Mazdeuce does One Lap, again! 2016 transit edition.

snailmont5oh wrote: I regret to inform you all that I will not be joining you on the One Lap after all. It turns out that the car owner/co-driver/he who's idea the whole thing was thinks that all planning should be reserved for the last minute, and didn't like it when I explained that this E36 M3's only a month away, and maybe he should order some berkeleying tires. Sorry guys. I really wanted to have fun with you.

ah, yeah I think one of you talked to Greer out at Summit?

heh, a month is plenty of time! We're actually in the process of updating our team name to "LastMinuteMotors".

that reminds me; I need to make sure our tires are ordered.

Brakes find my doorstep tomorrow, and I've still got four hotel nights to book. Some other odds and ends to fettle. One of the cars that ran last year decided the monday before reg/tech to go... but, then again, the owner has done OneLap 8 (?) times. So, like I said... you've got time... but I've got hindsight helping me.

I'd offer you a seat in the MINI, but people are already complaining about too many cooks in that kitchen.

I think an easier trifecta would be OLOA, Silver State Classic, then the Challenge.

Gearheadotaku wrote: I think an easier trifecta would be OLOA, Silver State Classic, then the Challenge.

I was taking it from the point of view that all three are sponsored by GRM? (seems like it'd make a good article {how nuts are these people!?})

Also, Challenge has the most restrictive budget, and happens in Fall. So you've got the winter to make the car ready to handle the transit miles/beating of OLoA. Seems that UTCC is falling pretty close to the end of OLoA this year... but in years past there's been a bit more time to find a bit more speed $$$.

I suppose, though, that your approach slowly ratchets up the safety gear / car modifications?

Last year I was sort of obsessive about prep. After doing it just once I realize that getting ready is really just very thorough track day prep. Fresh tires, fresh brake everything, change the oil and pack some spares. You do have to reserve hotels but for the second year in a row I've been able to pass that off to other team members.
Really though, you're prepping for a track day. It's a really long drawn out track day, but it's not much more complicated than that.

fyi, snailmont5oh... PM Sent

In reply to sleepyhead:

Got it. Thanks.

Thanks to mazdeuce’s involvement I got inspired to make our team name more generic. Mazdeuce, being awesome, also offered the services of a vinyl cutter. So, as you’ve seen here on the page, I generated up a quick new logo to fit the new team name.

Lo-and-behold, an envelope showed up today with a Houston postal stamp, with a test article!

I checked it on a few places on the car and got a good idea of the sizing,

Hmm, way too small

A bit small, as well.

then I ham-fistedly applied it to my laptop cover to get a ‘real’ look at it. I dig it!

Just about right!

I look forward to getting all graphics up on the car!

Even before Brock’s gentle brake-reminder… I had two boxes arrive thursday with a pair of rotors and a complete set of front and rear pads. The car goes in to the shop tomorrow to put on the new brakes, swap to hi-temp fluid, and give the car a general “track once-over”. 11 days before I load up the car and head west with co-driver #1!

I realize that “dropping the car off at the shop” isn’t the most ‘GRM’ of updates (especially for brakes). It’s probably something you’d expect to hear at a Corvette or BMW forum. But, I’ll reference you back to my earlier post about ‘not being much of a wrench’… and after all, we’re down close enough to the wire that I can shave with it. Taking the MINI is well into Plan C or D territory. As it was, the shop’s already told me they’ve gotten to experience the joy that is unbolting seized front MINI rotors (apparently a semi-common thing).

Also, it gave me a chance to snap of a few pictures of the interesting cars it was sharing bay space with:

E-type getting electrical work done (no really… and not the Lucas part!)

I think this one is going up for auction thanks to a divorce

Not sure what the story is on this one

Sharing lift space with a Stag! (shop had two in this week!?)

The British Mechanic equivalent to “the shoemaker’s shoes” parable

This is Chapter 2 in that Saga, I would really like to take this to One Lap… but don’t see it happening anytime soon.

I also started the tire replacement ordeal… taking OEMs+snows over to the shop, so they could move the car around while I took the other wheels to put the OneLap tires on (should drop in from the truck today). Good thing we did too, ‘cause I found two screws buried in the tread!

What car do you put MINI wheels in while your MINI ‘racecar’ is in the shop?

The wife’s Maxi-MINI!

Well, the paperwork is all done, and the car’s back from the shop. I managed to get the awesomely branded One Lap required tires mounted on the wheels, and fit them plus two take-offs all in the cargo area of the Clubman:

After that was done, I did one of the unknown… but most important… preparations: Having a backup Atlas awaiting Brock’s Route Book companionship in place that's easily accessible by the co-driver… that way the Route Book is always available for studying during long bathroom breaks. Looks like I need to do some vacuuming too!

Then I enlisted the help of Sleepyhead#1 in mounting up the wheels and tires to the car.

Fortunately Mrs. Sleephead was around to keep after #1 when interest in working on the car waned.

So, here the car sits; to wait through a couple more days before we load up and head out to South Bend.

well, here's a wrinkle for all you Transit van fans...

Toyota Siennas @ One Lap

I'm jumping up and down and giggling about the Sienna. I'm going to bug those guys so much.
It's awesome having someone you can completely trust prepping the car. It was pretty stressful last year, but this year my biggest concern is fitting my fire suit in my luggage. Living the good life.
In other news, Andy Hollis has a McClaren up for his picture on the One Lap entry list. Still no car listed.......mysterious.

The LMM car is on it's way! I think the plan is for them to attend the meet and greet and register tonight if they make it in time. We drew car #58 so you can follow along results wise with me until I fly out on Monday to join in.
Until then, Mrs. Deuce has left to attend her grandma's 90th birthday party, she and her mom return early Sunday. I have two soccer games and soccer pictures tomorrow, 20 feet of trim to paint and install in the living room, the house to clean, and odds and ends to finish up on the RX7 so I can load it on the trailer before I go. Oh and I should probably pack and check to see exactly when my flight leaves on Monday.

