August 19, Philly Region Auto X

[Al Navarro]

Holbert Memorial (Summer Series Event # 8)

Tom-When are they going to set up the online registration? Or is there something I'm missing?-Al

[yellowss7]

Usually they open registration about 2 weeks out. Registration for this weekend's event doesn't close until Friday. So I would expect it to open up next week. Tom

[Boxologist]

definitely won't be able to make it down to philly. have a family function so i will have to autoX local and attend right after.

[Al Navarro]

Tom- I signed up today. Question...I've always been told I'm in DMod...why is there a Lotus in CStock?-Al

[yellowss7]

Al, that Lotus is an original Series IV. Most original Lotuses with the smaller engines can run in the stock classes or even the prepared classes depending on modifications. The owner of the Lotus is a good guy and very good driver, but he only has about 90 hp. He drives the crap out of it but the lack of hp doesn't make up the difference between my poor driving and higher HP.

The SCCA rules specifically state that all replicas get slotted into either DMod or EMod if over 2.0L. Yeah it's not exactly fair since cars like mine and yours are "stock" in that they aren't modified from Caterham specs.

Most top Mod cars are highly modified. However, to be fair, even as poor a driver as I am, I still have one of the faster raw times. So putting us in a Stock class would be problematic for most other drivers.

Tom

[Boxologist]

we get lopped in to Modified becaus eof the limited production run. i think minimum of 1000 per year is neccesary to stay is CS/CSP where the lotus 7/Super 7 is historically classed by SCCA. Tom is about how well a car is setup can matter greatly on how well these cars, while a generic tin top will matter mostly on the driver.

New York region has been sorta cool letting me run cs/csp this year. with crappy tyres it was a non issue as better prepped MR2s and miatas easily have seconds on me in my first season. in 2 weeks that changes as i will be on real tyres and i will poll the csp competitors to see if they will protest me into DMod where i will run in a class of 1...

[yellowss7]

We may have a Caterham owner from the UK/Blatchat joining us at the event. Any other local 7's going to make it? Lance, I know you're out there lurking, :toetap: Can you join us? Tom

[yellowss7]

Just an update. Right now we have a 62 series 2 Lotus 7, a 71 series IV Lotus 7, Al's Caterham Superlight R and my Caterham Superlight signed up for Sunday's Autox. Lance (crazy canuck), with his 50th Anniversary Caterham, said he's also a possible. Thats 5! Any one else in the area up for it? Weather looks to be great. Tom

[MichaelD]

Tom,

I just did the Autocrossers Inc, event at Ripkin. The weather was anything but nice.

Rain for the morning session. Dry for the noon walk. Rain as I put my hemlet on. No time to take the slicks of. My times grew with each run.

Hope all is well.

Michael D.

[yellowss7]

Yeah, Michael, same here. Rain started just as we started our afternoon course walk and rained the rest of the day. We just couldn't put the power down, and on Slicks it was very interesting:crazy: We had 5 sevens in attendance , Al, Lance, a 62 series II and a 71 series IV that ended up winning the overall Pax. ( he did run when it was Dry) but he ran really well. Al, thinks we could get 10-12 cars at a Ripken event. That would be cool. I'm just finishing editing some video that I'll post in the Video section shortly. Tom

[Al Navarro]

Well, a hot shower and dinner at the local Mexican and I think I'm just about thawed out from the Philly Auto-X. The drive home was similar to my drive down to Skyline last year...not one inch of my body was not soaking wet.

I had fun, despite the weather and, according to the scorers, being off course for all 4 runs! I must have totally missed a gate in my mental map or gone backwards on the slaloms — due to the weather and not having an FM radio (they use a tranmitter instead of speakers) didn't know about it until all was said and done. :cry:

Oh well, that just goes to show that I should have taken an instructor along for my first few runs. I was too nervous as it was. I'll be back at one of these things eventually.

Thanks Tom for getting me out there and for letting me work Grid with you. Lance thanks for the laughs as we got wetter and wetter working Grid. And here's to Jack Banha for representing Se7endom!

[slngsht]

damn Al, not a good way to start your autox career :nonod:

I was playing golf in the "beautiful" weather we were supposed to have. Rained on me all day :cuss:

[yellowss7]

Video link is up and Al you look good out there! :thumbs: Someone should have notified grid that you were off course and an Instructor should have gone with you. I still go Off Course occasionally. The lack of traction really impacted the confidence level out there, especially for our higher HP cars. I think Lance's crossflow was much more manageable and his new tires didn't hurt.

Orange is a great looking car. Let's try to get a bunch of 7s out at a Ripken event. Tom

[slngsht]

Video link is up and Al you look good out there! :thumbs: Someone should have notified grid that you were off course and an Instructor should have gone with you. I still go Off Course occasionally. The lack of traction really impacted the confidence level out there, especially for our higher HP cars. I think Lance's crossflow was much more manageable and his new tires didn't hurt.

Orange is a great looking car. Let's try to get a bunch of 7s out at a Ripken event. Tom

Video link?

[Boxologist]

NYR region was dry till justr after thge awards ceremony. of the mr2 community was borrowing another's (new Exige owner, Carbuff will eventually meet him). As they are about to start the drivers meeting, he sees the borrowed car has one slick that is corded from yesterday's Evo school. and his own MR2's tyres were corded leading to him borrowing the other car. so i'm trying to take a nap in my passenger seat and just say "U wanna co-drive this?". he does. beast the piss out of my times, and gves some good input to where i'm going wrong( 3 spins in 8 runs). getting video of him and myself from in and outside of the 7 also shows some serious work is needed on my part:banghead:

[yellowss7]

Video link?

Mazda, I posted the Video in the Seven's Video section. click on the 8/19/07 Autox link at the bottom of my post. Tom

[slngsht]

D'Oh, I see it. :cheers:

[locostv8]

Well, a hot shower and dinner at the local Mexican and I think I'm just about thawed out from the Philly Auto-X. The drive home was similar to my drive down to Skyline last year...not one inch of my body was not soaking wet...
Al
I believe the problem is that you put the top on. My experience with 50s Brit sports cars is the top is a fairly efficcent funnel, you get wetter with the top up than topless.

[Al Navarro]

Tom-Could you poll your Philly SCCA pals and find out where I was off course? No rush of course, but I'd love to know-Al

[yellowss7]

I'll ask, but I doubt they have the station# recorded, but they might.

Here are a few pics from the event. There are a bunch more of them on the Phillyscca.com website. Go to dissusion forum, then Solo and look for the picts thread.

http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/464435308_IMGP5366.jpg

http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1077992808_IMGP5496 lance.jpghttp://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1725045781_IMGP5556.jpghttp://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/640706334_IMGP5557.jpg

[Al Navarro]

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z294/sc2pete/Warminster819/2007-08-19/IMGP5557.jpg

[Boxologist]

just saw the results...
WTF Tom, did anyone bother to ride along with Al or get an instructor to get in with him to point him along?

edit: lemme go check Hairshirt...

edit2: nada insight on Al's thoughts there.
I may be able to make Warminster on Oct 28th.

[yellowss7]

Jon, I suggested he take an instructor on his first run. He declined, said he was good at video games. :banghead: and he had his top on so there was no way I could get in. At Warminster they don't use the PA system to announce times, and no one from scoring sent anyone over to tell him. Definately an oversight.

Al never said that he was unsure of the course and it was pretty well marked. My fault for not insisting he take an instructor along. I did get both Al and Lance a ride along during the second heat.

The rain really was a downer. But it was great having the sevens together. Jeremy F. emailed me that he would try to make the next get together as did another guy with an SV. So if you make it along with the others that could be upwards of 8 sevens at the event. Maybe we could get a bunch of the Maryland/ VA guys at a Ripken event. Or get them to make the trek to Warminster. ( Its a better site). Tom

[Al Navarro]

Tom definitely tried to take care of me...fault is all my own. I just wish I knew which gate(s) I had missed...regardless, I didn't push that hard at all because of the rain (just listen for my throttle positiion in the vid), couldn't really put power down and when I tried got the back out a tad.

I might do Oct 28th if everyone else does (peer pressure)...we'd be in the early session, which would make my wife happy. I'll take my 10 year old to keep me company this time. Wait, I just realized I may have to go to AAPEX/SEMA at that time. Hmmm.

I should add that I had a fun time regardless of my times/DNFs and the rain, but also that I kind of put Auto-X into the same category of activities as sporting clays but not the same as fly fishing. I definitely had more fun the second through fourth runs...first run was just getting used to the whole thing.

It will be nice to do it in the dry.

[Boxologist]

had awhole thing typed out but a co-worker of mine decide dhe needed to shut that computer off use it instead of any of the other ones. Basically my last post was not intended as a slight Tom, more a difference between regions. NYR is curently running fields of 50% or more novice the first season so the several events they have had to be very proactive in getting the noobs and novices up to speed so they would not be as embarassed and enjoy the time more.

most of the novices really wouldn't speak up on their own, and those event co-ordinators who have so much time on the pro and national level may forget what the mindset of those starting out is.


NY BMW is also going on 10/28, hmmm.

[Boxologist]

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z294/sc2pete/Warminster819/2007-08-19/IMGP5357.jpg
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z294/sc2pete/Warminster819/2007-08-19/IMGP5359.jpg
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http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z294/sc2pete/Warminster819/2007-08-19/IMGP5463.jpg
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z294/sc2pete/Warminster819/2007-08-19/IMGP5497.jpg
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z294/sc2pete/Warminster819/2007-08-19/IMGP5499.jpg
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http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z294/sc2pete/Warminster819/2007-08-19/IMGP5546.jpg
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http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z294/sc2pete/Warminster819/2007-08-19/IMGP5556.jpg
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z294/sc2pete/Warminster819/2007-08-19/IMGP5559.jpg

[yellowss7]

Guess I should have splurged for the upgraded weather gear. :d :d or at least put it in the trailer.
http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1278611464_IMGP5559.jpg

[locostv8]

Guess I should have splurged for the upgraded weather gear. :d :d or at least put it in the trailer.
http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1278611464_IMGP5559.jpg
http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/384901885_IMG_0187.JPG
?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????

[yellowss7]

Yeah, that's how I did it sitting in Grid. Since it wasn't windy the umbrella actually worked pretty well. Tom

[locostv8]

Looks like truley dreadful weather for autox.

[Al Navarro]

Jon-

Thanks for posting those pix...from what I can see, I was on course, right? Retracing my steps, I think somewhere on the out leg is where I went astray...

-Al

[yellowss7]

Al, I didn't upload my in car footage of my runs, but I could, if you'd like to see the course again. I tried to guess where you went OC but the course was pretty well defined. Let me know if you want to see it and I'll post it. It looks like I'm in slow mo that's why I didn't post it. :d Tom

[Al Navarro]

Feel free to PM or email me the link....