Grassroots Motorsports: The Hardcore Sports Car Magazine

I just spent the previous week traveling up to South Bend, Indiana for some testing at the Tire Rack. The folks there are super nice and we got a bunch of great data. Look for our roadster comparison test with the Solstice, MX-5 and a 1999 Miata in an upcoming issue of Grassroots Motorsports (February?)

While I was in the airport and on the plane, I read several books to pass the time. The first two books were James Patterson novels: London Bridges and Four Blind Mice, both of which are a part of the Alex Cross series. Not bad, but certainly a quick and easy read that didn’t get me thinking very much.

The third book that I read, which I actually finished up on Saturday, was Nelson DeMille’s “Night Fall,” which is about the TWA 800 accident off of Long Island on July 17, 1996. This book was very, very interesting, using the facts of the case and investigation to frame a intricate piece of historical fiction…in the thriller genre. Very well done and I found myself really captured by his characters. The main detective, John Corey, was especially well-crafted. The last DeMille book that I read was “Up Country” which was also a very good book that I’d recommend.

Now that Stephen King has essentially jumped the shark, I’m happy to find other authors that can truly spin a tale.

Kim learning how to change the tires, with the super-finicky Per standing watch.

Kim gets ready for her second run, with GridMeister, David Wallens, directing traffic.

The GRM MINI team had another good weekend competing in the final Central Florida Region points event of the season. Despite some very strong competition from D Stock competitor Kevin Kipta, G Stock racer Phil Currin and F Modified pilot Art Trier, we wound up first and fourth on index overall. The first place finish (and it’s corresponding 100 points) helped Per jump up to first overall for the year end PAX Championship in CFR. This probably also helped Kim move into the top 10, but we’ll know for sure when results are posted.

Results: Here

This was our first event on the Koni FSD shock absorbers and we’re very happy with them so far. This was a very slalom and offset intensive course and the Konis felt like they had just the right amount of low frequency rebound damping, while not feeling artificially over-damped. Now, we still can’t crank up the rears to create oversteer in high-grip conditions, but the front shocks certainly felt dialed in. We actually lowered the rear pressures from our normal 60 psi, down to the more normal 50 psi as the car really was loose at the higher pressures on this gritty asphalt surface.

Additionally, the FSDs are super comfortable and actually quiet the car down over expansion joints. We’re believers.

Several GRM’ers will be the upcoming SEMA Show. If you would like for us to stop by your booth, please let us know.

Big K and little k are gettin hitched!

My dear friends Kyle and Karen are both getting hitched this coming Saturday; fortunately, they’re marrying each other, so I only have to go to one church. This will also be the first chance I’ve had in a while to see most of my high-school buddies, there will be much merryment and dancing and such.

As for the soon-to-be-newlyweds: They’re about the most awesome couple you’ll ever meet. They’re also both moderate-level car geeks, I’ve done work on both Kyle’s 2000 Civic Si and Karen’s 2003ish Accord Coupe, and they’ve come to cheer me on at an autocross or two.

Karen has fairy tale blonde hair, fantastic taste in just about everything, and she makes the best chili in the world. Plus, she introduced us to Ali G, and for that we are forever in her debt. Kyle’s ability to memorize and mimic is phenomenal, he and I have been throwin down playa vs. playa since Descent, and he could probably pick me up and throw me 10 feet through the air if I asked him to. His passion for, as he puts it, “things with buttons that you plug in” probably surpasses even my own.

Congrats you guys, I can’t wait to see you at the big day.

Just a few odds and ends remain to prepare our 2002 Civic Si for its first track outing, and most of those have to do with the finer points of NASA legality. The steering wheel lock was recently disabled courtesy of Per, a hammer and a screwdriver; a dab of JB Weld will make sure it never locks again. Without an airbag or a cover the stock wheel is kind of sad looking, so we’ll probably replace it with a quick-release hub and some sort of aftermarket wheel (we’ll decide on one at SEMA). The Firecharger bottle is just waiting to go in, and that’s about it; we’ll have a genuine Honda Challenge H3 car. Some graphics and an alignment should take care of the rest.

