Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT The Garage at The Place in The Valley (Garage Condo 45x23x20)

[Greg_STL]

We had only one location left to complete our 2026 Miata Challenge. The last location for us was a winery - Cedar Lake Cellars. We just made a quick run of it and had lunch and wine - of course. We picked some back roads to get there that we have not driven before. It is kinda amazing to me that I have lived in St. Louis for 30 years and this Miata Challenge is getting me to visit all sorts of locations that I have never been in that 30 years. We are now eligible for the prize at the Christmas Party this winter and the grab back of stickers and stuff.

 

[Greg_STL]

The professional photos from the summer HPDE at WWTR dropped this week. Calvin Wong was the photographer and he got some great shots of my car. In particular, he got some spectacular shots of my car during the Sunday down pour. It was one of the craziest rainstorms I've driven in on the track. It was absolutely pouring around NASCAR 3/4 and onto the main straight but dry on the other side of the track. It was a little intense driving into a wall of water where I couldn't really see into the storm and doing that multiple times a lap. I just used some common sense and slowed it down some but I've always enjoyed the lower grip with a wet track. Most people just pitted in when it started pouring so there was plenty of room to keep things spaced out.

I'm going to post these as a slightly higher resolution than I usually do (but still not full resolution) - so you can see the rain and the spray coming off the car.





I paid for a multiple pictures to get the discount. I figured Calvin deserved the pay for getting those pictures in the rain. The first picture is from earlier in the day on Sunday when there was more sun. The second is crossing the start finish line and I think it was actually taken on Saturday.





I spend enough on tires, brake pads, entry fees, and track insurance that paying for good pictures is a small incremental cost to the weekend. I kind of want to make one of the two rain pictures into a metal print for the garage. I originally was drawn to the first shot but the more I zoomed in I really started to like the side shot where you can see the rain spraying up off the roof.

 

[jeffcoll]

Great photos!

 

[Greg_STL]

My goal for a while has been to have two sets of track wheels for my Cayman. I feel like I am always replacing early because I am worried about making it through a three day track weekend. I am never sure the tread left from the prior weekend will be enough for three whole days. With two sets of wheels, the plan will be to be able to swap part way through a weekend if needed. I'm going to run Pilot Sport 4S (a good rain tire and a good wearing tire) on my old wheels and my 200 tread wear RE-71RZ tires on the new wheels. The new RZ have eliminated even more of the voids and I start to worry some about driving in the rain on them. My old wheels were a compromise from when I was running a lot of autoX. To meet the stock class rules, I had to stay with in an inch on diameter, 7mm on offset, and the same width. The 255/35R19 tires on the 19x8.5 front rim were always pinched some. They were still within the recommended range but not the optimal size. I decided that on my new rims I would step up to 19x9 on the front and stay 19x10.5 on the rears. I looked at 19x11 for the rears but for the 285/35R19 tires I run the 10.5 was actually the center of the recommended range. I went with forged Apex wheels in there 10 spoke SM-10RS range - an affordable but decent set of wheels. We bought some Apex wheels last year for my wife's 911 and I really liked them. I decided to do the dark silver or anthracite color to match my new stripes rather than the black of my OEM and track wheels.





I still had one more drive at WWTR with the old wheels for a one night ride-along event. But after that was done it was time to swap in the new wheels. I just use the two jack method when swapping tires rather than setting up the quick jack.





Turns out the OEM center caps can be swapped into the new wheels. For now, I am going to keep my OEM caps on the OEM wheels but will probably look for a cheap set of center caps on Ebay.



Fitment is spot on with a nice flush fitment front and rear.



Here are the final results in pictures in different light levels... I think the anthracite matches much nicer. Almost think I should have put the PS4S tires on these rims to drive around all summer rather than just being for the track.







The old tires still have some life but I am going to swap in the PS4S tires so I have a nice long distance tire for the upcoming trip to Luftgekult 12. The wear below is one day at Hedge Hollow, two full weekends at WWTR while instructing, and 3 evenings doing ride-alongs at WWTR.



What I really need now is a tire trailer of some sort and a way to tow with the Cayman. I know it can be done but it is not simple. For now, I can at least swap out mid weekend while I am at WWTR since we drive in from home each day to that local track.