Pikes Peak International event

We had a spectacular event with the weather being again like Summer!!!
60+ cars of all kind, many PCA race cars, a bunch Audi's (fast) Vipers, Vetts,
muscles cars, Cobras, Tim's Carterham battling with John's F40.. etc 5 360 , 1 Stradale and 2 F40...Some display.
A perfect event without any incidents and plenty of track time..
This time, my track buddy John was way ahead of me, He was just flying low !!! I couldn't stay with him, the boy learned how to keep his F40 going.
Pictures will follow, thanks to all who made that event a success.
See you at Mead on Spetember 11th.
Take care
Roland
F40LM

 

Roland:

Thank you for the nice words, but you did not mention that you were woozy with all of the heavy pain meds that Leslie gave you for your back pain. Ok is that what I was supposed to say? Will you detail my car for free now?

I saw you with some cute little blond and Dawn is still is wondering ... How did you exactly hurt your back? She is still willing to give you a hot oil back massage at the ranch if need be.

Anyway... Thanks for all of your help and support. I have posted a good photo of us when you were giving me track tips for my first Indy Car experience. Or were you just bent over wincing in pain from your back?

John

 

Dear Johnny, I just said what was right! You gave us a hell of a show out there, proof is that 4 of your passengers left their lunch in your car !!!!
I will take the free massage, my back could use it.
For the cuties, well if they were realy with me, I think that by now you would have to walk behind my wooden box...This was strickly professional...
Nice pics of us together before your Indy ride, We done good work together
and we are not done. I'll trade the Maserati for the F40 toward the end of the week to be ready for Mead in 2 weeks.
By the way, our charity winner will fly here on Saturday.
Take care, stay cool, we have a few more trips to do.
Roland F40LM

 

What a fun weekend!! There is just such a great group of people in Colorado at these events, I'm hoping the FL events are similar. A tad stressful at times but everything worked out in the end. All the "Rolandisms" before/after the event and at the drivers meeting were priceless!

Roland and John - I can't thank you enough for your support and assistance. It would have literally been impossible for me without you guys. With that kind of support, I will try and be there again next spring. Unfortunately the Oct event will be too tough with Sebring being the weekend before that. We'll have to work on getting you guys down here also! Thanks again for everything while I was back in CO. Take care and be safe at your upcoming events.

And Roland, if you sit on a barstool, make sure it doesn't have a motor under it!

Andy

 

Thanks Andy, you were more than welcome and we had fun on the track with you.
Thanks also for the warning, I'll stay away from the "flying" bar stool. !!!
Hope to see you at a track event, you can count on John and I to try to go further away any time soon.
We are just loaning you to Florida till you're done out there. We will keep a garage space for you at the track and at the Ranch.
Take care, by safe and show the flat landers how to drive a 360.
Roland
F40LM

 

Roland:

Ok all kidding aside.

We did have a great event at PPIR. We had some great dueling together. Jason and Andy were awesome. So many great cars and cool people. The real Ferrari Owners drive there cars – spiritedly! I will post some more photos soon.

Obviously you have been such great help for me in so many ways that I can never really thank you enough. You have provided me with so many opportunities that have been priceless... Indy Car drives, Pace Car duties, Special Events and drives, special invites to track events outside Colorado ect, ect.

And remember, I have always said it is a lot easier to follow you than it is to lead. Thanks for doing such a great job of leading. I hope we can continue the “Follow Roland Wherever He Goes” tour for many years to come.

Looking forward to Mead and PPIR (again) and St. Louis!

Johnny

 

Thank you Roland, Leslie and others for organizing the event. We had some good, friendly competition yet everyone was also courteous and safe.

John was damn quick on Saturday. I don't know what he had for breakfast but he was smokin'. We're going to have to add some ballast to his car for the next event.

 

Alex,

Was that you I gave a ride to in the Caterham at the end of the day on Saturday?

Tim

 

Johnny, that's what friends are for. How good is it to drive alone???
I do enjoy driving with you and traveling from one coast to the other. What a trip !!
Tim is right, you were smoking !! next time at breakfast, you'll get a vicodin like me...That should slow you down,,,a little just enough to let Tim go by..
Let's not forget to bring some barf bags..
See you boys, this was again a fun week end
Roland
F40LM

 

It wasnt me, it was my friend Jeff and belive me he was very surprised how fast the ride was. It was his 16th birthday so i guess you can say that you gave hima present too. Thanks again, i would of tried to get one in the Caterham but there was so much traffic on the way down to the event that we were short for time...maybe next time?

I am going to try to scan some pics soon, but i leave for Florida tomorrow for football so i wont be back until sunday

P.S. Thanks again Roland!!!!!!!

 

Andy:

It was truly great to have a chance to duel with you in the battle of 360's. I have posted a good picture that Dawn took of us taking care of Frank. Frank left in a panic as he thought that he blew his motor in his 360 - but I think his car is just doing the same crankcase breather problem that my car has had from time to time.

If you want to come back for the spring we will be glad to house and help you any way we can. You have really become comfortable in that car and it fits you better than the NSX! I would love to try Sebring out with you sometime. Maybe I can convince the crazy Belgium guy to join us.

It was also fun that we both got to drive an Indy Car. I am sorry that your crew let you out too early and it kinda spoiled things for you. I was very lucky to get to drive Greg Gordon's car. It surely was one of the best of all of the cars that were there. When you get a chance, post a photo of you and the car you drove. I've added one of Greg's car here too.

For many reasons I am probably through with my 360. Today I spoke to FOD about putting it back completely to stock after Mead. You may want to consider taking my F50 brake upgrade for the fronts and the upgraded brakes for the back. No hurry but you are one of few 360 owners that I know that could benefit from them. Let me know if you want any Carbon Fiber too.

Keep in touch and keep driving the wheels off of that thing.

John

 

Hey Tim:

Thanks for taking it easy on me. You really can fly in that little Green Monster. I am sorry that I did not get you a ride in the F40 this time. I promise that I will get you a ride on October 3rd. I hope you can make it.

As Roland alluded to, I had three people - back to back to back - get car sick riding with me on Saturday. The last, we know, was the worst. Then on Sunday I had a fourth loose it. Most of our clan saw me leave the last turn, head down the pit row and drive the F40 though the iron gate right up to the door of the bathroom so one of my friends could make the necessary emergency exit. That is the very first time I have ever had anyone loose it at the track - much less 4 people! So as you can imagine I became somewhat disenchanted in giving out any more rides for this event.

Anyway, thanks to you and your brother again for all of the spirited competition… By the way, he didn’t loose it in my car… Did he?

John

 

Must have been all that smoked snausages you guys were swallowing the night before. Hey Tim, send my regards to your pit crew, I believe JJ is his name. I'd put Gabe up against him anytime, you know just how precious those seconds really are. Hey John; could you elaborate on this oil blow off
syndrome you experienced in your 360. Naturally, I was taken back, since I don't have a spare waiting in the wings. Nice to see you and your clan as well.

 

Roland:

What was the deal with everybody getting sick in my car? That was a first!

I have added a couple more pictures for your enjoyment. Please note that I am following you, as a good student should, and not passing you (yet!). Boy did we have a duel when Dawn was riding with you and our charity donation guy (Kevin) was riding with me! I have that whole "Hair Pin" / "Carrousel" shootout on my in car video!

I think that we have at least one new driver coming up through the ranks. See if you can tell by his eyes that he had fun. I drove Jack in Group 4 as fast as I can possibly drive the 360 and he made it the whole session without getting sick.

Anyway, I will bring the "Evil Thing" to Mead if you want me too. let me know when you will be down here and I will trade you cars. Thanks for all of your "Pit Crew" efforts to keep my car ready to go at all times. That is very generous of you. I will need some extra help in getting ready for October 2 and 3 as I will be in Maui from September 18 through October 1.

See ya later this week.

Johnny

 

Frank:

I have encountered a phenomenon about a half of dozen times now with my 360. Rarely, the car will belch out enormous amounts of smoke after the car has been driven hard or when the car has become very warm and on a bit of an incline. As it turns out, it appears to be building up back pressure in the dry sump tank. If the car is on an incline or has been driven spiritedly enough, sometimes some oil gets sucked back into the crankcase breather and hence into the motor. It burns off this excess oil resulting with a cloud that will leave you embarrassed as onlookers scoff at your blown motor. I have found that if you crack the oil cap and remove the cap/dipstick – and then moderately rev the motor, this massive smoke soon disappears. You should note that your car is still idling and running fine with no odd noises – you just have a huge cloud burning which is quite disheartening. Believe me, the first time it happened to me was very scary. Oddly there is more to that story than I am interested in remembering any longer. I talked to Dave about your car this morning and he also agreed that it probably is not that big of a deal.

