Grandad

Hi All We're safely back in Perth have thawed out and are enjoying the Aussie summer. The trip home was eventful and a bit stressful as I failed to note changed flight details from Houston to Dallas on my e-ticket, fortunately I had informed Whittie. On the day of our departure we were taking things quietly thinking we had plenty of time and feeling a bit sad about leaving when Whittie twigged and raised the alarn that we were in fact running behind time, in a flash the truck was packed, baby and Mon kissed goodby and we were off to the airport, Whittie decided it would be a good idea to let Quaintass know we were behind time and might miss the flight so we called the "hotline" and sat on hold all the way to the airport, once eventually connected the operator was manifestly unhelpful stressing that there would be a US$500 per person no show fee paid before another ticket could be issued as it turned out there were no available seats on the next flight and the only other flight available on another carrier would get us to Dallas too late so Whittie checked google maps and decided we could get there in time by road so off we set on an unexpected three hour road trip. Fortunately it was new years day so the traffic was light, the roads went from four lanes each way to three then two and back up again and the US speed limits are much higher than Aus, we stopped for fuel at about half way and the fuel stop had a giant size replica colt 45 hand gun at the driveway (only in America) I would love to have taken a pic of it but everything was packed away and time was of the essence. Fortunately the traffic in Dallas was light so we made it to the airport with time to spare, we hugged Whittie and thanked him for getting us to our flight in time then waved him off on his return drive, at check in there was no mention of a no show fee, the lady realised that it was my birthday so seated us in our own row of four on the main flight and an over wing exit on the Sydney to Perth leg, with that out of the way we headed for the bar and some pre flight relaxation. The flights were long and uncomfortable but we eventually arrived in Perth happy that all the stress and excitement of the travel was behind us or so we thought, at the baggage corousel I collected two of our three bags fairly quickly then waited and waited and waited for the third which didn't appear so we reported it to lost property, it was Whittie's mums bag and it contained almost as many goodies as her handbag does so her stress level was elivated once more and remained there untill the bag was delivered 24 hours later, the courier driver said there are about 100 bags miss placed every day. All's well that ends well, we're back to skype chats and have some fabulous memories that will last forever. Cheers Grandad

Hi Y'All We've had a great time here with Mr and Mrs Whttie and new born Ashlyn, we witnessed her first roll over which was pretty nice, the Whitties have lots more firsts in front of them as Ashlyn grows but for us we have one more sleep before the 30+ hour commute back to Perth. We've had some interesting interactions with people here, one time we were all standing at a checkout talking quietly when the checkout lady said with a smile "Y'all in Texas now so Y'all got to say Y'all". It's hard to believe that only a couple of months ago the city was flooded it's a bit spookey driving on freeways that were completely impassable and seeing normal looking houses that had all but the roof submerged, I read in the local rag that 715 houses and businesses were damaged in Whitties suburb alone and not all are repairable. With any sitiation like this there are always people ready to make the most of others misfortune, this arrived in the mail just after we arrived. On the way to Cota we passed some paddocks that were full of flood damaged cars and the Texas World Speedway has been temporarily closed and used for flood car storage, below is a drones eye view. Whittie is on the urban fringe and there's a lot of new development happening nearby, with storm water drainage such an issue here much of the water has been directed into man made lakes to beautify the areas they have walking paths and the occasional warning sign. Happy New Year Y'All Grandad

Hi Y'All The pics have arrived, some are quite good and are a great way to remember an absolutely sensational day for which I must thank Whittie. Dry runs Wet Run no1 Wet run no2. The heavens opened as I left the pits so one lap was enough, I was sitting on the wrong side of someone else's car occasionally searching for he gear stick with my left hand so I quickly decided that staying out in driving rain was not on, I was tempted to stay out to see if it eased but as it turned out it didn't so I'm happy with my decision. As I pulled in the trainer said "good call staying out was all risk with no reward". Whittie got his car back straight and we finished the day with huge grins on our faces. The rain continued as we packed the car and then for the next few hours as whittie drove home, Whittie definitely had the hardest drive of the day. Here's my wet session which was the best fun, I wasn't hammering the car on the back straight because the event wasn't timed but still some ridiculously fast cars didn't get away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJUUUPSnpTg&t=206s Cheers Grandad

