, checked all the relays, everything seemed to be fine. Panic sets in. I am on the side of the road for 2 hours trying to diagnose the issue.

Some very nice gentlemen in a MG midget stopped to help. They opined that the voltage regulator or the alternator went. The 911 not having electrics by Lucas - the prince of darkness - I dismiss their suggestion.

Another nice couple in a SUV stopped. They had a 356 and a 911 restored by a shop in Columbus. I make arrangements to drop the car off there.

I dither around for a while about that, as how I get home from Columbus raises it's head.

In the end, I tow the car back to Cleveland - 100 miles.

Now that I have a voltmeter, I can test the alternator, the voltage regulator and the battery. Nothing is wrong with any of these.

Turns out I forgot to tighten the positive terminal on the battery. Problem solved. Egg all over my face.

Lessons learned:
0) DON"T PANIC
1) Run in a pack of cars on the way home
2) Take your tools with you
3) It might just be something stupid
4) Listen to the nice guys in the MG, they may know a thing or two

All Ohio PCA autocross calendar

I found this on the MOR site. It is a single calendar listing all of the events in Ohio.

http://www.morpca.org/page2/page22/files/autox2009schedule_rev030509.pdf

I.R.A.C. Autocross schedule for 2009

I found this schedule on the Ohio Valley PCA website.

May 31 - NOR, Lakeland Community College

June 28 - MOR, OSU Buckeye Lots

July 12 - OVR, Live Oaks

July 19 - EBR,Hartville Marketplace/Hartville OH

August 9 - MVR, Owens College

August 23 - MOR, OSU Buckeye Lots

September 27 - NOR, Lakeland College

AutoCross Video

This is an interesting video of autocross, from a IRAC event.

959 factory photo tour

This is a very interesting photo set - http://jalopnik.com/5208299/vintage-porsche-959-factory-tour-78+photo-ber+gallery?skyline=true&s=i

Update on the car . . .

Over the winter, with the coming of the sprog, I thought I should sell the car. Winter is not the best time to try and sell a classic car. I did not get many calls, and no one came to look at it. I had one person nearly ready to come look at it, but the temperature that day was well below the flow point of 20W50 Swepco, so I cancelled that appointment.

In the end, I decided to sell the car to the most deserving person, myself. I liquidated some assets and paid off the loan on the car. This achieves the end of increasing my monthly available cash, while reducing overall wealth.

Over the winter I noticed a minor oil leak. I expect that this is due to the oil return tubes, as Eric warned me I should replace them last spring. Given sprog, I will be doing this project myself, along with some other items. I'll be giving the car a tune up by replacing the spark plugs, wires, distributor and rotor. I will also be bleeding the brakes and replacing the brake fluid. I am hoping to track down issues with the various fans, specifically the fresh air blower and the heater blower. I've ordered the parts and I will post photos of the various jobs when I do them.

I'd like to be ready for the Autocross school on April 26th, but that will depend on how soon the parts get here and how quickly I can do the work. I'd like to sign up for the Mid Ohio DE in May, but I am not sure the car will be ready.

Teddy slideshow

Car, house and kid - what is going on?

I checked the flow point of Swepco 20W50 oil and found that -11F is near or below the flow point, so I called off the demonstration with the buyer. Flow point is the temperature at which the oil will not move for 5 seconds when held at an angle. In other words, starting the car with the oil that cold is a potential disaster.

Thanks to: my father in-law lending me his truck, my mother in-law delivering the truck, Jason Pettigrew helping me move things, Duffy's cousin John and his wife Wendy providing things, and my parents providing still more things - we now have a baby room full of furniture, clothes, car seat, stroller, diapers, bottles, formula, etcetra. Now if I can just find room for it all . . .

If I can only get of my butt and clean this week, we might have a house for the child.

Health wise, both Duffy and the Sprog (fetus) are doing well. Amneo is still scheduled for 1/28 with delivery to follow if he has achieved full development.

You can keep up with Duffy's point of view on all of this at: http://chezcranky.blogspot.com/.

Update on Thomas Edward

So far Teddy is doing well. There have been none of the issues I have worried about with JK(a), JK(b) or the Kell antibodies. Duff is being a real trouper through this whole process. I do not think I can possibly over state how much I love her and how proud I am of how she is handling all of this.

The one surprise for me is that they are planning an amneo for the 28th and if Teddy is fully developed they will deliver him on the 29th. This removes two weeks from my project plan to get the house ready for him. We need to respond quickly. Things need to *get done now*. We need to:

• Get a car seat
• Get bottles
• Get formula
• Get more diapers
• Get the cradle, changing table etcetera from my parents
• Get the other items from John and Wendy
• Get the house cleaned
• and so on.

Fun! Plus it is going to be 4 F tomorrow, and I have a feeling my prospective buyer will not want to see the car under those conditions.

Oh well, Teddy will be the only kid on his block riding in a 911. There could be worse things.

A few more "new" photos of the car

These are from several different autocross events. One of the guys had a camera and snapped a number of photos at each event.

These are from several different autocross events. One of the guys had a camera and snapped a number of photos at each event. Some of them made the local PCA newsletter.