Triad Sports Car Club Autocross Report

Working on course and it's only 96 hours. I mean 96 DEGREES that felt like 96 hours. THUMBS UP!

For June, the Triad Sports Car Club held their autocross at ZMax Dragway in Charlotte. This location is the parking lot for the 4-wide dragstrip that is part of Charlotte Motor Speedway, and it's a BIG parking lot. Many people say, HUGE! This is what makes it a very popular spot for autocross events. More pavement means a longer course to drive, and more driving always adds up to MORE FUN! This is a scientifically proven fact that I just made up. 

BS class winner Porsche Cayman. 
All the cool kids parked in the shade of the grandstands!

In my case, some smaller events take maybe under 40 seconds to drive, but Sunday my best time was a 73 seconds plus. Make no mistake, there were plenty of faster cars too! The fastest time of the day was actually set by a go-kart!

More B Street class goodness, Audi!

There were nine cars in my B Street class, so the NMS Cayman was up against some fast cars, like an Audi RS3, a Civic Type R and a Toyota GR Corolla. It was hot, like 95 degrees in summer time on asphalt hot, and I was thinking that just this weekend I heard the British broadcasters comment during Formula 1 practice in Spain that it was REALLY HOT IN SPAIN, which to them means 84 degrees. Only 84? Dang man, my garage was hotter than that first thing in the morning!

Checking the tire pressures and temperature. Hey, only 91 degrees before noon!

Anyway, after four runs the BS class ended with NMS just barely squeaking into 4th place, with a good gap to those quicker drivers. Later in the day there was a rain and lightning storm that stopped driving for the day, so as far as I know there aren't full results for the 140 or so drivers, but let's just say that overall I was mid-pack. One thing I was happy with was that on each run I got faster, including my final drive which picked up about 1.6 seconds for me.

Here I'm walking back in after working on course. It was hot. 
About an hour later the weather interrupted. 

There were three run groups, so luckily I got to drive first, then work on track second, and didn't have to do anything for the third run group when the weather got bad. Spending a lot of hours for four chances to drive a huge course is still a tough tradeoff, especially in the heat, but the driving was fun!

John beat me by a couple of tenths, but he let me use his water sprayer to cool off my tires, thanks!

I felt bad for the third driving group, because they had to work during the first heat, sit out run group two, and then they got cut short on their driving. Sometimes that the way it goes due to the weather or any other delays during the day. 

Course map at ZMAX, and it was BIG!

At last count I drank two 28 oz bottles of Gatorade (low sugar, highly recommended) and maybe 4-5 more bottles of water. Then there was another water bottle or two that I poured onto my head and shirt to keep cool working on course. It wasn't Iraq in the summer hot (which is like six months of the year) but DANG it gets hot working on asphalt for two hours when it's 96 degrees.  

Porsche and Lamborghini: Two Cars and Coffee!

A PURPLE Ferrari 296GTS! Heck yeah!

 

Purple horses on the white seats!

On the second Saturday of the month, the Charlotte area lucks out with both a Porsche dealership Cars and Coffee, and a Lamborghini dealership Cars and Coffee. What could be better? They both have free coffee! What could make that better? What if they were on the same street in the same part of town? DONE! Here we go...

On the coffee side, it was hot outside, but both dealerships had free coffee! Now, the Porsche coffee didn't taste German to me, but they had a great variety of creamer type stuff, with some croissants and other goodies, so they were great. Over at Lamborghini, it didn't taste like Italian coffee, but again, free is my favorite flavor, and they had real half and half to pour in too. They were totally on the donut side of the force, so a bit sweeter than the Germans, go figure. Again, both free, thank you very much!

Older 911 with the classic "whale tail!"

Porsche 911 race car shell being built.

Cool to see the front right radiator and hoses. 

I liked this red Porsche Targa. 

Some Ferraris are blue.
Who knew?
Did You?
Me too!

Just a couple of the green Lamborghinis parked out front.

Lamborghini in orange, why not!

June Cars and Coffee

McLaren 570S

There are a lot of different Cars and Coffee events around the Charlotte area, and I certainly don't go to all of them! That would be a lot of cars. It would be a lot of coffee. On second thought, that sounds pretty good!

SPOILER ALERT on a Nissan GT-R

This latest one was at the Porsche Charlotte Northlake dealership, and they've gotten into a first Saturday of the month schedule this year, after just opening last fall. This was maybe the fourth time I've been there, and as you just might imagine, they attract a LOT of Porsche cars. Today's feature was the unveiling of a new car that someone purchased from them, and I'll guarantee you've never seen one. 

Waiting to unveil!

This is the special Porsche Heritage Edition 911. 

On top of the Porsches, I spotted some other cool cars, like these!

Lamborghini

Porsche 356, the model that came before the 911.

Hudson Super Wasp!

Datsun

Lotus with "GUAC" license plate.