Import Specialist EK Track Car build thread...
13-May-2009, 11:50 AM
#21
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Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 58
15-May-2009, 06:43 PM
#24
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Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 58
Engine details are next. This motor was completely assembled and ported by Dale Csesky at Import Specialist (705 326 1000 - About Import Specialist) and all machine work was done by Gord Bush Performance (www.gordbushperformance.com)
- GSR Head
- Shaved 30 thou
- Ported and polished
- 3 angle radius valve job
- 34.5mm Buddy Club intake valves
- Ferrea exhaust valves
- Skunk2 Pro valve springs
- Skunk2 Stage 2 Pro Cams
- Skunk2 Timimg Gears
- Skunk2 manifold, ported and port matched
- 70mm BDL throttle body
- ARP Head bolts
- CompTech Tri-Y header
- B20 block
- BDL Block guard
- 84.5mm 11.5 to 1 compression flat top pistons
- Golden Eagle oil feed kit
- Eagle Rods
- lighten and balance crank
- 7lb cromoly flywheel, balanced
- ACT xtreme clutch, balanced
- Moroso track oil pan
Everything has been clayed and timed so clearances are good. Also every bearing has been mic'd for clearances as well.
As far as the tranny goes, we have 2. A 4.7 FD JDM ITR with a Quaife LSD and a 4.9 FD JDM SIR also with a Quaife LSD. Transmission rebuilt and installation also done by Dale Csesky.
- GSR Head
- Shaved 30 thou
- Ported and polished
- 3 angle radius valve job
- 34.5mm Buddy Club intake valves
- Ferrea exhaust valves
- Skunk2 Pro valve springs
- Skunk2 Stage 2 Pro Cams
- Skunk2 Timimg Gears
- Skunk2 manifold, ported and port matched
- 70mm BDL throttle body
- ARP Head bolts
- CompTech Tri-Y header
- B20 block
- BDL Block guard
- 84.5mm 11.5 to 1 compression flat top pistons
- Golden Eagle oil feed kit
- Eagle Rods
- lighten and balance crank
- 7lb cromoly flywheel, balanced
- ACT xtreme clutch, balanced
- Moroso track oil pan
Everything has been clayed and timed so clearances are good. Also every bearing has been mic'd for clearances as well.
As far as the tranny goes, we have 2. A 4.7 FD JDM ITR with a Quaife LSD and a 4.9 FD JDM SIR also with a Quaife LSD. Transmission rebuilt and installation also done by Dale Csesky.
25-May-2009, 12:16 PM
#27
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 58
So competed in our first solo sprint event on Saturday. The new car was in the body shop with no engine so we ran the sister car we ran last season. Less power than the new motor has but has proven to be very reliable power train and very competitive for us over the last couple season its been run. Has a 1.6L built motor built and tuned by Paul Bhawan at splitfireperformance.com. Puts down close to 180hp and forget the torque off the top of my head but want to say 130ish but don’t recall – anyway, very impressive and for a B16. Feels and sounds incredible. Looks like a junkyard build – but it works.
We took the car out to a lapping day at Mosport Grand Prix track organized by Alan Shek from kensairacing.com on holiday Monday. We wanted to see where we left the car from the previous season. Car felt really well sorted surprisingly and managed to put down a 1:39.83 on freshly shaved Toyo R888s we picked up from Jeff Wenzel at TireCraft. But stayed mostly in the low 1:40s for most of the day. The suspension was tuned without aero since we couldn’t run aero and stay in our class. Tires were 205/50/15s mounted 15X6.5” rims. They’re no where near the grip of the Goodyear Eagle slicks, but less grippy tires helped us sort out a lot of the balance of the car with the wing on it. The was understeering with last year’s setup. Did allow for really late braking, but not an ideal balance for the car.
So we had 4 days to get the car ready for the first event and Paul at Splitfireperformance.com was on the hook to get the car ready. We had a laundry list of work to be done from changing a rear wheel bearing, checking the engine bearings, new engine mount, getting spacers made, fitting the wider wheels and fix 2/3rd and 5th gear on the existing tranny. Honda fluid went it and amazingly all the work was done to an incredible high standard and the car was ready to compete on Saturday.
At the track Saturday morning we were still scrambling. Was the first solo sprint event at the DDT track at Mosport Park. The spacers looked like enough to fit the wheels in the shop but on the track the tires rubbed on the insides and the tires hit the fenders with very little load. Suspension was raised up, camber was pulled back from 3 degrees to about 1.8 degrees in the front – 0 in the rear. More spacers went on in the front to a total of 7/8th of an inch and half inch in the rear. Then under compression the tires were still making contact with the fender. Time for some aggressive on track body modifications. Pliers, pipes and hammers were used to force the fender up and back. We totally destroyed the front fenders and hacked up the rears really nicely too. But on our first timed session the tires were on the car and not rubbing anywhere. Looked ridiculous. Fender flares on order for the backup car.