Good luck, keep us posted, see ya in 2 years for my own run.

-Hans

sleepyhead wrote: so, I needed to do a bit of an image test... I used the bookOf.feces exclusively for updates last year. This year I've been encouraged to make my images more readily accessible to non-feces platforms (like this one, or that weird alien frontpage thing). so, what better way to check that this all works, than share a few pics I took of the ELM CTS-V last year! looks good hmm, looking a bit wide yeah, definitely a bit wide there... good job straightening the wheel though! keep it going... wait for... the {dirt} compression now, look where you want to go... and rejoin smoothly! this ends the test of the interconnected image and social platforms hosting system. please contact your local sleepyhead for further information.

Reminded me of this Thread here

It was very much a "Look at me! I'm a rallycross car! LOL!" Moment. That was at High Plains Raceway and that particular corner is a very blind left over a crest. They have good markers for it, but you have to be able to remember them, which I did not. I knew there was no way I was going to stay out of the dirt as soon as the crest cleared so I straightened it out on the pavement and let the car do it's thing until we rejoined the pavement. Other than the obvious 'oh crap' moment, it wasn't terribly dramatic.
I have very solid plans to keep the Mini on hard surfaces this year.

Hey y’all. So, we did get in to South Bend after all. We got out of the DC area around 8am and pulled in to South Bend at 5:30pm after a single gas/food/bathroom stop just over the Ohio state line. It’s nice that the MINI can cross 400 miles at a time without stopping for gas… although we’ll probably break that up a bit more in the future transits. We got registered for the hotel and with the OneLap crew, getting our stickers. We took the car just down the street and gave it a wash, then headed into downtown South Bend for a bite to eat. While at dinner we found out that one of the top SSGT2 class competitors (and DC locals) had terminally broken down on the transit to South Bend, 30 miles short. So, we wrapped up dinner, hopped in the car (only partially unloaded) and went to pick up that cars’ co-driver. We weren’t sure if that co-driver would be coming with us for the week, but I knew getting him to South Bend would help in the searching for finding a new ride. We got back in after dark, so we spent the next few hours catching up with parts of our family that we haven’t seen for a year.

Some of the obstacles to a good transit... wide load.

We were a bit worried that this was an unfortunate passenger

Breezewood, a prominent way-point on the way from DC to SouthBend.

the first Type-X that either of us have seen in the wild

Out to help a fellow competitor

the forlorn repose of a broken car

As a 128i owner, I'm sad to see this. What happened to the 1M?

The cover photo for One Lap on Facebook this morning.

That is awesome. You're famous!!

Good luck. I'll be watching from home. My home is about 5 miles north of The Ohio Turnpike at Exit 118. Contact me for anything you need between Toledo and Cleveland
jwelsh02...yahoo...

According to the results page the LMM car has finished the wet skid pad which means they're off to the Pittsburgh International Race Complex for some actual on track action.

re:the 1M they had some oiling issues in testing this spring, and then during a leak-down decided the ring-lands (?) were showing oil consumption. So, a "reputable salvage motor" was put in. In trying out the motor under load during the transit out to South Bend, they were hearing a knock when getting off the power. Drove through it for a little while, working through possible causes, before stopping on the side of the road. Another One Lap (BMW) competitor and mechanic happened by and diagnosed as "crank noise" (either con-rod or main-bearing) and "don't run it anymore than you have to"

What a bummer! Well, good luck to all you One Lap'ers!

Well, I’m writing this while en-route from South Bend to Avon, for our dinner stop after finishing the wet skid pad. Mazdeuce has diplomatically skipped what our result was in the skidpad… second to last. Mostly ‘cause he doesn’t know much more than that result (and is perhaps second-guessing what he’s gotten in to . I’ll tackle that head-on, though. I’m not sure if I’ve made it clear, but I’m personally approaching this OneLap as a gift. I’m behind on having driven this car on track and getting it prepped, and my co-driver is even further behind on that… and it was my co-driver that I had do the skid-pad.

Currently our aforementioned wet skidpad result reflects that. This is a bit tough for my co-driver to internalize, since he’s pretty competitive… but the wet skid pad is a bit of a skill set to learn. Then, again, that’s part of the gift of this year… by being a bit behind on preparation, I’m free from any particular performance aspirations. So, if we were concerned about our placing, I’d have run the skid pad today, since I’ve run it four times before. Instead, without concern for our placement, I was free to give the co-driver their first experience on the pad. My hope is that doing this will help this co-driver be more prepared when/if they return with another car in the future. I had a similar drive in the Fit back in 2009 when I was also second-to-last in the wet skid pad; and I learned a lot from the experience. Hopefully that will happen again.

In the ‘popular sports vernacular’ this is a bit of a ‘building year’. We’ll have some failures, and some successes (hopefully), and we’ll build upon that in the future. I’m not real concerned about being competitive this year, I’m just looking forward to getting to drive on-track for a change (compared to last year) and spend time around the wonderful people that make up this event. Plus, I still get to shoot pictures… although probably not as many as last year. we’ll see.

Any how, onward and eastward to Pittsburgh we go!

Here’s a couple pics I managed to snap (although, somewhat hampered by the rain getting on the lens )

Plus there’s a whole public gallery for Day1 on imgur here

(feel free to direct link your favorite into this thread)

The LMM guys have made it through their first proper track day and I'm sure they'll be checking in this evening for a full update. Mrs. Deuce is back, she brought her mom, the RX7 is done and on the trailer for next week. I just need to pack and hop on the plane tomorrow morning!