A lot of time spent at the track...

Apart from my failed attempt to run a 12-hour enduro a few days ago, there have been other car-related events going on.

First, there was ASE Lapping Club’s first Monday night lapping. The weather was clear and there were dozens of cars. The evening went smoothly and I think there were quite a few happy campers. Here is a neat pic that shows how popular M3’s have become at our events.

M3-M3-AMG-M3-M3

The Civic is still awaiting its new engine. Unfortunately it will not be ready before the BMW Club of Quebec track day at St-Eustache this Saturday. Here is a rare pic of both my cars together.

A rare pic of both cars together

On Friday night, my basketball team played in the first game of the finals. After being down 28 points in the second half, we came back part of the way to lose by 7. We have to play quite a bit better in game 2 this Friday, or the season will be over.

The next morning, I woke up at 4:30 am to head to Calabogie for the second AISA school. I did not have a track car, but I made arrangements to go out for a few laps in this:

It’s a Formula Mazda powered by a carburetted 13b rotary engine. It weighs something like 1150 pounds. I took it very easy during my few laps on the track, but I was still able to understand why people love formula cars. The car I sat in after lunch felt huge and heavy.

Here is a video of my slow but exciting laps:

 

There was once again some rare machinery on display at the track. Here is a pic of maybe the rarest car there, a Panoz Esperante:

There were other neat cars at the Calabogie school:

After a full weekend of track activity (and a trip to the dentist), I headed back to St-Eustache for our second lapping evening of the year. The weather was beautiful and again, there were many cool cars out there:

   

It doesn’t feel all that great to go to the track every few days without my track car. I hope I will get it back quite soon…

Cool cars spotted:

Aston Martin Vantage

BMW M6

Audi R8

Audi Ur-S4

Corvette Z06 (C5)

Corvette Z06 (C6)

Ferrari 599

Ferrari California

Ferrari F430

Ferrari F360

Porsche 914

Porsche 928 GTS

Porsche 996 turbo

Porsche 997 turbo

Porsche 993 turbo

Nissan GT-R

Nissan Pulsar Gti-R

Maserati Quattroporte

Alpina B7

AMG SL63

AMG G55

AMG C63 Coupe

AMG SLS convertible

Lexus IS-F

Lotus Exige

Volkswagen Golf R

Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 1

Devil in the Dark non-race report.

After weeks of planning, our team, made up of 9 members, was set to head down to New Jersey Motorsports Park for the Devil in the Dark enduro. We arrived at the track Thursday evening and unloaded the Civic in a near-empty paddock. We noticed that the temperature needle was sitting a little higher than usual at idle and realized that the rad fan motor was dead. A trip to Advance Auto parts solved this issue. We headed to the hotel, where we were joined by the rest of the team at around midnight. 

On Friday, there were 4 hours of open track testing followed by a 40-minute practice session, then 20 minutes of qualifying and an hour of night testing. The 12-hour race would begin at noon Saturday.

The team was made up of three drivers and six crew members. I would be driving along with Carl and Jean-Michel (Jam). The crew was made up of Marc, Choo, Shawn, Patrick, Alain and Pierre. We planned to drive my Civic.

The weeks of planning involved deciding which parts to bring as spares and what tires to use for qualifying and the race. For the practice day, we decided to save our good tires and mounted some used Toyo RA1’s. Since none of us had been to the track before, we decided to take turns during the practice runs. As in the race, Carl would be starting out, followed by Jam and myself. 

Carl making the car "pretty"

Pit action

Seeing double?

Not that warm in New Jersey!

 Carl went out and began to learn the track. After a few laps, he was in the 1:42 range. This was far behind the fast cars in the class, but, in my opinion, the Civic 1.6 is not really properly classified. For example, a Spec E30 BMW, which has a 168 hp inline six, is one class lower than our car. Also, there was an Integra Type R with aftermarket brakes in our class. Anyway, we were there to do the best we could with the equipment we had. 

Carl in the Civic

Carl was happy with the setup of the car and handed it over to Jam. Jam went out and was instantly on pace. He did a bunch of laps in the 1:41’s and then dipped under 1:40. Hew came in all smiles as well. 

