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.
A quick summary of the first season: The goal was to buy and prep a car for the track in under $4000, and I’m glad to say mission accomplished. The final total was $3,822! To top it off I received the 1st place trophy in E-Stock from the Indianapolis Region SCCA:
Now to look forward to 2010!
For this second season (2010) I’m setting myself a budget of $1,000 for upgrades/maintenance and repairs. The shocks will need to be replaced as the front right was starting to show signs of leakage. I am also going to need a new set of tires and brakes at some point during the season, and if there are sufficient funds remaining I would like to do something about the large body roll on the track (sway bar or stiffer springs). I will also be keeping track of entry fees, membership fees and registration fees to events this season to give an idea of how much it costs to run a car per season.
Just a recap of what has been going on since the last post of 2009… The broken rear finish panel was replaced and the broken taillight was replaced with a set of OEM taillights (never did like the Altezzas anyways). A generous friend (Tom) provided some garage space to stow the car away in winter and it has been sitting there since late November. Once the weather warms up a bit the car will be brought back out and the frantic work on it will begin. New parts to go on and fresh fluids (brakes, engine, etc) will be the first things on the menu. The condition of the tires will be determined at the first auto-x of the season, though the plan is to upgrade to the Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Spec which is now offered in a 14″ size for the first time.
Just a quick progress report since the last post. At the Grissom AFB auto-x the ambient temps were down in the low-mid 50s and although the car felt fine I did notice that there was an overall lack of grip. Also the previous 33/34psi setup did not work very well (possibly due to the high grip on the surface), causing some rolling beyond the wear bars on the tires. I upped the pressure to 35/36psi and it prevented roll on the sidewalls. There may be some issues with running these tires in such cold conditions without any chance to warm them up, hopefully at a trackday this won’t be as much of a problem.
Had some nice weather this weekend so I took the opportunity to finish off some of the work I had planned on doing to the car. This included a valve cover gasket change and an oil change. Used some Mobil1 5W-30 as it has worked well up till now, and went with a longer M1-110 oil filter (stock is M1-108) as per recommendations from a lot of the Miata forums community. Unfortunately I spaced out a bit and completely forgot to take a camera for pics. The only thing left to do is schedule an alignment job and get the pre-inspection sheet filled out before the trackday. Can’t wait, but hope that it’s a bit warmer than 50F out there…
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.
It’s been almost a month of downtime between events, but things will be picking up again this weekend starting with another IndySCCA points event auto-x in Indianapolis, followed by another one at Grissom AFB during the first week of October. I am also now registered for my first trackday, the KYPCA Pumpkin Run DE at Putnam Park, which is to take place on 10/24-10/25.
Putnam park track map
The goal this weekend is to get a good baseline on tire pressures and to work on driving technique. During the break I rotated the tires (RL -> FL, RR -> FR and vice versa), checked the brake pads and also lubed up the brake caliper pins with some high temp grease.
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
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…