Hi andyk_79 You are absolutely right, seeing our grandchild for the first time and trying to work out who she resembles most is a fabulous new experience, the motor sport is an added bonus. Hi Y'All Back at home I play Cams official when I can so when the opportunity to view the race office at Cota came up we were in, after all it is a $350mil facility. I was surprised to find the office at ground level at the start of pit lane, I had pictured it being at the top of the building with expansive track vista allowing officials to catch all the action but what we found instead was a wall of monitors covering all the track with everything recorded so that when the inevitable occurs it's all caught on video. The motor sport theme is continuing, yesterday we went to a local indoor cart center but after two ten minute races I was done, the carts were so bad my glasses got shaken down to the end of my nose inside the helmet but the track was good and our times were respectable. Today we went to an out door track that opened about a year ago, it's on the out skirts of Houston 100ks from Whittie's home, we got there on ring road three in about an hour, if you think three ring roads means the city is getting big spare a thought for Beijing, it has six. We arrived at the track just after its 3.00pm opening so were on the track virtually immediately, when we came in at the end of our run the operators were buzzing saying this guy's just run in the 44's first time out, that doesn't happen here, turned out the lap record is high 41's. Next time out there was a cart we couldn't catch, turned out to be a school kid who's just taken out rookie of the year plus a national championship and was about a third of our weight, on his next run he posted a low 42 sec run that was just a whisker off the lap record, a future Ricciardo possibly. On our final run the track was a little more populated which presented overtaking opportunities which were fun, My new little man inside my helmet was sensational and for the first time in ever I beat Whittie in a cart and got fastest time for the race...... Whoohoo! (does happy dance) Whittie pipped me on the day but I'm happy, the last time I was faster than Whittie was an event at Wanneroo where we shared my Supra and I didn't tell him I was running high boost Cheers Grandad

Hi Y'All Thanks Whittie you are clearly a master of understatement! I had a sneaking suspicion that Santa had something in store for me but I wasn't expecting a track day at COTA, Whittie and I walked it in reverse following the F1 race three years ago but I never dreamed I'd get to drive it. With the driver briefing at 7am we wanted to get to the track and unpack before it so set our alarms for 5am, unsurprisingly not withstanding Maximus' best efforts to ensure I slept soundly, my alarm was not required. We were the first to arrive in our garage so were able to choose the prime position to store our gear then set about changing wheels before heading off to the drivers briefing. For insurance purposes the event was an un-timed driver training day, there were four groups from novice to race and because I don't have any US driving history I was placed in novice which meant I had a trainer (passenger) every outing, I would have 5x20min sessions so 1hour 40min total track time. There was an amazing range of vehicles entered from an early model MX5 through to prototype and a V10 F1 car and everything in between, American muscle was of course well represented and there were lots of GT3 cars as well. It's amazing how much money people throw at their motorsport here considering that this was a training meet with no racing there were a lot of toy haulers, B doubles motor homes and RVs. The garage we shared had a range of vehicles typical of the meet there was a gorgeous can-am LOLA with just the best race no on it, there were Porches, Mustangs and an immaculate Ferrari driven by a Mexican guy who had his family in tow, it turned out not to be his car it belongs to a mate who entered the event then couldn't attend so said here take the car and have some fun. I was in the last group to go on track and shortly before I was due to go out a guy came up looking for me introduced himself and said he was my instructor for the day. I've had people in the car before so my expectation wasn't high, so I was a bit surprised when he handed me an ear piece and mike and wanted to know my driving history and experience, I was soon to learn that he's an accomplished racer with 1600 plus laps of COTA under his belt, he runs his own race race team and is a distributor of prototype race cars, with that I decided to take the guy seriously. He asked what I wanted to achieve from the day so I explained that I'm on the opposite side of the world from home, at a circuit I've never driven in a car I've never driven that has all the controls on the wrong side so my goal for the day is to have fun, go fast and hand the car back to Whittie in one piece. With that said we were ready to enter the circuit so I said I wanted to go out at the rear end of the group because my first lap would be purely a slow sighting lap, with that said we entered the circuit. The first lap was at about half pace so I could have a good look at the track and get a feel for lines and the car, the next couple of laps I progressively picked the pace up a bit. Every time I put my helmet on I seem to have a little man in there telling me to be cautious, beware the red mist, brake early, don't over do it, but this time I had a little man in my ear saying well done, your lines are good, break later, use all the track, let the car run out, turn in here, stay out wide, well done.....Wow, I'm liking this little man in my ear. It appeared that many of the group I was in started braking for turn one at the 150 meter mark and so did I until the little man in my ear convinced me to leave it later, when we returned to the garage at the end of the run Whittie said he thought his car had brake failure when the lights didn't come on at the 150 mark and was surprised to hear that 100 is still too early. Third time out the trainer again asked what I wanted to achieve from the day, this time I said I know how to go fast in a straight line so I don't need to practice that, I want to be smooth and clean through the corners and improve my braking and if I can achieve that the lap times will be there, with that he said ok your lines are good so now let's work on your feet, I won't go into it but I learned more in that session than most of the other driver training I've done combined, suddenly a 2+2 370Z piloted by a retiree was hustling cars it shouldn't get close to. The weather forecast for the day was for rain in the afternoon and it set in after my third run so Whittie and I changed back to street tyres in preparation, shortly before our event the trainer dropped into our garage to inform me that he was not getting into the car on race tyres and was surprised to hear that we had already changed them, he inspected them and agreed they were up to the conditions so I was good for a round in the wet. As we sat in pit lane he said, with rain nothing much has changed, the speed will be a little less and stopping distance a little more but the principal is the same so off we went and once again, I took it quietly and said I had no experience of the car on these tyres in the wet so would build up speed slowly until I found the limit, at one time through the sweeper he mentioned that the tyres felt to have good grip and I said I think I'm near the limit when right on cue the back stepped out, I said there it is, nicely held was the reply, I now knew my limit of adhesion so tested it for the rest of he session, once more a great learning experience. The final session was once again wet however this time the trainer arrived eager to impart wet weather driving technique so we went out first into pit lane but as we were let go the heavens opened, with that I said we were once again on an observation lap and if there's any standing water I'm going in, there wasn't any standing water as this track is built for wet weather but there were streams crossing and visibility was seriously limited, I came back in and returned the car to Whittie in tact. The trainers parting comment was that I made a good call, staying out was all risk for no reward. We packed up and drove home through two and a half tortuous hours of driving rain. The gopro was going for most sessions and Whittie has edited a couple of vids, we bought the "Hero Pack" of pics of the car but they won't be here for a few days so we'll post them when they arrive. Pics to follow. Cheers Grandad

