Tac #1

[JohnW8]

Location Arctic circle:
Well, ok, wet and friggin' cold parking lot of Milton Frank stadium.

TAC#1 There were a few Bham Autox drivers that made the trip as well as a couple Time trialers looking for their logbooks. I headed north about 6:00am and drove the usual pace and getting the usual strange looks from folks driving up I-65.

"It's a Miata towing a trailer full of sticky little tires!" "Move on!"

As I ventured along I saw Tbone heading south to Shagbark to run the mud rally. I waved, maybe he did too.

Made it to the site in time to see the course being set up and see Craig Farr issuing Ricky Ragans Time trial logbook. Thanks to Craig for heading out on a cold Sunday morning to help the TTers with their logbooks.

I came to scuff tires for the Dixie Tour next weekend so I quickly changed tires , got teched and walked the course to keep warm. The Kilgores showed up with only one car, Johns car is being temperamental and needs more spa time. Lacey Ingle was there in his Honda as well as C who showed up wearing shorts. Ricky was on the fence about staying to AutoX but he made it through the morning session then was gone!

The lot was wet and did I mention cold? Lacey, Ricky and I worked the first worker station along with a couple of guys from TAC. TAC events seems to have a wider variety of cars than the usual SCCA events but there were a few Corvette that needed to be covered in blue tape to protect from cone juice. Did I mention it was cold? The high horsepower cars spent most of their time trying to control traction many of them looped easily while trying to rev the snot out of them in first gear. There were a few sections of the course that ran directly through the standing water. Traction was limited in the morning run group. The T&S gremlins were there causing havoc for the timing & scoring crew. It seemed that there were errors about every 5 cars and with 75 entrants it made for a long run group. Cones were getting sheared off at their bases due to the cold. I counted 5 near our corner station.

The first runs were finally over and time to get some driving done.
My first run was a tip toe run through the course to try and get some heat going I pulled a 61 and change. Not bad... Run 2 about 30-40 minutes later, (remember they had timing issues) was a complete flop as I hit a puddle at mid turn and the car jumped sideways off line and dnf. Run 3, I dropped pressures all around because I had zero heat in the tires and I scraped out a 57 second run, I was done. There was no one running in CSP since Darryl and Lyle decided to stay at home where it was nice an toasty warm. (weenies!) I couldn't get temps in the tires so I chose to call it a day. I'd work my after lunch session but we skipped lunch in order to get everything off the site by 5:00pm. The afternoon session was limited to 2 runs so the work group went quickly, also TAC had figured out their timing gremlins and cars were moving through the course at a faster pace.

I stuck around long enough to see Mike Cavanaugh set fastest time of day with a 56.2 and his son Josh follow him up with a 56 as well. Then I was off to the Parts Group to see Tommy and Brian who were getting the MX-5 ready for the NASA event at Road Atlanta next weekend. I finally made it home in time for a nice hot shower and delicious supper then back to the garage to put the tour exhaust on and take a few more pounds off the car before Dixie.

Man I'm tired.
How was your Sunday?

[aufoxy]

Sounds like TAC was similar to Atlanta yesterday. Weather was SO BEYOND COLD that I couldn't feel my fingers or toes by the end of the day, nor could I form consonants when talking... Temperature was about 40 degrees, overcast, with a brisk wind. Some puddles out on course, but not really any areas with just standing water. Our run group was in the afternoon and consisted of probably 50+ cars (there were a total of 205 people running yesterday...) and the timing gremlins showed up in Atlanta too (that wind is killer for T&S). I was also trying to scrub in my tires for the year, and spent the first three runs experimenting with tire pressures for the weather... after spinning twice in the first run, saving two almost-spins in the next 2 runs (I wish there was a picture of my AWESOME drift...), and dropping the pressures a significant amount, I had SOME heat, but not nearly enough to do well. My times from the day aren't worth mentioning, I'm just happy I didn't come in DFL in pro class. THEN... Peter and I spent the next 3 hours working a corner station. I thought I was going to die of hypothermia. Peter is probably the only reason I didn't die, because after the runs were over he helped me change my tires (well, he did most of the work. I couldn't operate my fingers.) So thanks Peter if you're reading this!! Anyway, I think the fastest time of the day went to a CSP miata. Or a corvette. I'm not sure. His time was something ridiculous and he beat everyone else by like 2 seconds. I think. HOWEVER... my new wheels are pretty.

