HPA Motorsports Inc. Texas Mile October 2009

HPA Motorsports Inc. Attends Texas Mile: October 2009

2465 miles, 565 hp, 7 states, 2 days

OCTOBER 15, 2009

Ever have one of those days in the office where you look out the window at the dreary autumn weather and start day dreaming about the shiny car tucked away in your garage and just going as fast as you can…? Well, I did.

What started off as a harmless email from my desk to Melanie’s ended up translating into a cannonball dash with one of our fastest cars across 7 states (and not those puny little east coast states, but the big western ones!) to attend the Texas Mile

Now in its fifth year of running, the Texas Mile is a semi-annual event that takes place on a retired runway at the Goliad Industrial Airport in Southern Texas. Street bikes, race cars, dragsters, sports cars and exotics from across the country come together to run the course and see just how fast they can get to in a one mile straightaway.

I have to honest, as much as I will tell the accountant this is a business trip and we need to expense all invoices, its real purpose is a release of tension.

Melanie replies with a simple checklist:

Valentine Radar Detector – check!
Garmin GPS – check!
VAD Bluetooth – check!
Wireless internet and VW Vortex – check!
Road Music – check!
Gas card – check!
Bond for get out of jail free card – check!

So, as it is, 8am this morning Melanie and I jumped in the FT565 6-speed Golf, presented our Canadian passports at the border and were graced entry into the fair United States of America.

What we personally love about the big western states are the long stretches with no traffic volume. While we know what we can expect in the Texas Mile, having performed that type of test numerous times, it’s the adventure of a road trip behind the wheel of one of these machines, the lure of a weekend of camaraderie with fellow speed freaks, and the ability to run as many times as you want at 170+ mph without worry of being stopped by a Sheriff that is so appealing.

We are proud to represent the Volkswagen brand and this community at this heavy hitter event and will check in along our drive as we rip off these 2465 miles to Goliad Texas.

Enjoy the Ride!

7:38 am - Rolled the FT565 out of the garage, loaded up our gear, and headed for the border. Looks like it's going to be a great day.

8:34 am - Cleared customs and hitting the I-5 south towards Seattle. Perfect timing to miss the morning traffic!

12:23 pm - Stopped in Yakima, WA for fuel and lunch.

2:16 pm - Crossing through the rolling wheat fields of north east Oregon now... love the open road!

2:37 pm - Stopped for a brief photo shoot overlooking the plains - what a view!

4:10 pm - Gas stop at Durkee, OR. Hmm... do we dare getting a bite to eat at the Red Neck Cafe? Nah... let's push on.

5:03 pm - 3 hours out of Saltlake...no tickets yet!

5:20 pm => 6:20 pm - crossing into Idaho - lose one hour

7:29 pm - Beautiful sunset in the rearview mirror but realized that SLC is further than we thought and all these construction zones are killing our average mph.

8:15 pm - Time for more fuel in Jerome, ID. Where is the Premium? What, you mean 87 octane IS Premium?!?!?! Yikes.

UPDATE:

Well, we've been on the road now for 12 1/2 hours enjoying the amazing scenery throughout Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and are now in Utah approaching Salt Lake City... (those must have been "Canadian Hours" I was counting earlier)

The Valentine has been diligent in keeping us out of trouble (there’s goes another smokey!) but damn it’s hard to keep this beast under 100… just curling your toes is enough to send it boosting into the triple digits.

There have been a few interesting gas stops and a couple of humorous rigs on the road to keep us entertained and we were treated to a lovely prairie sunset. Having the laptop on board has also allowed us to keep up on emails and even do a bit of Photoshop work (try using a finger mouse through the twisties; now that’s a challenge!)

Next Stop; a late night visit with our favorite Mk4 FT565 buddy just south of Salt Lake, then straight on 'til Texas!

11:05 pm - Time for a visit and a stretch break with our good friends in Utah. Thank you so much for the hospitality!

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16th

1:10 am - Gassing up in Spanish Forks, UT at a creepy deserted gas station (thankfully one of the pumps was open for credit card sales) with the whirring windmills standing watch over us.

2:07 am - need to stop and adjust the Xenon headlights to throw the light a bit further down this dark curvy highway so we can see the wildlife before it becomes road kill.

4:04 am - Moab, UT - gas and a sandwich to make it through the rest of the night

5:54 am - Colorado is now behind us and, Wow! What a stunning sunrise!

7:27 am - Tohatchi, NM - Another fuel stop and quick freshen up before getting back on the road.

9:43 am - Woo Hoo! Route 66, baby!

10:00 am - Gassing up in Los Lunas, NM

12:00 pm = 1:00 pm - Crossing into Texas - lose one hour!

2:11 pm - Gas, lunch and snack shopping break in Anthony, TX

UPDATE:

It’s 3pm now in sunny Texas and we have finally made it to the Lone Star State… only another 600 miles to go!