I went out and realized quickly enough that this track was not going to be that hard to learn as far as where to be on track, but it was going to take a while to get to the point where we were going flat out through several of the corners. I was a bit slower than the others for most of the session, but as I got a bit more comfortable, I managed some 1:42’s. It was my first time using the radio system too, and I thought it was pretty neat, although the track required almost constant concentration (there’s a lot of turning at high speed!) and I didn’t talk on the radio that much. 

One of our "competitors"

Carl hopped back into the car and his lap times dropped under 1:40 as well. I knew from looking at past results that we had to be lapping around 1:36 to be on the pace, but I figured we would eventually get there. Usually at these types of events, I run my best lap times late in the weekend, in the actual race. 

Jam went out again and again hit the 1:39’s. We decided to see what the car was like without the rear wing, as we were wondering if we were sacrificing top speed without gaining any handling advantage. Jam went back out and clicked off a 1:38, but he said the car was more twitchy. I was able to confirm this when I headed out and had a little tail-sliding moment in corner 1. My session was interrupted by full-course black flags on a couple of occasions and I was having trouble getting in a rhythm. Luckily, after one of the black flags, our buddy Seb Rochon was gracious enough to let me follow him at a lower speed (lower for him, at least!) to show me the line. I realized I had not been taking the best line through the final slower section of the track. Thanks Seb! I was not pushing terribly hard because I was not too sure about the rear-end stability of the car. Sure enough, I had another couple of slides, but managed a 1:41 before the end of my stint. 

The crew in action

Carl went out and was complaining on the radio about the rear tires being shot. The car was a bit of a handful by now. After Carl came back in, we reinstalled the wing. All three of us were more comfortable with a but of rear downforce. 

By then, the test session was over and we had to plan the evening’s track time. The crew were all over the car and installed the first set of Nitto NT01 tires that would be used for the race so we could scrub them in. We got everyone registered and the Civic got its first SCCA log book. I was told to install a fuel test port and a rear town strap before the next SCCA race. No big deal, and we were done with tech and registration well before most other teams. 

It was time for the first official race practice. First out was Carl, then Jam, then me, with tire changes between each driver to scrub all 6 front tires. We were happy with the grip level and the car felt planted again. Carl then went out for qualifying and after a few laps, he pitted in, satisfied with his time of 1:39. Qualifying is largely irrelevant in endurance races anyway. The only session left was the night practice, which would be divided between Jam and me. 

Jam went out and we noticed that our new HID headlights were nice and bright. We were unprepared, however, for how ridiculously bright some of our opponents’ lighting set-ups would be. Jam was on the radio saying that he could not see anything a) when the very bright shift light came on in our car and b) whenever anybody came up behind him. After a few laps, Pierre, who was wearing the headset allowing us to communicate with the driver, turned to me and said that the engine had blown. He said it so casually that I thought he was talking about a different car… indeed, I could not imagine our stock Honda motor blowing up. He then confirmed to me that he was talking about our Civic, which was now stopped at the end of the front straight… 

Jam was towed in and I still refused to believe that the engine was toast. After the car was delivered to our paddock area, we opened the hood. There were no fluids anywhere or apparent holes. I was quite certain that we were just dealing with a timing/distributor issue. The timing belt was still intact. The distributor cap was removed, but the rotor was intact. Pierre began to remove the spark plugs and, by the time he got to the fourth one, we knew there was a problem as it was very hard to unscrew. When he pulled out half a spark plug, we knew the engine was finished. 

The crew did not miss a beat and began pulling the engine and Carl and I began the search for a replacement. We didn’t have a spare engine with us… in fact, I never imagined we would need one. I was pretty much speechless by this point. I couldn’t believe that after all the planning and driving and spending, that we might miss out on the actual race. 

The crew hard at work...

... pulling the engine

Carl and I shopped around the paddocks, but could not find any B-series Honda engine for the car. We had the time and the manpower to install a replacement, but no engine! Over the next couple of hours, several plans materialized.

Plan A: fellow racer Andrew mentioned he had a non-vtec B18 sitting in his garage an hour away, but that it did not belong to him. He would try to contact the owner of the engine and get back to us with a price.