By the way,,, as hard as this is for me to say,,,, You did a nice job of driving on Sunday. You have come quite a ways as well.

See you soon.

John

 

It is my pleasure to help you guys to stay on the track !!! Andy, you too did very well and you'll be a great ambasador to FL. Come back soon. Frank too did well, I guess that I should stay on vicodin to have the "pleasure" to be passed by all of you hahahaha!
Johnny, let's switch car this week and I'll keep them here after Mead so I could load them for StLouis. I should keep them here and get them to PPIR so you can do your trip to Hawaii knowing that you can go right the way to the track. It's a good idea to get the 360 back to stock, we have our hands full with the 2 F40 as it is. A 2 cars trailer is is all what like to handle...
I did enjoy the Indy car ride, we should get more drivers interested in them.
I'm gone today to see my surgeon for my back, I'm still under pills and my head need to be clear to keep driving !!!
See ya
Roland
F40LM

 

A few shots from John's F40 in the infield, the 2 F40 , Jim's Stradale, that was a nice car to drive !!and myself in the Indy car..
What a week end !!!
Enjoy
Roland
F40LM
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Some more shots from our group. Frank at speed, he was on the gas all day.
My LM with drugged driver !!! and Andy's 360 also on some very fast laps.
Jim's Stradale was so new that I had to keep her at 5000 rpm, but I can't wait to get her at speed in October...
Roland
F40LM
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It was a tad disappointing about the Indy Car thing but not a huge deal, I'll have another chance I'm sure (and I definitely had a lot on my mind at that time anyway). I'm glad I was able to get to know Mr Koss a bit as well, he's a good guy and also has a house and boat down this way. I got to know most of the various teams and they all seem very helpful. Several of the guys offered to help store my track wheels and/or my car for me if I couldn't work out my transportation.

WOW, 1 little spin on Saturday and now you're getting rid of the 360...hahahahahaha. Ok, seriously though - let's talk offline about your brakes and various other parts I have an interest in.

I guess I should be thankful that my car isn't down here at this point as well. Time to brace for Frances!

Andy

 

Andy, I recall 3 spins !!!! Let's have John a word on that. hahahaha
I'll ask tomorrow when we will meet.
Hope that you have a safe trip to Florida
Take care
Roland
F40LM

 

John,

If you get rid of the 360, are you going to replace it with something else?

Tim

 

I'm glad he enjoyed it. We had a pretty good dice with John in his F40 and Jason in his Viper.

I'll try to be at PPIR in October.

 

Johnny,

Pleasure meeting you on saturday!

Interesting post about the smoke you encountered with your 360...

I had a somewhat similiar problem with smoke periodically on cold start (car sits overnight). Happened seemingly randomly but eventually increased in frequency (i'd say once out on every 3 or 4 times at it's worst). However, once when it happened when warm, I checked the oil and found it frothing in the oil seperator (neck high in the seperator with a bubbling head on it - looked like a glass of guinness with less bubble density).

After FOD, and eventually FNA, tried and checked SEVERAL things over the course of a month. They found more then normal oil in the intake plenums. FNA checked with the factory and come to find out there is a redesigned oil seperator. They expedited one from the factory, replaced it, and haven't had the problem since.

Take care,
Patrick

 

Andy - Great seeing you at PPIR. Best of luck in FL! Keep dry this weekend!

Roland - I look forward to driving school in October. Enjoy the French Quarter Classic. I'm going trying to get down there next year.


Patrick

 

Howdy Patrick, very interesting post about the 360 oil trouble. That's what the chat is all about, sharing our experience !!!
Can't wait to do our class together, in your Spider, I sure will look good !!!
We start to have more Colororadoan posting, this is good for all of us to know
what is going on in our F community.
I would love to hear about our friends who did the Aspen event.
See you all in a week at Mead, now I have to clean John's interior from the to many lunch left inside!!!!
Roland
F40LM