In Part 1 of this series, I outlined the plan for my stereo upgrade and completely removed the stock Bose stereo. In Part 2 of this series, I installed new MB Quart component speakers and crossovers into the front doors. In Part 3, I replaced the factory 6×9 package shelf speakers with speakers also from MB Quart and installed two MB Quart amplifiers.

In this post, I will be selecting and installing a new head unit and I will be installing an iPod and iPod controller cable.

Blaupunkt Toronto 400 BT Head Unit

There isn’t anything really wrong with the stock (Gamma) head unit, but I wanted some of the features found on newer model radios. Specifically, I was looking for a head unit that featured Bluetooth capability, iPod control, and visual compatibility with the sober interior of the S4. The first two items are easy to find; many new head units feature iPod control with Bluetooth becoming more and more common, as well. However, most new head units also feature vibrant visual designs, which appeal to the younger demographic most interested in upgrading their car stereos (not middle-aged men and their old cars).

Since the factory radio is a Blaupunkt, I liked the idea of replacing it with a new model from the same manufacturer. I checked the Blaupunkt website and immediately found one that met my specifications – the Toronto 400 BT.

The Good:

• Bluetooth, AUX input (x 2), USB input, Tuner, and a CD player.
• iPod control
• Simple design and VarioColour display is complimentary to S4 interior
• Plugs directly into factory harness*
• Price ($189)

The Bad:

• No iPod control
• Minimilistic screen limits information

iPod Interface Cables

Say, what happened to the iPod control? The spec sheet for the Toronto 400 BT says iPod (features): via interface. Thanks to some cryptography training that I had in the Air Force, I was able to pick-apart Blaupunkt’s horribly written user manual, and it does appear that they claim that their interface cable will allow an iPod to be controlled via the head unit, though in only a very basic way, using the CD-changer controls. That was acceptable to me, so I tried to order an interface cable, but I couldn’t find one at an authorized US dealer. So, I bought one from Europe. It didn’t work.

So, I went back to a US distributor, Midwest Electronics (ME), and ordered their interface cable. It had a different part number, so I assumed that I had ordered the wrong cable for this particular head unit. Imagine my surprise when I opened the envelope from ME and found their cable was not a factory cable at all, but a hacked cable, which I call Frankencable™.

Now, why would an authorized dealer sell a hacked cable? I tried the cable and while it would play music from my iPod (sort of), I still couldn’t control the iPod from the head unit. I went back to the ME website and read the spec sheet for the cable. That’s when I noticed that it says all functions are controlled by the iPod. Okay, that was my fault for not reading the spec sheet before ordering the cable, but does it really take something as impressive as the Frankencable™ to simply power the iPod and play it through an aux input?

I went to the Internets to do some detective work and that’s when it sunk-in that despite their impressive OEM work, Blaupunkt is a very small player in the aftermarket car stereo world and it is difficult to find good user information, BTDT, and support. Still, just based upon what I see on the Blaupunkt website, particularly the iPod interface cable support page, it appears that Blaupunkt is not heavily invested in supporting iPod control. For starters, the iPod interface cable is not even currently listed in their online accessories catalog. Another clue is that their iPod to head unit compatibility list is dated November 2005! The few times I could find BTDT on the forums, the reports were generally negative, with most people having some kind of issue with the iPod control.

I finally called Midwest Electronics and to their credit, they said that they tell people that Blaupunkt does not support iPod control, period. They told me that some users get lucky using the Blaupunkt cables with certain head units, but it is not a dependable system and it is best to assume those features are simply not available. You know what that means…

I could have cut my losses right then and just sent back the head unit and cable, but the head unit looks so good in the S4, that I decided I could try to live without iPod control and just use the Frankencable™ to play the iPod through the aux input. I wouldn’t be able to hide the iPod away like I wanted, but it was better than what I had before. So, I pressed-on and continued installing the system.

Installation

Initial installation of the Toronto was straightforward. One of the reasons I chose Blaupunkt, was because they are the manufacturer of the OEM radio in the S4. This means the factory connector should plug straight into the back of the new head unit without an adapter harness. As you will soon see, I am a wiring neatnik and I liked the idea of having a direct connection. There is also a packaging issue, since the new head unit would also have two pair of RCA cables coming from the head unit, which have to fight for space behind the center console. So, the fewer wires the better.

In this photo, you can see the similarity. The major difference is that connector C (top connector) has been changed to three small, separate connectors (C1, C2, and C3), which fit into the larger connector on the head unit. Connectors A and B are exactly the same style.

This is a pinout diagram for the Toronto 400 BT. According to the excellent Audi radio pinout spreadsheet here, pins 4 and 7 are reversed. I also discovered that pin 2 needs to be disconnected. If pin 2 is connected, the radio will stay in a permanent mute mode, as if there were an incoming telephone call. Better do this in bold for the casual reader:

Top Tip! In order to plug the factory harness directly into the Blaupunkt aftermarket head unit, you will need to swap pins 4 and 7! You will also need to disconnect pin 2. Use this diagram:

Once I made those changes, the factory harness plugged right in and the radio started right up. Connector B is not used at all in my application. Connector C (harness side) is also not used. Instead, connector C1 is occupied by a 5-channel, pre-amp out (RCA) cable and the C3 connector will be occupied by one of the two aforementioned iPod cables.

A SERIOUS Bosectomy

-ectomy – A medical terminology suffix from the ancient Greek εκτέμειν (ektemnein), “‘to cut out.”

While I was installing the stereo, I found it easier to pull the entire center console in order to properly run the iPod cables to the armrest. I was also running a remote bass level control for a future installation of a subwoofer. While doing all of this, I started to be bothered by all of the vestigial wiring. The analog telephone can never be used again, the (aftermarket) CD changer would never be used again, and the line level wiring (Connector B) to the Bose speakers would never be used again. So, I removed it. All of it.

I cannot stress enough just how worthless the exercise was. I do NOT recommend that anyone else do this. It took many, many hours, necessitated the removal of much of the interior, you have to dig deep under the heavy carpet, and I was tattooed by the sticky, black wiring harness wrap. It was very frustrating. And for what? Just to satisfy my OCD? As I mentioned, there is some benefit to cleaning-up the wiring behind the center console, but it isn’t really necessary. Sure, I added some lightness, but not enough to make the effort worth it for anyone except crazy people, like me.

7.4 lbs. of wiring (including box). Not even enough to offset the weight of one of the amps, but man, it feels good. I might need medication.

Bring the Noise

Once everything was together, I discovered that there was a lot of system noise. I ground all components directly to the ground point at the battery’s ground strap, but the noise is persistent. I was also getting terrible noise and distortion, when using either of the iPod cables. I made this video to help Midwest Electronics help me with this problem:

The video is just a boring troubleshooting demo, but one interesting thing to note is that you can see one reason why I think the head unit is such a good fit for the S4 interior – the controls are backlit red and the screen can be made orange, which makes it the exact same color scheme as the climate control head unit. At night, the Toronto really looks like it could be a factory radio.

Anyway, after much troubleshooting, I determined that the problem was with the head unit itself, so I have sent back the radio and the adapter cable. Hopefully, Midwest Electronics will conclude the same thing and I will get a head unit that works properly.

