New battery for the car
A few days ago I had decided to drive the 911 out to meet some friends at the wonderful German food place near my house. So, I took the time to pull the cover off the car, give it a quick dust off, move my other car out from behind it, then hop in and then hopped in to start it. Alas, as you can guess my the name of this post, it didn't happen.
I figured what the heck, I only drive the car a little bit a year and I hadn't driven it in over two months, so it'll just need to be jump started and I can do that later. I finally got around to later yesterday evening. And, I tried jumping it, which was no good. So I let it sit for a while with the other car running to see if it would charge up the battery enough to start it. And that didn't happen either. So taking my a multimeter to it, I found out I only had a 9V reading across the terminals. Yep, a dead battery. Sucks to have to buy a new battery, but this time I'm being smart(er) and procuring a trickle charger as well. That way I can hopefully prevent this from happening again anytime soon.
Dyson DC28 Animal Vacuum Cleaner
I needed a vacuum cleaner and had been wanting a Dyson for awhile. Today, I decided to scratch that itch since Best Buy has all their Dyson vacuum cleaners for 20% off. I checked out the Dyson website and see which one would best fit my needs then headed off to Fry's and Best Buy to play with them and see which one I wanted. I checked Fry's because you never know when Fry's is going to pull one of those ridiculously amazing sales they don't tell anyone about, however, there was no crazy insane sale today. But I got to look at the entire Dyson line and it was between the DC25 Animal and the DC28 Animal vacuum cleaners. The DC25 Animal is one with the rolling ball and a little lighter than the DC28 Animal, but it is narrower by 2". Since I'm lazy when it comes to vacuuming, I chose the DC28 cause an extra 2" isn't going to hurt sucking up dust and animal hair from the floor.
Pulling the vacuum cleaner out of the box and setting it up is a two minute ordeal and the instructions are all graphics so you don't need to be able to read to put it together (like me... I can't read... sad state of affairs when you can be in graduate school and fail to be able to read, but I digress). After putting it together and taking it upstairs I vacuumed a room I had just vacuumed the day before and I was amazed at the amount of additional dirt and dog hair the vacuum pulled up. All told vacuuming the upstairs resulted in four emptyings of the container on the vacuum. And this was in rooms that I had vacuumed the day before as well. Makes me wonder how much stuff the previous vacuum was missing.
Sure it is a little pricey, but I believe you get what you pay for, and of course, I didn't just buy this with a simple web search to see how great they were. I had a friend who has had his Dyson for the past two years and says it was the best vacuum he has ever bought and felt stupid for not buying it sooner. Can't say I feel the same way yet, but with the way it cleans and how quiet it is. I definitely recommend looking at one for your next vacuum cleaner.
Parts, parts and more parts
As I've chronicled before, the 911 is becoming a race car and I've slowly been gathering up the safety equipment and other parts that it needs. The latest haul is a combination of safety and comfort equipment: a fuel cell, cool shirt and associated goodies, and window nets.
The fuel cell is a FuelSafe 17 gallon "shoe-box" style fuel cell with a surge tank. The cool shirt will help keep me cool while racing (and perhaps while driving around the street as well if I become crazy enough to ditch my A/C while I'm still driving it on the road). And, finally, the window nets will keep me and my associated extremities inside the vehicle in case of a problem.. like a crash.
The biggest thing is to now start putting parts onto the car and selling parts I don't need before buying anything else. So, the install list is as follows:
- Headers
- Front Splitter
- Cool Shirt System
- Fuel Cell
With the installations I need to do, the headers, front splitter and cool shirt system I know I can attempt myself. The fuel cell requires some welding (which I can't do... yet) but I can at least gather the additional items needed for the fuel cell installation such as AN fittings and fuel hose to get it connected to the fuel pump and return lines.
When I get a free weekend I'm hoping to do the header install which will also necessitate an oil change because an oil line must be replaced in order for the headers to fit onto the car. It'll also require a torch to heat up the exhaust nuts so I can pull them off the studs without breaking them (or at least that is the hope). I've been dousing the exhaust studs in Liquid Wrench and PB Blaster for the past few weeks so I hope that'll be enough for me to at least start getting the exhaust system off of the vehicle.
Secondly, the front splitter requires me dropping the bottom air damn, which while not particularly hard (only 6 bolts) will have to be done outside (where it is currently hovering in the high 90s). Once it is dropped, I'll need to replace one nut and bolt on the air dam then I can start making the splitter out of the sheet of polycarbonate I have. I'm going to design the splitter to go out at least three inches from the bottom of the air dam and also go back underneath the car to the underbody tray protecting the fuel pump. With this I should be able to channel air better into the oil coolers since it won't be able to escape underneath the car and will be forced through the coolers. Also, it should at smooth out the air flow a little bit beneath the vehicle.
Finally, the last two things: the cool shirt and the windows nets. I'm not going to install the window nets just yet since I've got to do some more modification to the interior of the vehicle. However, the cool shirt system will require a little fabrication (that I can do) to hold the cooler someplace in the cockpit along with a little wiring since I've gotta power the dang thing as well.
