Season starts in 3 weeks!!! (uh shit...I'm not ready)

     Hopefully what has happened so far this year is not a sign of things to come this year...

     Two weeks ago I went down to NY to get the evo out of storage.  While putting the battery in and doing my typical pre-flight checks  I noticed a not so blue brake fluid reservoir (I've been running ATE super blue).  A quick investigation lead to finding that both calipers had decided to leak and allow all the fluid out.  Driving 30 minute back to my parents house was going to be fun!  First thing i did was park the car in a snowbank and scuff the front lip trying to even back it out...awesome.

     After a little discussion with some people who are tight with/sponsored by RacingBrake (the maker of the upgraded caliper pistons I installed last summer) I was told that while after I did the upgrade, the company changed the thickness of the piston seals as a few people had slight leaking issues.  I fired off n email to RacingBrake with a few questions and they turned around and offered to send me a free set of new seals as well as 50% off their new hi-temp silicone dust boots.

     After all that excitement I made the drive back up to RI.  Surprisingly the car seemed to leak very little fluid when moving/brakes were heated, but parked for 3 days pretty much drained the reservoir again, but this time one caliper stopped leaking.  So I turned around and dropped the car off at the shop last Saturday and asked him to keep an eye on the fluid...no word yet.

     It's funny how even though all us track guys/racers know exactly how long our winter break is we all wind up in a time crunch before the first race.  My first event is officially going to be April 5th, which is apparently 3 weeks away as my writing this.  Crossing my fingers that I'll get the car back by next weekend, at which point I will still need to do the following:

- Change rear diff/trans fluid and oil

- Rebuild front left if not both calipers...again...and fully bleed system

- Align the front end

- Wire oil pressure gauge

   It's probably only about 4-5 hours of work, but the calipers need to be done in my parents garage which turns it into a full weekend...and the only option is the weekend before NJMP.

            It's gonna be close....

Here's some pics:

                                                    Inside view of the MAP O2 housing

                                                 Swaintech'd to try and control some heat

 

The rubber for this year

The old boots off the whiteline bits

 

     It should be a good weekend,  12 Hours of Sebring and start of F1...and right now I'm gonna watch days of Thunder...sweet

Welcome to 2014 (I thought it was a good idea at the time...)

     Better late then never I suppose.

     Lately I almost feel like a real person, I've been eating vegetables, I have bed time and I had to buy a bunch of new shirts/ties.  What this means is I finally got a new job...directly across the street from my old one, go figure.  I work days now so I don't feel like I'm constantly losing my shit although I'm still kind of going nuts because it's been effing cold here in the north east and all my fun cars are locked away in garages.

     Wait, did he say fun cars plural? yeah...whoops.

 

     I tried to talk myself out of it I really really did, but spending too much time surfing the internet and watching track videos made it virtually irresistible along with the fact that I'd reaaly like to keep some miles off the evo this year.  Quick stats - 2001 AP1 173k on the chassis, 50k on the motor, couple small dings and scratches, virtually new top, exhaust and intake.  Needs a set of tires that's it.  Only put about 100 miles on it but DAMN is it fun.

     Back to the evo.  Trying to refrain from any major changes to the car (which I think I spoke about previously) in an effort to focus on my driving.  Need to do a full round of maintenance of course, mods wise I just sent out an O2 housing out to Swaintech today (made sense to replace since I have to get in there to find the exhaust leak/failed part anyway) and I have a set of control arms sitting here with Whiteline front bushings and the RCK bits installed so I can easily get the arms swapped out.  Like I said, nothing too crazy.

Here's the list of events I've compiled so far:

 

March 29  Lime Rock  NASA

April 4-6  NJMP Lightning  NASA

April 12  Lime Rock  EMRA (1pm)

April 28-29  Watkins Glen  NASA

May 3-4  Pocono South East  EMRA

May 16-18  NJMP Thunder  NASA

June 7  Lime Rock  EMRA  (1pm)

June 20-22  Thompson  NASA

July 3-5  Lime Rock (unmuffled)  NASA

July 19-20  NJMP Lightning  NASA

July 26-27 NJMP Lightning  EMRA

August 9-10  Thompson Speedway  EMRA

August 23-24  Thompson  NASA

September 6-7  Pocono North  EMRA

***September 19-20  Lime Rock NARRA***

September 26-28  Watkins Glen  NASA

October 24-26  NJMP Thunderbolt  NASA

November 9-10  Summit Point  EMRA

     Notice that starred event...yeah I'm excited about that one.  A large organization like NARRA at Lime Rock on Trans Am weekend should be a blast.  The car is under prepped and I in no way expect to go out and win, but I certainly don't expect to be last mainly because by then I will have turned close to 300 laps on that track where most of the competitors very well may have only run it on iRacing.

