I desperately needed some seat time in the Evo after installing the cage and the seat. Once adjusted the harnesses do an awesome job at keeping my ass firmly planted in the seat, but they also limit the range of motion my upper body is used to in an autocross. So with the lap and anti-sub belts tightened firmly, I set the shoulder belts to allow some play. The end result wasn’t too shabby at all with a 5th place overall in PAX out of 147 registered drivers.
PAX results:
http://autox4u.com/2010results/5222010_pax.htm
Final results:
http://autox4u.com/2010results/5222010_fin.htm
Pictures courtesy of Speed Lounge. See their coverage of the event here
In 2009 I started on my quest to advance from SCCA’s Solo II onto NASA’s Time Trial program. I had been autocrossing seriously since ‘06, and after claiming the Nothern New Jersey regions A-Stock championshop in ‘07 and ‘08, I wanted to build upon what I had learned. After a year full of track days, a brief date with a tirewall, many weeks of sourcing replacement parts, upgrades, a visit to the tuner, and a painfully long winter, the car and I was finally ready.
Not only was this event my first TT event for ‘10, but it was also my first track event for the year. So I considered it a shakedown for the car, but more importantly a shakedown for myself. The first morning of a weekend event is usually pretty hectic. A frantic search to find empty spots in the pits, unpack the tools, tires, jack stands, and all loose items from the car (I can never believe how much crap fits into an Evo!). Slap on the brand new BFGoodrich g-Force R1s (from Tirerack) and the Hawk HT-10 race compound pads (from KNS Brakes), run through the self-tech, and finally hand over everything to registration.
With just the instructor group having been on track before us, we grid up and head out on to the cold track in a slow train. I have never drive on the BFG R1s until now, so with the pressures set to 35 psi cold I started to try and get a feel for them. Our venue for the weekend was the Lightning circuit at NJMP. Between the two, I would say that Thunderbolt is my choice, but Lightning isn’t too bad and certainly has a few tricky corners that take a while to master. By the second corner I realize that the car is very soft – damn it! I had forgotten to set the rebound on the Ohlins. Deja vu – I made the same mistake on my previous track day as well. That’s another thing to add to the list of crap to do in the morning. Anyway I decide not to obsess over it and focus on the upcoming corners – a sweeping right hander that leads into a left. As I transition into the left hander my rear steps out, but my attempt to counter steer and feed in the gas were futile. I did the standard practice of putting both feet in and watched in embarrassment as the corner workers started waving their yellow flags. As I headed back towards the pits I found the car to be yet again a handful on the next left-hand corner. Hmmm… As I headed for the pits noticed my engine oil light on the dashboard, so I threw the car into neutral and let it coast towards the course worker waiting for me at the hot pit. Before the car came to a halt the engine stalled – I knew immediately what had happened!
A few years ago at an autocross I mowed down a cone, and in retaliation it struck my oil filter so hard that it bent the filter and thus compromised the seal between the filter and the housing resulting in an oil leak. An OEM filter may have avoided the situation, but I was using a Purolator filter at the time which is narrower but taller. With the oil spewing from near the passenger side front wheel, every left turn I made caused oil to splash towards the path of the right side wheels, thus making it over steer like a bitch.
Back at the hot pits, as the course worker checked for any signs of damage or loose wheels, I ducked underneath the car and saw the problem – my brand new AMS oil cooler had a gaping whole on its side. That was the least of my concerns; I had just potentially ceased my engine, and cooked the turbo. Is that a perfect start to the season or what?!
More details and videos later…
2010/04/18 NASA-NE TT at NJMP Lightning – Fastest Lap from Charith Perera on Vimeo
2010/04/18 NASA-NE TT at NJMP Lightning – Jake’s Spin from Charith Perera on Vimeo.
With my first TT event for 2010 coming up next weekend, I decided it was time to swap out all of the fluids in the car. That means engine, transmission, transfer case, rear differential, and coolant. Amsoil has been receiving much praise amongst the Evo community in the the recent past, and with many big runners using it I decided to give it a try.
For the engine I had always stuck with Mobil1 synthetic; 10W30 during normal events, and 10W40 during extremely hot events where the oil seems temps in the 100C range. This year I decided to give Amsoil 10W30 a try. Although we probably wont see such high temps in the spring to see if Amsoil will make a difference, it’s probably best to give it a try at an event where temps won’t be too extreme.