Hi Y'All Well we're here, we survived the monster 30 hour commute and fortunately we snagged an upgrade to premium economy for the worst part being Sydney to Dallas we had larger seats and a bit of extra leg room which was nice, it didn't make the flight any shorter but it was a bit smoother and more comfortable. It's been wonderful seeing Ashlin for the first time as you can imagine she is currently the center of our universe. I'm glad I packed my boots and gloves, turns out Santa did have something planned for me because as soon as I recovered from jet lag I was presented with a self assessment scrutiny form for Whittie's car to sign off so I figured I was in for an auto cross event which would be pretty cool. In preparation for the event Whittie wanted to check the wheel alignment so we set the car up on Whitties' custom built ramps and checked the camber and toe which were exactly where he wanted them so we gave the girl a tub, cleaned up the competition wheels and I stuck a little something I brought from home on the rear quarter windows. With that done it was time to pack the car and head off to our overnight accommodation for the event the next day. We set off for destination unknown and as if I needed proof that everything is bigger in Texas we stopped at not only the biggest car wash in the world but with 100 pumps, the biggest petrol station. We drove off into the dark heading for destination unknown when suddenly.......Whoohoo we've been here before!! Now I'm really pleased I packed my boots and gloves, we got through registration then headed to our hotel and picked up a few beers on the way, in line with the bigger in Texas theme we found a sensational dark beer called Maximus that rated a tasty 72 on the bitterness scale and a massive 8.2% alc/vol so needless to say with a drivers meeting at 7am it didn't take many to reach lights out. TBC Cheers Y'All Grandad

Hi David and All Yes Ashlin is the reason we're going but I want to be prepared just in case Santa slips something tricky into my stocking. Here she is. I can't believe we're giving up Perth summer for this but it would be neat to have some for Xmas. Isn't it crazy, only a couple of months ago they were dealing with a meter of rain. Cheers Grandad

Hi All I've been thinking about the 30 hour commute I have coming up in two sleeps time and am starting to pack, Whittie told me today that they had snow for the first time in ten years which made me think I should probably pack an extra pair of boots just in case they're needed . Cheers Grandad

Hi All Only 12 more sleeps and Whittie's Mum and I are off to see our new Grand Daughter for the first time in the Land of Milk, Honey and way too many Guns. Whittie has advised that Winter will be cold and I should bring my gloves but he didn't specify which ones. Maybe I'll just take both. Cheers Grandad

Hi All Whittie's continuing to have fun with his 2+2 370Z and taking it right up to the BMWs and Porkers. Long live adjustable coil overs on the daily. I'll be there for Xmas, can't wait. Cheers Grandad

