August 19, Philly Region Auto X

[Al N.]

Holbert Memorial (Summer Series Event # 8)

 

Tom-When are they going to set up the online registration? Or is there something I'm missing?-Al

[yellowss7]

Usually they open registration about 2 weeks out. Registration for this weekend's event doesn't close until Friday. So I would expect it to open up next week. Tom

[Boxologist]

definitely won't be able to make it down to philly. have a family function so i will have to autoX local and attend right after.

[Al N.]

Tom- I signed up today. Question...I've always been told I'm in DMod...why is there a Lotus in CStock?-Al

[yellowss7]

Al, that Lotus is an original Series IV. Most original Lotuses with the smaller engines can run in the stock classes or even the prepared classes depending on modifications. The owner of the Lotus is a good guy and very good driver, but he only has about 90 hp. He drives the crap out of it but the lack of hp doesn't make up the difference between my poor driving and higher HP.

 

The SCCA rules specifically state that all replicas get slotted into either DMod or EMod if over 2.0L. Yeah it's not exactly fair since cars like mine and yours are "stock" in that they aren't modified from Caterham specs.

 

Most top Mod cars are highly modified. However, to be fair, even as poor a driver as I am, I still have one of the faster raw times. So putting us in a Stock class would be problematic for most other drivers.

 

Tom

[Boxologist]

we get lopped in to Modified becaus eof the limited production run. i think minimum of 1000 per year is neccesary to stay is CS/CSP where the lotus 7/Super 7 is historically classed by SCCA. Tom is about how well a car is setup can matter greatly on how well these cars, while a generic tin top will matter mostly on the driver.

 

New York region has been sorta cool letting me run cs/csp this year. with crappy tyres it was a non issue as better prepped MR2s and miatas easily have seconds on me in my first season. in 2 weeks that changes as i will be on real tyres and i will poll the csp competitors to see if they will protest me into DMod where i will run in a class of 1...

[yellowss7]

We may have a Caterham owner from the UK/Blatchat joining us at the event. Any other local 7's going to make it? Lance, I know you're out there lurking, :toetap: Can you join us? Tom

[yellowss7]

Just an update. Right now we have a 62 series 2 Lotus 7, a 71 series IV Lotus 7, Al's Caterham Superlight R and my Caterham Superlight signed up for Sunday's Autox. Lance (crazy canuck), with his 50th Anniversary Caterham, said he's also a possible. Thats 5! Any one else in the area up for it? Weather looks to be great. Tom

[MichaelD]

Tom,

 

I just did the Autocrossers Inc, event at Ripkin. The weather was anything but nice.

 

Rain for the morning session. Dry for the noon walk. Rain as I put my hemlet on. No time to take the slicks of. My times grew with each run.

 

Hope all is well.

 

Michael D.

[yellowss7]

Yeah, Michael, same here. Rain started just as we started our afternoon course walk and rained the rest of the day. We just couldn't put the power down, and on Slicks it was very interesting:crazy: We had 5 sevens in attendance , Al, Lance, a 62 series II and a 71 series IV that ended up winning the overall Pax. ( he did run when it was Dry) but he ran really well. Al, thinks we could get 10-12 cars at a Ripken event. That would be cool. I'm just finishing editing some video that I'll post in the Video section shortly. Tom

[Al N.]

Well, a hot shower and dinner at the local Mexican and I think I'm just about thawed out from the Philly Auto-X. The drive home was similar to my drive down to Skyline last year...not one inch of my body was not soaking wet.

 

I had fun, despite the weather and, according to the scorers, being off course for all 4 runs! I must have totally missed a gate in my mental map or gone backwards on the slaloms — due to the weather and not having an FM radio (they use a tranmitter instead of speakers) didn't know about it until all was said and done. :cry:

 

Oh well, that just goes to show that I should have taken an instructor along for my first few runs. I was too nervous as it was. I'll be back at one of these things eventually.

 

Thanks Tom for getting me out there and for letting me work Grid with you. Lance thanks for the laughs as we got wetter and wetter working Grid. And here's to Jack Banha for representing Se7endom!

[slngsht]

damn Al, not a good way to start your autox career :nonod:

 

I was playing golf in the "beautiful" weather we were supposed to have. Rained on me all day :cuss:

[yellowss7]

Video link is up and Al you look good out there! :thumbs: Someone should have notified grid that you were off course and an Instructor should have gone with you. I still go Off Course occasionally. The lack of traction really impacted the confidence level out there, especially for our higher HP cars. I think Lance's crossflow was much more manageable and his new tires didn't hurt.

 

Orange is a great looking car. Let's try to get a bunch of 7s out at a Ripken event. Tom

[slngsht]

Video link is up and Al you look good out there! :thumbs: Someone should have notified grid that you were off course and an Instructor should have gone with you. I still go Off Course occasionally. The lack of traction really impacted the confidence level out there, especially for our higher HP cars. I think Lance's crossflow was much more manageable and his new tires didn't hurt.

 

Orange is a great looking car. Let's try to get a bunch of 7s out at a Ripken event. Tom

 

Video link?

[Boxologist]

NYR region was dry till justr after thge awards ceremony. of the mr2 community was borrowing another's (new Exige owner, Carbuff will eventually meet him). As they are about to start the drivers meeting, he sees the borrowed car has one slick that is corded from yesterday's Evo school. and his own MR2's tyres were corded leading to him borrowing the other car. so i'm trying to take a nap in my passenger seat and just say "U wanna co-drive this?". he does. beast the piss out of my times, and gves some good input to where i'm going wrong( 3 spins in 8 runs). getting video of him and myself from in and outside of the 7 also shows some serious work is needed on my part:banghead:

[yellowss7]

Video link?

 

Mazda, I posted the Video in the Seven's Video section. click on the 8/19/07 Autox link at the bottom of my post. Tom

[slngsht]

D'Oh, I see it. :cheers:

[locostv8]

Well, a hot shower and dinner at the local Mexican and I think I'm just about thawed out from the Philly Auto-X. The drive home was similar to my drive down to Skyline last year...not one inch of my body was not soaking wet...

Al

I believe the problem is that you put the top on. My experience with 50s Brit sports cars is the top is a fairly efficcent funnel, you get wetter with the top up than topless.

[Al N.]

Tom-Could you poll your Philly SCCA pals and find out where I was off course? No rush of course, but I'd love to know-Al

[yellowss7]

I'll ask, but I doubt they have the station# recorded, but they might.

 

Here are a few pics from the event. There are a bunch more of them on the Phillyscca.com website. Go to dissusion forum, then Solo and look for the picts thread.

 

http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/464435308_IMGP5366.jpg

 

http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1077992808_IMGP5496 lance.jpghttp://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1725045781_IMGP5556.jpghttp://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/640706334_IMGP5557.jpg