The Civic and BMW are parked for winter

 After scrambling to find an affordable parking spot for the Civic, I finally got it put away for winter today. I had to remove quite a bit of snow from around the car as the Hankook RS4's are useless on snow. Since I don't have a second set of wheels to use for storage, I decided to put the car up on jack stands to avoid flat-spotting the tires. Then, I did some research and realized it might be better to drop the car onto pieces of foam so the suspension doesn't sag all winter. I bought some foam pads (the kind you are supposed to stand on while doing stationary work) and cut them into small rectangles to sit under the tires. I also increased the tire pressures to 42 psi. This should prevent any tire deformation. 

I also parked the M3 in the barn at the country house, so two out of three cars are now parked for the winter. Let's hope the Saabaru continues to be reliable!

The Civic this morning

First trip: leave the car inside until the snow melts

Second trip: remove battery and place car on jack stands

... using the Saab to carry everything over

Third trip: change mind about jack stands and drop the car onto pieces of foam, increase tire pressures

The boys in Vieux Québec

Getting the barn ready for the M3

Cool off-road Lexus

I now really like the look of the new Vantage

And I think the new Continental is quite an improvement over the old one

Such a great, usable Ferrari

M2 Competition... nice

Bold colour choice for this Range Rover Sport

I almost never see these C63's anymore... weird

The track season is over, there are still some cool cars out there

Defender on French plates

Lovely 911

Super clean 914 2.0

Not my thing, but respect for keeping this on the road

Fast cars driving slowly

Cool import Alfa Spider

I think the design has aged well

This Lexus SC had a green licence plate... electric convesion?

This 633csi looks like it is driven regularly

Cool colour on this M3

I don't love that there non 8-cylinder AMG's, but this is pretty cool

OK, for real, last track event of 2020!

Alternate titles:

Double Bonus Track Time at ICAR

or

Saving the Best for Last

or

It All Comes Together at ICAR

The Civic has been here a lot lately...

Last Saturday, I was happy to be at ICAR for the bonus track sessions they decided to schedule at the last minute, after the official season's end, because of the unusually warm November weather. I had hoped to end the season on a high note and maybe beat my record lap of 1:48.52 that I set in September. After all, I have put in quite a few more laps since September and I think I’ve learned a trick or two about the track.

Literally as I was writing my post on Monday about Saturday’s track day, I found out that there was going to be yet another (!) additional afternoon of lapping at ICAR on Tuesday November 10th, beginning at 2:00 pm. This was perfect, as I had set aside some time to maybe go to Sanair with Pat to do some end-of-season testing. Since Pat had an appointment he couldn’t move on Tuesday, I decided to head out to ICAR alone. Since Saturday, I had added the proper amount of oil and hoped I would not have vtec issues this time. I arrived well in advance of the first session, after having topped up my fuel level. I knew if I wanted to get in 3 sessions, I would need a full tank.

There were only 4 cars and one Formula Ford by the time 2:00 pm came around. I headed out on track behind a lovely BMW M4. I could feel the car was making decent power on the warm-up lap, but after a short while, the check engine light again came on and I had a feeling that yet again, I was not getting full power from the engine. The track also felt a bit slippery, maybe because we were the first cars out on the day. My best lap was an unimpressive 1:51.03. I really wondered how I could get from a lap like that down to the low 1:48’s… When I looked at the data, I saw that my top speed on the lap was 156 km/h, while it had been 168 on Saturday’s best lap. I knew that I basically needed three ingredients to achieve a new best lap time: a grippy track, an aggressive but mistake free drive, and all the engine’s power. Two of those ingredients were missing in this first session.

On my second run, the car felt a bit more hooked up and I felt I was driving OK. I improved to a 1:49.85, but my top speed on that lap was only 155. The stupid check engine light was still on. I saw that Pat had called for an update during the session, so I called him. I told him the car felt OK, but that I suspected there was a link between the check engine light and my so-so lap times. He had me read the code: it was code 21, vtec solenoid. He said that we should probably go through the wiring to see if the vtec solenoid wires were properly secured. He had the idea to check the portion of the two key wires near the ECU, in the passenger footwell. Both wires were spliced and held together with electrical tape. He told me to jiggle them and see if that made a difference. I thought this was a funny way to try to fix things, but I decided to sort of reposition the two wires, bending them in a different direction, as I did not want to unwrap the electrical tape. I hoped this would make some kind of difference. I thanked Pat and headed over to chat with the M4 driver. He had a lot of data on his phone. He had achieved a 1:45 with his current setup, which included a Voltex aero kit. I ended up behind him as the session began, with a Golf R staged behind me.

