With the 12 Hours of Sebring over and the start of the Formula 1 season (less than a week away) it is now time to do some maintenance, testing and Spring cleaning. In the last three month, the garage has been kept fairly clean and organized, and I have been working on cars other than my own At this time last year I was running out of space here at home just working on my own cars (I have three PORSCHEs). I knew that I needed some extra space and started looking for a commercial garage to store and work on the racecar. Knocking on doors yielded nothing for months and everyone believed that their lease/for rent space was worth the national debt. I held on and continued to work out of my garage.
Eventually I knew of a garage that would be for rent. I called a friend and he agreed to rent the apartment above with both of us sharing the garage space. After being “let go” from my normal job 31 Dec, it was the green flag to start. Prior to that, I was building up to do it anyways, after all no one will pay you what you are really worth, except yourself
It was a combination of passion about the cars, other people telling me I should, word-of-mouth references, and the racecar is a test bed for customer repairs. Hence, RennAutoSports was born.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
The Flexable Driver
We all know that the car is a mechanical thing, thus subject to the laws of Physics, but the Driver is subject to both also. Visual acuity and situational awareness is paramount to performance both on and off the track. The effect of speed on the body also puts stress on it.
Most successful athletes train both while they are doing their sport and outside of the sports arena. For some reason many race drivers do not feel the need to train outside of the car. A good example of a driver who did train outside and inside of his car is Ayrton Senna…unfortunately we can only wonder where his career would have taken him since he died so young. This is not about Senna, but about the need to approach racing in more than one way.
Like the mechanics of a car the driver has many joints…some similar to those of the car. They all need lubrication, they need tuning and care (who hasn’t had an aching back, neck, and shoulders?). Balance of strength and flexibility is crucial for the spine and other joints. The mind is also part of the driver…keeping a one point focus, being able to calm the mind yet have the awareness of all that is going on in front of you, beside you, behind you is critical for safety. Right and Left integration of the mind and working parts of the body all come into play. The senses—smell, hearing, sight, touch, all of these must be activated and tuned in order to smell the possible fumes being emitted, the sound of the engine, the sense of speed, the touch on the brakes and the steering to get a feel for suspension, the road surface, traction, forward and peripheral vision. A good series of books to get an idea on how to improve all around is Speed Secrets 3: Inner Speed Secrets mental strategies to maximize your racing performance (Ross Bentley and Ron Langford).
The tools I use—not for racing myself, I don’t have the nerve for that—for everyday living is Viniyoga. I am both a teacher and student of the Viniyoga tradition. It has taken me over 500 hours of training in the traditions and tools of yoga to realize how practical it is. Note…it is NOT about stretching the hamstrings, standing on your head, or getting into silly contorted positions (sad to say this is the western image of yoga now, so, buyer beware). It is the tool I use to working one on one with people, including a race car driver, helping them begin to learn how to focus all of the tools mentioned above.
So remember, the next time you get behind the wheel, breath, plan, focus, and consider the possibilities.
“And so you touch this limit, something happens and you suddenly can go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and the experience as well, you can fly very high.” Ayrton Senna
"His brain could simulate his all operations on the track such as RPM of engine, gear position, braking point, steering or so with the error by less than a hundredth second. He could adjust himself perfectly in line with his analysis so that he actually ran in 0.6 second faster if he said that he was able to run faster by 0.6 second. Besides, he could memorize all data for the process and condition of his machine. His memory was perfectly same as the telemetry data!" - Yoshitoshi Sakurai
Joan
Most successful athletes train both while they are doing their sport and outside of the sports arena. For some reason many race drivers do not feel the need to train outside of the car. A good example of a driver who did train outside and inside of his car is Ayrton Senna…unfortunately we can only wonder where his career would have taken him since he died so young. This is not about Senna, but about the need to approach racing in more than one way.
