If anyone is interested about Data Acquisition systems at the track there is an active thread in the Autox/Road forum HERE

 

Congrats on the Green Cards Deepu!!!

We should celebrate with a drink in Windsor! Lol

 

I am up for it and drinks on me I've never crossed the border all this time in spite of being so close. Manasa has been waiting for 7 yrs to go see Niagara Falls on the Canadian side.

 

Congrats on your permanent residency. When r u gonna apply for citizenship? I have to get my citizenship soon before my GC expires in 2012... I don't want to have to go back to Canada eh?

Again, congrats!

 

Thanks. We won't be eligible for another 5 yrs.

 

Well, my wife's Acadia has the towing package and I could always rent a trailer...to be honest, I would probably just drive the Z. Not sure what I am doing at this point. I need new rotors, tires and rear endlinks. I may just do Grattan and the season ender at Waterford and call it a year.

 

Nice. How do you like the vehicle? How long have you had it?

 

We like it a lot. We leased it. We have about 1 year left on our 39 month lease. It is a good vehicle - we are not minivan people.

 

We have to get another vehicle as we are going to have a baby and we cannot get by with one car in winter. Now I have been going back and forth between a crossover (GM Acadia) and Mini-van (Honda or Toyota).

Almost everyone I know has a problem driving mini-van because of the image. I was like that too, but Z satisfies a lot of my cravings so I am looking at second vehicle just as a people mover and random stuff hauling machine

I was also looking at Tahoe Hybrid so that I can tow my car but dropped the idea. So now, it's between crossover and mini-van. The sliding doors on the minivans are so appealing and functional that it's tough to overlook them. Don't know what I am going to do


Wish they had a Crossover with sliding doors and low to ground body that could tow 6000 lbs

 

I agree that sliding doors are nice, but we have no problems with ingress and egress with our two kids. With that said, I have no problems loading and unloading my kids in my 335i sedan. You should get a used Tahoe - forget the hybrid.

 

I was rotating my tires (left to right) for tomorrow's event and noticed that one of my REAR tires has a cut in the middle.

Do I need to be worried about this?

 

Speaking of tires... Is there any way to clean my tires up without track time? They're covered in rubber from mid ohio... They just don't get hot enough to clean off on the road.

 

Wow congratulations on the perm. residency mekatoka!

I know the feeling because I was the recipient of it only a short while ago

As for that one tire with the cut, either just run it at the track

or

burn it down practicing drifting or burning out or something hahaha

 

How deep is the cut in the tire?

 

wow that's interesting Deepu. Never seen that before. Maybe you ran over something sharp while the tires were still hot?

It doesn't look too deep though so I'd just monitor it often

Lee I have the same issue. I've been picking at it every so often lol.

I think the best way is to do a burnout / drifting practice / autocross.

 

don't know what you mean. Does it have rubber strands?

Thanks!

I was just concerned about the tire, don't want it blowing up at the track.

 

What track are you going to? I'm sure the tire will hold up as long as it is not too deep.

 

can you see the steel cords in the tire deepu?

 

Sorry, I missed your post. It wasn't too deep

Nope, no steel cords.

This was at Grattan. I did fine and had a ton of fun. Supposedly I was clocking 1:37 - others who were watching me told this. Have to check my videos to see my time. I remember my last year times were around 1:43-44

Except, my brake light was on the 2nd day (today) morning. I checked forums and it said it's either low brake fluid OR worn out pads. I later went to the track and talked a few around and they advised against it. I didn't run any sessions today Anyway, I have to check it out. But what I was told is that when the pads wear out the pistons have to push further inside and hence use more brake fluid. This is what causes the brake light to be ON. The manual also suggests not to do any high speed maneuvering with that light on. So, they are both related and should not be resolved by topping off brake fluid. Now I said this, because the one thread I found talked about this and I was going to do this.

Also, later I pulled the wheels and checked and the front pads has less than 1/8ths left. I was thinking I only did 6 days so I should be fine. But I totally forgot about the 3 dragon runs we did and all the street driving It could also be a combination of that and the fact that I brake harder this year than I did the last year.

Lesson learned - Always carry

- an extra set of pads
- some extra brake fluid
- extra oil

pads are more critical as they cannot borrowed where as brake fluid and oil can be borrowed

 

After my brake issues I always carry and extra set of pads (actually two - one street, one track). Deepu, you have definitely improved over last year. I am confident that you were running 1:37s while I was in the car. Clayton was timing me in the 335i (when it was not have oil temp issues) and I was running around 1:35s...We just need to focus on your aggressiveness - you will get there.