Things have been difficult adjusting to my meds

I accidentally took my meds twice night before last and spent more than 12 hours having really strange dreams.

Seriously, very strange dreams, but nothing resembling a nightmare, which is a minor blessing in and of itself. I haven’t had a nightmare since I started taking the new med, which is fantastic, since I have been dealing with nightmares almost every night for more than 3 decades to go along with my PTSD. Getting a change in my nightly mental programming from horror to farce takes some getting used to. The good part is the new med works at keeping me from being depressed, I’m almost completely non-depressed now.

But the bad thing is my sleep schedule has been majorly disrupted by being unconscious for 12-14 hours and waking up around 1700 yesterday. So I’m doing another all-nighter and staying up all day to get back on a normal schedule. Seriously, I’ll be clunking along semi-conscious all day today until my normal 0100 bed time Tuesday morning. And I’ll be using the down time to just kinda do a random write post overnight. I’m also watching YouTube videos of people building cars of various types, including a guy putting an OHV head on a vintage Briggs and Cleetus trying to put an engine into a side-by-side designed to use a FWD engine turned sideways so the wheel diffs are 1:1 and the reduction is in the gearbox of the donor engine.

On the TGS2 I’m still looking for street tires for getting to and from the track on wheels that don’t break the budget. Seriously the tires that would balance the car require wheels that run $250 and up each meaning we are looking at about a $3000 budget just to get wheels and tires for the street, with the race wheels costing maybe $500 for all 4 and another $1000 for tires. Whoever heard of a dual purpose car where the street budget had consumables more than 3 times as much as the race budget? That’s insane.

While I was prowling YouTube I was thinking about how badly I was hamstringing this build by using the T-bucket instead of making a decent body around the frame to streamline the car and generate downforce, especially since I’m building what’s called a monoposto or center seater. I could make the car a lot shorter without the Bucket body also, but I wouldn’t be able to run Goodguys like that. Goodguys doesn’t really want sports racers running their autocrosses, and there is a class the TGS2 fits as long as I use the bucket body and pickup box (Truck). I could make it street-legal without the bucket body, but all that would get me would be I wouldn’t have to trailer it to get to the next race. I would be faster in A-Mod but at the cost of not being legal for Goodguys.

Also I have still been thinking about sitting on the normal driver’s side even though the car would be a single seater, just to make it a bit more “normal” going down the road. The frame would be slightly more complicated, but mounting the top separately from the rest of the frame as a bolt-on takes most of that out of the situation. Making the rear hoop part of the bolt-on part of the frame makes putting the driver on the left less complicated than trying to wiggle the body around the full cage less the fore and aft braces when it has to be offset to protect the driver in a roll-over wreck. Making both hoops bolt-on also would have made building the Sprint-T a simpler task as the frame would have bolted together around the body instead of trying to finagle the body around the frame, but I never got the drivetrain to build a Sprint-T full scale.

I just got a reminder call I have an appointment with the lab rat keeper tomorrow. I will have to get up early to catch the bus for a 2+ hour trip across town because DART still doesn’t understand what “frequent headway” means. I’m only spending a little over an hour on the bus, the rest of the time is walking to and from the bus stops and waiting for the next bus. I live about as far from a bus stop as I can and still consider the bus as a viable means of transportation, but still the next-largest chunk of time is waiting for the next bus to show up.

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Taking care of business before Mrs. the Poet leaves, and the Feed.

I was running all over town to take care of things like utility bills, phone bills, and paying for the storage unit, after I did my duty as a citizen and voted in the Super Tuesday primary. This was a great endeavor that took many hours to complete because of several missed connections with DART. This time the missed connections were not DART’s fault, unless you count a lack of headway as “their fault”. Seriously I finished each stop I would leave just in time to see the bus go by in the direction of my next stop and I would have to wait 45 minutes to an hour for the next bus. So I spent 2 hours actually doing the things, and 5 hours waiting on the bus to get there.

Up first is what should be Our Daily Ted. Today’s post called on account of pain Get well soon Ted.

FloriDUH! driver hits cycle from behind, blames cyclist for being in the middle of the lane. Man on motorized bicycle killed in crash And I do not see what the criminal record of the victim has to do with this wreck, again… Message to LEO, if the cyclist was hit from behind then speed DEFINITELY has something to do with the wreck.

