The green flag waves, and were underway...

     Well, the first event of the season has come and gone...and what a great event it was.  The event was put on by a group of guys known as PCD aka Philadelphia's classiest drunkards, a large group of guys who all track their evo's.  They had the first event last year as a season kickoff/warmup and had a great turn out, so luckily they decided to do it again this year.

     I went down to my parents house and prepped the car the weekend before, fluids, brake pads etc, nothing crazy.  Trailered down to the track next weekend, and after that it's pretty much a blur at this point.  

     I spent most of the week leading up the event staring at the lame weather forecast, as the midwest got dumped on with snow...it didn't look good.  Everyone kept saying a rainy track day is the best thing you can ever do, but of course that's hard to believe.  I was bummed, but finally accepted the forecast, and damn did my attitude change after the first session on track.  I know understand, and would recommend to ANYONE to do a wet track day if you can.  I learned exponential amounts about my cars handling and how to be smooooothe (learned that the hard way...see below).  When the speeds are lowered by rain you are given all kinds of time to concentrate on exactly what the car is doing and how it is reacting to every little input.

This is what happens when you are not smooth:

     I got on the power way to early and hard and went right around.  

     Don't have much to say, other than to reiterate my big thanks to the guys who put on this event, and that I hope i get to hang out track side with them many more times.

on to the video:

and here's a little teaser of whats to come:

Yes, those are ohlins...and yes, I'm a baller (I would never have bought these if I hadn't gotten the SMOKIN deal I did from one of the PCD guys who switched to something else).  Running hyperco springs in the generic and well accepted evo rates of 8k/10k.  Will add more camber up front and see how awesome the car becomes.  I have some other thing in the pipeline I'll talk about later...

Back to iRacing for awhile....

It's been a long winter...........

     Yeah, I know I have posted nothing basically all winter.  It's called real life I guess.  Some stuffs happened blah blah blah.

     Anyway...

     So lets start the season fresh, did I mention I'll be on track next weekend?  Group of evo guys are putting on a second annual track day at NJMP, sort of a season warmup event/lapping day.  The car has been in the storage all winter, and I finally got my dad to go release it back into the wild this week.  As the "pit crew" he has been tasked with getting the car inspected and burning off the gas that has been sitting in it all winter...I just have to keep reminding him that the boost gauge has a memory function...

      I've spent an ass ton of time playing iRacing the past few weeks, so we shall see if it has any effect on real driving.  I'm also signing the lease on a new place today and it has a garage, which is sweet!  I will finally have both cars in one place.

     I will have some fun new part announcements coming soon too...

The winds of change are blowing (hopefully its not just gas?)

     I'm a pessimist that's just the facts.  Due to that I have been looking over my shoulder waiting to get hit by a bus lately...I've just been having oddly good luck.  Most of it's in the life realm, and I can't post it publicly just yet...

     I also managed to survive the hurricane, and even today's nor'easter.

     Anyway...somehow I missed the fact that a new road course is opening near Albany about 2 hours north of my parents house.

Length - 2.1 miles
Front straight - 2,300 feet long, 40 feet wide
Back side - 36 feet wide
Turns - 18
Elevation change - 450 feet

 

     Looks like a really nice layout and EMRA, who has released a tentative 2013 schedule already (sweet!) has 2 weekends scheduled there so far running counter clockwise one day and clockwise the next.

     Speaking of schedules, with how poorly things are going at work lately including an impending nurse strike, we haven't had to request our 2013 vacations yet.  Most people are pissed, but I'm kinda happy because it is allowing more time for NASA/EMRA/NARAA/RTA etc. to release their 2013 schedules, which should hopefully equate to me getting a bunch more days on track (hopefully this isn't where the bus I mentioned earlier decides to hit me...).

     I'm still plotting/planning the car setup for next year as well as setting aside stacks of cash necessary to pay for it all.  Things might change yet again depending on what black friday deals I find.  So far all I've picked up is a spare ACD ecu and a set up barely used Hawk DTC 60 pads to try. 

until next time...

wait...spring is HOW far away???