As is my practice now, I did two real warmup laps (my spin Saturday came at the beginning of the second lap), a 2:03 and a 1:52. The grip felt better than on the first run, and there was no check engine light. The car seemed to have full power. On my third lap, I was pushing and seeing a “-3.6” on the display, which meant I should end up in the 1:48’s, which I did. The data later showed a top speed of 166, so I was not just imagining that the engine was working properly. My next lap was even better. The extra power meant I could not simply mash the gas halfway through the high speed esses, but that I had to gently roll on the gas starting at the apex of the second ess. I was kind of excited when I hit the cutoff of 4^th gear for the first time ever on this track. I managed a new personal best of 1:47.1. The Golf R was still behind me so I lifted to let him pass, and tried for another hot lap. I was rewarded with another best lap, a 1:46.85. I was ecstatic… it had all come together. I was debating whether to pit in and end the session there... I was pushing hard and could feel that I had maybe overcooked the front tires a bit. As a result, the front end felt less settled in the high speed sections. I stayed out, knowing this was my last track time of the year and that I should enjoy it. By lap 10, I decided to pit in, after a couple of laps in the 1:48’s. (I never caught the Golf R... all year I have been slower than these stupid cars!) The data showed a top speed of 175 on the fastest lap, but I’m pretty sure that’s a GPS error, as the speed curve on the graph looks a bit weird and because almost all the other laps showed 168 or 169, which must be the top speed in 4^th gear. On one lap, I tried to shift to 5^th briefly, but I don’t think it helped the acceleration, and it made the downshift to 3^rd at the hairpin more awkward. 

I think that it did indeed all come together in this last session of the year. I was pushing hard (sometimes resulting in some overly optimistic entry speeds and time loss in the slower sections), and the engine was making full power. The track seemed to be at a normal grip level. I had seen a yellow light in the dash come and go, but I later realized that it was the fuel light, not the check engine. I don’t know if jiggling the wire made a difference, but I would be so happy if the only problem with the vtec was one of those two wires. I proudly told the BMW driver that I had shattered my personal best lap time and he seemed to be genuinely happy for me. I was chatting with a Toyota GT86 driver I had seen at Tremblant. He did not seem too impressed with the high 1:46 lap time, but I didn’t mind. I had hoped since September to hit the 1:47’s, and to be in the 1:46 range was a very pleasant surprise. I have learned a few new tricks with all these end of season laps. My maximum and minimum speeds have improved in most sections, but not in all of them. The 1:46.8 is not the best the car can do. The lap timer says the optimal lap, based on the data from the last session, is a 1:46.12. Sadly I don’t have video of the lap (it’s a bit boring to watch though when I am pretty much alone on track) since my GoPro battery died. I called Pat on my way home and told him the good news about how the car was performing. I mentioned that I’m not sure there is much more time to shave off, and he just laughed… he said of course there was, and there was no reason we shouldn’t be able to get down into the 1:45’s next year.

This was for sure the last track event of the year, and so I was really happy to end it on a high note. I feel that I managed to get the most out of the end of the season, despite some ups and downs with the car’s reliability. I am ready to store the car for winter and hope that it will run this well again in the spring. To be continued in 2021...

The M4 with the cool aero

Evo with insane aero

The Civic has earned a rest... back next year!

Last ICAR laps of the year.

Sometimes, you can get  lucky... as I posted here, a couple of weeks ago, at Perry Performance and Competition's "friends and family" track day at ICAR, my car broke after literally 5 minutes on track and I was unable to repair it at the track. As ICAR was not officially holding any more events in 2020, I figured I would not be back on the track until 2021. The following weekend, it actually snowed. Last week, however, I received a message from Pat stating that ICAR would be hosting one more Saturday morning event, given the unseasonably hot weather we were seeing. I didn't expect to be able to go, as we had planned to go to the country house, but then Alex mentioned that she preferred to stay in town, since it was to be much warmer here. I then asked her if I could go do a couple of sessions and try to be home by 11 am, to which she agreed. Awesome! The car was ready to roll and all I did on the Friday evening was check the tire pressures. I didn't remember how to check the oil level with the Accusump.

I woke up to beautiful warm weather and headed to the track. The car was quickly ready to roll and as I was chatting with another driver, I saw a car heading onto the track. I rushed to get all set up and headed out myself. The track was dry and the weather warm, but there seemed to be little grip out there. On the beginning for my second lap, the rear end came around at the flat out left hander that is turn 2. As I was beginning to spin, I looked around and saw I was unlikely to hit anything, and then somehow, the car came back around as I slowed to a stop, pointing in the right direction. Cold tires or cold track, I guess. I took it easy for a couple of laps and started to pick up the pace near the end of the session, but I could see I was never going to beat my best time with the available grip. Still, the engine was pulling hard and I was enjoying myself. I tried to check the oil level with the Accusump closed and the engine running, but the dipstick still indicated I was well over full, so I didn't add any oil.

I sat out the next session (which was for beginners anyway) and strapped in for the next intermediate/advanced session. I was surrounded by a bunch of other cars, mainly German, as I headed out. I could feel that the grip seemed to have improved and my lap times were improving as well. I could see that I was soon going to go under 1:50, which would bring me closer to my personal best of 1:48.5. I hit a 1:50.1 on my 4th lap and got down to 1:49.1 on my fifth lap. I was catching a Lamborghini Huracan and a 991 GT3. The Huracan was not pushing and waved me by, and I began to chase down the GT3. Unfortunately, my check engine light came on and I could feel the vtec cutting out several times per lap. I was unable to improve on my times due to the slight power loss. The Huracan caught and passed me. I was caught and passed by Marco Sylvestre's very quick Porsche 987 Cayman and another GT3 (there were 5 GT3's at the track, out of maybe 20-25 cars). I finished the session without incident and packed up. I was home by 11:00 am, as promised. Even though I had not improved on my personal best lap time, I was satisfied with the car's performance. I have since looked at the data and the top speeds were where they should be (new record top speed of 168 km/h). I was off by 5-10 km/h in many corners, which seems to confirm that the grip on the track was not optimal. As for the vtec problem, I may have been slightly low on oil. Pat explained to me that to check the oil, I had to make sure that I kept the oil pressure up for a while, maybe 30 seconds, so that the Accusump tank would fill up, then close the valve, then check the oil. I have yet to do this but I think it will reveal a slightly low oil pressure. If this ends up being the last track activity of the year, it was a pretty good one. 

I made a short video of the two best laps:

And here are a few photos: 

Night drive in the mountains... part 2

At the meeting point

A couple of weeks ago, Mazen mentioned to me that he was not interested in repeating our night driving experience in the mountains, unless we did it in the daytime. I told him I didn't see when I would be able to free up that much time in the day, and that we'd have to put the idea on hold until next season. However, seeing that I would soon be putting away the Civic for winter, and assuming Mazen would be putting away his GT3, I figured it was worth proposing one more night drive, only a couple of days before the first snow was forecast. He agreed and we met up in Lachute after the kids were in bed. I decided to take the Civic, as it was running well and it would be one of my last chances to use it this year. Also, Mazen had never tried my Civic, and I thought he would be surprised by its performance.

... where Mazen would order a coffee.

This time, the roads were dry and I began to follow Mazen down the mountain road. I realized that I probably should have filled up as the fuel needle seemed to have dropped quickly on my drive north. I searched for nearby gas stations and there were none closer than the ones near Lachute. We drove for a while, and at the pace we were going, the Civic was easily keeping up with the Porsche, even though I was short shifting to save gas. The Civic, despite its stiff suspension (by road car standards), was easily dealing with the bumps in the road. Mazen stopped after hitting a pothole quite hard. We could not see any damage to his front wheel, but he later found out that the inside of the rim had a sizeable dent. After a while, we switched cars and I took the lead in the GT3. Mazen was not keeping up, even though I was driving pretty gently. After a few minutes, I pulled over to switch back to the Civic and chat with Mazen. I asked him why he was not keeping up, and it turned out he felt absolutely no confidence driving the Civic, with all its noises and rattles. It's true that the Civic is the opposite of a Porsche in many ways. I never thought a lightweight front-wheel-drive car with a pretty conventional suspension setup would be intimidating to someone who drives a 500+ horsepower rear-wheel drive car, but I guess this goes to show that you never know who will be confident in which car. We soon found a gas station near Wentworth. After I filled up the Civic, I took Mazen out as a passenger my car. I thought he would be impressed with its acceleration, but he didn't seem to be. I guess he saw the car as a bucket of bolts and not a quick and safe sports car. I realized that in the future, I should probably bring the M3 on these drives, as Mazen was not at all worried about driving it quickly last time. Another advantage of the M3 is that we can actually hear each other talking on our phones during the drive. I was still happy with the experience. Apart fromt the noise, the Civic is not that unpleasant to drive on the street. One winter project will be to try to make the exhaust quieter, but other than that, this might be the year when I put the car away ready to run the following season. 

Although we're in November, this would not be the last outing for the Civic in 2020... to be continued!

Two very different cars with a similar focus.

Winter is almost here...

It snowed Sunday night and it's the temperature has dipped below zero a few times... It's almost winter. For once, the BMW will be in top shape when I put it away. It's been a joy to drive since the chassis repair. The Saab is ready for winter, although it's running on old steel wheels. It should not need anything major this winter if all goes well. The Civic seems to be running strong since Pat fixed the fuel rail and I would like to also be able to put it away for winter with no major jobs to be done on it. The special oil pan we installed seems to be doing its job, without leaking. I may try to squeeze in one last outing for the Civic before winter really sets in. 

There are still some cool cars on the road, but I anticipate most classic and sports cars will soon be put into storage. 

The M3 and Saab after the first snow

Nice F355

A rare Aston Martin at the dealership

The M3 after a fresh wash at the dealership (after the airbag recall was performed)

Mazen dropped by with his GT3 the other day

Different types of track-focused cars

Clean vintage car at the supermarket

Nice colour on this M5

End of season photo of the Civic

Weird little electric Purolator truck

What does the note say?

... dead battery.

Nice yellow 911T

Another XK, this one is an "R"

Another Saab 92x in the neighbourhood

Clean STi near Pat's garage