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imported_doug

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Today I drove down to Laguna Seca to watch the CART practice sessions. What a deal - free admission, free parking - and almost nobody there - so you could get up close and personal.

When I got back to the car, however, it was covered in the worst layer of dirt dust I've ever seen. This is NOT a metallic back car! I was worried.

heavy_dustage.jpg


Thanks goodness nobody wrote "wash me" with their finger - :eek: - the mere thought of that makes me cringe. I managed to hit some safe but definitely illegal speeds on the way home - so the dust is almost all gone - so much so that I can use a duster and detail spray+ wipe now. :)

FYI - photos of the CART boys at: http://community.webshots.com/album/31037339stvERmQsUJ
 
Those sounds are nice. Did you see the mini Ferrari it took the guy 12 years to make, now thats amazing.....



I thought those Cart car had slicks, looks like they have the "v" thread pattern, odd.... Oh well, sounds like there moving preeeeetty fast from that sound file.
 
Carguy,



I was interested in this post because I couldn't exactly understand why you were so concerned about the layer of dirt/dust on the car. Aside from the fact that it is obviously a pain to have to get it all off by washing it again, is there some danger to the paint from the dust just "being there"?



I was also interested since I have a black car that seems to be a dust magnet. Or at least I can see it too obviously when there is dust accumulated on the surface. Is there any product that will keep dust from sticking? Some sort of magical seal that will repel it? Right now if I get a light dusting on the car I just carefully run an MF towel over it and that seems to do the job without any damage to the surface. I've got a couple layers of Klasse SG on it so I don't think it is doing any damage to the paint anyway.



Thanks for your post.



passat4227
 
There is not a problem with the dust just "sitting" there, it is just more of a risk if anyone touches it or rubs the dust with pressure, it can easily mar the wax or whatever he has on his car.



It's also annoying when you spend all those hours on such an expensive car to have it covered in dust. It would be fun to hose all the dust off and watch the water bead off :-)



It's just more annoying than harmful.
 
You guys make me feel a lot better about being so anal about my black car. I hate dust. I clean my car 100%. Never sees rain but then dust from the garage. I'm thinking of doing a big vaccum in there and closing the air vents.
 
Answers: The cars were on slicks - however they use cheap, treaded tires to move them from the track (hot pits) to the pits. Otherwise the sticky slicks (which are AMAZINGLY thin! I picked one up it was SO light) pick up a lot of debris from the pit area.



And, as said, dust alone is OK - it is the risk of someone accidentally rubbing against it, or worse, intentionally dragging a finger through it. I would have covered it when I parked it because I KNEW it would get dusty, but it already had enough dust that I knew putting the cover on would be risky.
 
<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' >

<em class='bbc'>Originally posted by carguy [/i]
<strong class='bbc'>When I got back to the car, however, it was covered in the worst layer of dirt dust I've ever seen. This is NOT a metallic back car! [/b]</blockquote>
Geez... my car looks like that <em class='bbc'>every day[/i]! Houston... if it were any dirtier, it'd be called Kabul.
 
I know how you feel about your black. My AC Cobra is painted a dark metallic Green [Cadillac Polo Green] that appears black in anything but sunshine. It is a constant battle just to keep it dust free [as much as possible] and keep good-hearted friends or helpers at the track or show from just running a RAG to help dust it off. I was out Saturday when the winds picked to anywhere form 35 to 70 MPH. On Sunday spent almostg all day dusting, washing, waxing, etc. The interior looked like it was tan [remember no roof.]

My big problem is bugs. That Cobra will take bug strikes sitting still. At the Wings & Wheels show at Los Alamitos, CA last year it became sort of a side show entertainment just watching tghe bugs slam into the Cobra parked. One of the attendees at the show is, or said he was, a bug specialist [OKAY]. He said that the bugs just see it as green and and can't tell it from the vetegration around. About that time a relatively large moth comes on in and kamikazes himself into the front of the hood, slides around on the hood, and disappears inot the hood scoop. It is a daily ritual after the Cobra has been out to remove bugs from the paint job.
 
Steve - saw your other post. Welcome to the board. Your Cobra is gorgeous. I too turn to Meguiar's 1st - only use something else when it is demonstrably better. Let me humbly suggest you try Souveran some time - I use meguiar's Gold class as a base - it has excellent gloss - but this souveran stuff is amazing. I promise you you could wax the cobra after a wash in no more than 10 minutes, including buffing - and it adds this hard-to-define-but-you'll-know-it-when-you-see-it quality of depth unlike anything else I've used.



The stuff is like a drug. It is expensive, but you can get a large number of coats out of a can. So cost per coat is a few dollars at most. Its a good thing they don't have "pushers" handing out free samples - it is easy to get "hooked" :)





cheers!
 
All you owners of black cars are crazy. I would go crazy trying to keep up with a dusty look that black tends to highlight. I don't think I could sleep well at night knowing that I'm going to have to dust my black car every hour or so. I would just snap. I'd lose it for sure.
 
HEY CARGUY



I will probably running KERMIT at Sears Point in July or August. If I do I'll give you a holler and stop on by on the way up. Great track to run on. Last year in August for a run i lost 11 lbs oin the 4 days up there.