After an extended two hour visit with (not just one, but two!) great friends and clients in Utah, we found ourselves a “bit” behind schedule. Unfortunately we were unable to woo them from their family plans to join us on our impromptu road trip but we managed to snap a few pics before hitting the road again.

Deciding to take advantage of the light nighttime traffic, we drew straws to see who would get the first shift of our all-nighter drive. One thing we came to realize very soon into engaging this plan was that leather skinned Recaro race buckets are not conducive to comfortable napping.

The drive through Utah was plagued with many construction zones, a few deer scares, a creepy experience in the middle of nowhere surrounded by whirling windmills, a stunning display of stars that you just don’t get in the city, and… WTF!? 87 Octane is considered Premium!? And I don’t think I’ve ever seen 85! So, Valet mode ON, no more 19 PSI boosting, gonna have to stick to 11 PSI max until we find some better fuel.

Some of sections of highway through the night were sketchy to say the least and had us catching a bit of air – mental note; may want to investigate a skid plate, and must give major props to KW Suspension for their V3’s keeping us hunkered down as much as they did.

New Mexico greeted us with a picturesque sunrise accompanied by a sliver of moon and beautiful horizons any which way you look. Rolling hills, red rock canyons, desert plateaus, and untouched landscape… just spectacular. We continued on our journey east-bound and down and took a fun jaunt across the historic Route 66.

Thanks for joining us on our road trip – Just stocked up on snacks and energy drinks and are ready to tackle the next leg. We’ll check in again soon!

3:15 pm - Ug, traffic and construction; the constant beeping of the Valentine is driving me batty; let's just turn it down...

4:10 pm - Open road again; these 80mph speed limits are great!

6:55 pm - Gas break in Fort Stockton - uh oh, American Express has just put a security block on the credit card - guess they can't figure out how we could have been in so many different places over the past 36 hours!

8:03 pm - oh snap! Forgot to turn the volume on the radar detector back on... and didn't realize that the speed limit drops to 65 mph at night. :(

UPDATE:

Texas is frickin huge!!!

Had fallen in love with the 80 mph speed limit but just came to hate the denoted night time speed limit of 65. As a result, felt the need to introduce myself to the local state highway patrol.

How you ask?

Step 1) Turn down the volume on the Valentine when passing through construction zone to avoid the headache inducing continual beeps and braps.

Step 2) Forget to turn up the volume again once you reach the end of the construction zone.

Step 3) (the most important step) Try desperately to lay down a third straight hour of triple digit speeds in order to cross this gigantic state.

I hope Texas puts my money to good use!

PS – here are a couple of pics from New Mexico – who names these towns, anyway?

10:27 pm - Kerrville, TX - time for gas and a quick bite to eat before the final leg

12:21 am - Arrived in Beeville!! Time to check in to the hotel, wash the car, and hit the hay!

SATURDAY OCTOBER 17th

UPDATE:

We rolled into Beeville around 1am after rolling over 10,000 miles on the odometer. This baby has been across the continent three times now and is a thrill on the highway!

A quick car wash and then time for a few hours sleep so off to the hotel…

The downside of impromptu road trips to small towns is that all of the decent accommodations were already booked solid. After checking in at the oh so promising America’s Best Value Inn, we were greeted by the sight of a buck naked man on the balcony saying goodnight to his lady friend of ill repute… At first glance the room looked okay, but it soon became apparent that was not the case. Carpets that made you afraid to take off your socks, very grungy and threadbare linens, and a shower that made you cringe at the thought of brushing up against the curtain.

A little background on the Golf we are rolling down the Texas Mile… Since it graced the pages of MotorTrend magazine in October 2006, it has remained primarily unchanged. We updated the paint scheme and retrofit some custom 18” wheels with Dunlop’s incredible Star Specs with a 255 footprint. Huge improvement over 235’s!

Here at the Texas Mile, over 170 HARD core participants have lined the side of a runway in preparation for running the mile. 170+ mph was a Fast car some 2 years ago, but today, we watched 1300whp Porsches, Vipers, and Lambo’s throw down 217-238mph. We will snap images of some of these beasts tomorrow.

To start our day, we took part in the filming of the Pilot Epsiode of a new show for Speed. Using rolling starts, a small group of hand selected like-HP cars were paired up and raced a full half mile from a rolling start of 45mph. This was a Real bonus, not racing a clock, instead, kicking the weekend off with a Grudge match, Euro vs Big American Steel. A 500whp Cadillac was our challenger.

With Tech, and the TV shoot behind us, we finally coordinated our initial shake-down run. With 173.6 MPH already a known from Motor Trend's testing, we opted to start our test in 11psi Valet mode and see how the twins were going to digest the 93 octane we finally found. 165.6 mph, not so shabby.

We are now back at the “Hotel” and will turn up the wick tomorrow morning for a few more validation runs.

SUNDAY OCTOBER 18th

OK...It's morning, we are up, Valet is off, and America's Best Value Hotel will soon become a distant bad memory. Here is a short link from yesterday's Grudge match set-up.

Side note: CONGRATULATIONS to BillyT with the Mk3 Golf VR6 Turbo; I won't steel your thunder but HOT DAM MoFO you are one FAST son of a BiA%$&^%$T!!!!

MONDAY OCTOBER 19, 2009

UPDATE

This will be the last formal entry from this Amazing Road trip.

Sunday was a crazy day! We arrived at 8:30am at the track, lined the car up in preparation for our first run off valet. Sadly, unlike Saturday, Sunday morning there was a 9mph headwind blowing. At least being there early cut an hour off my wait time to get up onto the grid!

To put our little VW into perspective; just ahead of us, a 2009 Viper and White Lamborghini Gallardo took a swipe at the mile. The Viper laid down a 151mph and the Lambo ran a best time of 166mph.

My launch was hard and by the quarter mile marker, I had put down a perfect run. I crossed the mile @ 169mph. I think this really surprised the Lambo driver!!!

The afternoon was punctuated by another round of drag racing for the TV crew. My Saturday’s win advanced me to a head to head with Underground Racing’s 1300+ whp twin turbo.

Well, lets just say, the scale of FAST can quickly get distorted with these cars. 3 years ago, such a pair up would have required a top fuel dragster.

I felt good up to 3rd gear, come 4th, well, when this segment airs, I just hope you will see me through all the dust

Hanging out in the grid area gave us a great opportunity to admire the wide range of cars and bikes from across the country that gathered for this event, and talk with some of the other tuners and drivers in attendance. There were countless Hayabusa’s, Shelby GT’s, Porsches, Lamborghini’s galore, a Rat Rod, Vintage Drag Truck, (even a Diesel Beetle), and so many more.

The best part of our Mile experience was the people in Texas. The respect shared between speed milestones simply invoked a family like embrace. No one looked down on their neighbor and you simply felt compelled to help out where you could.

My team here at HPA has always set out to assemble packages or cars that can be pulled out of the garage, rode hard and put away to play another day. This was no exception. We took 32 hours to thrash 2465miles, worked the car for every penny’s worth on the ¼ and full mile for 2 days and sent it off with its Owner on a 2000mile drive back to the East coast to play @ Limerock. We ran the car in its regular street trim with no adjustments to its daily setup short of taping up some of the air pockets for a little aerodynamic assistance.

We could have pushed harder and harder and found that 175mph, but after seeing other competitors changing out gearboxes etc. over the weekend, we decided that we had played within a reasonable scope for our inaugural run to the Texas mile while protecting the integrity of the car for its trip home.

For Melanie and I, the trip ended at the same pace we kicked it off with. A late running appointment coupled with a miscalculation by the Nav unit had us leaving Goliad for the Houston airport @ 3:23pm. The concern was that our flight (last one out for the day) was departing @ 6:15pm. Bruce traded me his rental car for the keys to the Golf. Not a fair trade in the least! I got a Mazda 3; Zoom Zoom, Think again!!!

While I did manage to wring this little car’s neck for 2.2 hours, I never found a hint of pleasure from this little hatch. On the bright side, it seems that word of my previous day’s donation to the Texas State patrol had spread. When I was popped for 96.5mph in a 60, the state trooper let me carry on to the airport on a warning. 3mins, 11 seconds, I was back in my car and behind the wheel at a slightly lower speed.

Here is where FT owners make me proud. As we are blasting down the I59, we came to the conclusion that we simply would not have time to drop the car off and still hope to catch our flight. A call to Skela and we had coordinated a fly-by of sorts. Brett made the hour venture up to Bush Int’l to slide in straight to departures with us and help us with getting the car back to Hertz.

Here is the visual. 5:57pm, we roll up to US Airways doors, Melanie grabs both hand bags and rips inside. We had checked in online (thank you mobile internet stick!) while catching that speed warning, so all we needed were those illusive boarding passes. While she did that, I riffled through my big suitcase for essentials as we were well past the cutoff for checked luggage so it would have to stay with Brett and be shipped. As I entered the airport doors, Melanie was in a sprint with the boarding cards. Our luck was with us as there was no lineup at security and we bolted to the gate. 6:13pm, we were already on the runway in line for take off!!! I still don’t understand how we made that flight.

THANK YOU SKELA and Jr.; you were life savers! That Mazda was crying from pain when I turned it over, let me tell you.

To my team, I am grateful that they keep outfitting me with packages that keep me safe when the urge to play hard arises. Running the mile over and over was a thrill that I won’t soon forget. I must hand it to Melanie. Her ability to prepare images and host them while being passenger on this trip had me in awe. Tomorrow, Melanie and I will be back for a full days work, and this roller coaster ride will be a fond memory.

We really appreciate everyone tuning in to our voyage and hope that you enjoyed the read. Bruce is hitting triple digets in the East as we speak and I can’t wait for the next adventure.