Running up that hill.

Yesterday, I ran a 5-mile race on Mount Royal with my sister. Usually, I'm not that into spending money to run a route I can run for free, but it was Val's birthday and I thought it would be fun to run in the same race. I had practiced the route with her on Thursday and told her that she could clearly go faster.

It turned out that 5 miles is slightly longer than the 8 km we had practiced on. Despite this, Val managed to shave off almost a minute from her Thursday time.

For me, the challenge was to go as fast as possible on the uphill section without running out of steam before the second half of the race, which was all downhill. As is typical with these races, the order of runners sorted itself out in the first couple of minutes. I felt good, as I could see the lead group of runners pulling away for a long time before I lost them. I don't think a single person passed me on the uphill section. As I came to the turnaround at the top of the mountain, I saw the leaders and was surprised to see there were only a handful of them. Somebody shouted to me and the others nearby "Let's go, top 10!" and I realized I might actually be in the top 10. I was surprised and very motivated as a result. After the turnaround, I was behind 3 guys that I could see. Three of us passed the other, who was taking very short strides on the downhill section despite being quite a tall guy. After that, I focused on staying with the pair in front of me, a guy in an orange shirt and one in a blue shirt. We were running at the same pace, not catching anyone else and with no one catching us. I was a few meters behind and the two of them were together. At the 6 km mark, the guy in blue dropped off the pace and it was just me chasing the guy in orange. I managed to keep up with him and pull alongside him. I was truly enjoying this moment of race strategy, wondering who would make a move first and whether the other would be able to counter. This is something you don't get out of a training run! The guy made his move with about a kilometer to go, and I could not follow at the increased pace. I was hoping that he had moved too early and I had an ace up my sleeve: I had practiced sprinting the whole last section of maybe 400-500 meters at the end of my run to see if it was possible. I caught up to him before the last bend and then turned it on on the last stretch, passing him and keeping him behind me. I crossed the finish line tired, but not completely dead. I was happy with my performance, speed-wise and strategy-wise too. I knew I was probably in the top 10, as no one had passed me and as there were only a handful of runners milling about in the finish area. I talked to the guys in orange and blue. The guy in orange was not overjoyed, but we spoke a bit. The guy in blue was in a good mood and we talked about his plans to run the New York marathon this fall. When the results came out, I found out I was 6th out of 106 runners. This is by far the best finish I've ever had in a running race. I know that these Running Room races are not of the highest calibre, but I was still very happy. I was not on the podium in my 30-39 age group, as there were three others in that age group ahead of me. The guy in orange was in the 50-59 group... impressive. The race winner destroyed us all with his time more than three minutes faster than mine. The fifth place guy was 40 seconds ahead of me, so I had no regrets about not catching him... 40 seconds is a lot. All in all, I am as motivated as ever to continue my training for the Orford half-marathon this fall and plan to go on a run this afternoon to complete my minimum mileage for the weekend.

Sorry, no car news then!

Cool cars spotted:
Ferrari 360
Ferrari F430
Ferrari F575
Ferrari 599
Porsche 914

Porsche 996 GT3Austin Healey 3000
MGA
Porsche 997 Turbo
Bentley Continental
Aston Martin Vantage
New BMW Z4
Mercedes 500E (I want one!)
Audi RS4

Driving as much as possible

Sadly, Alex has gone to Chicago for 6 weeks to do post-doctoral work. As a result, I have tried to find activities to fill my weekends. This past weekend, I was invited to drive Carl's Type R at a Solo 2 event. Usually, I don't really go in for Solo 2. I decided to give it another shot. Carl would be driving Oktay's S2000 and I would have the Type R all to myself. I was classed in STX as the car was on street tires (Kumho). I managed not to get lost in the field of cones and did a 1:10 on my first run, 1:08 on my second and 1:07 on my third. Carl told me I could get down to 1:05. He was running 1:03 in the S2000. I managed 1:05 on my next run then 1:05 plus a cone on my fifth run. I slowed down to 1:06 on my last run. I was satisfied with my result. I ended up 13th out of 33 ST class cars. Carl decided to do his 6th run in the Type R. He managed a 1:02. Ouch! I guess I'm not a high level autocrosser yet! I had a good time, but I don't plan to continue to run these events much. 65$ for 6 minutes of racing is just not worth it.

On Sunday, we hosted a lapping day at St-Eustache. It was supposed to rain in the morning or afternoon. It rained the entire day, non-stop. Luckily, Pascal St-Cyr had brought some Toyo RA1's which we put on my car. We then split the track time and had a ball. Despite the 800 lb/in front springs and 1000 lb/in rears, the car handled predictably and well in the wet with the shocks set at full soft. It was a fun day over all.

