The adventures of Debbie the girl : racecar driver

[Ian c]

So this weekend I booked us both on our first autocross event .
San Diego pca at the Qualcomm stadium next Sunday

I have a bad back so no karting practice

[jb92563]

Originally Posted by Ian c

So this weekend I booked us both on our first autocross event .
San Diego pca at the Qualcomm stadium next Sunday

I have a bad back so no karting practice

I'm not going to be able to make it this time Ian, but I was looking forward to seeing this spectacle and meeting some new folks from the board.

My observation is that the San Diego group is a great bunch and friendly, but a little shy, so you'll have to make the effort to connect with them and break the ice.

I'll catch you at a future event soon...best of luck to you both.

[Ian c]

Today I booked us onto the 3-day weekend performance driving school in San Diego in October .

None of the local pca chapters have an event listed before then , and she is desperate to do it again , so I also talked to the coordinator of the local bmw club and got permission to attend that at the el toro airbase in September .

In the meantime , she is customizing her helmet with the free martini porsche stickers that our local dealer has at the parts counter , and is practicing helmet wearing .....

[thstone]

Sounds like you're both progressing fine! Keep it up!

[jb92563]

Your gonna love the Performance Driving School and learn some neat tricks in keeping your car in control on wet soapy pavement.

Ever since that course I drive the car with total confidence and can take it to the edge of traction and over while fully in control.

Learning all the race type turning tactics on the Friday is priceless and will go a long way towards making you faster on the track.

Saturday you'll be driving in soapy wet short courses to illustrate various techniques.

Sunday you will be doing mini Auto-X.

I would also bring the Boxster as they will group you according to car type and you will learn that cars specific handling tricks.

It was funny to see the 911's group losing their tails all day long (Rear weighted and power) while the Boxsters just kept going faster and faster around the soapy oval and took a bit of practice to actually make them loose their tails.

My instructor actually had to grab the parking brake to make the tail end slide out as I had new Hankook V12's and they are really good in the wet.

Its better if you just use your regular worn tires for this course.

You are also going to hit a lot of cones during this course so bring some wide blue masking tape and do your front spoiler edges up to the back of the front tire well and that will keep things pristine. You will hit cones dead center as well so do the whole front bumper/spoiler

Heres our motley crew after fun weekend of throwing the cars around all over the track.
https://plus.google.com/photos/118388745157890389551/albums/5802160089589339377?banner=pwa

[Kenny Boxster]

Ian, very lucky girl. Bonus points she has a passion for cars.

[Ian c]

Thanks for the tips guys .
I have made a mental note to check prices on v12s ....... I think we will beekeeping the stock wheels for ax-ing ...

[Ian c]

After dropping the boxster at thepaintshop , we Went and did a couple of races karting earlier this evening .

We cannot find the printouts from our first 3 visits , so went onto the k1 website to check lap times .
It only told us her fastest lap from her first 3 races ... Progressively better each time .
But her first race today she dropped back around a second , then pulled it back in the second race to 27 seconds

The full printout tells a better story though ...
It gives the times of each lap , and the average over a 14 lap race ...

So the fact her best lap in the 5th was over a second faster than her best lap in her first is great ,
But the speed in the first race could not be sustained and could count as a fluke yet in her 5th race she beat it by a second EVERY LAP

So not just getting faster , but getting consistent AND consistently faster
Not counting the first lap due to standing start , and the second lap to get upto race speed , EVERY lap was in the 27 range ...

She wants to go again on Thursday , so I will try to keep the printouts for a thorough comparison


Does anybody on her go K1 karting ?
I still can't work out what the graph means ..

[jb92563]

I always thought it would be fun to go Karting but wondered if the electrics were good. It sure sounds like they could be on the expert setting.

I had been looking at Adams Track in Riverside as they have a nice long track and some fast gas karts.

I think would be fun for a bunch of us PCA racer type folks to go some time and meet / race and oogle our Porsches in the parking lot.

Hmmmm, maybe combine this with a group run through the Ortega twisties or somewhere on the way there.

[Ian c]

Adams got recommended to me a while ago .
Ill pm you if we ever head that way .
Likewise pm me if you're ever going to Irvine ...

We will be there again today after work .
She wants to drop another second

I have been trying my best to boost her confidence from the beginning ,
But the autocross on Saturday did my work for me
She had a great instructor called Kurt , and and that has DEFINATELY helped her mindset .

[Ian c]

Thought I'd update as it's been a while ....

We moved house and problems at work meant I have been working 7 12hr days a week .
So we had to cancel all auto crosses and driving school

Work has eased off and I'm taking a couple of days off during the week to finish the yard and will be finished shortly , so looking at carrying this on .

The boxster has been eating rear tires every couple of months and Debbie has been complaining about the ride quality , so I booked it into hergesheimer for an alignment and inspection and that 5 minute drive from home to there was the first time I'd driven it since last year ....

What a dog !!!

Her pss-9s arrived on Friday to go with the tarret adjustable bits and the new top mounts should be here sometime next week .
I'm currently at work and looking at prices to replace all moving parts in the suspension and I'm thinking it makes sence do do it all at once
I'm also talking with Ira at tarret about adjustable swaybars but I'll leave them until she has more hours on the new suspension .
Maybe the end of the year ...

We're booked for two autocrosses at the end of this month , one in San Diego and the following week at eltoro . So it looks like I'll have a little bit of time to get it all installed and set up ....