     I've been meaning to write a post for like two weeks now, but things have been....well intersting  frustrating. 

 Its tough to think about.  It's like just officially fall, and I want spring and race season back.  In case you didn't realize, this is me saying I put the evo away for the winter.  I got a few days off work and was able to head down to see my parents for the first time in a while, as well as do some car work.

    I swapped out the front pads on the evo, and found this:

     As you can see, I have cracked most of the pad material, and chunked the corner of one pad.  The pads are probably garbage.  Then you can see that i torched my dust shields.

     Moral of the story is I toasted a set of pads and dust shields due to lack of cooling, which I will obviously have full bore next year.

     Also learned that spark plugs on a subaru are a pain in the ass...but 2.5 hours later I had em swapped, and had the car flashed to cobb stage 1 aka what it should have felt like from the factory.  Next issue in line is the sloppiest of slop shifter in that car...otherwise I like it a lot.

     So what you ask, will i be doing all winter?  well I needed to keep the racers edge going in my head....soooo....I got this little dealy (it will probably also serve to further ward off women...damn shoulda thought of that earlier).  Full on racing seat with high end wheel and pedals.  Playing forza4 and F1 2012 for now, but heading towards getting up and going with iRacing for some serious race practice.

     Not sure when the next blog will be.  Still debating shop to use and timing of having all the work done on the evo....will keep everyone updated.

Until then my friends...

The 7 minute fix and my first podium

     Remember the last two times I mentioned I wasn't happy with how the car was shifting?  Yeah, well I finally got around to spending the 7 minutes necessary to adjust the clutch.  After all, the clutch has 60k miles of wear on it.  I wound up putting almost a full turn of clutch rod into it in 1/4-1/2 turn increments, and wouldn't you know...it's a whole new car.  Easier to get into second gear, no more 3rd gear grind and A LOT less low speed parking lot chatter and just general bitchy-ness low speed clutch engagement.  I'm not sure whether i should love it, or hate myself for not doing this sooner?

     In other news the results got posted from last event.  I finished third behind an Evo X and an STI swapped 2.5RS...buuut I left early so I didn't get my damn trophy.  Figures.

     I'm now hard at work compiling my winter to do list.  It's looking expensive way too quickly.  I will be letting a shop do the 60k and install some bushings, the running is between DynoTech and CBRD.  If i get the few days off I requested from work teh car will be going into hibernation in 2 weeks.  Need some more time to get the Legacy sorted for the winter.  Needs drive line fluids, spark plugs and a few other minor tweaks...oh and I have an Accessport sitting on the table now...woops.

     Fast Five is on HBO tonight...I'm gonna watch it for the 27th time.

Finished up this weekends video.

     Had some technical difficulties with the camera saturday.  Lost one session because when I turned on the camera I held the button too long and it went into picture mode instead of video (anyone with a gopro knows how that happens).  Then after I melted off the wheel weights, the video become a little too wobbly.  So this is what I wound up with.

lime rock august 25 edit from Nathan Bookbinder on Vimeo.

I live my life a quarter mile at a time...wait what?

     I was very looking forward to go racing this weekend with all the other bullshit going on for me right now.  Relaxed all day Friday, gassed up the car, topped off my tires so I could bleed them down once I arrived.  Went out and had a good times with some friends, and called it a night.

     7.15AM saturday, and I am welcomed with a noticeably (to me) low left front tire.  Get out the gauge and it reads 28psi.  That means it lost 5 psi in about 12 hours...great.  The valve stem ball/pin needs to be tightened, and surprisingly my dad claims he has the tool, but obviously not with him.  Put 5 psi back in and got on my way to the track.  The thought was that being a metal valve stem with an o ring at the cap, i shouldn't really have to big an issue...and i do carry a spare electric pump anyway.  An uneventful ride to say the least.

     Arrived at the track, rolled into the paddock, and surprisingly my dad was already there and had the EZ-up up and providing shade...sweet.  I set on to unpacking my car, get registered (at which point i found out I was being bumped from novice to intermediate run group), tech'd, etc.  Had a half hour to kill before the drivers meeting so I re torqued my spacers, and a few other rituals, and set all 4 tires to 32psi.

