Porsche Club 2024 Awards Event

NMS brings home the 2024 SO2 class winner trophy. 
Thanks to John Kelly for running the autocross program. 

Last Saturday I aimed my car towards Mooresville NC for the Carolinas Region Porsche Club of America Driver of the Year awards. It was an informal get together to pass out a few awards from 2024, eat a free lunch, and make sure everyone knows about the 2025 season. We met at GMP Performance, and it was cool to be sitting in a working auto shop with a bunch of other folks interested in driving their cars faster! GMP services mostly German cars, and they have locations in Mooresville, Charlotte, and over in Atlanta. 

An Audi TT from the ChampCar series in for service at GMP. 

Like last year, the Porsche Club will be hosting six autocross events, with two events at each of three locations: Michelin Proving Ground in South Carolina, the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds, and at the Greenville NC Coliseum. The region covers a lot of territory in both Carolinas, so this seems to be a good way to reach most of their membership. When I lived on Long Island I was lucky that the New York Metro region held their autocross events on Long Island too, so they were all close to where I lived. Here in retirementland where I live now, these three locations are all over an hour away. 

Nice trophy now at NMS-North HQ. 

NMS is proud to announce that the #77 Porsche Cayman took 1st place for 2024 in its class, after driving in all six events. The trophy was very nice, with woodwork, laser engraving, some cute little autocross traffic cones, a Porsche emblem, and even a Cayman Matchbox car! OK, it's not like we're autocrossing to win bazillions of dollars like in NASCAR and other fancy races, so you know we're doing it for fun!

GMP's alignment drive on lift, very spiffy. 

I was able to look around the facility and see a few cars that were in for work, such as an Audi TT racecar with the top of the engine out, an old Mini Cooper, as well as a few BMWs and Porsches up on lifts for service. One cool part of the shop was their alignment rack, because it was level with the floor, making it probably a little easier to use than having to drive up onto a 4 post lift like the set-up we have a York Technical College. 

My kind of meeting, in an auto shop!
SAFETY TIP: Don't bump your head on the Porsche 911. 

During the event I talked to a few other attendees that have not driven an autocross event before, so they all were looking forward to giving it a shot in 2025. Hey, no matter where you live, I bet there's an autocross somewhere near you. Various makes like Porsche, BMW, and others sponsor these kinds of events, as well as national organizations like the Sports Car Club of America, and other local car clubs. 

Automatic Transmission Class Update #3

PRO TIP: When you disassemble the parts of the automatic transmission, lay them out in order. 

After finishing up an overhaul on a 94 Chevy Silverado automatic transmission, my group is now working on a Ford diesel truck's transmission. On that first one we got the full experience of removing the transmission (and drive shaft) from the truck, but on this one the customer brough the transmission in already off of the truck! That makes our job a bit easier to say the least!

We also got to align this truck. 

We also installed a tow hitch on this Honda CRV. 

Taking a picture of the Ford transmission before we started, my teacher jumped into the photo. 

Putting the transmission case in the Viper Jet cleaner.

In addition to strictly transmission work, we've also done a few odds and ends with other projects in the shop. Let's see, we mounted a new trailer hitch on a new Honda CRV, helped another team remove some stripped out lug nuts on two other cars, and got to see a Honda transmission all taken apart. That one was interesting, because the team that took it apart found a broken shift fork, which as you might imagine was preventing it from going into all the gears. 

On the left side of the photo you can see some of the teeth on this gear are chipped up, and there are the metal pieces in the fluid. Replace this gear. 

Back on topic with transmissions, our latest project is an automatic transmission from a big ol' diesel Ford F250, with only about 400,000 miles on it! We found some damaged planetary gear teeth (photo above,) so that would explain why it's not shifting so hot. 

Inside of a Ford automatic transmission oil pump.

Report From Carolina Motorsports Park

Sign in, get a free wrist band!
Thanks to NASA Southeast for a great event!

In the GOOD news department, we got to spend two days ON TRACK at Carolina Motorsports Park!

Mostly sunny weekend! 100% chance of speed!
I spared no expense with these painter's tape numbers!

In the LESS GOOD news side, driving is not our full time job, so on Monday we had to go back to work/school and reality! At least, I had to go back to school, since even though it was Presidents Day our school is taking the holiday next Friday. 

Brian is instructing in the passenger seat of this 2004 Nissan 350Z.

Going into the weekend, the weather reports looked like a lot of rain, so I was very happy that we only had say 3 of the 8 driving sessions impacted by rain. For what it's worth, driving in the rain is still a good thing, because it forces you to react to a lot of different conditions out there, and probably teaches you more driving skills than in the dry. 

New rotors and pads on the rear, please. The front pads lasted the weekend. 

Brian was instructing a beginner track driver, and his student made some good  progress like you'd expect a first timer to do. Plus, Brian went the extra mile and changed the student's rear brake pads and rotors, and that made everyone feel much safer on track. One of the things that always happens when you drive your car on track is that you WILL use up gas, tires, and brake pads. Safety wise, you MUST be monitoring these main essentials (and everything else) to have a good experience. For driving at this level of what is called High Performance Driver Education (HPDE,) each driver is responsible for signing off to verify the safety of their car, before going on track. This includes the basics that anyone can just look at, such as thickness of brake pads (should be plenty,) wear on the tires (must have tread, no exposed cords) the battery is securely tied down, and that all the seat belts work. 

Some car trailers have this convenient side panel that opens so the driver can exit. 

Brian also kept busy by taking his student out in another session, with Brian the instructor driving. This is a GREAT way to gain more experience by seeing what a better driver is doing on track. I'm not talking about how fast you can go, but how smoothly you handle the car, merge with traffic, and stay aware of all conditions on track like weather, other traffic, the flags from the corner workers, etc. Shoot, Brian even rode with me on one session to check me off to advance to the next skill level group. Thanks!

Porsches have the ignition key go on the left of the steering wheel. This made it easier to start racing at LeMans in the past. 

As for my driving, I really had fun, learned a lot, and have a huge list of driving skills to keep working on to improve my performance. Overall, I need to study my video and be consistent with my turn-ins for each corner, apex a few corners later, and keep working to carry more speed through the corners. I think it's a simple fact that ANYONE can get a car going on a straight and hold the gas pedal all the way down. That doesn't really take any talent, so I guess I'm working on everything else, so that I can get to that wide open throttle (WOT) sooner and longer. 

Spotted this race car for sale. Didn't buy it. 

Some drivers ride in style, with matching graphics on the RV and the car trailer. 

Besides driving on track, the HPDE experience includes classroom sessions where drivers learn the basics, and keep building their skills through levels 1, 2, 3, and 4, as well as give feedback to each other with the assistance from a lead instructor for each driving group. At most of our sessions the instructor would point out anyone that went off track, and just ask them why it happened. This was all in a learning mode for that person and the rest of us, and overall I think everyone knew what they had done wrong. Making a mistake is only bad if you keep making the same one over and over!

Just in case you're wondering if race gas is expensive at the track. 
$10.99 per gallon. 

Classroom session

The HPDE sessions were not for racing, no trophies, and our lap times aren't really important, so I'll leave out that I've been faster at CMP than Brian. He's really a much better driver than me, so I know I won't be ahead of him for long!

Full track at CMP, 14 corners, 2.279 miles. 
I drove approximately 52 laps over 8 sessions on track. 

Dramatic rain drops