So, Summit was freaking awesome. Here's the story:

My friend Alex and I left from Delaware around 6 PM on Friday. The drive was beautiful. Virginia is probably one of my favorite states now. I've never driven through it, but now that I have, I can say it rivals the Appalachians of PA which are being destroyed by fracking




After about 3.5 hours of driving, we finally arrived at our destination. We set up our tent and I drank about four or five beers before falling asleep.




The next morning, we woke up at went to class for HPDE 1.





It turned out that I either forgot to ask to be switched back to HPDE 1 when I registered for 2 (if I even registered for 2), or the organizers just forgot.

However, I got lucky because they accepted my experience level when I told them how many track days I've ran before.












Alex was first out in HPDE 1. This was his instructor-- a guy named Mike. He was a rather excitable individual. Very friendly and fun to interact with and knowledgeable about driving (most importantly):




Alex was stoked to get out for his first heat while I was headed to my second classroom session since I thought I was HPDE 1 for that day and HPDE 2 has their own classroom with NASA Mid-Atlantic:






With Alex going out, I made my way back to paddock to get my car prepped before going to the classroom. Here's a BMW E46:



After I finally got out, I got to learn the course more and more. I wasn't meshing with my instructor as much as I could have, but he was still a nice guy who gave me some feedback to keep me safe and a bit smoother.

By the end of the first day, I was running about a 1:38.7.

Part 1:


Part 2:


After my fourth heat, my instructor signed me off to solo. I was very excited, since in the Northeast Region, we prefer only to let people who are solo'd into HPDE 2. This meant I was "moving up" in the ranks.

Later, I found that it's not as big of a deal in the Mid-Atlantic Region. But I was still pretty stoked.




At the end of the day, my friend Alex and I ended up hanging out with the #TrackThatShit guys and drinking some beer while we watched Top Gun. For my first camping experience at a track, this was really amazing.




The next morning, we woke up and got ready for the second sessions of hoonage. From left to right, the cars belong to Alex, me, Dave (an awesome instructor who gave me some driving tips and Civic advice), Dave's Subaru tow hoe, and Mike (Alex's instructor from the first day who blew up his Z's trans).




I ran my first couple of sessions and watched some awesome races, including Honda Challenge, two cars in the Camaro-Mustang-Challenge, and American Iron. Here are some photos:








In my third heat, we practiced a red flag drill. If you fast-forward to 4:10, you'll see what I mean. It was definitely fun getting my taste of what I've been told are racing drills.


Then, in my fourth heat, I set my next fastest lap...it was a 1:37.something. I don't remember the exact hundredth of a second, but I'm not out there to win a race, I'm out there to be faster against myself and get home safely.

Here's the fourth heat of the second day:


Noteable moments include:

6:45-- E36 battle where I give the point-by and keep up for a lap
16:35-- Vette point-by followed by hot-cold yellow and then I keep up in the technical section

My fastest lap is here:


I literally beat the living crap out of the Civic at Summit, so I will probably be running my RSX at NJMP on the 22nd, even though I was supposed to use the Civic..

 

So for the weekend after Summit, I decided to volunteer some time with NASA Northeast at their June Jam Event at NJMP Thunderbolt to get to know some of the people in the organization and also to get credit toward a free event. It was also a good time.

The NASA NE Family knows how to have fun. They're also exactly that-- a family.

A guy with an Integra popped a motor, and they did a motor swap in the middle of the night from Saturday into Sunday to get it ready.

Anyway, when I rolled up early Saturday morning after drinking substantial amounts of coffee and Monster, this is the first sight I saw-- a GTS 4 E46 M3 race car being delivered from the heavens to the ground where it would see battle on the track:




Walking over to help out with tech, I noticed a friend of a friend's car-- this is a turbocharged Integra GSR with a full carbon fiber front end. The owner is super cool. This is probably his first track event:



After helping out with tech, I was assigned to work grid. I helped line up all of the ST cars and the GTS cars for the Thunder Race.

For those of you who don't know (at least in Mid-Atlantic and Northeast), NASA splits classes up into slower, lower HP cars-- the Lightning Races, and the higher HP cars-- Thunder Races.




