This year, my friend Ankur joined me in the goonery. We left Friday evening from LA in our designated race car, Mrs. Harper, my ’98 Mercedes SL 500.

Tech was still in the Sierra Cafe parking lot, but we didn’t see anyone since we got there pretty late. We didn’t see anyone in the Dow Villa hospitality suite; later, we found out that this year’s hospitality suite was at the Best Western Frontier Motel.

We checked in at the usual Dow Villa Motel in the heart of “downtown” Lone Pine and grabbed a couple beers at Jake’s Saloon. Just as we were about to leave, we ran into Earl, Pat, and Scott. The drinking and talking continued until closing time.

4 hours later, we had to wake up and get ready for a long day of working/running at the Manzanar Airstrip. For Saturday, we left the hard top on & roll bar engaged because off roading last year was something I didn’t want to repeat but wanted to be as prepared for as possible. The course was back to the original awesome high speed & safer (compared to 2009) layout.

The banquet was fun and we won some neat door prizes! I decided to finally helmet ears spread the love this year & gave some cat/dog/fox/whatever they are helmet ears out. The helmet ear invasion will spread across autox parking lots across the state now, haha.

Despite my super conservative driving, I managed to get a 3rd place finish in Street Modified, YAY!

I loved the after party @ Jake’s Saloon on Saturday, it was really nice to unwind and hang out with everyone off the track. I don’t know if it was a good idea to drink so much beer and sleep another 3-4 hours before the Sunday race, but it was definitely worth it!

I finally ran Sunday’s course for the first time this year, and boy it was fast! Can’t wait for the 2011 41st Anniversary Lone Pine Time Trials!

In any case, looks like the orange 240sx convertible will be down for a couple months or so while I sort out all the problems and/or upgrades I’ve been planning for over half a year. In the mean time, I will probably be competing in the daily driver now that I have decent tires on it for the LA region.

Some of you may remember that I competed in SCNAX cup & got to drive a miata, mini cooper, and austin healey sprite. Don, the owner of the sprite, offered me an opportunity to co-drive the sprite with him in San Diego region this year! Driving a competitive and super fun car with 2009′s LA regional champion for CPM (Combined Prep/Mod), how can I refuse!

I expect that I will be learning A LOT about cars and so much more through out the year – I have learned quite a bit from Don already.

That picture was taken at this past weekend’s SD event. I accidently snapped a picture instead of recording a video w/ Don’s Hero HD, LOL!

Don had some time to edit and upload one of the videos:

Thanks for everything Don!

The result: crappy tires (many years old yokohama yk420′s) + 4125lb curb weight car (meaning it’s probably more like 4200+ lbs) = VERY HARD TIME for QV to transition, haha.

First run:
- Traction control on (just to see what it was like)
- Top up (just for fun)

Subsequent runs:
- Traction control off (much better, more control & power)
- Top down (let the good times roll).

The car handles like a boat (expected) – pushes everywhere the second you apply power. The traction control cut off WAY TOO MUCH power when it detected any kind of sliding at all. You have to be extra smooth with the inputs since the suspension was so soft & the tires were so crappy. I went from a 78.xxx second first run down to a 74.910 10th run. I had a couple of instructors drive my car; definitely helped, but they both spun the car since they were a little too aggressive – still learned plenty though. Amazingly, with the roll bar down, none of the fishtailing action was enough to get it to pop up (I’m pretty sure it still works properly, haha).

There were also 2 other Mercedes there: a newer SL55 AMG & an SLK 320. The driver of the SL55 was ahead of me for a few runs, and his instructor ran an impressive 75.0xx lap time, but I beat them both in the end, YAY R129!

This car obviously isn’t made for autocrossing, but it can be a force to be reckoned with after some modifications, namely getting a set of nicer tires, shocks/struts, and a front sway bar, which will still keep it in the stock class (all SL’s fall under H Stock, the lowest class available, hee hee). I feel much more in tuned with the car now that I have “broken her in.”

I took out my regular track car (the orange 240sx convertible) for the championship on Sunday, and did much better time wise – estimated at about 5-6 seconds faster than the SL500. I still ended up 4th place out of 5th place in class. The car is definitely capable of at least getting 2nd place, but the driver still needs much improvement.

Some pics from Theo Osifeso from our CSCC autocross group:

And a video of my first run (I’m all over the place) & my best run:

Here is a video of my fastest championship run on Sunday in the 240sx (course is run backwards with some modifications – estimated at about 1.5-2 seconds faster than Saturday’s course):

And for fun, here is a slo mo video capture of my car on Sunday from Mako Koiwai from out CSCC autox group as well – I’m pretty close to the apex cones, could probably get a lil closer:

Q DNCU from Mako Koiwai on Vimeo.

The baffle design is very nice looking, but unfortunately, it’s only attached to the fuel tank with a few spot welds & a plastic clip. Only the plastic clip was still attached when removing it.

Thanks to some tips from the guys at FRSport, I was prepared to remove the baffle – it is irregularly shaped, so you have to do some twisting, bending, and rotating to get it out of the fuel pump slot.

No more metal sliding/rolling noises! YAY!

Suhweeetttttttt video – I believe this out-does his El Toro vids:

out

I bought the materials from DonJer’s Flocking Supplies, as noted in the Zilvia.net article. However, I opted for the spray gun (saves a lot of time) & got orange flocking fibers and undercoat. DonJer’s site also has very nice write-ups and tips on flocking, so I will just list a quick overview & some results.

I decided to start with a test run of the orange flock fibers on my radio bezel/shifter trim.

