Vince's Stuff: The end of an era...

The track at St-Eustache is closing in a couple weeks and our club has held its last official events there. I headed out to the track on the last two Mondays, and to the very rainy last track day on the last Saturday of September.

I never improved on my best time... on the first Monday, there were several puddles on the track and I only managed a high 1:02, which was not bad given the conditions. I passed quite a few cars that were taking it easy in those conditions.

On the Saturday track day, it rained non stop. The car performed well enough, but the transmission started popping out of 3rd gear when I let go the of the gas, and I wondered if it would do this in the dry... I ended up leaving after lunch because I was getting pretty wet and the car wasn't doing that great.

Finally, on the last Monday, it was dry, but the 3rd gear problem was getting worse, in that I had to keep my hand on the shifter until I was on the gas to prevent it from popping out. I again put in laps in the high 1:02 range and in my second session, I took out Carl's friend Federico and was about a second slower. It was a bit of a disappointing end to the St-Eustache era, but Federico seemed to really enjoy the ride.

Lining up for my last session ever at St-Eustache. No, I did not catch and pass that S2000.

Braking hard with Federico aboard

Puff-puff

All in all, it's been a sad couple of weeks for those who enjoy track driving.This was my home track and there is no real alternative to Monday night lapping there. The Wednesday night lapping at ICAR will have to do, and I will have to find some other types of events to attend, or do more instructing with the BMW club.

In other Civic news, I decided that it would be more logical and economical to simply change the engine of the Civic for next season rather than rebuild it. I came across an inexpensive H23a DOHC vtec and bought it. It came with parts I don't need and that can be sold. I got a good deal on the H2B adapter plate on Ebay by making a low-ball offer that was accepted and picked up an inexpensive used header I found on Facebook and that will be it for the major parts needed. I just have to get a distributor, because the engine did not come with one. If all goes well, the engine can be in before winter. If not, it's not a big deal, it can wait until spring.

In other news, my friend Mazen just bought a nearly new Porsche 911 GT3 and I have been invited to go help him pick it up and drive it to Hawkesbury (using his also awesome BMW M3CS). That should be great fun and I'll try to get some photos.

Other photos from the last events at St-Eustache: