Savoy Automobile Museum

This round part of the building is the theater where they show movies. 

After moving to South Carolina two years ago, I heard about the Savoy Automobile Museum and finally got to visit last weekend. Located in Cartersville Georgia, the Savoy opened only four years ago, so it's a very nice new building on some nice grounds. Those grounds were being put to good use last weekend with the Savoy hosting a big Jaguar club event all weekend. NMS is happy to give the Savoy Auto Museum a big gold star rating, and suggest you give them a visit the next time you are in the Atlanta area. 

This distinctive sculpture was inspired by a hood ornament. 

Also worth noting, the museum is operated by a non-profit that also runs several other museums in Cartersville, so they've got you covered if you're interested in cars, science, and art. Cartersville may not be the home of Jimmy Carter, but it was a nice place with plenty of cool places to eat, things to see, and friendly people. Let's see some cars! 

Jaguar XJ220? Awesome!

This exhibit had to do with car makers that also made tractors. This is a Porsche 356. Did Porsche also make tractorsd?

Yep! Porsche Junior tractor

Lamborghini tractor in racing livery! Mr. Lamborghini made tractors long before he made cars. 

Lamborghini Miura, considered the first mid-engine supercar.

1938 Ford prototype of what would become the 9N tractor. 

1941 Ford Super Deluxe Coupe

1938 Graham-Bradley 503 Row Crop tractor. OK, I'll confess not being familiar with this brand of tractor or the Graham car in the next photo. 

1939 Graham Sharknose

1956 International Harvester Cub Lo-Boy

International L-110 short bed pickup. 

Also on exhibit was a gallery of muscle cars, a selection of Jaguars, and two more  exhibits of older cars, with one featuring some awesome Duesenbergs. We'll take a look at those soon. 

New Tire Day!

Sorry, but the Haas F1 team did NOT sign any NMS drivers this year. The real story is that there were two of these vans at York Technical College, and the Haas guys were installing some new Haas machines in the building next to the auto shop. 

As I was prepping for an upcoming autocross event, I noticed some worn out spots on my one year old Michelins tires that went right through the tread. Having solid tread all around all 4 tires is kind of important and adds to safety, so it was time for some new tires! I took a look at the last few years of tire wear data from the NMS Tire Engineering and Factual Database (TEFD) to see what insights to faster driving could be determined, and made this shocking discovery: Driving your car on track and autocross events WEARS OUT YOUR TIRES!

The NMS Racing Safety Department head ruled this tire was too worn to take on track again. Thanks for the memories. 

In five years of driving the Cayman, the NMS TEFD has been analyzing the data on each set of tires, looking for any critical information that will improve the team's performance. While the team finance department has not pulled the trigger to authorize full on racing slick tires because they "cost too much money," the team has been using tires in the 200-340 treadwear range, and they are cheaper than the 40-100 treadwear tires. As a lowly driver I'm not sure where all that saved money goes, but apparently things like "brake pads" and "gas" aren't getting any cheaper either!

Here's a look at a Tire Pressure Monitor inside a tire. They are easy to replace when their battery goes bad. 

This set of Michelins lasted for 3,432 total miles of driving, which included 63 autocross runs, two Track Night in America events, and two days of driving on track at Carolina Motorsports Park. While a few thousand miles is not a lot of driving for an everyday tire, being on track and doing autocross events is not your everyday turning and braking. 

At the tire shop I spotted this huge Mickey Thompson 37 inch tire for a Jeep. 

Before the Michelin tires, NMS-North was running a set of Yokohama Advan A052 tires, and they only lasted for 1690 miles, with 28 autocross runs, and 2 days on track. These tires have a treadwear rating of 200, and a reputation for being fast, but based on how quickly they lost tread, I'm thinking they aren't worth it since they lasted a good bit less than the Michelins. 

Somebody better get those wheels out of the truck and onto the car. 

Prior to that there was another set of 200 treadwear tires, from Falken. These tires seemed to get faster the more the tread wore down. Racers say that this can happen when you're evenly wearing the tread and slowly turning them into slick tires! The NMS team mechanic suspects that this is the reason I was the fastest car at a couple of events in 2023, but of course those mechanics don't want to give any credit to the driver! They seem to think it's all about the car! The Falkens lasted 4,767 miles, which included 89 autocross runs but no track days. I'll guarantee that a track day wears out more tires than autocross, due to much more braking. 

One good reason to have a small truck: NEW TIRE DAY!

Still in the 200 treadwear range, we had a set of Hankook RS4 tires before the Falkens too. The Cayman managed to last 6,054 miles, which includes 84 autocross runs, and 9 HPDE track days. These Hankooks have a great reputation for lasting a long time, even if they aren't the absolute fastest tires on track. Based on our experience, they lasted a long time, and are a great buy for the price. 

Alignment Class Update

Our instructor Jamey Abercrombie demonstrates how to compress a spring the safe way. 

At school we've been busy learning about wheels, tires, suspension systems, and alignments. One highlight was getting to put the NMS Cayman on the alignment machine and see how it is doing. In five years of driving this car I haven't had the alignment checked, so why not do it myself? It turns out that it was overdue given the amount of track events that keeps chewing up tires, so maybe the car will be even better now!

Here's a list of cars our class is working on. 

For any car, an alignment means checking the caster, camber, and toe. Caster is pretty much set and not an issue on rear wheels, so doing an alignment starts with checking the camber on the rears, then the toe in back. Once you have the rear set up to go straight down the road, you can check the front. 

Chevy Volt

Up front, we check the caster first, then the camber, and then the toe. On the alignment machine at school it has a lot of great features that basically shows you all the measurements, will tell you what tools to use, and even pulls up photos and videos showing you how to make the adjustments along the way. 

Hey look, suspension stuff!

PRO TIP: Remove the OLD shock or strut BEFORE you put on the NEW one!

The only measurement where I went beyond the specs was on camber. For autocross and track driving it is always recommended to go with a lot of negative camber, so that your tires will maintain more contact with the road on cornering. For instance, on my front wheels, the specs say to set the fronts from 0.1 to -0.4. My left front was at -0.5, so even though that is a tiny bit out of spec, I left it there. Most Cayman drivers suggest going to at least -2 and -3, so this little -0.5 will be fine. 

The NMS Cayman BEFORE alignment started. That front toe is really bad, with the left wheel pointed inwards and the right wheel pointing outward. They both should be positive from 0.00 to 0.08. 

NMS Cayman with MUCH BETTER TOE!  The red left front camber is only out of spec by 0.1 degree, and since I want even MORE negative camber than that, I left it there for now. Caymans doing racing and track driving shoot for a minimum of -2.0 camber as a starting point.  

On the rear wheels, the spec says to set camber from -1.1 to -1.6, and I'm as far as I can go negative at -1.6 on the right and -1.7 on the left. To adjust beyond this would require some different suspension components, which translates into more money, so I'm happy with this for now!

At the very top center of the photo is the nut to loosen and start making adjustments. 

A Kia Soul gets some work too. 

Some wear on an old bump stop,  not a big deal. 

Another group of students was working on this 97 or so pickup to replace some leaking power steering hoses. 

Not a great photo, but trust me, there was power steering fluid all over the place. 

OLD power steering lines...

and a NEW power steering line.

I think this is the strut we took off of a 2016 Buick Encore. 

End of the old strut. The top of these struts were held in place on the Buick with just one nut over the stud you see here. 

After doing the alignment on the NMS Cayman at school, back at NMS HQ I adjusted the front camber to as negative as it would go. This was easy: just loosen the 3 bolts on top of the shock, and push the center of the shock as far inward as it goes. The bolt on the bottom has the nut taken off, so you can see the slot where it will adjust (left to right in this photo, which is tilting the top of  the wheel in or out, which is what camber is). Torque those 3 bolts to 33 Newton Meters and you're back in business. 

September Autocross Report

Car number 4 was the 4th fastest Porsche on the day!

The Carolinas Region of the Porsche Club of America returned to the Greensboro Coliseum for the second time this year, and NMS was there! The club did not have any autocross events during the hottest part of the year (AKA July and August,) so it was great to get back to another driving event. Due to a big event inside the Coliseum, we drove in a different lot than normal, so it was just a different bit of pavement for driving around some cones! Here's the link to my fastest run of the day:

NMS FASTEST RUN ON YOUTUBE

I was curious to see how things went for a few reasons. First of all, I was going into this event with some changes on my car. In no particular order, I had 4 brand new tires, brand new brake pads on the rear, and a real alignment on my suspension. Any one of these items SHOULD make my car faster, but would the DRIVER be any faster? Here's how things went. 

2PM and it's only 68 degrees, tire pressures at 30 in front and 31 in the rear. Let's go!

Tires: Well, as expected, new tires are nice to have! I only adjusted my tire pressures in a small window, and didn't notice any big changes in performance, so at the next event I'll try a wider range of air pressures before each run. Sunday I was in the 30-34 psi range, and they all felt good. 

Bringing home the new tires mounted on wheels, and the two old rear tires still have some life left in them. 

Rear brakes: No noticeable change in the rear brake performance, since most braking on this autocross course was a light tap on and off the brake pedal. Only one spot required hard braking, into a very tight Chicago box formation, although now that I think about it, since I did NOT slide into the cones I guess the new brake pads helped out!

NMS proudly flies the OHIO state flag on front of the helmet. This is the only state flag that is NOT a boring rectangle!

Alignment: The alignment performance is tough to judge, since apparently I'd been driving around for a few years with a crappy toe out setting! But, since I felt that the car performed well all day, I'd conclude that things are much better now, and I can't blame the car if I'm not going fast enough, since it must be the driver's fault!

Lined up on the grid waiting for the afternoon drive. 

Morning Driving: With 5 runs in the morning, and only a few raindrops and nice temps in the 60s, I managed to set my best time on the 5th run. Before that I really wiped out one cone by going too fast out of the biggest sweeping curve on the course, so there was no doubt about a big fat cone penalty on run 3. When I saw the official results I saw a DNF on my first run, so I'll have to check the video and see where I went off course. Anyway, with 5 more runs in the afternoon, my goal was to go faster!

