For any of you who may be interested, Harris Hill Road is putting on a Gymkhana on February 13th. I'm planning on being there.

I'm also going to be participating in a 24 Hours of LeMons race. It'll be at MSR Houston on February 20th and 21st. I'll be on the team "Harris Hill Road LMP(OS)". I'm a bit excited.

I recently started working for The Planet at their headquarters in downtown Houston. As a result of being downtown parking is limited. Most of us have to pay for car parking (motorcycle parking is freely available under the building and there's a bike rack available). However, the company will pay for a bus pass for employees. So I can either pay to park my car, pay for gas, pay for more frequent maintenance, pay for more tires/brakes/etc, or I can take the bus for free.

Yes, believe it or not, even car-enthusiast me has gone for the bus.

I'm not entirely happy with this. I dislike the lack of autonomy. I don't particularly need autonomy. My work is flexible enough to generally allow me to leave when I need to for the bus. We pass off tasks between each other regularly, so, "I need to catch the bus, here's what's going on with this..." is fine. I have a lot of options for busses to take home, so if my schedule does need to vary somewhat, I can adjust for it. The only "valid" (not selfish?) reasons I have for not liking the bus are the time I spend sitting outside, waiting on busses, in the cold, and the added time the bus takes over driving (both because the bus moves slower than a car and because the bus runs on their schedule, not mine).

What other alternatives do I have? Well, I have a bicycle. Work is less than 5 miles, on the street, from home. I could absolutely bike that. There are a few problems, though. First, there aren't showers at work. While that's not much of a problem this time of year, it will be one. Second, my schedule currently has me going home in the dark. My current bicycle is not equipped for riding in the dark. I've had bikes equipped for riding in the dark in the past, though, and I'm just not comfortable with that. Drivers do not see me, even with lights, and I'm not comfortable riding in the dark through some of the neighborhoods I'd go through.

So... Remember that free motorcycle parking I mentioned? I've wanted a motorcycle for some time, and that would give me the autonomy I want. It'd probably cost me more than just paying for car parking, if you ascribe all the motorcycle costs to the commute. But since I want a motorcycle anyway, just for fun, I don't think that's fair (in the same way I wouldn't assign all the costs for my fun MX-5 to a commute). Yes, I know, commuting on a motorcycle is dangerous. I have a route selected that I think is relatively low risk. I'll still have to watch for those idiots in cars who don't look at anything outside their vehicle (see my crash in the car earlier this year), but the route offers good escape routes, roads in good condition (for Houston), and relatively low congestion. Commuting on a motorcycle in the rain also sucks for a lot of reasons. I'll keep the bus pass and be using that in the rain, at least at first. I'll see how things go on the motorcycle and decide if I want to get some rain gear or not later.

Does this long, rambling post have a point? I suppose it does. I have to admit, I'm a selfish American. I've tried riding the bus, and I find it acceptable. Functional, tolerable, only occasionally frustrating. Even so, I find myself wanting autonomous transportation, and being American, yet again, I'm turning to the internal combustion engine. And I'm not even looking at a small little scooter that'd meet my needs well. Noooo, I want a big 500cc sportbike!

At least 500cc is a lot less than the 6.2L of a Corvette engine? *hides*

Some things really bother me. One of these things is the sexism I encounter in my daily life.

I don't feel I'm an extremist about this. There are some things that could be seen as "sexism" that I choose to interpret as "being polite" or "fair generalizations." An example of being polite? Holding a door open for me. It bugs me a bit when a guy holds a door for me, but won't let me hold a door for him. But, meh, he's trying to be polite, not insulting. I get that, and I appreciate it.

So what do I consider a "fair generalization"? When I'm sitting next to Nugget at a track event and people see he's driving a 911 and in yellow. They ask if I have my own car, if I'm in green or blue (green and blue are the less experienced groups. Yellow and red are more experienced). They assume I'm the less-interested wife or girlfriend. That's fair - most of the women who show up with boyfriends and husbands are less interested, have less experience, have less enthusiasm, are slower. They don't treat me like I'm less of a person for it, and they're pretty much universally pleased when Nugget tells them I'm faster than him.

