D-Rob

Today I decided to try my luck at competitive 1,600ft, 60mph roll racing at Pocono Raceway, at the "Roll Out to Reach Out" charity event organized by Slipstream Racing Events.

For the most part, I just wanted to be like Myles.

Anyway, the car is the same one I have been working with since I was 15 in 2002, and hasn't had the drivetrain removed since the K20 swap was done in 2008. For those that are unfamiliar with the car's current iteration, it is as follows:

Stock-internal K20A2
Stock head bolts (head has never been off)
SuperTech valve springs / retainers
Full-Race top-mount turbo manifold
Garrett T3/T67 H.O.
AFI intake manifold
ID2000's
Hondata K-Pro
Stock Base RSX five-speed transmission (open diff and all)
Competition Clutch twin disc
Stock RSX-S axles

The engine has been over 400whp since 2009, over 500whp since 2010, over 600whp since 2011, and it's most recent dyno session (when I felt like squeezing it on my own dyno between customer cars) was 697whp @ 28psi back in April 2013. It has been running around at 30-32psi for about 9 months, and I just haven't felt like blowing fourth gear apart on my DynaPack since then. The car has gone 11.0 @ 143mph with my poor driving, also, at a race weight of 2,760lbs with driver.

The weekend began on Thursday evening, when the weather in Central PA was gorgeous; up until the very moment I started loading the car onto the trailer. After barely making 20 miles of headway in an hour from a torrential downpour of rain hindering my first towing experience ever, the skies finally cleared enough to make the trek up the mountains to the famous Pocono Raceway. The trip to Pocono was long and arduous, and to top it all off, the fast food employees in the town outside the track didn't seem to enthused to serve me a cheeseburger at 9:30pm.

After a night of anticipation and poor rest at the Comfort Inn and Suites, we made our way to the track. If anyone has ever been to a NASCAR event at Pocono, you know the true beauty of the facility. Lush greenery exists as far as the eye can see, and the contrast of the horizon lined with puffy clouds gives one a vast perspective from anywhere in the infield.

The event itself was arranged to benefit the late Paul Walker's "Reach Out WorldWide" charity, and was designed to be very similar in layout to the famous TX2K roll race, in which two competitors would circle the track, match speed out of one of the banked turns, then proceed with ample time to pace one another to the testing portion on the straight. At the last minute this morning, Pocono officials informed us that we would no longer be allowed access to Pocono's turn 3 (the track is a tri-oval), so in order to race, we would have to stage on the grid, then drive to the end of turn 3, stop, turn around, and somehow get to 60mph (the "recommended" start speed) while matching pace with the competitor. Unfortunately, this was a bit harder to achieve than anyone could have guessed, so it resulted in a day of lots of mis-matched starts, or incorrect entry speeds to the timed area.

I fell victim to this most of the day, with entering the timed area in third gear at 40-45mph, about 2,000rpm before the car makes any power, and also had to fight the urge to let out of the throttle early (as I am not accustomed to staying on the throttle into fifth gear!) By my fourth run of the day, I finally got a decent 60mph-starting run in, and clicked off a 163mph pass against a 162mph Supra. Immediately following the race, the owner of the Supra (35psi, 6766, E85) came up to me and said "You passed me pretty fast there at the end! What is this thing?"

Feeling accomplished, I only made one more pass, which ended up going 158mph, then decided to pack it up and head home. The stock K20 made it through a day of racing, the stock transmission didn't puke its guts out, and I went 10mph faster than I thought it would ever do at this event: I can't ask for much more. I had so much fun at this event, I cannot even express it.

Some things I learned today:
- The Cayenne Turbo tows VERY well, once the driver stops being a *****.
- The K20 engine is the ****.
- Honda's have a hard time getting races in with other cars at these events (no one wanted to race me; I assume they either didn't want to feel the stigma of losing to an economy car, or they thought a Honda would blow apart on track, dirtying up their Lamborghini/Porsche/etc)
- Once you click off a 160+mph pass in a Honda (or any FWD car) at these events, people start paying more attention
- I have a great group of supporters, and it means so much to me/my business to have them all around and share this weekend's experiences with me

Oh, here's some pictures.













