D.E. March 14- Come on down! Perfect weather predicted

[Dan Chambers]

Yeah, I guess I would have the same opinion if I didn't pay for tires either....

Gees, Dan! How many sets of tires am I going to have to GIVE you for DE's!?! One set isn't enough?

[LUCKY DAVE]

Enough complaining, a double Midol 'n soda for the lot of you......
Now....which track are we going to mini replicate?

[Dan Chambers]

Enough complaining, a double Midol 'n soda for the lot of you......
Now....which track are we going to mini replicate?

Now that is funny. Touche, Dave.

As for track design, I'd have to say someone should go down and walk the asphalt at the Q before commiting. I've noted a lot of asphalt wash-out on local roads since the hard rains started in SD county. With the Q asphalt older than half the members in the club there could be some areas of real concern for breaking and chunking. We all like our windshields the way they are now, no?

Might I suggest we try and stay off the swale for the upcoming Q-DE? If not, perhaps a "low-angle" crossing (not more than 5-degrees) to preserve suspensions and spoilers/splitters? Just a thought....

Now ... where'd I put Monica's Midol?

DC

[SDGT3]

Just a thought as one of the DE Chairs for full disclosure...

It's possible that some members did not know that Qualcomm raised their fees by 33% last year. The club held their line on prices for both DEs and Autocrosses until the end of the calender year 2008 with new fees for each going up at the start of 2009.

As new DE chairs, Carl, Martin and myself wanted to try some new things this year. Some are big changes such as including the infield of Fontana for a DE and some are small details such as including a lunch at the Qualcomm DEs. The lunches were my idea that I brought over from BMWCCA. Everyone has to eat and personally, I don't do roach coach. Pizza has been done before from Costco next door. Now, follow along and picture in you mind your best Seinfeld voice, "...ever notice how there is always pizza at Porsche club events? I like pizza like everyone else, but pizza at board meetings, driver award dinners, instructor meetings, DE chair meetings. No wonder they call it the PCA (Pizza Club of America)."

Okay, joke over. In the end, Mr. Trial Balloon (AKA Mr. Lipp) was going to put up a forum poll and ask the membership if they liked lunch being there when they came off track at the next DE on March 14th or if they prefer going back to the roach coach. But basically we can have lunch delivered to us at Qualcomm for about the same you would pay at the RC.

In the end, we are doing it for you, our "customers" and trying to illicit your responses on what you like and dislike so that we can fine tune our product. If we can attact the most amount of people for the least amount of money and best convenience and everyone had fun, then we've done our job.

[mrondeau]

[quote="MR LIPP
However, here is a detailed cost analysis of our "bailout math" http://www.truveo.com/Bailout-math/id/4183883887
Really fun video [/quote]

Martin, Where was this last week when I was doing my taxes? BTW, is this an IRS training video???

[MR LIPP]

No wonder they call it the PCA (Pizza Club of America)."

To paraphrase from Seinfeld...No pizza for you!

Martin, Where was this last week when I was doing my taxes? BTW, is this an IRS training video???

Hey Mark, here is more "bailout math" I am sure this will help with your taxes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLprXHbn19I&feature=related

[mrondeau]

Ok, now I'm starting to get it. No wonder where the financial world is so screwed up.

[gulf911]

Gees, Dan! How many sets of tires am I going to have to GIVE you for DE's!?! One set isn't enough?

Those were totally defective! After a mere 6 sessions of 20 minutes each they blew up!, I was sliding..er...slipping...uh...Drifting...well , used 225's should be fine in the rear of a 3.2...

Ya know, sometimes I dont have the brain god gave a dog...don't bite the hand...

[944Greg]

Martin,

I really like the idea of having lunch included with the registration. I had always liked the lunch included as part of BMW autocrosses when I had my M3.

The lunch was a lot healthier than the lunch coach and really convenient too. I think the PCA might try this lunch included at a few autocross events and get some feedback, not just at this DE.