So what examples of sexism do bother me? Here's an example. This was part of a thread on a Porsche forum. The original poster had just bought a 911 that was some distance away. He and his wife were going to pick up the car and drive it home. ( Lots of quotes, rants, etc. within )

Singer 911

nugget bought a GT3 RS recently and I had the opportunity to track it at Harris Hill Road. I really enjoyed tracking that car. I enjoyed the rear engined chassis and the general 911 setup of Nugget's previous C2S Cab, but a few things about that car just weren't right for me. The GT3 RS fixes almost all of them. There's just one thing it doesn't fix: It's still big.

Putting modern guts in (on? around? vaguely resembling?) an old 911 helps. Ok, it's still longer than my current Miata, but the wheelbase is shorter and it has less width.

I had such a great time throwing the GT3 RS around the track. And it's a 911, so you throw it around the track. I can only imagine what an older 911 reborn with modern abilities could do. I just might never come home again.

You're all familiar with the Slap Chop remix by now. Someone put something similar together from/of Jeremy Clarkson. It's not as good as the Slap Chop remix, but it still has me laughing.

Tags: mlp

I was in a collision tonight. My car was crunched pretty thoroughly. I'm ok, but I'm a bit concerned about neck injuries. My neck feels funny - it doesn't hurt, but it does feel... something. Of course, at this point, that could be purely psychological. I'll see how I feel after I sleep some.

I was heading northbound on Shepherd. I was braking to turn left onto Colquitt. This intersection. I didn't slam on my brakes. It's not like my brake lights would have been hard to see. The person who hit me drove off - hit and run. Another person on the street managed to get some identifying information (I don't want to share details online) about the other vehicle.

The car is pretty thoroughly mangled. It looks, to my amateur eye, like the frame is bent down at the back. But... what do I know. I hope there's no, "Well, we can fix it, but it'll never be right again," type damage.

More when I'm feeling more coherent (and have more info).

I went out today to get a new laptop harddrive (dropping it at cowhouse did manage to kill the old one). As I went searching for parking in Fry's, I discovered the primary part of the parking lot was packed. This wasn't a surprise to me at all. I noticed a silly little GTI taking up two parking spaces. Every space near him was full - he hadn't gone off to his own little part of the lot to "protect" himself. I paused... Did I fit? He was well into the space next to him, but... but... The Miata is small... I pulled forward... I knew I'd be close to his door, but it's a convertible, getting in and out without opening the door is easy... He fit. The car is about 2 inches off the curb. I was somewhat concerned about the owner's reaction if he got back before I did, but I got back before him anyway. The puzzling thing to me, though, was his car was already damaged, and on the side I was on, too.

On the drive home, people were very eager to get out of the left lane in front of me. So far, this has been happening much more for me in Houston than it ever did in Austin. I also noticed a "TRY HIM" license plate. *eyeroll*

I had a wonderful day today.

I had a gloriously lazy morning. After waking up at 7-something, I came up to the couch and not-quite-slept until 9-something. I then threw on some clothes, put my hair up, and went of to John's Georgetown shop for a Spokes tech day. I spent some time talking with the guys, got two more 18" wheels, and got to thrash a Cayman. I was grinning as I drove home and picked up some Wendy's. I tried the new spicy asian chicken thingy. I'm sure it was horribly unhealthy, but I had a salad with it, which I'm pretending has some redeeming qualities. And I enjoyed it.

I then went off to Harris Hill Road. There was a Porsche club event there that day and Nugget was already there spectating. I took mopac (a freeway called "Loop 1" on most maps, even though it isn't a loop), and multiple times, the entire freeway came to a complete stop. I never saw any collisions or signs of any, so I don't understand why we had to stop. Oh well, whatever. I finally made it to H2R and the people at the entrance told me to park on the grass. I wasn't fond of this idea, as my car's pretty low, and the grassy area had an irregular surface. But the car handled it well.

