Ferrari Dealer Visit!

Ferrari Roma

If you're a fan of Ferrari cars and enjoy seeing them, where can you see them? Besides spotting them in the rich part of town, at the race track, or a fancy car show, just go to your friendly local Ferrari dealership! In Charlotte, that means Foreign Cars Italia. Since I had some time to kill while my wife was at an appointment nearby, that's where I went! PRO TIP: It's easier to goof off like this if you don't have a job and school only lasts 3 hours a day. That frees up more time for doing what you want to do!

Another thought on visiting your local cool car dealer is that you are doing RESEARCH! Yes, important research on what snazzy cars they have, just so that you are 100% prepared for winning the lottery! By doing your research in advance, you can save a lot of time when your ship comes in or you inherit a bazzillion dollars. Now wouldn't you feel bad if you won the lottery and then had to start thinking what to do with the money? This research is a big time saver!

Another happy thought is that while there are lottery jackpots, there are also HUGE LOTTERY JACKPOTS! Once in a while the prize money goes up over 100 million dollars, or even a BILLION dollars! Now with that much money, you wouldn't have to decide on which car car to buy, because you'd have to decide HOW MANY super-duper cars to buy. 

But then, if you were purchasing multiple super cool cars, your next rich-person headache would be where to store them! Luckily, I've done some research in that department as well, so I'd go for building a new top-secret NMS HQ with car facility, and just go ahead and join some rich race car club that lets  you store your cars on site at a private club racetrack. Recently I saw an ad in a magazine for a newish track like this near Knoxville. From what I remember of the ad it said membership was about $250,000, and then you could buy a lot there for about a million dollars, and then build your dream garage for whatever price. It's the getting the millions of dollars in the first place that has me stumped!

Normally a black prancing horse on a yellow background, here's a black and white logo shield to go with the black and white car above. 

A cool go kart modeled after an older Ferrari F1 car. 

Automatic Transmission Overhaul Class Update #2

Inside the automatic transmission valve body. Looks like one of those games you tilt and try to move the marble through the maze. Transmission fluid goes down different passageways to activate different gears and move parts. I don't remember seeing anything like this when I went to music school at the home of the NATIONAL CHAMPS OHIO STATE! (I knew i could work that in here somewhere!)

Other than not knowing ANYTHING about automatic transmissions, this class has been great so far! Since most people learn "hands-on" better than other learning methods, this has been the main focus of our class. If you want a fancy term for hands-on, just say "experiential learning!" As a great example of this, here's how our first week went. 

One of the valve body gaskets.

The first two days were in the classroom, and this was to learn the names of all the parts and the basic theory on how these crazy things work. During this time our instructors would talk about a part of the transmission, then grab one from a table and show it to us. This is a very effective thing to do, and way better than just looking at a photo of the parts in a book. 

Here's the transmission we dropped out of a Chevrolet 1500. Next, we're attaching the red half circle on top so that we can clamp it on the workbench (the clamp is on the left edge of the table.) PRO TIP: Eye protection. 

After two days of that, we went straight into the shop with our small groups to work on real transmissions. Most of the groups (including mine) had a vehicle on a lift, and the simple instructions were to take the transmission out. Sure, easy, there ya go! I do this all the time, no problem! Oh, the instructors are there to assist us but just going ahead and doing something is a great way to learn how to do it. See also, "sink or swim."

Clamped on the table and rotated to drain a bit more oil out, it's time to start taking this apart. Good view of the transmission fluid pan that has a built-in filter. 

For my group, we have a 1996 Chevy Silverado. We were just about ready to pull it out at the end of that first class (ok, it's a three-hour class) but we were advised to get it first thing the next day, just so that we wouldn't be rushing to finish and make a big mistake. Not wanting to drop an entire transmission and damage it, this was great advice!

The cover is off the valve body, and we keep tearing it down. The lights on the power wrench make it look mean!

So ok, after two days in the classroom, plus about 3.5 hours of work, we had our transmission pulled out and sitting on a table. The next 2.5 hours was about how long it took to disassemble the transmission, inspect the parts, and for the teacher to order the replacement parts that we needed. We were feeling really good about getting this thing broken down pretty quickly, but then we were reminded that we'd only done the easy part of the job, since it would likely take us a full week to put it all back together. Oh well!

PRO TIP from our instructors: Take it apart and lay out all the parts in order. Don't throw anything away until it's put back together, back in the truck, and running! One reason you don't throw out old parts is just to confirm that your new part looks the same and will fit. Maybe you can't do that when you buy a new box of Cheerios to replace your old box of Cheerios, but for car parts it works!

