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good stuff

Friday, reed's bday party, here at 363 pheasant run circle. Probly be a sausage fest because chris looks like this:

Round 1 (Corvette C5R @ Mid-Field) is complete. We left "catch-up" mode on and I think it killed me considering I was running consistent low 1:07s at home... but that's antoher story and it will be turned off in the future.

Standings
Jack Hirsch - 10
Chris Reed - 6
Hunter Brown - 5
Scott Bradford - 4
Mike Collins - 3
Dave Allen - 2
Matt - 1
Jason Ray - 1
Trevor - 1
Travis - 1
Ryan Thayer - 1
Chris Procopio - 1
Rob Feerst - 1

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i was driving around aimlessly in harrisonburg today trying to find a place that could inspect my car. After trying about 15 different places and getting the same BS i decided to look for the toyota dealership to get some parts i need. Well i had no clue where it was but i knew where the nissan dealership was, so i went there to ask where the toyota dealership was. Pull up next to a 350z that was on the last parking spot in the lot, so the road just kinda went right by it. I went in, got directions, then went back to my car. I get in the car start pulling forward, clutch is all the way out then i start feeling the front tire go over a curb.........by now its far too late to try and stop, its past the point of no return cause i was already goin like 6mph by the time i felt resistance, but oh i tried to brake.......front tire goes over car comes down on the curb, all i hear is a huge snap crackle popping noise..............back tire goes over.........i get out.........right sideskirt is fucked, molding cracked almost all the way across both screws towards the back broke through their holes. My car knew i was at a Nissan dealership, eyeing those 350Z and it decided to give me a little pay back On a good note ill be joining MM tonight so far though, worst day of my life.

Sup fellas,

I'm about to change my brake pads and i've got a couple questions.

I'm going to be needing pads that have good stopping power, but i'll only be using the car for daily driving and maybe 4-5 auto-x's this year. Which pads should i get? I was thinking carbotech's or cobalt's, but i'm not sure if i'll need them. The stock pads are $46 from Honda.

And second, what can i resurface the rotor's with? assuming i need to resurface the rotor's when i put new pads on there.

Thanx, Jay

I'll start the write up of the weekend...

Well, 2003 ended on a bit of a sour note. I had axle problems at VIR-North last year, and then brake problems at summit, the last event of 2003 for me. With the LONG offseason, I was able to tie up some loose ends on Christina, as well as set her up for the 2004 season. The biggest changes were the replacement of the timing belt and water pump, which has been plagueing me for the past 8 months or so, the use of 15" kosei k1 wheels and falken azenis, a tire that is widely used but never by me on track, and the last minute promotion to HPDE3, perhaps to squeeze in more cars and get more money?

I arrived at VIR on Friday afternoon and was able to unpack the car and get it teched that night. Basically, I was ready to go, which is something that I've never been prepared for at any previous track weekend. My regular routine is to arrive Saturday morning, rush to unpack everything, and get in class or out on track without any time to unwind. That night, we checked into the plush Danville Sleep Inn and then hit up the Danville nightlife... Basically, we went to Ham's then to Walmart. An eventful night, but thats a whole different story.

Saturday morning, we got to the track with almost all the MMer's there ready to go. The weather was beautiful. Sunny and breezy, but not too cold. Definitely better than last year's weather. I was pretty nervous because I had never driven group 3 before, and we were the 2nd group out on track before any classroom instruction. I asked RJ to instruct me for a few laps, but that whole first session was really a huge clusterf*ck. I was stuck in the middle of a lot of traffic, and I think a lot of people (myself included) just werent sure what they were supposed to do. However, someone in our session was spilling lots and lots of oil on line basically from turn 2 to turn 6 which basically made the line very slick or to drive off line, both things which were a hassle, but I feel were helpful in the learning perspective. After a bunch of other groups went out, the oil basically wasnt a huge factor for the rest of the weekend. I was getting more and more comfortable as the day went on, and I think all the other cars around me felt the same. I worked on eliminating shifts and felt that I was carrying a lot more speed into various braking zones throughout the track. However, on my last session on Saturday, I was coming down the rollercoaster when something didn't feel right. I heard a loud clicking when coasting, and feeling a fairly noticeable vibration in the steering wheel. I was going about half speed down the rollercoaster and would notice that the clicking would go away when on the brakes or on the gas. Just before I got on track that session, I was thinking how it seemed odd that nothing had gone wrong with my car that day. However, I didn't wanna say anything to anyone to jinx it. I pulled into the pit and I told the worker there my situation. He kicked the tire, look at the fender lining but nothing looked amiss. Then he touched the lugnut and noticed that he could spin them just with his fingers using minimal force. The finish on the new wheels was rubbing off (as is a common thing, I've learned) which made the lugs back out. I got the car back to the MM paddock space and torqued all the lugs and went back out to finish my day. Had I stayed out and not fixed the lugs, I most certainly would've lost a wheel on that next lap. Disaster narrowly averted!