And the fun part, selling all the parts that I've taken off the car. Of course, I don't want to do that until I've figured out which parts still work and which ones do not. So, I really need a weekend or two to sort through everything, get it photographed and put the parts up for sale.
Speed Secrets 6: The Perfect Driver
Well, I've now finished off the Speed Secrets series with the exception of #7, which is about autocrossing. I'm still debating on purchasing it since I already have Secrets of Solo Racing which is supposedly one of the best books on the subject. Chances are I'll eventually read the seventh, but not right now.
Speed Secrets 6: The Perfect Driver is a continuation of Inner Speed Secrets (Speed Secrets #3). It focuses on particular situations that occur when driving and how to use mental imagery to overcome the problem facing the driver. Each chapter has a small introduction and setup to the problem and then discusses how to think your way out of the problem. I think the setup of the book is nice you can jump to any section to see how the Speed Secrets people helped the driver out.
The topics are, of course, wide-ranging, but definitely within the realm of driving the car on the track. There are 21 chapters within the book and all but three deal with pure driving issues. The remaining three are about mental imagery and how to make use of your strengths and how to always stay positive and have fun out there. There are also two appendices, the first is a review of the exercises shown in Inner Speed Secrets and the second appendix is the list of all the speed secret phrases from each of the chapters within the book.
Speed Secrets 6 took me about three hours to read cover-to-cover (much like all the previous books in the series). It is well written and provides information in a concise and understandable manner, however, for me, I don't think I got as much out of this book as I did from Inner Speed Secrets. Part of this could be that I've been through a racing school and they teach and describe a lot of these techniques so this book felt a lot like a refresher course than anything ground breaking. If you've never attended a driving school or have only been to a high speed driver education class a few times, you won't harm yourself by picking up this book and reading it. However, I'd suggest getting Inner Speed Secrets, Speed Secrets, Going Faster! or one of the other basic driving books before jumping into this one because I think you'll miss out in a lot of the situations that are being described within the covers.
Speed Secrets 5: The Complete Driver
You'll notice I've skipped Speed Secrets 4: Engineering the Driver since it no longer seems to be in print and from what I can tell doesn't relate to you as a driver. It is about everyone around the driver and how to make the driver better; so, one day I might find the book and read it, until then, I jumped forward to the 5th book in the series. This time the book is written by Ross Bentley and Bruce Cleland, but I think Bruce Cleland should get top billing since I'm not noticing any of Ross's influence in the book other than the first two chapters.
This book focuses on everything external to the actual racing and driving of the car. For instance, it discusses what it takes to get to the top, what you need to know, an overview of the business, teams, marketing, sponsors, PR, and networking. In fact you could just rename the book 'Marketing for Racers: 101' and have a pretty good idea of what goes on in the book. The only two chapters that seem to be from Ross are the first two chapters which come from the second Speed Secrets book. After that it is all about the business of racing and what you need to do and know to be successful. The positives and negatives of different approaches are discussed and a lot of time is spent telling you the same thing over, over and over: use common sense, think, plan, be respectful, execute, repeat. No matter what you do. Of course, we all know common sense isn't so common so I see why they hammer it home all the time.
Speed Secrets 5: The Complete Driver is not so much a book on how to race and how to be successful on the racetrack but how to handle yourself off the racetrack in order to be successful on the track. If you removed the racing aspect of the book it'd be a great book on how to be an entrepreneur since it does discuss items such as getting your foot in the door to potential sponsors (investors), giving your pitch, and how to correctly handle follow-ups to your pitch. It is a quick read, I finished reading it from cover-to-cover in a single sitting. If you're clueless on how to network or present yourself it is definitely worth the purchase if you want to continue on the track to be a race car driver (or in life for that matter).
Ayrton Senna’s Principles of Race Driving
Ayrton Senna's Principles of Race Driving is a great book. Is it the first book I'd recommend to a newbie driver taking his car to the track for the first time? Probably not. I'd recommend Drive to Win, Going Faster!, or Speed Secrets first, then this book. Principles of Race Driving gives a look inside the mind of Ayrton Senna arguably one of the best Formula 1 drivers to ever grace the cockpit. It covers everything from the correct seating positions to exercises and diet plans used by Senna (and more than likely his contemporaries) to gain endurance and be physically and mentally prepared for anything coming their way during the race.
The book begins by discussing the seating position, how to turn the steering wheel correctly, and how to shift gears with minimum disruption to not upset the balance of the car. Next he delves into determining the fastest line through a track and the basic physics of the car (oversteer, understeer and sliding) which then leads to the discussion of passing and general passing etiquette (which, by the way, etiquette goes out the door on the last few laps of the race if your position is being contested). Continuing on with the racing discussion, he touches on car setup and how important it is to understand enough engineering to be able to discuss competently what needs to be changed with the vehicle, how to choose gearing for a track and then the beginning of a race; from the start to the first few laps and what to expect and how to handle it. The book ends with chapters devoted to physical training, visualization and the proper diet to be able to handle the demands placed on the body during a race.
Principles of Race Driving is now very hard to find since it has been out of print for many years. I found a copy on Amazon.com and even though I paid more than I wanted to, it was definitely worth the price in my opinion.