New Portland bike infrastructure had been open less than 24 hours before someone in a motor vehicle screwed it up. New Sellwood Bridge opens with a “Dang!” I see a vehicle that needs to be recycled. Into bicycles.

Compare the above incident to what has been going on near a school and see if you can tell me what the difference is. Southeast Portland elementary warns parents about unsafe cycling near school Agghhh! those cyclists going almost 10 MPH through a stop sign are a menace to everyone! But the pickup truck driven by a drunk driver with suspected drugs in the cab on a MUP closed to motor vehicles, that’s just a chuckle. Except the “chuckle” closed the MUP for most of the day and the adjacent traffic lanes for more than 6 hours.

Some good infrastructure news from Portland. First Look At Nike’s New Path Through The Woods Pretty, so pretty I forgot to copy the headline before deleting the page and had to reconstruct it from memory.

More on the hit-and-run rampage in NYC over the weekend. Hit-And-Runs Kill 3 Within 4 Hours in Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx Nothing new here.

More from CO on why the bike hate? Joe Clement: Why the aggression toward cyclists? Why? Simply put cyclists are Others and part of human nature is to Hate Others, not in your group.

Another cyclist hit up in West Canuckistan. Teen cyclist injured in Maple Ridge crash Drunk and almost killed a cyclist, and the driver is out of jail before the cyclist is out of ICU.

Here’s another feel-good story, this time from Jolly Olde. Paralympic gold medallist Dame Sarah Storey leads group of cyclists in Grimsby to highlight pedal power

A victim’s mother complains about crap infrastructure in the UK. Mum of tragic Bobby Colleran in new call for drivers to take more care

And the wars have started in Oz over the draconian new fines against cyclists. Bicycle commuters surveyed as new laws come into place in New South Wales and New cycling laws: One of the first bike riders hit with $319 fine for not wearing a helmet All I have to say is what is the fine for rivers not wearing a helmet? Buehler?… Buehler?…

And there will be a race from one of the two series the Sprint-T is designed to compete in this month over in Ft. Worth. Goodguys AutoCross This will be in 2 weeks at the Texas Motor Speedway north of Ft. Worth and literally just a hop, skip, and a jump away from WoaB World HQ in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell. The only problem would be I still haven’t picked a tire/wheel combination that fits the rules yet, the Hoosiers are not UTQG wear graded and are not really made for dry grip. I would have to go with a 17″ rim diameter or larger to get high performance tires in the required UTQG rating, because they just don’t make high performance summer tires to fit 15″ rims these days.

And It’s getting late and almost time for Mrs. the Poet to get up and get ready to go to NY for her sister’s memorial service(s).

Billed@€0.02, Opus

Dying saved my life and other seemingly contradictory statements on a Wreck-Free Sunday

OK I dunno if I ever thought about this before so I don’t remember blogging about it if I did, but I was contemplating earlier this week about the wreck (that thing that’s never far from my mind no matter what I’m doing because it literally defines my life into 2 sections, before the wreck and after) and I was thinking about why I didn’t bleed out from the gaping hole in my left leg where it was blown apart while all those people were just standing around staring at my body in the street. And then it struck me that while I was “dead” I had no pulse, no pulse means no heartbeat, and no heartbeat means I wasn’t pumping my blood out in the street instead of keeping it in my body. So QED, dying saved my life. If I hadn’t been dead for those 2 minutes there might not have been enough blood in my body to save me when I got to the hospital. I was in bad enough condition when I got there as it was, can you imagine what it would have been like minus a few pints more? I barely pulled through as it was.

I was also thinking about the Sprint T that I’m never going to get to build now, so I said to myself “If money was no object, how would you build this car?” meaning picking the “best” components for the build regardless of the cost. And I was really getting into what would be the “best” thing for a specific use, and if compromising in one direction or another would invalidate another use of the vehicle. So I went back to the premise of the build: “A car that’s fun to drive, that can be driven across the country on highways, then raced in SCCA Solo events or Goodguys autocrosses with minimal preparation and quick return to street configuration.” Then I listed what characteristics went with each parameter of “fun to drive”, “can be driven across the country”, and “raced in SCCA Solo events and Goodguys autocrosses with minimal preparation and quick return to street configuration” then see what characteristics were shared and what characteristics were contradictory.

