Grassroots Motorsports: The Hardcore Sports Car Magazine

A carload of boys died last weekend, victims of pride, excess, the invulnerability of youth, poor parental supervision… you name it. They went 150 mph off the end of an airport runway, and flew half a football field before they met up with one of the venerable old oaks we call “grandaddy” oaks in this part of the world. Score: Oak Tree 5, Boys 0.

When I was younger and more arrogant, never mind more callous, I would have made a flippant comment here about the “culling of the herd.” This story almost demands that kind of comment: Five kids aged 18 to 20, piloting a brand-new BMW M5 down the runway of an exclusive fly-in community late at night (or early in the morning), the driver an oft-ticketed braggart who spent time online the day of his death detailing his excesses. Easy: They were asking for it.

But I’m older now, with kids of my own. And somehow, the years that have passed have brought me full circle, to the point where I feel closer to my high school days than at any point since their end. I guess I couldn’t get through my conservative private college with a ready memory of who I’d just been, or maybe we just put away childish things that perfectly, once they’re ended. Until we’re older, that is, until we pause and reflect. Until we’re comfortable enough with who we are to discuss who we used to be.

I was the kind of kid teachers point to as a model kid in high school—socially awkward, academically advanced, the perfect pairing of innocence and ambition. That’s how I remember myself, too… at some point you start believing your own P.R. The truth, however, was a little less black-and-white. In truth, I WAS academically advanced and socially awkward, which meant I was the perfect candidate for illegal drug and alcohol use. Nothing combats boredom and shyness like a slug of Jack Daniels. Or five. I didn’t have access to luxury cars or private airstrips, but I certainly did my time as a passenger in cars driven by an unsavory assortment of drunks, stoners, users, and other not-so-good choices. I lived to (not) tell the tale, as I suspect most of us have.

As my children approach this most vulnerable age, I hope I’ll be aware enough of what it was like to anticipate some of those bad choices before they make them all over again, and help them steer away, but I’m realistic enough to realize I won’t always be there. And they won’t always make the right choices, either–that’s what it means to be a child.

I could use this example to point out that we, as enthusiasts, should keep a sharp eye out for kids like the young M5 driver and try to offer them counsel, or that we need to continue to lobby for safe, sanctioned venues so these youngsters can learn car control AND get their ya-ya’s out, but in the end I can only hope, as any parent does, that I’ve taught my children well enough to minimize their wrong decisions, and that when they do make them, they don’t pay for them with their lives.

Photos from the GRM Experience at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona are up now.

Below is the schedule of events for the Grassroots Motorsports Experience. All events are open to the public except for the dinner and presentations on Saturday, so come by and say hello.

Friday, January 25
9:00 – 10:00 a.m.
Coffee and donuts courtesy of Krispy Kreme

Noon
Pit Tour led by David S. Wallens

2:00 p.m.
Watch the start of the KONI Challenge with the GRM staff.

Saturday, January 26
9:00 – 10:00 a.m.
Coffee and donuts courtesy of Krispy Kreme

10:00 a.m.
Pit Tour led by Scott R. Lear

1:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Cash bar

1:15 p.m.
Watch the start of the 46th anniversary of the Rolex 24 with the GRM staff. Again, we’ll meet on the Sprint® Fandeck, so look for the GRM flag.

1:30 p.m.
24 Hours of Slot Cars marathon begins

6:00 p.m.
Grassroots Experience Sponsor presentations (for GRM Experience ticket holders only)

6:30 p.m.
Grassroots Experience Dinner featuring Sahlen’s (for GRM Experience ticket holders only)