As I wandered toward the clubhouse I was distracted by a dog. While I don't want to own a dog, I love playing with 'em, so I stopped to say hi. The dog's owner has a 996 C2, and used to have a Miata. We had plenty to talk about. :D After I realized I'd been sitting there for some time, and had arrived at site later than I'd told Nugget to expect me, I thought perhaps he might be worried about me so I went off to find him. Instead I found Eric. Eric seemed really glad to see me there, which of course made me feel great! I mentioned my worry about Nugget worrying, so Eric said he'd let Nugget know if he saw him. I was distracted with another conversation, and another conversation, and another conversation. I really enjoy talking with car people. Nugget found me, and we went and said hi to Bo. Bo greeted me with a great bear hug. It's been a while since someone's hugged me and picked me up in the process, and yet again, I was pleased by the enthusiastic greeting.

I basically just wandered around talking to people until we decided it was getting cold and we were getting hungry, so we left. I didn't drive on the track. I didn't ride with anyone. I wouldn't have thought I'd enjoy a day where I did nothing but talk with people, but I had a wonderful day.

Rainbow Brite IRL

For those who haven't seen it yet, at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade...

Some days, I throw on whatever t-shirt is clean and some jeans and head to work. Some days, I actually pick out something to wear. Today, I picked out something. A cute shirt with coordinating earrings and necklace. I put my hair up in a pretty style with a hairstick.

Then, at work, I decided I'd attach the rear sway bar on my car. I wanted some more oversteer. So I grabbed a socket wrench and 14mm socket, threw on a big sweatshirt, and crawled under the car and attached it. Took off the sweatshirt, washed my hands, fixed my hair, put on my nice jacket. I went to lunch and played with the car a bit. Decided it wasn't as oversteery as I wanted. Took off the jacket, threw on the sweatshirt, switched the sway bar to the other holes (the swaybar has two sets of holes, so two settings). Getting the sway bar attached with the tighter holes is a lot harder, and I struggled some under the car. When I got back inside the building, I noticed the sweatshirt was covered in dirt. Took it off, went to wash my hands, and discovered I'd gotten my face dirty, too.

Oops.

"God I hope you have at least five friends..."

Even if you feel like your vote for president, senator, whatever doesn't matter, educate yourself on local issues (check the League of Women Voters in your area) and vote on those. Your vote does matter, especially on local issues.

Tags: mlp

On my drive to work, I was yet again stuck waiting for a passive driver.

You see, there's this chunk of my drive where I turn left from a minor street onto a major one. The street I'm turning from (Spicewood Parkway) has a stop sign. The more major street (Anderson Mill) has five lanes - two each direction plus a center turn lane (and no stop sign - they have right of way). During rush hour (both morning and evening), there's a lot of traffic on Anderson Mill, and it varies in speed (the speed limit is 35, but some people go as much as 50mph). It can be a challenge to accurately judge distance and speed of oncoming cars. It's an intimidating intersection if you're turning left from Spicewood Parkway to Anderson Mill. The great thing about this is there's a nearby street that intersects Anderson Mill and has a light! There's a map here. Olson Dr. is the street with a light and even a protected left turn onto Anderson Mill. I realise taking Olson is a little bit longer, but it avoids the need to judge oncoming traffic.

If you're not good at judging traffic, or if you're just not an aggressive driver, you're better off just taking Olsen, instead of sitting on Spicewood Parkway, letting a line of cars build up behind you, as you don't turn, and don't turn, and don't turn. If you're either unable or unwilling to turn in the gaps between traffic, but want to wait for a clear road, go down to the street with a light.

