A night at ICAR with no issues, and some decent laps

I think last night was the first time this year that I had an evening at ICAR with zero issues at ICAR. In June, I managed four sessions one evening, but my clutch died and I needed to be towed home. Two weeks ago, I started out with some old brake pads and one of them completely disintegrated and the backing plate fused to the piston in the caliper. I installed new front discs, a new caliper and new pads (street pads). Last week, I hit the track with the street pads and the car braked well enough, but after two sessions, I lost confidence that they would last any longer when I looked at the wear so far. Still, I was able to drive home with no issue. I finally bit the bullet and bought some of the toughest track pads out there, the Hawk ER-1 compound. They are expensive, but I was paying for peace of mind... and peace of mind is what I got! The car worked perfectly well and was 100% consistent from one session to the next. 

As I mentioned in my last post, I had made a couple of small changes to try to make the car faster: install the same tires on wider wheels with a more agressive offset, and remove the 46-pound passenger seat. This was my prediction about lap times:

"Anyway, given that the car's theoretical best last week was 1:18.33, I think I can dip down into the 1:17s with these minor changes. I also think that if all the planets align (including cooler weather), the car will be capable of a high 1:16. If the weather is nice tomorrow, I will be able to see if I'm moving in the right direction."

Well, the weather was just fine, it was about 22 degrees when I started my first session. I took it easy at first to make sure the new wheel setup felt OK and was not rubbing, and then I pushed more and more. By lap 10, I had beat my personal best (1:18.58) with a 1:18.38. A couple of laps later, I had dipped into the 1:17's, with a 1:17.89 and a 1:17.91. I was really happy with that improvement, and I felt there was more time to shave off. As usual, I was getting passed constantly, since I was about the slowest car in the advanced group. Most of the time, getting passed affected my lap time. Still, I had been hoping for a 1:17 and I had achieved my goal in the first session. 

I was feeling good about the second session. The session went even better. On my 6th lap, I managed a 1:17.63 and the car was feeling great. I realized I could brake less for the chicane and carry more speed through it. Six of my seven final laps were in the 1:17's. On my 12th lap, I managed a 1:17.19 and on my last lap, I was in the "minus", beating that lap time. I had to slow a tiny bit to let a Supra pass me before the chicane, but I still lowered my time to a 1:17.12. I'm pretty sure that lap could have been a high 1:16, since my data shows my top speed before the chicane was 9 km/h slower than on my second-best lap. Anyway, this would be my best lap of the day, and I think a 1:16 is definitely possible now, without any more changes to the car. 

I was no quicker in my third session (1:17.24) but all felt good with the car. I decided to switch to the yellow group so I could try to keep up with Robin in his highly modified 7th generation Civic sedan. He was lapping low 1:17's with a passenger and low 1:16's without. There was a long cleanup after a crash and it was very dark by the time the last yellow session rolled around. Robin did not take a passenger with him and I was not able to keep up with him. He was quicker in many sections of the track. His Civic has less power than my RSX, but it's lighter and has an aero package. Even though the session was shortened by a red flag, I had fun and was just happy to be driving the car home in one piece, with absolutely no issues. 

This was one of the most satisfying evenings I have had at ICAR in quite a while. I shaved almost 1.5 seconds off my best lap time, which brings me closer to the average speed of most of the other cars out there. This was better than I had hoped for on my first attempt with these small modifications. I'm proud of what this 3500$ car with 314 000 kilometers has achieved so far. I really look forward to my next events, wherever and whenever they are.

Robin's Civic

The sun has set

Rare colour Evo 10

One of two FD RX7's

Cool Bronco Raptor (did not drive on track)

Very cool caged GTR

RSX and a LP400 STi

A couple of affordable track cars

The other FD

Clean and quick 4th generation Civic on Kosei wheels

The Supra that kept passing me

There were several GR Corollas

The look of the Mustang wheels is better than I thought it would be

992 GT3 club

One of the biggest motors and one of the smallest

Nice Civic Type R replica

A slightly better evening at ICAR, new best lap for the RSX

After changing my destroyed brake pads, I decided to give ICAR another shot. I was hoping that the street pads would be tough enough for the track. 

The pedal feel in the first session was pretty good, and I managed my new best lap with the RSX, a 1:18.61. The car felt predictable and I was having a good time in the green session, even though almost every other car passed me. 

I went out for a second session and I thought I could hear the sound of brake pads disintegrating. Still, I slightly improved my best lap to a 1:18.58. I checked the pad thickness without removing the wheels and it looked quite bad... they were more than half worn after only two sessions. I decided not to push my luck and called it a night. I didn't want to destroy another caliper. 

I decided later that week that I didn't want to lose any more track time trying out cheaper braking options. Even though I had received my R1 Performance budget track pads, I decided not to install them and instead to contact Carl so he could recommend me a real track pad from Hawk. As he had done last year, he proposed the ER-1. They are expensive, but they are an endurance pad, so they may make up for it by lasting a long time. When I installed them, I noticed that the Bosch pads I had removed were not worn very evenly. The thinnest one was at about 1/3 thickness while a couple of the inner pads still had more than half their thickness. I'm not sure they would have lasted two more sessions. At least I know that I won't have to worry about my pads on track for a while. 

