Cars, Computers, Society in General
First, a brief history on my involvement in the Optima Search for the Ultimate Street Car series: Back in 2015, my friend Brian Mason sent out a feeler to our local SCCA region about the Optima USCA event that was coming to NCM that year. At the time, my car was not in the kind …
Read More “2018 Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational – Part 1: The Run Up”
While my friends are still tearing up the track at NCM, I’m looking at logs. Figured out the bottleneck in my cooling system: Engine oil. You can click for a full-sized view. In the bottom chart, you can see the water temperature (green) stabilize along with the engine oil (white) while the transmssion continues to …
It’s been a month since my last entry, and things have been interesting. After the meltdown at Birmingham, I thought I had licked the transmission issues with an additional cooler, and I had replaced all the melted MAP lines and covered them in heat-resistant sleeve. I also found a turbocharger gasket that had burned through, …
My third and final Optima USCA event of 2018 is in the books. I’d gone into the event with high hopes, but sadly I ended the weekend with my sails deflated. After having recently installed the awesome new ECUGNÂ in the car, it was running great. More than great. It was awesome. Full boost in every …
This weekend went well. It did not go perfectly, but it went well. The third leg of the 2018 Optima Search For the Ultimate Street Car visited NCM Motorsports Park in Bowling Green, and for the third year in a row, I was there. For the first time, I had my daughter with me as …
Read More “2018 Optima Search for the Ultimate Street Car – NCM”
Well, I made it back. The 2018 Midwest Muscle Car Challenge, provided by Bowler Performance with a slew of sponsors including Detroit Speed, Prestone, Forgeline, BF Goodrich, and a slew of smaller sponsors was every bit as fun as last year, plus some. The big relief for everybody was the rain, rather the lack of …
So, with the season upon us, it’s time again for a weekend recap. I spent the weekend of April 14 driving to and from New Orleans, Louisiana for the second round of the Optima Search for the Ultimate Street car. After my shakedown cruise to Charlotte for the SCCA Match Tour last month shook what …
Costco is famous because of a lot of things, but one of my favorites is the joke, “Where else can you go, spend $400 on food, and still have nothing to eat for dinner?” It’s funny because it’s true. BUT! This can be not true if you pay attention. In this case, I’m going to …
It’s finally here: racing season! This past weekend, I loaded up and headed for beautiful Charlotte, North Carolina, where the season opening Match Tour was taking place at the ZMax Dragway. This was my first out of town tow with the new-to-me tow pig, and what an event to end up with for a tow. …
The Battle wagon! This is my tow rig. There are many like it, but this one is mine. Period correct, even! I was prepared for another season of loading the race tires in the back seat, filling the trunk with tools and spares, and driving myself to all my events in the car. Alas, my …