As we go from freezing our nuts and bolts off to baking our coolant, it's a good time to look ahead and do some planning. The Formula 1 boys may take a few weeks off, but here in New England we're just getting started. In less than two weeks, ADSI will host it's second school and autocross of the season. The date is Sunday May 17th. My son has a karting event that day so I may catch the late afternoon at best (2-5pm??) or may miss it altogether. My grand plan to hit all the events again this year is being somewhat confounded. But that does not dissuade me from encouraging all of you to take advantage of one of our local natural resources!
One of the reasons I love this time of year is that the F1 and MotoGP grids go back to Europe and give us some good racing. Watching Jorge Lorenzo take the flag at Jerez last weekend was oddly cathartic. He came on as strong as Sampras did on the court back in the day, but seemed to fade prematurely fast. To go from dominating the field to becoming a 4th or 5th place runner is hard to comprehend. Injuries, rules changes, mechanical issues - yes, these can all be potential explanations. But Lorenzo was one of those guys who made races rather boring. I can't say I liked him, but I can say that it is nice to see a third person in the hunt besides Rossi and Marquez. Dovizioso and Iannone, you say? Much as I'm an ardent Ducati fan...I'll believe that they can win a championship when I see it.
On four wheels, this weekend will see F1 in Spain and, then, perhaps my favorite race of the F1 year, Monaco, happens May 21-24. The confluence of money, history, and machines is on a level that is difficult to duplicate anywhere else on Earth. Senna proved that you can indeed pass on the course and everyone else has been working to live up to that legacy since.
While I may not be as regular at ADSI as I'd like this year, this coming weekend is Mother's Day (BIG REMINDER FOLKS!!!) and I'll be with the Porsche Club at Thompson Speedway for a bit of it. Mike, my prior instructor from last fall, will be there. Alex G will be there!! And Alain T. will be there in his 991 GT3. Ron S. will be in his Cup car - should be a great show. I may miss Sunday...because it's Mother's Day people!!!...but it will be a great Saturday for sure.
Yesterday I had a few minutes between calls and work so I decided to bang out some projects that have been on the docket of the 944 for a while. It was the day to take lots of shifter-slop out of play and to install some pedal extensions to make heel/toe shifting a reality. The shifter mod was a first for me.
I had to grind off a welded on pin on the shifter, while still attached in the middle of the care no less, and replace that bit with a bolt, some washers and a thrust washer that I order from McMaster Carr (great resource if you need hardware!) a while back. The issue is that in old 944's, the pin that connects the shifter that you grab to the linkage that selects gears via connection to the transmission becomes worn over time. Wear means that the feel becomes loose and sloppy. You put it in first but you can move the shifter right and left a bit. It's not great.
So by making this fix, the shifts become a lot more precise. That was the promise anyway. So I pulled the shifter apart and cleaned under the boot - lots of debris in there for some reason. Finally I got out my small Dremel-style grinder and had at it. Way too slow. Time for the testosterone special to come out. With the industrial-sized grinder, the job went nice and quickly. A small tap and the rod popped out. As I installed the bolt and washer complex, I quickly learned that over-tightening things would be an issue. I put some lithium grease in there and backed things off a bit - and voila! good results. The shifter is far more precise now. The pedals proved to be interesting. This was my third time doing pedals and/or extensions. I love them on my 911. They put the gas and brake close enough to really work together with one foot. You can, under hard braking, hit the gas a bit too by mistake, but normally the clutch is down so it's not a big issue.
On the 944, things are pretty tight. The gas pedal was hard plastic and it was easy to put some self-tapping screws in there to hold on the new extension pedal. Getting it lined up was tricky as it is tall and can hit the inner tunnel wall carpet if you're not careful. The brake pedal was pretty easy to drill and bolt up. But drilling metal in a car is never so easy so I thought twice about the clutch pedal. As I took off the clutch pedal rubber cover, I figured out that the pedal support in back is performed with two buttresses rather than just one. Way too much of a pain for me. So that one will stay rubber for now instead of my lovely machined aluminium. Function before fashion is my rule.
I'm still waiting for my "blue hose" to finish off the 944 for track use. I did get the 911 looked over for Thompson this morning and took a few shots of the nice hardware kicking around at German Motors in Providence for you.
May is looking very nice already. Anyone else like this month much? Any automotive plans in sight??