On the way back I stopped at McDonalds to get a coffee and cranked the heat up as high as I could get it. I dont think I'm back to a normal temperature yet.

Anyone else with a hypothermia-at-autocross story?

[c-evoVIII]

yeah,..I was severly mistaken for wearing short..next time I need to check the weather before I walk out of the house and get in the car...the house was pretty warm, task task!! I was late and had to make a run to walmart for some pant! so I didnt have a chance to walk the course before we start ( not that it would make any difference).

There was very limited traction to be had on course, too much throttle and i was in for a ride, side ways!! or 360 spin. Had a decent run of 59sec but was shut down by me missing a cone so it was DNF, and another 59 sec run ( timed it by reviewing the video i took) that didnt officially get a time and got a re-run due to timing. manage two 60.8 runs for the afternoon just taking it easy. wasnt really happy about it since im 4 seconds off from Mike C with the FTD!!!!
But got a little bit of seat time in. C

[kilgojr]

Lets see,

Sat: 8 am and start working on getting the car cleaned up and button up a few final issues before the TT log book session on Sunday.
10:30 leave to meet Jordan for lunch before she heads off to represent ALSCCA in ATL for their event 1
12:30 head to Barber to spend the afternoon with the PCA fools who are running around the track with 1" of rain sitting on it. Meet up with Kathy and spread some rumors and get some final settings on having PCA come out for a club event at our new autox site. See Dillon (who now drives Joel's ridiculous Audi s4, and I think used to drive a Jetta that was somehow associated with Lyle...or something like that) and watch more PCA fools run around the track and imagine how close that expensive Armco must look in the rain. Then met up with the Discovery Parts guy and picked up my stuff that I had ordered earlier in the week. Instead of shipping it they said they'd bring it to me, good guys to work with.
3:30 back home and working on the two E30's to get em ready for the TT inspection. It was still raining, and it was stupid.
11:30 done working on cars, Mark's E30 loaded and ready to go, my E30 in the garage because its gutted, has no front windows, and it was STILL raining outside. stupid.


Sunday 5:00 wake up to get the E30 outta the garage....it won't crank. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!
6:30 still cussing because my car is being a PIA, and if I could drop kick it I would. Make the decision to leave with one car. We were supposed to be there at 7:00 for TT inspection. I don't think we are going to make it.
8:30 show up to TAC event....they are still laying out the course, and there were 10 or 15 cars there, this isn't looking good.
9:00 C is still not there, log book is being done by Craig Farr. Its cold, I debate putting on my nomex underwear
9:30 C shows up in shorts. Cavanaugh makes the best comment of the day, "What the hell C, did Sara not dress you this morning"
10:00 C gets clothes at walmart, walk the course, register, drivers meeting
11:00 still cold, and getting colder, I'm at start and can't work the radio to tell them the numbers because my fingers won't work
sometime later, i have too many clothes on to get to my watch....we finally get to drive with our run group
first run, mark is driving. at the line the starter tells us to go. Mark launches from about 2000 rpm. We sit there, car doesn't move, tires are spinning. I look over and say "not much grip" got to the first cone in the slalom, also the first cone on course, Mark shifts to second and the car is sideways, i look over and say "not much grip." We continued our 3 runs each and by the time we were done we had gone from a 64 second run with several cones to a clean run in the low 61 sec range. There was definitely a 60 sec run in it, but we were not willing to make our "afternoon runs" that started about 3:00

All in all, it was a good weekend. It was stupid cold. Everyone was making jokes that last weekend we were searching for suntan lotion and wearing shorts, and this weekend we were looking for every piece of clothing we could find, and C was still wearing shorts.

I agree with John W8, I'm tired.....how was your weekend?

[zukitek]

I never got a non coned run but did manage to stand on 3 runs and beat the other 2 in class even with a 60 second run with a cone . As already has been said it was cold and brutally windy and I definitely didnt dress warm enough.

