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Porsche Club of America
The Northeast Region

By Dave Weber, GT3Cup@PorscheNet.com
NOR'EASTER Online - July 2002

When will this weather turn for the better? I know we've been in the midst of a near drought for sometime, but surely all the rain we've received this spring has to have reduced that problem to manageable levels. My lawn needs mowing ever three days, and you can hear our perennials growing!

This past weekend it stopped raining long enough for me to set a record for most vehicles washed by a single individual in a five-hour period. My initial plan was to just wash our racecar, and a second set of wheels on which I'd just had new tires mounted. I started with the extra wheels, which didn't take long. While washing those wheels I determined that maybe I should wash our F250 Ford truck. That takes a bit of time as reaching some areas of the truck require special cleaning equipment - a long handled soft brush and a step ladder. The truck looked much better after an hour of attention.

I backed our Speedster out of the garage to get at the racecar, and in doing so determined that the Speedster also needed attention. An hour and a half latter both Porsches were washed, dried, detailed, and returned to their parking spots.

I'm feeling motivated now, as the sight of clean vehicles is so satisfying. So I decide to tackle our Audi's. My arms and back are feeling a bit weary, but since I'm not sure I'll have another dry few hours on a weekend I start with Susana's TT Roadster.

Her car doesn't take a lot of work as she's generally not driving it in poor weather. Still another hour passes while I clean the wheels and windows after washing the car. Now I'm thinking that I also should vacuum each of the cars and the truck. Hmmm.. this project is going to take longer than I contemplated.

On to my S4, the last vehicle to clean. My car gets driven every day, so getting it clean takes a while. I dislike cleaning wheels as removing brake dust residue from all the nooks and crannies is a pain. My back is starting to complain and my feet are soaking wet inside my sneakers. I've been so engrossed in my task I've neglected lunch and bathroom breaks.

With the cars washed, I decide I'd better finish the job properly so out comes the shop vac and towels to clean up the interiors. Another hour passes as I finish off each car and the truck. Finally I'm done, five hours after I started, with five vehicles cleaned in addition to one extra set of race wheels.

I really motivated now, although my body is complaining, so I decide I'd better tackle the lawn and driveway. I spend the next hour mowing the lawn, using the string trimmer, and leaf blower to tidy up the grounds. I finish just in time, beating the oncoming rain by minutes. I have the good sense to take some Aleve before I collapse exhausted in front of the television, in time to watch Tiger Woods win the US Open. Anyone have a more productive day cleaning cars?

The weather was horrid this particular weekend, but fortunately The Speed Channel was covering the 24 Hours of LeMans race, so I camped out in front of the television for seven hours on Saturday and four more hours on Sunday morning. It was my first opportunity to watch the race with live coverage, and amazingly enough I found myself staying awake most of the time. The race wasn't all that exciting as from the start it was apparent that Audi was going to win, with the only unknown being which of their three cars would come in first. As it turned out they did indeed win, first, second, and third with their cars numbered 1, 2 and 3 finishing in numerical order. A very German way of doing things. The Joest Team is very organized, with superior preparation and terrific execution. They'll keep winning as long as they keep racing those cars.

The only problem with the race coverage was that the same commercials were run at each break. Especially annoying were the repeated airings of the unbreakable fishing pole carrier. Even the Porsche Boxster commercial got annoying after twenty plus viewings! The Exoto.com commercial for highly detailed model cars did get my attention, and drew me into checking out their web site. They manufacture the best model cars, with their recent release of the Mark Donohue 917/30 being a particularly desirable acquisition candidate. Check out their site.

The prior weekend we drove out to Mansfield, Ohio to participate in the NNJR Driver Education weekend. Our trip out was horrible as we drove through absolutely miserable rainy weather. Fortunately for the three-day event the weather was fantastic, sunny and warm each day. The event was very well attended with participants from all over the Midwest and Northeast. We had a great three days of driving, with our car performing flawlessly. As I mentioned in previous columns, the Mid-Ohio track is great fun to drive, but even more so this time. Over the winter we added data acquisition capability to our car, so after each run we were able to download run data to see how we were doing. We're now able to compare lap-to-lap performance and run-to-run performance to see what we're doing that makes a difference in lap times and car performance. Very interesting, and clearly a tool we can use to improve our driving.

I mentioned truck wash facilities in my last column, and the importance placed on finding one along our route to events. For our trip to Mansfield I located a truck wash in Pennsylvania that seemed to fit with our travel plans. Of course when we arrived they were closed, probably not expecting anyone to want to wash their tow vehicle and trailer during a rain storm. As we entered Ohio we located a "Blue Beacon" truck wash. They are the gold standard when it comes to truck washes, so there was no question as to whether or not it made sense to stop. We stopped for one rig to be cleaned despite the marginal weather. Of course, within the next fifty miles we encountered four more Blue Beacon facilities and by then the rain had stopped. The last facility was within forty miles of our destination and would have been the ideal stop. Next year we'll arrive at the track with very clean trucks and trailers!

Porsche Club of America The Northeast Region

Porsche Club of America
The Northeast Region