Thursday, July 27, 2006

Under wraps

In the past week the Seattle area experienced the hottest weather we’ve had since I moved here. Daytime highs were over 90° F, and overnight lows scarcely dropped below 70° F. Evidently that's too hot for driving the 900.

 

 Last Thursday I left fairly early in the morning and drove the 900 to Southcenter to meet a co-worker. The drive down before 10:00 was fine, but the 12:30 drive home was way too hot. That ‘smart” A/C system removal didn’t seem like the best idea, though since the system was inoperative I guess it doesn’t matter. In any case, when I got home I parked the 900 beside the driveway and put the car cover on to keep it out of the sun.  That’s where it stayed until last night when I needed to mow the lawn (which is pretty much dead except for the tall dandelions). The car spent a week sitting fallow under the cover while I drove in automatic-climate-controlled comfort in the Volvo, from home to LaConnor to Renton to home to Vancouver BC and back. Plus errands around town.  Today it will move into the garage while we take the Volvo to Lopez Island for a long weekend.

 

While we’re away the 900 and I will miss WWSCC Event 6 (Miatacross). The next event isn’t until 27 August, a month from today.   The Northwest Saab Owners Club is having a dinner at Crystal Mountain on 19 August that Ani and I may take the 900 to in the meantime. It would be the longest drive either of us have taken in the 900, and the farthest trip from home the car has taken since I got it. I’m a little nervous to sign up actually, for that reason.  Tomorrow is the deadline, so I need to act quickly.  Hopefully the weather will stay a bit cooler, and I’ll be able to be comfortably back on the road in the 900. Stay tuned for more exciting updates.
Posted by KR at 08:26:29 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Sunday's surprisingly good results

Sunday was the date of the Western Washington Sports Car Council’s Sports Car Spectacular, the 5th event in the WWSCC Championship Series. As I skipped the first event of the series, it was my fourth event of the year. I’m really pleased with my performance… I aimed for “not last place” and came in 8th of 14 in my class, a surprisingly good result.

  Ready to rumble!! 

 

My friend Jim was in town with his family, and he served as my pit crew. On Saturday evening we put on the race tires, washed the car, and took it around the block to ensure everything was in working order, since the car had been sitting for a week while Ani and I were in Portland. All was in good order.  

 

Registration opened in Everett on Sunday at 7:30 AM, but Jim and I didn’t leave home until about 7:40. It didn’t matter. When we arrived to the course, I headed over to registration while Jim pulled all of the loose junk out of the car. I got registered, got my work assignment, and headed back to inflate the tires while Jim re-torqued the wheel lug bolts. I tend to run about 48 PSI in the fronts and 45 in the rears during competitions. This gives the tires the necessary sidewall rigidity without making them so hard that they can’t get any traction.  

 

When we finished that, I took the car through tech (the technical inspection required for each car before it can compete) and then we set out to walk the course.  There are usually course maps that can be used to help make the course walk easier, but this time there were none. Walking the course was complicated even more by the fact that it had been set up to run in the opposite direction for the previous day’s practice session (which I missed), so when I started my first walk most of the pointer cones were laying down pointing in the direction of oncoming cars, rather than pointing the way forward. These were eventually fixed before the event started.  

 

I got in two course walks, accompanied by Jim, before the Drivers Meeting was called. I was in the second run group, so after the meeting Jim and I went to my work station, which was Station 2. The work station had a great view of the first half (or so) of the course, so I got to watch the first run group make five runs through the course, which helped me become familiar with its layout. Fortunately, few cars were hitting cones in our area, so I only had to chase two cones the entire day. Jim chased none. Cars were more likely to miss gates entirely than to hit cones in our section.  

 

As we worked, we watched various cars go through the course, and decided that I should make a goal time in the 60-second range, based on what “similar” cars in the first run group were able to do. Finally, the first run group finished and it was time for my run group to drive. Check out how sporty the car looks in grid! This year the WWSCC series has a no-passenger rule, so I couldn’t take Jim for a ride. He’ll have to come up for a practice I guess. 

