2025 Autocross Statistics

During 2025 the NMS-North Cayman participated in a second straight year of competing in all six of  the Porsche Club of America events in the local region, and in seven total autocross events that stretched from April to November. Locations included the Michelin Proving Grounds twice, the Greensboro Coliseum twice, the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds two times, and one final event at Hickory Motor Speedway. Since the team (in this case "team" means "me") is based in Rock Hill SC, just a few miles from the NC border, it's no surprise that these events included five in North Carolina and two in South Carolina. Shoot, if there were autocross events in West Carolina and East Carolina we'd sign up for those too!

All but one competition was with the Carolinas Region of the Porsche Club of America, with the other sponsored by the Triad Sports Car Club. Over the past 10+ years of auto-crossing, we've driven with six other clubs in a total of five states, so it's always fun to see how different clubs run their events. These seven autocross events attracted 362 drivers (some multiple times) so that's an average of 51 per event. The six Porsche events totaled 249 drivers with an average of 41 per event. Really it's 41.5 drivers per event, but I had a hard time finding half of a driver. On the other hand, I didn't WANT to find a half a driver either, so I didn't look!

Statistics wise, NMS is happy to report seven class wins out of those seven events, although the number of cars in the same class ranged from no one else up to four other cars in one event. Against all the cars at any one event, the best place was 7th out of 34 drivers at Greensboro in September, but probably even better than that was taking 8th overall from 70 drivers at Hickory in November. While there might have been a lot of novices at that event that were trying autocross for the first time, placing in the top 10 of any event is always our goal. Maybe I can write a book about "How To Win at Autocross Against No Competition!" Like a lot of things in life, the answer is to "show up!"

Always hang out with drivers that are faster than you. Say hello to my little friend. 

For the Porsche only competitions, the best NMS event of the year was at Hickory, taking 2nd fastest Porsche of the day out of 25 drivers. In the other events NMS took a 3rd, 4th, 6th twice, and an 8th fastest Porsche on the day. That puts my average overall Porsche placing at 4.8th, so let's just call it 5th. While this year didn't include a fastest P-car of the day, this still marks the NMS 2nd best event placing ever, only behind a fastest RAW time Porsche at Michelin two years ago, and a fastest PAX time Porsche at a New York Metro Region event in 2023. 

Waiting to go at a Greensboro Coliseum parking lot. 

During the course of this season, sometimes other drivers signed up to be car #77 before NMS did, so the car also appeared as #4, #7, #411, #77, and #777. As long as you have some extra number magnets or good old blue painters tape, you can run any number you want! I bet the fancy NASCAR and IndyCar drivers don't have to worry about changing their numbers like us normal people do!

The funniest thing of the year, all these made up company stickers. 

The first half of the season was run on Michelin tires, but when the front tires started wearing through, the pit crew switched to Continentals for the last three events. Other than that, the only other set-up change in mid season was an alignment that fixed some bad front toe settings, and maximized the negative camber all around. Future plans for the car may include even more suspension work, and ideally a lot more negative camber for competitive driving. As is, the car meets the Stock category, and changing the suspension would move the car into a Modified or Improved category according to the Porsche rules. For events run under the SCCA Autocross rules (which is just about every other club on the planet) the car runs in the B Street category. 

Added up, this year totaled 56 runs, 6 cones knocked over, and 1 run where a driver mistake meant a Did Not Finish on a run. Each cone knocked over adds two seconds to your time, so that is BAD. It's not so bad for your day or your car, just bad for that one run. If, on the other hand, you never knock over any cones, you're likely not driving fast enough. 

Within my class for the five events that I have data, I averaged winning by 4.301 seconds per event, with victories ranging from 0.956 to 8.225 seconds. The location with the longest course run time for me was at Michelin, my time was 60.098, and the shortest course was on the Hickory Speedway at 44.904. Even with up to 10 runs at an event, that gives you only a few minutes of actual driving per event, but I'll guarantee you that it feels like more, and it's a lot of fun!

Project INFINITI Update

Project INFINITI

The NMS Project INFINITI keeps moving along! Down at NMS-South, the 2002 INFINITI I35 recently received some work on the oil pan, as in taking it off, and installing a new gasket. Along with this procedure came an oil change, so we'll be driving it a bit and seeing if we still have an oil leak anywhere. Fixing the leaking oil pan, along with the previous work on the leaking valve covers, and the leaking hoses should have us well on our way to eliminating the leaks at least! I was able to research common leak problems on this particular car on the ProDemand software system, and those three types of leaks were the 3rd, 4th, and 5th most common, so that is good to know. The top two most common leaks on an Infiniti I35 were radiator and coolant related, and we weren't really seeing coolant leaking, so it was good to address the oil leaks. 

The oil pan was leaking, so Brian took it off! 

No oil pan leak with a new gasket!

Over the Thanksgiving NMS Team Dinner, we also installed some new low beam headlights since one of them was no longer working. Guess what? It's a LOT SAFER driving at night in a car with working headlights! This fact came in handy when I drove the car back to NMS-North, about an hour and a half on the Interstate, at night. In the dark. With the lights on! The car ran fine, so we're moving on to some more work not involving the engine. 

Project INFINITI at NMS-North, now under the careful watch of Kimi Raikkonen!

The next day saw the car get four brand new tires at a local shop, and just for good measure I spent a few minutes in the NMS garage and reduced some of the haze on the 23 year old plastic headlights. Shoot, that might make those new headlight bulbs even brighter! We discovered that Goodyear makes a tire specifically for Wal-Mart, so went with the Goodyear Reliant. 

New tire installation at Wal-Mart. 