Plan B: Pierre had a spare Type R engine at home (in Gatineau, eight hours away!) that was 90% uninstalled from his Civic. His plan was to have a mechanic friend get that engine and drive towards New Jersey while Choo and I drove to meet him halfway. It was a bit of a crazy plan, but if it worked, we would have a functional Civic by about race time.

Plan C: maybe the craziest plan of all… remove the B20 engine from Choo’s Honda CR-V and install it in the race car, only to remove it after the race and re-install it in the CR-V. 

After an hour and a half, our blown engine was out of the car and sitting on the ground. The crew was waiting anxiously to install our new engine, whatever it might be. Plan A failed because Andrew never reached his friend. He came by to apologize. Plan B failed because Pierre and Jam’s friend could not be convinced to undertake the crazy adventure of picking up the engine and driving all night to bring it to us. Plan C failed because it was a little bit insane and I did not want to put the guys through this many hours of work to end up with a car of unknown performance.

We headed back to the hotel still trying to think of a solution that would allow us to race. However, by the time that we settled into the hotel room, we began to realize that we were not going to get to run the race. I was slowly getting used to the idea. Carl did not seem at all bothered, as he was still having a fun weekend away from the office. Jam was really down, so Carl and I tried to cheer him up. We reminded him that this kind of thing could have happened to any one of us. We all eventually dozed off and had no plan to wake up very early. 

We woke up around 9:00 and had a ridiculously high-calorie breakfast at Denny’s, where my Mastercard was declined (maybe because of the hundreds of dollars of fuel charges in the previous two days). We headed to the track and started to pack up. My plan was to watch the race start at noon and then pack up and leave with the Boyer’s and Marc. Carl and Choo planned to stay the night after watching Seb’s team and maybe helping them out. There was no way to cancel the hotel rooms anyways.

The Civic, minus one engine

We were in a pretty relaxed mood and the race start was quite exciting. Although I thought I had got over our failure to make the start, I began to feel some pretty strong emotions when the race actually started. It was very difficult to see the race happen without us and to see our empty pit spot…

You can see our pit spot.. it's the empty one!

Sitting in our empty pit spot as the race waabout to begin

We watched the Audi R8 disappear from the track on the first lap and then a multi-lap battle for the lead between a Cayman and two M3’s. We went over to the far side of the track and one of the guys noticed that Seb and Serge’s M3 had not come around. We then saw the car pull into the paddock spot… not good. It turned out that they had blown a transmission after about 90 minutes of racing. Like us, they did not have a spare. Their race was over too. Both teams from Quebec were out and we ended up packing up our trailers, side by side.

Seb's M3

Pushing the Civic back into the trailer

Carl and Choo had no reason to stay anymore and all members of both teams got ready to drive home. We finally headed out in the middle of the afternoon and I eventually rolled into my parking spot at home at around 2:30 am.

Remarkably, I do not feel that terrible about the whole weekend. There are many possible outcomes that are worse than blowing a motor. For example, someone could have been injured or the car could have been destroyed in a crash. Carl was happy that we got to visit and drive on a new track. I was happy to learn a bit more about endurance races. I really think that we could have had a good race with the car we had and, especially, with the amazing crew we had. I think all nine of us had a memorable weekend, even though we came back from New Jersey empty-handed. I know it’s a cliché, but I really can’t help but think about what we are going to do differently next year… 

New Jersey enduro... ready to go!

I’ve been so busy getting ready for the big race that I haven’t had time to post here! As usual, we have been working on the car (well, Marc has!) until the last minute, but I think we got almost everything done.

Last weekend, our club AISA hosted our first race school of 2012 at St-Eustache. The weather was cold and wet, but we had a great bunch of students. I got to take the Civic out for a few laps and confirmed that all was working well. This morning, we loaded the car into the Boyers’ closed trailer to tow it down to New Jersey, where I now sit in my room at the Days Inn. Tomorrow, we have an afternoon of testing, followed by practice, qualifying and night practice. Saturday is the big race. Stay tuned!

Here are some photos from the school:

Cool cars spotted:

At the school:

60’s Camaro

BMW M3 E92

BMW 1M

Porsche 997 GT3 x 3

Porche 996 turbo

Porsche 944 turbo

Lotus Elise

Corvette Z06 C5

Honda S2000 CR

Maclaren MP4-12C (!)

Porsche 993 turbo

Porsche 997 GT3

Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera

AMG SLS

AMG C63

AMG C63 Coupe

AMG G55

AMG E63 Coupe

BMW Z8

BMW Z4M Coupe

BMW Z3M

BMW 633 Csi

Ferrari FF(!)

Ferrari 458

Land Rover Defender 110

Nissan GTR

Brabus S-Class

Hummer H1

Corvette Z06 C6

Maserati GT

Maserati Quattroporte

Mazda RX7 twin turbo

Alfa Romeo Milano

Alfa Romeo Spyder

Audi R8 V10

Audi S6 Avant

MGB

Mitsubishi Evo 8

Spring racing season is upon us.

It's been a quiet couple of weeks on the basketball front. I went to see the Harlem Globetrotters with some of the girls from the team and it was actually more entertaining than I had expected. Other than that, my men's team was off for two weeks and we will play in our first playoff game tonight.

The focus over the coming weeks will be car racing activities. Next weekend, our club, AISA, will be holding our race school at the St-Eustache Autodrome, as we do every spring. I hope to get in a few laps in the race car. The following week will be my biggest race ever: the 12-hour enduro at New Jersey Motorsports Park with the SCCA. The planning for that event is coming along well and we have all the parts and tires that we need for the trusty Civic. The next week after that is another racing school, this time at Calabogie. At least this weekend, I will be able to relax a bit before the chaos begins.

I put my new Falken FK452 tires on the M3 and was pleasantly surprised that the ride was not more harsh than with the soft-sidewalled winter tires. I also noticed that my second set of 18-inch wheels is of a lighter metallic colour than the ones that came with the car. Here is a picture:

There are many nice cars out and about now that spring is here. Here is a pic of a rare Ferrari 400i. I think the design has aged quite well.

That's all for now!

Cool cars spotted:

Rolls-Royce Phantom

AMG G55

AMG E55

AMG C63

AMG CLS63

Volkswagen Golf R

Volkswagen Corrado G60

Alpina B7

Aston Martin V8 Vantage

Acura NSX

Audi Ur-S4

Audi RS4

Audi S6 V10

Cadillac CTS-V

Cadillac XLR

Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R

Nissan Pulsar Gti-R

Nissan GTR

Nissan 300 ZX Twin Turbo

Toyota Supra Twin Turbo

Lamborghini Gallardo

Lexus IS-F

Porsche Boxster Speedster

Porsche 997 Turbo S

Ferrari F430

Ferrari California

Ferrari 400i
Bentley Continental GT

Second place is not so bad.

Well, the Reine Marie Diamonds are not the regional champions. Despite a valiant effort by the girls, the team lost 49-37 to Regina Assumpta on Saturday. We could not come back from a disastrous third quarter that left our side down by 23 points. The girls played well and I think they could tell that Darlington and I were proud of them. I really would have liked to win my first championship, but I guess it will have to wait another year!

I didn't really do much about getting ready for the big enduro in 4 weeks, except take an inventory of all my wheels and tires. One of the only productive car things I did was remove the tint on the rear lights of the M3. I am very happy with the result, as the tail lights were in really nice condition underneath the plastic film:

The car continues to perform flawlessly. Let's hope it lasts!

Cool cars spotted:
Ferrari F575
Ferrari California
Porsche 993 Targa
Flat black AMG C63 Coupe
AMG E63
AMG C63
BMW M5 E39
Maserati GT
Aston Martin V8 Vantage
Lexus IS-F
Saleen Mustang
Audi Ur-S4
Audi S4 Avant
Audi RS4
Audi R8

OK, now spring is really here!

It's true that the temperature dropped under zero again today, but with the record-setting heat of a few days ago, it's clear that spring is here. I have been really busy with work and other stuff, but I finally have a few minutes to post now.

We have not made much progress on getting the Civic ready for the enduro. The deadline is approaching... hopefully I can get some work done on the car this weekend.

Also this weekend, my girls' basketball team will be playing their biggest game of the year Saturday morning. We are definitely underdogs, but maybe we can pull off an upset like we did last year (see http://vincentbasile.blogspot.ca/2011/02/big-win.html ).

