its been almost a year since ive been at the track, and it was great to be back in the saddle again. bought a new set of front illuminas to replace my loaners i gave back (was riding on stock 4x4 suspension for a while) so i put a new hybrid suspension on. using the front shocks from my Eibach prokits, according to my sources, the fronts are 331 lbs/inch (6 kg/mm) which are linear, and using the 450 lbs/in from my old setup (450f/900r) using GC/ERS and set the ride height to match the pro's, net result i got 331/450 set at 24" to top of fender ride height (~1" lower than stock and fills the fender concentrically for a great look) and feels very tolerable on the street with plenty of shock travel, and extremely capable for HPDE and even open lapping. ill test it out next month at first slush series autox event. oh yeah, and 7" rear springs i found almost TOO LONG to match the ride height in the rear of my CRX, almost ran out of thread on the GC sleeve, 6" would be more ideal quite frankly, which my 900 ERS springs i have for sale are 350/450 seems like a great "overall" setup to me!

yesterday's HPDE with Unlimited Laps was great. first time i "officially" instructed with UL and as always, Hunpin puts on a great event. Some first timers just dont listen (the pointer cones are there to HELP you, dont ignore them!), and i had a student hit a 3" verticle cone and slapped her passenger mirror spraying pieces of glass at my face (on the first session of the day!), luckily i was wearing sunglasses, even tho my visor was down and talked to her about it, went thru with herr verbally what she was doing wrong (too excited at entry, jerking the wheel and not braking enough) and i even got in the car again the next session with her and she did a much improved job being much more conscience this time of the "slow in, fast out" rule. but some others in green group needed to step it up to intermediate. one driver of an S2000 was on Michelin Pilot Sport Cups, and I must say, those tires are REALLY GOOD. no complaints during the whole session, even tho he was being good at no upsetting traction, i never heard a peep from them and never seemed to go away during the whole 20 minute session that was at the end of the hot day. for anyone considering an HPDE event in norcal, either novice or advanced, Unlimited Laps beats em all for fun. then again, you might have to buy azenis and a suburu with rotas to fit in with the rest of the group... i was there for free since i was instructing. great lunch too! (otherwise i suggest do a Thunderhill street school, you get a t shirt too)

so i also had a free test day card for working during races earlier this year, which was scheduled the day after the HPDE, so i tented outside the track. since i got zero sleep the night before, i slept like a baby. nice thing about being at the track at night is its usually in the middle of nowhere, so when you stargaze you can make out the milky way and spot Mars of course, but that only lasted 5 minutes until i got bored... pavement tenting wasnt so bad, ill do it again definately.

so i find out my free test day card was only for half day, but whatever, colleen, thunderhills/SCCA administrative assistant, didnt care and gave me the whole day since i got it by working anyway, even tho i wasnt planning on testing the whole day since i was low on usable brake pad. then the guys from team continental in northwest region showed up, saw their nice cars. really nice prepared cars actually. never saw so many hondas in thunderhills paddock. that was just for test day, theyll be even more coming this weekend i think.

talked to Kurt, from Stormpower engines, and he told me two things that I was surprised at. first, the EG Si/EX exhaust manifold is 4-2-1 and properly ported is just as good as a DC sports header for ultimate performance. dyno tested. and the ribs in the stock intake help air flow better than an AEM and can be replicated with a larger 3" diameter by 4 $.99 dryer ducts from the hardware sture. flow bench tested. his engines seem up to par with rebello, if not better according to him. he's also a great driver, should have won PCRRC last year, but he let his friend keith drive his crx this weekend.

gregg marshall (bulldog, ITA integra), keith (ITA CRX), Jim hill (jhill, H1 CRX), james ayotte (james a, ITC civic) all seemed to love the challenges of thunderhill, getting up to my own race pace in the first few sessions, which just shows how slow i am.... i just blame it on my underprepared car but surpisingly, i found out nick theroux, fastest honda driver on the west and who has been helping me from the beginning, showed up to drive Steve Ingersolls crx and showed em all they got a long ways to go before they can hope to capture his track record. nick is known for lifting the throttle only to shift... constant oversteer/understeer LFB adjustment in turns, his videos are amazing (yeah, nothing smooth about his driving)