Coming up next will be an alignment on all four wheels, so that should also fix the not-straight steering wheel. I probably caused part of that problem, because when the car was up on the lift at Adams house, and I was in the driver seat pumping the brake pedal to bleed the brakes (following new shocks and other suspension work) I did NOT have the steering wheel straight. Oh well, it's important to learn by doing, and learn from your mistakes. 

Not sure if your battery is up to speed? Throw it on a charger and test with your digital multimeter. 

The front seats were very worn, as in 163,000 miles worn, so we just covered them up with some new, uh, seat covers!

Worn out seats, before...

and after!

We also replaced the worn out windshield wiper blades, and as you can see above, we covered up a really worn and broken steering wheel with a black cover. Hey, it's not a perfect color match, but we're not entering any fancy car shows here either!

Another thing you see on older cars is plastic headlights that get hazy, and Project INFINITI had that problem too. We pulled out our handy-dandy Mothers Polish headlight kit, a handy drill with a buffing pad, and went to work. Here's the before and after versions after just one short polishing treatment. 

Passenger side before...

Passenger side after!

Driver side before...

Driver side after! Hey, we've got to be able to see those new light bulbs in there!

With lots of good progress on the car so far, we might even try to wash it and get around to taking care of the cracked windshield too!

Electronic Fuel Systems Class Update

One classmate brought in his Jeep and we swapped wheels. They're BIG!

December is going to be the end of my last automotive class at York Technical College, and this last class is all about Electronic Fuel Systems. We've learned about how the fuel system works, focused on diagnosing problems, learned about using a scan tool to track Oxygen sensors, Short Term Fuel Trim, Long Term Fuel Trim, and plenty of other related engine topics such as turbos and superchargers. We're also spending time in the shop working on various automobiles, so here's a look at some recent activity. 

A peek inside a rear differential

This class is titled Electronic Fuel Systems, so that includes the system from the intake, turbos, superchargers, the engine, and all the way through the exhaust, catalytic converters, mufflers, and tailpipe. 

A big blue spacer on those big Jeep wheels. 

Trying to find the source of an oil leak? Give this a try. 

Inside of a supercharger.

Inside of a turbo.

Cutaway inside of a muffler. 

Catalytic converter that needs to be replaced. 

Looking up to where the exhaust comes down to the catalytic converter, and you can see the upstream oxygen sensor up there. 

Another student's car, he's putting a turbo in his Miata. Next photo is the turbo initial install. 

Nothing to see here, but we've spent several days on this 1998 Buick LeSabre tracking down an issue that affects cruise control, brake lights, and the transmission. The brake pedal light switch is related to all of those systems, so we've been using a multimeter to test all the wires involved. Another easier to solve issue was a trouble code on the evap cannister, we found two hoses that had disintegrated and come loose, so we fixed that part easily. 

Four cylinder exhaust manifold into a catalytic converter. What I think is funny is the big arrow on the silver part, so that you know which way the exhaust flows through the cat. Maybe someone installed one backwards!

AmeriCARna Car Show Report

This Rat-Rod was awesome! Tractor front end? 4 wheels on the rear axle? Front and rear radiators? YEP!

Since moving to SC I've discovered the annual AmeriCARna show, and managed to head up the road and check it out again this year. An interesting setting at the corporate HQ of Trane Technologies (they do air conditioning "stuff," with "stuff" being a very technical description of their many businesses.) The Charlotte area is probably better known for being the home of NASCAR, the NFL Panthers (multiple wins this year already!) Lowe's, and of course Lance snack crackers, but Trane is a big company too. Let's look at some cool cars! There were a LOT MORE cars too, so look for part 2 in the near future. 

Classic Datsun

Hot rod 1932 Ford

Here's a great way to sell your car!

This sign describes the next photo. 

1932 Chevrolet Boat Tail Speedster!

This car show was in Davidson NC, just a bit north of Charlotte, so you can count on seeing some NASCAR  history. 

There I was just enjoying a beautiful fall day at a car show and then a Rolls Royce drove by!

Two Cobra replicas, commonly seen in blue. 

Porsche Cayman GT4 RS. This is a mid-engine Cayman that is the first time they've built a Cayman with the 911 GT3 engine. 

Volvo 1800

The white Ford Thunderbird with the Volvo 1800 made a great pair!

 

Charlotte Auto Show

Friday night at the Auto Show? Sure!

There is a city in North Carolina named Charlotte. 

Charlotte has an Auto Show. 

There were new cars, and not so new cars on display. 

Here's the scoop!

New car wise, I didn't take a lot of photos, I guess mostly because I got interested in looking at the window stickers and being amazed at prices. $91,000 for a new F-150 of some kind or another. There was a big Ford Expedition Max for $94,000. 

RTR Ford Bronco, only $108,000. 

Lancia Stratos Stradale, one of the most epic Rally cars of all time. 

There were several police cars on display from various years, so here's a 1967 Ford Galaxie 500 from the Mecklenburg County County Police.

Old cars? They had some!

You might want to keep this one on the drag strip!

Off road camping in your Porsche? Sure. 

Lamborghini racecar? Yes please. 

Any NASCAR stuff in Charlotte NC? Yep!

Anybody famous drive this racecar? 

Yes! Jimmie Johnson, Simon Pagenaud, Kamui Kobayashi, and Mike Rockenfeller.
2022 IMSA Cadillac DPi

Ferrari SUV

New Ferrari

Final year of the Jaguar F-Type. I like the British Racing Green, but could do without the stripe. 

Fun stuff for kids? Yep!

For the 2nd year in a row, the WIENER MOBILE!