Basically:
0) Get material & area ready (the undercoat is kinda stinky, so work in a ventilated area)
1) Sand and clean part to be flocked
2) Apply undercoat
3) Spray on flocking material
4) Let sit for at least 15 hours or so
5) Shake, pat, brush excess material off

The Result:
Super smooth funky suede style interior. This shit feels REALLY soft and nice!

I wasn’t super careful with the amount of undercoat I applied (needed to apply more), but it still turned out good overall for a first piece. I’m starting to get the hang of it now. Hopefully the dashboard & center console will be done within the next couple of weeks!

Close-Ups:

YUMMY!

Like how I killed 2 birds? huh? huh? lol, anyway, saw this little gem on the forums today:

Yup, that’s right. Dillon, the black ranger, drives a red zenki. Best ranger ever… that is all.

First off, I was amazed that I got all the crap I did into my car (remember, this is a vert w/ a roll bar):
- 2 x 18×9 Fabulous rims w/ 265/35R18 tires for spares
- 1 x Harbor Freight aluminum racing jack
- 1 x tool box
- 1 x 13″ Craftsman bag to hold engine fluids & miscellaneous car repair stuff
- 1 x Kelsyus chair w/ canopy
- 2 x helmets
- 1 x case of Aquafina
- 2 x bags of snacks & drinks
- 1 x gym bag of my clothes
- 2 x large purses of my girlfriend’s stuff
- 2 x laptops
- a bunch of other random miscellaneous things

We left early in the afternoon on Friday. I headed up the 405 -> 5 -> 14 and stopped at Rosamond first. Refilled the gas tank, and calculated my miles per gallon: 25-26 MPG!!! I don’t think I ever had this much n/a or in the stock 240sx convertible I got as a DD (with all that equipment & passenger in the car no less). And this isn’t the “inflated” mpg’s that most 240 owners claim since their speedometers are usually off, which affects the odometer; this is GPS verified mileage + Google maps mileage averaged. Top was up, windows slightly down, approximately 14.7-14.9 afr cruising, and turbo required almost no heavy throttle action. MPG’s stayed constant for the rest of the trip (not taking into account the autox time).

It was never so easy going up 4000 ft elevation passing SUV’s & random riff raff. We arrived in time for Friday tech & the welcome party. Ran into a few autocross friends & met some old & new people who were @ the Lone Pine Time Trials last year.

On Saturday, I arrived early & unpacked everything. I was very eager to see how the Lone Pine Staff tweaked the course to make it an autocross this year; they introduced a couple chicago boxes & rearranged the offset gates on the back straight to keep speeds down. During the parade laps, I followed Mike Nakata, who took his daily driver Lexus IS 300 this year. We gave ourselves enough distance to test a few of the turns. I spun out coming out of the “North Burrows” corner just trying to keep up with him, OOPS!

The morning work group was a little long because we had to have a pot hole patched up. However, the weather was nice (even had a little sprinkle action going on), the cars were well spaced out, and everything else ran relatively smooth. The fastest lap times were in the 135 seconds or so – held by the GS Acura & AS Evo VIII, followed closely by a very skilled Mercedes CLK500 driver Carl V. (left his Porsche Boxster @ home, haha). I believe the rest of the pack was running everything from mid 140′s all the way up to 180′s, with the majority in the 160′s.

The afternoon run group (us) was an entirely different story. Things went smoothly until I hit the course, or rather hit a sage bush going off the course. I totally screwed up coming in & out of the first chicago box, the same corner I worked all morning. I really should have known better & taken it easier my first lap – there wasn’t too much room for error if you exited too quick going the wrong way losing traction.

Luckily for me, I hit a very large sage bush – if it wasn’t there, another 4-5 feet & I would have hit the ditch behind it & possibly flipped the convertible. Other than damaging my front half bumper, fenders, and ego, everything was okay. Pat (better known as Irish) & the crew pulled me out of the ditch – fyi, the FRSport / DavisFab 240sx s13 convertible roll bar also works as a great emergency tow hook! Tom P., our safety steward for the weekend, made sure I was okay, checked out the car, and lent me his air tank to blow out the dust.

I must have started a chain reaction, just a few runs after me, David B. rolled his BMW 2002 around the same area I spun out. The car flipped 4 times & the passenger side a-pillar looked completely destroyed. David seemed to make it out okay. A Dodge Viper also spun out before the chicago box on the first sweeper. The Santa Barbara crew (the City College one – there was also UCSB alumni there representing) lost their poor Acura on one of the runs blowing a hole their engine in the afternoon. My apologies to the afternoon work group for having to work a 3.5 – 4 hour work assignment!

I finished my final 2 runs, 158.xx seconds & 154.xx seconds, both with a cone. Of course, I was more focused on just completing the course during these 2 runs rather than completing them as fast as I could. This is poor Kandi AFTER I cleaned her up later on in the day:

Overall, the course was still TOTALLY fun. Despite being an autocross, it was still VERY high relative speed maintenance. I really wish we could have more than 3 runs, though; well, we were suppose to have fun runs, but the afternoon run group was… a little shenanigan-happy.

Afterward, Renee led a final parade lap with Craig’s old 07 orange & black mustang. We ended @ the middle area for Renee & family to spread the remains of Craig’s ashes.

I have the bigger version of the panorama & more pics in the gallery.

More info the Lone Pine Time Trials (known as an Autocross this year), can be found on the solo2 forums Lone Pine Time Trial Event Thread.

I decided to not compete on Sunday since I know I wasn’t going to push the car as hard as I wanted & still wanted to drive home w/ the car in one relative piece. I’ll get to practice my braking point & getting used to the car all over again at the next autox practice.

Time for a new body kit…