First warm up lapping session out in the morning set the tires to 18lbs of air cold and heated them up to 26lbs hot right away. Pulled it back after lapping to 20lbs trying to hit the sweet spot of 22lbs hot. Incredible amount of grip but the steering inputs needed an incredible amount of upper body strength. Braking was hairy because the car would track to one side on uneven grip in the braking zones – namely putting the tires up on the concrete paving. Then if you’ve got one hand off the wheel because you’re downshifting, you weren’t sure where the car would be when both hands came back to manhandle the car in the direction you wanted it to go.
Then there was the power loss. The rolling resistance from that much tire on the ground was incredible. A car the otherwise felt pretty manic on full throttle really felt sluggish. Top speeds on the speedo also didn’t seem very impressive at all – but later I remembered the tires were taller so of course the speedo would read slow. It was hard to tell how we were doing in lapping because we kept hitting traffic and without the power to pass on the straights you really had to hope the guy in front sees you in his mirrors and lets you by. Did notice we struggled to keep up with a Super-Charged Cobalt on the straights.
Another obvious thing was the car was understeering something fierce. Even with wider front tires up front we had to go from 10/15 clicks front and 7/15 rear to 5/15 front and max our rear shocks in an attempt to better balance the car. Tire pressures were also a big question mark. Air from each session kept rising and we just kept pulling air out every session. When we’d lower the pressures we’d get more grip, but the sidewalls were taking the abuse. At the end of the day we settled on 24lbs hot to save the sidewalls but our fastest tires were when the tires were closer to 20lbs.
So it’s time to start the event. I was lined up in sixth position on the grid so managed to squeeze into the first run group. Without traffic I really got a chance to see what the car could do. Despite the slow straight away speeds, the corning g’s were just stupid. I mean really stupid. Just getting the car up to the point the front wheels were slipping was a lot harder than I anticipated. Back went all the braking zones, up went the cornering speeds. Then came the under steer. Further back went the braking zones and in came the trail braking. By the end of the session I was pushing the braking to within feet of the apex and the car stayed planted.
Second session out I was moved up to 3rd on the grid. First was a corvette, second a heavily modified Subaru STI, then my hacked up fwd civic 4-banger, then more high hp cars behind me. It was an awesome sight. What a day. There was another Mod car did show up – a carbed V8 tube framed mustang on hoosier slicks. Looked a lot like a stock car style build up and sounded awesome. I finished first in class, MartinG second and the Mustang rounded up third.
Then there was the fatigue. Driving this car was abusive with the insane amounts of grip. The steering was heavier then you can imagine. On my second session the car pulled to the right in a braking zone. Since I was downshifting I had only one hand on the wheel and sure enough, felt like my shoulder was separated from the socket. Kept off the curbing the rest of the session on that painful lesson. Then there was the strength required to keep you neck up straight under cornering Gs and finally you’re panting like a bastard by your second lap out struggling to keep air in your lungs. This car was so painful to drive.
Tires don’t like camber. After the second session we had pulled it back to half a degree front camber. Did get the car oversteering on the 4th session by pumping up the rear tires and (likely) cracking the rear trailing arm. Don’t suggest breaking a trailing arm as a way of balancing a car BTW. The car did oversteer before the inside kink after the straight and a 4-wheels off was called in. But talk about horseshoes - since a timing issue caused a red flag to go up the 4-wheel off was dropped from my run. I actually assumed my slide caused the station to prematurely pull out the red flag. Talk about lucky.
Set the third fastest time of the day behind the Vette and the STI. Overall, I was very impressed with the car’s performance and the grip of those tires. Was the first time out and had a lot of issues to resolve, but it’s all learning we can take to the next car. I’m sure with more time to sort out the car, we’ve got a realistic chance for an FTD at one of the smaller tracks.
On the Sunday event we kept getting black flagged by marshals in warm up because the rear wheel was pushing positive camber. Kept checking the lugs, bearings and bushings and in the pits and it seemed fine. Wasn’t till Martin’s first session did I see for myself what was happening.
Turns out the rear trailing arm cracked under the pressure.
Definitely need to weld in some kind of reinforcements into the new arm that’s on order and use that technology into the new car.