The BMW club never had beer after their events, though.

Greg Trigeiro
944spec

[MR LIPP]

Greg
Thanks for the vote of confidence. We are using the same supplier as BMW, so that part should feel familiar. Are you letting your daughter do the DE?
We'll have beer

[Dan Chambers]

DE Chairs:

Just to be clear: DE, good. Fees, good. Lunch included, good. Track design: I'm confident it will be good (Carl was always very good about reviewing the pavement prior to final design when he was AX Chair and CDI).

It's all good. Let's hope the SC is back from retro in time.

Let's go driving.

[MR LIPP]

Carl was always very good about reviewing the pavement prior to final design when he was AX Chair and CDI.

Here are some maps I am working on. There are map components from previous DEs that have been tried and tested as part of these.
They are still subject to pavement AND safety review. There is no guarantee that these will be used. Clockwise seems to be the safest direction. I thought a preview would be interesting to get some feedback on. I used Talladega as a model with some real artistic license. Those poles, grates, swale etc make it really hard. BTW, I know my drawing sucks.

T-1


T-2


T-3

[Dan Chambers]

Mr. Lipp:

These look good at a glance. If I may make a couple of comments;

T- 1: Nice. It may turn out to be really fast. If travelling in a clock-wise direction; passing over the swale on the east (decending) side could be "bouncy" over the swale crossing, and if brakes were to fail, you might see a car go in to the pits at a pretty good clip. You might consider shortening that straight a little, or put a "slow-down kink" in it before the right-hand sweeper to "encourage safety." Passing on the west side of the track (ascending line) could be tricky around F-4 and befoer the sweeper. The transition from up hill to flat/change in geography in the area just past F-4 has been known to upset cars and "break 'em loose." Ask Kim Crosser about that. (No offense, Kim. ) The swale crossing at G-3 could extricate spoilers and splitters from "Simone" cars and other low-slung-spoiler-splitter cars like our trusting President Dave Gardner. I seem to recall he has a limited "Splitter budget."

T-2. Looks good ... really good. I think the right-hander at the bottom of the hill could be dicey if it's too close to the K-rail on the west side of the track; but otherwise it takes advantage of most of the "good pavement" up by the Bud sign. Brake over-heating would be my only concern, especially with that long downhill straight. Also, the swale crossing between H3 and H4 could potentially launch cars if they carry a lot of speed through the lift-and-turn bend before the swale. Jad Duncan can give you a really good explanation of launching over a swale. He did a magnificent job in the SE lot back in his red 944 days.

T-3 looks really good. The only issues I see as potential problems are: the right-hand turn before D-4. This is a dramatic elevation transition from up hill/on-camber to down hill/off-camber. I'd fear cars with rear-engines could easily over-steer right into D-4 and have a mess on their hands. Also: you broke the 11th commandment of track design at H-3 / H-4: "Thow shalt not cross the swale at 90-degrees." Unless you've worked out a deal with Simone or Mark Tyler for referrals on splitters and front spoilers, you'll need to adjust the swale crossing to a lesser degree approach/departure ... say no more than 10-degrees (now ... where have I heard that before? ).

Anyway, that's my 2-cents.

(Of course, these are just my opinions based on absolutely no knowledge of any kind what so ever. So yes, I'll go pound sand now. )

Keep up the good effort! you're doing great.

[MR LIPP]

Anyway, that's my 2-cents.

DC...Wow, if that's 2-cents worth, I can't imagine what we can get for a buck. It must be that new bail-out math at work.
Thanks for the great insight. I will print out your comments and take them with me for our safety and pavement inspection walk.
I suspect we will wind up using the top part of one map and the bottom of another to solve the problems.

[MR LIPP]

FYI...the DE pre-registration deadline will be 3/10 midnight, so sign up by then if you want to pay $75. After that, you can still sign up via fax or the day of the event for $95. Pass the word!

Pre-Reg Q Team
Janet Yaws
Debby Sharp