Project Trackday

A few more items off the checklist and a first chance to test out the new shocks this weekend.  Changed the diff oil with some Mobil1 75W90 GL5 diff fluid ($7) and flushed the brake system.  Fresh ATE Super Blue (extra inventory from 2009) in to get ready for the trackday in less than 1 month.

Sunday was IndySCCA’s first solo event of the year, starting out with a ‘fun event’ (i.e. no points awarded) at 16th Street/Bush Stadium in Indianapolis.  Was extra cautious in the first run because I did not know what to expect, but the car felt quite well balanced right off the bat (35psi front, 36psi rear with all shocks set to full stiff), just some minor oversteer.  Turned the rear shocks back a half turn and the car settled to be very nice to drive.  For the first time today I also ran in the STS class although the car still needs a lot of work in order to be competitive in the class.  Beats not having anyone to run against at least.

…and of course, here’s the video of the final run (now available in 720p HD!).  Clocked in at 0:40.505, which put me in 2nd place for STS:

As I am keeping track of event entry costs, this one is the first of the season and costs $20.

I think I’ve finally found a good setup on the tire pressures for the Azenis.  Started out running 32psi all around on a damp track but was getting a LOT of understeer + some excessive tire rolling onto the sidewalls.  For the remaining runs I bumped the pressures up a bit, and ran the staggered pressure setup of +1psi in the rears to counteract the understeer, and settled on 33psi front, 34psi rear.  This resulted in very neutral handling and exactly what I was looking for.

As for results for the day..  Finally had another car in the E-Stock class to go up against (a 2007 Honda Civic Si, which I now know was misclassed and should have been running in GS).  With a damp and drying track it was definitely difficult to account for the level of grip changing for each run, however I managed to win the ES class again, and on the way also set the fastest novice PAX time of the day.  Of course the weather had a lot to do with it (earlier run groups ran in wetter conditions), but I’m happy with setting a 43.xxx second time as my goal was to break 45s.

Double trophy day, and a good baseline for setup.  I’ll need to work on some maintenance before the next event (valve cover gasket replacement), and then next time out I need to focus more on improving my driving.

Early runs were hampered by overinflated tires

Got to test out the new tires today at the IndySCCA Auto-X in Indianapolis, however the day did not go without its problems.  With a strict time constraint on the location we were only given 4 runs each, and I wasted 3 runs because it turns out the tire pressure gauge I was using was reading pressures 8psi too low (i.e. 44psi showed as 36psi on the gauge!).  So for 3 runs I was running pressures in the low/mid 40s (psi) front and rear, resulting in quite a significant loss of grip.  Even with the tire pressures way off the summer tires offer a significant improvement on grip levels and response.

Final run, tire pressures set to at least the right ballpark

On the final run I borrowed an accurate pressure gauge, set the pressures to 35psi front, 36psi rear and went for it, basically not really having any baseline setting except previous auto-x where I have had more luck running slightly lower front pressures (albeit on different tires).  The car suffered from some oversteer on the final run, however I was still able to shave over a full second off the time from run #3.  Looks like I need to invest in a better tire gauge…  Best run today:  32.871.  With a few more runs and some tweaking of the tire pressures I believe I could have cracked into the 31 second range.

Once again there were no other E-Stock cars running, so I ended up on the day with the trophy for the ES class.  Hopefully more to come with some competition next time.

My first trophy (considering I didn't claim the trophy at the last event)

Thanks to Justin for grabbing pics of the car in motion.  Hopefully you’ll run your WRX next time around!

Edit:  Instead of posting a track map I found a video posted from a E46 M3 driver on his run:  http://vimeo.com/6143126

Thanks to Rick Neuenschwander for the pic!

Another weekend, another event…  I was the only E Stock class car entered in the event, so there wasn’t anything to directly compare times against.  I ran out of time to tweak the tire pressures exactly as I wanted, but the balance felt pretty good after the first 2 runs so I decided to just stick with the settings for the rest of the day:  32psi in the fronts, and 34psi in the rears.

DNF’d the first run because I missed a cone (should have walked the course one more time!).  Best run of the day was a 57.7, though I did make mistakes.  With a few more runs I think I could have broken into the low 56s, unfortunately with over 100 cars entered in the event we were limited to only 5 runs each.