We took the car out to a lapping day at Mosport Grand Prix track organized by Alan Shek from kensairacing.com on holiday Monday. We wanted to see where we left the car from the previous season. Car felt really well sorted surprisingly and managed to put down a 1:39.83 on freshly shaved Toyo R888s we picked up from Jeff Wenzel at TireCraft. But stayed mostly in the low 1:40s for most of the day. The suspension was tuned without aero since we couldn’t run aero and stay in our class. Tires were 205/50/15s mounted 15X6.5” rims. They’re no where near the grip of the Goodyear Eagle slicks, but less grippy tires helped us sort out a lot of the balance of the car with the wing on it. The was understeering with last year’s setup. Did allow for really late braking, but not an ideal balance for the car.
So we had 4 days to get the car ready for the first event and Paul at Splitfireperformance.com was on the hook to get the car ready. We had a laundry list of work to be done from changing a rear wheel bearing, checking the engine bearings, new engine mount, getting spacers made, fitting the wider wheels and fix 2/3rd and 5th gear on the existing tranny. Honda fluid went it and amazingly all the work was done to an incredible high standard and the car was ready to compete on Saturday.
At the track Saturday morning we were still scrambling. Was the first solo sprint event at the DDT track at Mosport Park. The spacers looked like enough to fit the wheels in the shop but on the track the tires rubbed on the insides and the tires hit the fenders with very little load. Suspension was raised up, camber was pulled back from 3 degrees to about 1.8 degrees in the front – 0 in the rear. More spacers went on in the front to a total of 7/8th of an inch and half inch in the rear. Then under compression the tires were still making contact with the fender. Time for some aggressive on track body modifications. Pliers, pipes and hammers were used to force the fender up and back. We totally destroyed the front fenders and hacked up the rears really nicely too. But on our first timed session the tires were on the car and not rubbing anywhere. Looked ridiculous. Fender flares on order for the backup car.
First warm up lapping session out in the morning set the tires to 18lbs of air cold and heated them up to 26lbs hot right away. Pulled it back after lapping to 20lbs trying to hit the sweet spot of 22lbs hot. Incredible amount of grip but the steering inputs needed an incredible amount of upper body strength. Braking was hairy because the car would track to one side on uneven grip in the braking zones – namely putting the tires up on the concrete paving. Then if you’ve got one hand off the wheel because you’re downshifting, you weren’t sure where the car would be when both hands came back to manhandle the car in the direction you wanted it to go.
Then there was the power loss. The rolling resistance from that much tire on the ground was incredible. A car the otherwise felt pretty manic on full throttle really felt sluggish. Top speeds on the speedo also didn’t seem very impressive at all – but later I remembered the tires were taller so of course the speedo would read slow. It was hard to tell how we were doing in lapping because we kept hitting traffic and without the power to pass on the straights you really had to hope the guy in front sees you in his mirrors and lets you by. Did notice we struggled to keep up with a Super-Charged Cobalt on the straights.
Another obvious thing was the car was understeering something fierce. Even with wider front tires up front we had to go from 10/15 clicks front and 7/15 rear to 5/15 front and max our rear shocks in an attempt to better balance the car. Tire pressures were also a big question mark. Air from each session kept rising and we just kept pulling air out every session. When we’d lower the pressures we’d get more grip, but the sidewalls were taking the abuse. At the end of the day we settled on 24lbs hot to save the sidewalls but our fastest tires were when the tires were closer to 20lbs.
So it’s time to start the event. I was lined up in sixth position on the grid so managed to squeeze into the first run group. Without traffic I really got a chance to see what the car could do. Despite the slow straight away speeds, the corning g’s were just stupid. I mean really stupid. Just getting the car up to the point the front wheels were slipping was a lot harder than I anticipated. Back went all the braking zones, up went the cornering speeds. Then came the under steer. Further back went the braking zones and in came the trail braking. By the end of the session I was pushing the braking to within feet of the apex and the car stayed planted.
Second session out I was moved up to 3rd on the grid. First was a corvette, second a heavily modified Subaru STI, then my hacked up fwd civic 4-banger, then more high hp cars behind me. It was an awesome sight. What a day. There was another Mod car did show up – a carbed V8 tube framed mustang on hoosier slicks. Looked a lot like a stock car style build up and sounded awesome. I finished first in class, MartinG second and the Mustang rounded up third.
Then there was the fatigue. Driving this car was abusive with the insane amounts of grip. The steering was heavier then you can imagine. On my second session the car pulled to the right in a braking zone. Since I was downshifting I had only one hand on the wheel and sure enough, felt like my shoulder was separated from the socket. Kept off the curbing the rest of the session on that painful lesson. Then there was the strength required to keep you neck up straight under cornering Gs and finally you’re panting like a bastard by your second lap out struggling to keep air in your lungs. This car was so painful to drive.