I was on my kumho victoracers since i sold my other set of panasports wrapped with toyos to uncleben (hope you had a fun weekend too!), held up ok. now that i got em worn down, they dont overheat so much, i recommend you must have em shaved NEW. i still wasnt on my racing pace yet, but i saw no need to push it during test day, like no lifting on turn 1 and 8 which i know is possible but leaves zero margin of error (100+mph turns). plus, my hawk blues barely made it the whole half day about 3 sessions worth, was already almost down to the wear groove at the beginning of the day so i didnt bother hard braking too much. used up 5-6 cm of brake pads on each caliper for 3 sessions, and almost no rotor wear. my opinion on hawk blues is that they seem to make the pedal feel soft tho, but they work well, and arent too aggressive like performance friction. so depends on how you like to brake.

ill be back saturday to watch the first race. they offered a $99 race day for me, but unemployment and racing dont mix. the only reason i was at the track in the first place was because it was all free and i had the parts. but cant beat that deal... hard to turn down, must resist... cant live off of shin ramyun (ramen) and egg forever....

i enourage all you norcal enthusiasts to go saturday. its going to be a real exciting race. PacWest seems to have a large amount of honda racers, i was impressed they all drove 14 hours down to compete this weekend. even johng and kyle came to hep crew. all the TC guys are great, good luck saturday, but i dont think youll be reading this til the weekends over.

ps, last bit of advice: also learned that if youre going to install hood pins, keep the safety lever in... sorry james, the public must learn from your mistake as well

 

I just read it. I have been thinking about the TC weekend. I'll have to go back to the arcade tonight and do more F355 Challenge.

 

ah, i know i dont have to tell you, but youre really missing a great race weekend. james' civic seems to be on par with your lap times and would have been great competition for you. there was some other itc/h5 civics too. hope youre having a good time in japan of course.

 

So for all the TC and NASA folks, how was it? I wanna hear your story. Post some pics and videos please.

 

The UL event was great fun. It seemed like the heat resulted in more mechanical issues than usual, which was a bit unfortuneate. I had to track down a MAF sensor at the very last second (the night before) but the shop came through for me. I just had to live with crappy brakepads for a day. It was a very nice day at Thunderhill.
-Adam

 

Student's car smacked the cone with the mirror heh? I'll have to remember that next time. The tall cone at the exit of T5 was a first for UL I believe. My student driving a WRX wagon was also on the Pilot Sport Cups and I agree that they're a great tire.

 

What is the track record at thunderhill in a honda?


Sounded fun, Thunderhill seems like it would be a fun track to drive at, kind of scary with the large off camber elevation change.

 

How and where might one get a EG Si manifold ported?

 

i mean it being mounted up to an already properly ported and rebuilt head. but it seemed that his opinion and results show its just as good as a DC sports header.

 

btw, this is the engine with the 4 99 cent pieces of dryer ducting and d16y8 exhaust manifold. they certainly arent preventing this car from hittin 2:11.8's at thunderhill in full temps.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JDM EK9 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What is the track record at thunderhill in a honda?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Depends what class/configuration the Honda is set up for. The record for ITA is held by Nick Theroux in an Integra GS at 2.08.302 set in August of 2001. 1.2 seconds quicker than the quickest Conference ITS E-36 Bimmer this last weekend.

 

Are there any more events scheduled for TH this season? I was booked to go, but had a fam. issue come up- farkni wife!

 

http://www.unlimitedlaps.com/schedule.html

November 24, THill, clockwise.

-Adam

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by turfer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Depends what class/configuration the Honda is set up for. The record for ITA is held by Nick Theroux in an Integra GS at 2.08.302 set in August of 2001. 1.2 seconds quicker than the quickest Conference ITS E-36 Bimmer this last weekend.</TD></TR></TABLE>

what configuration is this?
And does anyone know the track record (any car)for Thunderhill CCW with the large offcamber hill. I know big track willow is like 1:06

 

Sorry about that. Track config makes a difference as well. We ran the full 3.0 mile track counterclockwise including the Crows nest or Turn 5. I believe NASA usually runs the bypass which is about 2 secs quicker.

Rick

 

yeah, that record is WITH the "crows nest" configuration. yes, he's that fast.