Lane's SCA - 2001 SPC Rally (11)

Jeff P (17k)

Jeff P and Tom S drove to Chicago from Connecticuit in Tom's L200. While in Chicago, Jeff rented an SL2 for the week's track activities.

During one of our prior club events, Jeff founded an organization called NMC Racing (Not My Car Racing, and you can find his website HERE). Since then, it has almost become tradition to have rental cars out on the track for club events. You can see prior NMC Racing entries in my site's archive section.

NMC car (23k)

Second place trophy (19k)

We always thoroughly enjoy Jeff's (or anyone else's) participation in club events with the rental car. Just when many of us think our long-term ownership has helped us to become accustomed to our cars, their abilities, and how to drive them - Jeff has the ability to take a car he has never driven before and place second in the Saturn bracket at the dragstrip. Congrats!

Rental cars normally undergo a series of traction tests (usually performed by Wally) before they are run on the track.

However, this time was a bit different. Instead of traction tests, this car was subjected to precise and rigorous suspension testing. Click the link below for some video.

.AVI (requires Indeo codec) - 236k

Indeo 5 codec can be downloaded HERE.

NMC car (19k)

In addition to dominating at the dragstrip, the SL2 could also be seen tearing up the road course at Gingerman Raceway - but not before a few important improvements. Carbotech brake pads, a strut tower brace, and a low-restriction intake (made from Shopvac parts) were installed, and much of the rear interior was removed to lighten its weight.

SPC standard rental car disclaimer

We realize that there are some people reading this who would think that driving a stock rental car in this manner is dangerous and irresponsible. In the hands of a driver with some experience and the proper safety equipment, risk to the vehicle & driver is minimal, and mechanical wear from a day out on the track does not cause any permanent damage to the vehicle. After all, most of us use our own own daily-drivers on the track and don't drive them much differently.

Ok, back to the proper order of events. After our day came to a close at Gingerman Raceway, we cleaned up, packed up our cars, and started the two-hour drive back to Chicago. Little did we know that we'd be a part of a huge traffic jam coming back into Illinois (due to an accident). We did finally get past it as we rushed to our next scheduled event on Tuesday evening.

As we were trying to make up time, Greg H suddenly lost the brakes on his 92 SC while on the expressway! The caravan pulled over, butsted out the tools, and got Greg back into 'limp mode' where he could only use the parking brake for the next half hour of driving. During that time, Jeff was kind enough to run in front of him in the rental car and help stop Greg if he needed it (BANG!).

As we were less than ten minutes from our destination, Ben P had a flat tire on his green 00 SW2. Having just come from the track, all the tools and spare tires sure came in handy. Ben got the tire swapped in a nearby parking lot in no time.