I then went to scales and helped push cars onto the scales and push them off-- setting up the scales for cars according to their appropriate wheel bases. I was very tired from a day of working in the sun and exerting a lot of physical energy. Luckily, the NASA Northeast family knows how to hook it up with some free food and beverages! Here's the line:




While in line I talked to John, the owner of this S2000:




We talked about the battle he had with one of the other H1 Honda Challenge Cars and we talked about my aspirations to run H2.

After getting my food, I hung out in the garage with the owners of the two Type-Rs, Rob and Brian, and some of my friends that I know from work.







The second day was basically a repeat of this...but I can't wait until the next time I get to volunteer with these guys. Driving is fun, but it's also cool developing friendships around cars.

 

On the 22nd of June, I had another track day with Track Night in America with the SCCA. At my home track, I figured it'd be a good opportunity to practice getting point-bys from faster cars and pushing limits through various corners.

I've driven my RSX on this track multiple times, but have only been on Thunder with the Civic in the wet.

The first heat was kind of lame. I ended up in a lot of trains and I even pitted to give myself some space. If you watch the video, though, you'll see a lot of me riding bumpers and filling up mirrors. I'm practicing getting point-bys!


At 3:22 coming out of Turn 6, a yellow flag was thrown, and for some reason, the lead car decided to slam on their brakes, instead of letting off the gas and coasting. You'll see me nearly rear-end the E46 I was tailing.

For some reason, at 4:40, you'll see a huge train that no one decides to pit in for...

The yellow flag was out, but common sense would tell you that even when the track goes hot again, that train will just hold you up.

At 5:30, I leave the pits again, and at 6:04, I'm already catching the train again in Turn 5.

At 6:55, a friend in a pretty highly modified RX-7 pulls away from me with power out of the Octopus and he goes down the straight like a bat out of hell...I immediately catch up in Turn 1.

The rest of the video is honestly just a combination of a crap-load of point-bys and trains...not really exciting.

Heat 2 was a lot better. At 4:50 you'll see me tailing this BRZ with ...interesting lines through the track trying to get the point-by.

He tries to play cat and mouse for a while until I go left, then right before Turn 3, letting him know that I need the point-by.

At 11:15, I point by a Mustang and keep up with him pretty respectfully from T1 through T5. After that I lose him completely.


Heat 3 was the best, but unfortunately I was not able to time it. I was pushing harder and driving faster in this heat.


At 17:00, I point by a friend in a WRX whose lines are also...interesting, and I pressure him into giving me the point-by back after Turn 2! But he doesn't slow down, so I can't pass. Needless to say it was a blast intimidating higher power cars.

When I got home, I did some data analysis. I'm definitely not going nearly as fast as I can in Turn 2 where I may be able to go flat, Turn 3 where I can also go flat, and Turn 4 where I could probably carry five more MPH into the corner.

Note, however, that this was only based on Heat 2, and in Heat 3, I think I was much faster.




Here's a pic of the ol' girl that I got through social media!



My next day at Thunder is going to be on July 13th with TNiA again. I'm hoping to really maximize my momentum through T1 through 4.

 

And, the most recent event that I've done with the Civic was an autocross with the Philly SCCA. I don't prefer running with this region due to how strict they are, the cost associated with running there, and how many runs we usually get, but let me be clear when I say that Philly SCCA really does know how to run an autocross.

It's tough running an event as safely as they do with so many novices coming through...and also with idiots like myself-- but you'll see about that in the videos below :p

............

So, I signed up for one of the most competitive classes with Philly-- STS. This is a field littered with Miatas and one CRX-- most of which are on RE-71R's and are being driven by some very fine drivers-- much better than me, of course.

I put some new numbers on the car and rolled out for the event!




For my first runs, I usually drive the car as hard as I can and dial it back from there-- so I usually DNF and hit a ton of cones. On the first run, I oversteered and DNF'd. Then on the second run, I oversteered, DNF'd, and went off the pavement and into the grass:











However, on my last run, I pulled off a clean, relatively quick run. Entering the first slalom, I could have carried a lot more speed, and I need to work on my slaloming and my lines overall. However with a 7th out of 9 finish in a competitive field, I was pretty satisfied. Excuses are excuses, but the Civic isn't exactly a competitive platform on NT-05s, and there are national level drivers in that class. So, it's a win for me-- and that's what matters.