For the transmission I had previously stuck with Mitsubishi’s Diaqueen 75W85, and Diaqueen LSD Gear Oil for the Transfer Case and rear differential. As I’m not producing much more than stock power levels, I didn’t have much concern about extreme stress on the drivetrain, but rather was more concerned about the longevity. The shift from 4th to 5th gear had also started to develop a hesitation, what some would describe as a “grind”. I contacted Andy (aka apagan01 on EvolutionM) who is an Amsoil dealer with my concerns and he recommended that we try Amsoil MTG GL4 75W90 Heavy Gear Lube for the transmission, and Amsoil 75W90 Severe Gear Oil for the transfer case and rear differential.
Evo on jack stands
Once the car was reasonably levelled on jack stands, draining the fluid was pretty simple. The engine oil had been changed rather recently, and with the limited miles seen over the cold days I was glad to find that the color was still a nice brown. The transmission and transfer case however had not been changed since last spring. A considerable amount of metal shavings attached to the drain plugs confirmed that an annual fluid change should be done on a track car.
Next the car was placed in the safe hands of Champion Auto in Long Island City, NY for a front swaybar swap. Two years ago I upgraded my front swaybar to a Whiteline 26mm bar in an attempt to make the car more competitive in SCCA AS for Solo II. However although the bar seemed to help keep the car flatter on some sweeping corners and fast transitions on the road course, it does make rotating the car a little harder. As I will be competing in the NASA Time Trial series for 2010, in order to remain legal for TTB classification I’m required to revert to my stock front swaybar. Hopefully this will also help rotate the car better on the track. I’ll be looking forward to the outcome this weekend.
I used to think that I was a smooth driver; smooth with my inputs, smooth with the throttle, and smooth with the brakes. Then last Sunday, a brutally cold Sunday, I co-drove Dan’s Holunfie Honda S2000 at the NNJR SCCA season opening autox. Boy was I in for a handful of opposite lock! Turns out being smooth in an Evo is like the 300lb gorilla saying he can eat a lot of bananas.
My first run was not only an introduction to the S2000, but also a re-introduction to autox. I did three events last year, two in early spring, and one in the fall. I knew what I was supposed to do, but my muscle memory was a little lacking to say the least. I was a mess – and Dan didn’t spare any creative comments to make sure I knew that. “YOU FUCKING SUCK! YOU’RE NOT LOOKING AHEAD! DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW TO AUTOCROSS?!?!” Thanks Dan. For those who don’t know, co-driving with Dan is like having that annoying voice inside your head, just that it’s now sitting next to you and constantly shouting at you, at the starter, at timing & scoring, at Perry, at the cone that just fell, and at anyone else who’s around. It only gets worse when he’s driving. There’s no surprise that the only noises you hear from the sealed microphone of the GoPro camera is Dan.
Anyway, back to the S2000 which I had never driven before until I lined up at the start:
- Power – the Evo is a torque monster compared to it, and I found myself naturally shifting up at 6500rpm instead of using the extra 2500rpm. Let the v-tech sing baby!
- Steering – yes the Evo had a quick rack, but this is crazy fast!
- Turn-in – because of the fatter swaybar I added for AStock the Evo needed a lifting of the gas or a tap of brake to induce turn-in. No effort needed in the Honda for turn-in. In fact, the AP1 was thought to be too tail happy, so Dan has added one of those nearly extinct Gendron front swaybars.
- Grip – this is where the S2000 was lacking. Shot Bridgestone RE-01Rs in the front, and shot Kumho ASXs in the rear. Fred Flintstone probably had better grip than we had in the rear.
- Brakes – to compensate for the lack of ABS in the Evo, Mitsubishi gave it a firm but communicative brake pedal. The S2000 on the other hand had a relatively squishy brake pedal and a trigger-happy ABS. In conjunction with the shitty tires, this led to a few moments where the ABS hit ice mode
Needless to say my first run was a throwaway. Dan jumps in and shows me how it’s done – or should I say how it’s spun! “THERE’S NO GRIP!” My 2nd run I start getting a feel for the car, or so I thought. I hit ice-mode on one of the braking zones and fly past an offset cone. Then after the turnaround I pin the gas and throw it into 2nd gear just as the tach sails past 8500rpm. I was expecting the tires to chirp and launch me into a surge of acceleration. Instead I found myself clouded in tire smoke and pointing the wrong direction. “YOU IDIOT THIS ISN’T ALL WHEEL DRIVE!”
On his 3rd run Dan puts it all together: sick launch, slick shifts, smooth on the gas, and snakes it through the slaloms for a blistering run of 75seconds. Just about 25seconds slower than his previous best. Thanks timing & scoring – there goes the money run!
After a few spins and much shouting from Dan I was getting the hang of the car and learning to push it. But my times weren’t improving. It seemed that every time I thought I had reigned it in the Joker would pull out another trick from up his sleeve. Dan was sitting on a clean 51.031 run, and I was constantly pulling 53s. But miraculously I managed to put it together on the last run of the day and pulled off a 52.497. 1.5seconds is a lifetime on an autox course, but for me that’s just 1.5 seconds away from figuring out how to drive a well balanced FR car. Win!
Christmas came really late, but it’s here!
First up are a set of 17×9″ Weds Sport SA-70 wheels. I sold my set of 17×8″ Kosei K1-TS to a fellow racer last year. Although they were very light weighing in at 15.5lbs, I needed a wider wheel so that I can run a wider tire with sufficient tirewall support. Fortunately the Weds aren’t dead weights, weighing in at 17.8lbs they are pretty light for their size.
Next up we have a performance radiator by Mishimoto. Lighter than OEM and hopefully more efficient.
2010 is going to be an amazing year in racing. Improving ones versatility can do wonders for improving skill. The faster a driver can hop into a vehicle that’s not familiar and adapt to it, the better the driver will be at tuning their senses for input. Its no secret that the more input you can get from a vehicle, the more informed you are of what’s really going on, and thus the better equipped you will be to becoming faster.
Valentino Rossi who has dominated MotoGP for the last decade recently conducted another test with Ferrari in an F2008 and nearly matched Kimi Raikkonen’s lap record at Catalunya. He has also shown success in a WRC car. What appears as a smooth flat surface to us could very possibly be as rough as the crater filled moon to him. Its time to stop living in ignorance and time to start heightening those senses, maybe even pick up a sixth sense on the way.
For 2010 the Evo will be dedicated for track days, time trials, and the occasional run to the grocery store. The car will be prepped to satisfy the ruleset for NASA TTB. I will participate in all NASA NE TT events if possible in hopes of being in contention for the championship.
Upgrades will be as follows:
- 17×9 Weds Sport SA-70 wheels – Snagged for cheap locally. Curb rashed and scraped, but still light at 17.8lbs
- Retuned suspension – The car feels great, but not perfect. I’ll be working with a local tuner to get it setup to my liking
- AMS upgraded Oil Cooler kit – An attempt to keep the oil temps low on those long hot summer lapping days
- Mishimoto Aluminum Radiator – A small weight reduction, but hopefully will also aid in keeping the car cooler
- Autopower 6-pt rollcage – Last year I got lucky when I popped out of the carousel at Summit Point’s Shenandoah circuit. This time I’m not taking any chances.
2010 will also see me return to my first racing addition: Solo II. This year I will be co-driving the Holunfie Honda S2000 in STR with owner and bike junkie Dan Cheung. Dan took a break from competitive Solo II racing after he sold off his STU Subaru STi and started racing his bikes in an attempt to satisfy his adrenaline fix. This year with the introduction of the STR class he’s back in a nicely setup AP1 Honda S2000. Last year I nearly sold the Evo in the hope of picking up an S2000 for track. Although it’s FR setup and god-like handling are matched only by a few other cars, the versatility of the Evo allowed me to be competitive while being sideways in the snow, dodging cones, or flying through the uphill esses at VIR.
And last but not least, I will be logging valuable seat time in a CRG Rotax Kart owned by Ramon Pitter. If open wheel racing is the ultimate goal, then karting is the foundation. My first test in a kart was in 2008, and although the kart wasn’t setup for me I got a taste of what all the fuss was about. Information overload, lightning fast reflexes, and huge gonads; all active ingredients for the adrenaline junkie. But I’m not looking for that. I’m looking to learn how to deal with the information overload, to build lightning fast reflexes, and to grow some giant balls. Perfect! Ramon is yet to compete in a Kart race. With the two of us logging seat time we hope our half-brains can come together and build a good setup for him that will make him competitive.
So if all goes according to plan I’ll be ripping up tarmac in the Evo, chasing cones in an S2000, and logging seat-time in a kart. Now that’s what I call a New Year’s resolution! Here’s to twenty-ten!
The fastest most badass hamfisters can now be found under one roof!
A fellow New York slave was out on the track at Thunderbolt and caught me on camera.
