Back at ICAR, there is still an oiling issue

Pat wanted me to see if there was still an oiling problem in left-hand corners on track, so he recommended I head back to ICAR. I headed north early Tuesday afternoon and worked from the track a bit. I was happily surprised when Carl showed up with his Evo 10, as I knew he was on vacation, but did not know he was still in town.

We were told we could hit the track earlier than usual, at 5:00, so I strapped in and headed out behind Carl. Even though he was on old tires, it wasn't long before he disappeared ahead of me. There were a few drops of rain, but the track was dry. I had positioned my camera so it would hopefully have a view of the oil pressure gauge. As I built up speed, it became obvious that the problem was not solved. The pressure was dropping sharply in left-hand corners. I decided to pit in and head home early. I was actually home for dinner. 

The solution will be hopefully be to install an oil accumulator which will bring back the oil pressure when it drops. Pat found a cheap used unit, but sadly will not be able to install it for a few days, since he is preparing his own car for the Fall Classic at Tremblant. He will also install a different oil pan gasket to hopefully resolve the leak issue. 

The BMW is getting a major rear end service. I first took it to the garage to solve three issues, an oil leak, a clunk from the rear end, and a vibration sound. The first garage found a 4th problem: a tie rod end needed replacing. He did not have time to fix the other problems. I went to a second garage, T.C. Automotive, and George (who I know from racing) told me that the exhaust needed new flanges and that the frame was tearing near the diff, a common problem for these cars. He fixed the oil leak and told me to contact Seb Rochon, builder of roll cages, for the chassis repair. I brought the car to Seb and he began work right away. He informed me today that I brought the car just in time to avoid major damage. He is also replacing the exhaust flanges. I hope to have an M3 in excellent condition by next week.

Luckily, I have the Saab in town as well, which we've been using for all our other transportation needs. It's still working fine and I hope is continues to be reliable throughout the winter. 

Clean and lovely 964

Cool plate too

Not my favourite MG, but cool to see it being used

The Civic waits for more repairs and track time

Full-on 80's: 930 slant nose

Rare colour Alfa Spider

I still love these Ur-S4/S6's

A great-looking car

A rare colour for this 2006 or 2007 WRX

STi and our M3

A fantastic-looking early 911 in flat grey

The Cayman GT4 I often see

A lovely Jaguar XJR

Defender 90

One of the coolest family cars you can buy

Loud modifications on this 488

I had never heard of the 2-series Grand Coupe... it's a really agly car.

Many, many BMW's at T.C. Automotive

Pat sets the timing on the Civic

These S-class coupes are aging well

German-taxi colour for this S-class

The current S-class coupe is also nice

The E36 design has aged very well

Saabaru on a sunny day... looks good from a distance

A surprising spot on the street: fully-liveried Celica GT-Four

A rare Alfa Stelvio Quadrifoglio

Nice Civic Type R near the office

Cool wheels, but I still don't like these cars

Back on track again, still some work to do...

After my successful outing at ICAR, I decided to attend a track day held by VAG Autosport at Tremblant. It rained almost non stop. Lap times were 30 seconds per lap slower than in the dry. I got black flagged three times in 5 sessions: the first time for forgetting to turn on my headlights, the second because I was leaking too much oil, and the third, because my car was too loud (93.6 decibels when the max was 92). I was officially kicked out because of the sound level of the car, but after 5 sessions in the rain, I was pretty much ready to leave. Speed-wise, I held my own. I was being passed by Porsche GT3's and GT4's, and a slew of Golf R's. I really wished my car had adjustable suspension, as it would have been nice to have softer settings in the dry. 

Rob was there with his M3 and we got to hang out quite a bit, which is nice, since I haven't seen my friends too much this year.

I had fun, but did not gather any useful data to see how much faster the car is now with the new engine. I really have to address the oil leak and, eventually, the sound level of the car. To be continued...

The Civic is ready for action

One of 2 new C8 Corvettes at the track

Not every car was super expensive

Ford-powered Lotus Europa

My neighbours had Vettes

Cool Alfa 4C

The official car of the day: Golf R

Cool track-focused 993

One of many 991 GT3's

This Locost seemed to be street legal... impressive

Cool Camaro

Vantage, not a car you see at many track days

Very different V8's

The Elise is tiny beside an M2

GT3 and GT4

My Civic and Rob's M3

Finally back on track!

 Last Tuesday, I finally managed to take the Civic back out on the track at ICAR. The last step after the engine installation was to have the car tuned on the dyno by Sajan. Pat brought him the car and I picked it up the followiong day. The final horsepower figure was disappointing, 192 hp (compared to 214 for the H23 in my old car back in 2014), but the car felt quick. 

I didn't need to adjust or change any settings on the car. Even the tires had held the same pressures as used in my last session at ICAR when we had the engine problems in June. I noticed that the car was leaking a lot of oil from near the oil pan, but this was not enough of an issue to miss the last chance to test the car before my track day at Tremblant scheduled for September 7th. 

I got to the track super early (around 3:30 pm) so I would avoid traffic. I managed to work with my lap top while a few race cars enjoyed a testing session. In fact, I found out that if I brought my race suit and arrived at noon, I could pay a flat fee of 150$ and lap all afternoon. It would not have been worth it to pay the flat fee at the time I arrived, however. I chatted with another driver to find out what he thought of the new 2020 configuration. He said that he liked it and that it was 4 or 5 seconds faster than last year's (others had told me 1 second, so I was a bit confused). A large variety of cool cars showed up, from modified old Civics to Porsches and Mclarens. I really like this aspect of the ICAR evenings.

I registered for the evening and was ready for the very first session a bit before 6:00 pm. The car felt fine but I was rusty. The acceleration and gearing were excellent. I was letting most cars pass me, and it took me a while to get into a groove. I finally managed some clean laps when I managed to hang onto a Camaro after it passed me and I managed my best lap ever at ICAR, at 1:48.52, which was quite a bit faster than the 1:50.25 I had managed in June. My top speeds were the same or better than those of June, which makes me think this H22 is making close to the same power as the H23 was. 

Pat joined me at the track and went out for a session as it was getting quite dark. For once, he didn't beat my time, which made sense, since it was pretty dark and he couldn't see the few reference points on the track. We noticed a drop in oil pressure in left-hand corners and this worried Pat, even though the pressure was no lower than at idle. We will have to keep an eye on this in the future. Also, the oil leak was pretty bad after we parked the car.

There are still things to work on with both car and driver, but the season seems to have resumed on a positive note.

A Focus RS and a Cayman GT4

Lovely Alfa 4C

This Civic passed me on track

Very clean RX8

The Civic parked beside me had a fuel leak on his B18c engine, which he managed to fix

Audi RS3

The Civic between sessions

Very aggressive looking Evo

This nice purple Mclaren parked near me

Exige heading into the paddocks

Nice Defender 90

One of many GT86's and a cool 3-series wagon

Almost the same colour for this Shelby and GT3

Fast and loud Exige

Lovely S2000's and a trio of 350Z's

Nice variety

Very nice MR2

Another Mclaren and an STi