Eau du gun oile et race fuele

[Images by Andrew Hobgood (left), Pete Kuncis (right)]

Ed (SubEd from NASIOC) hosted a bunch of us up at his home in Essex, VT for the weekend. Saturday, we went out shooting at a range somewhere in the backwoods of Vermont off of Rt. 15. Two .22 pistols for familiarization, a Glock 9mm, H&K USP (9mm), Springfield 1911 (.45 ACP), a blued S&W .44 magnum revolver (I think it's a Model 29), and a CAR-15 rifle. Sabrina shot each of the guns, and put down a hell of a grouping with the revolver. She actually managed to shoot better than most/all of the rest of us there (with the exception of Ed), which, for someone who hasn't shot before, is pretty damned awesome. =P

Sunday was the Essex Junction Rallycross (sponsored by Vermont Sportscar)... rain, cold, mud... it was a mess, and it was miserable. I did terribly in the standings, but had a blast. As slippery and frustrating as the mud was, Pete Kuncis from OnALimbRacing.Com managed to capture some awesome action shots with wet clay and water splashing around everywhere. Great shots.

Here are some more pictures of the shooting range: ( 1 | 2 ), and of the rallycross: ( 1 )

Cars, code, and carousing...

So, I returned from San Diego last Tuesday... we had to go through a number of software test cycles and bug fixes for the remainder of the week, but it appears that as of yesterday, all of the code has stabilized and is now solid enough for a real release. I'm pretty happy about this development.

Before I returned from San Diego, though, apparently, someone stole some things out of my car while it was parked at Manchester Subaru (where I was having them inspect a possibly failed wheel bearing). Only the ham radio rig and the BoostMonkey were stolen. Odd things to take, but too inexpensive to be worth an insurance claim.

Sabrina helped me put the new downpipe into the WRX, and, well... damn... the car is really fast now. I replaced the BoostMonkey, and we put camber bolts in the rear (to bring the camber back out after the rear subframe locking bolts). I put a smaller (read: less attention-grabbing) tip on the straight pipe, as now, with the downpipe, it's way too loud. I'm looking for a Magnaflow or similar muffler from Summit or Jegs to get welded up there to take the noise level down a notch. The tire/wheel swapping is almost complete, but I have two more snow tires to get mounted up before the rallycross next weekend.

On Saturday, Sean and I went over to Racer's Depot (I think) in Marlboro, MA with Sabrina and John. We tried on some Sparco suits and picked up other miscellaneous gear. I purchased a Sparco Sprint 5 2-layer FIA nomex suit, nomex balaclava, socks, neck brace, and some gel-filled harness pads. The suits should be showing up sometime around the 8th or 9th of October (my size 64 is shipping on October 4). Expensive, but it's safety, right?

So, at this point, we need to pick up a rally computer and intercom, get the rally tires ready to go, spill kit, first aid kit, logbook and inspection... pay our entry fee, and Sean and I will be rallying. Our first event looks like it's going to be the Great North Woods ClubRally near Berlin, NH. Yay!

I'm so freakin' excited. =)

Hmmm, where to start...

I'm sitting in front of a Ramada hotel right off of I-8 in San Diego right now. I've been staying next door for almost a week, working 10-12 hour days since I arrived here to install our new system at the Fleet Training Center at the San Diego Naval Station (NAVSTA). It's been a long, painful week, and if you know me, you probably have already heard me complaining, or will hear me soon, about all of the things that have gone wrong. Software bugs, system crashes, video BIOS failures, tracking jitter, poor prediction, drift, slop, bad models, etc. If it's something that can go wrong with an augmented reality system, chances are, it's happened this week.

Sabrina's been wonderful all week... I originally thought that I'd be able to make it home Friday night on a red-eye, and be able to go to the Stammtisch beer festival at the BCA tonight, but, as these things go, I'm still out here in California. Luckily, I left the pair of tickets with her, and she managed to get her friend Mike to go with her on short notice when I told her that I wouldn't be home in time. Apparently it was a good time, if a bit cheesy. It sucks to have missed the bratwurst and bier, but I'm sure we'll have our own little Oktoberfest as the time comes.

This girl... well, let me expound a bit here. I don't know who might be reading this (she probably will =), but I'll just put it this way... Beautiful, brilliant, and ballsy. She's a protein biochemist during the day, a closet car geek on the weekends, a connoiseur of fine cuisine in the evenings, and the best snuggler ever all night long. We're talking orders of magnitude cooler in all dimensions than anyone I've ever known. She loves me for everything that I am, and, well, I love her more than I even knew was possible.

It's funny, but with my particular history with relationships, I never thought I could trust someone with everything... but she's managed to show me what a real relationship is all about, instead of the high-school mind games that I've had endured in the past. Mutual respect is a rush, let me tell you. Sideswiped my reality, and all that jazz.

Anyway, now that I've gotten all publically mushy, I'll move on to the more pragmatic. She's currently car-less (and lives near the T, so it's not a problem), but would really like to restore or build up a Datsun 280Z project car. The main purpose is to make something that looks beautiful (and keeps the classic Z body), moves quickly, handles well enough for a fun autocross car, and is reliable enough to not need serious maintenance after the initial build-up.

If any of you out there in blog-reading-land have any lines on decently priced intact 280Zs (manual, decent body, good motor and gearbox), or cheap rolling chassis (blown moto/gearbox and begging for an LS1 conversion), drop me a line. We're interested.

Aaaaaaaaaanyways, I hope to make it out of San Diego sometime on Monday... I really want my seasons back. And my girl. =) I think we're going to make a trip to HMS Motorsports in the next couple of weeks... I need a fire suit for the Great North Woods Rally towards the end of October, and she's going to need gloves and other gear to work service crew. =P

Still waiting for that freaking downpipe. Started a package trace with FedEx yesterday, but they haven't gotten back to me yet. It's almost a week late now, and I might not even have it in time for this weekend. Grrrr.

In other news, I'm officially smitten, and now, taken, by the coolest girl I've ever met. =) Life is good.