After having destroyed yet another tire on the Acura, I decided not to spend any more on new tires this year. Carl suggested I ask Marc-André Bourdages and buy some used SPC race series tires from him. Marc-André immediately agreed. He will sell me the same model and size I already use, but I will have to wait until September 27th, after his final race at Tremblant, which means no driving at ICAR this week.
The RSX takes a week off
The conditions yesterday were nice, cool and sunny, and ICAR announced on its Facebook page that yesterday was the before-last Tuesday of the year. I can't complain about missing one Tuesday when I had attended six weeks in a row (surely a record for me). Still, it stings a little!
Cool 70's 911 on Parc avenue
The same manual M4 on my street
M3 gets a wash
Mercury Marauder in the McGill Ghetto
Mazdaspeed Miata in Laval
Cool 90's SL with a hard top
Very rare now: Stealth RT
Nice E28 5-Series
Spotted this ready for the scrap yard RSX at a Canadian Tire... sad
The weather at ICAR yesterday was supposed to be nice, but it started raining pretty much as soon as the evening kicked off. I noticed that another of my tires is starting to cord, which is annoying, as I have already bought 6 tires this year. I guess I shouldn't complain, because it means I have been getting a lot of laps, this being my sixth Tuesday in a row at ICAR.
I headed out for the first green session in mostly dry conditions, but the rain was steadily increasing and my lap times were getting worse. I was watching one of my old racing buddies Dave pull away in his Champcar Civic, but he eventually had a little spin in the wide hairpin after the start-finish line. I could understand that, as even my understeer-prone RSX had had the rear swing out in the same location. I was trying to have fun even though I was going more and more slowly. The car understeered a couple of times, but didn't really oversteer again. I reminded myself that I was learning about how the car drives in the rain. After the session, I wondered if the evening was going to become more fun, or whether it was a sort of write-off.
I had to wait for two sessions to go by before I could hit the track again. It had stopped raining and a dry line was forming. I managed to catch Carl in his 996 GT3... he was on slicks and I can only imagine how tricky it must have been to drive that car on a semi-wet track. I was pretty much able to keep up with him as my lap times went from 1:24's to a 1:21 at the end (compared to 1:16's for my best ever laps). I was having more fun at this point.
By the last session, the track was pretty much dry. I was almost alone on track, as they had separated the yellow and green groups. After the fast cars passed me, I got in a few clean laps. I was still not able to push 100% because of reduced visibility, but I managed a couple of laps in the 1:17's, which are probably my best laps in darkness. I decided to call it quits after three sessions, to end on a high note and also because my right rear tire was even more corded than it had been before the session. It had been worth it to stick around. I probably won't attend next week, as I am waiting for someone to sell me some used tires after the Fall Classic at Tremblant in two weekends.
The car is reliable, it's not that slow, and it only needs a new (or used) tire to keep going, so this is a pretty good situation to be in.
Here is my little highlights video:
A rare diesel-powered track car
Carl's 996.2 GT3
I still want to try one of these on track
A couple of GR Corollas
Patrick's Civic
Mathieu's cool MR2 and tow rig
There had been a Mclaren event earlier and we saw a couple of them leaving
I had never really noticed that there are some common points in the designs of these two cars
I can't remember how long it's been since I have attended 5 Tuesdays in a row at ICAR... I have put in a ton of laps in that time. I was there again this past Tuesday and I did not, for once, improve my best lap, although I was only 1/10th of a second slower than last week. I had to change a tire as one of my fronts was corded, but Carl hooked my up and I had the new tire mounted in time to hit the track. I also decided to re-install the old heavy battery, as the mini one was dead when I tried to start the car. I don't want to sacrifice reliability to save 20 pounds. Anyway, as I mentioned, the car managed pretty much managed the same lap time with the "heavy" battery.
The car is reliable and I'm having fun on the track... this is really all I have wanted from a "temporary" track car. Choo finally responded to one of my messages so I know he is at least conscious that I want to get the Civic back, but if I have to finish out the year in the RSX, that's fine with me.
Here is a video of me chasing Patrick in his B20 EK Coupe... he is faster than me:
Usual ICAR mix
Patrick's Civic and the RSX
RSX between sessions... I don't even need to add oil...only gas!
RWD track cars
Different ways of going fast
Barn find wrapped 997
RSX after dark
M4 in the neighbourhood
Very rare Integra Type S
Cool Volvo wagon
Nice Viper GTS on the way to ICAR
Two very different Toyotas
Nice E34 on the Plateau
Sporty Volvo
Yellow
New neighbour's car? It was parked in the shared driveway this week... nice wheels
Well, I mentioned that "if all the planets aligned", I thought the RSX could break into the 1:16's at ICAR. In the end, I didn't have to wait for all conditions to be optimal... After the huge improvement in lap times after the wheel swap last week, I was only a couple of tenths of a second away, with a 1:17.1. I headed to ICAR again this Tuesday in substantially the same conditions as a week earlier (it was again 22 degrees in temperature) with a very small weight reduction (maybe 20 pounds) from swapping over to a lightweight batttery I bought for the 2000 Civic.
Right off the bat, in the first session, I managed a 1:16.7. I was pretty happy with that, and did not expect to beat that time again that evening. In the end, I did not, but I managed a 1:16.9 in two of the other three sessions of the evening. In the 4th session, I tried to follow Robin in his lightweight Civic 1.7. I had not managed the week before, but he would have a passenger this time. We had a fun session, he was a bit quicker but never pulled away due to traffic. We both caught and passed JS in his Civic 1.7, but he was really not much slower than us. After that session, I was ready to call it a night. Because they were mixing the intermediate and advanced groups, I would have had time to run a 5th session if I had felt like it, but I decided not to push my luck when the eveninfg had gone so well and the car had had no issues. It was getting dark and I had not even brought enough gas for a 5th session anyway.
I was really happy with the car and was able to get home earlier than usual. It was a satisfying evening.