On Monday, the weather was dry. I mounted some old Hoosiers on the car and went out for a few laps. The tires felt pretty dead, but I still managed a 1:03.88 on a clear track. I then swapped cars with Oktay and did a full session in the S2000. It's really a great car and fun to drive. I didn't push too hard as I'm no rear-wheel-drive expert. Still, I could see the car's potential. Oktay hopped out of the Civic smiling. He had managed a 1:04.9 and was sweating... Surprisingly, he mentioned that he found the car physically demanding to drive. Most people say the opposite. JP went out for one session and corded one of the dead tires. For once, he didn't beat my time!

Thanks to JAG for the great photo!

I have been quite busy with my running training as well. I have managed to stay on schedule, running three times a week. Yesterday was a killer, with 10 30-second intervals, which Nico had us do all uphill in 28-degree heat. On Saturday, I will run a short race on Mount Royal with Val (5 miles) on the same trail where I do most of my training (chemin Olmsted). There are no car activities planned this weekend.

I bought a wiper and windshield washer bottle for the Civic and managed to procure a front bumper beam as well. The car is 95% of the way to being SCCA legal. I just have to see if we will attend any SCCA races this year or not. To be continued...

Cool cars spotted:
Dodge Viper SRT10
Maserati GT
Maserati Quattroporte
Lamborghini Murcielago
Ferrari 360
Ferrari F430
Ferrari 550
Bentley Continental
Audi RS4
Audi S6
Audi S5
Audi R8
AMG C63

A different kind of race

The race car is heading to Calabogie this weekend for a double race weekend. The driving will be shared by Carl and Pascal St-Cyr, one of the other instructors in our group. It will be his first wheel-to-wheel race and I'm glad to be able to provide him with a car for the occasion.

The Civic continues to do everything asked of it. Unfortunately, I was unable to install the final drive that would help the car accelerate a bit better, as it was incompatible with my differential. I did install a Cherry Bomb glass-pack that made the car much quieter on the street (and a bit quieter on the track). I took it for a spin Monday and, with dead front tires, managed a best lap of 1:04.1. Tires make a bigger difference than they used to when I had more power. The car is now utterly dependent on handling to turn fast lap times. I was almost always on the track Monday and I had five different students (Elise, AMG C55, E46 M3, E90 325 and Mazda Protege). After driving an M3 for the third time on track, I still think it's a great car. I was disappointed with the AMG... I thought I would hear the engine more. The Elise is extremely competent, but not foolproof. Pascal and I exchanged cars in the last session. His Civic has 202 whp, a lot more than mine, and it showed. It was on Falken Azenis performance tires and the difference in compound, even compared to my shot race tires, was obvious under braking. Pascal drove well, as I noted on the lap timer that he was only 0.3 seconds off my pace.

Here are a couple of Jeremy's photos of me in my car and in Pascal's:

Pascal's Civic

Back to back Civic drives

I noticed the handling of Pascal's car was quite different from mine. After the front end grips, you can feel a fraction of a second later that the rear wants to rotate. It's unnerving at first, but you get used to it. It turns out he has a 24 mm rear sway bar (I have no rear sway bar). With my Civic, the car takes a set, and that's pretty much how it's going to behave through the corner. I don't know which setup is ultimately faster. We are now running 800 lb/ft springs in front and 1000 in the rear and it's not at all scary as I feared it would be. The race car is indeed still confidence-inspiring and easy to drive.

I saw a Nissan 370Z up close for the first time. I like it. The size and proportion is just right. I don't like the headlights, tail lights or door handles, but those are just details. I saw a Ferrari 348 on the road. I still love the way it looks. I wonder what it's really like to own one...

I've been focusing on a different kind of racing these days. My friend/coach Nico and I are planning on running a 21 km mountain race (running with our feet!) on October 17th. Nico's father in France, who is a mean long-distance runner, has put us on an 11-week training program that started yesterday. The plan has us running 3-4 times a week until the race, sometimes for two hours. The race should take us about 3 hours, due to the big elevation changes. One thing I like about running these races: money is not an excuse, as it is when racing cars. You are the engine. If you suck, it's your own fault. I bought some neat mountain running shoes last weekend (La Sportiva Wildcat) and tried them out twice so far. They seem to have a lot more grip on the steep trails and inspire much more confidence than my road-biased shoes. I hope to be able to stick to the plan and complete the race in October with a respectable time.

