cbender

Hi All,

I'm going to be flying out from Oregon to Charleston in August to visit my folks. While there, I'm planning on doing another event at Roebling Road. January's event with Chin Motorsports was great, and I really enjoyed the track.

The Florida Crown chapter of the Porsche Club is doing a two-day event in August on Saturday, 8/20, and Sunday, 8/21. For more information, check out the driver education page of their website.

I'll either be instructing for a family friend in his NSX (as we did this past January) or beating on a rental, but in either case I can only come fo the second day of the event.

In any case, I hope to see some of you there.

Best,
CB

cashout

Just be aware that the 'nice' folks of the Carolina Porsche Club won't let you participate in their events unless you have a roll cage. You may want to confirm with the Florida Crown Chapter that you can go with the s2k as the Carolina folks (and I use the term lightly) assured me that ALL Porsche Clubs follow the same regulations.

cbender

I'm not doubting your experience with the Carolina chapter of the PCA, but I've never heard of an HPDE (driver education event) sponsored by ANY club that requires an actual cage! A rollbar, sure, but even rollbars have never been required by any of the branches of the Porsche Club I've run with. In any case, for this event, I'll either be driving an NSX or a crap rental, so the issue of a bar or a cage isn't going to arise. But thanks for the forewarning.

Here in the west, I've only run into the rollbar requirement for a very small minority of clubs (it's not a requirement for Porsche, BMW, or Audi, although I think the Alfa Club requires them). Some tracks seem to require them (I seem to recall VIR does). In any case, I've got a bar and harness, but for this event in Georgia, I won't be driving my car. But thanks for the post. What's with your sig, by the way -- Sidney's a long way from Carolina...

CB

S2k Awe

He misses us

HI Diego

We miss him too.

World class traveler and a world class guy.

He went to a PCA event at a track that allows S2k's stock form top up, but the PCA people didn't want him embarassing them, so they sent him packing due to the lack of a roll cage.

I guess I'd be in-bare-assed to drive a slow poor-sh_t too

I had a PCA instructor in my car once, and when he told me to shift into 4th gear at 4000 RPM, I figured he wanted me to go faster, so we all know I did NOT shift, just put the right foot down, and the guy stunk up my car

Oh yeah, before we went out on the track, he had never ridden in an S, and thought it was a cute car, but wondered why I didn't buy a Boxter. My reply was that I didn't want to spend more money to drive slower!

Let's say that experience tainted PCA for me, and Diego's put the cap on it. I'll never participate in a PCA event.


P.S.
Diego, I spun the kink at 108 MPH

cbender

[QUOTE=S2k Awe,May 9 2005, 08:36 PM] I guess I'd be in-bare-assed to drive a slow poor-sh_t too

cashout

PLEASE, PLEASE TELL ME YOU GOT IT ON VIDEO!!

108MPH... trying to match your speed on the bike there?
What is your record time? I was working hard at breaking the 2 min mark (Stock) but needed a few more track days to work out the last 3 turns (specially the last one).

cashout

Ex-Carolina owner and track whore now relocated to Sydney. The avatar is the new ride (Smart roadster convertible)


Yeah, unfortunately for the average joe, most clubs aren't that consistent with what they say and what they should/actually do. I found that here that you are supposed to have a full face helmet for a convertible but I have managed to use my open face one for the last year or so with only once being turned away (I ran across the road to the Kart ring and rented a helmet for $15).

cbender

I've got the same beef about variations in rules between one club to another, particularly when it comes to flags. It drives me nuts that different clubs use different flags at the SAME track, with presumably the SAME corner workers! At PIR, for example, some clubs use the meatball, others don't; some use the debris flag, others don't; for some events a rolled and pointed black flag means misbehavior, while other use the meatball for that; sometimes a furled black means come in, other times it has to be unfurled to require a "chat" with the hotpit manager. For novices, it's mighty confusing, and even for advanced drivers/instructors, I have to stop and actually think about what the corner worker is trying to tell me. I'm from Charleston, originally, fyi. How do you like the Smart converible, by the way? I almost rented one the last time I was at the Nurburgring, but then decided I'd want a bit more power, so I wound up with a 3-series. Evo magazine says it's just nimble as get-out. For autox, seems like it'd be a lot of fun.

Best,
CB

cashout

The smart is a hoot. Specially on twisty bits as it has a lot of mechanical grip and the wheels are on each corner. To give you an idea: it has pretty much the same track lenght and widht as a lotus 7 (or wakefield, elfin) clubman.

The thing I find a little weird is that I could not fit my jack under the S2000 unless it was on 17" rims. The smart is on 15" rims I can fit the jack BUT you actually sit lower than you do in the S...

The suspension and the chassis are stiffer than the S' so it is very kart like. Since it only weights 1800lbs it also outbrakes most cars :-) At the track it is 5-10 seconds slower than a well driven S (depends on the track) all of which is straight line speed difference.

It should be pretty good for AutoX. I have only done one slalom course (for emergency driving whilst trying to get my local racing license) and it beat everyone else there that day. It does tend to understeer more than it should though..

cbender

[QUOTE=cashout,May 12 2005, 07:57 AM] The thing I find a little weird is that I could not fit my jack under the S2000 unless it was on 17" rims. The smart is on 15" rims I can fit the jack BUT you actually sit lower than you do in the S...

The suspension and the chassis are stiffer than the S' so it is very kart like. Since it only weights 1800lbs it also outbrakes most cars :-)