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Most recent entry: 2013-05-09 00:00:00 -- Generated on 2013-05-18 20:43:51 by Rig3 0.4-440




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2013/05/09 Second Droid and Friends of the year at Thunderhill, and Brake Toasting
π 2013-05-09 00:00 in Cars
Frank nicely drove my car to TH the previous night, and I did a morning IFR flight there:


Funny, google now on my phone telling me I had to leave by 04:56 to get to the track :)
Funny, google now on my phone telling me I had to leave by 04:56 to get to the track :)

Burning Man shirts double as Thunderhill shirts I guess :)
Burning Man shirts double as Thunderhill shirts I guess :)


this plane had short wings
this plane had short wings

that's some serious downforce wing/diffuser
that's some serious downforce wing/diffuser

Unfortunately, the higher temps caused my brakes to get way too hot. By lunch, I had to get them flushed after boiling the fluid:


it's actually a bitch to flush, you can't reach the inside without removing the wheels
it's actually a bitch to flush, you can't reach the inside without removing the wheels

ready for my testing after the flush
ready for my testing after the flush

Flushing didn't help for long though, just one session was enough to overheat the brakes again. Post mortem showed that they got so hot that I damaged the metal on the rotors (turned blue), so they'll have to be changed too. My brake rotors were also measured at 750F when I got off the track. That's why outside the acceptable range, so there is nothing brake fluid can do at those temperatures.
The temperature also broke one of the tire sensors:


no, the tire wasn't really 77PSI
no, the tire wasn't really 77PSI

In the process, I managed to crack my rear license plate and pop out license plate lighting:


As a result of all this, I didn't post great times, and it was a bit frustrating, but I guess that's part of testing a new car. My car is back at the dealer, and they're now figuring out how to improve brake cooling and general performance of my brakes in high workload and temperature scenario.

The Aston Martin crew was invited, and showed off some of their racecars giving rides, and letting a few of us drive the cars for a few laps :)


pretty colors
pretty colors


view from inside
view from inside

I only got a few laps to try it, I think my best one was around 2:02 but I was still learning how much more I could push the racecars with real brakes and tires:

On the plus side, Ditto from Got Blue Milk got awesome pictures of my car, including pictures of my air brake:







Oh yeah, and the battery on the plane I flew crapped out, so I was unable to fly home. Thanks to Frank for driving me home.

2013/04/30 2nd Supercar Drive with Club Sportiva
π 2013-04-30 00:00 in Cars
I did that event a couple of years ago, and figured it would be fun to do it again. Some coworkers and I met at club sportiva in San Jose:

many cars in their shop
many cars in their shop

how many lotuses do you need? :)
how many lotuses do you need? :)

drivers meeting
drivers meeting

car lineup
car lineup

And here are the cars I drove in sequence:

  • Lamborghini LP560 (4WD V10) which was new for me.
  • The Lambo did quite well in the twisties, and the sound was quite nice. The traction control felt good, better than I thought it was.



  • Lotus Elise (stick shift), same I drove last time.
  • Unfortunately, I only got to drive it on the top of skyline, which is not what this car is built for. It definitely felt raw, a bit cramped, even for me, and if something is going to be wrong on the road or you, it is _not_ going to help you :)





  • Nissan GTR (4WD turbo), also new for me
  • Nice lineup at the Mountain House, where I switched to the GTR, just in time for twisties downhill. The GTR did quite well, it definitely allowed me to push it, and definitely felt safe. I was fairly impressed with it:



    plenty of gadgets and graphs, I love those :)
    plenty of gadgets and graphs, I love those :)



  • Porsche 911 (4WD turbo), another new one.
  • When we made it to the ocean, I got to switch to the 911. While I didn't love it, it behaved quite well in the uphill twisties:





    and it has room for people in the... actually it doesn't :)
    and it has room for people in the... actually it doesn't :)




  • Maserati was the same I drove last time.
  • I again got it for cruising on top of Skyline. It felt a bit sluggish with the extra weight it's carrying, I wonder how it would have done in real turns. I'm guessing it does reasonably well. Its brakes were very good.



  • Audi R8 V8 (stick shift) was last
  • While it was the same I drove last time, I quite like this car. It did very well downhill in 9, sounded good and felt planted and safe, and its brakes were also quite effective.




    Unfortunately, the loop we got was shorter compared to the one we did the previous time, and there was a pace car in the front, so even when the road was empty, it held me up a little bit :), so I just gave everyone some space and room before going myself to get a bit of clear road.

    2013/04/28 Back to the Roots Mushrooms
    π 2013-04-28 00:00 in Public
    I recently got another Back to the Roots Mushrooms kit at work during Earth Day, so I gave it another shot. This time it worked quite well :)

    The amazing part is that the following pictures are only 5 days apart:






    Yum!
    Yum!

    Dinner :)
    Dinner :)

    Our previous attempt was several months ago, and this time it worked a bit better.