So, “fun to drive” category is first and shortest.
power-to-weight
good brakes
good turn-in response
good grip overall with a controllable break when exceeding limits of grip
Comfortable seating and driver ergonomics
pleasant exhaust note (muted rumble at idle with definite rumble at full throttle)

“Can be driven across the country” is different.
fuel economy
reliability
weather protection
large fuel tank (range)
easy access to refuel
luggage space
tunes
comfortable seating and driver ergonomics
not-loud exhaust (not a cop magnet)
not harsh ride

“Raced in SCCA Solo and Goodguys autocrosses with minimal preparation and quick return to street configuration”
power to weight
good brakes, both at first and after several uses (no fade)
good initial turn-in and stable in the middle of the turn
good grip in all directions
comfortable driver’s seat and ergonomics
something to carry race tires and other parts
quick-change mounts for shocks and springs
roll cage that meets SCCA standards

Common requirements
comfortable driver’s seat and ergonomics
power-to-weight
good brakes, both at first and after several uses (no fade)
good initial turn-in and stable in the middle of the turn
good grip in all directions

And basic parts needed to make the car are the body that defines the car. The rear brakes needed for street legality. If I use the Wide 5 version of this rear axle with the aluminum axle tubes and the drilled drive axles I will combine light weight, both unsprung and total, with the ability to switch from a tall drive ratio for getting to the race to a short (high numerical) ratio for racing. It allows the use of these rear hubs for lower unsprung and rotating weight. A quick steering box will be needed no matter what else I use.

If I decide to go with an independent front suspension I’ll need to use this spindle so that I can mount the lighter Wide 5 hubs or this spindle for a tube front axle. The tube axle is lighter than the independant front suspension but has higher unsprung weight for the weight concerns, but has perfect camber control for the turning concerns. And both spindles are compatible with these front hubs for lower unsprung and rotating weight.

I’m sure that those who read my blog for the bicycle news have little or no knowledge of suspension dynamics are wondering why I am stressing so much about unsprung weight. That’s because unsprung weight has impacts on both grip and ride comfort. As the wheel goes up and down over imperfections in the road/track lower unsprung weight allows the wheel to move more quickly without transferring the motion to the rest of the car. Going up and down more quickly means the tire stays in better contact with the surface making for grip (no contact = no grip) and not transferring the motion to the rest of the car means better ride. Now rotating weight obviously affects any change in speed as rotating weight has to be changed first before the car can go faster or slower.

The engine is a big question, as this will need high horsepower reliable engine with a good low end torque band, which means cubic inches or supercharging or a hot cam and lots of work with the shifters.
I could “put a Hemi in it” or go with a modern legend or the successor to that legend or a hot cam in a slightly smaller, lighter, engine.

And the engine choice has a direct effect on the transmission choice. The GM engines will require either the 4L85E or the 4L70E transmission, while the Hemi will require a compatible donor vehicle to have the electronically controlled automatic transmission because the transmissions are not sold as a crate part.

Another question that needs answering is frame materials. Aluminum is lighter, but there are two flies in that equation. First is SCCA rules prohibit aluminum rollover structure. Second is the frame will have to be farmed out if made from aluminum because my aluminum welding skills are lousy. Even with money as no object I still want to build as much of this car as I can. Then there is the interface between the SCCA required Chrome-moly rollover structure and the aluminum frame, and preventing galvanic corrosion. I know what to do and how to do it, I’m just concerned about the failure modes and what they would do to the longevity of the car. Sticking with steel everywhere for the frame material eliminates all those problems at a slight weight penalty. Also staying with steel means I can do more of the fabrication myself if I want to and that in case of a wreck the structure is more repairable: bent steel can be straightened, bent aluminum has to be cut out and replaced.

Then there is the requirement to have some way of toting the tires and other parts needed for racing with the car while it isn’t racing. That implies a trailer (or the ridiculous notion of lashing the tires to the back of the car somehow for a thousand mile (+/-) road trip.

And this has made for a very long blog post for a Sunday and I’m not even halfway done, but I will end it now.

PSA, Opus the unkillable badass Poet