A track day with the Porsche Club of America is like attending a Miss World contest. Even a number 8 that you couldn’t even dream of dating gets over looked because next in line there’s a number 10 or even an 11! And just like beauty queens some of them will just sit around looking pretty, some will prance around strutting their stuff, and some will pick up their fists and kick your ass!
Photo courtesy of Delaware PCA
Delaware PCA’s weekend track event came at a bargain price. I needed at least one more event before the season unded. With six sessions at 25 minutes each it wasn’t a bad way to spend the weekend. What I should’ve done was sign up for Friday where I could’ve gotten four hours of track time in addition to Saturday and Sunday!
This was my first time at Thunderbolt. I had done some homework by looking at in-car videos and figured out the basic lines. Getting into the groove even after only 6 weeks since my last track event took some time. The first session was used to get a feel for the tires, suspension, brakes, and driver. The morning was a bit rushed between unpacking, registration, tech and swapping pads. At VIR I completely burned through my front Ferodo DS2500 brake pads. So I opted to go with a track-only Hawk HT-10 all round. The difference was instantly noticeable. The DS2500 is an entry level track pad that can be street driven. The HT-10s won’t do much cold, but once warmed up they bite like a rabid pitbull and redicule the adhesive force of the Dunlop Direzzas. Don’t stomp on the brakes! Noted.
In my rush to get onto grid I had completely forgotten to bump up the suspension compression. As a result the car was wallowing everywhere and felt very unstable. I did not have the confidence to push hard and was soon beginning to question myself. Learning the lines and being smooth are the most important things the first time out on a track. If you swing a golf club or shoot a basketball the wrong way in the beginning, correcting that will require hours of de-programming those wrong actions. I wanted to make the best use of the little track time we were getting.
Photo courtesy of Delaware PCA
Our 2nd session was cut short due to an oil spill on the track. instead of going out for just a few minutes I ran shotgun in an instructor’s Lotus Elise and picked up his line. The Elise and the Evo are completely different beasts. Think gymnist versus line backer. The Elise on Hoosiers can flat foot most of the fast corners that the Evo on street tires has to either lift or requires a tap of the brake. Where the Evo comes out on top is on corner exit and the decreasing radius right-hander. Apex, track out, load on the power with a little steering lock, and four-wheel-drift! Closing in on cars has never been so easy.
At the third session with the suspension compression set and and better idea of what to do I set out for some hot laps. The car felt better composed and I was able to push harder and use all of the track at speed. As the Brits say, I was driving the car in anger! Highlight of the day: passing a Lamborghini Superleggera. Scary moment of the day: watching a Carrera 4S get sideways 10 feet in front of me, and then my getting sideways trying to avoid him!
Photo courtesy of Delaware PCA
Another point worth mentioning about PCA are point-bys. With 6 passing zones and good awareness of the cars behind, very rarely did we have trains forming. Of course as always there are a few notable exceptions where the stubborn driver refuses to accept that the driver behind is faster and ends up holding up things for a few laps.
Back at my shelter for the night in Philly I looked through the data and found a laptime of 1:37.50 on the third session. Decent, but I had clocked a modded Evo on R-comps doing low 1:30s, so I new I needed to get out at least a few more seconds out of the Direzzas. I was also running the SCCA STU legal tune on the ECU which doesn’t alter boost. From the factory the Evo runs about 1.3bar of boost, however once oil temp head above 90C the boost drops down to around 1.1bar. This means that when I do crank up the boost on Sunday, I’ll get the factory values and nothing more… bummer.
Sunday. I finally pull out the party shoes, a set of worn down 235/40/17 Toyo R888s. These tires have been beaten on more than a dead horse, but they should still provide better grip than the Dunlops. Shoes on, boost cranked up I head back onto the track. Immediately I’m able to carry extra speed into the corners and get on the gas earlier. Stomping on the brake, still can’t do that, but I can definitely brake later. After a warm up lap I start pushing harder and the Toyos seem to comply well. Up ahead I see a modified Mini sporting a sticky set of Hoosiers. I start catching up to him but as I continue pushing I notice that my breaking points were back to when I was on the Dunlops and I can’t carry too much speed through the faster corners, but at corner exit I still have plenty of grip. What’s going on here? It seems that under braking and track out the R888s can still hold their ground, but under fast cornering they aren’t that much better than the Dunlops. My only theory is that the cornering forces of the fat Evo is too much for the thin 235mm tire. The Mini driver is too busy to check his mirrors so instead of wasting time behind him I decide to come into the pits and check my pressures. Fronts are a little high so I dropped them back down to 38psi and head back out for a few more laps. No difference, these R888s are done!
Session three was pretty much empty with about half the people already heading home. Less people on the track meant a lot of open road, so I managed to push a bit harder. Tracking out onto the rumble strips at 100mph and counter steering is a little nerve racking. But if I’m ever going to be competitive at Time Trials I’m going to have to get comfortable with doing just that. I need to remain calm if I push it too far or if I make a mistake at high speed so I can regain my composure and not blow the entire lap. Fear is what keeps us from making stupid mistakes and keeps us alive. Fear is also what governs our limits. Take turn 3 for example, a fast 5th gear right hander. As I approach the turn I lift off the gas and turn in. I feel body of the car roll to the outside and settle. The outside tires take the load as I approach the apex. Just after the apex I begin feeding the gas, too soon and I will need to lift again to prevent going off the track, too late and I won’t use up all of the track. Something tells me that done properly, I would only need to breathe off the gas instead of completely lifting. What’s keeping me from doing that? My survival instincts.
There are two ways to overcome this: stick to the plan and hope for the best, or have confidence in my gear and myself that this can be done. The first method is what daredevils use, and will be the quickest way to find out if it can be done. Unfortunately this comes with a high probability of doing damage to the car, or worse, to the driver. The second method requires more time and experience. This is exactly what HPDEs are meant to do. Build confidence and acquire the skill at the pace the driver is comfortable with. Even so, sometimes you just need to tell yourself that a corner can be taken faster and make yourself step out of the comfort zone. Sometimes you just need to hamfist that shit!
Back at home I review the data from the two days. On Sunday with a little extra boost and the R888s I managed a fastest lap of 1:35.30. A healthy two seconds quicker than Saturday. Satisfactory, but not really. The speed vs. distance graph confirms that on some corners the R888s are considerably quicker than the Dunlops, but on others I’m carrying about the same speed. I need to unlock my mind!
Alright… so I can’t really say that the competition was stiff. It rained hard, and only a small number of brave cone-chasers showed up – people that have nothing better to do on a wet Sunday. Fresh from his dominance at the Pro-Solo and Solo Nationals my buddy Jake Namer did show up minus his trusty steed – the Hamfist Racing STU Subaru STi. Instead he planned on spending some quality time with his ASP ‘Slippery Seven’ RX7. Fellow Mazda driver Grant Winston failed to attend after being pulled over at 8am for towing a trailer on the parkway. Tell me this officer, can a pint sized Miata really tow a trailer?
We both packed lightly and didn’t bring our usual AutoX paraphernalia . It wasn’t a question of keeping things dry, it was a question of how many things were going to get wet. Cars cleaned out, registered, tech’d, a quick run to the deli for some hot breakfast, wait, walk the course, miss the skid pad, wait, drivers meeting, wait, and we finally start.
Heat one saw FTD being shuffled between the RWD ‘Slippery 7′, a RWD S2000, a FWD Mazdaspeed 3, and an AWD Audi TT. With times dropping down into the 64s I started my runs in heat two. My first run was a ridiculously retarded 67.xx. With my brain kicked firmly into gear I managed a 62.xx on my second attempt and managed to drop it steadily down to 61.6x by the end of the heat. Heat three saw a continuation of the battle from heat one with the ‘La Rosa 7′ mixing it up once the course was dry enough for the Hoosiers to have some grip. With the rain drying up in heat four I decided to go balls out and try for a sub 60s run. Unfortunately due to a trail of oil and/or coolant left by another competitor I found myself doing Scandinavian flicks instead of dropping times. Eventually I retired with a 61.4s. Good enough for a class win, FTD, and PAX.
AutoX in the rain really requires quick but light hands. You don’t want to muscle your way through the course. Instead you have to tune your body to constantly feel the level of grip. The key is being relaxed. A Best Motoring driver once rode with Tommi Makinen and was amazed at how often he would try and asses the level of grip while driving on loose surfaces.
Much like how street tires in comparison to sticky r-comps will force a driver to get rid of bad habits, a wet event really forces the driver to be patient, tight on the cones, and smooth. Become fast in the wet, and you’re guaranteed to become fast in the dry. So the next time you’re debating on staying in bed on a cold and wet weekend, don’t. Get out there and go chase some cones!
Quote of the day:
“And taking 1st place in Street Tire class is someone named Char Perera…..?”
Photo courtesy of Jake Namer