    See more images for Back to the Roots Mushrooms
    2013/04/27 Cupertino Cherry Blossom Festival
    π 2013-04-27 00:00 in Public
    I had managed to miss this the last few years, so made sure to make it in our calendar this year, and we went. It was well worth it, and good practise for our upcoming trip to Japan :)


















    They had some nice Ikebana:




    Jennifer also got to look into Calligraphy:



    OMG, the pond has such cute little ducklings:


    they look so helpless :)
    they look so helpless :)


    See more images for Cupertino Cherry Blossom Festival
    2013/04/18 Visit of Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg about Solar Impulse
    π 2013-04-18 00:00 in Flying
    I had heard about Solar Impulse, the first solar plane that can not only fly during the day on solar energy, but can also store energy in the batteries so that it can fly at night too, but it was nice to have Bertrand and André (both Swiss French) come visit us and come talk about their work so far, and their plans.

    I had no idea that their huge plane could fly on just 4 10HP motors. That is less than a fourth of the power than the average US car has, or my new car has 15 times more power than their entire plane! Note that it is a super efficient glider that only flies at 25-30kts (i.e. a very slow sleep and wind currents can push you much faster than it can propel itself). This is not about to take passengers across the Atlantic quite yet, but the idea is to work on milestones one piece at a time.

    So far, they have flown over 24H by charging batteries during the day, climbing high, and gliding slowly down (1ft/sec) from very high altitude at night while using batteries to sustain flight when they are low enough that they should use power to maintain altitude.

    Next, they're planning on flying across the US and their end goal is being able to fly around the world.

    Bertrand and André, interviewed by Pablo, one of our local pilots
    Bertrand and André, interviewed by Pablo, one of our local pilots

    Next, we went to Moffett to see their plane (which had been brought inside a bigger plane and put back together). You have to see it in person to see how big it actually is:






    The plane is about as wide as a 747 while the pilot cabin is smaller than the planes I fly. It was difficult get a picture from end to end in the dark hangar, but these pictures give some idea:


    I got to see the materials they use, that was impressive in itself: super light but solid honeycomb, as well as foam. The spars are made out of super light carbon fiber, the same kind that goes in expensive supercars due to its strength to weight ratio:



    the solar panels from sunpower are also super thin and super light
    the solar panels from sunpower are also super thin and super light


    It was really cool to meet with Bertrand and André, and see their first plane. V2 is going to allow for 2 pilots, better avionics, and ability for pilots to stay airborne longer.

    You can go to http://www.solarimpulse.com/#6914 to see how the plane was rebuilt at Moffett. From there, they are planning on flying across America.

    2013/04/08 A Half Powder Day at Kirkwood, with Jennifer
    π 2013-04-08 00:00 in Snow
    I still had one more day to go to Kirkwood before I broke even on my pass, but let's face it, there weren't too many powder days this year, so when we got a "maybe powder day" in April, it was potentially the last one for this season, so we took the risk. We drove on Sunday afternoon, and stayed overnight, hoping for gobs of snow at night. Snow did fall, but just not long enough.

    Long story short, it was very nice super dry powder with cold temps, but it just wasn't enough. Maybe 4-5 inches in the best spots, but that really wasn't enough to cover the ice sheets under it.
    There were spots that were nice if you rode flat on them, but as soon as you rode with an edge, it got to the ice, and it wasn't that fantastic.

    Still, it was reasonably fun, and better than the other days where you had ice and slush. But boy, I don't remember seeing so little snow around kirkwood (even if kirkwood itself had godo coverage on the trails still).

    I don't think I ever saw that river, or forgot about it
    I don't think I ever saw that river, or forgot about it




    steep :)
    steep :)





    Very coool, a remote controlled snowboarding kid :)



    Jennifer, her first day since her ankle sugery last year, did very well. Much better than both of us expected :)

    2013/04/06 FC Drivers East Bay Tour
    π 2013-04-06 00:00 in Cars
    I missed the previous drive since I was snowboarding in Colorado, and it was just around home, but that was no excuse for not missing this drive. I had no idea where it would go, but it didn't matter, it was a good way to try the car on the road now that the break-in period had just been done.







    supercharged
    supercharged




    ok, my door opening isn't as tight...
    ok, my door opening isn't as tight...


    drivers meeting
    drivers meeting

    And it was time for the drive:








    I got to follow the adventador, and the driver is not slow :) On the first section of the drive, he kind of pulled away from me because my car was had the suspension raised and it kept yelling at me "slow down, I'm lowering your air suspension" :) and while that was happening, I was also futzing with my google glass to try and start a FPV video :)
    Once that was done, it wasn't too bad to catch up and keep up since my car is more nimble, but once it came to going downhill a very wet road I didn't know, I backed out somewhat. Turns out the car was very composed the entire time, it never scared me despite the wet conditions, but I was being conservative anyway. Once at the bottom, we wiated for the other folks for several minutes :)


    In the end,

    almost there :)
    almost there :)

    See more images for FC Drivers East Bay Tour

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