So I was on my computer this morning and I realized that I hadn't made an entry in a while. Which at least is not my only entry in 2008...ahem...Andy. Part of the blame lies on my past semester of school. But I graduated last month so now I am remembering what free time was like. As far as the car goes the new setup is still going well. The first autocross of the season was great, it was the first time I have really gotten to see what the car was made of. It didn't feel all that different, but to have power so much lower in the rev range, to have added grip from the LSD, and to have a steering rack that makes it humanly possible to keep up in a tight slalom was great. And now that I am in SM things are a lot tighter than they were in DSP. Garold is still my competition, but I have a bunch of really fast guys up here in SM to compete with. Somehow I got lucky at the first event and won my class, probably due to the fact that I just happened to have the fastest clean run. All of us in SM had faster times, and my fastest would have only been good enough for second place, but thanks to our orange friends, things were different. Aside from the racing I am now the god father of my nephew Adam, which is also why I missed the second event, but some things are just more important. And I will unfortunately also miss event three, but once again, it will be more than worth it. I leave for Monterey, CA in a couple of days to visit a friend in the Air Force. And as I'm sure most of you are thinking already, I am already planning on going to Laguna Seca while I am there. I should even be able to get a free hot lap! So don't worry, pictures will be a plenty.
Last Saturday I actually had the day off from work. So I decided to make the most of it. I went to the 100th Chicago Auto Show, and right from there hit the 2008 International Motorcycle Show. Not much to say, I found them both to be disappointing for the most part. Must be the "been there, done that" mentality. But there were some highlights, So onto the pics.
One of my favorite cars of all time, reborn
Not a huge Mopar fan, but it looked mean, and the Hemi orange looked good on it
The Yes Roadster...a little to busy for me
Where I would like to be
Oh Yeah!
Pimped out Duc (the wheels are CF!)
Suprisingly comfortable (for a sportbike)
Another interesting Ducati
Sexy MV
There is more talent in this man's sweat than I have in my whole body
Well, I have hinted and mentioned for a couple months now that an engine swap for my beloved car was in the works. I am happy to say that it is complete! The whole process started a couple months ago when Alex asked me if I wanted to go in with him on ordering an engine for our cars in the name of saving on shipping costs and the overall cost of the engines themselves. I whole-heartedly agreed and the engines were ordered. Not too long afterwards the engines arrived at his place, only to discover that one of them was full of water...needless to say it was toast. So after a little coercing by Alex to get them to ship a replacement engine, a new one arrived. Then began the process of freshening up the nice B18C sitting in his garage. Over the next few weeks, when we both had a free evening, I would head over to Alex's place and we would work on getting it ready to drop in my car. We had a few hiccups along the way, such as a dented oil sump, but we (mostly Alex) trucked though it and had it ready to go.
Then it finally came down to the actual swap process. I had a weekend day off and we got a good amount of the work done: old engine out, old steering rack out, new steering rack in, new engine in, etc. Alex was gracious enough to let me dive his hatch while my car was under the knife during the next week or so. We got everything else in shortly afterward, including new suspension bushings up front, and the car buttoned back up enough that I could drive it home. I'll tell you that first drive down the block was thrilling, but there were a couple of issues to work out such as a really annoying surging idle, a missing torque mount, and a radiator fan that did not want to kick on. I made it home that night (more like early morning) without issue other than a really crooked steering wheel, and drove it for a little over a week. After Christmas I was able to get back over to Alex's and finish up with the few loose ends. Idle fixed, fan problem sorted out, and torque mount on I headed home that night and finally got to confidently push the new engine. I had a grin the whole ride home....and still do.
I love the new engine, the LSD trans that went with it, and the overall feel of the car with all the little things we did while we were at it. I can't wait for the new autocross season. Street Modified here I come.
Alex, I can't thank you enough for everything you did for me and the car, without you this would not have been possible. Thank you.
And since this little story is worthless without pictures, here you go.
I had some time the last few days and I got around to making a compilation video of the recently past autocross season. I think it turned out better than the one I made last year. Let me know what you think. Enjoy.
So I realized that I haven't been giving many updates this summer. Therefore here is the latest.