And to finish this thread off, I present my wife, sleeping in the car.


Thanks for reading my ramblings!

boostlsveg

iTrader: (12)

Good job Derek! (This is mike btw) glad to c she made it back in one piece! Wish I could've gone! :/

Mark Morris

Cool! Good to see Alex's car behind you in the garage area.

neonkid

my buddy kept sending me pictures of the white hatch and the coupe. i love that coupe! he had the tt gallardo up there i was pissed i didnt make it now!

$MIKE$

iTrader: (13)

Cayenne turbo wow deep pockets big spender

I love to see Hondas out there with the high dollar sports cars like Porsches making the owners ashamed they just got smoked by a cheap gas saver.

92frostwhtdb2

What tires and size were you running

SwappedTURBOegg

im deep in the roll race street scene and had my **** pushed back by both and only 2 UGR lambos in michigan one of witch won second place at tx2k. its hard to make our fwd cars go from a roll im still doing it on slicks and have a good friend that hooks almost aswell with slightly less power or "normal" tiers. man i really wish i could hook all 850 on the street...but how do you like those tiers? how much power per gear? love the car mine is a black ek koop too lol ****** awesoem man got some vids? cant wait to see that.

everyone hates here cause roll racing is "gay" but really its way more friendly scene round here than dig street racing for money and more problems. great job man VIDEOS PLEASE lol

D-Rob

I made the charge piping for Alex's GTI! The car ran real well. He clicked off a 160.8mph pass at the end of the day after being plagued with shifter problems earlier in the day.

225/50/16 Toyo R888's

I love the R888's. I can throw about 620-ish HP to them in third, and full power (700-ish) at them in fourth and fifth with no problem. I tried giving third 650-ish on my 163mph pass, but it spun a little, as you can see on this datalog screen shot.



The elevation at Pocono Raceway also made a boost pressure difference. At almost 1,900ft, the solenoid settings I use here in Carlisle (at 400ft) that make 31-32psi only made 28psi there. Essentially maxing the solenoid out (at 90%) only let the car make right under 31psi at Pocono.

Slipstream Racing Events is holding another event there in October, so I will be doing some aerodynamic improvements and would LOVE to see 170mph+. The drivetrain will remain unchanged, provided this stock engine keeps on truckin'.

As far as videos go, all the GoPro's I had with me were either dead or didn't want to cooperate, so all I have are cell phone videos people recorded and posted to Facebook. I will see if I can dig some up!

cbustuner

What suspension setup do you run?

extremeracer

Mighty impressive from the stock K20

D-Rob

This video shows some of my passes, which I spent most of the day figuring out exactly what I needed to do.

sleepinonacreeper

Good job! That looks like a lot of fun! Your logs make me want those tires for on the street.

SwappedTURBOegg

yeah i need some of those tires im threw my second set of slicks this year from street use

D-Rob

Looks like it made CarBuzz.

http://www.carbuzz.com/news/2014/7/1...acing-7721431/

4piston

How often are those events? Looks fun.

2000CTRSi

Nice mph for a simple civic!

gringotegra

Daymmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm son... Even got the same tires as me!

Yeah i am about even with you on power, car will only hold 22psi in 3rd gear which is right about 630-640whp haha. Will normally hook all in 4th too depending on the track.. Will also hook all in 5th too

I have also come to realize people will not want to race you in a Honda..

itspools

Congrats Derek!

93ericSi

Just saw the carbuzz video posted by 1320 videos on FB. Congrats on all the coverage

SwappedTURBOegg

story of my life. i just bought some 255/50/16 r888 so i hope i have as good luck as you guys. over slicks on the street...

D-Rob

No idea; this was my first event. The same organization is holding another event in October at Pocono Raceway again, which I will be attending.

Yeah, I was able to throw 4th and 5th all the boost the thing would make!

Thanks Nigel!

$MIKE$

iTrader: (13)

Just curious what wastegate spring Are u on

D-Rob

8psi

V-SPEC 1

Good job D-Rob.

gringotegra

Put a 4 port on that thing!