Hi Enzo We are clearly the same generation I remember STP only too well, in my youth when I was destroying FJ to FC Holdens at about the same rate as they were produced they all had STP added and as to prove STP's worth the engines all outlasted the cars. Let's not forget the STP acronyms. Still Thoroughly Pissed. There was a period in my life that applied. Stamp Out Teenage Pregnancy. A few of my friends tripped up on that one. I find it rather curious that STP still exists in our current hi tech world. Hi All Not being familiar with the Vaseline option I decided to crank the engine with spark plugs removed until I achieved oil pressure and as expected the engine spun noticeably faster once everything was fully lubricated. I was now ready to fire it up but unknowingly the damage was already done, I hadn't drained the year old fuel and the carbies were now full of it and the engine wouldn't fire even with half a can of Start Ya Bastard, that stuff is so appropriately named. I eventually decided to pump the tank dry and replace the fuel but not wanting to remove the carbies I removed the tops and sucked all the fuel out of the bowls, that possibly left some in the accelerator pump chambers but I decided that it would clear with a few stabs of the accelerator pedal. With basically a brand new engine I decided to back the timing of a touch so not to overly stress the engine on fire up, but because I haven't played with this thing for so long I had completely forgotten that to allow for hi comp engines the MSD Digital Ignition System automatically retards the spark on start up so it effectively had double retard and that's before you include me. After a few days of flattening and recharging the battery, walking away for sanity sake, calling out the name of the product that didn't want to work, I finally twigged and set the timing back to normal, next try was met with a huge backfire which I took as a sign of success with unburnt fuel being cleared from the exhaust, next try was successful and oh what a beautiful noise. I have always considered the 98ron fuel we use to have a green tinge to it so I was shocked to see the color of the syrup that came out of the tank, for comparison I later put some fresh fuel in the same container for comparison. Syringe to the rescue. Hopefully I won't get caught with old fuel again. Cheers Grandad

Hi All I'm being a bit self indulgent here but I'm really enjoying being a new first time Grandad and just received some pics of my new born grand daughter that clearly show some of the influences she will have in her life. Will I be an equestrian? Will I do motorsport? Hmm, horses and horsepower! Enough of my self indulgence, I had another break from the van today to focus on the Zed and fitted the carbies and ancillaries to get it going but from my experience last time of the oil pump/distributor drive being incorrectly installed I decided to check it before installing the radiator and sure enough with the crank on no1 tdc it was one tooth out so would have been delivering spark to no5 when it was required by no1 which is clearly not going to work. Fortunately with good access it was relatively simple to drop the front sway bar to remove the oil pump and correctly position the drive. All that's left for tomorrow is to fit the exhaust and battery and fire it up. When I removed the oil pump I noticed the oil galleys were filled with a white grease that looked and smelt like Vaseline Petroleum Jelly, I've never seen that before and considered to be odd so I removed what I could without taking the pump apart. A google search revealed that it's an old school way of priming oil pumps in new dry engines to prevent cavitation and is actually recommended by some engine manufacturers, personally I prefer to crank the motor without load to get oil pressure before firing, looks like this time there will be a bit of both. Cheers Grandad

Hi All Well it's almost a year since the engine was removed for a tickle up and it's finally back in, that plywood box next to the car is a caravan build that has occupied my time for the last couple of years and is finally approaching completion, it has removed much of the urgency from the Zed. Not sure the colour matched block was intentional but it looks good. These things look so good it's a real pity to have to protect them from the leaky Webers. I'm on a roll the van can wait I need to hear this making it's crisp L28 noise again soon. Cheers Grandad

Thanks Jeff, I'm loving it too, we're heading over there for Xmas so should be great, interestingly Whittie has requested I get an international drivers license and bring my CAMS one as well, he's not letting on but I get the feeling there's more than a family get together planned. Hi All The motor came out of the Zed last December for a bit of a tickle up and some head work I made the mistake of telling Tuss that with Whittie absent it wasn't urgent but that's now almost a year ago so there is a bit of pressure to get it going again so the motor should go back in tomorrow. A few weeks ago I noticed a pool of fluid by the drivers side rear wheel which looked like brake fluid and a quick check of the master cylinders confirmed it, my first thought was that it was a bit weird as I clearly recall reconditioning the rear calipers not all that long ago, turns out not long ago was actually ten years ago. This is the offending caliper Here's the proof This treatment wouldn't have helped Fixed The last time Whittie was here we did a couple of night events and had some trouble blowing fuses in the HID headlights with them ultimately dying at the night drags and Whittie driving home with parkers only, turns out the HID drivers died we suspect from over heating as they were mounted in the engine bay so we sourced a new set and I mounted them today on the opposite side of the inner guard so they are now under the guards just below the lights, hopefully that will fix them. The original mounting point in the engine bay. The new under guard mount. Cheers Grandad

Hi PeterAllen Thanks for that it looks like a good fix but the time involved in identifying all the pics would be immense. Whittie and I understand that the Photobucket free business model wasn't working for them and they had to introduce a paid model but the way they went about it in disconnecting all pics and demanding a $400.00pa subscription to reconnect them infuriated us and left us with three options, do nothing and hope things will change, pay the ransom or leave. We hung in for a while in the hope they would revert back to the old model but when it became clear that wasn't going to happen I decided that the only way I could show them how I felt was to remove all my albums which with the exception of Zed pics I did, Whittie removed all his soon after and closed the account so now there's nothing there to reconnect. I'm currently using a different free hosting platform and Whittie is looking into setting up his own site. Cheers Grandad