Cool cars spotted:
Acura NSX
Ferrari 348
Lamborghini Gallardo
Maserati GT
R32 Skyline GT-R
AMG G55
Porsche 997 turbo
Jaguar XF-R

The Move

I've been busy with the move to my new place in the past couple of weeks. We officially moved to de l'Esplanade street last Saturday. It feels weird, kind of like I'm staying at a hotel or someone else's place. Thanks to Alex's crazy hard work before and after the move, packing and unpacking boxes and organizing all the storage, the move was painless for me. I still don't have a garage, but at least I have a parking spot! This evening I will pick up the race car, which has just received a Cherry Bomb muffler that will hopefully make it quieter. The next event for the car will be at Calabogie in less than 2 weeks, with Carl running two sprint races at the wheel. The other day, in the space of a few seconds, I saw a red Triumph Spitfire and a red Porsche 914. Surprisingly, I found myself wanting the 914 much more than the Triumph. I guess I can't say I'm a hardcore British car lover... 

Cool cars spotted: 

Aston Martin DBS 

Aston Martin DB7 

Aston Martin Vantage 

Ferrari F430 

Ferrari 360 

Ferrari Mondial 

Ferrari 308 GTS QV 

Nissan GT-R 

Mitsubishi EVO 

Subaru STi 

BMW M3

BMW M5 

BMW M6 

AMG C63 

AMG SL63 

Maserati Quattroporte 

Maserati GT 

Audi RS4 

Audi S6

The little engine that could.

I have to say that my plan of having a reliable and economical race car this year has been working out nicely. Last Monday, JP checked the timing on the Civic and saw that it was set very conservatively. By adjusting it, the engine instantly felt better. In fact, in only a couple of laps, both Carl and I got down into the 1:03's at St-Eustache, something I had been unable to do so far this year (I'm starting to love that G2X lap timer!). Here's a pic by JAG:

Civic at its home track

One of my students had a Maserati GT that I got to drive for a couple of laps. The car pulled nicely. The paddle shift is really fun on downshifts, but not that different feeling from an automatic on upshifts. Here is a photo by JAG:

My first drive in a Maserati

Carl borrowed the car for the weekend so he could run the GT sprint races at ICAR this weekend. We haven't really had time to talk about how it went, but Carl won his GT5 class in both races and finished in 9th and 8th over all, beating more than half the GT4 cars. He told me that he, JP and Fred Pruneau had made several improvements to the car and that he was running lap times of 1:38.5, which is more than 4 seconds faster than we had achieved a couple of weeks ago at the ICAR lapping night. I look forward to hearing the details. Carl said he had a perfect weekend and the car was great. It seems that returning to a stock motor has not made the car that much less fun to drive!

This weekend, JP and I will be heading to Mosport to instruct at their Solo 1 school. If the weather is nice, I will probably participate in the Solo 1 on Sunday as well to get more track time at Mosport. I really want to get more comfortable there. I think the lap timer will help me keep track of how hard I am pushing. I hope the weather is decent, because I don't have any tires for the wet...

Cool cars spotted:
Lamborghini Gallardo
Ford GT
Lotus Elise
Corvette Z06
Audi RS4
Audi S4 Avant
Audi R8
Ferrari 550
Ferrari F430
Ferrari Testarossa
Bentley Arnage
AMG SL63
Maserati Quattoporte
GMC Cyclone

Getting lots of track time!

Since my last post, I have managed to get lots of track time. This was exactly what I had hoped would happen when I installed a stock motor in the race car to cut down on operating costs.

On Sunday June 14th, we hosted a Time Attack at St-Eustache. Although I was one of the organizers, I still managed to get a lot of track time. Also, with the Racepak G2X installed in the car, I could see all my lap times in the car.

The event was a success, but I was not as fast as I would have liked to be, finishing 14th out of 45 cars with a best lap of 1:04.02. Last fall, I had managed a 1:02.8. I am pretty sure I was driving quite well, and I was trying different things, but I just could not get under 1:04. I can't think of many good explanations... Maybe I'm not in fact driving that well... maybe the new suspension is too stiff for St-Eustache... maybe the motor is down on power for some reason. I really don't know.

Anyway, the event was won by a nicely modified Subaru STi and JP managed an incredible lap of 1:01.4. Wow, I'm really beginning to think the guy is a natural. His Civic has the same engine as mine, it's a bit lighter and he has the 4.785 Japanese final drive in his transmission. Also, he was running on Hoosiers, the best DOT race tire there is. Still, 2.6 seconds faster than me is a lot!

I bought one of those cheap USB flip cams at Canadian Tire and taped it to my bumper for a couple of laps. I later returned the camera after the tripod mount broke off, but here's a small video I made with the file:

The day after the Time Attack, there was another opportunity to lap at St-Eustache on Monday night. I only got to do half a session before it started to rain and I was still no faster than 1:04.