 

Great track footage man. The first autox video had me laughing out loud.

Any plans for more mods?

 

Following this thread for all the awesome content, photos, videos, and information! This is great, I have a long way to go, but I would love to end up on the same type of level as you. Keep up the hard work and keep posting!

 

Glad you like it! For now, no. I may get the Integra prop valve because the fronts like to lock on this car. I also have an Integra steering rack sitting around, but that's it.

I may be investing in gloves, shoes, and a new helmet for next season though. I'm mainly focused on improving my driving.

Thank you bud! It's just some time and dedication. I live for this ****. I will keep everyone updated on my most recent track excursions...there's more video to share.

 

Moar updates!

Moar track time!

Moar fart can!!!!

Hello all, I'm back with updates. I guess I can switch up the format and post in chronological order, by date, to give you all an idea of the timeline associated with this stuff.

MPACT at Pocono Southeast with NASA NE on 7/9/2016

So on 7/8/2016, I left work early to begin my excursion with friends from South, South Jersey to the Poconos via the Northeast Extension. The traffic was absolute ****. My friend Edd was planning on going up, but his alternator took a crap on his way, and my friend Shawn decided to skip out on the traffic and show up later.

As for me and my buddy Alex, with the M3, we decided to trek on and make our way up despite all of the traffic. Here is my foot on my steering wheel as I wait for him:



When we finally got up to the Poconos after waiting in traffic for an extra thirty minutes (F you rush hour!), we went to a lakeside bar and had some beer and food. It was gorgeous.

Our hotel had a pool and a sauna. Alex and I grabbed some beer, went to the pool, despite the signs about beverages in the pool (we're badasses), and we hung out in the sauna as well-- getting some great rest and relaxation in comparison to camping. Note, however, that Pocono does not allow track day enthusiasts to camp there. It's one of the many reasons my friends and I do not favor Pocono all that much.

When we woke up and got there, it was very foggy.



I signed up for HPDE 1 for the day because I wanted the extra instruction. The first heat was paced due to the terrible fog, which sucked. But, after the first heat, my instructor told me that I didn't belong in HPDE 1 and told me to move up to DE 2 and that he wanted to go out with me for a heat to see how I did.

The second heat was a blast. My instructor and I were laughing the whole time as the Civic slid around and caught some pretty quick cars in technical sections of the track.

By the end of the second heat, my instructor told me to go out alone for the third heat.

The third heat ended up being the last heat because the fog cut the day short-- which really sucked. However, I did have one fun heat where I got to chase my friend Damien in his nearly completely stock EK hatch on all-seasons!


Did I mention there was a car show at this event? I was much less interested in this:


NJMP Thunderbolt with TNiA on 7/13/2016

My next track day was with the SCCA's Track Night in America at New Jersey Motorsports Park Thunderbolt. I signed up for the advanced group because I was having a lot of issues with egotistical drivers not giving point-bys in the intermediate group. I figured, rather than spend money on track time where I would constantly be pitting for wrecks and trains of cars, why not jst sign up for the quick run group.

Boy, did I make a good decision.

Heat 1 was a slip n' slide. I really need to learn to be faster in the rain.


Heat 3 was the most fun. At 7:50, I point by some guys who were behind me and I keep up with them for a while, chasing them down.


The only bad part of the day was when this guy in an M3 wouldn't point me by after I was on his *** for quite some time:

 

First Ever Wheel-to-Wheel Kart Race at Sandy Hook Speedway in Maryland on 7/17/2016

On Thursday, the 14th, after I told my one friend that I would drink with him over the weekend, I got a message on Facebook from another friend who regularly TAG Karts, saying that he would be willing to let me drive his kart for a full day on that Sunday.

Needless to say, I bailed on my drinking buddy and headed out to the track to meet up with my buddy Franklin and his girlfriend Sam. Please excuse the blurry picture.



The day would run like this:

• Heat 1: Practice
• Heat 2: Practice
• Heat 3: Practice
• Lunch
• Heat 4: Qualifying race
• Heat 5: Race

I drove like sh*t, but I also gave it my best to try and keep up with some of the faster guys. There was one guy at the back of the pack during both the qualifying race and the actual race who I tried to pass, but both times he cut my line off and we had incidents-- which sucked.

