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Thread: The OT thread V1

  1. #821
    Insider PBSteve's Avatar
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    hey had the 440 on display, and said there were 4th axis and lubrication extensions coming for it in the next year. It's definitely a small enough footprint to fit in a garage corner.

  2. #822
    the old girl's still got it:







    dat 80s GT suspension travel doe
    social conservatism: the mortal fear that someone, somewhere, might be having fun.

  3. #823
    Insider PBSteve's Avatar
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    This thing seems pretty cool, saw an ad on YouTube for it.

    http://shop.soloshot.com/?gclid=CjwK...GFzBoCWm3w_wcB
    Ever so many citizens of this republic think they ought to believe that the Universe is a monarchy, and therefore they are always at odds with the republic. -Alan Watts

    I work for the company building the Paragon

  4. #824
    There's a quadcopter version of that that follows you around

  5. #825
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    Two of them actually. Airdog and Lilly.
    Draws houses, doesn't own markers that aren't single tube designs, unapologetic AGD zealot.

  6. #826
    Wait a minute. Steve, you watch ads on youtube? You don't use adblock?

  7. #827
    Insider PBSteve's Avatar
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    Nope.
    Ever so many citizens of this republic think they ought to believe that the Universe is a monarchy, and therefore they are always at odds with the republic. -Alan Watts

    I work for the company building the Paragon

  8. #828
    Quote Originally Posted by cockerpunk View Post
    oh man, delivered a CRUSHING 1.1 second smack down yesterday in class.

    Context:

    if you didn't know, yes, my trolling and trouble-making does extend into real life. and it is particularly annoying to this guy in our club named charles. he is a heart or brain surgeon, can't remember, the point is he makes a fuck ton of money. and instead of going club racing like i would if i had that kind of money, he still "enjoys" the poor mans autosport: autocross. i have my reasons for why i think he does this, but he does, thats a side conversation. charles is no well liked in our club.

    anyway, charles and i do not get along. mostly because i am an unconventional person. i do things because i enjoy them. while Charles tends to be directly by the book, at all times, and cannot fathom why one would do anything other than the established handbook. im sure this makes him a great doctor, as when someone is working on my brain, i'd really prefer them to be using the book as strictly as possible. but it also means that me, being the musing, silly, and far more intellectually wandering me cannot understand one another. i get drunk and wonder about the nature of adhesion and friction in a pneumatic tire for example ... he interprets this as me trying to think my way into better driving, or picking better tires, or something like that. in reality, i just wonder about these things. no real relationship to how competitive my car or driving is, its just interesting to me. see also: the elastic spring theory of the static to dynamic friction transition. anyway, i dont actually dislike him much, i know i am weird, and thats fine, but it just grates him like no other. he cannot understand that anyone is unlike him, or could think and process differently than him etc etc.

    anyway, we have had several quite public blow ups over the years.

    so this year, with 2 of my best friends with FI miatas, and me with a swapped spyder, we all fall into a class called super street modified. the SCCA rulebook IMO correctly is biased against HP, and if you do anything real to get any real power upgrades to your car, it puts you into a wild class. super street modified is one such class. SSM cars are running 2 inch ride height, massive areo, 10 inch wide hooisers, springs 2-5x stiffer than even stiff street suspension ... a true SSM car is serious business. its a solid 30 grand build.

    so we came out and said this spring, hey, we are gonna run in SSM this year, but we are gonna agree to run street tires, not hoosiers. this essentially limits SSM to a fairly reasonable class. we call is SSMG, for super street modified gentleman's agreement.

    anyway, so we overnight tripled SSM class sizes as there are tons of folks who have these kinds of cars, they wanted more power, but are not willing to destroy there car into a true SSM car. average event attendance in SSM went up from 2 or 3 cars, to 10-12 for every event. SSMG has been a smashing success.

    back to charles ... charles thinks he is a phenomenal driver. and really, he is quite good, won national level trophies a few times, he is no doubt talented behind the wheel, that combined with his financial position and he makes a tough opponent. he can just bury you in new tires, upgrades, rebuilds etc.

    anyway, so he catches wind of the SSMG thing, and seeing a great opportunity to smack me down a bit, builds a monster.

    keep in mind the average SSMG car is:

    2100-2300 lbs
    150-210 bhp
    streetish aftermarket suspension
    stock LSDs or open diffs
    7.5-8 inch wheels with 225 wide tires

    the monster charles builds to compete in SSMG:

    2400lbs
    400+ bhp built turbo motor
    full double adjustable prepared level suspension (car arrives on a trailer)
    9s in front, 10s in back
    OS giken diff (~3 grand right there in just a diff)

    the zebra is a monster. absolutely insane. i also just was talking to him about it, and they found some metal in the sump, so he just on a whim had the whole motor rebuilt last month. you know, cause charles. and he has the resources to toss 5 grand at a motor just cause there are a couple of shavings in the oil.


    anyway, first event, he beats me by about 4 tenths, but the car wasn't working that great. second event, car breaks down. so he brings his 997.2 porsche GT3 on hoosiers ... and i beat him by 3 tenths. third event, he shows up with a nissian GTR, track prepped, with hoosiers, and i lost to him by 80 milliseconds (coned away a 5 tenths faster run). we both missed the 4th event of the season, but this weekend at the 5th event, the monster is back, after all this work was done to it. and then i commandingly laid the smack down on him to the tune of 1.1 seconds. he had one run that was about 3 tenths off my pace, but he coned it. so even if he was clean, he could not have won.



    so, i have no idea on what is gonna happen next. i honestly did not think i could beat the monster when it was working properly. but then i not only beat it, but pretty legitly dominated it. with his wealth, and with what he has already brought out to beat me with so far this year ... i have no idea what he is bringing next. could literally be anything. anything on 4 wheels, with almost anything done to it.

    i mean the troll in me has to laugh. im happy with my car and my driving, and trying not to humble brag, but it must just be grating in such a perfect trolling way to have beaten him or come close that often and with such a cost and performance differential. as a good troll should, it makes me giggle.
    an update on this situation, i did beat the monster when it was running. i was on hoosiers though.

    charles decided after the 6th event that he was too far behind in the points to win it. he wasn't, but it would have been pretty tough for him. he would have to win both of the remaining events, PLUS i would have to be worse than 99.1% his time. this is computed as a percent slower than the winning class time. a 99.1% isn't that tough to beat, typically 3-6 tenths. so it was gonna be nearly impossible for him to beat me. so he didn't even try.

    before that all went down though, i had comandingly won the SSMG trophy, with 4 wins and a 99.XX. and id be damned if i was gonna let charles show up on a GTR and slicks again, with me on streets in my little open diff car. so i bought hoosiers.

    buying hoosiers is a whole thing. yeah the tires are ~1.5x the cost of a good set of streets, and you get about half the runs out of them, but thats not what makes the conversion painful. you don't want to drive them on the street for fear of weather or road hazards, so you need to switch tires there. which, when you have a tiny mid engined car, means you need to carry these wheels and tires to the sit. that was all well and good when i had a girlfriend, she could pop them in her car when she comes to watch, but then she dumped me (no idea why? hahaha).

    so i build a hitch, acquired a trailer, and of course the hoosier need a set of 15x9s ...

    and then on hooisers, you can pull so many lateral G you can literally starve your motor of oil, so theres a new baffled oil pan you need ...

    anyway, 3 grand later ...

    last weekend i finished off the win. charles decided not to run SSM, but the zebra was there with his co-driver (who also is quick, but we get a long really well). and it was being driven by preston jordon (national trophy winner) and his friend.

    so even though i had the season locked down, i still wanted to beat the zebra head to head.

    and i pulled off a .6 second win on them.

    plus, she looks AWESOME on matte black 15x9s ....





    i think the spyder has a new nickname ... the trophy wife. my first season class win, and in a tough class against faster cars than mine the whole way.

    im unsure of my plans for next year. the tires and the whole setup really opne up the door to a full SSM prep. a estimate a full SSM prep would run me between 15k and 20k depending on a several things. thats something i would do over several years. i am keeping the car for sure, but for next year i doubt i will campaign it in SSM all season next year. next year its going to get a roll bar for sure, and the cooling upgrades it needs in order to be a track car as well.

    i might run the 951 in vintage. or look for a class competitive co-drive.
    social conservatism: the mortal fear that someone, somewhere, might be having fun.

  9. #829
    Insider ElPanda's Avatar
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    ABET accredited level II machinist - CNC Programmer - Mechanical Engineering Technologist
    Rio Grande Inc.

  10. #830
    Insider Pump Scout's Avatar
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    Is that the remains of an RSX? Yikes.

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