Here's a little fun from both of us with some sideways action.
Here's a side by side run
Here is Jason's fastest run
Here is Stephen's fastest run
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
Porsche Club fun
With the car almost set up, I was really looking forward to this event to play with the car again. I was awake from 2AM and couldn't go back to sleep!
In the morning, the event crew announced that todays course was a technical one and that there would be a course walk - I think this is the first time that I've seen them recommend a course walk - in addition to the parade laps. When we walked it, it didn't look too technical, a few obvious traps. However, after looking at the results and the big spread in times, I've come to the conclusion that it was indeed a technical course.
We started with the practice tires that we already knew were going away. The times were decent, but I wasn't happy with the handling. The car was understeering through the fast sweepers and suggested that we switch the tires to the good ones before Jason does his practice runs. As it turns out, we didn't have a choice. On my last run out, I almost lost the back end coming into the finish and by the time I got the car straight, I had run out of room to stop and locked up the front. That ended up cording one of the tires - so we switched the tires.
Jason went out and was putting in some good times, and by the afternoon practice, was within 1/10 or 2/10 of my best time for the day, so he was doing well. I had run a 61.0xx in practice and figured that there was a 60.xxx in there somewhere for me. Then during lunch, we sat with David Palmquist, the course designer and found out that the tough kink at the very end before the finish (where I wiped out in the morning) had changed it so that it was more open. Now I knew that I'd definitely be able to run in the 60's.
I was scheduled to work the first timed group and then run dead last. Since I had been up the night before, I was very tired by now and felt like I was almost falling asleep standing up. I wasn't in the mood to waste a lot of time because I was tired and there wasn't time to take a nap.
I prepped the car and went out to take my first run. I come back with a 60.1xx + 1. Very nice time and knew that there was more time out there. I took my second run and ran a 59.3 + 1 with both cones in the slalom. I loved the time, but couldn't believe that I had managed to shave off another 1+ seconds from my practice time. So I decided to back off a little bit in the slalom to keep that section clean and do everything else the same and see what I would get.
My last run was almost over before it started. The tail was loose on the way out and I almost rotated right into a cone, but just missed it. I kept going and made it through the slalom clean. I decided not to shift to 3rd in a spot that I had been shifting all day and just hold it a little longer. It paid off in a wonderful way. I was able to hold my line and not get squirrely, allowing me to stay close to the line I wanted. I came in with a clean 59.4, so I was very very tired and very happy at the end of the day. The final results showed me in first and Jason second with the rest of the class at least another second behind Jason. Wow!
In the morning, the event crew announced that todays course was a technical one and that there would be a course walk - I think this is the first time that I've seen them recommend a course walk - in addition to the parade laps. When we walked it, it didn't look too technical, a few obvious traps. However, after looking at the results and the big spread in times, I've come to the conclusion that it was indeed a technical course.
We started with the practice tires that we already knew were going away. The times were decent, but I wasn't happy with the handling. The car was understeering through the fast sweepers and suggested that we switch the tires to the good ones before Jason does his practice runs. As it turns out, we didn't have a choice. On my last run out, I almost lost the back end coming into the finish and by the time I got the car straight, I had run out of room to stop and locked up the front. That ended up cording one of the tires - so we switched the tires.
Jason went out and was putting in some good times, and by the afternoon practice, was within 1/10 or 2/10 of my best time for the day, so he was doing well. I had run a 61.0xx in practice and figured that there was a 60.xxx in there somewhere for me. Then during lunch, we sat with David Palmquist, the course designer and found out that the tough kink at the very end before the finish (where I wiped out in the morning) had changed it so that it was more open. Now I knew that I'd definitely be able to run in the 60's.
I was scheduled to work the first timed group and then run dead last. Since I had been up the night before, I was very tired by now and felt like I was almost falling asleep standing up. I wasn't in the mood to waste a lot of time because I was tired and there wasn't time to take a nap.
I prepped the car and went out to take my first run. I come back with a 60.1xx + 1. Very nice time and knew that there was more time out there. I took my second run and ran a 59.3 + 1 with both cones in the slalom. I loved the time, but couldn't believe that I had managed to shave off another 1+ seconds from my practice time. So I decided to back off a little bit in the slalom to keep that section clean and do everything else the same and see what I would get.