John was kind enough to let me be the outpost on our station which was right next to the stadium and shielded me from most of the wind . By the time our run group was done it was after 2pm and I just didnt have it in me to go back out and stand in the cold any longer so I cleared it with the event chair and booked it back to Leeds getting there about 4PM.

Fun autoxing but uncomfortable for sure

[EvoLady]

ROFL!!!! Great write up guys and gals! My Sunday went like this. Woke up about 6am, get ready in our “cold” house (60 is cold to me warm to C) and get ready to head out for a very muddy rallyx. No I did not dress C and I guess I didn’t even notice he had shorts on, bad wife. I stop for ridiculously expense fuel on the way, thank goodness she runs on 87, and notice it is very cold and windy. Get 2 sausage mcmuffins on the way because Edwin doesn’t like taking lunch breaks so I know I need to eat a good breakfast. Get to site and there are only a few cars and Edwin, Byron and Ryan are just starting course setup. I get out of the car and then quickly get back in the car, too COLD!!!! So I wait till the course is setup and its time to register to attempt getting out again. Thankfully I had my gym bag in the car with sweat paints so I put those on over my jeans, what a life saver! Plus I was smart enough to put my boots on so my feet stayed dry, another life saver. We register, do a couple of wrecky laps (which means you drive the course instead of walking in the 50 mph wind and such) and start our runs. Our new timing system worked great! No gremlins for us thankfully so that was good. As far as traction goes, none for me either! I was one of the few that was on all season tires and man they really don’t’ work in the mud. I could barely get going off the line, then I almost got stuck in the mud pit, didn’t think I was going to make it up the hill on the other side of the course but I did. We all had 7 runs and had a BLAST! There is just nothing like driving as fast as you can straight into a huge mud puddle! If you will reference the rally event 2 page LINK you will see some pictures of some very dirty cars and our mud pit.

Over all it was a great day. Cold yes. Muddy yes. But I think everyone left smiling like a little kid that just rode there bike through the mud all day and didn’t care that they were covered from head to toe because it was just so much fun!

[Cholewa]

I stayed indoors on sunday, reclocked my new turbo, and then realized a few important things about installing it.

1. To use the V-band flange, I'll have to take the downpipe off, no biggie. Go look at car, notice downpipe is welded to the rest of the exhaust, which is all welded together, one piece... So in order to weld that little ring on, the whole exhaust has to come off (which is good, I can add an extra hanger and a brace while it's off)

2. The current manifold on the car requires a threaded turbo flange, the new turbo being new and not volvo, is not threaded. I now need to find a 90+ turbo manifold from a volvo in order to use the new turbo (studs/nuts instead of bolts through the whole assembly). Junk yard time huzzah! (if anybody knows of any big yards that might have a wide array of volvos let me know, PaP excluded)

3. It's warm inside the house.

[JohnW8]

Ain't motorsports fun? I love to hear the stories.

[zukitek]

I stayed indoors on sunday, reclocked my new turbo, and then realized a few important things about installing it.

1. To use the V-band flange, I'll have to take the downpipe off, no biggie. Go look at car, notice downpipe is welded to the rest of the exhaust, which is all welded together, one piece... So in order to weld that little ring on, the whole exhaust has to come off (which is good, I can add an extra hanger and a brace while it's off)

2. The current manifold on the car requires a threaded turbo flange, the new turbo being new and not volvo, is not threaded. I now need to find a 90+ turbo manifold from a volvo in order to use the new turbo (studs/nuts instead of bolts through the whole assembly). Junk yard time huzzah! (if anybody knows of any big yards that might have a wide array of volvos let me know, PaP excluded)

3. It's warm inside the house.

I know you said excluding PAP but I saw on there that had the turbo gutted but the manifold was still there.

[chuck schultz]

All I did was stand in a corner all weekend - station 10 at Barber. I had the right clothes on Saturday for the horizontal rain, and accidentally had enough for Sunday's day of the broken thermometer.

I got my new brake pads from Ron at Discovery Parts, and he mentioned that I-20 took its toll on his trailer. He ruined a wheel bearing on his tri-axle trailer on the way to the track Friday night.

