David,
here is a musing of the autocross of yesterday.
I was told by Sue? Henschel that there were
several going to do articles, but thought I would go ahead and write this.
If you cannot use it, let me know.
Arthur
Three
dot Nuts (and Bolts) on a Beautiful Day in the Sun.
by
Arthur Cunningham
The fellow standing by a very red Boxter cabriolet told me, “I bought the car two weeks ago, joined PCA, sent the club an email and here I am. I wanted to see what she would do. ” I was quizzical in that he already had a professional looking magnetic sticker on it with a number. He said that he brought along some numbers and fortunately had the right combination. My mind was musing upon the swift assimilation of the new member, and, therefore the immediate response that he must have received from someone in the Milwaukee Region Club to accommodate a man’s desire to drive fast and controlled in a Porsche.
There was a woman driver, Chris Portele, in a red 911 Carrera with an Illinois “NO WATER” license plate sharing her car with Eric Roderich, both of Wilmette (and domiciled in another Region of the PCA). Eric said that he left his Boxter at home and as they liked our region’s activities, joined our club and were interviewed as new members already!...A brief moment or two with that “Genteel” looking and acting “Go for it!” official starter on the course on a Miller (Baseball)Park Parking lot, Bob Henschel, revealed that he had been stationed in the U.S. military in Nurenburg, Germany in 1958-59 and operated, if need be, an “Atomic Canon.” Atomic Canon? “Yes, the Germans didn’t think we had them, but we did—some 90 feet under ground!” …
Tony Lechner, overseeing and directing the electronic wizardry, which spit out a plethora of information within seconds of the end of the driver’s run through the course, remonstrated some fellow in queue a red 944, “Eric, slow down a bit!” gaining a wide toothy grin from beneath that helmet.
That there was that tire squealing ’96 Jaguar XJ6 entered (registered to Bruce Tammi). “Tony, Gimme a quote on bringing a saloon type Jag to this!” He momentarily responded, “Bringing a Jaguar to an Autocross is like bringing the Queen Mary to a powerboat race!” The fellow working the computer and print outs (never got his name as he was toooo busy to interrupt for the asking) remarked over his his shoulder, (allegedly?) “A bolt of lightning struck the guy’s garage and he lost a 930 and several other precious types!” (I do recall a Journal Sentinel photo story of that happening in the town of Summit in recent past).
Bringing to mind that the really beautiful day was only marred by some time to time glitches in the computer wizardry noted above—the wireless bar code reader it appeared to me…Which fortunately allowed us time to drain coffee and chat with others…Which included 2 junior UW engineering students with their small racer (there were actually 8 students and 2 cars) whose names were Chris Kolodzieg and Steven Burt. Club Veep Dan Matre got a photo of them (which may show up in another article).
The car was entirely student hand built, except for the “off the shelf” brake calipers, shocks, and a stock FDR Yamaha 610 cc engine with a 20mm intake restrictor with features such as -- a student generated computer program, (which had five different readout settings to cope with the different driver’s tastes) electronic wireless throttle, spinning wheel sensors which adjusted if wheels were going at different speeds hand made intake plenums and exhaust. Sponsored mainly by Good Year and Ford, they said they were part of a national competition among some engineering schools with a goal to “make an inexpensive auto cross (conveyance), with a competition format of a dozen events including among others: skid pad, innovative features, endurance (when I watched in particular, they often were having stunning times but the cars were petering out on the last turn in the course, it seemed), design, and cost. They run on 100 octane (literally and emotionally!). They were grateful to have someone bend the rules to allow them to join the club event.
In all, the cars at the 1st Summer of ’03 Milwaukee Region Autocross were mostly newer Porsche with a few other German marques…I enjoyed my ’73 911 cutting my times by at least 3 seconds, but had really wanted to drive my newly restored 914, but alas, my engineering student son- who is also in a national competition as above, but in Snowmobiles-had driven it to Lawrence, Kansas for the week-end to be at his brother’s Bachelor Party, but that is another story)…In sum, it appeared to me and the second hand on my watch that whatever the car, most all the cars--new or old--took about a minute to do the course. Masaya Nakamoto noted that his father asked him, “Why go around and around in circles for a three seconds or so of difference in times?” and he reflected chortling, “It’s more like hundredths of a second, poppa!” .
Bruce
Sutherland was flying a late model Audi S4.
I asked him about his 73 911’s to which he blurted, “I sold them
all!” (now then, I
thought, mustn’t one have
ownership of a