My last run was almost over before it started. The tail was loose on the way out and I almost rotated right into a cone, but just missed it. I kept going and made it through the slalom clean. I decided not to shift to 3rd in a spot that I had been shifting all day and just hold it a little longer. It paid off in a wonderful way. I was able to hold my line and not get squirrely, allowing me to stay close to the line I wanted. I came in with a clean 59.4, so I was very very tired and very happy at the end of the day. The final results showed me in first and Jason second with the rest of the class at least another second behind Jason. Wow!
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Awesome Sunday
Jason and I arrived bright and early on Sunday morning to walk the course. On Saturday, we had two separate courses, one on the left side and one on the right side. We were expecting that some connection would be made in the crossover to connect both courses. However, the course was substantially redesigned - into what I consider to be easily the most interesting and difficult course I've seen in SoCal since I've been here. Kudos to Mike Simanyi for a wonderful course.
I felt this course was difficult because of a number of things:
1. The length of the course - approximately 1 mile in length with lots of transitional elements and key apexes that had to be remembered.
2. The speed of the course - much faster in transitional elements than the majority of courses we see.
3. The number of slaloms. Given the size of the lots here, we don't typically see a lot of slaloms and here we had some that were absolutely flat out - at least in the Civic.
This was shown in the big spread in times with several experienced drivers DNFing all their runs. I think in our run group, of the first 10 runs, 4 were DNFs, 4 had cones and only 2 runs were clean.
It was a hot and long day. We didn't start our first run until around 5PM. Hard to remember the course after waiting all day. My first run was in the 76's with one cone. I was a little more than a second behind Steve O'Blenes and Jeff Barco, both driving Ken Motonishi's Civic. Both our Civics were on Falkens. I hit one cone on my second run and since I came to race rather than worry about points, I decide not to go easy just to get a clean run and end up dirty for all my runs. All cones were silly ones. Ekstrand and Whitehead were both on the new Bridgestone RE-01R's. If we just compare raw times, this is the first time I've managed to beat them straight up (of course I had to be clean for it to count). I wonder if the Bridgestones don't have as much of an advantage on such a grippy surface or on transitional stuff...
The car was running like a champ and I'm happy with the raw times, even if hitting cones negates the real time. Moe has done an awesome job on the engine. Now we need a higher redline so that we can run without shifting as much. We had to use 3rd gear 3 times on this course. We'll work on this aspect next.
The main disappointment was that the video wasn't working on what I consider to be the most interesting course to video. Oh well..
I felt this course was difficult because of a number of things:
1. The length of the course - approximately 1 mile in length with lots of transitional elements and key apexes that had to be remembered.
2. The speed of the course - much faster in transitional elements than the majority of courses we see.
3. The number of slaloms. Given the size of the lots here, we don't typically see a lot of slaloms and here we had some that were absolutely flat out - at least in the Civic.
This was shown in the big spread in times with several experienced drivers DNFing all their runs. I think in our run group, of the first 10 runs, 4 were DNFs, 4 had cones and only 2 runs were clean.
It was a hot and long day. We didn't start our first run until around 5PM. Hard to remember the course after waiting all day. My first run was in the 76's with one cone. I was a little more than a second behind Steve O'Blenes and Jeff Barco, both driving Ken Motonishi's Civic. Both our Civics were on Falkens. I hit one cone on my second run and since I came to race rather than worry about points, I decide not to go easy just to get a clean run and end up dirty for all my runs. All cones were silly ones. Ekstrand and Whitehead were both on the new Bridgestone RE-01R's. If we just compare raw times, this is the first time I've managed to beat them straight up (of course I had to be clean for it to count). I wonder if the Bridgestones don't have as much of an advantage on such a grippy surface or on transitional stuff...
The car was running like a champ and I'm happy with the raw times, even if hitting cones negates the real time. Moe has done an awesome job on the engine. Now we need a higher redline so that we can run without shifting as much. We had to use 3rd gear 3 times on this course. We'll work on this aspect next.
The main disappointment was that the video wasn't working on what I consider to be the most interesting course to video. Oh well..
