It feels like summer is here!

I’ve been quite busy and haven’t had much time to post lately. At least I have been driving my car again!

When Pat finished my engine swap in the Civic, I took the car to Sajan’s shop, Synoptic Tuning, for a dyno tune. The numbers did not disappoint, as the new engine made 184 whp.

I lent my car to Pierre and Jam for the SPC road race at St-Eustache, which was to be held at the same time as the ASE time attack. Pierre and Jam would do their runs, then swap on my race tires so I could go out for my own runs. They each managed a top-10 finish with the Civic, but my own lap times were disappointing. Also, Pierre managed to scrape the wall and leave a few nice scratches on the righ side of the car (he has offered to pay for repairs). I was personally hoping to dip into the 59-second range, but my best lap was a 1:01.7. It didn’t help that the vtec was not engaging at the correct RPM (this would later be corrected by Sajan).

After that unsatisfying day, Pascal convinced me to enter the car at last weekend’s Spring Classic at Tremblant. This event is the subject of my previous, more detailed post. Suffice it to say, the car performed well, but it sure puffs a lot of smoke when I release the gas pedal!

I went out to Monday lapping before yesterday and still could not go faster than 1:01.7. I compared the data to last year’s laps, and the car is not significantly faster at the end of the straights. I don’t know if I’m still making 184 whp, or if I screwed something up. The car is presently at Marc’s and hopefully, he will be able to figure out what’s going on after fixing my power steering. At least I got to drive a C6 Corvette ZR1 for a few laps. The power of that car is simply insane! It must be the most powerful car I have ever driven, with 638 hp. 

Other than that, the weather has been pretty great and it feels like summer is already here. Alex and I are quite busy at home making preparations for the baby in August, and I will take a weekend off from racing to do some baby shopping and assemble a mountain of furniture from Ikea.

Alex with a Princess Cake (eaten by Vince) at Ikea

My next track event will be the BMW school at Tremblant on June 9th and 10th.

Cool cars spotted:

Early Porsche 911

Aston Martin Vainquish

Aston Martin DB9

Ferrari F430

Porsche 997 Turbo S

Porsche 968

Mercedes 190e 2.3-16

AMG C63

AMG C63 Coupe

AMG CLS 63

Lamborghini Gallardo

Audi R8 V10

Audi RS4

C6 Corvette Z06

Rolls-Royce Phantom

At Tremblant:

Porsche 997 GT3

Porsche 997 GT3 4.0 (!)

Porsche 997

Porche 997 Turbo

Porsche 944 Turbo

Audi R8 V10

Porsche 993 Turbo

New BMW M5

C4 Corvette ZR1

AMG C63

AMG CLS63

Ferrari 328

Ferrari Mondial

Ferrari 360

Ferrari F355

Lamborghini Diablo (!)

Lotus Elise Supercharged

Lotus Evora

Acura NSX

All these GT3’s were parked near each other in the spectator parking at Tremblant: