Dialing In

GHIT 0087: SilverSleeves Racing Team Driver Greg Birch

On this episode, we had Greg Birch on from the SilverSleeves racing team from the west coast. We first met the team at Laguna Seca earlier this month but both of us had less than ideal racing weekends. It was great to catch up with Greg and we look forward to racing with them again.

Barbie Corvette and Team SilverSleeves — SilverSleeves Racing Team

Barbie Corvette — SilverSleeves Racing Team

Highlights for this episode include:

1) What is a Wolseley Hornet, its history, and how to get one onto the track, as well as future plans
2) Greg’s Mini fascination and history with both classic Mini’s and modern Mini’s
3) Canada is a great place to get low cost cars for racing due to insurance rules and where Bill and Alan are going soon, very soon
4) Where the Magic Bus nickname came from and its full history
5) Some of the driving rules for their team and perhaps how they should be our teams
6) a reasonable place to get driver training in the pacific northwest
7) The SilverSleeves car assortment, like the Austin 1800, and MG 1100 and the Barbie Corvette
8) Getting to hear the words competitive and Ford Probe engine in a sentence
9) What is a Hydrolastic Suspension and its “advantages” in racing
10) Racing in Lucky Dog and the 24 Hours of Lemons series
11) We come up with a way to expand upon their primarily British car themes
12) Bill’s idea to limit speed creep win low cost endurance racing and fortifying Class C cars
13) Discuss the mini as the predecessor to all transverse front wheel drive cars that are so prevalent today and its racing heritage
14) Team fastest lap punishment ideas and a discussion on speed creep in low budget endurance racing
15) Tire wear versus tire growth, lol
16) Waterford Hills Race track
17) Dialing in our new JCW Mini Cooper with as much cater as we can get
18) Too many cars and a way to possibly limit the issue with your significant other
19) One of the best team mantas we have heard
20) A very helpful the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
21) The inherent greatness of in race racing with a friend on the track, like when Greg raced with Todd of Everyday Driver that may be in their upcoming tv episode on Motor Trend
22) Best west coast tracks to add to our list

We had no luck getting any info on the new theming ideas that SilverSleeves is working on but look forward to the big reveal.

Hydrolastic suspensions for everyone!!

Here are a few videos where the SilverSleeves team and cars are featured.

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, and Alan
Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast
and team members in the GHiT
Immature Endurance Racing Team

GHIT 0087: SilverSleeves Racing Team Driver Greg Birch

GHIT 0083: Our 2019 Review and 2020 Goals Episode

On this episode, Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, Kate and Bill went over our 2019 season and our 2020 goals. Are we on the same page? Do we even belong in the same book? Listen in and find out. Some of it was news to us, lol.

Areas covered included:

2019 Review:

1) How did our Team’s 2019 go in your opinion, Highlight and Low-light
2) How did your personal season go? Highlight and Low-light
3) Things you want to keep the same/similar and Things we need to change or improve
4) Biggest team weakness or missing need
5) Best Race or HPDE and Worst Race or HPDE
6) Our traditional Good, Bad, and the Ugly

2020 Goals:

1) What race goals do you have For you, For the team, For cars
2) Personal, Non-driving/racing goals
3) What driving/HPDE goals do you have, Any tracks or races interested in for 2020
4) Any additions to our team in terms of People, Tools, Training, Paddock, Cars,
5) Roles/Responsibilities, and Team talents missing/needed
6) What would define a successful year? For you and for our team
7) What would you say to the other members of our team

We try to do this every year and would recommend it to you and your team.

Bill’s inner planner sometimes takes over.

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, Jen, Kate, and Alan

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast
and team members in the GHiT
Immature Endurance Racing Team

GHIT 0083: Our 2019 Review and 2020 Goals Episode

GHIT 0077: Our Friendsgiving Work Weekend

Thank you to Chris and Chrissy

Alan, Zombie Vicki, and Bill go over our recent Friendsgiving Work Weekend with special guest from the Everyone Racers Podcast hosts, Chris and Chrissy who came up to guide, instruct, and assist us with several of our cars that, as always, need repair and improvements. Highlights to the discussion include:

1) Our two and a half Porsche 944’s that are available and soon to be posted for sale for HPDE or racing use.

2) Capri update and our updated plans going forward

3) Winter is here in Northeast PA and when the sun goes down, the temperature leaves the garage in a hurry

4) How we organize our garage for both parts and cars and how Chris helped Vicki determine what is good to keep and how to identify the unknown items we have collected since our race team started.

5) What parts are worth keeping and what parts have donated all they have to give

6) Alan’s hamster powered internet shows up again

7) Our plans for the new Honda race car project code name Godzuki

8) The difference between parts replacement projects and part fabrication projects

9) Our repair update of the race truck/El Chrissy/The Bad Hombre steering issues and exhaust leak and the potential for a power steering line cooler to be added

10) Our repair update of the BMW E36 race car

11) How many ignore the potential for their race car to be their own planetarium

12) Alan bonds with several local FLAPS in our area

13) We need a bunch of camber shims to fix our S-10

14) We have renamed our race truck due to this week.

15) Alan gives a visual description of suspension geometry

16) A discussion of our hubs and bearings for the E36 and transferring the brake cooling ducts to our other race cars

17) Vicki and Bill plan to go to a local race shop to see what is available for our use

18) Alan’s fall led to a broken jaw, so does disagreeing with Kate. You can choose which is the cover story and which is real.

19) Alan impersonates a BMW E36 while Chris was investigating our electrical wiring issues

20) Spare parts and supply at the track discussion

21) Vicki, pre-Zombie, and Bill received a welding lesson on our Miller 211 MIG welder and began the learning process in earnest

22) Vicki relates welding to her art background

23) Chris and Chrissy had a spare moment to test our Mazda MX-5 on the test track for a good shakedown run

24) Skid pad event discussion and planning for this winter/spring at Lime Rock

25) Car show Fails on YouTube, a worthwhile time waster

26) The best way to say thank you/bribe people to help you (Hint: Food, drink, and beer)

Bribing Hard — We bribe our guests hard! And that was after we ate.

Special thanks, as always to Chris and Chrissy for coming up and helping. We learned a ton and accomplished quite a bit. We hope our bribes of food, drink, and racing were sufficient to lure you up again, hopefully soon.

If anyone wants a garage tour, we could put up a video (excuse the mess) on our YouTube channel. Just let us know.

E1R is Cool — Everyone Racers podcast is way Cool

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, and Alan

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast

and team members in the GHiT

Immature Endurance Racing Team

Links mentioned

For part ID and a great source for auto parts

Our Miller 211 Welder

Welding related YouTube channel

Everyone Racers Podcast

GHIT 0077: Our Friendsgiving Work Weekend

GHIT 0073: RaceCapture and Podium with Brent Picasso

Podium Pit Setup — You want data that you can use?

Brent Picasso has been racing since 2009 and has since created a company that provides the RaceCapture and Podium real time telemetry and data capture/display systems. We cover the development history and capabilities of the system, as well as his racing history. With what originally began as a self-tweeting race car, they have been able to develop one of the best and most complete systems we have seen to date.

Podium is capable of being used with virtually all data collecting systems and converts the data into many potential formats to aid in understanding and analyzing. RaceCapture is a separate system that comes in three levels suitable for once in a blue moon track day participants to full time professional racing teams.

His initial racing history began at Thunderhill with what was originally intended to be a Peugeot entry but eventually led to turbo Miata and 1,000 penalty laps and the race to zero laps began. The initial wheel to wheel racing action set the hook and he hasn’t looked back since. Since then, in addition to the Peugeot, his conquests included a turbo 3-cylinder Mercur XR4Ti, a Crown Vic, and a second gen V6 MR2. (Bill really wants a piece of that MR2 since he had one in college)

1) The development history of both RaceCapture and Podium and how each can be used together or with other data capture systems like AIM, MoTeC etc.

2) The use and capabilities of the various systems and how they interact

3) Data collection capabilities as well as how the data can be followed, used, and displayed, both in real time at the track, remotely, or within the racing car itself.

4) There are three levels of the RaceCapture system, what they are used for and how they differ

5) Podium app capabilities, use, and several upcoming features and capabilities

Podium on Cell Phone — Mobile and Remote usage as well

6) Ability to look at data in real time or as a review, especially with racing coaches and friends.

7) These systems appear to lower the barrier to look at and use any data you are collecting currently or in the future

8) Driver data comparison techniques and use

9) Some of the key improvements of this environment is the lower barrier to using and understanding and improving as a result of the data

10) The interface is also able to be used as a real time, in car dashboard and/or dashboard replacement

11) It is also able to be used not only in the car, but also in the garage/paddock at the track, and even remotely, all in real time on a wide variety of hardware including computers, laptops, iPads, phones, etc.

12) What is predictive lap time, how it is calculated and potentially used on the track

13) How the system works with driver changes etc., so common in endurance racing

14) Pit use vs in car use vs post-race review usage and options

15) Options and thoughts for use with multiple cars/multi car teams

16) We try to overview the installation process and requirements, as well as how they vary depending on the car being used, its OBD2 capabilities etc.

17) Options and thoughts regarding additional sensor use for things like brake pad temperature or tire temperatures

18) What is Canbus and how it can be used with the system to increase the capabilities and data that can be collected and monitored in real time, like differential temperature etc.

19) Shift X3 capabilities and usage to form alarms and warning systems for the driver of potential car issues such as engine rpm shift lights, oil and water pressure and temperatures etc.

20) Advanced customization options are also available for those interested through Lua programming capabilities built into the system

21) Options and use within dedicated race cars, as well as occasional track/daily driver cars

22) In car dashboard replacement options with using the system

23) We are very excited with several of the upcoming additions to the systems and steps to continuously improve the ease (of use and data “digestion”) and capabilities of the systems and how they integrate with each other and external data sources like video etc., as well as several advanced pit-to-car communication capabilities

All of this can be used for track days, HPDE events, and racing events at all types of venues and tracks, including impromptu tracks and non-traditional racing areas common with Autocross events etc.

We are placing our order for several of these systems next week and will likely have our review in an upcoming episode(s) as we progress.

Best regards,

Bill, Vicki, and Alan

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast

and team members in the GHiT

Immature Endurance Racing Team

Several links mentioned within the podcast:

Autosports Lab/RaceCapture: https://www.autosportlabs.com/

Podium App: https://podium.live/software

Aim Sportline: https://www.aim-sportline.com/index.htm

MoTeC: https://www.motec.com.au/products-currentrange/product-directory/

GHIT 0073: RaceCapture and Podium with Brent Picasso

GHIT 0068: NHMS 2019 Prep Week

Our ineptitude continues

Our plans are unravelling — Our preparation plans are unravelling

NHMS race weekend prep status.

One race, three cars, none working. The rest is good though.

On one hand we have the BMW E36 3 series from 1998. Issues, yes. It won’t start. It seems to not be getting power to the computer system and won’t turn over. We found one wiring issue and are tracking down any others, slowly. One good thing is that the prior owners live very close to our race, so as a last resort, we may ask for some assistance.

El Jeffe/The Bad Hombre: Braking issues abound. Still. The caliper/pads do not fully release from the rotors, which may be the issue we have been battling this entire season.

On this episode:

Alan breaks up into a game of boggle with things like DME, EWS2, etc.
Vicki breaks back in and tries to get us to explain what is going on
Bill breaks down the entire battle we have been having with the brakes on the race truck
El Jeffe brake theories, plan, and a review of the current status
An El Jeffe Transit story for the books
Alan talks about flashing ECU’s and seeking additional help to get the E36 running well again.
Alan does his best weatherman impression and forecasts clear skies for the E36
Kate even makes a quick guest appearance towards the end

It seems to be a standard week before the race. Now will this turn out? Tune in tomorrow, same bat channel, same bat time.

Or actually when we record at the track this weekend.

GHIT 0068: NHMS 2019 Prep Week