All of the karting guys said I did really well for my first time. It took a lot of physical effort to deal with the g-forces. Going through the bowl on the track after multiple laps took so much physical energy that I would have to slow down through the bowl on some laps (not full throttle).

Friends were saying I needed to be flat, but like I said, I was just too tired for some laps and had to go easy. I'll show you guys my progression from Heat 1 to Heat 5:

First heat:


Regardless, here's my first ever TAG Kart race at Sandy Hook Speedway in Maryland:


Here are some pictures:

 

Palmer Motorsports Park with NASA NE on 7/23/16 and 7/24/16

I signed up for HPDE 1 for this event with the intent to finally get my log book signed off with NASA. I want to ensure that I have all of my steps through the HPDE ranks documented to make me look better for the instructors and the individual(s) running comp school if/when I get into Honda Challenge down the road.

Anyway, I took off work on Friday to head up with a work buddy so that we could avoid traffic. This is his car:



I got to his house around 11 from Delaware and we spent some time picking up beer and getting his S2000 from his parents' house. After picking up his radar detector, we started the drive up to our first stop (and my second stop) along the way at our friend Dan's house in Poughkeepsie, NY. Dan is an instructor and a time trialer with NASA and he currently holds a couple of track records in TTB that I know of-- one at NJMP and one at Palmer.



The Civic has no A/C and I was literally dying on the drive up. I've never been both hydrated and overwhelmed by heat. I believe it was in the mid-90s for the whole drive.

Once we got to Dan's house we ordered some pizza, drank some beer, watched some Netflix, then we crashed. At 3 AM we woke up, and we began our drive to Ware, Massachusetts. It was a hell of a drive, but we eventually got to this awesome track:









For my first session, my instructor said I drove the car really well and that I needed to be in HPDE 2, which was cool because I was being held up in DE 1.

So, I got signed off and went up to DE 2 to drive with the other intermediate, solo drivers.

The first day was treacherous, kind of. A lot of people were overwhelmed by the track or drove their cars a little too hard and ended up spinning, going off, or hitting walls. This was true for the HPDE groups, but CERTAINLY, most true for the racing and time trial groups. Palmer is certainly a serious track...but also very fun.

After the first day, I ended up spending some time with friends I met through volunteering with NASA.

My last heat of the day was very fun. For the most part, I had no trouble keeping up with other cars at this track, given its technical configuration. See the track map below:



One thing I learned about Palmer is that you can't discount the elevation changes-- even after watching videos. You really have to get out there and see it for yourself. Here's my last heat of the last day:



My fastest time ended up being a 2.03.032 in the Civic.

I definitely have a lot of improvement ahead of me and can't wait to get back on this track. It's my favorite one that I've driven so far...


The drive home was long. It took me five hours and change to get back from MA to DE and the next day I drank four cups of coffee and two Monsters...but the track hangover was worth it




.

 

Damn, you've been busy!

 

Dat seat time, fam

 

motivational. Hope to get out to a track night in america at palmer or thompson this month with my Dc5!

 

I recommend Palmer...but I wouldn't go to Palmer for the first time unless it was a full weekend.

It's hard to learn the track as a novice or intermediate or even an advanced driver if you've never been there before.

Nearly everything is a late apex and it's hard to figure out reference points.

NASA NE stopped running at Thompson because none of the instructors or racers or DE'ers wanted to go there because it's a drag race with corners and very little elevation change.

 

Awesome!

 

Great thread! Lots of good info and walkthroughs. Subscribed.

I'd love to get into track racing, but seems like so much more of a time commitment than autocross.

 

Thanks bud

Track days are a LOT cheaper when you compare seat time to dollars spent and a LOT more time-efficient when you do the same comparison.

I do enjoy autocross, but I grew frustrated with it knowing that I had to buy a certain car with certain mods all of the time to be competitive at something that's intended to be low buck.

 

Yea, I'm familiar with the cost per minute argument of track versus autocross. The issue comes for me in that, if I have time to race 8x per year; autocross will. It's approximately $300 for total event entry, tires will last me 1-1.5 seasons, brake pads 2 seasons, 2 oil changes, 1 brake fluid change, 1 trans fluid change. If I were to try and hit 4 or 5 track days per year it would cost a lot more per event. Granted the time you get behind the wheel in 1 event is more than a full season of autocross, but doesnt provide the seemingly "cheap thrill" once a month. I would love to get more into track, though. Once I have my car dialed in, I could see doing a track day or maybe two each season, but nothing to be competitive with. I do envy the folks that track competitively, though.

