Found why I had March in my head.  Why does the FSR PCA DE site say March?  So confusing, that site says March, Motorsport Reg has the May date and the national PCA site shows neither of those!

For some reason, I thought this was happening in March when I looked at the PCA calendar and that it overlapped with LeMons.  I can definitely attend this date.  Gunny, Ricardo - what do you think?

Very nice, congrats!  I always wanted to do pinewood derby, but never got a chance.

Ah, Volkswagens.  There are some VW people lurking around here.  Maybe one day we'll see Paul's MkII GTI again

Oh yeah...should mention that you MUST pre-register and pre-pay.  We need to provide Maggiano's a headcount next week.

Welcome.  Looking forward to meeting you as well.  What do you drive?

I'd like one assuming my Miata is running again by then.  I'd say it's 50/50 at this point.

That's your problem, right there.  Those nice leisurely trips are detrimental to creating a good piston ring to cylinder wall seal (or so I've heard).  Gotta drive it like you stole it immediately, so what better/safer way to do that than on a dyno?

I'll dyno the LeMons car as long as it's running by then.

I dunno, it's no Volvo Amazon.

We're selling Danielle's Volvo C70 since we just got her a 911.  You've all seen it...It's a nice car in great shape, but a really terrible autocrosser.  Details below.  Asking $20k by Sat 1/20 or it's off to Carmax.  If you know anybody who may be interested, have them give me a call at 972-3014.

2009 Volvo C70 - we've owned it since new
White
Cream leather interior
42-45k on it
Serviced by the dealer on factory schedule since it's free
Usually ~27mpg, I've gotten over 30 on a number of occasions

Non-standard stuff it's got
Heated seats
Seat covers for front and rear
Convertible wind deflector thingy
Extra set of wheels...17x8?  On car in pics below.
Two Blizzak snow tires

Amsoil in the daily driver, Amsoil in the race cars, Pennzoil dino motor oil in the Caprice and Amsoil in the trans.  Amsoil also makes a pretty decent brake fluid, though I'll use whatever I have lying around (Wilwood, Super Blue, etc).

so when you gonna pick up another one

Mark your calendars to come out and join us for our annual VMSC Awards Banquet at Maggiano's restaurant.  This is a great time to catch up with everyone and see where people placed this year, whether or not you expect to get a trophy.

Date:      Saturday, February 9th, 2013
Location: Maggiano's in Short Pump Town Center
Cost:      $25 per person
Noon:     Appetizers and cash bar
1PM:      Lunch
2PM:      Awards ceremony

Registration is open here on MyAutoEvents.  Alternately, bring payment to a membership meeting or mail a check to Dana so that he receives it no later than Friday, February 1st at:

Dana Cole
553 Raleigh Manor Rd.
Richmond, VA 23229

See you there!

Merry Christmas to you too.  The car will sound good with the exhaust on it.

I got a weight distributing hitch, a nice cross vise for my drill press, some pipe clamps, assorted welding clamps and some lug nuts.  I'm happy.

Let's do Saturday.  10 am through at least 2pm? I will get some kind of food for lunch.

Alright, I should have my Civic back together after Christmas and be able to get it out of the garage under its own power.  Seems like it's time to pull the engines out of the Miatas.  Rather than a movie night, is anybody up for hanging out and pulling a few motors during the day on Saturday or Sunday (12/29 or 12/30)?  Let me know what works.  I'm about 25 minutes West of 288 and 60.  I will PM those interested with my address.

The 944 has a transaxle and torque tube, right?  Is it easier or harder to do a clutch with that setup?  I'd be interested in seeing pics if you take them...I've never really at any car with a front engine and rear transaxle in any detail.

You gonna do any of the LeMons races as well?  We're planning on CMP in the spring and fall plus Summit Point in June.

Well, I went to replace the axle in the Civic after the company I bought it from 4+ years ago sent me a replacement shaft for free!  In taking everything apart, I noticed that both of my lower ball joint boots had holes melted in them...so that's what the brake heat shields are for.  Also realized that the shaft they sent me is 1/2" shorter than the old one.  I test-fit the new axle and it looks like it will work. 

I got some new-to-me heat shields from the junkyard and some new ball joint boots (interestingly, the same part # is used for the tie rod boots on my Caprice).  I ordered some Red Line CV-2 grease online, so I need to wait for that to get here before I button everything back up.  Hopefully it'll be driving again shortly.

No heat shields, melted boot:



Broken axle:


Axle comparison, the new one is shorter:


Test fit at full compression and full lock.  It looks like it will work to me:

Looks like it's in pretty good shape.  You gonna autocross it at least once when you're done?

It's just South of Fredericksburg right off of I-95.  A little farther than MEP, but if they build a 2mi road course, that would be pretty sweet.

Also, I love how there are noise complaints from the people who built/bought houses in close proximity to an existing drag strip and circle track.  What a bunch of morons.

That sucks!  Could always be worse though.

I think the worst I ever did was helping a friend put a limited slip in his autocross car (Camaro).  I wasn't planning on doing much work, just telling him what to do, so I wasn't wearing my boots.  We had his car on the lift at school and were pulling the old diff out.  I was prying on the carrier and ring gear and he was supposed to catch it as it came loose.  He didn't and it landed on my foot.  That's ~30lbs of steel falling from 6ft up straight onto my toes.  I don't know if I broke anything but it hurt a lot, one of my toes turned blue and I ended up losing a toenail.

VistaPrint has a deal on car door magnets.  a 9"x12" magnet is ~$5 after shipping and you can upload whatever image you want to it.  Would be good for those with permanent numbers.

That's quite the list.