After the good showing on my birthday in July, we had three more solos: one in August, one last month on the ninth, and the last one this past saturday. In August it was wet as many of our events have been, and I did well for myself. But on the way out of the lot and on my way home I noticed an odd noise that sounded like metal bouncing on metal. Less than a minute later it sounds like something lets go and I pull over at the very next driveway. Come to find out the thing that "let go" was the nut holding my AC belt tensioner pulley on. So after a couple of minutes I get it out of the way of my other pulleys before something worse happens. However in my haste to get it free and head home I misdiagnosed the pulley to be my alternator pulley. Thinking that, I drove home with all electrical devices off, only used my wipers when absolutely necessary, and prayed my battery had enough juice to give my engine sufficient spark to make it home. I was relieved when I got home and realized that is was only part of the AC system. Next comes the September event, and we finally have an absolutely beautiful day. I got put in the extra class and got trounced on again, but as usual I had fun. The highlight of the day came when some lucky (and wealthy) guy pulled up in his brand new GT3 to check out what we were doing. Seeing this car in person just proved how little pictures can do it justice...but here you go anyway.
Then, just this past saturday we had our last event of the season back at good 'ol Portage High School. The course was great, and it was fast. My car was very nuetral and I was constantly throttle steering to keep it pointed in the right direction, almost as if it were wet out. And despite a spectacular spin on my second run and cones on nearly ever other run, I did much better than I thought. After looking at my video I was very happy to see that I was finally getting close to the cones again, impressively close. I am still waiting to see the final results but I think I beat my arch nemesis Garold, which would make the last event oh so sweet.
As far as my car goes it is finally starting to show its age and the abuse I put on it. I just changed my wheels and tires today for my winter duty ones and while I was under there I noticed some wetness on the ends of my steering rack. Add that to the slight oil consumption my engine already has, plus a few other small odd noises and rattles my car has. But what can I expect, it has over 140,000 on the odometer, and I beat the piss out of it with a raised rev limit (which is a bad idea), but all in all it still runs well and starts up every time. Honda has a customer for life...I just have to be in the market for a new car first.
That gets me to my last point, I just the past few days have all but purchased a new heart for the Civic...a slightly larger dual overhead cam heart. Add a faster and beefier Integra steering rack to that and you have a practicly brand new (and faster) car. If this all happens all I will need is some minor bodywork (to eliminate the Honda-rot), a fresh paint job, some new sliders for the rear brake calipers, and maybe some racing seats and my car will be better than new. And maybe even at that point I will finally consider the car done. That would be a wonderful feeling. As for now thats all, I should be writing again in about a week or two with with news of exciting new hardware, and if I have some spare time I will make a season compilation video. Until then "drive fast and swerve."
I've realized that I haven't made a new entry in a while. Well a lot has happened , which is a big reason why you haven't heard from me.
In late may I competed in INR's event #2, and since it was my first event of the season, I was rusty. I was placed in the "extra" class since I was the only one in DSP. Needless to say I got trounced on. But it was fun as always and it helped me get the cobwebs out. Next thing was an upgrade, a pair of factory replica foglights. They work well and look stock. Intallation was a breeze, the hardest part was cutting the holes in the bumber for the lights. The only thing left to do is to get them properly adjusted. Then in June I arrived to another wet autocross at Portage High School for INR event #3. It was a blast in the wet. Because of some higher speed sweeping turns and a fairly fast slalom I spun out twice in quite a spectacular fashion taking dozens of cones with me. When I was not watching the landscape spin through my windows I was actually in great control, and I had forgotten just how satisfying throttle steering could be. And thanks to the rain letting up just before my last heat, I got some much dryer runs wich lead to a victory for me in the extra class, which is quite a long shot. But one of the best parts of the day was a friend of mine who showed up, rode along with many of the drivers, and ended up getting about triple the seat time that I did. She was grinning from ear to ear the whole time she was there. Fast forward to this past weekend. Saturday was the usual fun time, I raced well (much better than I had earlier this year), but still got destroyed in the extra class placing eigth out of ten. I was plagued by the two chicago boxes on the course all day, and I almost ran over a cornerworker who, for some reason, decided to run and get a cone just as I was coming around the corner. But the real joy was on Sunday. Since the events were back to back, we ran saturday's course backwards. And for some reason I figured out how to take the chicago boxes. Add that to the fact that I actually had some company in DSP, and I had a good battle on my hands. Most of the day he was about a few hundredths faster than me, but somehow I was able to drop more and more time to take the win by about four tenths. I was really excited, I raced well, I had good competition, and it was my birthday. On a side note, after the race I went and played in a softball game where I was three for three with an in-the-park home run, and we won by slaughter rule. It was a great day, happy birthday to me!
