Rob, get in here.

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Is that a competitive kart? Does Woodbridge have a class for it? Would I have a chance of beign competitive considering I'm 6'2, 180?

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Has anybody tried these tires?

Long story short:

18' Dual Axle, 4 electric brakes, dovetail, wood deck, and blingin' wheels ;-), and a not-so-blingin' spare.



So three weeks ago, I put a deposit down on a trailer in Mt. Croghan, SC, just south of the SC/NC border. My intension was to go down that weekend to pick it up, but work didn't allow it. I needed to get my car to Fredricksburg to have a couple of things done to it that require a lift, so I just rented a uHaul trailer. I thought that I'd get my trailer the next weekend. Well, that didnt' work out either.

So, I finnaly found a way, I had a meeting in Charlotte, NC on Saturday, so I got the trailer after that and headed back!

Here's the wild story ;-)
I was on I-81 at 5:30am Saturday morning. I arrived in Charlotte, NC around 10:00 and sit down to a three hour meeting. Meeting went great, so I was high on life. Headed on down to Croghan, SC about 1.5 hours south, and picked up the trailer. All went great excecept that my electric brakes didnt' work. I just wired the brake controller and hadn't tested it, so I wasn't suprised really. I figured that I'd be ok, since I towed G's trailer and my car all the way to Watkin's Glen last year w/o brakes. Scary, but doable.

So it's about 3:30 when I decide that "I paid for these brakes, AND my BC, maybe it's just a fuse" so I stop at an Advance Auto and check fuses. No dice. 30 mintues later I hop back on the road, destined for Fredricksburg, VA to pick up the XR and bring it back to Harrisonburg!

The trip is uneventful, that is, until right after Richmond, when the No-easter kicked in. Now driving in the snow is no big deal to me. Good truck, good tires, and 4x4. But I'd never pulled a trailer in the snow. And those that know snow know that 4x4 helps get you going and keep you straight, but stopping is still limited to friction. Now, not only am I stopping myself, I'm stopping a trailer w/o brakes. Ok, slow it down, look ahead, sweet. Make it to Fredricksburg around 11:00pm. By this time there's about 3" of snow on the ground and the roads are completlely covered.

Next challange, driving the XR onto a trailer in 3" of snow.
Well, first, I had to jumpstart the XR. I don't have a jump box, so I had to menuver the F-150+trailer close to the XR. Ok, done, XR is there lobing away.

So I pull out the ramps and smile because they'er mine 8-), and then I clear a short runway to the trailer so that the XR has a hope of traction. By this time, the wood deck on the trailer is icing over.

I get the XR ligned up, get out to make sure it looks good, and gently accellerate and hit the ramps. A little spinning, but remarkably uneventful, the XR makes it to the deck of the trailer and slides to a stop, 2" off center (right-left) and dead on front-back. Luck!

So I get out my new straps, never used, and figure out how to get them on. Strapped down, good to go!

By now there's at least another .5-1 inch of snow all around. I hope back in the truck and give it a few test stops.

By now, I'm in my 5500?lbish F-150 and I'm towing 4700 pounds. 4" of snow and man that thing does NOT like stopping. I thought to myself that this is, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the stupidest thing I have ever done.
My logic was that I only have 4 days to get my XR in condition for VIR, that I am NOT going to loose. So, off on 17 I go!

My average speed along Rt 17 to 66 hovered around 35mph. I got a feel for the rig and did fine. I had about a 1/2 tank of gas, but decided to fill up for the 4th time just in case I got stuck, I could let the truck idle all night to keep me warm.

I hit 66 and was the only one on the road except for the salt trucks. By now things were getting bad, even in my definantion. There was one path through the snow, somewhere between the yellow and white lines. I could tell when I wasn't on the right part thanks to the snow-covered rumble strips.

About 12 disabled/wrekced/stuck cars into 66, a poor 2wd car flys off in front of me in spectacular fashion. I was easly 1000 yards behind him, and it was all I could to to slow from 35mph to about 5 so that I could avoid him as he bounced across the road. Now I'm not easy to shake up behind the wheel, but after that my legs were shaking.

