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!

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…

This year will also be the first year the Lone Pine event is an SCCA sanctioned event, which means more rules. Latest news is that we may not even be classified as a time trial anymore & be demoted into an autocross –> slower speeds, BOO. We’ll see how it all pans out.

In the mean time, I was able to put in my new secret weapon during the Memorial Day weekend:

I spy with my little eye… an S15 Helical Limited Slip Differential (HLSD) in an S14 pumpkin (keeps stock 4.083 final gear ratio).

WOO WOO! Picked this little beauty up on Saturday from a local forum member who “upgraded” to a welded diff for drifting. Cleaned her up a bit, put in some KAAZ Limited Slip Differential Gear Oil from FRSport along with a new gasket & moved over my S13 rear differential cover.

Of course, the FRSport guys let me know AFTER I install all this that I could have bought some DiF Solid Differential Bushings for the S14 pumpkin I had (I think these bushings should work for the J30 as well, since both front bushings looked the same to me when I sat the diff’s side-by-side). Donny also reminded me that the S13 super crazy rear differential cover that I wanted 2 years ago actually came in some time ago. If that’s true, I’m gonna have to work on the diff again, OH NOES! Of course, I’m just gonna hoard the parts and wait another year or two, haha.

Overall project took half of the day Saturday; it would have been quicker, but the differential is difficult to install with just one person & a jack (and the time it took to drain the old fluid from both differentials to swap diff covers). I used almost all of the KAAZ fluid to fill it up to the fill hole – filling up with diff fluid is significantly easier with the diff off the car, by the way.

This should be a great improvement over the Infiniti J30 VLSD I had in there before because (1) it’s a helical and (2) I’ll be back to stock final gear ratio (4.083 instead of the 3.9xx of the J30 diff) again, which should give me better acceleration.

As expected, the HLSD is quiet as a mofo (woo hoo oem Nissan equipment & helical power) and acceleration has improved (I swear I can feel that 4%… no, seriously). I’ll get to really test it out at Lone Pine this weekend.

Other than that, I also installed a rebuilt starter I got from one of the FRSport guys who was going to put it in their race car – my car has part FRSport race car in it now, YAY! I also finally got my sister’s Sentra an oem replacement battery & moved the Optima Red Top back into my car since the Fusion battery finally took a crap after several years & too many battery drains.

The rear view mirror’s been repaired… again… and a few pieces of new safety equipment came in recently. Hopefully, it all goes well.

My stock 240sx convertible daily driver (or “white trash” as Donny from FRSport dubs it), also got a little attention. I replaced her gross gross carpet w/ 89-90 Zenki carpet, which is in much better condition. I’ve also recently swapped out the hammered Georgia weather-beaten steering wheel for another stock one from I got from a Canadian forum member. Little touches here & there, but trying to keep her stock. Lord knows I don’t need another project car.

I’m going to “try” to get my new beefy fender braces on before the weekend, but we will see if I actually accomplish that.

The 5 hour drive up (through 7pm LA traffic with a pit stop for Dinner @ Willow Springs) wasn’t too shabby at all. Of course, it probably helped that I had a passenger.

Early Saturday morning, I bought some mini breakfast: trail mix bar & Rock Star energy drink, hee hee. While the car was being fueld, a CHP officer rolled into the gas station near me.

Officer: “Is that an Acura or something?”
Me: “No, It’s a Nissan” *smiles*
Officer: “So, it’s just got a body kit?”
Me: “Yes sir, just a body kit.” *wipes windows*
Me: “Have a good day officer!”
Officer: “Okay, bye”
*vrrroooommmmm*

He was actually decently nice, probably more curious than anything, considering there was a parking lot full of real race cars where I was staying, haha.

view to the west:

view to the east:

Anyway, the view is AMAZING. I’ve never travelled this far up the 14/395 Death Valley side. The Sierra Nevadas looked absolutely gorgeous, and despite the heat, the breeze kept things bareable.

Once I arrived, I met some regulars, a few “kids” from Santa Barbara who were camping at Lone Pine coming back for their 10th Lone Pine event, a few familiar faces from Solo 2 (Renee, Craig, Jayson, Ken, and Mike, to name a few), and a variety of other people. For such a big course, it was a relatively small turn out – probably 40-50 drivers total. I really hope more people make it out next year; the more the merrier.

I had thought it would be mostly autocross people, but it turned out to be mostly road racing guys coming out for this event.

The track looked like it was going to destroy my Hankook RS-2′s & Federal 595RS. However, at the end of the day, the wear was no worse than a practice day @ El Toro.

It was pretty entertaining to see cows early in the morning grazing by the track. They left me some presents near my work area, eewww, .

Being an autocross guy (and barely one at that), the course was very intimidating, 2.5 minutes of almost flat out fun. The parade laps we had in the morning helped us familiarize ourselves with the course & “sweep” the course of grass, weeds, and gravel.

In my lil automatic 240sx convertible, Kandi, I was able to hit around 75-80mph on the straights going into the decreasing slaloms. I believe the faster cars/guys/girls were getting into the 90-95+ mph range.

I dubbed the back offset gates coming out of the first sweeper after the first slalom the “scary ass gates.” My very first run, I spun out at one of the gates because I wasn’t paying attention to how close this particular one was offset – I’d like to blame the gravelly ground, haha – too bad, I didn’t have a video of it because it was right near a huge ass tree which was all I could see when drifting toward the gate – “Oh my god, please don’t hit that, Quoc-Viet, please don’t hit that.” I spun out just fine – however, one of the Santa Barbara kids did hit that tree head on in their beater BMW about an hour later. Apparently, the poor guy hit that tree 2 years ago spinning backward into it. His friends think he’s just trying to knock that tree down now, haha.

The course was open enough that you can set up many different ways for each turn, but you had to stay within the “grippy” area that everyone else was driving in, otherwise you’d face the wrath of the gravel – while driving, you can actually see the area everyone is driving: absent of gravel & grass, pretty neat.

Total track time breaks down as follows for Saturday:
- parade laps: 15-20 minutes
- timed laps: 5 laps official (I received another 2 for re-runs) of about 2.5 minutes per lap, more or less

Working wasn’t so bad since there was a breeze. I was stuck in one of the worse sections – the 2nd set of slaloms. However, I had a tree for shade, so it balanced out. I strongly recommend bringing tons of bug spray – I sprayed myself, but the section I missed (my neck) had crazy bite marks on it when I returned home, damn those hungry pests.

After the day was finished, we returned to our rooms to shower and get ready for the traditional buffet at Bonanza Mexican Restaurant in “down town” Lone Pine. Modelo’s & XX’s never tasted so delicious. Christian, the road racer in the white Integra sedan w/ modified GSR engine & “nothing too crazy” suspension & azenis 615′s, won Prep/Mod class with a time of 134.xxx (fastest unindexed time of the day). I recorded one of his “slower” runs below.

My fastest run was a 151.xxx, which was also my last run of the day. I’m pretty happy with that, and especially happy that my tires were still good (even though I ran a few laps w/ them underinflated) & that I survived.
Unfortunately, I had to leave Sunday morning to attend my sister’s graduation party, so I could only run the course one way. Everyone else got to run the course backwards (w/ some modifications of course) Sunday.

Your Favorite Resident Orange Tigger Helmet Wearing Automatic Driving Slow Convertible Guy:

End of the Day Tire Wear (Sidewall markings are from me not checking my tire pressures & running really low)
Tires survived pretty decently, no chunking that I could detect.

No official measuring or anything, but much better wear than I had originally thought.

Videos:

I can’t wait til next year!