I just wanted to give my thanks to James Creasy and his gang and all the
volunteers and instructors at the autoX school yesterday!
We had Matthew Rehrer for our instructor and he was just great too. He was
very helpful in isolating some things to focus on during events that will help
improve times as well as being a great person as well.
The class was fun and both my son and I had a great time. We learned a bunch
and had lots of seat time.
I practiced trying to do more braking before the corners and smoother
acceleration out of the corners.
My son worked on everything imaginable as he is very new at all this autoX
stuff including driving in general.
In the full course in the afternoon I started with a 50.657 and ended up with
my best time of 48.682.
My son started with a 51.185 and had a best time of 49.008
That is just 0.326 more than me! And I have been driving for 33 years more
than him. I guess I get slower by the year!
And he gets faster by the second! All those video games must help too.
It was really a great day!
I wish we could have gone to the event today (Sunday) but we were worn out,
body, soul, mind, tires and cars....
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On the negative side .... but nothing to do with the autoX school or the way
it was run....
It would have only been a better day had my son's 300zx not had some engine,
oil exhaust smoking problem which occurred on the very first mini-course run.
We decided to not use his vehicle for the rest of the day. Instead we shared
my 97 Z28 Camaro. He did just great in the Camaro. I am glad we had 2 cars
there so we were still able to participate. The big negative here is we have
to figure out what is wrong with the car and pay to fix it. Bummer, I hate to
pay to fix stuff.
Oh the other negative is that it smoked enough when we left for the day that
we "chickened out" and parked it at the entrance of the coliseum and called
AAA for a tow. The $330 AAA tow fee was an unexpected negative! We had it
towed 38 miles to a Santa Clara shop. AAA apparently only covers the first 5
miles now as a classic member, both AAA and the tow truck driver informed us
and told us about the $10/mile charge. We had to "pay through the nose" a
whopping $10 per mile which meant $330 to get it to the shop. I guess we
could have tried to check around but I thought that AAA could have contracted
for a lower price than that. I thought it would be for free or maybe $100 but
never dreamed $330. Had we hauled it all the way home it would have cost
$560!
Apparently you can pay more for a premier membership that cost more yearly but
you get 100 free miles. I did not qualify for it since I added my son this
year and had a tow once the year or so before which disqualifies you.
I think I might just drop AAA next year. I am pretty disappointed with them.
In 2003 they towed me about 15 miles and did not charge extra. I guess they
changed their policies.
But anyways THE CLASS WAS GREAT! THANKS TO ALL!
We are keeping are fingers crossed on the 300zx. My son is sooooo upset about
it with summer coming up and all. But he loved the class, exactly what he
wanted and more!
Thanks Again!
-Stacey and Dan Wilbur
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