9:00 p.m.
Dart tournament

Midnight
Pit Tour led by David S. Wallens

Sunday, January 27
Coffee and donuts courtesy of Krispy Kreme

1:30 p.m.
FINISH - 46th anniversary of the Rolex 24 and the slot car marathon

For some reason, I got this idea that it would be fun to fly into Seattle and drive down to Los Angeles. It’s like 1200 or 1300 miles one way. Now, that might have been okay, but we decided that we wanted to actually see stuff along the way. So, we drove 2000 miles in four days. We arrived in Seattle on Thursday afternoon, then drove halfway around the Olympic peninsula to Port Angeles. From there we drove down the Washington coast to Astoria, Ore., at which point we went inland to Vancouver, Wash., and Portland, Ore. We turned south and wound up spending Friday night in Eugene, Ore. After that, we drove back out to the coast, down to Coos Bay, then turned inland again to Crater Lake and Klamath, where we spent Saturday night. Sunday was even more hectic as we had to get from Klamath to San Jose/Santa Cruz, Calif.–but we also wanted to see the redwoods. So, we drove up over the passes through Shasta National Park (it’s winter, so of course it was snowing pretty good) down to Redding, Calif., then out to the coast and down CA101 to San Francisco (with a quick detour into downtown and down Lombard St.). Monday was a piece of cake: just PCH to 101 into L.A. so I could drop Kim off at LAX. Oh, but I had a photoshoot that morning so we couldn’t leave Santa Cruz until about noon. I’m still out here in California at a conference.

Only a small percentage of our travels were actually on an interstate. It was a great way to see this area of the country.

Here are some snapshots along the way.

Near Crater Lake

Our RAV4 rental fit through the Chandelier Tree.

I have a picture of me standing in this tree from 25 years ago.

No comment

We saw some elephant seals near Cambria, California.

This is about how we felt after our death march down the West Coast.

The Subaru just got back from the detail shop. Look for it in our booth at this weekend’s Rolex 24 At Daytona. Please come by and see it. (And yes, we could have detailed it ourselves, but we’re sending an issue out the door today.)

If the rest of 2008 goes this well, I think I’ll spend the whole year here. The all-new for ‘08 Accord that we recently sampled in sporty coupe form proves that Honda gives up very little in the premium sporty coupe marketplace.

Honestly, this car’s biggest problem is the fact that it’s called an Accord, which has long been a synonym for “appliance.” This new coupe has more in common with a BMW 3-Series than a refrigerator.

Externally, it’s one of the more attractive sporty coupes we’ve seen in quite some time–if you took the badges off you could probably convince someone it was an Aston-Martin without too much trouble.

Inside, the layout and ergonomics are dead-on, although some of the controls are starting to look a little dated. Maybe something as simple as a font change would update the look a bit. At any rate, most everything is logically placed. Even with the supercomplicated nav system and climate control, we didn’t have too much trouble figuring out which buttons to hit.

Dynamically, the car is just a joy. While the days of lightweight sports coupes are pretty much over, the Accord is far more nimble than its 3400-plus lb. curb weight would lead you to believe. It actually feels a great deal like a 3-Series, which is high praise for any car with sporty intentions. The wishbone front and multilink rear suspension make for a very responsive and stable chassis. It feels like a nice, predictable, sporty FWD car that you can easily drive at 10/10ths without wearing yourself out.

Honestly, if it wasn’t called an Accord it would probably be more of a candidate for track days and HPDEs. With 268hp and a slick, firm-shifting six-speed, the car gets out of its own way pretty well. Particularly impressive is the midrange. If you don’t want to use the entire rev range, don’t worry. The Accord sweeps through the mid portion of the tach with ample thrust. The six-speed model lists a high-performance intake manifold among its standard features, which is not listed for the automatic-equipped V6, although Honda lists both models with the same 268hp and 248 ft./lbs. of torque. The six-speed model is also listed as slightly thirstier than the automatic-equipped car, which features variable cylinder management. All 2008 Accords are ULEV-2 rated.

Standard tires are 235/45-18s on alloy wheels, wrapped around 11.8-inch vented front and 11.1-inch solid rear disc brakes.

Living with the coupe is basically as easy as living with any other Honda, in that everything just works the way you’d expect it to. Being a coupe, the doors are a bit longish but certainly not into Camaro territory. The trunk is surprisingly big for a coupe at almost 12 cubic feet–only about 15 percent smaller than the trunk in the four-door Accord. The opening is a bit small and high, but the rear end looks cool and we’ll happily take the tradeoff.