Steve
 
Don - it is WAY beyond crazy. We black car owners are seriously ill. ;)

Hey, Steve -

Absolutely - stop by - I'd love to swap Cobra and Turbo rides.

Sears is indeed good fun, and a good skill/confidence builder. I actually found it harder to drive well there than I did at Laguna Seca. We had 23 M5's there for a private day in August - what a blast.

You probably know they have cut off various portions of the track while the repave and work - when we were there the long straight from 10 to 11, along with the hairpin up to 1, were not open - so we ran the modified course that cuts over from 9 to 2. My M5 is stock so it understeers more and more at the limit, but it is blessed with considerable torque - we were hitting about 110 mph in the uphill section into turn 7 before braking hard, 4-2 downshift for the tight right hander. wahoo!

I made a video from footage a friend shot from his car while following me around the track. unfortunately all you could hear on the original was wind noise, so I overlayed a a music track to make it a little more enjoyable.


M5 at Sears Point (20Mb, .MOV format)
 
I would recommend the California duster over MF for removing dust, less chance of rubbing dust on your finish as it picks up the dust.
 
CARGUY

Looking ofrward to seeing you when I get up there. I like both LAGNUNA SECA & SEARS POINT [prefers the people running SEARS POINT] but I just love running at Willow Springs. It is undoubltely one of the best tracks to run on, plus it has to be [biased] place for a spectator to get a great view anywhere around the track, especially turn 3 and 4 [BUDWEISER BALCONY area].

What I do when we are doing video work at tracks in the Cobras or other open cars [Sunbeam Tiger] is that I mount Sony D8 camcorders on the video mounts on the roll bars. We strap the camera units down with at least two straps. If possible I try and not just run the straps around the mount but acutally run the straps around the roll bar. I manually focus the camcorders with the zoom at extreme telephoto. By doing this when you zoom out to your normal wide angle shot everything that is in between telephoto and wide angle will stay in focus. Anything you pass, cars, signs, trackside stuff will all be in crisp focus while racing.

For the audio I take a microphone with either a 6, 8, or 10 foot cord. I plug this into the extenral microphoen plug in on the camcorder, tape it securely so it won't come out of the socket at speed. I then run the cable down to the body of the car, using as many "PLACES" as possible [roll bar, trunk gap, ETC.] After the cable is nice and secure I place the microphone underneath the passenger seat, turn it around to face the rear of the vehicle, and tape it to the floor. What you get is video that is so clean that you can your read your instruments and the if anybody is in fornt of you [read his license plate]. We get absolutely vibration free video. On the audio you get no wind, just every shift and exhaust note. A CD producer that produced a COBRA ENGINE SOUND CD actually took my audio off of some of my videos for the CD it was that clean & clear. I also leave the stablizing system operative on the camcorders. If ever need any help in this kinda of stuff give me a holler.
 
Thanks again, Steve -

You and I must be cut from similar cloth. The video I pointed you to was shot by a friend. I have done much better; still improving my technique. unfortunately there is no great place to put a camera in the Porsche without buying a harness bar, which is expensive. I only track it once a year or so. - but i agree - a wide angle lens above and between the seats is the absolute ideal location. with a closed top car, you also have to set the exposure manually, or the dark interior car portion of the frame will confuse the camera into overeposing the view out the front window. Underexposed interior is better than overexposed exterior.

My latest mic technique is similar to yours, but with a twist. I bought two microphones (high quality lapel type) and wired them into a stereo microphone jack. I'm still fooling with locations, (I like your idea of under the seat better than under the floor mat, which is what I tried last time to pick up engine noise. ) I put the other mic, with a foam head cover, on the dash, out of the wind, to pick up my voice - because I like to call out speeds, make other comments. A natural ham, I guess. On playback you can adjust between the two tracks with the balance control. It works pretty well!

I can't show you anything shot that way yet, but i can show you my first in-car videos, which were taken in the Porsche (HAMA video mount - big lever-action suction cup mounted to glass, plus safety harness) as I drove it at Laguna Seca a year ago. Going back in April, with a digital video cam, stereo mic set-up, and wide-angle lens. (Still not quite wide enough.)

http://w1.movies.taner.net/greg - note this site is sometimes unresponsive....
 
Your stuff looked quite good. I've got some footage of me driving a Sunbeam Tiger & an AC Cobra at Willow Springs that I'm going to try and put on the forum shortly. Am using the footage for a racing videotape I'm producing as we SPEAK. Shot the exterior stuff on an Canon XL-1 Digital Video unit between my runs on the track, handed the camera to my son for my runs. For the weekend we had cameras mounted in two Cobras, a GT-350, & 66 Mustang GT, and a Sunbeam Tiger. Should make for a really great videotape.
 
Sounds great! I have thought a lot about doing a really nice lapping video - shoot some standard laps, then focus on the driver including his feet, and finally a bunch ox exterior shots - then edit it all together. would be really nice.



won't happen for me though - when I'm there I am having way to much fun driving! I can barely remember to turn the camera on!
 
We are also producing a video for drivers, etc on how to drive Willow Springs. Will include the lapping stuff, but also I will Picture-in-Picture the feel [heel to toe stuff, etc].
 
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