Every year, Pittsburgh is home to a very cool event called the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix, in which cars that go way beyond classics are allowed to come alive and put some hot laps in on a road course around Schenley Park. Since most of the cars are priceless, contact is frowned upon durign the event, but it's a great place to see some fabulous machinery, both young and old...and to see cars where the handbrake is the only option head into a tight hairpin. Steel Cities Region SCCA and the PVGP team up every year to create the PVGP Solo II, a two-day event held at the West Mifflin County Airport, where cool trophies are given out to class winners at the end of the two days, and where a larger-than usual assortment of cars make their way out to dance around the cones. This year's sponsor for the PVGP Solo II was Subaru, and to bring the beauty of All Wheel Drive to the masses they came with a phalanx of WRXs, their new turbocharged sport compact (wagon or sedan). They also gave out hats, brochures, and most importantly, free drives around the course in a WRX to people who signed up for the run. More about that later.
The course was very well defined, by more cones than I have ever seen in one place, and very broad chalk lines. Corners were boxed off on the outside, and left plenty of options to the driver about what line they wanted to take. The concrete remains an insanely grippy surface, and for the first time all year I was sporting my Kumho V700s, finally wearing some running shoes to try and hunt down Andy's CSP-dominant CRX. The event went very smoothly and amazingly quickly for the number of drivers there, kudos to the management for running such an efficient ship. Each driver got 4 runs, and there were only a few minutes between each, so the course was fresh in mind but changes were limited to tire pressure or shocks for most people. Matt was not in attendance the first day, but he did show up for the 15th, so be sure to check there after you're done here. Once again, alot of pics, so if you have a modem, I suggest you go organize your toolbox or something like that. Going by file-date-created this week to mix things up a bit.
Walking through the pits, I saw this puppy, and said something like "That's about the cutest damn thing i've ever seen". I don't even like dogs!
Buddy knows he's cute.
The grid gets ready to run
Bringin out the vintages
Buddy is still cute :)
The layout allowed for some cool dual-car pics
S2000 with the red interior, sweet
Boxter + S = Porsche + goodness
Scott gets artsy with the Digicam
to start this sucker, someone has to make a lever-crank motion :)
Rolls Royce's are for peasants. Bentley.
Do you know how many Mugen parts that would buy for an R? Almost all of them!
Mr. Wilhelm rocks the house
Bassim traded his Subaru 2.5 RS turbo for an S2000...don't tell the sponsors!
Mark is sporting a new can
There's always room for jello!
Not a cobra, but cool nevertheless
Ferraris make nice backgrounds for Type Rs
This happy-face balloon didn't look so happy.
Hard to see through the Neon, but this triumph was getting a little tail-happy
Lookout!
The 'teg that started it all
Mark has a ferrari, so he can wear hawaiian shirts. Ipso facto or something like that.
Sexy FD
Mike explains what happens when a boy and a girl like each other very much to anyone who will listen.
Karen explains why people shouldn't listen to what Mike says.
Shawn didn't hit that cone, the under-body cone is a dealer option for the Type R.
One of many WRXs on hand.
I still think they should've kept the old 2.5RS face. Then I might have considered a WRX over a Type R...but not for long. See tomorrow's test-drive review.
Matt, a guy I worked with at my old job, finally came out to an AutoX, and seemed to enjoy it thoroughly. Time to start thinking about new tires!
Call me Ansel Adams. And I won't respond.
Our most excellent sponsors, Subaru!!!
well, it's been a whole week, so Andy changed his graphics again.
Subaru brought in a pack of WRXs from New Jersey to have some show/test-drive cars on hand...and I got a very blue WRX hat!
Matt was out there drivin like a pro for his first time on the track...we'll have him blowing all his money on mods in no time!
Shawn got to test out some as-yet-unavailable to the public Kumho Ecsta V700 Race tires!
Be sure to check out tomorrow's entry for day two!
Come here from somewhere else? Click HERE for the rest of S&M Racing!