Cars, Computers, Society in General
Pertaining to the Sports Car Club of America
2022 was a rocky mess for us. Breakage in 2021 ran into the supply chain COVID mess, leaving us with just two major events, at which we broke at both of them. The RX-8 experiment ended at the Time Trials Nationals with an exploded clutch, and the Probe’s post-rebuild debut was marred by an oil …
This will be a long one. Finally here. After over a year. We’ve arrived. Before I tell you where we are, let’s recap where we’ve been. At the SCCA Time Trials Nationals last summer, on June 9, 2021, during the first lap of the first practice session on Thursday, the $300 junkyard “JDM KLZE” engine …
Event Prep With the Probe still laid up waiting, and the Pine Mountain Hillclimb fast approaching, I made the decision to outfit the RX-8 with the proper safety equipment to run the event. That means a four point roll bar, harnesses, and a fire bottle. Since the factory seats don’t have provisions for a harness, …
A month of work reviving an old Mazda culminated in a successful SCCA National Tour event. I’m happy. Back in February, I bought a 2004 Mazda RX-8 off a friend. He had bought it off a guy in Tennessee a year or two earlier, and just hadn’t had time to mess with it. When I …
Read More “2022 SCCA Red Hills National Tour (RX-8 updates)”
After over a decade of serious competition that included one Kentucky Region SCCA CAM-T championship, five top-ten GTV finishes at Optima Search for the Ultimate Street Car qualifier events, two Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitationals and an amazing trip to Saudi Arabia, we blew both head gaskets in Vegas at the 2021 OUSCI. It’s time …
It’s been awhile since we’ve updated anything here. Time for a long post. The tldr; Turbocharged the Probe Tuned the Probe Raced the Probe and broke it Fixed the Probe Race the Probe again and really broke it Switched to the Buick Raced the Buick, broke it Fixed the Buick Raced the Buick again That’s …
Read More “Huge Update! Time Trials, Optima, explosions, fire!”
We’ve been busy. This Probe is just about ready for its debut. In our last update we had largely completed the turbo build, but there were lots of odds and ends to deal with after that. Prior to buttoning up the front end of the car, for instance, we had to do some body and …
Well, after finishing off the interior of the car, including carpeting and a new sound system, it was finally time to move on to the fun part: The turbocharger kit. I did an unboxing video for the very incomplete kit a few weeks ago, you can find that video here. Now has come time to …
Year three of the SCCA’s revamped time trials program culminated in the third Time Trials Nationals at NCM Motorsport Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky, this past weekend. The relaunch of the program formerly known (or unknown) as Solo I three years ago was met with a lot of excitement and some predictions of doom. The …
Read More “A Probe visits the 2020 SCCA Time Trials Nationals”
So lots to unpack here. DriveAutoX Round 2 at Traders’ World, just north of Cincinatti. I did not win. Not even close. Yet, still close. The SCN class was much more competitive than it was at UMI Motorsports Park. Eric Brown showed up with is SCCA STR prepped ND Miata, and just laid waste. It …