Alternate titles:
Double Bonus Track Time at ICAR
or
Saving the Best for Last
or
It All Comes Together at ICAR
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| 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 4th 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 4th gear. On one lap, I tried to shift to 5th briefly, but I don’t think it helped the acceleration, and it made the downshift to 3rd 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...
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| The M4 with the cool aero |
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| Evo with insane aero |
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| The Civic has earned a rest... back next year! |
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