Around 1:00am I make it to I-81. Constantly checking the GPS I see my ETA at this speed is around 2:30am. 10:30pm is late for me, 2:30 am is nuts. Grab another Mt. Dew and hunker down!

On I-81 I pass the convoy of salt trucks doing the best they can to make the road passable for the dumbasses out there at 2am. I have a lot of this on video, I'll share it some time. I passes two normal salt trucks, and then slowly passes (at about 25mph) a road grader (the 6 wheeled kind, blade in the middle) that was getting the worse of it. Now, I'm blazing the trail. Dumb move, but if 35mph was going to get me there at 2:30am, 25mph woudl have pushed it to 3:15 or later.

Finally, I roll into exit 247, amazed and thankful that I made it. I give my truck a pat on the dash. I barely make it up the little driveway to my neighborhood. By now there's about 8 inches of snow. I back the trailer into a spot (suprisingly hard in 8 inches of snow) and unhook it. 2:50am, 794 miles, 4 20oz Dew's later, I make it to bed.

Damnit I have a trailer, and the XR was home, and I was alive and better for the experience. But NEVER again. At least, without trailer brakes ;-).

Pics:

Just finished loading the trailer in Fredricksburg:


Natures version of a ricer bumper:





It also hit me as I ended my trip that I did a big loop around VIR, came within spitting distance of VMP, and was about 20 miles from Summit, all in one day :-).

What i turned my hard earned money form working over X mas break. hopefully ill be getting this parts in ASAP.. will make the 240 a lot better



New Falkens for the GTI loved the old ones and needed tires


Kaaz 2 Way LSD for the 240


Front Mount intercooler kit for the 240


Kinda a cheezy seat. i hate red but it was crazy good deal.. for the 240 too cause the stock seats SUCK

Also got a greddy profec B boost controller so i can turn up the boost once the fmic is on.

I'll get around to finishing this later, I just felt like getting the thread started.

Teams

Yoshimura Suzuki
Mat Mladin
Ben Spies
Aaron Yates

Austin Ducati
Ben Bostrom
Neil Hodgson

American Honda
Jake Zemke
Miguel Duhamel

Kawasaki
Tommy Hayden
Roger Lee Hayden

Jordan Suzuki
Jason Pridmore
Steve Rapp
Jake Holden

Talent Report
1. Suzuki
2. Ducati
3. Honda
4. Kawasaki

Privateers
1. Jordan Suzuki
2. Lion Racing
3. KWS Motorsport

Best Bikes
Suzuki GSX-R1000 K5
Honda CBR1000RR
Ducati 999R F06
Kawasaki ZX-10R

Who's going to challenge Mladin?
1. Ben Spies
2. Ben Bostrom
3. Jake Zemke
4. Neil Hodgson

Intro
Its that time of the year again as many are anxiously awaiting the beginning of the 2006 Formula 1 Grand Prix season. As I type, it is 27 days, 9 hours, and 36 minutes until the season opener in Bahrain. Personally I think Bahrain is a terrible venue but hey, they paid the billz.

Anyway last season saw Fernando Alonso become the youngest world champion for the Renault Formula 1 team, who also won the manufacturer's championship. From the beginning of the season Alonso set the pace and was never really in true danger of losing the driver's title.

However, McLaren Mercedes had a serious shot at taking the manufacturer's title with the blistering fast yet unreliable MP4-20 driven by Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya. Had their car not suffered so many mechanical failures Kimi would've easily taken the driver's title and McLaren the constructor's title.

But, as they say, to finish first, first you must finish.

2006 Rules Changes
For 2006 the major rules change is that the engines are being reduced from 3.0L V10's to 2.4L V8's. The old V10's were knocking on the door of 1000 hp but now most estimates peg the V8's at around a more pedestrian 750 hp.

This rules change will make an efficient aerodynamic package all the more important while rewarding those who can adapt to the new formula most quickly.

The other major rules change is that now tir changes are allowed again. In 2005 the teams had to use the same tires from qualifying all the way through the end of the race. It is thought that this posed a huge challenge to Bridgestone which in turn ruined Ferrari's season. Now that this factor is gone, expect Ferrari to look much better.

