Vince's Stuff: June 2012

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Busy times

It’s been a busy time, with many automotive activities and baby preparations. I have been driving the Civic as much as possible. Marc was able to rapidly change my power steering pump and fix the exhaust leak, so I was back on track without missing any events. On June 4^th, I managed to match my best lap time from last year at St-Eustache, a 1:01.2.

On Friday the 8^th, I went to the Formula 1 practice sessions at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve with Rob. Although we got soaked, we had a pretty good time.

The following day, I headed to Tremblant to instruct with the BMW Club of Quebec. The car was quick and I was driving with confidence right from the start, as I had been there only 2 weeks before. The lap times were similar to those of the race weekend (best of 1:58.6) but after a couple of sessions, I began to see power steering fluid accumulating in the driver foot well. I guess the power steering rack could not take the pressure from the new pump. Other than that, the car performed well and I had a fun weekend.

On Monday the 11^th, I was lapping when I lost all drive. It turned out I had broken an axle. I was about to call CAA for a tow when Pascal offered to change it on the spot. I could not believe it… it took him about 15 minutes and I did not even miss a single session on track. In my last session, I managed a 1:01.168, my best lap ever, although still far off what I should be doing. I was having more and more trouble getting the car into gear though, and I decided to again bring the car to Marc so we can first replace the shifter, then see if the synchros are OK.

Here is a pic of Pascal doing a lightning-fast axle change on my Civic:

Of course, with Grand Prix weekend, there were many, many exotic cars to be seen on the streets of Montreal, including such rarities as a Ferrari 599 GTO and a Bugatti Veyron. I saw a couple of Scion FRS’s and the styling is really nothing special. I also saw a Fiat 500 Abarth and, although I’m sure it’s a great little car, it looks virtually identical to other versions of the 500.

Cool cars spotted: