Julie did a great job on the corners and trim. Get ready to say goodbye to yellow walls!
NMS-North has been in their South Carolina Headquarters for two years now, and so far we've upgraded the lighting in the garage and added new tool cabinets, so its time to do something about the yellow walls. Oh I don't personally hate the color yellow, but it is far from my favorite! OK, I don't like it. So, we painted it very plain white.
Be safe with those ladders.
Plain white should make working in the garage better, with things looking brighter and a LOT less yellow! We removed the few light switches and electrical outlet covers so that we could roll as much as possible.
I think this is after the first coat. The second coat went on the next day and covered things up nicely.
I had a few days off from school this fall, so this created a great window of opportunity to get the work done and also avoid the heat of summer. Add one coat of new paint on the ceiling and two coats on the walls and BAM...WE HAVE A WHITE GARAGE! I'm thinking I might trademark the phrase "YELLOW GARAGE BE GONE."
Painting around the water heater back there was the most challenging part.
We moved almost everything into the driveway for the two painting days, back in at night, and shoved the heaviest storage tubs into the center of the garage to work around them. Maybe a professional painter would have emptied the room, and then used a spray gun to do it way faster, but we got it done with a plain old roller on a long handle and brushes. Since it's just a garage, we used a a minimal amount of drop cloths. Hey, those new paint splatters on the floor are creativity in action! Modern art for everyday living! Groovy baby!
The paint man at Home Depot suggested outdoor paint for the garage, since it is not heated or cooled.
NMS used the Behr Exterior Satin Enamel paint from Home Depot, so thanks for their 10% discount for military. By using the same paint on the ceiling and walls, we didn't have to worry about cutting in the corners or using painters tape. Plus, remember our new motto from this project: "It's only a garage."
Day two, the walls look better than day one! Two coats covered up the yellow with no problems.
Even the second time around it wasn't fun painting around the water heater. Oh make no mistake, I can do some painting, but when we moved here we hired some professionals to paint the interior of the house.
Working on the ceiling was fun too, getting around the lights. The ceiling only needed one coat since it was white in the first place.
This is a huge 18 inch or so paint tray. I tried a roller that large, but it was just too big and bulky for me, so back to the standard size roller.
Here we are at the end of day two, so we put everything back in and parked the cars. The next step will be to add some car related flags, posters, and other stuff on the walls.
I told you that November would be busy, and it is SO BUSY that Brian kicked it off on October 31st! We just couldn't pack a month's worth of NMS activities into just 30 days! That was the Friday of a 3 day NASA Southeast track weekend at Carolina Motorsports Park. Here at NMS-North, we behaved ourselves and went to school on Friday, and hit the track on Saturday and Sunday.
Brian with the NMS #86, temporarily as #186 for the weekend. Painters tape has many uses!
In addition to the NMS drivers and the NMS #86 350Z, our friends Kyle and Adam were also driving their Nissan 350Z cars in the Time Trials all weekend, and we have to report they turned in faster times than the NMS team. We suspect that they found faster times by only driving what race engineers refer to as "downhill, with a tailwind, and no brakes" so it's either that or they are just faster drivers.
Three silver Nissan 350Zs and a ruby red Porsche Cayman. One of these things is not like the other.
Here at NMS-North, my times were the slowest of the group, and a good 3 seconds off my previous best, so let's say that I got in a lot of practice, had a good time, and drove flawlessly. Except for when I didn't drive flawlessly. Let's talk about that!
Part of HPDE 3 is some classroom sessions to keep everyone on the same page.
Being a HPDE 3 level driver, I was working on improving my technique during 7 sessions over the two days, and by reviewing the data, analyzing the track sector times, screening my in-car video, I can now confirm that I went off the track twice! My first error was going wide after the Carolina Motorsports Park "kink" at about 109mph, hitting the deep curbing, and then got thrown across the track onto the grass for a long slide before coming to a stop. Good news: I did NOT hit the tire wall or damage the car! Some drivers refer to this as "pushing the limits" or "running out of talent."
Some of us drive our car to CMP, others bring it in a nice rig like this!
Mistake #2 on a later session was after the kink, and braking too late going into turn 11. This time I just went straight where the pavement turned left, and went a few car lengths off the asphalt. Again, no damage, just lack of talent! In both cases I continued when it was safe, drove into the pits, and had a discussion with the safety steward to make sure I knew what the problem was. In both cases he also checked out the four corners of car for damage, and sent me on my way. Hey, if you learn from your mistakes, that's supposed to be a good thing, right?
I'm going with "More Cow Bell" on this one!
One other fun part of this weekend was a HPDE 3 only exercise, where drivers perform specific drills during a 20 minute session. On Saturday, our drill was to drive a complete lap staying left of center of the pavement, and then on the next lap staying to the right of center. Repeat to the end of the session. This forced you to get way off the racing line in many places, and it also made me realize that there's a lot more pavement out there than what I usually use!
Four of the six Porsche 944s in one of the race classes.
Sunday's drill was similar to Saturday, but with the added factor of doing it side-by-side with another driver! I paired up with a fellow HPDE 3 guy in a BMW, and we completed the 20 minutes smoothly, although we were not going at full pace. This drill was pretty straight forward and emphasized awareness of where you are on track, and where the other driver is on track. This is a fun part of driving in level 3 and our combined sessions with 3 and 4 together, when you can pass other cars at any point on track. That's a big deal, because in HPDE 1 and 2 you can only pass on a few long straights. I'm all for safety, so once drivers get into 3 and 4 they should be able to handle this.
Here's Brian going into the last corner and driving by on the home straight.
This was my 4th track weekend of the year, and with NMS-South, Kyle, and Adam at CMP also, was the most fun all year.
This Porsche Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport was in my driving group. Scientists would describe it as "fast!"
October wasn't super busy at NMS, other than of course going to school, working, fixing up Project Infiniti, and gearing up for Halloween, but starting on that day, then things get busy.
October 31-November 2nd we'll be driving at Carolina Motorsports Park with the fine folks from NASA. NMS-South will be working as an instructor and driving the Nissan 350Z either in some Time Trial competitions or just in the HPDE sessions. NMS-North will be back in the Porsche Cayman (with new tires and rear brakes) and looking to gain more lapping experience in the HPDE 3 group. While High Performance Driver Education (HPDE) is not meant to be about the timing, I just might happen to take a look at my lap times and see how they might compare to some hypthetical laps from earlier this year.
On November 9th the Porsche Club will sponsor the next autocross event at our favorite place Michelin Proving Grounds (the BLACK LAKE with 14 acres of flat, smooth pavement.) After that Sunday event, it's a quick turn-around to Saturday the 15th with the final PCA autocross of 2025 up at a new location for us, the Hickory Motor Speedway in Hickory NC. This small, paved oval should be an interesting autocross layout, so the NMS team is curious to see how the course is set up.
After those driving events, we're looking forward to attending a huge car show called AMERICARNA up in Davidson NC. Held on the grounds of the Trane Technologies (the AC people) company, this is a big show that we've visited before. Proceeds from this event go to charity, so you can look at tons of cars and do something good at the same time. You can read more about it at this website:
