It took longer than it was supposed to, but the yellow Civic has finally become what I had hoped it would: a reliable car I could use to drive on track as much as possible. Well, mostly reliable... there were a couple of issues, but none of them prevented me from driving on track at Tremblant... a lot. In all, I got in 10 sessions over the weekend. That's more track time than I'd had all season.
The event was the BMW Club of Quebec's Autumn Breeze HPDE. I was assigned to two intermediate students and one advanced one. The students did well (C7 Corvette, Acura RSX and Porsche 944) and the Civic was quite fun to drive, even though I was about the slowest car out there. At some point in the weekend, the coolant temperature would begin to climb at the end of every second session. It turned out all my coolant was eventually finding its way to the overflow tank and there was not enough left to cool the engine. I'm pretty sure it was not the head gasket again (because there was no white smoke and I was able to bleed the radiator with no bubbles). I could see some of the sticky anti-leak product in the coolant (from my last attempt at driving at Tremblant) and figured there might be something gumming up the system. Some of my friends suggested it might just be a bad radiator cap. Since the event, I have bought a new radiator cap and flushed and refilled the system. I hope it's OK now. At the event, I just added coolant after every second session and it would be fine again.
The cars at these events are kind of nuts... there are so many Porsche GT3's and GT4's, probably more than any other model of car. There were a handful of Civics too (all faster than mine). From the very first session, my car felt stable and at home on the track. The tires have a lot of laps on them (I even brought 2 spares just in case I killed them) but they still worked well, despite the cool weather in the mornings. Often, when I got passed in the straights, I would be able to match the speed of the car that passed me through the next corner. Although my GPS unit was acting up a bit, I could see that my minimum speeds were close to those of my past Civics through many of the corners (5 to 10% slower) though for some reason, I was almost 20% slower through the last hairpin. I was wondering of I could go flat out through the first two corners, but I never had the guts to try it. I would partially lift at the second painted line then, when I knew I was going to make the apex, I would get flat on the gas again. Even with this partial lift, I seemed to be keeping up with the other cars through that section. The section where I made up the most ground was after the back straight, going up the hill and, under the bridge.
Was I jealous of the faster cars? Not really... I was happy to be out there in my own car, holding my own (I think) and driving as much as possible. I had brand new brake pads (Hawk ER1) and they started to feel quite good after a couple of sessions. I think I was driving pretty well, although I was not on the limit as much as the instructor who had brought a Nissan Micra Cup car... that guy was really hustling. The Civic was slow, but not boring. I had time to plan for the next corner, and really try to optimize each section of the track. I was being passed a lot, but not so much that I couldn't get some clean laps. The weather was beautiful.
After the first day, I filled up with gas, then I had a lovely dinner with Josée and Guy at their campsite. I slept in my tent (poorly, my stupid air mattress deflated after 5 minutes) and woke up to find the car covered in frost. The sun came out for a second straight day and I had some new neighbours parked beside me: a lovely Lotus Emira in a green so dark it looked black, and a GT4RS. The second day ended up being as fun as the first. I managed my five sessions and the drive home on one tank of gas... that would be unheard of in any other car I've ever owned... and it's 87-octane gas! I didn't even burn through my 50$ apiece used tires. Even the traffic back to Montreal was not too bad, and I was home by dinner time.
The Civic finally did its job. There is really only one thing that I would like to change about the car, and that would be the driver's seat. It's not a complicated modification, and maybe next season I'll get around to it. Other than that, I am very satisfied. I surely had the cheapest car out there, in value and in running costs, but I was having as much fun as the others.
This car, bought for 800$ and put together from parts I had lying around, after getting a new engine, is now just what I hoped it would be. Would it be fun to be going 10 or 12 seconds per lap quicker? Sure. Is it fun driving it in its current state? Absolutely.
The season is winding down, but I hope to make it to a couple more events before it's over. Stay tuned.
A real M3 CSL, brought by a Euro car importer named Cyril
In the mist on Saturday morning
K-swap EK and RSX, both belonged to the same guy
Nice colour on this Spyder RS
Lovely weather and scenery
Sleeper Legacy wagon, check out the brakes
One of the many GT3's
I'm quite happy with the look of the car
The Civic and its neighbours
Green in the sun...
... black in the shade
The pink RSX was pretty well set up.
The tent almost matches the car
Covered in frost on Sunday morning
Two GT4's
The leaves are mostly still green
E92 M3 and some fall colours
There were three Elantra N's, all parked together.
You can park a GTR RS on the grass if you want to
My student had this lovely 944 race car
Very clean E30 M3
Nice AMG track car
Eric's lovely 1993 Civic... he has had it since new!
Not that many E46 M3's, considering this was the BMW Club
992 and 991 GT3's
I like the way the gold looks in the sun
Another action photo by Henry Wong
Here are a few of the different towing setups on hand:
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