2006 Team Line Ups
Renault
Fernando Alonso
Giancarlo Fisichella

McLaren Mercedes
Kimi Raikkonen
Juan Pablo Montoya

Ferrari
Michael Schumacher
Felipe Massa

Toyota
Jarno Trulli
Ralf Schumacher

Honda F1
Jenson Button
Rubens Barrichello

Williams Cosworth
Mark Webber
Nico Rosberg ®

Red Bull (Ferrari Powered)
David Coulthard
Christian Klien

BMW Sauber
Nick Heidfeld
Jacques Villeneuve

Midland F1 (Toyota powered)
Tiago Monteiro
Christian Albers

Scuderia Toro Rosso (Cosworth powered)
Scott Speed®
Vinantonio Liuzzi®

Super Aguri Racing (Honda powered)
Takuma Sato
Unknown

Preseason testing
The preseason tests run at several tracks over the winter can be a good indicator as to where the teams are relative to each other. This preseason has shown Renault to have the quickest outright pace at the hands of Alonso. This is no surprise as Renault has had one of the top aerodynamic packages for a few years running now.

However, on more than one occasion, Honda's new RA106 at the hands of Jenson Button has come within a hair of Alonso's Renault R26 (as close as 3 thousandths of a second). The Honda F1 team has also turned the most kilometers during the preseason testing with a strong record of reliability.

The other team that has been consistently strong during testing is Ferrari. At first their test times were middle of the pack but now the new Ferrari 248 has been picking up speed and is right there in the hunt for the top of the time sheets.

McLaren has been surprisingly slow for most of the preseason until the latest test where Montoya and their test driver Pedro de la Rosa were able to clock more competitive times.

G's 2006 Punditry

Here's how I rank the teams for the beginning of the season
1. Renault

2. Honda

3. Ferrari

4. Williams

5. McLaren??? - McLaren has been uncharacteristically slow, which could be signs of a disastrous year like 2004. Williams has shown flashes of great speed here and most signs point to the Cosworth V8 as the most powerful engine in the series thus far.

6. BMW Sauber
7. Toyota
8. Red Bull
9. Toro Rosso
10. Midland F1
11. Super Aguri

Best Driver Lineups
1. Kimi/Juan
2. Button/Barrichello
3. Alonso/Fisichella

In for a rough season:
Super Aguri, Toyota, McLaren, Takuma Sato, Jacques Villeneuve, Massa

Surprise finishes - Williams Cosworth, Scuderia Toro Rosso
Williams didn't look too hot in 2005 but with Cosworth power, Bridgestone tires, and a good driver lineup they may sneak in a surprise victory

Scuderia Toro Rosso is Red Bull's second team and was formerly the Minardi team. Minardi has been the perennial dog at the back of the grid but with Red Bull's funding they might actually be able to do something this season.

The real x-factor is that they are the only team that will be running a restricted V10 next season. Apparently, the FIA made a rules provision to allow the backmarker teams to run a V10 because they figured they wouldn't have the money to design a new V8. It turns out that when the top teams have run the restricted V10's they were faster than the unrestricted V8 cars. Toro Rosso might be able to use this to their advantage to finish higher than the dead fucking last like Minardi did.

Of course, they probably won't finish last anyway because now they have Super Aguri which will undoubtedly be dog slow for at least the first half of the season. More on them later.

Most Likely to be left in the cold
Felipe Massa, Giancarlo Fisichella

Getting paired with Michael Schumacher on Scuderia Ferrari is both a blessing and a curse. Poor Massa is undoubtedly going to get smoked and there are quite a few hot shoes who would love to take his seat. Not the least of which includes one 5-time Moto GP champion, Valentino Rossi.

Fisichella never got his dream of getting with Scuderia Ferrari but he's gotten outshined by his teammate anyway. Their team boss Flavio Briatore probably would not hesitate to replace him, especially now that Fisi has passed the 32 year old mark.

