Corvette for Sale 29/October/2009 Chris Hammond Well it looks like John is moving on from the Corvette. Considering I just shipped him an 89 RX-7 I kind of figured the Z06 might be up for sale soon. (link removed for age) Read More...
A year has come and gone 10/October/2009 Chris Hammond So today marks a year since the 2004 Corvette Z06 left our stable. In the past year I’ve autocrossed exactly once, back in March or April of this year in St. Louis. We’ve since moved to Colorado, bought a house, and traded/sold most of our vehicles. We are in the process of trying to build up our stable again, lots of changes going on! Yesterday I went up to Boulder Colorado and looked at and RX-7 for John, the buy who bought the Corvette. It looks like I will be heading up there next weekend and picking it up. It may require a tad bit of work to get it ready for shipping, but John is going to arrange to have a truck pick it up for the haul to DC. I hope to start autocrossing again next year with a new ride, probably another 350z. In the mean time be sure to keep track of the progress on the 240Z at https://www.project240z.com Read More...
The Corvette is Gone 10/October/2008 Chris Hammond I just got an email from Natalie, John is on his way back to the DC area with the Corvette, so we no longer own a Corvette..... Have fun John, enjoy your ride! Read More...
Made it to Dubai 09/October/2008 Chris Hammond So I made the trip to Dubai fine this evening. The three of us in my section were all American, I was next to two guys, my guess is they were oil workers heading off to Baghdad, but they weren’t too talkative so that I could find out. It’s hot here, I’m not gonna like that part. So far I can’t get to www.flickr.com and some TV show on BBC was blocked. I am going to miss the freedom of America these next 10 days. The first car I noticed here in Dubai, besides the hundreds of taxis, a Corvette of course. Read More...
Leaving Amsterdam 09/October/2008 Chris Hammond So I am sitting at Schiphol airport waiting for my flight at 1:40pm to Dubai. I’ll be there for 10 days, then finally flying home to St. Louis. Natalie and I had a great time here in Amsterdam, the OpenForce Europe conference was great, and getting to meet more DNN community and team members, as well as other speakers that do a LOT MORE speaking than I do was educational. I look forward to applying for sessions for the conference next year! Natalie is on her way back to St. Louis, she’ll be home Thursday evening and then will be picking up John from the airport Friday morning. He’ll be driving the Corvette back to Washington DC tomorrow, so when I get home the car will be gone :( Hope everyone back home is doing well, I’m going to get ready to find my gate, the flights here have the security screening at the gate, rather than when entering the terminal, so the lines for the gates seem to be rather long. Read More...
Autocross runs, how many this year? 10/September/2008 Chris Hammond So I've been meaning to do this for a while now, I added up the number of runs I've taken this year in the Corvette, it comes to somewhere near 130+ runs, I'm not exactly sure how many runs I got at the Evo school in Kansas City, but assuming I took at least 15 that puts the total around 133 considering the reruns at events I remember. That also doesn't include the Test&Tune in Topeka before the divisional in August. That is a lot of runs on a car, but if you take into account the number of runs that codrivers have had (around 195) that brings the car's total up to over 300 for this year alone. No wonder the rear control arm bushings are worn out! By my rough count I should have another 18 runs in the next week and a half assuming the car is repaired, plus codriver runs (18) that will put the total over 350 for the year without T&T events, we're also doing the Test & Tune this coming Sunday in Topeka. Sometime I will go back and find results from all the events to get an accurate total, as well as a cone count for all of Dave's runs! Read More...
A quiet weekend? I think not 05/September/2008 Chris Hammond So this was supposed to be a quiet weekend, the first weekend off of racing since the 14th of June. While it is true that we won't be racing this weekend, it doesn't mean we won't be working. There's something wrong with the Corvette, something pretty massive, though thus far untraceable. Something is going on with the suspension, or drivetrain, causing it to feel very unsafe under acceleration, but fine when cruising down the road. This evening it started throwing errors about "Service ABS" "Service Traction Control" and "Service Active Handling" which I have seen before, but a quick reset of the car has always made these go away. Well not tonight, so, this weekend I'll be thoroughly going through the suspension of the car to try and track down WTF is going on. Hopefully I find something, otherwise I'll be taking it to the dealer first thing Monday morning. I hate to have to resort to that, but I need the car repaired ASAP as we leave on Thursday to head to Topeka for 10 days of racing! Read More...
Cone Curse of the Whitworths 02/September/2008 Chris Hammond A heads up to anyone who codrives with the Whitworths anytime in the future... They hit so many cones, that these cones start to haunt the other drivers in the car! A funny thing happened on Natalie's last run on Saturday. I was filming the run and saw something pecular. After a short time on the course I noticed a cone under the back of the Corvette, I was pretty sure that Natalie didn't hit a cone at the beginning of this run so it had to have come from Beth's previous run in which she blasted into a cone right before the finish. I hadn't bothered to look under the car when Beth got back from her run and we were prepping the car for Natalie, had I looked I am pretty sure I would have found a cone somewhere near the rear diff. Read More...
Kansas City National Tour Short Results 31/August/2008 Chris Hammond 3 of 5 drivers in the CorvetteZ06.org team finished in 3rd this weekend. Natalie finished third in SSL, Dave finished Third in ASP, and I finished third in SS. Beth finished 2nd in SSL and managed to win the only tire this weekend, Tom ended up having to deal with some family business in KC after taking his runs on Saturday so he was unable to run on Sunday. Hopefully his father-in-law is doing better. More detailed updates and video later this weekend/week. Read More...
Last local event for 2008 25/August/2008 Chris Hammond Today we ran the last local event of 2008 for the CorvetteZ06.org team here in St. Louis. It was another successful day today, the car taking FTD, Top Pax, 3rd on Pax and top on the Ladies Pax as well! This is the fourth time this year (out of 6) that I was able to finish on top of Pax. I'm pleased with this result, though I won't win overall Pax for the year, had the points been normal this year (6 events counting, with all events being equal) I believe I would have had a shot. Natalie did very well today, taking a win in SSL as well as the overall ladies win. This was just her fourth autocross ever, and only her 3rd in the Corvette so I am very happy with her performance! Read More...