     Unfortunately the schedule will be complicated this year.  I have no idea how things will work out with my work schedule...and as of right now I have 6 weddings and 2 bachelor parties in 2014 which is gonna eat a lot of the car budget and my vacation time.

We shall see, I expect big things this year! 

Chicanes - A Love/Hate relationship

                                                           Oops...I did it again...

     Been slacking on my write ups I know.  So, last weekend was PCD cold tire domination at NJMP Thunder.  I'm growing fond of this track (well turns 1-7...9-12 can suck it, just a terrible non flowing section I fail to get right every time).  The group behind this now annual event is a bunch of guys from evolutionm.net that I have met through NASA events, great guys.  The attendance list was huge and I was going to be running in the intermediate group.  My personal goal for the day was to start the long road of working on my line, entry, exit etc (the basics) and just have fun.

     About a week before the event I had another wonderful alignment saga.  Long story short, I wasted a day sitting at a shop while they set the wrong settings and then on attempting to do it correctly found they apparently couldn't get my requested settings.  The problem here was that they were not even able to go back and match the settings the last shop supposedly set the car to.  Wound up realizing the factory camber bolts were set to MIN not MAX.  Out of frustration I ran home, flipped the bolts and ordered an SPC camber gauge with the toe gauge add on.  Time to go back to trying this myself (recall that I had bad tire wear last event again)! Started measuring and found the toe WAY out, hour or so and i got both sides set closer to zero and with less thrust angle than any shop...was having trouble getting believable camber settings though as one side seemed to have a much wider range than the other...I was really only worried about the toe anyway since the tires are basically dead.  On to the track...

     Rolled in Friday night by like 5pm, first time we did the ride with almost zero traffic!  Headed over to the track to get tech'd and hang out with the guys for a bit and had some of the guys who had experience with my alignment gauge help me check what I had setup (little fact - race track garages are built with very flat floors so race teams can do alignments...or so I'm told.  Turns out I got the car set quite well! 

      Saturday morning we got to sleep in for once since nothing started before 9am.  The weather was pretty clear, mid 40's temps but with a bitter wind to take just about ALL of the temp out of the track.  Started tires at 36psi cold and headed out.

1st Session - Took 5 or so laps and a slow pace to warm everything up and get my head in the game.  Started ramping up the pace and immediately the tires felt very slippery.  Nothing exciting happened, rolled into the paddock and checked tire pressures...45psi WOOPS!

2nd session - After airing down the tires to 38 hot I expected the car to feel much better.  Session start was delayed due to a Porsche laying down oil/blowing a motor/catching fire into turn one.  Pop quiz, who remembers my turn one oil incident from just a month ago? (insert sketchy memory here).  Finally got out on track and did 3 or so laps to get the tires up to temp, settled in and started an expectant "decent lap".  Slipped a little through the chicane but lap felt good, came back around, hard braking, turn into the chicane carrying a little more speed, make the flick to the left at which the car felt settled and gripped and then BOOM snap spin (the video above).  Rolled off into the grass and the car was difficult to start for 3-4 attempts but finally got it to fire with a little gas pedal pumping and rolled back to the pits.  Session over for me.

At this point we had lunch and I swapped off my RS3's assuming they are just heat cycled out/have too much damage at this point.

3rd/4th session - Car felt good and just turned some laps and tried to focus on a few things.  Things went well (see video below)

     Lets analyze the video a bit.  First 2 laps are earlier in the day, second two are later (so on smaller tires)

- I am over braking at points

- I need to start using more curb

- I am turning in late...A LOT

     The biggest ting though is that I am not consistent with my marks, but mostly turn in.  I think this is due to not keeping my eyes up high enough and finding my self with almost tunnel vision but unfortunately the unfocussed kind.  This will be a big area to work on next season.

     Thanks to my dad for some cool pictures as usual (apparently he reads this now).

     I have a bunch more things I'd like to get written, but I think I'm going to put together a season wrap up post in the next week or so.  Until then, keep it shiny side up.

One step closer (and my first shit my pants moment)

     Sometimes life gives you a lot of shit and you go through very long periods of nothing going right and you feel like you have no control...and then you get to go racing, in a car you built and maintained and you get to make every decision and be in full control.

                                           Gas - Brake - Shift - Turn in - APEX - Track out

                                                           It really is a great feeling

    

     I woke up Friday at the ass crack of dawn to start my adventure down to NJMP.  I was feeling pretty good, well as good as you can on 3 hours of sleep.  The drive was pretty uneventful but took about 7 hours even without counting the stop at my parents house to meet up with my dad...it was still better than being at work, no question.  Got all checked in to the hotel and headed out to dinner with my Dad, typical life/politics/work discussion ensued.  At some point I made a joke about how the worst thing that could happen would be for them to sign me off to DE2 since that would open up the world of safety equipment purchases and some changes to the car I specifically have held back on...foreshadowing maybe?

