Race Car Stuff

I know it has been a long time since I have been active here. Racing season it starting up, and this site will see regular updates. Keep watching.

To start, this is a great video that explains how I grew up. At one point in my life, my Mother, both of her sisters, one of her sister’s boyfriends, my younger cousin, my wife, and my oldest daughter were all autocrossers. Each Sunday my grandparents came out to the events and watched, and mostly visited with all of the family in one place, since all of the spouses and kids also came to the events. This was a great time in my life. This video, captures that feeling. This is not my family, but it captures the same feeling, I wish that was something everyone involved in racing could experience.

One of my recent High Performance Driving Education (HPDE) students, Steve, is taking the next step this weekend. He has built a Spec RX7 racecar and is taking the car to his first SCCA competition licensing school this weekend. I guess he was happy with my HPDE instruction, as he has asked me to crew for him at the licensing school. One of the true joys I get out of my racing involvement these days is opening up this fantastic sport to others.

To many people who watch racing on television or from the grandstands it seems so completely inaccessible. The sport seems so expensive that no “mere mortal” could ever get involved. In reality, nothing is further from the truth. There are various classes of racing that anyone can get into for a few thousand dollars. Used racecars are readily available that make nice starting platforms. All forms of racing have entry levels where the costs are reasonable.

Steve’s Spec RX7 is a great example of one of these entry levels of racing. The cars can typically be built from an 81-85 RX7. Most people end up with about $2500-5000 tied up in the car. In addition since this is an entry level form or racing there are always race ready cars for sale for about the same prices. The cars basically do not depreciate. If the car is maintained, it can probably be sold without losing any money when it is time to move on to another racecar.

Keep reading the next couple of days. I will be reporting on how Steve’s race weekend goes.

As a “retired” racer, that still wants to be on the race track, I regularly instruct at high performance driving schools (HPDE’s) put on by various sanctioning bodies and marque clubs. For those unaware of these events, they are the chance for an average Joe to take their street car out on a race track at whatever speed they feel comfortable with, in a non-competitive, relatively safe environment. There is always an instructor in the passenger seat of the car to (one) make sure the entrant maintains safe driving practices, and (two) to improve the entrant’s driving skills a few notches up the ladder.

The early days of these events, I was usually in the passenger seat, shouting instructions to the driver over top of the engine, wind, tire, and general track noise. Along came modern electronics, which have tremendously enhanced the experience of these sorts of events. The typical HPDE entrant has a video camera going constantly, recording all of their mistakes with the hope if turning those into better laps during the next session. Often they also have various in-car data recording devices that usually monitor lap time, G-loading, etc. But to the instructor the helmet mounted intercom systems what we always wanted back then.

First came some sort of generic system that most of us found in the JC Whitney catalog that plugged into the cigarette lighter with microphones and speakers. These things had terrible sound, very little muffling of wind noise, but they were easier than shouting back and forth. Then came the Nady Communicator they were much less expensive, with much improved sound quality. My vocal chords were very thankful of this device. I was finally able to still talk late on Sunday after a weekend of track instructing.

But alas, the Nady proved to have durability issues. The microphone boom was usually the problem, but they were just not durable enough for the type of use we usually encountered at these events. In fairness to Nady these devices were designed for a different sort of environment than we were attempting to use them.

With a broken Nady, I had the Chatterbox recommended to me. It was about twice as expensive as the Nady, but it claimed many features that sounded interesting. I bought the kit, along with some extra items (there was a sale at the time, that included extra options at little cost). I got an extra student’s headset (which I have never seen advertised, but is available if you call and ask). With this I could give each of my students for the weekend a headset and they could just plug in when we were in the car. I ordered the HJC50, which is a stereo unit. In my living room the sound was incredible, but the real test would not happen until we were on the race track.

As options I got a cable that allowed me to plug the unit into devices that produced sound, like a CD player or whatever. This was a nice feature, but not usable for my purposes, but it would be nice to ride a motorcycle and hear a music or radio. There was also a cable for attaching to a cell phone. This was also good to the motorcycle rider. But I could also use this to connect to a radio to communicate to someone in the paddock id needed. It could also let someone in the paddock hear the conversation. Finally they had a cable for one-way output that could be plugged into the audio input of a video camera. Add this feature and you have a real benefit to the student recording his track sessions for personal improvement.

But the amazing thing with the chatterbox is the sound quality. I don’t know how they did it, but there is an amazing amount of noise reduction. I can almost whisper to the driver and he can hear me clearly though stereo headphones over the engine, tires, and wind, even in an open car. I have had my chatterbox for about 4 years now wit no problems whatsoever. It has an internal batter that holds a charge an amazing length of time. I have forgotten to recharge it before a race weekend and it still lasts the entire weekend.

Chatterbox also has the wireless set. I have never tried it, as they are a good deal more expensive than the HJC50. But I have begun to be tired of cables for so many electronic devices everywhere. Maybe there is an FRS X2 in my future. But as pleased as I have been with the HJC50, I don’t now how I can be more satisfied.

Jim Pantas is a racer with the National Auto Sport Association that was so pleased with the Chatterbox that he decided to become a dealer for them. I like to buy racing things from racers if possible, so I recommend him as a source for the Chatterbox. I happen to think he is the best source for them, but there are of course other sources. I am sure there will be better products from time to time. I sent a list of suggested improvements to the manufacturers of the Chatterbox, but overall it is an excellent device and my suggested improvements will no doubt cause the price to be higher.