Tires don’t like camber. After the second session we had pulled it back to half a degree front camber. Did get the car oversteering on the 4th session by pumping up the rear tires and (likely) cracking the rear trailing arm. Don’t suggest breaking a trailing arm as a way of balancing a car BTW. The car did oversteer before the inside kink after the straight and a 4-wheels off was called in. But talk about horseshoes - since a timing issue caused a red flag to go up the 4-wheel off was dropped from my run. I actually assumed my slide caused the station to prematurely pull out the red flag. Talk about lucky.
Set the third fastest time of the day behind the Vette and the STI. Overall, I was very impressed with the car’s performance and the grip of those tires. Was the first time out and had a lot of issues to resolve, but it’s all learning we can take to the next car. I’m sure with more time to sort out the car, we’ve got a realistic chance for an FTD at one of the smaller tracks.
On the Sunday event we kept getting black flagged by marshals in warm up because the rear wheel was pushing positive camber. Kept checking the lugs, bearings and bushings and in the pits and it seemed fine. Wasn’t till Martin’s first session did I see for myself what was happening.
Turns out the rear trailing arm cracked under the pressure.
Definitely need to weld in some kind of reinforcements into the new arm that’s on order and use that technology into the new car.
16-Jun-2009, 02:44 PM
#29
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 58
So the new car still isn’t ready so don’t flame. Been a delay at Discovery Auto Collision and the car only came out of the paint booth today. But it is painted. Should have pictures by the end of the week. Just a drivetrain away from a track day.
This past weekend was the third and fourth event of the CASC-OR Solo Sprint series – this weekend was hosted by the HADA Motorsport Club (hadamotorsport.com). So out came the backup car was once more called to duty. A new trailing arm was installed but not fortified. Solid bushing from the last one were transferred over without drama. Expected this one to hold but am looking into re-enforcing these arms somehow. Paul Bhawan from Splitfire Performance did a fantastic job as usual. He also added plastic fender flares to cover the super wide slicks so the car looked a bit less like a post-apocalyptic road warrior returning with battle scars
Saturday morning pulled the car off the trailer for morning lapping. First turn on the track knew something was wrong so pulled in right away. Car was not tracking straight. Shook all the wheels and sure enough found a loose one. You really had to rip on it to feel the play, but it was there. The Skunk2 rear upper camber arm had failed and there was slop in the poly bushing. Off it came. With hand tools and bits and pieces we found in various toolboxes we fabbed up a solid bushing by hammering in custom metal sleeves into the bushing. Our trailer doubled as a workbench. Not perfect, but definitely no play. A new Hard Race arm with solid spherical bushings is on order from Kiwi at Special Projects in California.
Managed to get the car fixed in time to do 2 laps during morning lapping. The car felt sloppy when the tires were cold, but tightened nicely as they got heat into them. I was out for the first timed session. It’s been a while since I ran the Nelson track so the first session was just pushing enough get decent times while trying to remember the race line. But right off the bat, knew the clutch wasn’t going to survive the day. Had slippage in every gear, but mostly the 3rd to 4th shift just wouldn’t catch. Second session out I just wailed on the car and did a triple clutch into 4th and it seemed to catch. Cost time, but at least I got times in. By the end of that session though I was losing confidence in the braking zones. Tires felt like they were going off which sucked because it was only the 3rd event on these tires.
I got the last of a working car cuz out went Martin for his first session and the clutch was barely working at all for him and the front tires had completely gone off. Pulled the tire off in the pits to try to remove some more camber to see if that would help but that’s when I saw the cords on the tires. A 2” wide patch of tire on the inside was missing, cords were showing even though the outsides were still almost new. Crap. Our mistake with these tires was trying 2 degrees front camber at our first event and 1 degree on the second day. Through we went back to 0 degrees on the 3rd event the wear was too great from the first two days to survive the third day. Slicks don’t like camber. Lesson learned. It was just before lunch but we were done for the day. On the trailer the car went.