I thought this might be the last chapter of the Bosectomy Chronicles, but it looks like there will be at least one more. In my next installment (LOL, again), I will showcase the final installation. It will either be anchored by a Toronto 400 BT…or it won’t. I can’t wait to find out.

jimmy

In Part 1 of this series, I outlined the plan for my stereo upgrade and completely removed the stock Bose stereo. In Part 2 of this series, I installed new MB Quart component speakers and crossovers into the front doors. In this post, I will be replacing the factory 6×9 package shelf speakers with speakers also from MB Quart. I will also be installing two MB Quart amplifiers.

Package Shelf Speakers

Like the tweeter installation from Part 2, this is easy. The Bose speakers located in the package shelf are very typical 6×9 speakers and can be replaced without much (if any) modification or fabrication at all. This is especially true if you plan to also replace the speaker grilles. However, I have decided that I wanted to do a stealth installation in the cabin, in order to maintain design congruity and for security. So, I wanted to use the Bose speaker grilles with my new MB Quart speakers.

First, I removed the speakers from the car. From inside the trunk, simply unplug the speaker wires going to the speakers and unscrew the three Philips screws holding each speaker in place. Then push the speakers out onto the package shelf and remove them from inside the car.

The speakers are sandwiched between a plastic mounting basket on the bottom and the plastic grille on top. In order to separate the two pieces, I drilled-out the plastic rivets.

I was a little careless drilling-out the plastic rivets (okay, they aren’t exactly rivets, but I don’t know what you call them), which left the mounting posts on the grille at various lengths. This would be mildly irritating later, so I would recommend drilling slowly and only just at the top of the rivet. That’s usually all it takes to break them free and then all of the mounting posts will remain at an approximately uniform size.

So, here is what we have in my office: Master Handbook of Acoustics (Second Edition) on the shelf, a B&W Matrix speaker, a new MB Quart speaker, and the old Bose speaker, which looks like it has a cone constructed of…butcher paper. Honestly, the tweeter looks like it is made of butcher paper, as well. Oh, dear.

Here is a good comparison photo. In this photo, you can also see the four 7 mm screws that secure the speaker to the mounting basket, which secures the speaker to the car. Notice that the mounting holes in the MB Quart are very similar. However, when I tried to install the new speaker into the mounting basket, the mounting holes were off just enough that I had to use a Dremmel tool to grind away enough material around the holes to allow room for a socket. Another solution would be to simply replace the hardware with Philips screws, or the like.

Notice that I used a cardboard shield in case the Dremmel jumped. I didn’t want to grind away anything important on the driver itself. Also, my diagram above isn’t exactly to scale; I didn’t have to grind away that much material. After I ground the clearance for a socket, the speakers fit into the baskets perfectly.

I secured the grille onto the mounting basket with a few screws inserted into the plastic “rivets” mounting posts. You can see a couple of unused posts peeking-out from under the mounting basket. The posts are fragile and break easily if you use a screw that is too big or if you over-tighten. This isn’t too important, since these screws only secure the grille. I used three on one speaker and four on another, but you could probably get away with two on each, unlike Audi/Bose, who used four screws to hold the speaker to the mounting basket, only three screws to hold the mounting basket and speaker to the car, but TWELVE plastic rivets to hold the grille down! They really, really, really did not want you to remove the grille and see their butcher paper speakers, which at least sound better than their invisible tweeters.

It’s difficult to see in the photo above, but the speaker connectors almost interfere with the mounting basket, so I will be using 90 degree connectors.

Reinstalling the speakers is as simple as dropping them into the package shelf and then screwing the mounting baskets down (three screws per side) from the trunk. Reconnect the speaker wires.

Finished!

Amplifier Installation

I’m not going to spend much time on this, because there are just too many individual choices and considerations when deciding on an amplifier setup. I’m also not going to explain how to plan, install, and wire an amplifier, since there are already so many resources available. I’m just going to explain a little about the factory setup and then discuss my design and installation choices.

The Bose amplifier is screwed to the underside of the package shelf. Remove the three connectors and the two screws to remove the unit. The unit itself contains two discrete amplifiers, one for each rear channel, which are identical to the individual amplifiers found in the front door modules.

I don’t know anything else about these amps, except that on ’91 Audi 200 turbo quattros, there were reports of these amps causing fires, some resulting in totaled cars. I have never heard this reported about a system in an S-Car, and according to this excellent page from Chris Miller’s archived site, Bose found the problem and changed one of their component vendors. No problems were reported after that.

Anyway, I will be replacing the Bose amplifiers with two new 2-channel amplifiers from MB Quart. Obviously, one will drive the door speakers and one will drive the package shelf speakers. Also, even though I decided on a stealth install in the interior of the car, I chose to display the amps in the trunk. They aren’t much to look at, just two black metal boxes, but I want to see them. It’s no different than looking under the hood of a car, I suppose. Also, the amp mounting board will serve as a cosmetic cover for the sub box that I will almost certainly install at a later date. Being open to the trunk will also help with heat dissipation.

This is the back of the unfinished board. It’s designed so that if I need to temporarily regain my trunk space, I can pull the board towards the back of the car, disconnect all of the wiring in one place, and pull the board out of the car.

This is the front of the board. The amps are designed so that all of the connections are beneath the outer cover, so there is no danger of FOD from loose material in the trunk.

In Part 4, I will discuss the new head unit and installation of an iPod and iPod control cable into the center console.

jimmy

In Part 1 of this series, I outlined the plan for my stereo upgrade, removed the door panels from the car, and removed the Bose speaker module, which was secured to the door with six Philip screws. I discarded the module, because I will be upgrading the woofer from 4″ to 5.25″ and I could not see how the module could be used to help secure the new woofer to the door. For some applications, it might be possible to reuse the Bose door module with a replacement driver. If chosen carefully, component speakers and a crossover could also be secured inside the door module. I had hopes for a truly stealth installation, but it was no use. The MB Quart crossover I am using is as big as a breadbox. I swear it looks like one of those Radio Shack science kits from the 70′s. More on this later.

On that note, the stereo components which I have chosen will dictate some of the design and installation parameters, in which I have to work. I will point these out whenever possible, but of course, your mileage may vary, according to the components which you select. If you read these articles before you buy, they might help you make a more informed choice. So, here is what he have so far:

Top Tip: For easier installation, select separate door speaker components that utilize a 4″ driver and a small crossover unit, so that the Bose door module can be reused.

However, for better sound quality, you will want to select a 5.25″ woofer. It will fit (with some work) and it will return a much better sound.

Tweeter Installation

Let’s start with something easy – tweeter installation. Take an X-Acto knife and cut away the soft plastic behind the built-in tweeter grille. Then fit the tweeter behind the grille and secure in place with a bracket. In non-Bose stereos of the era, there was an actual tweeter (Nokia!) mounted behind the grille, so there are factory mounting points.

Woofer Installation

Nothing too difficult here and not much that is UrS specific; these are just basic concepts. I started by making a cardboard template for the mounting board. This took awhile, because door panel isn’t perfectly square and I couldn’t figure-out how I was going to secure the mounting board. The secret was to square it up by using a spacer.

Once the spacer was in place, the mounting board would sit square and be closer to factory mounting locations that I could use to secure it.

I cut the mounting board with a jigsaw and mounted the woofer to the front with a supplied mounting frame and four screws. Try to use screws that barely extend past the mounting board. I had to cut-down one of the screws, because it interfered enough to keep the door panel from going back on the door.

I cut a piece of acoustic foam to fill the unused void around the woofer and behind the area where the tuned port used to be and then set the mounting board in place, on top of the foam. To secure the board in place, I used three different methods, two of which you can see in the photo above. On the left, that piece is directly above the spacer and the top fits within a groove that is already in the door for a very secure fit.

This simple metal bracket holds the bottom of the mounting board.

This is what it looks like from the front. I used an X-Acto knife to trim the opening so there isn’t any material blocking the speaker. I didn’t discover until later that the light-colored foam could be seen through the grille, so I put a piece of black foam over most of it and then went after the rest with a Sharpie.

Crossover Installation

The crossover was challenging. I had a couple of design hurdles and considerations. First, the crossovers are huge. I have no idea why, in this day and age, a crossover can’t be the size of a matchbox, especially in an automotive application. The second consideration is that the crossovers are adjustable. So, I needed to figure-out how I could make adjustments while listening to music, without having to remove both door panels. One option is to simply mount the crossovers inside the cabin of the car. The glove box might work, or maybe the trunk (where the amps will be going), but both of these options have other problems, including the amount of wiring that needs to be done.

My solution came to me after Cat-Cat found a good mounting location. I found a place with some factory mounting points nearby and where the crossover would not interfere with the window regulator.

Top Tip: Use the Bose door module as a template to see where there are cutouts for the window regulator. Avoid those locations for your components. This will help reduce the number of test fits you will need to make.

I noticed that the mounting location was mostly located behind the door panel’s storage bin. At that point, I thought it would be acceptable to me to cut an access hole for the crossover adjustment knob, through the door panel, but mostly hidden by the storage bin. Since, I would be cutting a hole in the door panel and through the factory vinyl insert, I knew that this design decision would also mean some project creep. If I were going to cut holes in the vinyl fabric, I might as well concurrently replace the vinyl with Alcantera. See? This is one of the reasons it takes me years to get anything done.

The first step was to mount the crossover and then test fit the door back into the car. Good thing I tested it, because I had to move the crossover down to clear the inner door frame. I had to cut off one of the factory mounting points to get it to fit. That was just as well, since the new location put the visible control even lower into the door bin. Once the crossover was mounted, I measured twice, removed the crossover, and cut the hole for the adjustment control. I could have made the hole smaller, so that it perfectly matched the diameter of the control, but then I would have had to find or fabricate a finishing bezel. Instead, I decided to use one of the unused tweeter mounting rings. This made the hole bigger, but I thought it would give the install a more professional look.

This is the proof of concept. I figured if I didn’t like it, I could just seal the hole back up and the door fabric would cover up my experiment. I decided to move forward, which meant first replacing the factory vinyl door liner with Alcantera.

Bonus Door Liner Replacement FAQ!

This will be brief, because I don’t actually know what I am doing. I pulled off the original vinyl material (which was already coming off anyway), and discovered that Audi had chosen to affix the material to the door using…bee pollen. Why? I don’t know. Maybe because they knew that honey bees would soon be as extinct as unicorns and that their pollen would be as rare as the unicorn tears and dinosaur egg shells used in other parts of these cars. Thanks, Audi. Anyway, this bee pollen is nasty stuff. It’s sticky and it just disintegrates when you touch it. Even with judicious use of Goo-Gone (you guys know how much I love Goo-Gone) and a gasket scraper, I never could get rid of all of this stuff.

I keep saying Alcantera, but that’s a brand name. I really just went and bought some fake black suede from Hancock Fabrics. Then I found a roll of foam sheet from Michael’s hobby shop. I used the original vinyl as a template and cut the foam and pseudo-suede. Then I glued those two pieces together. I used a Krylon adhesive, based on a recommendation I got at Michael’s, but I already see where I have to go back and re-adhere some material, so I will be using some 3M 90 Heavy Duty Spray Adhesive.

Once I had the fabric sandwich together, I glued down the big, flat area first and then worked out to the edges, which I tucked into grooves at the edge of the panel. The foam was so thick that I kept having to trim it down so that the cloth and foam combo would fit into the groove. This was very aggravating, because if you trim too much, then the material won’t fold into the groove at all anymore and you either have to live with it, or start over. It might be easier if you don’t use the foam, but I didn’t think the fake suede material was thick enough to use on the door by itself. By gluing it to the foam, you also eliminate any wrinkling of the fabric.

Then I used magazines to press the fabric to the door, while the adhesive dried. It turned-out okay, but it is very difficult to reach the part at the bottom of the door, because of the storage bin. Luckily, you can’t see down in there very well.

This is the door, when it is almost finished. You can see the crossover control peeking-out from behind the storage cubby. You can also see that I hadn’t yet hit the acoustic foam with a Sharpie.

Here is a close-up of the crossover control after I have pressed-in the tweeter surround bezel. You can see some Dremmel marks, so I will probably hit it with some Plasti-Kote. The control dial looks off-center, but it’s not.

Finishing Up

All that’s left is to wire it together and reinstall the door. Nothing much to say here. You should probably know how to wire a stereo, if you are undertaking this project yourself. Besides, the instructions that come with your components will explain what you need to do. Because of the way I am going to wire the system, I will not be using any (or much) of the factory wiring. I have left it in place for now, but I made tidy little custom harnesses for the speakers and crossover.

Using heat-shrink tubing or other wiring wrap will help the wire fit securely into the factory clips, which you can see in the photo above. The clips are nice and can moved to various helpful locations on the back of the door.

This is the back of the door, which shows everything. Note the location of the crossover, which will not interfere with the door.

And this is the finished door.

I am very pleased with the results. The fabric refinishing isn’t perfect, but I can go back and either fix it or try again. It will be easier the second time around (or fifth time around, since I now have to do my other three doors). I like the crossover control, too. If I wanted to hide it further, I can click the unused tweeter grille into the bezel, though people might wonder why I have a tweeter inside a storage cubby.

In Part 3, I will discuss installing the rear speakers, amps, and more wiring.

jimmy

Part 1: Project Overview

Since my door panel is off the car until I fix the window regulator, I thought it would be a good time to begin Nessie’s Bosectomy by installing new component door speakers. So, what is a Bosectomy? My car, like all UrS cars, came standard with a Bose stereo system. A Bosectomy is the total removal of that system.

You might ask why in the world I would do that – Bose makes a great stereo! Actually, I will let you in on a little secret – no they don’t. I won’t belabor this point, but there is strong evidence to suggest otherwise. Other people have already done a fine job of articulating this point of view (here is one of the better pieces), so let’s just move on. Label me a hater, if you must.

There are several things going on here, so let me explain. First, there is my own history. When I was in high school, peer pressure (thy name is Charles Braden) unlocked my inner audiophile. This coincided with the very early days of good, aftermarket car stereo systems, so we spent a lot of time installing car stereos. My first (and only) new car, a 1985 VW GTI, had the full kit: Boston Acoustics component speakers up front, a bunch of subs out back, multiple amps and even a very rare, separate dbx noise reduction decoder so that my mix tapes would sound good.

That was the last of my good car stereos, mostly because I soon entered a long period of my life where my only mode of transportation was a motorcycle. Years later, when I finally bought a car again, I couldn’t afford to update the stereo. Years after that, when I could afford a stereo, I didn’t want to because I was only interested in spending money on performance upgrades. When I finally reached the point when I could afford a track car and a street car, too much time had passed, I had turned old, and I just couldn’t be bothered to mess about with the Bose stereo that was in my Audi A6. It sounds fine, I kept telling myself. Don’t mess with it.

Now that I have another Audi with a Bose stereo, what has happened to make me want to rip it out? Two things. The first is my job. Though this is only a small part of my duties, technically, I am now a professional live sound engineer (or technician, if you prefer). So, my ear is coming back and I’m starting to care about how things sound again. The same cannot be said of Bose. The other thing is the iPod (it’s not lost on me that these two things aren’t really complimentary – just work with me). I’m completely sold out to it and I use it to play all of my music, except when I am in the car. I need to have an iPod compatible stereo in my car and that is what brings me back to my Bose system.

Besides the poor audio quality, the biggest problem with a Bose car stereo is that it is a closed system. In other words, I can’t just replace the head unit with a model that is iPod compatible. The head unit, amps and speakers are all designed to work with one another, and Bose uses a unique impedance that prevents individual components from being swapped-out without unacceptable issues. Bose doesn’t play well with others, so either the whole system stays, or it all goes.

Bose Blose™, so it goes.

The plan:

• Completely remove all components of current Bose system.
• Replace door speakers with a component speaker system, utilizing separate drivers and a crossover.
• Replace package shelf speakers with higher quality units.
• Replace factory Bose amplifier with a higher quality unit.
• Replace stereo head unit with a higher quality unit that utilizes iPod/iPhone control, including Bluetooth.
• Hardwire iPod into arm rest.
• Maintain factory look (“stealth” installation).

A subwoofer enclosure would be nice, but I don’t know if the momentum on this installation will take me that far.

So, let’s get cracking. I’m going to start with the doors. I removed the door panel like this:

Hello, what’s this? I discovered a little secret about these cars.

Audi engineers designed this lovely speaker grille, formed nicely to the contour of the door panel and almost certainly in anticipation of the best Bose had to offer for Audi’s most expensive car. What kind of tweeter did Bose see fit for a $50,000 car?

None!

That’s right, the Bose system is two 6″ x 9″ speakers on the package shelf and two 4″ full-range speakers in the door. These aren’t headphones, people!

To give some credit where it is due, I must say that the Bose door speaker module is very nice. It is a self-contained enclosure which holds the speaker, an amplifier, and a tuned port. It is shaped to fit around the window regulator. It is very good packaging.

I pulled the unit apart and took the harness. I will try to use factory wiring and connectors, where possible. In my next installment (LOL), I will show how I fit the speakers and crossovers to the doors.

Note: I wrote this post on April 12, 2008 and it has been sitting in my draft folder ever since! I don’t even have that job anymore! The car went into the hanger for mechanical repairs and it didn’t come out for months, so the Bosectomy project stalled. Let’s see if I can finish this project, before the two year anniversary. Let’s see if I can finish ANY project in less than two years.

jimmy

Since I was five years old, one of the greatest pleasures of my life has been to sit at the kitchen table almost every night before bed and have a bowl of cereal while reading. Because of the short time it takes to eat, some awkward dexterity requirements, and collateral damage from milk droplets, I found that it was not conducive to reading books in this manner (though I have certainly done so). I found that suitable reading material was similar in requirement to that perused while meeting another of our natural appointments. The “easily digestible” metaphor seems to lend itself almost too easily to resist, so there it is. Therefore, for the first ten years of this cereal-time experience, my reading material was exclusively the back of the cereal box itself and Marvel comic books.

However, at some point while I was an early teenager, probably through the influence of James Bond movies, I began to become interested in cars. So, my cereal-time reading material changed to car magazines and has largely remained so ever since. Simple arithmetic will show that I cannot possibly afford to keep a new car magazine propped-up in front of me every single night, even if there were that many available each month. This means that I read and re-read lots and lots of back-issues. Out of this familiarity with my back catalog has emerged a favorite issue. The November 1987 issue of Car and Driver magazine stands out as having featured an uncanny number of my all-time favorite cars all in a single regular issue.

I purchased this issue at the Sembach, AFB BX in West Germany, where I was stationed at the time. Despite the “Special Import Issue” title, it is a 160-page regular monthly issue, not a true special issue, like the “Road & Track Exotic Cars” series published around the same time.

Almost every page is special to me, causing sparks from cool car content and twinges of ordinary 80′s nostalgia. There, I haven’t even reached the contents page and I have come across a Pirelli ad featuring an UrM5, one of my all-time favorite cars. The Letters page features an almost full-page letter (all three columns) from a gentleman protesting a feature on Bernd Rosemeyer. The letter was written on behalf of Herr Rosemeyer’s widow and contains very interesting information about the famous Auto Union driver.

“The world has become a better place, thanks to the likes of the Audi Quattro Sport, the Ferrari GTO and F40, and the Porsche 959.”

The FYI section has some nice spy shots of the “King of the Hill” Corvette (the rare, Lotus-tuned ZR-1) and the restyled Lotus Esprit, another of my all-time favorites. “No word on whether the revised car can be driven underwater,” says C&D. There is also a preview of the Alfa Romeo 164, a car that I have always found handsome. The most interesting item to me though, is an article about Dr. Ferdinand Piëch planning to build an Audi hypercar. “The plan is to build a four-door sports-luxury automobile that will be to normal sedans as the Porsche 959 is to everyday sports cars. It will probably be powered by a twin-turbo version of the 32-valve, 3.6 liter V-8 that Audi is planning for it’s all-new 300 model, due in 1989.”

The first feature is a full five-page preview of the Ferrari F40. Despite only being a preview, the article is as detailed as a road test and features beautiful and detailed full-color photography of the supercar. “Wrap your reverie in artistic coachwork. Paint it red and let it blur.” Indeed. This feature alone is worth the magazine’s price of admission. But there is more to come. Oh so much more.

Next up we have a full road test of the E30 M3, another of my all-time favorite cars. All the full-page color money went to the F40, so with two exceptions, the M3 review suffers from bland b&w photography. Otherwise the review is well done and the editors fall all over themselves in praise of this car. “The M3 leaps through the corners like a cat, its feisty engine spinning and spitting until you snatch another gear or the rev limiter grabs it by the tail.” 80′s values are really apparent here as much of the article is devoted to exorcising the “yuppie” attachment to this BMW in particular. And, as with most other reviews in the magazine, a column-inch is devoted to the drag coefficient of the vehicle: 0.33 Cd, which as we find out later, is unimpressive by Audi and Honda standards.

The next article is a full review of the Toyota Celica All-Trac Turbo. While I can’t say that this is one of my favorite cars, I will say that this is a car that has always interested me. And why not? It is a 190 hp, turbocharged, four-wheel drive coupe. It’s also a Toyota. Could this be the answer to many of our dreams? Could this be…a dependable UrQuattro? C&D thinks so, calling it “a better Audi Turbo Quattro for fewer bucks.” Ouch. Still, my interest in this car, bolstered by this good review was enough for me to shop around for one once. Unfortunately, I found out that they (like older Audis) are rare in my area and they had held their value more than I had hoped (or could afford at the time). These days, I think they would make the good basis for an inexpensive AWD rallycross car.

Next we have the first real miss of the issue. A review of the Mitsubishi Galant Σ (Sigma). First of all, any car name that has me having to go to my character map utility in order to properly type the name, can’t possible reflect a well thought-out car. Is that a ONE-spoke steering wheel? The review claims that this is a decent car, but it suffers from the same cockpit techno-excess as the Isuzu Impulse and 300ZX Turbo Anniversary Edition. This is painful 80′s nostalgia.

Still less than halfway through the issue, we have a two-page “Driving Impression” review of the new Audi 80/90. “Although the Sahara is hardly an ideal environment for assessing a car’s capabilities, we did manage to learn a few things about the new Audis. They can run at redline all day long in temperatures of up to 127 degrees Fahrenheit without overheating.” Drag coefficient: 0.29 Cd for the 80, 0.30 Cd for the 90.

This is followed by a three-page, full-color “Driving Impression” review of the Honda CRX Si. Great car. Drag coefficient: 0.29 Cd for the HF, 0.30 Cd for the Si.

Only just now wading through the middle of the magazine and we have another two-page “Driving Impression” review, this time of the BMW 750iL. “Under its hood, however, lies a magnificent 5.0 liter V-12 – the first twelve-cylinder engine in a German production car since the demise of the Maybach Zeppelin in 1939.” This review is followed by three single-page impressions for the Mazda 929, the Toyota Corolla, and the beautiful, if unexciting, Mercedes-Benz 300CE.

The issue contains a “Charting the Changes” section, where all current import vehicles are listed with the changes for the model year. What is most noteworthy are all of the companies no longer importing to the US (or no longer in existence): Panther, Sterling, TVR, Citroen, Peugeot, Renault, Bitter, Merkur, Alfa Romeo, Bertone…and Yugo, among others.

Next is a feature article about vintage California Cadillacs…like I ever read this article knowing what follows.

How can they have held off until page 116? The sunglasses and sheepskin seat cover ads are just a few pages away. Can the full road test of the Porsche 959 really be buried behind a prancing horse and other such distractions (fine distractions, though they were)? Apparently so. But the shock of its position within the magazine is soon replaced by the shock of how much content is really in this magazine. It is the gift that keeps on giving.

“With rocket-sled acceleration and the highest top end we’ve ever measured, the 959 stands alone at the pinnacle of production-car performance.”

“If that sounds like hyperbole, how does a 0-to-60-mph time of 3.6 seconds strike you? The drill was to switch the 959′s programmable four-wheel-drive system into its locked setting, engage low gear, wind the engine to 7000 rpm, and drop the clutch. The result was a cloud of rubber dust from the four spinning Bridgestone RE71 gumballs, and a car that disappeared as if shot from a cannon.”

Whew. This is good 80′s nostalgia. Decades later and the 959 could still hold its own against the modern supercar. Having a full road test of probably my favorite car ever at a time when otherwise finding this information meant a trip to the library microfiche reader is truly priceless.

Let’s see here, a couple of short takes to finish things off. Here is one of the Shelby CSX and as a bonus, the Volkswagen Jetta GLI 16V. Less than two years after I bought this magazine, I would own the smaller version of that car – the Golf GTI 16V. Okay, here we go into the ad zone. C&D paraphernalia, radar detectors, an ad starring a girl in leg-warmers, the dubiously-named “Muf-Loc” (which is a locking cover for your tailpipe that supposedly keeps thieves from starting your car), an ad for Shokan that looks like it was made with an early dot-matrix printer, sunglasses, seat covers and…oh…my…God.

No way. No WAY! Just when I am tiring of the ads, just when I’m deciding not to turn to Patrick Bedard’s commentary on the last page, just when I’m about to lock this issue into a safety deposit box…I come across the “Sport” section. There, beginning with a stunning full-color photo, is a seven page article about Walter Röhrl’s record setting run to the top of Pikes Peak in the Audi S1!

The article was even written by Larry Griffin, who wrote one of the greatest articles I have ever read about the Audi quattro rally car. His writing for this article was almost equally as clever, “When they pounce up the heights, they annihilate the quiet. The fastest Open Rally cars are demonically, hideously fast. More than ever you regard performance as a relative thing. If Einstein could see Vatanen and Röhrl apply the sciences of turbocharging and aerodynamics and four-wheel drive, he would clap like a kid and rewrite his theory of relativity to allow for such pluperfect aberrations.”

Griffin’s interview with Röhrl also turns up some items of interest for the technoweenies, “Last year, Unser demonstrated the thrilling effect of a toggle switch on the dash. Audi remains reluctant to discuss the particulars, but Walter confirms that, as rumored, the switch kicks in a jet of compressed air that keeps the turbo singing even when the throttle is closed.” Walter goes on to amputate Bobby Unser’s previous record (also set in an S1) by eight seconds.

By the end of the article, I’m spent. This issue of Car and Driver is for sale for one meellion dollars (or you can probably find it sans milk spots on eBay for $5). It comes with my highest recommendation and with the hope that Car and Driver can rebuild itself and reclaim its former glory.

jimmy

We have all been there. We want need a computer, gadget, phone, camera, car, or girlfriend that is/has/does “this, this, this, and that”, but we won’t can’t wait and we just jump-in, even though the option available to us might only offer “this, this, and that” (and maybe even the that isn’t so great). It might not be what we want, but it’s close. This is what has been happening with me, as I have searched for a video camera to shoot in-car footage of our 24 Hours of LeMons endurance races.

Sure, I could buy from ChaseCam and call it a day, but their basic kit is almost $1000 and isn’t HD. This camera is for LeMons, not LeMans. I have bought a bullet camera coupled with a cheap portable video recorder, but the quality, usability, and durability of the recorder was poor. Then I tried a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ8. The video quality was good (still not HD), but like many other digital cameras that also shoot video – it has a 2 GB file size limitation. In the case of the Lumix, that equates to about 20 minutes of footage. Perfect for a session at an HPDE or similar track event, but useless for seven or eight hours of continuous racing.

Luckily, thanks to YouTube and well, people like me, who like to upload racing videos, there has been an explosion of small, inexpensive video cameras from companies like Flip and GoPro. I have been watching carefully, trying to figure-out when to jump-in, when from out of nowhere, the perfect camera comes along from…Kodak. Kodak? I thought I would be buying a camera from a hip, edgy company from a tattooed kid skating up to me with a POV camera strapped to his helmet. Instead, I bought a camera from a guy with a top hat and monocle. Did he deliver?

The Camera

The Zi8 is about the size of an iPhone, but a bit thicker. The front has the fixed lens and a large plastic cover, behind which is the rechargeable Li-ion battery. The back of the camera has a 2.5″ color LCD screen, four buttons, and a joystick, which is also a fifth button. There is also a tiny speaker for playback. Around the edges of the camera are various ports and jacks, a macro switch, a standard camera mount, access to the SD card, and a built-in, flip-out USB dongle. The camera is intended to be held upright during filming, more like a cellphone, rather than a traditional camera.

Really? Everyone doesn't own a laptop, you know.

My overall impression is that it is a nice little design, but it is all plastic and it looks like it will break the first time it’s dropped. The flip-out USB dongle is also something that concerns me. I understand its inclusion, but it seems awkward in some situations and also seems like it might break over time. The benefits of the all plastic construction are that it is very light (about 4 oz.) and the camera is inexpensive.

The Specs

This camera meets every specification that I had for an in-car camera:

The camera also comes with an HDMI port and cable(!), so you can just plug into an HDTV and start watching your videos. This wasn’t a consideration for me, but it is a very nice feature at this price point.

Use and Performance

The camera cannot be easier to use, which is perfect for a driver or crew member wearing gloves. The camera boots very quickly and displays the resolution options on-screen for a couple of seconds (defaulting to the last resolution selected). The user can quickly change the resolution using the joystick, or he can ignore the prompt. Then he can press the red button to begin recording. That’s it.

Still, there was no time for a test video before installing this into our Miata for the 2009 Yee-Haw It’s LeMons Texas endurance race in October 2009. We hardwired the camera into the car and mounted it to an I/O Port camera mount, attached to the dash bar of the car. Again, I don’t like that the camera’s mount receiver is plastic, but since the camera is so light, I suppose there isn’t much force being applied to it.

Kodak Zi8 mounted in the Miata

We used a 32GB card, set the resolution to 720p/30fps and recorded the whole 13 hour race! Well, we would have recorded the whole race, but we left the camera unplugged on Sunday morning, so it ran on battery power until it died. When we noticed it wasn’t on, we plugged it back in and it started recording again. I have uploaded a sample video to Vimeo. This is a little over one lap of MSR Houston during the LeMons race. The raw .mov file was converted to .avi, which I then imported into Windows Movie Maker and exported as a Windows Media HD 720p file. There has probably been some video quality degradation, but since this is typical of how most of my videos will be uploaded, I thought this would be a more realistic example than providing raw, unedited, and uncompressed footage.

I will say that we watched the raw (.mov) files on a friend’s 16:9 TV and the quality was amazing.

Conclusion

This video camera met my specifications, exceeded my expectations, and performed admirably under racing conditions. And it did so for an unbelievably low price. I can highly recommend this camera for in-car videos.

Highs: HD video, SD memory, AC power, external mic input, image stabilization, good user interface, price
Lows: all-plastic construction, USB dongle, Quicktime file format difficult for PC users to edit

jimmy

Note: Like all Amazon.com links on this site, purchasing products through these links helps support this site. I was not provided a test camera to review.

Team Unintended Acceleration

Wish us luck.

jimmy

- Arcade Fire “Rebellion (Lies)”

An unwelcome reprieve today gives me a moment to shed some light on what I have been doing lately. I tried to sleep this afternoon, but it was futile. I didn’t feel like doing anything else and any reasonable estimation of my sleep deficit should have predicted success, but no. It wasn’t dark enough. It wasn’t cold enough. Nothing was settled enough. So, I pretended as long as I could, hoping that at least some part of my body was getting rest. I don’t think I ever really believed it. Fine, on the back of missing an Astros-Cubbies game with my work mates, missing seeing The Police with Rob, a very bad week all around, and a couple of stiff Knob Creek whiskey sours, I give you an update of the last several months.

First of all, I have been posting, just not to my own site. As I mentioned in my last post, my friend Tony and I started a local homeless ministry at church. He created a blog for that ministry and my last post will be copied to that blog. I should have more recent updates posted soon.

(click on the photo to open the site)

Also, I created a blog for the arts ministry at ACF. This should reflect what we have been doing at work, but of course, it is way out-of-date.

(click on the photo to open the site)

And I have another blog site out there, but I’ll get to that later.

I bought another car. I have kept the Miata as my daily driver, but I bought a 1994 Audi S4 from a friend for a song. It fell into my lap and I just couldn’t resist having another go at my favorite car that I have ever owned. A friend told me, “It’s so good to see you in an S4 again. I always thought that Miata looked like some kind of mid-life crisis car. You just look right in an S4.” Really? Oh my God, I love that Miata! I look like some middle aged punter? Ouch. Well, that’s a bloody shame because I’m still going to use that Miata as my daily driver. It uses regular gas, it gets decent mileage, and it has never given me any trouble whatsoever. That car is fantastic!

The S4 (UrS4), which I have named Nessie, is destined to be a garage queen and special transport vehicle on those rare occasions that I need to carry multiple passengers or maybe just on special occasions – like when I want to drive insanely fast or when I want to go broke buying expensive premium gasoline. Though I own three cars that are capable of track duty, I never intended for the UrS4 to see the track. And yet, through circumstances with which I won’t bore you, I found myself in the UrS4 on Harris Hill Road (H2R), which you might remember I visited in a pre-tarmac state here.

Here I am with a student at H2R (click for huge photo).

Here are some posts that I made about my car on another forum:

Nessie
Punch List
Jimmy’s ’94 S4

In the spirit of the title of this post, I have to tell you that my new car was featured in a film that Jim Shields and I made for church last week. I didn’t drive until the wheels fell off, but I did drive the car over a curbed median while we were filming. The car doesn’t sound so good anymore. I had a light shining in my face while we were filming, so my night vision was gone and the light was reflecting off all of my windows and I could only see out of my front window. When I went to make a U-turn, I turned too early and plowed right over a median. It was all captured on camera. Our crew t-shirts are going to say, “I think Jimmy just jacked-up his car.” What do you want from me? I worked 15 hours that day.

I haven’t had a chance to see what I did to the car, because I’m busy preparing for a track event this coming weekend. The S4 will just have to wait its turn. My track event post should feature footage from the new in-car camera that I have installed in the car. Look for that in a couple of weeks.

Also, once this next track event is over, we will begin preparing for the 24 Hours of LeMons – no, not LeMans, but LeMons. The idea is to run a 24-hour endurance race with a car that doesn’t cost over $500. Crazy? You betcha. The event is in October. I made a team blog here:

(click on the photo to open the site)

Important Note: I wrote most of this post a couple of weeks ago at the end of a horrible week. Things are better now, but I’ll go ahead and finish my story. For some reason, I just didn’t seem to fit into the world very easily that week. I was thwarted at every turn and every success came at a high cost. I had disagreements with my wife, my boss, a co-worker, and a volunteer. I was exhausted and feeling like I was underwater. I had to punt on writing some devotionals for church and I had been asked to somehow help start and lead a third ministry. Sure. I had crashed my new car. By Thursday, I was reeling.

And then Tony walked into the office and told me that Isaiah, the homeless man to whom I am closest, was arrested at DPS when Tony had taken him to get his ID that morning. We had been in the process of getting all of his paperwork in order, so that we could legally pay him for contract work that we wanted him to do at the church. While waiting in line, they arrested him for a very serious felony warrant issued six years ago in South Carolina. He was a fugitive. I felt the floor drop out from beneath me. What were we doing? What good had we done?

Since then, I have a slightly different perspective about Isaiah’s situation. Tony and I have visited him in jail, while he waits for agents from South Carolina to come get him. He is doing well and seems to have a good attitude about what is happening to him. It’s part of a journey that he has to take. Most of us have made mistakes in our past that we wish we could run from, but we just have to walk it out. His life won’t get any better until he does. I’ll post more about this later, probably on the other site.

Anyway, I was done. I just wanted to have a nice day off on Friday to rest and regroup. Unfortunately, I needed to swap around some ceiling fans in the house and install a new one in my office. I’m not much of a household handyman, so you can guess how well that went. I’ll just cut to it – before the day was done, I had shocked myself on some exposed wiring and for the first time in my life, I fell off of a ladder. At the very same time, Kimberly was driving back from San Antonio when the tread on one of her tires separated from the tire carcass. She was thrown into another lane, but recovered quickly and was able to pull over. Luckily, there was a tire store within sight, so she crossed the median to the access road and got a new tire. Like everything else that was happening that week, that could have gone much worse. Thank you, Jesus.

We hadn’t quite driven until the wheels fell off, but last weekend, I had a friend who did. I’ll tell you about that in my next entry.

jimmy

Update 12.17.07: The automatic podcasting worked! I have modified and republished the mp3 to include album art (which I have included below).

Update 12.18.07: Reposted Podcast.

The following is a German language, audio-only interview of factory driver Hans Stuck describing the 1989 Audi IMSA 90 GTO racecar. His commentary is followed by a recording made of this car screaming around a test track. The sound of the inline-5, 20V turbo motor at full tilt is ossum™! Turn it up!

IMSA.mp3

jimmy

On the front straight at Texas World Speedway.

Best recorded lap time: 2:17.5

Tech Notes:

• Hankook R-S2 tires (225/45-16), 35 psi (cold)
• Boost: 20 psi

Best…track…event…ever! Finally, after years of hard work, setbacks, frustration and at least one awful shakedown run three years ago at MSR, we saw the fruition of our labor as my Coupe Quattro made it to a track event and performed beautifully.

The Drivers

One of the reasons this was such a great weekend was because of all of my friends who were able to attend. It was almost like the good ol’ days, when there used to be enough Audi Club members at the track to merit our own group photo at the start/finish line. It also seemed like the good ol’ days because I almost haven’t been to the track since the good ol’ days! I haven’t been to any track in three years. I haven’t been to TWS in four years and even then I was in the wrong car, going the wrong direction. The last time I was at TWS in the Coupe Quattro, driving the right direction (anti-clockwise, if you must know), was five and a half years ago! Almost everyone else in our group was just as rusty. Ken Thieme was driving a new car, Ryan hadn’t driven his TT on the track in years, Eric hadn’t been to TWS in four years, Shawn had never been to this track, and Sarah had never been to any track!

The group was actually supposed to be even bigger, but in our usual way, we registered late and not everybody made it in, so Bill Fluhr and Dave Matheu stayed in Florida, instead of gambling on being able to move off of the waiting list. As it was, Ken was on the waiting list, but was able to start driving by Saturday afternoon, thanks in part to a Ferrari driver and sadly, somebody else.

Pictured left to right: Jimmy, Ken Fluhr, James Bufkin, Ken Thieme, Andrew Bianchi, Eric Fluhr, Ryan English, Sarah Nadalin, Shawn Olsen, Tony Nadalin, Pete Haas, Butch Bianchi

Friday

For once, there wasn’t a mad rush to prep or repair my car on the night we should be driving to an event. I’m getting too old for that kind of pressure on a travel day. This time, I made sure the car was ready to go a whole week before the event. Eric and I worked really hard to get everything done and then took multiple test drives, just to make sure. Still, even though I was more prepared than ever, the eleventh hour came with some frustrations and challenges. A tight time schedule and very limited space in the Miata prevented me from packing as thoroughly as I would have liked.

Adding to my crankiness was the fact that I had ordered a camera from Chase Cam and had paid extra to have it delivered in time for this event. When I opened the box on Thursday night, I discovered that the package did not contain the proper cable to use the camera! I wrote a Jimmy’s Gettin’ Angry™ style email, but I knew that nothing could be done. To their credit, Chase Cam called me on my cell at the track on Saturday and offered to overnight the cable to my hotel. However, I didn’t take them up on their offer, because I hadn’t brought any of the other parts of the in-car camera rig with me. D’oh. I have everything I need now, so my next event report will come with in-car footage.

On Friday afternoon, I was able to join James, Shawn, Ryan and Kang for the more relaxed daytime caravan out of town, rather than the frantically race the clock to get to the track before they close the gate at 10 o’clock caravan (Eric and Ken). The trip to College Station may have been at a relaxed pace, but it was anything but relaxing for me. First of all, I was crammed into an uncomfortable racing seat for the duration of the trip. Second, my car is very, very loud inside. The sound of the mostly open exhaust, which exits just behind the passenger door, resonates and drones inside the bare metal cockpit. It’s like sitting inside a megaphone pointed at a hive of angry bees. Finally, while I am thankful for the beautiful weather all weekend, it was an unseasonably warm 84º F, which made it almost unbearably hot in the car, where I have no HVAC whatsoever. It was made even more hot in the car because the firewall isn’t completely sealed, so blazing hot air comes from the engine, through the firewall, and somehow blows directly into my crotch. Not only was it very uncomfortable, but I am now almost certainly sterile. Also, I was drinking liters and liters of water from water bottles to stay cool and hydrated, so naturally I needed to relieve myself only five minutes into the trip. Certainly, we’ll stop somewhere, I thought. Kang brought his girlfriend, certainly she will need to stop. No such luck. My hardcore friends went the whole distance with no stops, so I arrived in College Station deaf, sterile, and in desperate need of a chiropractor and a dose of Trimpex.

The rest of the evening was uneventful. We grabbed dinner at Carino’s, Ryan and I went to the track, talked to S.W. & Friends (modified C6 Z06, Turbo Miata, brand new GT3), and waited for Andrew, Butch, and the Fluhr boys, who drove through the gate at exactly 10 pm. We spent some time unpacking and doing minor prep work, before finally calling it a night.

Saturday

Saturday morning was damp and foggy, but by mid-morning it was burning off and the rest of the weekend was perfect. I checked-in and got my driver’s packet. I had been told that I would be in the Blue group, but they moved me back up to the Yellow group with an instructor for my 2nd and 4th sessions. I have been a solo driver in Yellow for awhile, so I thought an instructor wasn’t really necessary, but it turned-out to be great.

In the first session, I was easily the slowest in the Yellow group. I let everybody pass. The running gag was that a couple of us just left our arms out the window giving passing signals so much that we needed a mannequin arm permanently attached to the car, so we wouldn’t get tired.

I was slow partially because I hadn’t been to the track in so long, partially out of choice, and partially because the car didn’t feel quite right. Even though Ken had just aligned the car, it was sometimes pulling to the left, it was sometimes unstable during braking, and it was bump steering like crazy. Even though the brakes themselves were working great, I didn’t have the confidence to really get into them, so I just went around the track and connected the cones without pushing it too much. I had decided that this weekend was about the car and not about me. We had identified several potential weak points of the car and we needed a good event to shakedown any problems.

Speaking of problems, some poor guy in the Blue group spun his Ferrari on the first lap of his first session and backed it into the infield wall. It’s always sad to see such a beautiful car messed-up like that, but at least nobody was hurt, and Ken was one step closer to being able to drive.

I got an instructor for my second session. Dennis was great. He didn’t say too much at first, so I guess he was just checking me out, but I told him that I was pretty rusty and he should chime-in about anything he wanted. After that, he gave me about half-a-dozen pointers that immediately made me faster. It was great fun. He was having fun, too, and admitted that he had really just wanted a ride in the car, because he thought it was cool. There were a couple of times he said something about “with quattro you can…”, so it was nice having an instructor who understood AWD lines and such.

The rest of the day went fine. That evening, we had dinner at Outback as is our custom and I had the Jackeroo Chops (even though they aren’t called that anymore), as is my custom. Eric drank a couple of beers(!) and we talked about dry sump systems.

Sunday

By the first session on Sunday, I was getting fast enough to start passing people in the Yellow group. All of the little handling problems I had been complaining about before (except for the bump steer), seemed to disappear when I drove the car really hard. I was getting more confidence in my braking, which was good, because my higher speeds required it. But I was still leaving a lot on the table. I locked my brakes a couple of times and recovered quickly without any drama, but I didn’t push quite as hard after that.

Still, I was finding my rhythm, trying to incorporate the suggestions that Dennis had made to me, and was even trying to drastically change my line into Turn 1, based on a chalk talk from the day before. The car was performing well and I was really having fun. Eric and I always tried to drive with each other. Here we are doing a coordinated high-speed drive-by at the finish line, which made for one of the best photos of the weekend.

Towards the end of the session, I came blasting out of Turn 2 and came up fast upon a BMW Z4. The driver gave me a passing signal and checked his speed. I didn’t want to pass there, so I waved off the signal and lifted all the way out of the throttle. I heard a loud pop and my car lost all of its power. I was pretty sure that I had popped-off an intercooler hose. I limped the car around the next two turns and then pulled-off on the inside of Turn 4, where the car immediately died. I signaled the corner worker that I was alright and waited for the end of the session. Since my friends didn’t see what had happened, they assumed that I had gone off the track, so I had to suffer the indignity of having them all honk at me as they drove past. After the session, I managed to get the car started and I limped it around the track and into the paddock.

Eric opened my hood and immediately found the problem. I had blown apart my bypass valve! I couldn’t believe it. For more information, see the TAP Bypass Valve Morbidity and Mortality Discussion at AudiWorld here. Luckily, Ryan English had a spare Forge valve, so we swapped that in and everything was as good as new. Interestingly, Ryan suspected he was having boost problems because of a torn diaphragm in his primary Forge valve. I thought the point of having aftermarket bypass valves was to improve the dependability of our cars.???

I think it was during my next session that Tony Nadalin timed me with his iPhone (Is there anything that phone can’t do?). Without knowing that I was being timed and while still driving conservatively, I set my personal best time. My fastest laps were yet to come, but I didn’t bother to ask anybody to time me again, since again, the weekend was about the car and not about me. Next time.

I think it was also during this session that I chased Kang around in his Miata. Unfortunately, his tires were starting to go away and he went four-wheels-off in Turn 6, recovered and got back on the track, but then spun off completely coming out of Turn 11.

Jimmy chasing Kang around the carousel.

Eric and I traded cars for the next session and that was major league fun. To be honest, I didn’t think I would like driving his car. After driving my car at speed for a day and a half, I thought I would find the UrQuattro too soft and too slow. Besides, I don’t usually like driving cars belonging to other people, even my friends. I’m just too careful with their cars. Well, I was wrong on both counts. I jumped in Eric’s car, drove it like I stole it, and loved every minute of it. No, it wasn’t as fast as my car, but it was still fast and it hooked-up in the corners as well as my car (same wheels and tires). I chased Eric for awhile and then he let me pass and he chased me for awhile. Eric said that my car was effortless to drive quickly. He said that without even trying, he got the car to 130 mph at the end of the front straight.

Jimmy running from Kang and Eric.

The last session was the best of all. Eric, Ryan, and I went out and played tag. It was a riot. Even though there was a permanent yellow flag between Turn 4 and Turn 5, because a Corvette had blown its engine, caught fire, and dumped oil on the track, I was driving as fast or faster than I had all weekend. Our train ran up on an RX-8 who was driving well and was fast, but not fast enough. His biggest problem was that he wasn’t giving out passing signals. Eric eventually got around him. Later, Eric said, “I felt like I was throwing that guy to a pack of wolves.” That’s about right. A couple of straights without seeing a passing signal had me seeing red instead. At the carousel, I late braked and jammed my nose up on the inside, so that I was driving right towards his passenger side door. He got the message after that and I finally got a passing signal.

The last person we ran up on was the same black Z4 that I had seen earlier in the day. I followed him for a couple of laps, but even though I was sure that I was faster, he was making such good drives out of the corners, that I couldn’t really get a good, safe run to pass, especially if he didn’t lift. So, I waved-off another passing signal from him and we just diced. Ryan and Eric were right behind me. It was a great way to end the event.

Coming in from the last session.

Ryan, Eric, and Jimmy. This picture says it all.

Random Notes

• Proudest Moment: Letting a GT3 pass me at the exit onto the front straight and then tucking-in behind him for a drag race to Turn 1. He only barely pulled on me. Ryan saw the whole thing. I’ll be back with all 28 psi of boost, pal.

• Best Save: Eric Fluhr got bent out of shape about fourteen different ways trying to late brake into Turn 1. I was right behind him for the show as he slid this way and that. His car was flip-flopping back and forth like a fish out of water. I was already on the phone with my bookie placing a bet for which side of the track he was going to fly off of when…he pulled it together and saved it! Not only that, instead of sheepishly taking it easy for a half of a lap, he continued flat-out around Turn 2 as if nothing had happened! Respect, yo.
  
• “Man Down!” Award: Me. Most of us had mechanical problems (Eric lost his power steering, Shawn blew his intercooler crossover pipe, Ken had suspension problems, and Ryan and I had bypass valve failures), but mine was the only one that put me off on the side of the track (if only temporarily).
• “Busted” Award: Too many to choose a winner. Pete Haas doing 78 in a 55, Andrew Bianchi braking on the banking, and Anthony Nadalin washing his daughters car at the track. You were all busted. Now let’s not let that happen again. Note: evidence photos kept small out of respect for the busted. I just wanted you to know that I have them.

• “Worst Lean Angle” Award: After careful photographic analysis (and with many valid candidates), Shawn Olsen’s UrS6 looked the most like a fully laden fishing trawler, listing badly to port in the angry ocean swells.

“We’re going over!”

Photos

jimmy

Note: All references to James Bufkin have been removed upon request. (11.19.07)