Rumor has it that Ken will show up in his Civic to run STS also - and he does show up. It looks like it is going to be a fun showdown. Our car is ready and Ken gets ready by adding extra plates in to his super trap exhaust to quieten his car down for the sound restriction at Qualcomm.
Jason takes his first run and comes back with a decent time. No surprises. I take my first run and finish the run with a decent time and while in grid getting Jason ready, the first surprise comes in - I'm over the sound limit. Now the mad scramble starts. Jason adjusts the exhaust tip to point away from the sound meter. He takes his second run and is fine. I take my second run and finish about 4/10 behind Ken, so I think the hunt is on. But while we are in grid, we find out that I'm over the sound limit again. It's do or die now. We pull out of line and Jason puts on the 'quiet' exhaust that we use for the street.
Jason goes out for his third run. His third run comes in around a second slower and I'm thinking something is wrong. After talking to him, it's the exhaust. It appears to be that much slower in terms of performance. I take my third run and I'm quite a bit slower as well - though no sound problems - probably because I lose the back end right before the sound meter and DNF there, so I wasn't on the throttle when I passed the microphone. Good for sound, not so good for trying to chase Ken.
Jason finishes his fourth run uneventfully. Unfortunately, running the 'quiet' exhaust appears to have taken us out of contention. I take my fourth run and manage to go a little faster with the quiet exhaust, but nothing close to the normal time. The annoying and amusing thing is that the report comes back that I'm over the sound limit again. All my run times are disqualified.
It's frustrating. The car has been legal in this configuration at San Diego all year without any problems with sound. Today, we had lots of trouble. When we talked to other competitors, it appears that a lot of drivers also had a problem. Cars that have run here without issue for 4 years with no changes, failed today.
The microphone was placed on a section where we were flat out at the top of second. Other times, it was accelerating, but not at the top of second. It also sounds like the sound may be caused by the intake, not the exhaust. Grrr!
Here are a few photos from the days event. Thanks to GGCADC for the great shots!!!
Lastly LOUD Video from the event...Camera courtesy of Cam-FX.com
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