Saturday, July 7, 2007
498 miles and counting
Moe wanted 500 miles on the engine before we attended the first race and was trying to put as many miles as possible on the engine prior to this practice event.
On Saturday morning, I stopped by to pick up the car from Moe's place and we drove to El Toro, about 20 minutes away. When we parked the car in El Toro, the trip meter was reading 498 miles - close enough to start racing.
Jason and I have been anticipating this event for the last week and it's finally here! A couple of people were impressed that Moe was able to do a full engine rebuild and be ready in 2 weeks. Max was announcing that our engine was rebuilt in 7 days every time one of us pulled up to the line - very funny if you were there.
Leslie Cohen showed up in her Civic and we were treated to a display of national caliber driving. She was beating up on the entire field - not just the Civics - big time. I had a chance to ride with her on the left course and see how well she drives. Wow! Now if only I can repeat what I saw...
The morning was uneventful, Jason and I did our runs on the right side and it was clear that everybody else had a raised rev limiter. We had to shift into 3 several times and the others only hit their limiter maybe once. We found out later that one of the Civics had the rev limit raised to a crazy 8900 rpm. It was nice to just go and drive and not worry about the car mechanically.
In the afternoon, Moe was satisfied with the engine and starting tweaking the car a little. He had noticed that the other Civics were running advanced timing, so we started playing with it too.
I liked the new timing and found that I was hitting the rev limiter earlier than I expected and there were a few places that I didn't shift because I wasn't expecting to need third. On subsequent runs, I did shift into third.
Both Jason and I liked the way the car was performing.
At the end of the practice, we went to hang out at Max's before dinner. We had a chance to review the video from the practice event. When Moe heard me on the rev limiter, one of his comments as he jumped out of his seat was "Get off the rev limiter" and "shit dude". You had to be there.
Moe was also telling everybody how I put a wheel off the road on the shakedown run earlier in the week and that I scared him. I wasn't familiar with the road, so it was a light (at least to me - no tire squealing on all season 165 width tires), no risk drive through the Canyons, so he picked up the nickname of 4/10ths. We'll have to see if the nickname will stick over time.
Great day. Now on to the real event on Sunday.
On Saturday morning, I stopped by to pick up the car from Moe's place and we drove to El Toro, about 20 minutes away. When we parked the car in El Toro, the trip meter was reading 498 miles - close enough to start racing.
Jason and I have been anticipating this event for the last week and it's finally here! A couple of people were impressed that Moe was able to do a full engine rebuild and be ready in 2 weeks. Max was announcing that our engine was rebuilt in 7 days every time one of us pulled up to the line - very funny if you were there.
Leslie Cohen showed up in her Civic and we were treated to a display of national caliber driving. She was beating up on the entire field - not just the Civics - big time. I had a chance to ride with her on the left course and see how well she drives. Wow! Now if only I can repeat what I saw...
The morning was uneventful, Jason and I did our runs on the right side and it was clear that everybody else had a raised rev limiter. We had to shift into 3 several times and the others only hit their limiter maybe once. We found out later that one of the Civics had the rev limit raised to a crazy 8900 rpm. It was nice to just go and drive and not worry about the car mechanically.
In the afternoon, Moe was satisfied with the engine and starting tweaking the car a little. He had noticed that the other Civics were running advanced timing, so we started playing with it too.
I liked the new timing and found that I was hitting the rev limiter earlier than I expected and there were a few places that I didn't shift because I wasn't expecting to need third. On subsequent runs, I did shift into third.
Both Jason and I liked the way the car was performing.
At the end of the practice, we went to hang out at Max's before dinner. We had a chance to review the video from the practice event. When Moe heard me on the rev limiter, one of his comments as he jumped out of his seat was "Get off the rev limiter" and "shit dude". You had to be there.
Moe was also telling everybody how I put a wheel off the road on the shakedown run earlier in the week and that I scared him. I wasn't familiar with the road, so it was a light (at least to me - no tire squealing on all season 165 width tires), no risk drive through the Canyons, so he picked up the nickname of 4/10ths. We'll have to see if the nickname will stick over time.