The "car to have" for the class you race is definitely a drawback if you're looking to compete nationally. All the fastest guys have the fastest car possible that pushes the limits of whatever class you're in. Though, if you're not looking to go to nats, you can pretty much be fast in any class with some prep and a lot of seat time. My philosophy on it is, I'm gonna build the car that I want to drive and try and be as compeititive as I can on a regional level and have fun. Doing it that way seems to be going well, and I've been really enjoying it the last couple years.

 

I'd have to disagree. It depends on your car. I've done about 8 days this season. From the beginning of the season, I'm still on my original set of pads, I'm still on my original set of tires, I'm still on my trans fluid (granted, this needs to be changed badly), and the only thing that really suffers is oil cost and brake bleeding-- but I don't even need to bleed my brakes most of the time-- this is all out of choice to be extra safe.

The key is having a car that is easy on consumables. This is why I bought a Civic and kept the motor stock. It's also why Miatas are so popular in the US

I also find this not to be true because I live near two very competitive regions-- NNJR and Philly SCCA. I spent two seasons going to as many events as I could in my old RSX Type-S and because of a torque damper, I was bumped into DSP. I was nowhere near as competitive as other cars in DSP because I didn't have an E36 with aero and slicks and racing seats with harnesses to keep me strapped in.

In STS with my Civic, I drive the car fairly quickly, and the field is littered with well-prepped Miatas and drivers who have been doing autocross for at least five years. So, I'm not competitive there either.

This was really the key for me to switch away from autocrossing in the end, man. I tried to have fun, but I just kept getting frustrated being in an RSX in a high class with max performance summer tires, getting crapped on by faster cars. When I switched to 200TW tires, I was dominating (relative to the field in a non-competitive region), but then the pillow ***** on my Teins started falling apart partly due to age and the weight of my front-heavy car.

I feel DE is more competitive because I've gotten in more arguments and I've pushed myself way harder trying to keep up with DE 3 and 4 drivers, for example. It's not as expensive as racing, and classing doesn't play a role, because technically you're not racing. You're competing against yourself and higher powered cars by using driver mod and a fun-to-drive Civic .

But at the end of the day, if what I'm saying doesn't apply to you, screw it man. Do what makes you happy. That's more admirable than anything else as long as the people doing so don't develop elitist mindsets about it. I'm guilty of this sometimes..

 

Another big post, fam.





After getting back from Palmer, I drove my car to work the next morning with all of my stuff still in it (five-hour drives after a track weekend suck man). I noticed that the third gear grind I had at the track was happening at all RPMs...no matter what I did while upshifting.

So, I tried to fix the problem with some GM Synchromesh, hoping that the trans wasn't too far gone and I could maybe save it. That was a no-go. That meant two things:

1.) I could not attend my next track day at NJMP with TNiA (BOO) and
2.) I needed to source a new transmission.

So, I took to Craigslist to source a new transmission. Within a couple of hours, I found a JDM D15B transmission, with 55k miles and without an LSD, for $100. You have to love how available parts are for our cars:



This transmission has a shorter final drive along with a shorter second, third, and fifth in comparison with the D15B7 transmission I destroyed.

I decided that the course of action would be to firstly pull the old transmission, then open it up and also to open up the new transmission, compare the two in terms of condition, determine failure mechanism for the old transmission, reassemble the new transmission if in good shape, and then put it back in.

While I was in there, I also planned on checking the rear main seal and the clutch as well.



With the car in the air, I pulled the old transmission out. You could tell that this transmission had been in this car for, most likely, its whole life (>~200,000 miles). It was nearly impossible to separate from the block, but I eventually was successful in pulling the old beast out of the old girl:



Here are pics of the old clutch, rear main seal, and throwout bearing:





You can see that the clutch material was pretty close to the rivets..