Like the mechanics of a car the driver has many joints…some similar to those of the car. They all need lubrication, they need tuning and care (who hasn’t had an aching back, neck, and shoulders?). Balance of strength and flexibility is crucial for the spine and other joints. The mind is also part of the driver…keeping a one point focus, being able to calm the mind yet have the awareness of all that is going on in front of you, beside you, behind you is critical for safety. Right and Left integration of the mind and working parts of the body all come into play. The senses—smell, hearing, sight, touch, all of these must be activated and tuned in order to smell the possible fumes being emitted, the sound of the engine, the sense of speed, the touch on the brakes and the steering to get a feel for suspension, the road surface, traction, forward and peripheral vision. A good series of books to get an idea on how to improve all around is Speed Secrets 3: Inner Speed Secrets mental strategies to maximize your racing performance (Ross Bentley and Ron Langford).
The tools I use—not for racing myself, I don’t have the nerve for that—for everyday living is Viniyoga. I am both a teacher and student of the Viniyoga tradition. It has taken me over 500 hours of training in the traditions and tools of yoga to realize how practical it is. Note…it is NOT about stretching the hamstrings, standing on your head, or getting into silly contorted positions (sad to say this is the western image of yoga now, so, buyer beware). It is the tool I use to working one on one with people, including a race car driver, helping them begin to learn how to focus all of the tools mentioned above.
So remember, the next time you get behind the wheel, breath, plan, focus, and consider the possibilities.
“And so you touch this limit, something happens and you suddenly can go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and the experience as well, you can fly very high.” Ayrton Senna
"His brain could simulate his all operations on the track such as RPM of engine, gear position, braking point, steering or so with the error by less than a hundredth second. He could adjust himself perfectly in line with his analysis so that he actually ran in 0.6 second faster if he said that he was able to run faster by 0.6 second. Besides, he could memorize all data for the process and condition of his machine. His memory was perfectly same as the telemetry data!" - Yoshitoshi Sakurai
Joan
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Turn Marshals
I need to give credit to the Turn Marshals. These unsung heroes are volunteers and with out their help the sport would be a lot more dangerous. Before I started racing a friend invited me to work the Champ Car races in Portland Ore. Wow, what a deal! Get to see the race up close and personal. We arrived at PIR on Friday morning and were directed to the inner field area. There was a spot reserved just for the turn workers to camp out. Up went the tent. The rest of the time was spent wandering the pits and paddock. Saturday morning out came the Colman stove and breakfast was cooked. I would rather be late for work (in this case the race) than miss breakfast. Most of the people in our area had donut and coffee in hand. After the workers meeting, we deployed to out to our stations. Basically the rest of the day was spent watching the cars fly by. After qualifications the workers had a huge party, complete with a beer truck that had built in taps on the side. The food was fantastic! The whole atmosphere was one of friends and family. I did not have any trouble going to sleep that night. Everyone was up early on Sunday and I cooked my usual breakfast of eggs, bacon and hash browns. This day promised to be a scorcher, not a cloud in the sky. Lucky for us we had an Easy-Up canopy to keep out of the sun. Once again, the race was uneventful. Late that afternoon we packed up gave good-bys and headed home.
Starter Car
The car I started with was one of my daily drivers, a 1984 944 Porsche. I bought this car for $1,000 and it needed some body work. I did all the work my self, totaly stripped the exterior and had the car painted. It has the sunroof delete option, very rare. The factory did not put a sunfoof in and thus the car is a liitle bit lighter because of the additional bracing that comes with the sunroof. The exterior and interior were pristine by now and I was having second thoughts about stripping it. Well, that was decided when a truck backed into the front, denting the header panel. To make a long story short the driver met me the next day and paid me $1,200 for the damage. The car's fate was sealed. I replaced the header panel and stripped the entire interior. The Porsche script cloth high bolster seats sold for $400 and the rest of the interior for $100. I then sold the polished Fuchs rims off my other 944 for $800. I now had $2,500 for the track car. This ammount paid for the seats, roll cage, belts, seat back brack and a wide mirror. I also installed an oil cooler and an Accusump. I already had Koni adjustables, lowered front springs, and Kuhmo V710 tires. The car was built according to the specs at ICSCC.com to compete in the E Stock class. I bought and sold a 944S and that paid for my suit, Hans device, and driving gloves. My driving shoes were won at a drawing for turn workers. Yes, I do work at the track when I am not racing. So in all their has been very little expense out-of-pocket.
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