Here is a little picture I snapped after the Sunday event, you can see the new foglights I installed
This past weekend was spent preparing my car for the new season. I had some brake issues to work out, namely installing new speed bleeders. When I did the brake upgrade a little over a year ago I got a set of Russell speed bleeders. They were junk, one ended up stripping (had to use vise-grips to get it off), and another I simply could not use because it would not seal at all. So I put on a set of Speed Bleeders brand bleeders, and they work perfectly. Since I had the car in the air and the wheels off I investigated the (lack of) wear on my rear rotors. it turns out that a couple of the sliders on the rear calipers are frozen, so only the inside of the rear rotors are wearing properly. Unfortunately that will have to wait, but at least the rears will still lock under hard braking, so I'm not too worried. I also did an oil change on both the bike and the Civic. And when I was home yesterday I put my summer tires back on. We'll see how well they perform, since last season the grip was fading because two are bald and the other two are not far behind. New tires have been ordered, but will not be in on time for this Sunday's solo. In any case it will feel good to beat the piss out of my car again.
This past weekend was the 2007 Indiana Northwest Region's National Race at Gingerman Raceway. As a member of INR I went and worked a corner as I have in the past. As always I had a blast, and the weather cooperated too! There were some great battles in a few of the classes, especially Spec Miata. The car count was a little lower than we were hoping for, but a few of our racers were national champions and runners-up. I took a bunch of pictures during the Friday practice and a few on Saturday and Sunday when I was not on a corner. So I�ll let them speak for themselves.
Just because you are a rich bastard and can afford a really expensive race car doesn't mean you can drive
This car is about as close to being a mustang as Jeff Gordon's car is to being a Monte Carlo.
Oh look, someone broke their $125,000 toy...I have no sympathy, although I bet he doesn't like the fact that I am taking his picture
My fellow cornerworker, Leon, just after waking up from a little nap between sessions
One word: FAST
Despite being a purpose built race car, the rules require Spec Racer Fords to have the 1.9L engine with the stock airbox out of a Ford Escort. Even after tuning these engines barely make over 100 HP
But just because your race car is powered by a Ford 4cyl engine out of an Escort or Focus doesn't mean it's slow
And one of the coolest cars I saw all weekend was this absolutly perfect replica of Herbie, I stumbled across it when I stopped in some random small Michigan town for a bite to eat on the way home on Sunday. The guy even got a copy of the old California plate that it had...wow
Thanks to my roommate who is a film major, I
finally made a little highlight video out of all that video I have
recorded in the past two seasons. The quality looks poor, but it only
looks that way on YouTube, the original version looks far better.
Enjoy!
I am in such a good mood today, it's in the 50's, I'm on
spring break, and all thats missing is an autocross. The first warm day of the
season usually makes me feel like this, so much so that I even got up at 8:00 am despite no school or work this morning (those
who know me know that is quite unheard of for me to do) and got my bike
running. I then immediately proceeded to take it for a ride. Therefore, I
figure this is a good time to review all my new gear since I now have some
actual experience with it. I finally picked up my new Moto GP Corkscrew jacket
exactly one week ago in the middle of a snow storm (I live in the midwest). The
fit is great, nice and snug with all the armor in the correct positions,
venting is superb with the majority of the air entering via the perforated
leather panels on the chest and arms (nearly chilly with the liner in on a 55
degree day), and the armor is good. I had previously purchased a set of hard
plastic armor to replace the dual density armor in this jacket, but upon inspection
this jacket does not accept it because it attaches and stays put in a different
way than how Joe Rocket does it. But not to worry, upon inspection I also found
that the dual density armor is far superior to the foam stuff that Joe Rocket
uses. Moto GP's armor is a hard rubber on top of soft rubber, which is why they
also call it dual density, but it is just as good in my opinion as the hard
plastic stuff. So the plastic stuff went into my old Joe Rocket textile jacket
since my friend will probably be using it this year.
Well, I finally uploaded a video to YouTube. I still haven't made a compilation video of my last couple of seasons yet because they are all in Quicktime format, and I don't own a Mac. So the software I need is not cheap. But I was working on a speech for one of my classes in which I wanted a clip to show autocross, and I setteled on this one. It's from SBR's last solo of the 2006 season at the Tire Rack in South Bend, IN.