A few days earlier, we had been invited to instruct by the 944 Racing Club guys at ICAR, the reconfiguralble track they laid out at the Mirabel airport. On Wednesday, I took the afternoon off so I could be sure to arrive at the track nice and early before the event began at 5:00 pm. I was eager to drive this track because they had changed te layout since I was there last year and because I had not driven my own car there (JP had lent me his). This is the new layout:

Track layout

There were several exotic cars there, but I did not see them much on the track. The car felt pretty good, but it was not turning in precisely and decisively. I noticed that JP's car was turning in nicely when he passed me. I'm thinking the only difference in our setups is camber. Anyway, here is some of the video I made:



And here is a pic of me driving the car at ICAR:

On track at ICAR

Carl will be racing there with my car in one week. He might even have time to install the camber kit before the event. Good luck Carl!

Cool cars spotted:
Ferrari 599
Ferrari F430
Lotus Elise
Lotus Seven replica
Nissan GT-R
Bentley Continental
Corvette Z06
Acura NSX
AMG C63
Porsche 997 Turbo
1983 Porsche Carrera
Buick Grand National
Dodge Viper SRT10
Aston Martin DB9
Audi R8
Audi S5
Audi RS4

The racing season is well underway.

We are really in the swing of things now. There seems to be a race-related activity almost every week. I spent last week in Chicago checking out the city where Alex will be living for a few months beginning in August. The city is very nice. It's like a cleaner, more wide open Manhattan and is very pedestrian friendly. We drove 14 hours each way in the Civic. I wish I had cruise control! The car did fine, except that the exhaust pipe broke near the muffler on the way home. Ironically, even with the muffler completely disconnected, the Civic was not as loud as my race car.

What are the cars like in Chicago? There a ton of SUV's, as expected, but also many luxury cars, like Bentley's, AMG's and Quattroporte's. There were not many sports cars. I parked my car for the week and used the very efficient public transportation system.

While I was gone, JP borrowed the Civic for the Spring Classic at Tremblant. He didn't have much competition in his class, but he had a great time and the car performed well. He ran a best time of 2:00.00. One hundredth of a second faster and he would have broken out of his class. What's even more astounding is that he accomplished the exact same fastest lap in qualifying and the race. Is JP some kind of robot?

I was back in town late Saturday and was therefore available to head to the track at St-Eustache for Monday night lapping. There were tons of people. The atmosphere is really fantastic this year. There are a bunch of new drivers, with all sorts of cars, from old VW's and Civic's to new M-cars and Porsche's. I had three different students, two of them with new turbo Jetta's and one with an Evo 10. This presented me with an opportunity to drive the Evo for a couple of laps. It was quite enjoyable: the car felt tight and willing to take a lot. The acceleration was not monstrous, but it was always available. Great car. Here is a pic by JAG of me instructing the owner:

Trying out the Evo 10

I also managed a session in the race car. We hooked up Carl's G2X lap timer. I only managed a 1:04.4 while JP did a 1:03.8. Our Toyo tires had too much tread to be at their optimal performance level. This Sunday, we are hosting a time attack at St-Eustache. I hope that JP can have his car ready so we can duke it out with almost identical cars! It looks like it will be a great event with 50 or more cars. Here is a pic by JAG of me on Monday:

Civic on track

I've just been invited to instruct at ICAR next Wednesday and that should be fun as well. I haven't tried out the new configuration yet. Carl and JP will be there as well.

Carl mentioned he might rent a ride in a BMW for the 25 hours of Thunderhill in December. He asked if I was interested in splitting the 6-hour ride into two three-hour rides. I would LOVE to do this race, but it's simply not realistic at this point financially, as we just bought a condo and I don't have the disposable income. Even if I did, I would prefer to do the event with my own car or a car worth less money than the E36 M3 the guys will be racing. If I can find a cheap flight, I might be interested in crewing or "covering" the event, writing a huge story about it.

Finally, Alex was not happy with the way she looked in the Barbados rally photo which I published here, so I am posting this photo of her from Chicago (Alex near the famous reflective jelly bean sculpture), which is totally unrelated to the world of cars and racing:

Alex and the Jelly Bean

Cool cars spotted:
Rolls Royce Phantom
Bentley Continental
Lamborghini Gallardo
BMW 633 Csi
BMW M Coupe
BMW M6
Audi RS6
Audi RS4
Audi S6 V10
Audi S8
Ford GT
Lancer Evo 8
Lancer Evo 10
New WRX STi
Nissan GT-R
Lotus Elise
Maserati Quattroporte
Maserati GT