We scrambled looking for a local Honda dealership that could throw in our spare clutch and mount our spare rear tires onto the front but no luck. Paul Bhawan at Splitfire Performance picked up the phone right away when I called and just said bring it in. Off to Brampton I went car in tow. His shop usually closes at 4 and I was there at 4:45. Car went right on the hoist and out came the tranny. Clutch was badly worn, but the slippage was most likely caused by an oil leak near the distributor that dripped onto the flywheel. A new stage 4 clutch was installed along with new throw bearings. Corded tires removed and our spare rear tires were installed for the front. What a PITA it is to install these. We usually run wider tires in the front but our spare fronts were at Discovery Auto Collision needed to fit the fender flares on the new car. Be running a square setup for Sunday but at least we’ll have a running car. Out of the shop the car went at 7pm. Paul did a complete check of the car and we were ready to go. What an awesome shop. We’re very grateful to Paul and the Splitfire crew for backing us up the way they did. Many props.
Got a text from Martin while I was there. Without a fully working clutch and half of the tread of the front tires I still won my class and set fourth fastest time of the day out of about 50 competitors. The Corvettes dominated this event with BradM setting FTD. Our little 1.6L was the lowest displacement motor in the top 5. Martin still managed third in class having a tube frame Corvette chassis on Nascar style slicks slipping in between us.
Sunday the car ran flawlessly. Was the pro track configuration so lots of long straight aways for the corvettes to take advantage of. The narrower tires were costing speed in the corners but did help us a bit in the straights by not being so tall. Were getting wheel spin though on the hairpin so had to add gas slower than with the bigger tires. I really missed the front end grip. Stiffened up the rear suspension and the car was rotating nicely. Power steering was heavenly. We had our tire pyro out after every session trying to better manage these tires. The camber was perfect and had even temps across the tire. I did have to take out some toe. Steering wheel wasn’t straight but track alignments rarely are. Car still tracked straight.
There were no issues until Martin’s third session. Two laps out he got red flagged. Sparks were flying off of his car near the gas tank. Not a good sign. Looked under the car and a gas tank strap had snapped under the pressure. Pulled it off and tried to retech the car with only the one remaining strap but got a definite nah-uh dumb-dumb and got virtual slap to the back of the head. Hrm. What to do? Dug through the trailer and our 6 toolboxes again to see what bits and pieces we could fab together to hold the gas tank in place. Settled on the tie down straps from the trailer. If they can hold a car on a trailer they should be able to keep a tank in place. Found a couple pre-tapped holes under the car for 10mm bolts near the gas tank. Thank you Honda. Dug through our bolt collection but no 10mm bolts. Crap. Have a box of them in the garage. Up went the hood and one bolt was taken off the headlight casing leaving 3 to hold the headlight in place and the other was lifted from were the fender mounts to the frame leaving 4 bolts to keep the fender in place. Bolted the strap to the under body in two places and tied it up one of the loose ends to the rear stabilizer bar just to be extra safe. Got a green light from tech and back onto the line Martin went just in time for his session. Talk about a stressful pitstop but didn’t miss a session.
I’ve swapped 3 tanks in my racing career but for some reason I thought there was other bolts holding the tank in place and the straps were just backup. Nope. When I went under the car and pushed the tank I realized the filler cap and fuel line wasn’t going to cut it. Thank you tech gods. Our tank strap held no problem for the rest of the day. Much more effective than our original plan of prayer and finger crossing.
I went out for my last two sessions. Track was getting greasy and none of the top runners were putting down faster times most losing about half a second from their morning times. On my second last session and really tried to push braking zones back and smooth out my lines in the slow bits but was just disheartened when I saw I was almost a second off my morning times. Thought crap think the rear tires that are now front tires are losing grip. Pyrometer showed even tire wear so knew I was using all the tire. Dropped the front tire pressures on my last run to 18lbs in a last ditch effort to get more front tire grip. Went out and thought right away that was a bad idea. Tire roll was intense – knew the sidewalls were rolling under rim. With cold tires entry speeds were dreadful and tires sounded nearly flat. On the back straight of my warm up lap I zig zagged up the long back straight to get heat up tire and increase the tire pressures. Off I went to the green flag fingers and toes crossed the tire doesn’t roll off the rim.
Strangely the heat helped and fronts started to grip better than they had all morning. Still felt sloppy but the grip was there. Was my first hot lap when I threw the car into the hairpin in second gear and the car stuck. I then hit the rev limiter a meter past the apex of the hairpin. Wow I’ve never had to shift that early before. Then hit the rev limiter again in fourth down the backstraight at the 70 foot marker. Hit the limiter three times before I hit brakes just past the 50 marker. Car rotated nicely and took the Fabi right hander in 4th while staying in VTEC. Man that felt fast. My fastest run was on the last lap shaving about 7/10ths from morning session finishing with a 76 something. Pyrometer showed the outsides were overheating. 180 degrees outside to 150 degrees on the inside. Sidewalls won’t survive at 18lbs of air if we run that consistently - but tons more grip. I’ll flip the tires on the rims before we use them again. Wider fronts will be on for the Mosport GP event in 3 weeks.
