No updates in a while... part of the reason is because I have been without my car for 2.5 months of summer. A few months back I hit a nasty pot hole... nasty to say the least. The repair work itself wound up taking just two weeks, but the insurance was dragging their feet in a big way, coming up with one excuse after another (it took them three weeks to fax two pieces of paper for the shop to start work). The shop was Nu-Way Body and Fender Works on Grand and Couch in NE Portland. This may have been the first time I have ever had a shop do any substantial work and have been entirely happy with the work they did. So, a hardy recommendation for them. After all was done, I switched insurance companies after the struggle with this claim (wound up saving money, too), and have been enjoying the car again...

...except for a while there has been this rough idle issue when the car is warm. Besides that, as of late, if I'm tooling along at speed, and then have to all of a sudden slow down (as is often on my commute down the freeway), the car would begin to run really rough, and then the check engine light would come on. A cylinder was actually getting shut off. The diagnostic info said misfire in 5 and 6. BMW claims the spark plugs are good for 100,000 miles, but at 69,000 miles, I put new ones in a week ago. Driving for the last week has been much improved. Great! On to today...

First track day since Thunderhill. If you'll notice in the picture, the font of the car is now sitting a bit higher than the rear. This is because with the fun pothole, the struts were replaced and they just came at an arbitrary ride height. I'll have to adjust them, but handling is just fine as is. Today was a Motocorsa/Lotus of Portland event. Weather was suppose to be good, and when I got to the track at 7:30am it was just cloudy, but dry as a bone. As I'm putting a bit of air in the tires, it started to sprinkle... after 10 miles it was a steady rain. Hmmm bummer. Luckily I didn't bother with the track tires today, and was just running the Toyo T1R's. I had trouble getting the brake ducts on without a jack, but I wouldn't be needing them in the wet anyway. All three of my morning sessions were with a soaked track. It's an interesting experience out there in the wet... a bit challenging, but I'm not sure if "fun" is the correct word. I was going about 38 through most of the back turns, and was on the hairy edge the whole time. It would feel like I should be able to carry a bit more speed there, but whenever I tried, out came the back end! It was almost fun when I was intentionally doing so, but when it snuck up on me it was a bit nerve racking. One point in 11 I got about 45 degrees sideways, which was a little entertaining. Every lap I'd need to have fairly major corrections about twice. So it definitely kept me on my toes, despite the slow pace. My student, in an NSX, was a bit of a challenge. He started out very aggressive, and sliding around a bit. When I had him stop doing that, his next session out he was very tentative and slow. He was listening, but every time around the track he'd then forget what I had previously told him and he'd make the same mistake. He said it was all just too much to take in at once. In the last novice session before lunch he asked me to take him in my car, so we did that. It was educational for both of us as I was showing him the edge, and why the wet line is different (e.g. going over a strip of concrete you'd normally want to do in the dry causes the car to loose traction due to the transition in the wet). All day I had noticed a new GTO whose driver I had spoken to earlier. He seemed to be driving pretty aggressively for a first timer, but he was with an instructor, so I figured all was well. Not so, I guess, as the session was red flagged due to him hitting the left wall on the back straight. Major bummer...

The afternoon sessions dried up, and I was able to have a bit more fun. Of course, now the brake ducting would have come in useful! Since I hardly had any brake pads left, and I was on the street tires, I didn't push very hard at all (braking at 600 feet on the front straight). On the track, the Toyo T1Rs seem pretty good, actually. I may even venture to say as good as the Goodyear F1 GS-D3s. Once the Toyos heat up they get much more predictable, and grippy. I was able to slide the thing around without issue all afternoon. Too bad they suck in the wet and are not confidence inspiring on the street. Also of note is how amazingly more life you get out brakes when you're not pushing them to the limits. I was taking it pretty easy on the brakes, which was probably costing me 1-2 seconds a lap, but even though I had hardly any pad left to start the day, I didn't really notice any pad wear by the end of the day. Still need to get them swapped soon...

I was pretty bummed when it began to rain, but overall it was a very fun day, and even though I left two sessions early, I wound up with exactly 100 miles on the track. This will likely be the last track day of the year for me, unless I'm feeling a bit saucy on Sunday for the Alfa day...