I want to improve my lap times now. I feel I am driving OK, but when looking at the data, I can see that there are a few more tenths to go and get with better driving (3/10s according to the theoretical lap time). This is the first component to improving my lap times. The other part of this can be accomplished by improving the car, ideally without spending any serious money. The RSX's cornering speeds are not significantly better than those of last year in the yellow Civic. I decided to try two small easy changes: I swapped the wheels for the Mustang wheels I bought before the season. These wheels are 1 inch wider, 1 pound lighter and have a more agressive offset. I used a vice grip and hammer to "roll" the rear fenders, as the clearance looked tight. In doing so, I cracked the body filler of my rear fender repair and had to redo it. I am happy with the result: a more aggressive stance for the car. I can no longer say the car is a total sleeper now that it has these wheels: it looks like someone's track car. Anyway, these wheels should give the tires a wider footprint and increase the car's track width. 

Part RSX, part Mustang!

The other thing I did was remove the passenger seat, which weighs 46.4 pounds according to my scale. That's a 1.7% weight reduction. Will it make a difference? A couple of tenths?

Anyway, given that the car's theoretical best last week was 1:18.33, I think I can dip down into the 1:17s with these minor changes. I also think that if all the planets align (including cooler weather), the car will be capable of a high 1:16. If the weather is nice tomorrow, I will be able to see if I'm moving in the right direction.

Same tire has a wider footprint on the 8-inch Mustang wheel vs the 7-inch RSX wheel

The RSX on the wider wheels

At ICAR last Tuesday

Spyder RS sounded great on track

A rare Porsche 968

This 992 GT3 RS is there every week

Nice MR-S

A 2006 RSX Type S, almost my car's twin

Serious-looking Civic

My neighbour had this clean NC Miata

Rare 3.0 BMW Z4 Coupe

My other neighobur had this STi

Many Civics, as usual

Nice variety

Cool Spoon livery on this S2000

Levely spec E92 M3: bare carbon roof and AP Racing calipers

Short evening at ICAR last week

Now that I am caught up on my post-trip updates, I can start writing about the period since I got back. Last week, I decided to head to ICAR with the RSX for evening lapping. I checked my brake pad thickness on the front passenger side and there was not much pad material left. I still calculated that I had enough for a few sessions at ICAR. Oscar is still on holiday so he joined me. 

Oscar chilling behind the RSX

The brake pedal didn't feel great at the beginning of the session. I was running in the green group, so I was basically just being passed by GT3's and V8's. I was able to follow a 944 for a lap or so, but even it was faster than the RSX. I was having fun, but the braking was getting worse and worse and by the end of the session, the pedal was really soft. My best lap time was actually not terrible, a 1:19.1, only 3/10 of a second slower than my best in June. The brake pedal was basically on the floor as I pulled into the paddock.

I decided we should pack up and head home. I took it very easy because I did not want to have to test the brakes for real on the road. At home, I immediately ordered some inexpensive "performance" front pads. I had already ordered and received some new front discs from Carl. I figured I might as well change the rear pads too, so I ordered some Bosch street pads and the tool to retract the piston on the rear calipers. I realized that never in my life had I changed rear pads on any of my track cars! Crazy, I know, but they don't wear that fast and often it was friends or professionals that worked on my Hondas. Anyway, I put the car up on jack stands to attack this job last Thursday. I saw that there was brake fluid dripping from the front passenger side caliper, and tried to get it off. The caliper would not pivot off the bracket, because the backing plate for one of the pads had fused to the piston... oops! This was entirely my fault. I had to remove the whole bracket to get the piston out. There was no way I would be able to reuse this caliper, but luckily for me, Carl had a replacement in stock and I went to buy it. In my defense, the driver side pads were still not worn down to the metal! 

Brake job for the RSX

The rear pads were also completely finished, a couple of them down to the backing plate... good thing I had ordered some. I was able to use my new tool to retract the pistons in the rear, but it was still very tight to get the caliper back on. My cheap performance front pads did not arrive yet, so I installed some Bosch street pads in front as well. It was also very tight in front, and I even had to remove the shims on the pads to be able to fit the caliper back on. I bled the new caliper and everything seems OK now after a test drive. . With all the new parts installed, braking should be pretty good, even on track with street pads... I hope. We will see tomorrow evening!

Ready for action?

Prelude and Mk.6

Usual cool mix of cars

Oscar and I had washed the car

.. and it rained on our way to the track

Here are some cars spotted around the neighbourhood:

Subtle 991 GT3 Touring

Nice 240Z

Very low early Boxster

Grumpy-guy and his 635CSi

Lovely new M3

This Urus, again

2CV on our street

Clean E30 sedan in Mile End

Tasteful Audi A4 Avant

Very clean Defender 90

Shelby

Westfalia and its reflection on Laurier

Old Preludes like this are rare now

E46 on BBS

Nice spec for this Bentley

GR Corolla on Laurier

Mexican plates on this Chevy

Imported Defender 110 with a loud interior colour