The "smart" guys waited 'til Sunday to get on track, so the run groups were pretty congested, then. In addition to the usual PCA suspects, there was an R8 on track both days, and a new Ferrari came out and played in traffic on Sunday. The pace seemed better, this year, than I've seen with other PCA events. Even the slowest folks were turning respectable times, and, generally, playing well with others. Also, I noticed that Kathy got signed off to run solo.

We got the most spins in one session after the rain quit, for a bit. There was enough dry area on the track, then, that the running water in other spots caught folks out, apparently.

I love this stuff! I just wish I had a bit more money and time to do it, instead of spending it all moving to a "new" house.

[mpcavana]

Sunday was cold. I woke up at 6:00, looked out at the gray skies, the wind whipping the pine trees almost in half and went back to bed. I dozed for a while, looked out at 7:00 and decided to see what another 30 minutes sleep would bring. Finally I got up because sanity seemed far away, dressed in several layers much to Sally's amusement and headed out to Milton Frank.

As everyone has said it was cold, windy and damp. The three layers were barely adequate and I could not believe that C was in shorts. My core temp dropped 2 degrees at the sight in sympathy. Even with this weather there were 76 drivers with times for the day. You can believe that there was a need for speed in North Alabama!

I had a chance to experience the local climates at the worker stations as I made my circuit to gather names. Station 4 along the West side of the lot was the warmest (+1.4 degrees?) and Station 3 or Sound Control (toss up) was the worst (most exposed to 20+ mph wind).

Timing sucked during the second group because of a crimped cable that was shut into a door and balky timing sensors at the finish. Once they were replaced, timing got back to a reasonable level of efficiency.

Josh and I were hitting cones. I had the only clean run at the end of 3 between us. A driver's meeting was called to see if people wanted to punt the day at three runs or get in 2 more. I was all for calling it a day and going to a warm bar. Someone distracted me and when the vote was called for I raised my hand not realizing it was to continue. Darn.

The next two went fast and the two cycles were done in 2 hours or less. John didn't take his last two runs which gave us a chance to get by him. Brett Hudson was shooting for a 56 second run and promised to buy the beer after if he did. I lucked out on my last run and bought instead. Josh stepped up and was only 0.1 behind.

Leon made custom trophies which are unique in my experience. Collector's items.

We headed for the bar for a drink before heading home. What started out as a nasty day still was but spending it with everyone in common misery, driving fast on a 60 second course was worth the shivering. I had fun! I don't have much hope against the strong field in Dixie but it is going to be warmer.

[Cholewa]

I know you said excluding PAP but I saw on there that had the turbo gutted but the manifold was still there.

do you remember if it was on a 2 or a 7 or a 9?

[Shaggy]

Sunday was a trip haha. Woke up 4:45, slipped on a tshirt, loose fitting pants, and a thin jacket. Gawd did i miss the memo. Left home at 5am to meet my friends bruce and matt in jasper. They weren't there so I called & they're still asleep in Winfield.

After enjoying the lovely noise and bad gas mileage running 4200rpm for 1.5hrs, we finally arrive in Huntsville... & I miss the turn off...twice. After stepping out of the car to 38deg and almost enough wind tip cones, I began to rethink my priorities.

John pretty much summed up our workstation. My loose fitting jeans looked like wind socks at the airport lol.

After working we went back to our cars where I tried to put on my driving shoes with no luck. My fingers would not function enough to tie them! I made my traditional first run spin and took out a few cones. It was so cold that hitting cones sounded like I slid into a mail box (yep been there). Spun 3 out of 5 runs and was very dicey the other two. The only clean run was a 62.8 for me.

It was so cold trophy presentation slipped my mind and left as soon as we got loaded. At least the bathrooms were nice and toasty. Anyone got a pic of those said trophys? And does TAC hand them out for single car classes?

[c-evoVIII]

I completely forgot about Trophy presentation, just looked at the results this morning, didnt do as well as I hoped, placed 24 out of 70 something cars and 2nd in SM..ohwell.
if I stayed there any longer there would be nothing left of me..there were some serious amount of shrinkage going on.

Any pics of the trophy?? C

[Vfastcaddy]

Here ya go, if I can figure out how to do this. Yes, it's Tennessee orange! (Sort of.)