Much more to come, comment away!

http://www.virginiamotorsportspk.com/SCHEDULE.htm


The basic idea is to see who runs consistent tunes. Since we all have different classes of cars of all weights and power levels, it'd be a lot more fun if we all tried to dial in to running as consistent of runs as possible. Not sure how busy VMP is, but I know at natural bridge the few times I went, you'd get at least 3 or 4 runs in a span of a 2 - 3 hours...more than that if you wanted.

I've been mulling over these two ideas (two of my many evil schemes) for awhile and I figure its high time I acted on them.

What I'd like to do is put together a MM yearbook each year and a year in review video each year. For the inaugural yearbook I'd like to cover the first 5 years. Because we don't have five years of video the first year in review video will be for 2005/2006 (to be released in fall/winter 2006).

Yearbook
I haven't quite figured out how I'm gonna do this because there are literally hundreds of pics out there but I figure you guys can select your best pics. Instead of posting 500 3 MB pics in this thread I had a few ideas:

*Post pics in at a reduced size (say, a maximum of 400 px wide)
*Set up FTP on my site and let people upload to there. That way the pics that will end up in the yearbook will be a surprise
*Set up a pic gallery somewhere for everyone to post the best MM pics they can find to (like Flickr maybe).

What I want are pics that capture MM. Sure we could get a lot of pics of cool cars we've seen here and there but I'd like more pics that tell a story, or have people in them or bring back a history moment or event. Exceptional car pics are welcome however, especially if they look artistic (good angles, lighting, motion, etc).

To that end, for events from here on out I'd like everyone to start taking pics with a different goal. To date as car people we tend to just take pictures of the cars. Let's start taking more pics of the people involved and try to take more artistic pics. Think about taking pics that you'll be proud of for many years to come.

Yearbook Special Sections
I figure to make a really worthwhile yearbook we've got to devote a couple of special sections. Some ideas I've had

*Best photochops (maybe we should have an official contest for that)
*Best quotes (we've already got a thread for that)
*Best crashes (I already know who wins that one)
*Best road trips
*How I got started (stolen from JayRay's post)
*Special events (MM coverage of stuff like Moto GP at Laguna Seca, 12 hours of Sebring, 12 hours of SP, F1 at Suzuka)
*Boost rot (a parody chronicleling the spread of the disease in the club)

I'm sure everyone can come up with some more ideas along those lines.

Year in Review video
For this, track videos will definitely be a part but I'd like to include:
*vids of our general shenanigans
*track side video of races we spectate (maybe vids of the general festivities too)
*interviews with members
*interviews with racers and auto/moto industry folks
*a few comedy skits

Again, try to include the people involved and get the human aspect. Also, go for the artistic shots. I'll try to come up with some resources on getting some dramatic, artistic shots. Hopefully I can come up with some specific requests for video shots (no bukkake please).

Anyway I'd like to get the ideas flowing and get this show on the road. Naturally there are quite a few details I haven't worked out yet but I figured its high time to get this started.

I was driving into Allsports to work this morning and apparently the douchebag in front of me decided that he liked my lane more than his. Granted I'm driving a white vehicle while it's snowing out, but one would think you can't miss a big ol SUV when you're one of all of 4 vehicles within sight. Well this driver didn't see me and started to change lanes. Having the choice of getting hit by him and pushed off into the slush and possibly loosing control or trying to change lanes suddenly I opted for the unknown and tried to change lanes. I hit the slush and it immediately sent me sideways right towards the concrete divider at the entrance of the exit ramp. Again I've got two choices, take a full T-Bone in the drivers door from a concrete divider, or give the 4Runner some gas, try to clear the divider and who knows maybe recover before the rather deep ditch on the other side of the exit ramp. Gas it is, unfortunately recovery it wasn't, and into the ditch I went.





It was a rather hard hit, but the engine was still running and the snow around my engine wasn't now green or black, so I popped it into 4WD and rocked myself out of the ditch and continued onto work. If I didn't have the brush guard on the front of the truck you can guarantee that it'd be sitting in the ditch right now with a cracked radiator. Don't think anything mechanical is wrong with it, but it'll have to wait till it's a lil warmer and I'm willing to give it a good look.