This was also the first opportunity to test out the CG-Lock seat belt locks that I had installed last week.  Basically it locks the lap portion of the seat belt, preventing the torso from moving around as much in the seat during cornering.  Overall I’d say the product works as advertised and definitely helps keep me in place so I don’t have to hold on in the corners.  Nowhere near as good as a proper racing harness, but much better than stock.

Next event is in Indianapolis on the 16th, and I’ll see if I can get summer tires on the car before then.  With the tire availability severely limited for the 14″ rim sizes I’ll probably go with the Falken Azenis RT-615 195/60R14, though ideally (if the budget wasn’t a concern) I’d like to get some 15×7 rims and run a Bridgestone RE-11 on 205/50R15.

Forgot to bring a camera so I’ll edit the post with pictures when I find them…

Event times have been posted.

Edit:  Here’s a video posted from a E46 M3 driver on his run:  http://vimeo.com/5912368

Saturday’s Auto-x was a pretty fun and productive day. Got there nice and early at around 8am to get to try and meet some people and get plenty of time to walk the course. Anyway I wasn’t exactly sure what class to run in so I pre-registered assuming they’d throw me in the STS class if they really wanted to be strict about the rules (High flow intake + K&N filter). At registration the guy told me I should run E Stock and let me know he’d change my class in the computer before the event started. At the drivers meeting I looked at the roster and they had forgotten, so I ran under STS (with guys that are allowed pretty much any suspension mods that they want). Who cares… I’m not racing anyone except myself on my first auto-x. Since there were only about 40 entrants we all got 7 runs each during the day, definitely not a bad way to spend $30…

Walked the course a few times, took some notes on driving lines and braking points. Here’s my attempt at drawing out the track from a google maps image of the location:

Course layout

Run 1:
Started out with relatively high tire pressures (FL/FR/RL/RR: 38/38/38/38) to see how the car felt. First run ever, and there was a LOT of understeer on the all seasons, but I also had a pretty bad launch and was being quite conservative. Laptime: 59.417s

Run 2:
(FL/FR/RL/RR: 37/37/38/38) Still getting comfortable with the car’s capabilities, but the understeer is quite a bit less this time around. Tail end tried to step out during braking at the end of the long sweeper but was pretty easy to catch. Laptime: 56.493s

Run 3:
Checking the chalk marks on the tires I noticed that I needed to lower the pressures further (not even close to the wear line). (FL/FR/RL/RR: 36/36/36/36). The understeer came back again, nearly as bad as the first run. Laptime: 54.950s

Run 4:
(FL/FR/RL/RR: 35/35/36/36). Tweaked the pressures again to get rid of the understeer. Got an experienced auto-xer to ride along in my car to give me some pointers (driver of  a ’91 Miata in STS class on Toyo R-1Rs). Made a mistake and almost missed the 1st slalom so lost a bit of time… He said I wasn’t doing too bad, but gave me some good pointers.  The car felt really nice and balanced with these pressures so I ran this setup the remainder of the day. Laptime: 55.011s

At this point I figured OK I’d be satisfied if I could manage a 54.5xx or less for the first outing…

Run 5:
I had been running pretty much all the runs in 2nd gear (except launch) and wanted to try to see if downshifting would help me get out of the slow corners a bit faster. Didn’t work.. Laptime: 55.228s

Run 6:
Went back to staying in 2nd, focused more on braking after the sweeper and entry into the 2nd last turn. Car felt great though I went in too hot into the 2nd slalom and lost a lot of time in there. Laptime: 53.646s. Completely stoked because I met my own target for the day.

Run 7:
Just focusing on mistakes I made in run 6, trying to get a cleaner run. Laptime: 52.895s. Still improving.. I was left wishing I had a few more runs to improve, because I know I could have gone quicker.

Overall I’m happy with the result considering its a first time out.  Unfortunately there was only one other STS and one E Stock running so there was not much information for me to gauge whether my time was good or not.  The E Stock ran 59.585 in a ’97 Miata, and the STS ’91 Miata ran a 46.564.

I forgot to take a camera with me, not that it would have mattered.  I did notice a photog there so hopefully I can find some pictures of the car on course.  Now eagerly anticipating next weekend’s event at Putnam Park…

Edit:  Now with some pictures…