Great day. Now on to the real event on Sunday.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Vroom vroom, what a beautiful sound.
I stopped by to see Moe and the Civic today after the engine rebuild. The engine had 250 miles on it and we took the car out for a little drive to put some miles on the engine.
Before Moe was ready to go out, I took the car around the block. Since I had never driven a 0 mile engine like this before, I wasn't sure how hard to drive the car, so I took it nice and easy.
When Moe was ready, we left and he drove. He had no problem revving the car up through the gears, all the way to the rev limiter and the car both sounded nice and pulled nice and (from the passenger seat) hard. The new 'seafood' green air intake makes a funny whistle that is noticeable on the street, but not really noticeable when driving hard.
The brakes didn't feel right, some times the pedal would go down low and other times it would feel firm, so when we got back, Moe bled the brakes again and found air in the left rear brake line - the one that leaked a little at the last event. After that, it felt nice and firm.
This car is such a blast to drive. Both Jason and I are super excited to get out there and play again. If you are in the SoCal area and need a good engine guy, Moe's the man (and he's worth the drive)! He has been studying the rule book so hard to make sure that he keeps us legal. This is going to be so much fun. No more excuses for Jason and myself. Now we really have to drive!
Now, if you decide to give Moe the work, we have no problem with that, just keep in mind that we will have priority ;-)
Before Moe was ready to go out, I took the car around the block. Since I had never driven a 0 mile engine like this before, I wasn't sure how hard to drive the car, so I took it nice and easy.
When Moe was ready, we left and he drove. He had no problem revving the car up through the gears, all the way to the rev limiter and the car both sounded nice and pulled nice and (from the passenger seat) hard. The new 'seafood' green air intake makes a funny whistle that is noticeable on the street, but not really noticeable when driving hard.
The brakes didn't feel right, some times the pedal would go down low and other times it would feel firm, so when we got back, Moe bled the brakes again and found air in the left rear brake line - the one that leaked a little at the last event. After that, it felt nice and firm.
This car is such a blast to drive. Both Jason and I are super excited to get out there and play again. If you are in the SoCal area and need a good engine guy, Moe's the man (and he's worth the drive)! He has been studying the rule book so hard to make sure that he keeps us legal. This is going to be so much fun. No more excuses for Jason and myself. Now we really have to drive!
Now, if you decide to give Moe the work, we have no problem with that, just keep in mind that we will have priority ;-)
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
..and on the 7th day Hyper16valvE said they were DONE!!!
So sunday night 9:37 pm I get a call from Moe having me listen to something over the phone...I was like I cant hear it? But it sounds like a motor...he say YUP that your motor, in the car running. WOW!!!!
So in 7 days Moe@Hyper16valvE has been able to bring our SCP STS CIVIC a new life, so clear the calanders we are going racing this weekend.
The new zero milage for this motor is 235625 miles.
Its funny to listen to Moe talk these days, SCCA rule book this SCCA rule book that, or "co'mon man you know that not legal". He did agree that this was one of his unique builds but still one of his most fun. But man did he make a beautiful motors that I have ever seen, and his attention to detail is also amazing.
Her are some pics of our new "hamster"
Yes its the STOCK D16A6...=)
Also some new paint on the bumper and a new aero piece there on the bottom of the bumper.
Here are some on the replaced parts with part numbers to match
Old Main Bearing from the Tranny
Old Oil Pump, that how dirty the motor used to be
Misc Internal
So in 7 days Moe@Hyper16valvE has been able to bring our SCP STS CIVIC a new life, so clear the calanders we are going racing this weekend.
The new zero milage for this motor is 235625 miles.
Its funny to listen to Moe talk these days, SCCA rule book this SCCA rule book that, or "co'mon man you know that not legal". He did agree that this was one of his unique builds but still one of his most fun. But man did he make a beautiful motors that I have ever seen, and his attention to detail is also amazing.
Her are some pics of our new "hamster"
Yes its the STOCK D16A6...=)
Also some new paint on the bumper and a new aero piece there on the bottom of the bumper.
Here are some on the replaced parts with part numbers to match
Old Main Bearing from the Tranny
Old Oil Pump, that how dirty the motor used to be
Misc Internal
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