In all my other classes so far, we'd dealt with simple stuff you work on regularly like brake pads, headlights, and an oil change. Getting those parts from a dealership or your local parts store is easy, because you can probably find it in stock right now. With our school's business accounts, I've seen parts get ordered online or on the phone and get delivered the same day almost as fast as a pizza! The only difference is that car parts are not as delicious!

Some of the parts go in the Viper-Jet washer. They came out looking much better!

After the cleaning and starting to reassemble with new clutch packs, gaskets, seals, etc. as needed. 

But with our transmission internals, these parts get ordered from a specialty shop in Charlotte and generally take maybe 24 hours. This isn't really a big deal, because I'm sure there's other projects for us to work on, or homework to do. Hey, stay tuned for more Automatic Transmission class, and hopefully next time we'll have this job all done with everything working great!

New parts

2025 Track Night in America Schedule Released

One of my laps at Track Night in America last year on the Charlotte ROVAL. 
Top speed 116MPH. 

One popular program from the fine folks at the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) is the Track Night in America. For 2025 they are marking the 10th year of this cool program too! These events came about as a contrast to the typical weekend only track driving events that cost hundreds of dollars per day. What's the contrast? The TNiA driving fun events are during the work week, don't take all day, and cost under $200. The general idea is that if you can get out of work at lunch time, head to a local track, and get 3 sessions driving your car on track!

Are these things fun? Well, yes! 

Are they safe? Yes. 

Do you need a roll bar, a race car, and bazillion dollar race tires? NO!

I've done two TNiA days and had fun both times. The 2025 schedule all across the country is listed below, and here's the link: 

    2025 TRACK NIGHT IN AMERICA

In addition to the two closest places to NMS at Carolina Motorsports Park and the Charlotte Motor Speedway, I'd like to add an event at Atlanta Motorsports Park, Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, or up at Virginia International Raceway this year. It helps to retired and not working for these weekday events too. Now if they just didn't get in the way of going to school...

2025 Track Night Schedule

Atlanta Motorsports Park, Dawsonville, GA – March 19, April 16, August 13, September 10, October 15, November 12
Blackhawk Farms Raceway, South Beloit, IL – May 21, June 18, July 16, August 20, September 24, October 15
Brainerd International Raceway, Brainerd, MN – May 23, August 29
Carolina Motorsports Park, Kershaw, SC – March 12, May 14, September 10, October 8, November 5
Charlotte Motor Speedway, Concord, NC – April 30, June 26, July 23, August 19
Dakota County Technical College, Rosemount, MN – April 25, June 13, July 11, August 15, September 26*
Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, FL – June 19, July 31, September 19*
Dominion Raceway, Thornburg, VA – May 15, June 12, September 11, October 9
GingerMan Raceway, South Haven, MI – April 24, June 3, July 3, August 28, September 25
Harris Hill Raceway, San Marcos, TX – March 12, April 9, May 1, June 4, September 10, October 8, November 5
High Plains Raceway, Deer Trail, CO – June 25, September 24
Lime Rock Park, Lakeville, CT – April 17, May 8, June 5, July 3, August 7, September 23
Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, Braselton, GA – May 13*, June 12, July 18
MotorSport Ranch, Cresson, TX – March 19, May 20, September 10, October 7
Nashville Superspeedway, Lebanon, TN – March 15, April 26, June 7*, October 11
Nelson Ledges Road Course, Garrettsville, OH – April 19
New Jersey Motorsports Park, Millville, NJ – April 23, May 21, June 18, July 16, August 20, September 17, October 15
NOLA Motorsports Park, Avondale, LA – April 17, September 25, October 30
Palmer Motorsports Park, Ware, MA – June 12, September 4
Pikes Peak International Raceway, Fountain, CO – May 2, July 25
Pittsburgh International Race Complex, Wampum, PA – April 16, May 15, June 18, July 8, August 7, September 17, October 15
Pocono Raceway, Long Pond, PA – April 22, May 13, June 3, July 9, August 28, September 25, October 21
Portland International Raceway, Portland, OR – April 18*, May 23, June 27, August 22, September 26, October 10*
Ridge Motorsports Park, Shelton, WA – April 23, May 21, June 18, July 23, August 13, September 24
Sebring International Raceway, Sebring, FL – March 27, April 22, May 22, October 16, November 18, December 11
Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park, Thompson, CT – April 29, May 20, June 24, July 17, August 21, September 11, October 14
Thunderhill Raceway Park, Willows, CA – March 13, April 10, May 15, June 12, September 18, October 23, November 20
VIRginia International Raceway, Alton, VA – April 2, December 4

* tentative event dates