If my splitting headache this morning is any indication, it’s going to rain today. Alot.
We had our monthly meeting of the Central Kentucky Region of SCCA yesterday, down at Jim Sawyer’s Bar and Grille, downtown where the old Civic Center shops used to be. These days, it’s mostly known as “That place at Main & Broadway where there’s a Starbucks”.
Sawyers is a great place, and the CKR members are great people. Mike Janssen is getting married to his sweetheart on Sept 3rd. There’s an Autocross on Sepetember 5th, so the honeymoon will likely be short. He’s trying to get his performance parts business off-the-ground, and he was trying to sell me some camber plates for my MINI, which would kick me out of stock and land me smack into STS or F Street Prepared, if I decided I still wanted to run on R-compound race tires.
I mean, let’s peruse a site and see what kinda dough we’re talking about:
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Camber Plates: $600
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Adjustable rear swaybar: $200
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Full coil-over-shock suspension setup: $1900
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Set of 15x7 racing wheels: $1200
So, my dream setup with the above, plus tires and labor, would be $6k. Eek. How to make a small fortune in racing? Start with a large fortune.
The only *must haves* there would be the camber plates and the rear bar. Actually, I’m already competitive with our current region’s FSP crew, but that’s only Russell’s original Mini and a guy’s ratty old 1982 BMW 320i. I can beat ’em with the Pup in basic H-Stock trim.
It’s money better-spent elsewhere, though. Mods are a complete money-losing proposition: They don’t increase the value on the car; instead, they make any potential buyer wary of purchase because you’ve flogged the car. Though, since I don’t ever plan on selling her…:-)
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I really wish my vacation started Monday instead of Wednesday…I’m completely spent for some reason–the lack of defined activity here at work, standard management B.S., and that general summer-is-ending malaise that comes every August are all contributing factors, I suppose.
Not to jinx myself, but today is shaping-up to be quiet and low-stress. Now, if I can just find something MOTIVATING to do to knock my brain out of this funk it’s in….
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In other news: Hat’s off to Carly Patterson for winning the Women’s All-Aroung Gymnastics Gold medal yesterday in Athens. A cute, bubby, if slightly overwhelmed 16=year-old, Patterson followed teammate Paul Hamm’s model from the previous night, falling behind early, but finishing strong as her competition fell apart.
I did feel sorry for Bob Costas last night as he tried to do an interview w/her:
Bob: So, at what moment did you know you’d won the Gold medal?
Carly: Umm…I just knew if I had a good floor exercise I’d be the winner.
LOL…totally matter-of-fact, like she’d just gone shopping at the mall and gotten some Baskin Robins.