The Vettes still ruled this day with Krispy in his Z06 putting down 74s. I won my class again and Martin finished third again with the tube frame Vette affectionately know at as the ‘Canal Rat’ using his displacement and hp advantage to squeeze in between us again. Pro track likes hp. Really want more power but am hesitant to mess with our workhorse motor that has performed so well for over 2 seasons.
I’ll try to post pictures of the paint job on the new car and the straps we fabbed for the tank on the backup car later in the week. I’ll also update my guessing times to official times once they’re posted.
Tough weekend, but stubborn persistence carried the day.
This past weekend was the third and fourth event of the CASC-OR Solo Sprint series – this weekend was hosted by the HADA Motorsport Club (hadamotorsport.com). So out came the backup car was once more called to duty. A new trailing arm was installed but not fortified. Solid bushing from the last one were transferred over without drama. Expected this one to hold but am looking into re-enforcing these arms somehow. Paul Bhawan from Splitfire Performance did a fantastic job as usual. He also added plastic fender flares to cover the super wide slicks so the car looked a bit less like a post-apocalyptic road warrior returning with battle scars
Saturday morning pulled the car off the trailer for morning lapping. First turn on the track knew something was wrong so pulled in right away. Car was not tracking straight. Shook all the wheels and sure enough found a loose one. You really had to rip on it to feel the play, but it was there. The Skunk2 rear upper camber arm had failed and there was slop in the poly bushing. Off it came. With hand tools and bits and pieces we found in various toolboxes we fabbed up a solid bushing by hammering in custom metal sleeves into the bushing. Our trailer doubled as a workbench. Not perfect, but definitely no play. A new Hard Race arm with solid spherical bushings is on order from Kiwi at Special Projects in California.
Managed to get the car fixed in time to do 2 laps during morning lapping. The car felt sloppy when the tires were cold, but tightened nicely as they got heat into them. I was out for the first timed session. It’s been a while since I ran the Nelson track so the first session was just pushing enough get decent times while trying to remember the race line. But right off the bat, knew the clutch wasn’t going to survive the day. Had slippage in every gear, but mostly the 3rd to 4th shift just wouldn’t catch. Second session out I just wailed on the car and did a triple clutch into 4th and it seemed to catch. Cost time, but at least I got times in. By the end of that session though I was losing confidence in the braking zones. Tires felt like they were going off which sucked because it was only the 3rd event on these tires.
I got the last of a working car cuz out went Martin for his first session and the clutch was barely working at all for him and the front tires had completely gone off. Pulled the tire off in the pits to try to remove some more camber to see if that would help but that’s when I saw the cords on the tires. A 2” wide patch of tire on the inside was missing, cords were showing even though the outsides were still almost new. Crap. Our mistake with these tires was trying 2 degrees front camber at our first event and 1 degree on the second day. Through we went back to 0 degrees on the 3rd event the wear was too great from the first two days to survive the third day. Slicks don’t like camber. Lesson learned. It was just before lunch but we were done for the day. On the trailer the car went.
We scrambled looking for a local Honda dealership that could throw in our spare clutch and mount our spare rear tires onto the front but no luck. Paul Bhawan at Splitfire Performance picked up the phone right away when I called and just said bring it in. Off to Brampton I went car in tow. His shop usually closes at 4 and I was there at 4:45. Car went right on the hoist and out came the tranny. Clutch was badly worn, but the slippage was most likely caused by an oil leak near the distributor that dripped onto the flywheel. A new stage 4 clutch was installed along with new throw bearings. Corded tires removed and our spare rear tires were installed for the front. What a PITA it is to install these. We usually run wider tires in the front but our spare fronts were at Discovery Auto Collision needed to fit the fender flares on the new car. Be running a square setup for Sunday but at least we’ll have a running car. Out of the shop the car went at 7pm. Paul did a complete check of the car and we were ready to go. What an awesome shop. We’re very grateful to Paul and the Splitfire crew for backing us up the way they did. Many props.
Got a text from Martin while I was there. Without a fully working clutch and half of the tread of the front tires I still won my class and set fourth fastest time of the day out of about 50 competitors. The Corvettes dominated this event with BradM setting FTD. Our little 1.6L was the lowest displacement motor in the top 5. Martin still managed third in class having a tube frame Corvette chassis on Nascar style slicks slipping in between us.