     Saturday morning I rolled into the track as the sun came up.  Its funny how most days I'm lucky if I get out of bed by 11.30, but put the track in front of me and I can be out of bed at 6am like nobody's business.  Did the usual meetings and car clean out etc, and then had like two hours to kill before the first session (we had a weird schedule this event because of lack of daylight this late in the year and all DE groups/racers on the same track).  I didn't meet up with my instructor until we gridded up for session 1, but Jordan had told me he was a great guy...i should say though that my first two NASA instructors were both great and taught me a lot BUT one drove a Porsche and one a corvette and it was evident in their instructing.  This of course is certainly not a bad thing but it just doesn't translate to driving an Evo.

    So Andy (my intructor) drives a 1M, a bad ass car that has special characteristics I'm sure.  After some chatting it was evident he knew that the Evo was a special car and can't be treated like others.  We head out on track and about a lap and a half in Andy starts to chuckle and just says "you have no business being in this group, you are way better than this group".  Well ok then!  Andy went to talk to the head guys to get me moved up, next session he went out with me in DE2 to make sure i was comfortable and could run a decent enough pace (which I did), and I then got my first white bracelet! WOOHOO.

     This is usually the part where I give a session by session recap, but it was just a seat time day so I wasn't going for time.  Here's what I can say, the car was again nice and smooth and reliable and just did what I asked of it all day.  BUT it seems I still have an alignment issue or something since it appears I corded the inside shoulder of my right front tire.  Overall the tires are just smoked at this point after 7 track days and like 5k street miles.

The "OH SHIT" moment - long story short, an STi blew a transmission/engine/brake line or something and laid slipper fluid from turn 1 through 9.  I came down the front stretch at almost 130mph, got on the brakes and got nothing but abs and the car started to rotate without any input.  I got off the brakes which luckily let the car straighten up, dropped down to 4th and just turned into turn 1 and hoped it stuck...and it did luckily.  (the video below doesn't sort of minimizes the amount of rotation due to the camera angle...but trust me I thought I was gonna be in the tires.

 

Couple Solo Laps

 

 

     Next event is PCD cold tire which unfortunately has been shortened to just one day ut should still be a damn good time.  Hopefully I can squeeze in an alignment before then.

So, it's been awhile (a summer to forget)

     Until yesterday I hadn't even driven the car for 3 weeks? maybe 2?  I dunno.

     After Lime rock in August my grandfather got progressively sicker, quickly.  I pretty much got to spend everyday from the middle of July on waiting for "the phone call".   A lot of stressful days and sleepless nights later, my grandfather finally passed away on September 12th.  It sucked, I didn't deal with it well as usual.

Moving on.

     I'm sitting here watching the Formula D stream from Irwindale, really makes me want  RWD car more than ever.  Did i mention I spent most of September shopping for s2000's? No?...I came inches from buying one but couldn't sack up and do it.

      Flash back to the part where I said I haven't driven the evo in forever.  It started when I had a Friday off from work and decided it was time to take care of the rear diff bushings.  Had one mount off in like 20 minutes and then spent the rest of the day driving around to 3 different shops, all who failed to successfully press the factory bushing out.  $400 later, I ordered up a set of Buschur billet mounts.

     They are sexy and saves like 5 pounds off the rear of the car.  Install was a little tough getting the first bolt to line up with a stock diff still on one side.  Also wasn't easier doing the work at like 1am with beer in hand.  mmmmmm beer.

     Other project was finally setting up the saikou michi catch can i picked up a while ago.  After the obligatory 5 trips to home depot to buy one bolt at a time and one failed bracket making attempt.  I got it all installed.

  

     So how does the car feel you ask? Shifting is actually noticeable improved especially under power, as well as taking off from a stop.  The diff mounts definitely were worth the money.  The engine feels a little more snappy with the new catch can/breather setup but of course that could possibly be chalked up to not being in the car for a long period of time.

     Schedule wise  I am registered for two more events for the year.  In two weeks I will be down at NJMP Thunder with NASA and then the weekend before thanksgiving I will be at PCD cold tire domination 3 (NJMP lightning and Thunder).  In my dreams I will get bumped to DE 2 with NASA at this event which will allow me to finally make moves on safety equipment as well as a wing...we'll see what happens.

     Here's to some better times coming.  RIP Pop.

