BEAC Enduro XXVII
On Sunday (9/10) I competed in the 28th Annual BEAC Enduro, an autocross different from other WWSCC events in that you take all three runs at once, with a flying start and finish. I was on the track for four laps, a practice then three timed laps. The Enduro type event takes a long time to run. Just ask Ani and Luisa, and our friends John and Shannon, who came to watch. They showed up around 2:00 PM to watch me run, and I didn’t end up running until around 3:30. They had a bit of a tailgate party on the tailgate of John and
Shannon’s Prius, watching the competition and listening to the announcers’ occasionally funny comments.
I was pretty pleased with my performance, 6th of 9 participants. Before running, I thought a realistic lap time for my car would be 54 or 55 seconds; but my best laps ended being around 51-52 seconds. My first lap ended up being my best since it was clean… a late call of a missed gate on my last run was surprising (I don’t recall missing a gate). I had a great time, and that may be the most important thing of all. You can check out the results here.
The leaking power steering fluid didn’t affect the car’s performance, but it is slowly getting worse. I took the 9-5 to Portland this week, so the 900 got to stay in the garage. Here’s a typically poor photo that shows the small puddle of Power Steering fluid that has escaped since Monday morning. 
As long as I’m going to the trouble of uploading photos, I may as well talk about the new windshield I got in the 900 a few weeks ago. It got a rock chip last month when Erik was driving it, and it quickly spread to a crack, right in front of the steering wheel. My deductible for glass replacement was $100, which was fine. The original glass from 1992 was the one we replaced, and over the course of the last 14 years the very upright glass had become very pitted from stone chips. You can see in the photos how scarred the glass was; it was actually pretty difficult to see out when the sun was low in the sky, as every one of those pits catches the sunlight and keeps me from seeing out. Click on the photos for a bigger view.
I used Glass Doctor’s mobile service, and the same technician who nicely filled a chip in the 9-5 at the beginning of August was the guy who came out to replace the 900’s windshield. He said that the sealing compound used at the factory is nasty; when warm it will liquefy somewhat, causing it to “spiderweb” when the glass is removed from the car. Fortunately, he came out early in the morning, and I had parked the car in the garage when Ani left for work, so the windshield and its glue were cool and therefore more solid. I haven’t “rain tested” the seal on the window yet, but it is great to drive the car and be able to see out.