Sunday the car ran flawlessly. Was the pro track configuration so lots of long straight aways for the corvettes to take advantage of. The narrower tires were costing speed in the corners but did help us a bit in the straights by not being so tall. Were getting wheel spin though on the hairpin so had to add gas slower than with the bigger tires. I really missed the front end grip. Stiffened up the rear suspension and the car was rotating nicely. Power steering was heavenly. We had our tire pyro out after every session trying to better manage these tires. The camber was perfect and had even temps across the tire. I did have to take out some toe. Steering wheel wasn’t straight but track alignments rarely are. Car still tracked straight.
There were no issues until Martin’s third session. Two laps out he got red flagged. Sparks were flying off of his car near the gas tank. Not a good sign. Looked under the car and a gas tank strap had snapped under the pressure. Pulled it off and tried to retech the car with only the one remaining strap but got a definite nah-uh dumb-dumb and got virtual slap to the back of the head. Hrm. What to do? Dug through the trailer and our 6 toolboxes again to see what bits and pieces we could fab together to hold the gas tank in place. Settled on the tie down straps from the trailer. If they can hold a car on a trailer they should be able to keep a tank in place. Found a couple pre-tapped holes under the car for 10mm bolts near the gas tank. Thank you Honda. Dug through our bolt collection but no 10mm bolts. Crap. Have a box of them in the garage. Up went the hood and one bolt was taken off the headlight casing leaving 3 to hold the headlight in place and the other was lifted from were the fender mounts to the frame leaving 4 bolts to keep the fender in place. Bolted the strap to the under body in two places and tied it up one of the loose ends to the rear stabilizer bar just to be extra safe. Got a green light from tech and back onto the line Martin went just in time for his session. Talk about a stressful pitstop but didn’t miss a session.
I’ve swapped 3 tanks in my racing career but for some reason I thought there was other bolts holding the tank in place and the straps were just backup. Nope. When I went under the car and pushed the tank I realized the filler cap and fuel line wasn’t going to cut it. Thank you tech gods. Our tank strap held no problem for the rest of the day. Much more effective than our original plan of prayer and finger crossing.
I went out for my last two sessions. Track was getting greasy and none of the top runners were putting down faster times most losing about half a second from their morning times. On my second last session and really tried to push braking zones back and smooth out my lines in the slow bits but was just disheartened when I saw I was almost a second off my morning times. Thought crap think the rear tires that are now front tires are losing grip. Pyrometer showed even tire wear so knew I was using all the tire. Dropped the front tire pressures on my last run to 18lbs in a last ditch effort to get more front tire grip. Went out and thought right away that was a bad idea. Tire roll was intense – knew the sidewalls were rolling under rim. With cold tires entry speeds were dreadful and tires sounded nearly flat. On the back straight of my warm up lap I zig zagged up the long back straight to get heat up tire and increase the tire pressures. Off I went to the green flag fingers and toes crossed the tire doesn’t roll off the rim.
Strangely the heat helped and fronts started to grip better than they had all morning. Still felt sloppy but the grip was there. Was my first hot lap when I threw the car into the hairpin in second gear and the car stuck. I then hit the rev limiter a meter past the apex of the hairpin. Wow I’ve never had to shift that early before. Then hit the rev limiter again in fourth down the backstraight at the 70 foot marker. Hit the limiter three times before I hit brakes just past the 50 marker. Car rotated nicely and took the Fabi right hander in 4th while staying in VTEC. Man that felt fast. My fastest run was on the last lap shaving about 7/10ths from morning session finishing with a 76 something. Pyrometer showed the outsides were overheating. 180 degrees outside to 150 degrees on the inside. Sidewalls won’t survive at 18lbs of air if we run that consistently - but tons more grip. I’ll flip the tires on the rims before we use them again. Wider fronts will be on for the Mosport GP event in 3 weeks.
The Vettes still ruled this day with Krispy in his Z06 putting down 74s. I won my class again and Martin finished third again with the tube frame Vette affectionately know at as the ‘Canal Rat’ using his displacement and hp advantage to squeeze in between us again. Pro track likes hp. Really want more power but am hesitant to mess with our workhorse motor that has performed so well for over 2 seasons.
I’ll try to post pictures of the paint job on the new car and the straps we fabbed for the tank on the backup car later in the week. I’ll also update my guessing times to official times once they’re posted.
Tough weekend, but stubborn persistence carried the day.
21-Jun-2009, 01:08 PM
#31
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Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 58
Got some awesome shots courtesy of Sonia Tanney at Tanney Motorsport . These were taken on the Saturday morning of the Nelson event before the clutch and tires had gone off.
21-Jun-2009, 07:34 PM
#33
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Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 58
Here's two shots of the gas tank strap dragging on Martin's run.