I realise not everyone has the same abilities. Sometimes, you're somewhere with an intersection similar to the one at Spicewood Parkway, and you're not comfortable with your judgment and/or your vehicle, and you take your time. That's understandable. Better to avoid a collision and take a bit longer. But in this particular case, there's an option with a light, with a protected left turn, just a couple of blocks (really, not very far at all) further, that will lower your stress and avoid you slowing down more aggressive drivers. Take it - make your life easier and our lives less frustrating.

Please?

This morning started quite early. Up by 6:15AM, get dressed, get out to the site. I check in for my work assignment, grab some coffee with Nugget, and then go walk the course. I'm working corner 2, as I was the day before, so I walk the course once then walk the course back to my corner. The coffee was black, and ucky, but it was warm, and I had a sweet Clif bar in my pocket. So I ate my Clif bar breakfast and sipped my nice, warm coffee.

The heat started - first heat of the day. Like yesterday, we were short on workers. The course today involved many more downed cones, though, so this was more of a challenge. Fortunately, the delays were not due to cone issues, but rather a timing light issue and a car running into a fence. It took some time for them to verify the car's condition, but it drove off the course, so it wasn't too bad.

We were out there for what felt like forever, though. We finally got off the course, and I felt ill. I changed my tires anyway, then watched the end of second heat on the course I'd run today. I walked it once more at lunch, then went to the CSP cars, still held in grid. I had been watching some of the cars I knew, and spent some time talking to one of the guys who runs in the Southwest Division events. I was very concerned about this course, as it was both technical and fast, so I was glad for all the help I could get. Finally, CSP was released from grid and I went back to my car. I got the magnets on, and went to grind (the CSP cars gridded where the CSP Ladies cars would grid for fourth heat, so I couldn't put my car in grid until they were gone). I was so very nervous - my primary goal for the day was to not lose a position. But my hope was to move up - up to second, at least, and to try for first. I had watched the course, and it was a cone-fest.

So I had a strategy today. First run I would take it easy. Be careful. Be clean. I took it easy. I was careful. I thought I was clean... I didn't hear any cones. I didn't see any running course workers. I didn't hear the announcer mention any cones. Then I heard the announcer say something about one of the cars after me moving up, with a cone... I was convinced I must have knocked down a cone. I waited impatiently for the audit sheets to come back, so I could check. It seemed to take forever. Finally, someone asked me what I was waiting for, and I said I was concerned I hit a cone. "Oh, you didn't. I watched your entire run. It was clean."

Yay! Strategy working!

Time to get aggressive!

So I did. I got more aggressive... And I screwed up my shift to third. Just like I had the first day I ran, on my second run, I shifted to third too late, which caused me to brake too late, and got me behind for later parts of the run. Thankfully, this was on the one open part of the course, and I got myself un-behind before it got tight again. Still, I had lost a lot of time. Then again, I also improved by nearly a second.

This had me in second place. Still. Kathy, who had first from the first day, was being blazingly fast. Tami, who had second the first day, was slower. Linda, who had been fourth the first day was now third. My third run, I knew when to shift. I was still far from perfect, but I took another .8 seconds off. This was enough to keep me ahead of both Linda and Tami, who were also shedding time quickly. So I kept my second place.

I'm very pleased. I beat what should have been a faster car (the car Tami was driving is a 2007 MX-5, and is more significantly prepped for CSP than mine. It has more power, more tire, and less weight). I trophied on my rookie trip to nationals. I avoided coning on a tight, technical, fast course. I am happy. And tired. And I get two free tires and some money from Mazda, woot!

I placed second over the two days in CSPL, which puts me in the trophies. Trophies at my rookie Nats. Now I'm off to change tires.

Posted from the iPhone.

Today started earlier than the other days. I worked first heat, which starts at 8:00AM, so I had to be on site quite early. Nugget came with me, and we've both been here all day. Nugget's been very helpful today. He got things done to get the car ready while I was working, helped me changed tires, and was a great "gofer" today.

We were understaffed on the work assignment. There were three of us at the corner I worked, and one person has the flag and radio, one person has a clipboard (writing down each car that passes and what they hit, if anything). That left one person running for cones. We had a fairly clean corner - only a very few cones were hit - so we managed. We weren't the only corner with only three people. I'm not sure how well the others managed.

There was one near incident on the course as we worked. A car (number 14 in H Stock, I believe) went completely the wrong way and ended up coming up the course backward. He almost plowed into a car coming the correct way down the course, at our corner. The guy going the wrong way was unresponsive to attempts to stop him.

Finally, in the afternoon, it was my turn to drive. The ladies of CSPL brought me a welcome bag. It was a wonderful thing to do, and really helped ease my stress. These women maintain a wonderful balance of competitive and friendly spirits. I'm glad to get to run with them.

One my first run today, I hit a sucker cone. I turned in a bit too early, and *thunk*. On my second run, I shifted to third too late, which got me behind. I braked late, pushed out around a turn, and ended up on the wrong line. I had to slam on the brakes, triggering the ABS (yea, no flat spots), and barely recovered. In my resulting frustration, I turned in early (later on the coarse than in my first run), and handily plowed through a cone. This caused further frustration, and I apparently punted a cone with the front of the car while drifting. At least I'm venting in style, right? My final run was both clean and faster than my previous runs. I ended the day in third, eight tenths behind the class leader.

Now, my street tires are back on the car to take us to the hotel tonight, and we're waiting for fifth heat and dinner.

Today was the second day of runs for the first group of people running. Today was also the day I needed to clean up my car, get stickers on it, and get it tech inspected (make sure the car is healthy enough to run).

Nugget and I slept in, which was fantastic. We made it out to the site around 10:00 AM, lazy us. Tomorrow, I need to be there much earlier, as I need to work first heat. After I work, I'll be changing the tires on my car, making sure my helmet has all the right stickers, and figuring out where my car needs to be for grid. I also need to walk the course - hopefully at least once in the morning before starting to work and at least once between heats 2 and 3 (when the course opens for walking again).

I'm excited, eager, nervous, scared, enthusiastic, impatient... I remembered, last night, on the drive back to the hotel, the sheer joy of throwing my car around a course, playing with the car, playing with the course, not worrying about my time. I need to latch on to that, grab hold of it. I need to keep that joy with me and feel that joy on my runs, rather than feeling like I need to do things right. I've had a lot of kind words from a lot of people. So many have told me I could do well at this event. So many have told me I'm good at this. They mean well, but this makes me feel like there are high expectations of me. I need to stop feeling like this is a test and start enjoying it.

Today is Tuesday, the first day of racing at the 2008 Solo Nationals. Though I didn't run today, many of the people I knew ran. Some ran on the east course, some on the west course.

To back up a moment for those who don't know, there are two courses at Nationals. They're both set up through the entire event. The people running at Nationals are divided into two groups - the Tuesday / Wednesday group and the Thursday / Friday group. These two groups are then divided by east and west courses. So you get the Tuesday East / Wednesday West, the Tuesday West / Wednesday East, the Thursday East / Friday West, and the Thursday West / Friday East. I'm Thursday West / Friday East.

Lost yet? Good. You know just the beginning of how I feel!

I had a lot of fun today, watching friends drive, talking with people, and just hanging out with all the cars, the vrooming, the seriousness, and the fun. It's great to see an event run with such a balance of rules/procedures and fun. That can be a difficult balance to strike, and I think the many years of Solo Nationals have allowed the Nationals crew to find a good balance.

That said, it takes a lot of work from a lot of people to keep things running well. Spokes is a fairly experienced group, and some of the people take on major roles at Nationals. I got some insight today into the level of work Nationals needs from these people, and the ego-balancing they must do to keep everything running so well.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow, and I think I'm settling into a pattern that will let me study the course and prepare without making myself overly nervous. I'm eager for tomorrow to come, both for its own sake, and because once it comes and goes, I'll be that much closer to getting to drive, myself!

It's already day 1, but day 0 came and went fairly easily. There wasn't much I needed to do - register... Um. That was about it, I think. As I don't run until Thursday, I have some time. We watched some videos at the RTRT trailer after dinner. BTW, it's too cold up here.

Now, day 1 in progress. A few Spokes members have already driven.

I'm in Topeka. I was planning on taking two days for the drive up here, just so it'd be an easier drive. But then I decided I wanted to make it to Wichita... Then we had dinner in Wichita (at 8:00) and said, "Meh, it's only a couple more hours, lets finish the drive!" So here I am. Left Austin around 11:15 this morning, and made it to Topeka before my normal bedtime. There were very few problems on the way up - a wreck that had just happened in Texas, slowing us for just a few moments, and a couple of spots with construction (down to 60 or 55mph and one lane) in Oklahoma and Kansas. But overall, it was a quick and easy drive. Long hauls in the Miata with the trailer are much easier from a driving standpoint, but much harder on the ears and back, than long hauls in a Camry with a trailer (at least the ~112 hp Camrys I'd been driving).

I'm nervous.

I'll be heading up to Topeka, Kansas soon for the 2008 SCCA Solo National Championship. I'll be running in CSPL, which is the "Ladies" version of the class for my car (my car is "street prepared" and is in the "C" level of street prepared). There are 7 entries in the class. Two are driving a California car I've been (sort of) following. It's the NC Ron Bauer's been driving. I know, without doubt, that this car is faster than mine. It has more modifications (and helpful ones), and has wider tires. I'm running with offset tire widths right now, which is bad, but has more grip than the narrow tires on all four, and I can't go to wide on all four yet. I'm not familiar with the first generation Miatas I'll be running against.

The people in my area have been wishing me well, telling me I have a good chance of winning. I must remind myself that this is my first time to go to Nationals and I'm still relatively new to autocrossing as a whole. My experience setting up the car for different services is minimal. I lack experience to draw on to use for so many judgment calls that must be made. Thankfully, the guys with Spokes (well, RTRT, I suppose), are great guys. I've been getting advice and helpful suggestions from them already, and I'm sure many more will come.

I need to remember the reason I autocross in the first place: It's fun!

Vikra got new tires and an alignment today. The tires are Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec in 215/45ZR17. These are "Extreme Performance Summer" tires that have outtested my previous RE-01Rs (which I had in 235/40ZR17). I went for a tire width closer to the stock 205 as the wheels are only 17x7, and the 235 width was too much for them. The change in tire and size saved me $80 per tire, so $320. The Dunlops in 235/40R17 are $66 cheaper per tire, or $264 for all four. So far, I've only had the roughly 10 mile drive home on the tires, which is in no way enough to make any judgements.

The car got an alignment, as well. Settings:
Before:

         Left   Right   Total
Caster:  6.59°   6.69°
Camber: -1.10°  -1.30°
Toe:    -0.05°  -0.15°  -0.20°

Camber: -1.30°  -1.70°
Toe:     0.00°   0.05°   0.05°

After:

Caster:  6.21°   6.58°
Camber: -1.21°  -1.27°
Toe:    -0.06°  -0.09°  -0.15°

Camber: -1.78°  -1.77°
Toe:    -0.01°   0.00°  -0.01°

Yes, my journal is now the, "All cars, all the time" journal.

A while back, I had a Mazda 3 as a loaner vehicle from the dealer as my MX-5 was in for some repairs. This time, the dealer ran out of Mazda loaner vehicles and I ended up in a rental from Hertz. The rental is a 2007 Toyota Corolla with about 20,000 miles on it. This is about an order of magnitude more miles than the Mazda 3 had on it, but for a Toyota, that's still effectively infancy. However, life as a rental car is a difficult life.

At first sit-down, the Corolla feels very much like the 3. I can tell, immediately, that they're intended for the same basic market segment, just from different makers. Seating position is similar, steering wheel's similar, dash is similar, with just the different Toyota rather than Mazda styling. When I went to shift the car to reverse to back out of the parking spot, I saw my first major difference. The shifter in the Corolla looks like something out of the '87 Camry I used to own. The movement is straight forward and back, and there's a little button to push to allow the lever to move. Typical boring automatic stuff. The shifter in the Mazda is a different shape - it's more round like a typical manual transmission shifter, rather than long and narrow. It doesn't have a button on the side, and instead easily slides through an offset pattern to the different positions. This makes it easy to slip the shifter into manual mode or neutral while driving, and greatly helps with the "sporty" feel of the car. The lack of this smooth, button-less movement, combined with the lack of manual mode, leave the experience less sporty in the Corolla.

That said, the experience when I stomp on the throttle in the Corolla is far superior to that of the 3. The Corolla goes. I'm not sure which engine this Corolla has, but it's definitely a better match of engine and transmission than the 2.0 with the 4 speed in the 3. That said, I've spent some time in a Mazda 6 with the 2.3L engine available in the 3. The 2.3L has a lot more grunt - it would fix my displeasures with the acceleration of the 3. Still, in the cars I actually drove, I have to give this one to the Corolla. It accelerated and the transmission downshifted well when asked to.

However, the good driving experiences in the Corolla end there. The steering provides little feedback, has more play than the 3, and is flat out mushy and soft, even when you make it out of the dead zone. While one could argue this is due to the miles and the difficult life as a rental, this is consistent with Toyota vehicles. The car's sustained sweeper speed is lower than the Mazda 3's (or even the larger 6's). Communication is less, and the ability to correct understeer is significantly more limited. I asked the car to take a sweeper at high speed and discovered massive understeer. When I went to correct, I discovered triggering slight oversteer - just a bit of slip - was very difficult in this car.

As far as which vehicles with which options I've had, I'm guessing, to an extent. I'm also looking at the websites, new vehicles, for pricing, so this is different year models than I actually drove. Still, it'll give an idea.

The Mazda 3 would be $16,645, it seems. This is the lowest model with the only option as air conditioning. No ABS.
The Corolla would be $16,825. This is the lowest model with no options (includes air conditioning). No ABS, rear drum brakes.
Changing the Mazda 3 to the 2.3L with the 5-speed automatic (which come together - can't get one or the other) increases the price to $19,355 (this has no options - air conditioning and ABS are included in this).

I'm left with the feeling that the Corolla is the car for the idiot American who thinks the car should GO if they never step on the gas pedal, but never does step on a gas pedal, and wouldn't know how to turn a corner even after getting instruction from the best drivers around. The 3 is the car for someone who wants to actually play with the vehicle, feel what it's doing, enjoy the drive. Unfortunately, this is the sort of person who'd want the better match of engine and transmission of the 2.3L / 5AT, which pushes the prices further apart. Mazda really needs to correct that mis-match with the lowest end 3. I'm not asking for great acceleration, just not feeling like the car bogs down every time it shifts.

Driving this Corolla around has further impressed on me Mazda's skill at what they do - building cars that are fun to drive, no mater their actual role.

So, those "more details" about the autocross...

I drove up to Fort Worth Friday. I managed to arrive in time to get the car tech inspected and get a few "test and tune" runs in. I didn't really properly tune the car on the test and tune runs - that's still an area where I have a great deal to learn - but I still appreciated the chance to drive on the surface and get at least a bit of a feel for the lot. By the time I was heading off for the tech inspection, my codriver (greengalnblack) had arrived. She introduced me to some of her friends, we checked in with registration, etc., etc. Friday evening was Friday evening, hanging out with the Spokes group. As the sun set, greengalnblack and I realized we were going to have to head out if we expected to go to bed at a decent hour, and since we ran first heat, we wanted to go to bed at a decent hour. She brought me to my grandmother's and headed off to her place to stay.