 

  Motoring up to the start 

 

On my first run, I was pretty excited to run a clean 61.011. The tires felt good and sticky, and I was remembering a lot of the pointers I’d picked up at the previous event when I took a course walk for  novice drivers.  I figured that I had taken the first run a little bit conservatively, so I should be able to knock off at least one second over the course of my next four runs. 

Turns out that was easier said than done. On each of my next two runs, I hit a cone. Some were a little faster than my first run, but pointless because they weren’t clean. I learned (and was really able to feel) that when I go into a corner with too much speed, I just end up spinning/pushing the front tires, causing them to heat up and lose traction. Each of the three cones I hit were at the exit of a corner, and each was hit with the front tires spinning in crazy understeer, fighting for traction and ultimately wasting grip by heating the tires.

 

  Can you say "understeer"? Click on the photo to make it bigger.  I was able to look at the standings after three runs. I was ahead of the Porsche Boxtster S, both Honda S2000s, and the Focus SVT, in 9th place of 14. I was thrilled that I was so high in the standings.  During the next two rounds, I listened for finishing times of the cars in my class to see whether they were improving or not, knowing that if they didn’t improve, I’d finish in at least 9th place.  

On my final run, I knew that I had to brake smartly before both of the corners where I had hit those exit cones. I needed to carry sufficient speed into and through the corners to travel quickly without losing too much traction. And it worked! My last run was clean, and was my fastest of the day at 60.059; I felt like I did reach my goal time of 60.xxx. The official results can be found here.

   I love me some body roll. Click for bigger images. Photos courtesy of Jim. 

 

The class I run in is an Indexed class, called Street Tire, denoted as ST1 in the results shown on line. Each car competing in ST1 has an index (like a handicap in golf, evidently) that is applied to the car’s run time. The index classes are SS (super stock), and xAS-xHS, with SS being the category of fast cars like Corvette, AS being the category for cars like Honda S2000, and HS the category for slower, poorer-handling cars like the 1992 Saab 900. Only me and an ’89 Honda Civic ran as xHS cars, as you can see from the results. That Civic (both the driver and the car) is good, he’s leading the series championship at this point as you can see here.  The Boxster did manage to improve his time on his final run, putting him ahead of me in the standings, though until his last run I was beating him. It’s all good though. I finished 8th out of 14 cars! I’m far from last place. I’m really excited!  Thanks to Jim for being pit crew and photographer, and to Larry for helping me change the tires back to everyday tires on Sunday evening so I could drive the 900 to the airport on Monday, where it now sits next to somebody else’s 9-3 in the parking garage.    I’m excited for my next race, which isn’t until 27 August, since I’m skipping the one at the end of July to go to Lopez Island with Ani and some friends. Check back for updates., and remember to leave me comments that help me feel validated as a blogger!
Posted by KR at 22:38:56 | Permanent Link | Comments (3) |

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Action Photography

So it seems like weeks ago when I last competed. It must almost be time to run again. And it is. This Sunday 7/16 is the next autocross event. My friend Jim is coming to watch, maybe he can get some good photos of me. Or maybe not. Time will tell.

 In any case, Zane got 2 photos of the 900 in full competetion mode from Saturday 6/24's Understeer event. I'll post them both here. I didn't drive well that day, and the fact that I'm kicking up dust with my tires speaks to the fact that I'm not following the cleanest line. Check out how far off the ground the right-rear tire is. The '86 900 turbo that ran the next day didn't have such tire lift, but he didn't have times nearly as fast as me either.

 

Besides haulin' ass around the autocross course (or not), the 900 has also been hauling other junk. Check out this big sample I had to pick up from the UPS store last week. The crazy thing is that this isn't even for me... it's a job my coworker will be doing, so now he and I need to strategize us getting it to Federal Way on Friday. I don't think it will fit in his Passat or his Accord, both of which are 4-door sedans...

In other news, I've signed up for a driving school on 8/8, a.k.a. Barrier Motors Trackday. I'm taking the R, not the 900. Should be a lot of fun.

Remember to leave me comments on the blog! Thanks for reading.

Posted by KR at 14:44:12 | Permanent Link | Comments (9) |