Since Scott is going to be getting his first wheel-to-wheel experience in this car, he wants to make sure that he’s going to be doing it right. Our friends in NASA’s Mid-Atlantic region hold a SuperComp school at VIR every year in February, so we’re going to attend that event and get our liscense and a good bit of experience all in one weekend. We’ll attend a local HPDE before the SuperComp school to do a shakedown on the car and make sure everything is behaving as it should be.

Look for the car to start re-appearing in the magazine in early 2006.

We all need something to reduce stress. Some of us work out. Some play sports. Some drink beer. And some go to extremes like hard drugs such as heroin.

Margie’s dad died recently and that combined with the all usual crap middle aged life brings have got us both pretty upight. She has her way of dealing with stress. I have mine.

My way is to dive into another project. When we were at our lowest point in the late eighties, nearly out of business, with a motorhome broken down in Wyoming and no way to afford to bring it home, I solved the problem by tearing apart the house and remodeling the kitchen.

This time, the Sunbeam Tiger is my heroin. Late at night out in the shop with the Smithereens blaring through my yard sale stereo, I tore into the Tiger last week. Total relaxation despite the rusted bolts, butchered wiring harness. Pulling up the carpets and seeing that this fourty year old car stil has floors brings a new rush. Being able to totally dismantle an automobile in about a dozen hours is serious fun and relaxation for me.

Twisted yes, but hey, whatever gets you through the night. Other than the zombie like state it puts me in the next day, I feel that my habit does little harm. I learn. I study. I really like restoring cars.

The sun is out, the lights are still on, and our building is still standing, so it looks like we weathered today’s hurricane.

Max and his favorite toy, a stuffed Canadian goose.

This weekend was spent waiting to see where Hurricane Wilma was going to end up. My parents live in Naples and we weren’t sure if they were going to get a direct hit. We offered them a place to stay up here (granted, we’re getting tropical storm force winds here) but they decided to stick it out there. I got a call from my mom about 8 a.m. and they made it through the night, although they’ve yet to venture too far out of the house.

So, with nothing to do except wait around, we wound up looking at houses in DeLand and hung out with the pups.

Looks like Hurricane Wilma will pass a little south of GRM World Headquarters. Still, we should get no shortage of wind and rain during the next 24 hours, and area schools have already told students to stay at home on Monday. If you don’t hear from us right away, then odds are strong that we’re (still) without power.

Aside from the alignment, this was the first real work we’ve done on the MINI

Instead of the typical Koni yellow, the FSDs are painted a metallic gold.

Kim and Per installed a set of four Koni FSD shock absorbers on the MINI Cooper last night. The FSDs are a new line of damper that is frequency selective (hence the acronym) and will change damping depending on what the frequency of the shock travel is. If you encounter an expansion joint, the shock is soft, while a slalom manuever will actually the shock in a very firm mode.

The install took a hair under three hours. We’ve had some experience tearing apart MINIs so we knew some of the tricks of the trade. The rear shocks like to be loosely bolted at the top before the bottom bolt is hand threaded in (otherwise you cross thread the bottom bolt) and the front shocks are best installed with both front wheels up in the air so there’s less tension on the front anti-roll bar.

Back on the ground, we drove our MINI to the office today and while the differences are subtle, there is a noticeable improvement in ride comfort, yet the car still turns in like gangbusters.

We’re hoping that this unusual shock choice will work for hardcore Solo II action. The thinking is that the shock can actually smooth out spikes in g force as the car is cornering at the limit, leading to higher cornering speeds with less effort on the part of the driver. We’ll let you know how it goes!

The Koni FSDs are priced in line with the rest of the Koni line, figure on less than $700 a set for most applications. They’re available through The Tire Rack or by visiting Koni’s Website for a dealer near you.