Misc

Yeah I know, I'm a super blog slacker... Mainly because I was using my blog space for car related stuff but I haven't been racing in a while. Going to try to start posting regularly again finally.

So I was driving down Alafaya near UCF when all of a sudden I heard a tink-tink POP-thud-thud-thud-thud. I was pretty damn sure I had just blown a sidewall and was getting the thud-thud as the tire revolved around and was hitting the blow area. I pulled into UCF and came to a stop in one of the roads. I get out expecting a blown sidewall like I said but the tire was at full pressure with no sidewall issues. I look under the fender well and spy the issue right away. A big ass fucking bolt, and not just a bolt, a bolt that's larger then 1/4" in diameter sticking out about 3/4" with a big ass nut on it too... The nut was what was keeping it at 3/4" sticking out and 1/2" of that was the nut itself. I couldn't fucking fathom how this huge bolt got in my tire, it wasn't even between the grooves, it was in the middle of a large flat area.



The damn thing was so large I couldn't drive the car. My car comes with a compressor and a fix-a-flat sealant kit but I couldn't even use that cause the bolt wouldn't come out. I ended up having to get Casey to bring me a jack and some tools so we could get the car up and get the bolt out. The fucker was over 2" long!!! I used a plug kit, but the problem with those is you're only supposed to plug items under 1/4" anything larger and you're FUBAR and have to replace the tire (which I have to do). The plug held well enough though to get full pressure in it and make it home at least... Now to deal with getting a new tire, which are fucking expensive for my size, like $195 each and you're sure as hell not going to find them in stock at local stores.

it just came in as I was about to leave for the night give PDI until noon
to come pick your newborn up!!!!!!
Ricardo

So excited!!!

Tomorrow morning is going to be such a long day till I get to go pick the car up after noon. I hope I can make it.

Holy crap I hit 10,000 miles on my car on the trip down to tampa to visit my frined Sean. I haven't even had the car 8 months yet, so yeah I'm defintely going to go over the average 12k miles per year.

Going to go on a Solstice cruise tonight. Meeting up with 10~20 other Solstice owners in Cassleberry at Howel Branch and 436 for a car show, then we're going to drive around for a while. The tomorrow we're meeting at 8am at the lake Marry rest stop to drive South down i4 to a winery, I forget which one though. Then we're off to DeLand to pit stop prior to heading out to Daytona beach to get pics of all our cars on the beach.

Started seriously looking at race tires for my car. Of course I want R-Compounds, but the real question is Kuhmo 710's or Hoosier A6's??? The A6's are new and supposedly resolve a lot of the A5 issues, but they haven't been out long enough to know for sure. They're also $20 more per tire at $260 per tire then the Kuhmos. I've got the tire trailer for them already too, I just also need a hitch for my car. I'm betting that'll be another $200~$300 just for that...

Missed my last SCCA race event though. I had some stuff to get done that just took me way toooooo long since I procrastinated and those things were more important then racing so I had to get them done. I also was feeling like crap that day too. Slept in till 11:30am I think because I was so exhausted and feeling pretty crappy.

Here's the pics of my wheels I took. 8" across doesn't sound that big till you see the naked metal. That's the track day trailer I'll use to take them to events once I finally get the tires on the wheels and a hitch for my car to trailer it up with. It needs to be repainted in places, the wiring is in definate need of replacement, and I'm betting it really needs to be greased and have the tires checked out. Those are all things that will happen eventually when I have money again. I just wanted to get the wheels now since they were so damn cheap.

Pics of my new wheels.

Found a guy in Jax willing to sell me his old polished aluminum wheels for $400. If I'm willing to drive from orlando to Jax tonight they can be mine, if not they're going to someone else tomorrow. They're not 17.8 lbs light weight racing wheels seeing as how these weigh about 22lbs~23lbs and they're the lightest of all the wheels, but it's $400 for the set of rims instead of $489 PER RIM for racing wheels at the cheapest. Of course the tires I want to put on these wheels cost $1000 for the set of 4 Hoosier DOT legal racing slicks, but I'll be saving up for those for a while. Going to have to borrow Jen's car to do the 4 hour trip by myself, not looking forward to that part. Everyone else is either working or out of state that would be willing to drive that far with me to keep my company.

Todays [Gallery]
I had seen them in person before but I had never gotten to sit in one. The dealer had a pre-production car on the dealer lot in the showroom area, VIN 100570. It was such a relief to find out I actually fit.

I got to sit in my first Solstice. I have to say all my fears are gone. Added some of my comments vs the MSM and Z3 since they're the only other modern Roadsters I've driven. This is NOT a knock on the MSM, it's a valid comparison for those who tried it and had various height based issues that stopped them from being able to drive one like me (because otherwise I would have bought the MSM).

• I perfectly fit with the roof up!!! I had a good half inch above my hair (which I spike up) to the roof when sitting completely upright. I'm 5'10" but I have a short inseam so I sit like I'm over 6'. In the MSM the roof crushed my hair and rested on my skull even while slouching down. Headroom height was very comparable to the Z3.


• Thanks to the tilt wheel I can see the guages perfectly fine. I don't remember having a big issue with the Z3 or MSM with this, but the wheels on both of those did slightly cover the very tops of the guages.


• The AFBTSs block my line of site as much as the pillars in my wife's RSX. I'm used to having very minimal blind spots from my ZX2, it's just an issue of me becoming more accustomed to using side/rearview mirors more then I'm used to. I've only driven the Z3 and MSM with the roof down, so no comments on those cars.


• Side mirros are small, but sufficient. Since I didn't drive the Solstice I didn't get to test them in traffic, but they're comparable to the MSM and Z3.


• The rearview mirror is perfectly designed to encompass the entire rear window, which (the rear window) amasinigly supplies a very nice rearward view. Comparable to Z3 mirror. In the MSM I sit so tall I had to put the rearview mirror in night-brightlight viewing mode because it doesn't tilt up high enough to even see out the back of the car.


• The clutch ended up being better then my ZX2 S/R, and I already loved the clutch throw on the ZX2. It was much better then the older Z3 and I'd say on par with the MSM. I can definitely see this being very easy to blip on down shifts.


• Shifter throw distance is nice, and gave very good gate feedback that let me know when I was in a gear. I had issues with the MSM being too smooth that I was very unsure if I had engaged it completely. The Z3 had good feedback, but not as good as the new Solstice (Z3 was an older 97).


• The windshield height is high enough for me to look out of it without issues at all. I wouldn't complain if it was a bit taller though. The sun visors are very small and reverse fold flush with the surround, but if you're like me it's a major plus. The Z3 seemed to have more viewable space up and down since it's less angled, but the Solstice seems to have more left to right since it's more rounded and doesn't have little side windows. MSM is very much like the Z3 but when I sit in it completely upright I'm stairing directly at the windshield surround. It's actually easier to see over the windshield then under at that point. When I slouch down in order to see enough to drive the sun visors then take up a good 1/3 of my vission.


• With my build I sit high enough I can put my arm on the window. It's at a slight angle upwards, but still doable. However the only reason I did this is because it seems important to a lot of people. Personally my left arm is never in the window unless I'm stuck in rush hour traffic, which isn't very often. I've got cruise control on my Solstice but I don't plan on ever using it, so while driving there is absolutely no reason my left arm should ever be away from the steering wheel. MSM & Z3 have much lower doors so arm resting is very easy on them. However this is part of the reason I like the Solstice. All my larger friends who own the Z3 or Miata who sit in them look so out of place in this low down car with such low doors. Like they're in a Shriner car. I love how you look like you're down in the car, instead of riding on the car.


• This car is HOT