July 18 AX

[martinreinhardt]

...until we had to stop the car with our failing ABS system. It was extremely difficult to control the car under breaking with the right rear and front left locking up...

No ABS? Hah! Welcome to my world. You had 3.6L power and no ABS? Poor baby! I can make room for you is the SC if you'd like to learn how to use your brakes without computer aid.

Hahaha, funny guy.

Congrats and great job on your Top 10 Finish Dano ! Didn't like too much to see your name ahead of mine, but that's racing and sometimes we have to be happy to finish at all and there is always next time.

No ABS is no problem, but a faulty ABS system is a different story, as the braking was either full lock of two wheels only or nothing at all.

The 964 CUP cars had a manual ABS On/Off switch, which I may install after this event.

[Sawfish]

The video from the $5 camera was really nice. Does anyone have a link for that product?

[LUCKY DAVE]

Ahh yes...ABS
It must be an acronym for &*%$#*$#%^*&
Mine was acting up as well, engaging far too early...SOMETIMES
Considerable time spent on the phone with ex 951 racer John Rickard this morning (and his incredibly gracious offer to lend me a rare, special piece of test electronics) may have pointed me in the right direction for a cure.
I hope it works, having the brakes turn themselves off unexpectedly is .

[Gary Burch]

I found the camera here, not $5 but still cheap...
http://www.yourbigstore.com/09-12909791-Hidden_Spy_Cameras.html

[abrahim zaidi]

I want to thank everyone at PCA-Sdr for Sundays autocross, it was my first as a driver and I won't soon forget it,

I also want to give a shout out to my instructor Mr. Keith Verlaque,

I've been hearing about his legendary teaching methods for a couple of years now and to experience it first hand is really a great honor,

Thanks again!

[donald.auten]

Thank you all greatly and kindly for the encouraging comments.

Last time (Jun) the track was a real technical challenge and one in which the "turners" (944s/914s/light 911s) excelled. Based on the barrage of hate mail (I thought I was running for office and Obama was endorsing me) I decided to give the PorscheZilla cars a track that would provide an opportunity to explore the other end of the performance envelope - acceleration and braking.

Based on the TOP finishers, the design was a success. All but 1 of the TOP10 were big grayback 911s. But ... me thinks ... there was another factor involved in distinguished the top finishers from the rest of the field. Confidence in their car and comfort at high speed. I kept having to remind myself to look well down the track for the apex cones and, oh-yea "breath" once in a while.

Wish I could remember the guy who pulled up at the start and asked us if anyone had an extra set of cajonnes he could borrow.

Dan, we'll build ya one with a straight followed by a 90.

Kim, great show at El Fin!

Happiness is ...
A stout ship,
A willing spirit, and ...
trackspeed.

R, Duck

[twitte]

The video from the $5 camera was really nice. Does anyone have a link for that product?

You might ask Bill Ripka for details on this. I just ordered two cameras on E-Bay for $5.99 each plus $5.99 shipping (each). A total of $23.86 for both cameras. They are coming from Hong Kong and should arrive in a week.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... OU:US:1123

The only thing is that once you get the camera you have to add a Micro SDHC flash memory card (8GB, class 4). I'm still searching for a good price on that item but it appears to be selling for about $15 with shipping (each). This is the same small memory card that I have in my Blackberry. Ask Bill for all the details on how he did this.

Update: Fry's has the 8GB Micro SDHC memory card on sale for $9.99 each after rebate (Fry's # 5803233).

[Bill]

I got the cameras from a group on Ebay. The group I bought it from (link below) takes PayPal and ships immediately. There are several others on Ebay (selling them for $ .01 but charging $12 shipping) but this group sent workable ones quickly without a hassle for essentially the same overall price ($5.99 plus $5 shipping). Don't know about these others.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Car-Key-DC-Mini-DV- ... 3f00b89a34

While the camera is cheap you do need a memory card which is more expensive than the camera. I got mine through Amazon:
"SanDisk - Flash memory card - 8 GB - Class 4 - microSDHC" $14.47. Ted Witte has found these also at Fry's for about $9.

Interestingly, the camera comes with a USB cord as well . The download is through the USB port on your computer and works with both Windows and Macs, although the Windows version has to be more recent than Windows98. The instructions are in a microscopic print and in garbled Asian-English but you can still figure out how it operates. Incidentally, it takes both video and still pictures (jpgs). If you want stills you can load a lot of them on an 8GB card. I don't remember what the resolution is but if you're interested I can find out. One other thing. It has a date stamp on the videos (I haven't figured out how to get rid of that yet). The instructions that come with the camera on how to reset that to the correct date are not right. I have the right way to do this so anyone that gets one of these cameras let me know and I'll send that to you. Only one fellow I know has had a problem with his camera quitting after a month or so but he did get a refund from this group.

-Bill Ripka

[Sawfish]

Thanks Bill I ordered one perhaps I will have it all figured out by Aug 22nd.
Chris Harris

[donald.auten]

da

[Erik K]

I don't know about all this fancy camera talk haha, kidding. Regarding the track from Sunday, I think everyone and myself included walked away from that saying " wow, that was really fun!!" after no practice in the smurf, just kinda jumpin in other peoples cars hear n there it was very fun and challenging to try and lay down some fast laps in timed runs. Each lap i would push a little harder and never once did it step out or get loose, practically scaring myself each lap i would push harder and it would just take it, and squirt in and out of the cornersGotta love nice sticky v710's , based on my fastest lap I would say there was mayber another .3 or .4 out there.

On another note i know initally this track had two places that were questionable on safety. After just a few slight adjustments which certainly did not throw away the fun factor, we were ready to go. And i was pleased to see only a hand full of spins, none of which were in the sections we adjusted.

I know this is said all the time, but really lets save that track map to Definitly use again! Possibly run opposite direction? Much appreciation to the track designer on that one

[AGill]

It was one of the most fun tracks I can remember in the last couple years. The reason for this I think was how deep the track extended into the top right section of the lot. Normally, we are making that hairpin turn much further back. This allowed us to stretch things out a bit in the middle of the track design so speeds were a bit higher as a result. I did want to make a comment on safety as I noticed it during the track walk and then saw my concern almost become a reality while working corner 8. Because we went so deep into that top section the amount of runoff in case of brake failure was very limited with the way the track was oriented. I think a sligth adjustment so that the straight/braking zone was angled more towards the open parking lot would have been much safer. As it stood, the track pointed people directly at a 5ft. tall electrical box less than a foot away from the parking lot curb. I saw one car lock up its brakes badly, skid through the track at high speed and was headed straight for the electrical box...fortunately they let off the brakes with just enough room to spare so they could steer the car down to open parking lot. I'm not kidding when I say another 15ft and it would have been bad news. This was an extreme example as the driver should have let off the brakes stopping the skid WAY before they were put in that situation but it highlights a potential danger with where the track pointed. If this would have been brake failure I hate to think of what would have happened. In hindsight, I should have brought this to the attention of the safety chair. Again, loved the track but if we use it again (or go that deep into that section) we need to slightly alter the angle of the track to allow for a safer run-off.