Sunday was a bit different because of the enduro race. All of our sessions came pretty quickly in the morning to make room for the race at the end of the day. I've driven track events enough to know that the first session on Sunday can't be driven like the last session on Saturday. The track was definitely colder, but still felt fairly grippy. Also, my mindset is definitely different in the morning then when I've been driving all afternoon. Throughout the day, I wanted to push myself further and further and had a few points of interest to gauge my progress. It was great because I felt like I improved at every section of track that I monitored. The first of which is my engine speed going through turns 4-5-6 and having to shift into 4th before the uphill esses. By the end of the day, I was able hit redline in 3rd before the last curve of the flat esses. This translated to the next section of track that I wanted to improve on, the uphill esses. I was too scared to flatfoot it through the entire thing, but I worked on a stable line and noticed my exit speed of the uphill esses to increase from low 90s on Saturday, to 104mph on my last Sunday session. +10mph is a HUGE difference! Again, that led me to south bend, which is scary because its an early apex turn onto a downhill section of track. I'm not sure what my speeds were on Sat, but by Sunday, I was exiting at around 85ish, but I think I had more in me. The back straight is where I'd get exploited for my low horsepower car. The black viper GTS, the blue viper GTS, the yellow 993 turbo porsche, and all sorts of other cars would blow right by my pseudo-stockish integra LS with 150k miles on the motor. I was able to touch 115 (the top of 4th gear) at the braking zone of the back straight, then as per the classroom instructor, i eliminated the downshift to 3rd going down the rollercoaster. instead, i would let gravity from the steep downhill to pull me while in 4th, and by the time i would go through the rollercoaster, through hogpen, and onto the front straight, i'd touch 115 again (the top of 4th, after not shifting) by the braking zone on the front straight.

Overall, the weekend was awesome. I made it through without anything major going wrong with the car, and this time, my brakes actually worked, and worked well! The higher horsepower cars rocked my world in group 3, which is very different from groups 1 or 2. And, I saw too many STi's out there, which makes things very very tempting...

now for the gratuitous car porn:
my pics are at
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brand new white wheels coated with brand new carbotech dust


damn sti's


some MMer's cars


the viper that would kick my ass


saturday's sprint race - turn 3


-brian

The VIR pics reminded me that i have a bunch of pics from last years hyperfest, i'll put em in my gallery for ya....

i've posted some pictures from this weekend up in my gallery, in case anyone wants to check them out!

VIR was a blast by the way. i'd go into story-telling mode, but that will have to wait until later.

1995 Mitsubishi 3000GT
Glacier White Pearl
222hp DOHC 24V V6
5 speed MT
PW/PL/PS/cruise control
Kenwood DPX-440 headunit (cd + tape deck) + 10disc changer
Minor body damage upfront
103k miles

Asking $6300, negotiable.

I'm getting it detailed on Monday and I'll post pictures afterwards when I find a digital camera.

The reason for selling is simply cost, I can't afford a 3000GT and a motorcycle, so I've moved to a cheaper car to keep the motorcycle.

757.753.2920 or <!-- e --><a href="mailto:gulajs@jmu.edu">gulajs@jmu.edu</a><!-- e -->