Vince's Stuff: Second outing at ICAR: still need tires but the car is very reliable!

Two Civics almost 20 years apart

What can I say about the Civic? It's perfectly suited to my needs. I drove in four different sessions on Tursday and the car never missed a beat. This is the highest number of sessions I have run in one evening, which is funny, because earlier in the day, it felt like I might not make it to the track at all. The brakes needed to be bled after the previous Tuesday and I hadn't found time to do it. My plan was to do it Monday evening, but I realized that I had less than half a bottle of brake fluid to work with, which was not a lot. This meant that I would have to stop by Perry Performance in Laval, and the only logical way to do this was to do it on the way to the track. I couldn't leave super early because I had a lot of work to do, and a conference call that only ended at 3:00. I managed to get the fluid and arrive at ICAR a bit after 4:30, which theoretically left me enough time to bleed the brakes. All was going well, but when I removed the last wheel, the left front, the whole spindle seemed very loose. I was pretty sure there was no way I could hit the track with so much play in the front end. The ball joint was OK, and I sniffed around until I realized that the axle nut had come loose. That was unexpected, but luckily I had a new, unused 32 mm socket in my tool bag as well as a torque wrench, so I tightened it and finished the bleed. The whole process took less than half a bottle, so I could have saved a trip to Perry and done all this at home! Anyway, the brake pedal seemed like it was back to its normal height and hardness (I think!) and I drove around the outer parking area a bit to see if all felt OK. It did. There was a yellow and green session that was about to begin so I began to get ready. I figured if I were to miss only one lap, I would go out on track and if I missed more, I would wait 40 minutes for the next session. Without rushing, I was able to make it out only a minute late so I joined a large group of cars on track and all went well. The weather was hotter than the previous week (22 instead of 10) and I feel the car was making a bit less power (the data seems to agree) so I was not surprised that it was taking a while to equal the 1:16 I had managed the week before. I had figured out a way to add a reference lap to the session so that that the plus/minus I saw on the screen was relative to the reference lap, and not just the best lap of the current session. This is quite motivating when you put your best ever lap as a reference lap. I managed three laps in a row in the 1:17's and I was satisfied. I was happy to be on the track at all, in fact, given how loose the hub had been 45 minutes earlier!

I had 40 minutes before my next session, so I had time to walk around and check out the other cars. I chatted with Yannick, who drives a Mini in the Super Production Challenge series. He runs in the middle of the three classes, with around 200 whp at a weight of 2600 pounds, including driver. The series ran Nankang AR1 tires last year (they will run the CRS this year), and he was running 1:15's. He told me the fastest cars on the series test days were in the low 1:14's. This made me feel like my 1:16 on dead tires was not so bad. I honestly think that with fresh AR1's, I would be deep into the 1:15's and maybe even quicker. My car is too old to be eligible for SPC, but it's nice to know that I seem to be running the lap times of SPC drivers in a car with a similar power to weight ratio. Also, Yannick is running a pretty fancy suspension on his Mini, while my suspension setup is pretty basic. The fact that the series is changing tires will actually benefit me: Yannick has about 40 used AR1's to get rid of in exactly my size! I will hopefully go pick some up this weekend and I will be able to test my theory (about being a bit slow due to old tires).

In my second session, I hadn't realized that I was getting on with the yellow group (and not a mix of yellow and green), but there was no issue, as the drivers in both groups are running similar lap times. I wasn't passing too much or getting passed that often either. I managed to beat my best time from the previous week, with a 1:16.58 on my final lap. The brake pedal was still fine. I am not sure, but the soft pedal may have been due to the caliper moving around due to the loose axle nut. Now that there were separate green and yellow groups, I would have a full hour before I hit the track again. I walked around, took some photos, and enjoyed the weather. Looking around, I could see that most of the cars that were faster than me had arrived on a trailer. One exception was a new GT3, but that's a 200k$ car. There were exceptions: there is a 350Z that is quite a bit faster than me, and a nice M4 as well, but really, the Civic is not out of place here, even though it could be replicated for about 12k$.

In my third session, I went out with the green group. I followed around a Micra Cup car for a while before powering around it and had some fun trying (and failing) to keep up with a nice Cayman S with a big wing, and managed another new best lap of 1:16.48. I was having an excellent time and driving with confidence. I was trying different speeds in different corners, and trying to brake less for the new chicane. On my best lap, my minimum speed in the chicane was 90 km/h, up from 80 the week before. I was overdriving the car in a couple of the slower corners, but I was just trying to see what kind of entry speeds I could get away with.

I checked my fuel and figured I would be good for one more session. I found an old lap ticket in two pieces in my glove box and they accepted it, so I was feeling pretty good about that! It was still daylight as I headed out in my final session. I had a bit of a moment when I botched my heel/toe at the end of the front straight and the car reaccelerated as I was trying to trail brake. This resulted in a 180 then a reverse 180 that pointed me back in the right direction. I could see cars coming right at me when I was pointed the wrong way, but they saw me with plenty of time to avoid me. I had stalled, so I restarted the lesson and continued my lap. There did not seem to be any flat spots on the tires or other issues and they did not black flag me, so I kept going. The rest of the session was uneventful and I managed a couple more laps in the 1:16's, although none faster than a 1:16.73. I came in and packed up the car for the drive home. There would be just enough fuel to get home.

Even though I was not that quick, I had had a great time. The car was so reliable, and it's still very easy to drive to and from the track. I think that with some good tires and the limited slip diff, the car will be even better later in the season. When I see what some other people around me are spinding on this hobby, I am pretty proud of myself (and also lucky) for how little I manage to spend to be on track. For example, the black 2018 Civic Type R parked beside me was not much quicker than my 23-year old car on 4-year-old tires, even though the driver had swapped over to race tires when he arrived. The Porsches and M-cars are faster, but not by that much on this technical track. Hopefully I'll have some decent used AR1's on the car next time I head up to ICAR. To be continued...