     It was a great day weather wise to be racing, although we quickly found the track temp was above its optimal zone and in the slippery hot zone.  

Decided to run on some of this for the day (put 4 gallons in a half tank of 93, and put in another 2 gallons when i was at 1/4 tank).  And let me just say, even though I'm tuned for 93, the car definitely has a ballsier feel to it. 

1st session - Mentality was to just go make sure i have the muscle memory of the proper line and do a couple 7/10th's laps to see where i was at.  Quickly noticed that the exit/trackout point of turn 2 and into the braking zone of turn 3 was covered in dirt and rocks.  This lead to having to re adjust your double apex of big bend so that you could stay way inside out of the dirt.  That sections leads itself to stabbing the brakes and getting ABS lockup even without the dirt...  Either way, did a hot lap and wound up surprising myself when I clicked off a 1:06.62, already beating my previous best by a full second.  I felt like I hit none of my marks whatsoever, and literally felt the rear end jumping around under braking, and definitely had to counter steer a few times.

Second Session - Was kind of a waste, I wound up in bad traffic twice because they kept black flagging a guy and then releasing him back on track at not the best time.  Did some slower laps to make sure I could identify all my marks, and then clicked off another 1:06.xx.

     After a cool down, and 2-3 minutes sitting, the guys in the pit next to me gave me their infrared heat gun.  outside edge of my calipers were over 500 degrees, rotors were upwards of 600 degrees.  The wheel was even too hot to touch, and that's after the heat travels through a 20mm thick metal spacer.  The extreme heat did me the favor of removing all my wheel weights from the barrel.  This made the ride home down the mass pike well...interesting.

     I also started having issues with downshifting into 4th gear and 5th gear ground on the way in once.  The downshifts make sense since I'm granny shiftin, not double clutching like Dom says I should.  Sorry Fast and Furious flashback.  Basically I need to figure out heel toe soon, or a more effective braking strategy to be completely done braking and then blip the throttle.  It's also possible that at 60k miles my clutch is pretty worn and needs to be adjusted and/or its not releasing all the way at high rpm.  Have a few things to try this winter to get it to shift better as previously mentioned.

Third Session - By now i was fatigued and low on gas, even after putting in two more gallons of VP100.  Traffic was a little better and i clicked off a 1:06.8x, 1:06.7x and finally a 1:06.6x.  Midway through the session I went to take the hill at turn 7 and the car sputtered and was acting like I had some weird boost/rev limit.  Turns out what little gas I had in the car was too far from the pump.  I called it a day at that point.

overall:

     I was literally and figuratively out of gas, and became pretty convinced that my brakes were used up.  I didnt want to put more 100 octane in at $9.99 a gallon, and figured I wasn't gonna get any faster.  Of course right as I'm packed up and session is called...instant cloud cover rolls in and I bet the track came down 10 degrees dammit.

     Again...super impressed with my car.  Only change from last time was the 60 dollar mini battery.  the change in feel of the car in the turn 2-3-4 complex was very positive.  That, combined with my goal of the day (which was literally "trail break the shit out of everything") led to going 1.5 seconds faster than last time out.  I'll take that.

Observations:

     I appear to have my tire pressures dialed.  The rollover looks pretty good...could aregue both ways against/for another pound.

     I think I over heated/smeared my pads.  The CL pads i run have an interesting failure mechanism.  As opposed to other pads who just over heat and the mu goes off a cliff (leading to stepping on the pedal and getting nothing at all), these slowly compress giving you a longer pedal almost like boiling fluid.  My pedal did get longer but...i dunno.

     In the end, the car has done great.  Specific to this track I think with some well thought out changes there may be a second per lap still left in the car.  I'm at the point where I am almost positive the spring rates are the limiting factor.  Id love to jump to coilovers next season, but to many annoying things to take care of that cost a lot to do this winter.  I also need to get out to more tracks that involve more than two gears.


gonna re read this in the next few days and edit/add/etc, as well as finish editing the video...check back!