All that power in the sweet six-speed does come at a bit of a price, though–both on the sticker and at the pump. The six-speed coupe is pretty much only available loaded, which easily pushes the sticker price north of $34,000. It’s a Honda, though, so you’re probably going to hold onto a lot of that value as the car ages.

It’s also mileage champ, as we managed about 23-24 mpg in mixed driving.

Honestly, the Accord coupe is a bit of an enigma. It belongs on anyone’s short list who is also looking at cars like the Infiniti G37 Coupe, or even the 300ZX. It’s even got the ‘nads to run with cars like the 3-Series (maybe not the twin-turbo version, but pretty darn close). It’s the FWD alternative to all of those excellent RWD sporty coupes, and a fine alternative at that.

We began the dyno tuning process on our Saab rally car project. We started out with a not-so-stellar 75 horsepower at the wheels and tweaked things to a whopping 82. We’re going back to the dyno to investigate more issues. Our car should be making 118 horsepower at the crank from the factory, which would equate to something in the mid-nineties for good power at the wheel.

This isn’t the kind of thing you like to see the week before you make the tow up to the big race.

The chains were pulling on the Bilsteins at a slight angle on the trailer, and it was enough to pull the damper body free of its large bushing.

A big metal washer should prevent any future pullouts.

Pristine new Vorshlag Motorsports engine mounts will keep the engine firmly in place.

Our repaired brakes seem to be working properly, and the engine runs much better with the new gas tank.

Hey, with the brakes no longer binding up, we’ve got enough power to kick the tail out. Whee!

A completely reworked brake system and a new fuel tank leave us with what should be a fully operational BMW Spec E30 race car. The only way to find out for sure, however, is to go drive the thing.

While we were going through the list of things we’ve done to the car since the last in-magazine update (look for the next installment in the April 2008 issue), we recalled a few other fixes that have taken place.

First up was the replacement of the completely fried engine mounts with some more rigid Vorshlag Motorsports units. These aluminum and nylon mounts cost $159 for a set of two from Vorshlag.com and installed easily. Having a friend handy to work the jack or engine hoist while you tighten up the four bolts helps, though.

Another snag we had almost forgotten about was the discovery that one of our Bilstein dampers had pulled completely off its lower mount bushing while on the trailer. We’ve been using chains to keep the back end of the car from misbehaving while in tow, and the slight inward pull was enough to wiggle the damper tube free. A trip to the hardware store gave us a pair of big washers that should fix the problem.

We’re happy to report that the long list of repairs seems to have done the trick. The car performed better than ever at our Ocala test track. After a lot of brake bleeding (with lots of help from Margie in the pedal pumping department) we’ve got a firm brake pedal and no signs of rear brake drag. The engine even ran well, and it sounded wicked with a cutoff exhaust.

Soon we’ll be bedding in a fresh set of Carbotech brake pads and bolting up the new, just-released spec exhaust system. We’re looking forward to doing more racing than troubleshooting in 2008.

Old-school Skylines still impress the masses. This one was particularly tasty.

Goodyear brought a dance squad to mesmerize attendees. Notably, none of these pop divas are pregnant or under the influence of drugs.

Mrs. Editor made a new friend at the Auto Salon; he assures us that he’s really a prince under all that green.

Mitsubishi may have taken this Galant to east Los Angeles for some styling tweaks.

Japan’s version of Tina Turner reacts to news of Ike’s fate while preparing to unleash some Ninjutsu magic.

More pictures to come, David wasn’t even done unpacking before he had to rush off to the B.M.T.A. event this weekend.

It’s the race fan’s equivalent of Ed McMahon bearing a giant novelty check and a bouquet of red balloons on your doorstep–Grassroots Motorsports is happy to announce that David Dunn of Burgaw, N.C. has won the Grassroots Motorsports 2008 Rolex 24 At Daytona Experience VIP Package giveaway.
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