Small leak at the bottom of the rear main seal-- also most likely original:



With a bad clutch and a bad transmission, I had some thinking to do. Was I going to try and save money-- resurfacing the old flywheel, getting a replacement clutch, and putting it all back together? Or was I going to do something semi-bad-*** and install a lightweight flywheel, OEM replacement clutch, aftermarket shifter with bushings, and some new pedals for better heel-toe??

Well, earlier in the month I gave away two free track days to one of my buddies and in return, he said he could get me PayPal stuff on eBay for half-price. So, I ended up scoring the following for about $200 all said and done:

• Lighweight eBay Flywheel
• Exedy OEM Replacement Clutch Kit
• B&M Short Shifter for 40% reduction in throw
• Energy Suspension Shifter Bushings
• Type-R Replica ****

And then I picked up OMP pedals, Honda Bond, and GM Synchromesh on my own dime.

Here are pics of some of the parts:















Once the parts arrived, I was in my garage every day after work, taking apart the old transmission, the new transmission, reassembling the new transmission, and putting everything back together with all of the road blocks one can imagine.

I started with the new transmission, inspecting the dogs on the synchros and the shifter forks. All looked pretty good in the transmission except for one synchro which was kind of, meh. Here are the pics of the JDM D15B Transmission:

























The old D15B7 transmission looked totally fine when I first opened it up. All of the synchros looked like they were in better shape than the new, JDM transmission, and the gears had no noticeable scars.

Well, these impressions all changed as soon as I looked at the magnetic pickup inside of the transmission and found TONS of little metal shards. After removing those with my finger, I saw a big piece of metal in the galley with the magnet. I pulled it out and voila, a shifter fork had broken. Here's a pick of the broken fork:



With that out of the way, I decided the new transmission was good to put in. I put Honda Bond on the mating surfaces and I clamped it back together for install:



Anyway, I'm going to bed right now...sorry to be anti-climactic but I need sleep and I have a long drive to work tomorrow.

PS, next track day is on the 31st, so yes, she's running

 

Good work man

Let us know how she feels at the track!

 

Great update, glad to read that the new trans looks good enough to run. Kinda sad it's not an LSD but I can only imagine the price difference between non-LSD and LSD trans's especially on a timeline to get to events. In for more updates!

 

Hey, thank you bud! I will certainly do so. I will also update this tonight, hopefully. This is assuming nothing else breaks on the car -__- (damn 200+k mile cars).

The LSD would have been clutch (no pun intended). Turns 5, 6, and 7 at Summit Point bring out the worst in my non-LSD gremlins. I notice it at any tight-radius track or while autocrossing-- so that sucks...but I have to "driver mod" around it:

 

Okay, I'm back to post. Work IS GREAT. We all know that. Back to the show:

With the new transmission assembled, I mounted the new flywheel and clutch.



Then I went to install my short shifter...and the studs holding the bolts onto the stabilizer bar (not the shift linkage, but the other bar) had come loose and were spinning with the nuts.

So, I had to grind those out. Then I had to find new bolts and nuts. Then I greased it all up and put the short shifter in. Then I put the transmission in. Then when I tried to install my slave cylinder, I apparently blew it out earlier in the process and it wouldn't bleed. Then when I tried to get the slave cylinder detached from the hard line it snapped. Then when it snapped I called a hood rat on Craigslist. Then the hood rat wasted three hours of my time telling me he didn't want to sell it after I drove to his place. Then I made my own clutch slave line.

Then it all went in smoothly after that...trust me, my first trans job in this car was not fun...



And when it all went in, I filled the trans up with some synchromesh and went out for my first test drive after bleeding the clutch. She drove like a dream!



However I ripped my CV boots and I didn't realize it until they spewed grease everywhere and now I have a track day in two days and the axle comes in one at best. Long story short, I'm filling them with grease and using gorilla tape and zip ties.

I'll keep you all updated.

Wednesday (today is Monday) I'm going to NJMP with Track Night in America. Friday I'm doing a private track day at New York Safety Track



Wish me luck guys..

ck:

 

as someone else that just went LSD... i can tell you it helps at every corner. it helps get more tires turning under power, earlier.

i know its easy to point out 5-7 at Summit, but the transitions from 7/8 become easier when you get more front traction... staying in the turn 9 "dip" groove is easier... if you dog leg in turn 10, you are still using it there... going to a better trans AND LSD dropped my lap times at summit dramatically.