I just wanted to tell y'all how things went in STS2...
I flew into KC and got my Hyundai Accent rental car. I'm walking out to it,
thinking the "Accent" was going to be on mediocrity. Actually, it was a
pretty good car, in that 4 door Corolla/Civic/Sentra vein...
Got to Forbes Field and found my car owner, Phil Osborne. His CRX was up in
the air, with no springs or shocks under the rear end, and the swaybar
disconnected. Phil told me that the rear end wouldn't stay behind the front
end
in the practice event. Disconnecting the rear bar showed that it was bound up
solid. The last run with no rear bar was the same, so he took the shocks to
Koni for re-valving. So, we figured out the swaybar, got it working
properly, eventually got the shocks back and re-assembled everything, and took
a
SWAG at the ride height.
Tuesday morning, we got started with a fairly dry course, one big puddle and
a couple of wet places. I spun the car twice, all on dry areas! Phil went
out with the same settings and got pretty sideways, so we took 3/4 turn out
of the rear shocks, and dropped the rear tire pressures by 3 psi. The course
was a lot drier on my 2nd run, and I came back with a 65.0, the fastest run
to that point. Cool! Bob Seelig and James Feinberg (Peter Thana's car owner)
came back with faster runs, and I was in 3rd. On my last run I found out
that the car was turning in a lot better, to the injury of 2 hapless pylons,
and my 64.5 was a throw away. By the end, Phil Osborne and Rick Cone both got
in front of me and I was 5th, with 7 trophies. The Miata guys were drooling
over the North course, pronouncing it more friendly to their cars, though I
wasn't really sure why.
We ran on the modified version of Andy Hollis' North course Wednesday, and I
got 4 course walks, which was about as much as I could get given the
circumstances. I was still trying to get used to the loosest fwd car I've
ever
driven. Turn-in had to be followed by immediate correction to keep the rear
from
coming around. My first run was a little tentative, 58.4, and the second
felt a lot better, but was only .3 faster. And we had an oil leak.
Apparently
I was fogging for mosquitoes on run #2. The guys from Texas came over and
crawled around the car and pronounced it as the oil pressure sending unit.
They went for wrenches while we declared a mechanical. Repairs were affected
and Phil didn't appear to be smoking much on run #2, and got a 57.3. A second
mechanical was declared before my third run, and more repairs made while I
ran the course in my mind while up on jackstands.
So, with 3 minutes to spare on my mechanical, I went out and started to have
a pretty good run, until I bumped the wiper switch in the showcase turn.
Still doing okay down to the fast section, and the wipers came on again.
Slight distraction, and "thump!" One more cone, also on a fast run!
@~#$%^&*!!!
This time it was on the 3rd fastest run of the day. And dropped me to 8th,
.009 out of the last trophy position. Bummer! But all in all, not too bad
for just jumping into a car that only had 3 autocrosses on it in STS2.
Oh, and Peter was 11th. He can tell you his story, this is mine and I'm
sticking to it.
Charlie
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