If we ever do a tech on how to secure a gas tank at the track with tow straps and parts you pull off of other parts of the car, we'll have to include this picture. Hehe.
29-Jun-2009, 10:04 AM
#38
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Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 58
Here's the cage being primed. As you can see it's been X'd behind the driver and passenger seat. Was painted a flat dark gunmetal gray. Don't have any pictures of it to give it justice, but awesome work done by Garth Webb at Webber Chassis. Will totally recommend these guys to anyone and will use these guys again. Will try to post finished photos soon.
Car was picked up over a week ago and here she sits on the hoist. This crappy cam photo doesn't give justice to the work done by Richie at Discovery Auto Collision. Will have to get it outside and take proper pictures to post.
09-Jul-2009, 10:48 AM
#40
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Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 58
The new Import Specialist EK is still in the build stages and not likely to see track time till later in the season, so that leaves the backup car in desperate need of power. At mid-170ish hp it’s a little weak-sauce for a hp track like Mosport Grand Prix. Mosport is an incredible track that is an honour and privilege to compete on. It’s definitely needs to be on everyone’s must drive before I die list. This is not a track for the meek and needs to be treated with equal doses of respect and fear. And horsepower. So time to up the ante. For a small displacement motor ours was putting down well over 100hp/1000cc so pretty efficient for what it is. The motor was built, tuned and exclusively maintained by Paul Bhawan at Splitfire Performance since new – splitfireperformance.com. It’s had over 2 seasons on it with regular maintenance but not so much as a refresh. It’s been an incredibly reliable motor for us so far.
Recently however it started burning a bit of oil and puffying smoke between gears. A compression test showed a weakening in the rings. But we still needed power, so with a “horsepower fixes everything” mantra we decided it was time to go turbo.
That’s a big decision and made for a long freaking week of car building ahead. A T3 turbo in 64 trim was ordered, a manifold and FMIC. All the piping was custom made by Paul Bhawan at Splitfire. From start to finish the car was ready, tuned and race ready in 10 days and done to the standard of a man who runs a turbo the size of a baby elephant and owns Canada’s fastest FWD turbo car. He’s forgotten more about turbo cars than I’ll ever learn.
We were aiming for a 100hp gain at a low boost of 10psi putting us at about 270ish hp at the wheels. I ran all our figures of displacement, stroke, boost etc. through a turbo calculators and simulators and always came up with about 245 to 250hp. Paul being the whiz, we figured he’d be able to beat the calculator easy peasy. Car put down 318hp and 265ft of tq. Bam. That’s like a double shot of amphetamines and cocaine sprinkles to wash it back.
Now we’ve spent about 3 seasons fine tuning the balance of this car making it crazy easy and predictable to drive at the limit. Now we’re adding a crap load of weight in front of the axels so we were starting with a fresh slate. A track day was needed before the event to sort out the handling so we signed up for the Kensai Racing lapping day on Canada day, July 1st (Kensai Racing Total Motorsport Performance Products). So off we went to test the new set up. But that’s another story.
Recently however it started burning a bit of oil and puffying smoke between gears. A compression test showed a weakening in the rings. But we still needed power, so with a “horsepower fixes everything” mantra we decided it was time to go turbo.
That’s a big decision and made for a long freaking week of car building ahead. A T3 turbo in 64 trim was ordered, a manifold and FMIC. All the piping was custom made by Paul Bhawan at Splitfire. From start to finish the car was ready, tuned and race ready in 10 days and done to the standard of a man who runs a turbo the size of a baby elephant and owns Canada’s fastest FWD turbo car. He’s forgotten more about turbo cars than I’ll ever learn.
We were aiming for a 100hp gain at a low boost of 10psi putting us at about 270ish hp at the wheels. I ran all our figures of displacement, stroke, boost etc. through a turbo calculators and simulators and always came up with about 245 to 250hp. Paul being the whiz, we figured he’d be able to beat the calculator easy peasy. Car put down 318hp and 265ft of tq. Bam. That’s like a double shot of amphetamines and cocaine sprinkles to wash it back.
Now we’ve spent about 3 seasons fine tuning the balance of this car making it crazy easy and predictable to drive at the limit. Now we’re adding a crap load of weight in front of the axels so we were starting with a fresh slate. A track day was needed before the event to sort out the handling so we signed up for the Kensai Racing lapping day on Canada day, July 1st (Kensai Racing Total Motorsport Performance Products). So off we went to test the new set up. But that’s another story.
Last edited by RRRex; 09-Jul-2009 at 11:01 AM.