Lime Rock Race Day Report

     I'm not sure the weather could have been any better today.  mid to high 70's and not a damn cloud in the sky.  It's always extra nice at lime rock when it's like that since it since in a little valley completely surrounded by woods.  Arrived around 10.30am while the Lime Rock club guys were still on track (the rich people who by country club style memberships.  Usually there are some high dollar cars there at this time of day, and today had the best attendance yet.  A few obligatory Porches, 2 SRF's, 2 Radical SR3's, 4-6 Ferrari 458 spiders (including one in an awesome flat merlot color), a Lambo Murcielago and to top it all off...a freakin Lambo Super Trofeo.

     Cut to the chase and I head out for the first session.  The run group was packed and included a bunch of ass hats.  Multiple people had difficulty keeping there car on the pavement, which got pretty frustrating.  I wasn't able to turn what i felt was a good lap with having to slow for a yellow or someone who refused to give a point by.  The car was under steering and severely lacking front end bite, it was basically plowing through the turn 2-3-4 complex.  Came off track and found my front tires had heated to a little over 39psi so I bled them down to 38 and checked temps (155ish Outer and Middle, 170ish Inner).  I then added a click to the rear suspension since I always start them soft to regain a feel for the car.  Wound up managing a 1:06.xx

     Session Two - Actually had some pace on track this time but kept getting held up by an ST class C4 vette who apparently didn't have any mirrors on his car.  He was 10-20+ mph off the pace around the whole track and absolutely refused to put his hand out the window and wave me by while ignoring blue flags.  Meanwhile...the car felt better through the tight section and was definitely rotating better.  I was focusing on the "flick it" method that Jordan had showed me at Pocono, and actually wound up getting a pretty neat slip angle feeling out of the car.  I think that i even managed to put it into a 4 wheel slide once or twice as I had to put in a little oppo.  I also worked on trying to be back on the throttle by apex as this was another evo specific technique mentioned so that the rear diff can start clamping and pull through the exit.  Maybe it's just my head, but it certainly seemed like I could feel the rear diff locking and the mid turn characteristics changing.  One second it would feel like i was about to have to lift to not under steer off track and then there was a very neat "pulling" (technically pushing?) back onto line where I had the car pointed

     Third session - Nothing that great to report.  I had added another click or two to the rear shocks.  The car felt better yet but overall really just felt all day like I had no tires under me.  I think my RS3's are beyond the competitive lap times portion of their life.

    The results? - In session two I somehow managed to click off a new personal best of 1:04.74.  Of course I was the only tuner class car, but surprisingly that time was good enough to top the 3 cars in Tuner MOD class which included an Evo that as far as I know was on Hoosiers, a 2011 STi on R888's and an STi swapped 2.5RS.  I'm taking that all with a grain of salt though...the other evo is either a terrible driver or running a terrible setup to be a second slower on Hoosier's and I really think the STi is a green driver also, but that being said they should have a higher level of modification on the car to be entering that class anyway...

     I had one other odd feeling from the car.  It's best described as the car "shaking it's hips" under braking.  It feels like as soon as the rear unweights it wants to dance around.  My initial thought is that worn bushings are allowing alignment deflection, as I made absolutely sure I was braking in a straight line.  I will have to investigate this further but it is also making me want to get some rear downforce on the car...

                                                             (click for the video)

Ever say something incredibly stupid?

     Like so ridiculously stupid that you want to take it back before it even finishes exit your fucking mouth?

...yeaaaahhhh I'm that guy tonight.

     Anyway...Started prepping for Lime Rock next weekend, should go super smoothly right?  L-O-L.  Put the kiggly in last week, which was a slight struggle.  Took some time to get the valve cover off CAREFULLY, 5 minutes to swap the HLA's, and then another 2 hours to put the valve cover most of the way back on only to realize that I had pinched a wire and needed to disassemble everything again, yay!  Got the car back together and started trying to flash a new map on with no luck, no problem the batteries probably just a little low since I haven't driven the car in two weeks.  Couple hours of charging, get it flashed, start her up and SWEET 3000rpm idle...I shut it down and walked away for two days.

     Long story short, I couldn't see anything obviously wrong.  Flashed a new map again, started it up and all seemed normal.  Weird.

     The tune us very close now just needs a small touch more WGDC from 6500rpm up.  Still having some weird boost error so I am a little hesitant to turn error correction on, but it should work well since I have gotten it dialed pretty close to where I want it.

     Today I pulled off the rear tires (which were the front for part of the day at Pocono) to assess how much inner shoulder wear I had done, and get them flipped.  It seems the inner shoulders got slayed more than I originally thought and I pretty much have no idea why.  The wear occurred while they were on the front of the car so my best guess is that they were just completely over driven?

 

     Oil change and brake pad swap and I'll be ready to go.  Pretty excited to get out on track and keep my mind off my other fuck ups...