In the morning, greengalnblack was running late. Me being me, however, I had planned in some extra time for "just in case," so this wasn't a huge negative. We made it to the site and found everything pretty much as we left it, which left us plenty of time. We walked the course one final time, checked grid spots, and brought the car around to grid. I actually managed to put the car in the wrong place, but the grid workers preferred where I put the car, so we left it there. It was cold - the temps weren't all that low, but the constant strong breeze meant any heat was blown away. greengalnblack made her first run and came back with tires only barely warm. It wasn't long before I was out for my first run. Though things were slick, the car was well behaved, and I instantly vaulted myself into the lead. I had a second over Iain Peebles in Chris's MX-5. But, as far as I knew, that was Iain's first drive in that car, ever, so there was potential for him to gain a lot of time through the three runs. Iain essentially matched the time of my first run in his second, but I knocked .8 off for my second run, putting myself back into the lead. On Iain's third run, a cone got in the way, so I found myself going into my third run already in the lead. With the pressure off and my third run just a "widen the gap for tomorrow" run, I knocked another .8 seconds off, and gave myself a 1.67 second lead going into day two.

Through all of this, greengalnblack, Iain, and I traded teasing and good-natured insults. We gathered for lunch with a few of their friends, and then made our way back to the site to work third heat. I spent third heat in the sun, having forgotten to apply sunblock, and got myself a bit of a burn on my face. The rest of the day went well enough, with event-provided BBQ for dinner, and chances to walk the course after.

greengalnblack had me drive her S2000 on the way to my grandmother's this evening. That car is a blast. It definitely needs to rev to find its power, but once you reach around 6500rpm, it's a kick in the pants. As an S2000, it revs up to 9000rpm, so there's still plenty of room to play. It handled well, and it was easy to control that power through corners, even on the bumpy streets leading up to my grandmother's. That car definitely needs to find its way into an autocross, even if it'll be stuck in a class where it's not competitive.

Sunday morning, remembering the chills of Saturday morning, I put on every clean shirt I had left. That meant three fairly small shirts and a sweatshirt. The breeze, however, was gone, so it didn't feel nearly as cold. I ended up shedding layers quickly and early, shedding one or two before any cars even started running! My performance this morning was... Less than stellar. On my first run, my brain just hadn't engaged yet and I wasn't looking ahead. I got lost on course TWICE! I didn't hit any cones or DNF, but I did end up with some rather boneheaded slam-on-the-brakes moments. Iain's raw time on his first run this morning was faster than mine by a second, but he hit a cone. My second run would have made up just over two seconds (not getting lost is GOOD!), but I had hit an early cone, adding two seconds to the run! Iain had hit a cone on his second run, as well, though so I was still in the lead. But on Iain's third run, he ran clean. That time left him with a 107.mumble over the two days, which matched the 107.mumble that I'd had. Neither of us were sure what our .mumbles were, so I went into my third run not sure if I was winning or not. I knew "a clean run" would win it for me, though, even if it was fairly slow, so I took a nice little Sunday drive around the course. "Don't hit anything and don't get lost" were my goals, and I managed that. The raw time was about a third of a second slower than my coned run, but since a cone adds two seconds, it was a great improvement in my standing. I ended up winning my class by over 1.9 seconds.

After everyone else got to run that day, awards were presented. Spokes had done rather well, so many of us ended up walking up to get trophies. I tore out of there quickly after the presentation was over, eager to get home, unload the trailer, and find a few minutes to relax.

Overall, it was a great weekend spent with fun people, driving a wonderful car. I'm eager for the H2R autocross this weekend, and I need to get my tires and contingency money!

Ouch. Next time, don't forget the sunblock.

It was an absolutely wonderful experience. I'm glad to have "done that" now. I had a wonderful time hanging out with the Spokes group. I won CSP.

More details to come later. Probably.