Don P

Darin/Mat, Doing a bit of spring cleaning here and came across some assorted size 3 ring binders. Will bring them to race school if the club has any use for them.

an expensive winter. Just got the parts dropped off by Fedex today to fix the right rear suspension. Into that for $900+ already, and haven't bought the CV joints yet. Not even sure they're damaged, but plan to replace them anyway. The upgrade won't hurt as the right side takes all the high loads anyway. And those old Volkswagen parts can't be that expensive. lol Also got a new 6 point 'HANS friendly' harness for $400+ this week. And still thinking about buying some newer 'used' slicks for this year. (ran all last year on used ones installed 2 years ago) The price we pay to go fast, huh.

Well it's over a year later and I had a brief scare a few days ago. lol All the lights on my transponder started flashing red. I unplugged and checked cable and plugged it in and it kept doing the same thing. Then I'm thinking wtf? So I surfed to their website and found the user manual to decode the lights, and it turns out it does that when it needs a major update. So I had to download the new file into the transponder thru it's USB cable from my PC. Then power down and back up again and we are back in business. Carburetors man, that's what life is all about.

Too many late registrations. lol Thanks for all your efforts over the last few years though.

I bought a used GMC Envoy recently. Was reading up on some net info on these vehicles and came across a reference to this pdf file from GM. Seems to have been written for non-gearheads to understand. Probably was for the Corporate Execs or something. Seems too detailed for a media release, etc. Quite impressive considering that GM only thinks of it as a truck engine. Here's brief rundown on it. An inline 6 with an aluminum head, block, and oil pan. 4 valve head with twin cams c/w variable valve timing. 10:1 compression ratio Hyper-eutectic pistons with full floating pins, forged steel rods, nodular iron crank Vane-style crank-driven oil pump. Gerotor style water pump. Drive by wire throttle. PCM controls everything. (like sports cars and fighter jets) I've read this twice already, and I'm really glad I own one now. lol File included, if you want to read the long version.... vortec4200.pdf

My car is still not ready. Hoping to be ready by race #2.

Should be there after supper tomorrow. See you at the firepit.

Thanks for the replies. It turns out since I posted this that I may have a job offer next spring. Seasonal work. It's a large electrical contractor doing a directional drilling project for our phone company who is doing a huge fibre optic upgrade. They are hired to do directional drilling in lanes, streets, residences to install large and small polyethylene conduit underground, so the phone company (or another contractor) can come along later and install the fibre inside. Since I was supervising them crossing our facilities this past year or two, they pitched me a potential offer for next year, once they heard I was retiring. The young foreman said he'd talked to his bosses and they could use someone like me to work ahead of the drilling crews and make sure all crossings got located/verified and exposed by a hydrovac crew. Seems to me I'd be doing some of what the young foreman used to do, but they are adding a 3rd crew as well, which will multiply the details needed to get it all done safely since he'd now be overseeing 3 crews. He told me to expect a phone call in May. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. lol But it will depend on whether I'm allowed to take certain extended long weekends when required. (for racing purposes) It's kinda funny how things unfold sometimes. I was wondering what I'd do next when this offer essentially fell in my lap. It reminds me of the first job I got when I was 14. Me and a buddy walked down to the local Exhibition Grounds the day the carnival company started arriving to set up the yearly carnival/exhibition/rides/booths/etc for the week long event that summer. We no sooner got there and stopped to look around when a guy walked up and asked us if we were looking for a job. Of course we said yes. Then he says, "well you won't find one standing around, go start talking to people" or something like that. Since we'd just got there we were a bit pissed he'd say that to us, as we'd had quite literally just arrived. It wasn't like we'd been standing there for awhile and were looking at everyone. So as we were discussing what a dick he seemed to be for saying that to us and then walking away, lol, another guy walked up to us and asked us if we wanted a job. Which made both of us break out laughing. We then had to explain to the second guy what the first guy had said. Then he laughed too. And we both got jobs with his booth for the week. And all because we were just standing around... lol

Besides the country club prices, who has the budget to race 15 days a month and 2 weekends a month? That's half of your life at the track. lol If it flops and doesn't pull in enough support it will go public pretty fast, or go bankrupt. Then we might have a shot. lol

Looks like I'll need to do some tig work on my frame this winter. damn There's another broken area on the car, other than that support arm that Jean Sebastien was kind enough to weld for me back at the September race. But I have a local old buddy with a machine/welding shop at his house. lol He builds and races nitro drag bikes now in his spare time. He's a shift manager at a potash mine, but he was a millwright and operator there for many years before that too. So my damage is fixable but will probably wait until spring. I had some sad news, and also some happy news, to share with you folks. But didn't want to dampen the Oct race /Thanksgiving weekend for anyone else so i waited until now. My Dad passed away on Oct 2nd, but it was kind of expected by us, so it's been a bit easier to deal with than I thought. But he taught me a lot more than he probably knew he did, and will always be my bud. The massive heart attack back in the late 1990's didn't get him, but the Parkinson's and Alzheimer's in the last 5 years did. But getting to 89 years old isn't too shabby though. He was a tough old bird. On the happy front, I handed in my official "Intent to Retire" form to my manager at work, near the end of September. My last day working there will be Dec 15th. Other than groceries, or snow shoveling, or picking up car parts, I may not leave the house/garage until the snow melts next spring. bahahaha Should have the car back up and running by summer and won't be thinking about another job until at least the summer/fall. The pension isn't fantastic after 35 years, but I'll get by now that all my stuff is finally paid off. Will even be looking at seasonal work maybe instead. Hard to say what exactly, just yet. I have a few options. But there won't be any more cold weather, or middle of the night stuff any more. woohoo Hope to get out to 2 or 3 races next year. Take care everyone. Thanks for the good times at the track this year. I miss the old place when I'm not there. lol And also keep hoping I win it big in the lotto, cuz that track would get a major upgrade. $1 or $2 million would do wonders for that place.

Picked it up, and it's now registered and activated. Almost plug and play. But I noticed the latest version of mylaps software I downloaded to my computer is x86 based. So this isn't exactly a state of the art new program running all this timing data... :0 Final price was $258.42 Canadian pesos including priority post shipping. No extra charges at pickup either. No duty or gst.

Scott M sent me an email stating it should work as long as I activate it before I arrive. It should work fine as it is a direct replacement for the old red ones. Got my postal delivery ticket in the mailbox for the parcel yesterday. Will pick up at postal outlet tonight. Should have it activated tonight too. Once you activate it online, it registers the ID number in their system, and your subscription/warranty begins. I'll hunt down the timing guys for a test as soon as they setup the gear on Vintage weekend.

I just ordered a new AMB X2 (replaces the red AMB X260 almost everyone has) transponder from Pegasus in Wisconsin. p/n# 5001-501 $159.81USD + exchange rate + duty + GST + postage (for the rechargeable model) Has a 1 year subscription to mylaps included. (renewing the subscription also renews your warranty as long as you don't let subscription expire) Looks like I'll be the guinea pig for the new hardware everyone is/was complaining about. lol Talk to me at Vintage weekend if you want to know about upgrading yours, or just want to look it over.

never mind