Lane's SCA - SPC at Putnam Park 3/2000 (2)

Gary (10k)

Gary H. was out on the track with his nearly-stock SL2 and not only showed us all up, but did so while double-clutching and using heel-toe technique (like I said, I felt like I was just looking for a parking space...). Deebs caught a ride with Gary and gave his driving ability the ultimate compliment - "WOW."

You can always tell where Gary is out on the course by the howling, squawking, and squealing coming from his street tires, which are probably being punished for something terrible they did in a former life.

In order to help preserve our daily-drivers and also to help them perform better, many of us swap tires and brake pads at the track.

Until now, I had used Carbotech Super Street F-Compound pads (front) and generic pads (rear) for driving events. Since this track gave us the opportunity to reach much higher speeds than we were accustomed to, I switched to Carbotech Hawk Blue pads (front) and Hawk Black pads (rear). What a difference - no fade whatsoever and incredible bite. You can read about all my brake pad experiences HERE.

Me changing the brakes (27k)
At one with the brakes.

Those of us who frequently spend time out on the track know that eventually something is going to break. Repeatedly driving a car a bit harder than you would while getting groceries causes accelerated wear and over time, helps you to find which parts on your car are the weakest (referred to as 'mechanical Darwinism', I believe). Everyone suffers some bad luck eventually and it's just a matter of time. The odd part was that by the end of this day, the score was:

Putnam Park Road Course: 4
Saturn Drivers: 0

Car #1 - Spun on a corner when the upper radiator hose burst and sprayed a tire with coolant. If you've got a Powerstack intake, be make sure you have the proper bracket and that your radiator hose doesn't rest on the sharp edge of the battery tray! Found an Autozone store nearby (amazing, since we were out in the middle of nowhere), got a new hose, topped off the coolant, and drove 'er home.

Car #2 - Flagged off the track by safety officials when the driveline started making some serious noise. By the sound of it, it's most likely the transmission or differential. Luckily the car was trailered to the track so the driver wasn't SOL for the ride home. "Since its going to be apart, it looks like the perfect opportunity to do some other things..." Every cloud has a silver lining.

Car #3 - Came off the track with a nasty noise coming from the top end of the engine. Opening the hood revealed both engine coolant and power steering fluid everywhere. Removed the accessory belt and started the engine and no noise. Spun the water pump by hand, sounds fine. Spun the power steering pump, heard grinding noises. Visited the same Autozone store and picked up a short belt from an SL (with no PS). Put it on and carefully drove the 8 hours home with 'armstrong' steering. Found out that a bolt had vibrated loose and backed out of the PS pump and was hitting the pulley. The fluid problem seems to have been from levels being a bit high for track use.

Car #4 - Came off the track at the end of a 30-minute session and noticed a bit of smoke coming from under the car. A closer look revealed that the slow oil leak in the rear main seal that was there for quite some time was no longer a slow leak. Visited the same Autozone store and picked up 6 quarts of oil for the trip home.