My men's team has won our last few games and we finished the regular season in first place.  The playoffs start in two weeks.

I went for a run on the Mountain about 10 days ago. It felt good to get out there and I wasn't terribly slow. I guess I am not too far off being in decent shape.

The BMW has been performing perfectly. The mysterious suspension clunk seems to be gone for good and the car continues to be a pleasure to drive.

Last weekend, Alex, my brother, sister and I went to New Jersey to see an NBA game (they beat the Bobcats by 13). It was a fun weekend. We rented a car from Budget and it was great value. The car was a Hyundai Sonata and I was quite impressed with it. The fuel economy (7.2 liters/100 km) was amazing for such a large car and the seats were really comfortable on the long drive. Some small criticisms: they only put leather on the top part of the steering wheel, which you almost never hold, and the ride is a bit harsh for a large family car. The handling is excellent and the power of the base model is more than adequate. The satellite radio was a nice touch as well.

I saw a new Porsche 911 for the first time. They're still nice, I still want one!

I spotted a new BMW 3-series today as well. It looks a lot like the 5-series, which is not a bad thing. I would prefer if it were a bit smaller, but I guess that it was to be expected that the new version would be larger than the old one.

With the spring weather, all the nice cars came out to play. Here are some pics.

A pair of rare Boxster Spyders

Bling in front of the LH hotel

Poor pic of a new 991

Cool cars spotted:
AMG G55
AMG C63
AMG C63
AMG CL63
AMG CLS63
AMG SL55
AMG E63
AMG SLS
AMG C63 Coupe
Acura NSX
Audi R8 V10
Audi S8
Audi S6 V10
Audi RS4
BMW 635 CSi
BMW E30 Wagon
BMW M5
BMW M5 E39
BMW M6
BMW M3
Volvo P1800
Mazda RX7 twin turbo
New BMW 328i
Mitsubishi Delica Off Road Express
Lexus IS-F
Ford Raptor
Shelby GT500
Toyota Land Cruiser Turbo Diesel 
Saab Viggen
Saab Turbo X
Lotus Elise
Tesla Roadster (!)
Ferrari 599
Ferrari California
Ferrari 456
Ferrari 550
Porsche 993 Targa
Porsche 991
Porsche 997 Turbo S
Porsche Boxster Speedster
Maserati GT
Maserati Quattroporte
Rolls Royce Phantom
Bentley Mulsanne (!)
Bentley Continental GT

Spring is almost here.

It always feels more like spring when we move to daylight savings time. It helps that it has been over 10 degrees outside a couple of times in the last few days. I have been driving the M3 a lot this weekend and am really happy with the new suspension setup. The car rides much better and the clunk in the rear end still has not returned, despite some serious bumps on gravel roads in the Laurentians this weekend.

Yesterday, I went to Perry Performance in Laval to pick up some sweet AlpineStars Tech 1-Z driving gloves as well as a new window net and tow strap for the race car. You can tell that spring is in the air when you see how busy the shop is. I was impressed with the cars parked in front of the shop and found that the M3 fit in quite well:

I haven't done much to prepare the race car for the big enduro at the end of next month. I guess I should get on that!

The basketball tournament last weekend did not go terribly well. We lost the first game by 7 against a team we could have beaten. Then we lost by 10 to a Division 1 team coached by my assistant coach. The only high point was that, after a slow start against a Division 3 team, we came from behind and won in overtime. At least my men's team has won its last two games without too much difficulty.

Finally, it seems people in Montreal are breaking out their summer cars:

AMG C63

AMG SL63

AMG CLS63

AMG G55 Supercharged

Mercedes S600 V12

Mercedes 560 sec

Mini Coupe

Mini Cooper S John Cooper Works

Toyota Celica GT-Four

BMW M3 E92

VW Golf R32

VW Corrado

Porsche 911 Carrera

Porsche 944

Porsche 997 Carrera 4S

Porsche 997 Targa 4S

Porsche 997 turbo

Dodge Omni GLH

Audi RS4

Audi S6

Audi S4 Avant

Audi S8

Saab Viggen

Saab Sport 900

Jaguar XF-R

Bentley Continental

Ford Raptor