So I haven't made a new entry in a while, so i figured that this would be a good chance to show some of the new motorcycle gear I just got. I ordered Moto Gp gloves, which are an over the cuff style, compared to my old short style. These new ones are also leather, which has much better abrasion resistance than the mesh gloves they are replacing, which is good if I were to be sliding across the pavement at 40 mph, but lets hope that never happens. In addition to the new gloves I also got GP style armor for the shoulders and elbows. It will replace the CE dual density armor in the new jacket I will be getting soon. Dual density armor is basicly two layers of foam (each having a different density, hence the name) which only helps to cushion an impact, and relies on the jacket to absorb the abraision. GP armor is hard plastic on top of padding, so in addition to the increased impact resistance you also get added abraision resistance and in the rare case that something sharp hits me there, it should prevent it from piercing through.
Here are the new Moto GP gloves (yes I got one for my right hand too)
Here is a comparison of the foam CE armor (left) and the GP armor (right)
Since most of us here own a helmet for either auto racing or motorcycle riding (or both), I thought I would give a quick review of my old and new motorcycle helmets. My first full face helmet was purchased last year, it was a KBC VR-2 Legend. I got it on sale for about $160, and its not bad for the price. The good things were that it was fairly cheap, it had decent aerodynamics, and it was Snell rated. However the drawbacks were that it was fairly heavy, it did not fit all that well, a lack of shell sizes made me look and feel like I had a huge head, if I turned my head while riding (say to check a blind spot) the wind would catch the helmet and pull hard on my neck, and the wind would blow from underneath the front of the helmet across my chin and face which was very cold in the fall and spring. Now I know that is a lot of negatives toward the KBC, but please remember that this is a lower model helmet that I didn't pay a lot for, and, well, it got the job done.
My recent pickup was a Suomy Spec-1R Extreme. This is Suomy's top of the line racing model with race replica graphics, and it also happens to be one of the top (and most pricey) helmets in the world which competes with Arai's RX-7 model. However I only paid $350 instead of the $650 retail price because mine was slightly used. I actually planned on buying a Shoei RF-1000 but when I came across this deal, I could not pass it up. Mainly because of all the helmets I have tried on in the past year (which is a lot) the Suomy was hands down the best fitting and most comfortable. This is because not only is the liner soft yet firm, it also cradles my head and face more completely than any other I have tried. But my love does not stop there. It is also claimed to be the lightest helmet of its kind in the world, and it sure feels that way. It's venting is great, with air entering the helmet via the vents and ducts only (not throught the bottom like the KBC). The visor does not ratchet up and down like most of the helmets on the market, but rather it simply locks in the up and down positions making operation smooth and easy. The aerodynamics are not as good dead on as the KBC, but where the KBC fails when I turn my head, the Suomy does not. In fact it is just as good in any direction as it is straight on. Now this Helmet is not perfect and there are a few drawbacks. One being the wind noise, but this is to be expected with all of the vening it has. And there are a couple of vents that are "always open," which makes things a little more wet when it rains. One last thing about the Soumy that can be considered a drawback is that it is not Snell certified, rather it is BSI certified. After some research into the certification process and standards I feel safer in a BSI helmet than a Snell helmet. However due to SCCA and other sanctioning bodies' rules, Snell certified helmets are required, therefore I cannot use the Suomy for my autocrossing or driving schools (but several motorcycle track events allow them).
The old (left) and the new (right)
I must say that I think the Suomy looks much better than the KBC, and I love the visor on the Suomy.
Well, I guess that after 128000 miles my
thermostat had enough. Just the other day I headed to a store right
around the corner from me (about a 5min drive), and on the way there my
temp gauge was nearly pegged! Since I have owned the car the needle has
NEVER read more than half-way towards hot. So to see this was alarming,
and add to that the fact that I had no heat coming out of my vents.
When I got home the radiator and upper hose were cold, and since the
ETC sensor is on the thermostat housing, I figured it must be that.
When I got back inside my apartment I looked up how to change it in my
shop manual, the location was not bad and only two bolts had to be
removed to get to it. Despite the ease of removal I called the local
Honda dealer for a quote because it is cold out and I would be doing it
outside in my parking space. But when they told me $85 for labor alone
I hopped on my motorcycle and headed straight for autozone. The next
morning I got up and made a mess of my parking spot. It only took me
about an hour, but that is because I was talking to someone the whole
time and because the bolts were obstructed by coolant lines. But the
new one is in and everything is back to normal. And it only cost $11, I
love my Honda.
Two Sundays ago I competed in SBR's last solo of the year, only this time my brother showed up. Not only that, but he showed me up too. It was a cold day with promise of it warming up since the sun was out early, but the clouds came out and the temperature dropped again. However I had a blast as always, and this being my first time at the Tire Rack, it was interesting to run their course. The new shifter worked out great, especially since I did a lot of shifting during my runs. It was not enough though, because my brother still beat me. I really wonder if it would have helped if I had taken the first turn differently, and on what probably would have been my fastest run I spun out...right in front of the station where my brother was working. Regardless, I had a great time as usual and it was a great conclusion to a great season.
I finally found the time to install my new Fastline shifter I got a few weeks ago. It is replacing a B&M short throw shifter that I installed a few years ago. Some of the obvious differences between the three shifters (Fastline, B&M, Stock) are throw, position, and weight.
Stock: Pros -comfortable throw -comfortable position Cons -lightweight, cheap feeling Verdict -a cheap, inexpensive shifter that is middle of the road and does everything decently...exactly what Honda wanted
B&M: Pros -very precise, very crisp throws -heavyweight, solid construction Cons -position was not ideal (too far forward and low) -produced a very annoying rattle at higher revs Verdict -made me feel like I was shifting an S2000, but at a cost
Fastline: Pros -best postition of any shifter in any (non-race) car anywhere -despite the length, the throw is as long as stock -very heavy, makes shifting smooth and easy Cons -very heavy, makes me feel numb to the transaxle Verdict -despite the fact that I can't "feel" the gears, this is hands down my favorite, the position is perfect
This was taken a couple of years ago, B&M shifter installed at this point, notice how far from the driver it is
Here is a side by side comparison of the B&M shifter (left) and the stock shifter (right)
Here is the stock shifter (left) next to the Fastline one (right)
Fastline shifter installed
This angle shows how well positioned the Fastline shifter is
The last INR event of the 2006 season had
quite a showing. Besides all the usual entries, we had a few
interesting cars as well including the ever fasinating Franken-Yugo. My
performance however was not all that impressive. Even though the car,
and my runs felt more solid than most of the season, I still lost to an
ever dominating Garold. Watching his runs, I am not shocked at all that
he beat me. He even told me that durning one run he only used the
brakes once before the finish. We shall see how well I do this Sunday
at South Bend Region's last event, but as long as I beat my brother, I
don't care.
Well I just returned to Lafayette after
my slightly better showing in today's autocross. Thanks to my good
friend liquid propane I was able to adjust my spring perches this time
and gain the desired negative camber and toe out. What a difference it
made, on the first run I had much more grip and overall confidence in
my car than I did the in the previous event. And although I was neck
and neck with Garold again, his brother in law (driving Garold's car)
made us look like we were out for a Sunday drive by beating our morning
best times by nearly two seconds! But we'll have to wait a few days for
the final results to see just how badly we were beat because I had to
leave early to get to work on time. But on the plus side I was given
special permission to snap a few photos of heat one:
Here is Gintaras most likely on his way to another FTD, his car's ability is matched only by his driving ability
Here is my personal favorite, no explanation needed (^^^by the way, thats Garold^^^)
After a break from autocross against my
will due to a new job during the summer, I finally got to compete
again. It was a very sunny and beautiful day around 80 degrees, which
for me was a welcome change of pace since the last couple of events I
ran were quite wet. However the rain probably would have helped since I
was more than a second off my main competition. I posted what felt like
a decent run, but I think that both myself and the car were rusty. Upon
arrival I went through the usual paces of changing my suspension
settings, but to my dismay I could not loosen the screw on my
coilovers, so I had to run with no camber or toe. But I don't think I
would have picked up a second because of that alone, I simply need more
practice. Now that I have moved to Lafayette for the school year and
have gotten yet another job, I'll have to see what (if any) events I
can attend for the remainder of the season, hopefully all of them.
Despite my lackluster performance, I still had fun as I always do, and
it was great to see all my friends in the club which I had not seen for
far too long. I'll get you next time Garold.
A mod that I did a couple of years ago was
installing a S2000 start button into my civic. I know I know, all you
Euro car guys are thinking where does the rice go, and I know that this
is a completely useless addition, but I have gotten more compliments on
it than anything else I have done. I did a write up on this a few weeks
ago for a forum I frequent, so i thought I would share my pictures.
The hardest and scariest part was cutting the hole in the dashboard,
there is something about putting a 1" drill bit to it that is not
natural, but it turned out better than I hoped. The button is
functional, the letters light up red when the key is turned, and
personally I think it looks better than the Z8 start button that many
BMW guys put in their cars.