Snazzy alignment rack at Discount Tire in Rock Hill. They mounted my new tires. 

Lunch: The Porsche Club provided Dominos Pizza for lunch, and along with our cool temperatures in the 60s and cloud cover with only a few rain drops earlier in the day, it was a great day to be out doing car stuff! If you're curious, it was half pepperoni pizzas, and the rest were supreme with all the goodies. 

NMS-North HQ on new tire day, one day before autocross. 

Afternoon Driving: Dang, with 5 more runs I didn't go any faster than in the morning. I tried a couple of different tire pressures, but that was no help. On one run I had a weird experience when I went to tap the brakes my right foot ALSO got on the gas pedal, so for a split second I realized I was not going where I wanted to go. It didn't last long, but wow, it felt like I was going to wipe out a bazillion cones and throw away the run. Oh well, I'm thinking next time I'll wear my track shoes that are smaller instead of everyday fat running shoes. 

Not ideal to be this close to curbs, but this part of the course was a straight shot. No one hit the curbs as far as I know, just a few drivers knocked over one of these cones.

Overall: No complaints on the car with the new parts, so life is good! At the end of the day I took first in my class out of 3 drivers, had the 4th fastest Porsche car time, and the 7th fastest overall out of 34 drivers. That's my best placed day this season, so things are all happy at NMS! The next Porsche Club autocross comes up in November at the always fun to run Michelin Proving Grounds in South Carolina, so the team is looking forward to that one!

Thanks to reading the blog!

Asheville NC Car Museum

1957 Cadillac Eldorado. They only built 400 of this model that year! Hey, it's older than me too!

On a trip to Asheville, we discovered that there is a car museum there. Let's go!

1957 Cadillac with rear "suicide" door. 

This is the Estes-Winn Antique Car Museum, in Grovewood Village, a very nice section of Asheville (with an "e") NC. The museum is open from April thru December, so check it out!

1927 LaSalle Phaeton. The LaSalle brand was one step cheaper than Cadillac. Sales for the LaSalle brand peaked in 1929, and by 1940 the brand was discontinued. 

This museum was founded in the 1960s by Harry Blomberg, who was Asheville's Cadillac and Pontiac dealer for many years. The collection is from the 1950s and earlier, so there are some fun cars to see. 

Admission is free, although they suggest a $5 donation to view the collection. Apparently Mr. Blomberg was a high school dropout, but I'd have to say he was a successful guy to have owned car dealerships for over 50 years!

Mr. Blomberg also sold British MG cars at his business. This is a 1950 MG TD. There was no fuel gauge, just a light that came on with 3 gallons of gas left!

Mr. Blomberg opened a gas station in 1925, added car repairs in 1927, and in 1937 became the local Cadillac dealer!

1914 Ford Model T. By 1918, half of the cars in the USA were Ford Model Ts. 

In 1913 Frederick Chandler started a car company in Cleveland Ohio. This is a 1928 Chandler with a straight 8 engine and 3 speed manual gearbox. Chandler production peaked in 1927, but over production and debt forced the company out of business after the 1928 year model. 

Chandler

1929 Ford Model A. The model A came after the model T, and car makers have used weird combinations of letters and numbers ever since!

1940 Packard 120 Coupe. The Packard company started in Ohio in 1899, and moved to Detroit in 1902.  The 120 in the  name is the wheelbase in inches. 

Packard merged with Studebaker in 1954. 

Rear bumper! During WWII the Packard company also built engines for airplanes. 

1932 Chevrolet Coupe. This car had mechanical brakes, and Chevrolet switched to much better hydraulic brakes in 1936, while Ford continued with mechanical brakes until 1939. 

This is a 1916 wood spoked Overland wheel! That's one of the little clues that tell you this is old! The Overland Automobile Company started in Terre Haute Indiana in 1903, and soon moved to Indianapolis. 

In 1908 John Willys bought Overland, renamed it Willys Overland, and moved the company to Toledo Ohio. Besides cars, of course Willys was one of 3 companies to build jeeps for WWII, and after several mergers became the Jeep company. 

REO! Lots of history involved with this company, as well as inspiring the name of rock band REO Speedwagon.

1923 REO Touring Car. The company was founded by Ransom Eli Olds (REO) and from what I read you should pronounce it as one word REO, not the initials R. E. O. No connection with the cookie OREO!

1928 Pontiac Sedan. 

1925 Dodge Touring. I had never seen this badge and hood ornament before this!

1925 Dodge

1955 Cadillac. The pink Cadillac that Elvis Presley gave his mom was a 1955 also. 

More from the Dodge Brothers

1959 Edsel Corsair. It's important to remember that the Edsel name was a new brand for Ford, not just one car model. Also worth noting, it was one of the biggest flops ever! Less than 10,000 Edsels have survived. 

1926 Cadillac seven passenger!

Another quick note on the Chandler brand; Bob Hope worked for them when he was a young man in Cleveland Ohio!

There was one motorcycle in the museum, this 1946 Model U Harley Davidson