No track time in August...

I somehow managed to spend the whole month of August without driving the Civic on track... a combination of trips and other events jest made it impossible to go to St-Eustache or ICAR... hopefully this evening the weather will clear up and I'll get a chance to go to ICAR.

Since my last post, we have been on a family trip to the Boston area and to the project house on several occasions. The mileage on the M3 has been adding up, and I had to do an oil change last week as a result. The car is performing well. I still need to change the oil temperature sensor plug and there is still a check engine light for some throttle sensor issue that has been there for years. At least with the summer tires on, there is no more slow leak on one of the tires.

The Civic will go to Pat's this evening or tomorrow so he can do the body work and finally try to figure out if there is an easy solution to the oil consumption issue. He still has the Saab, but hasn't had time to investigate the suspension noise and vagueness in the rear end.

News of my old Civic: Sajan managed a 1:49 lap at Tremblant with the car... pretty impressive for a normally aspirated FWD car. He accomplished this with 2 rear wings and a splitter.

Here are some random photos of the past few weeks

Questionable colour for this AMG GT

The M3 after a rare car wash... the wheels were filthy

A rare Dodge Demon

A rare Jaguar XJ-R

... and a rare AMG GT-R all spotted within 5 minutes of each other on my walk home.

I like this spec of STi

I still like the design of the GC8, more than any WRX since

Another rarity: Saab Turbo X

A super clean Plymouth Prowler, with the cool plate "Concept"

 A clean Z3 M in the same parking lot in Ogunquit

An anniversary edition WRX spotted in the Boston area, a model we did not have in Canada

Livin' the low life

A very shiny early Miata on steelies in Revere, Massachusets

Still one oy my favourite cars of the last 20 years, the AMG SLS

The M3 just after I installed the summer wheels

A subtle, debadged M2

A lovely summer evening at ICAR

The Civic between sessions

I headed to ICAR’s track evening last Wednesday to meet one of my high school friends who wanted to try out his brand new BMW M3 CS on the track. If he gets into the sport, I think he might enjoy driving my Civic in the future and we can share the car’s expenses.

I headed out for my yellow/green session and all went well. I was pushing more in the big esses (where I had my big crash in 2017) and the car felt very stable. I was right in the mix with the other cars, passing and being passed, which is always fun for me. As I’ve mentioned in the past, there is a wide variety of cars at ICAR. You see the Civics, Miatas and 350Z’s you would see at St-Eustache, but a lot more Porsches and BMW’s. In the student group, there were 2 Ferrari 488’s and 2 Lotus Seven-type cars. I look forward to all these cars graduating into the yellow/green group.

I kept missing my friend because he would be heading out onto the track as I came off, and vice versa. In my second session, I improved my best lap to 1:54.53, which is less than 2 seconds slower than the time I managed with my old 2000 Civic race car with the 2.3-liter motor. When I looked at the lap times in my phone, I saw that my previous best seemed to be a 1:55.1, but then I realized that that was my friend Pat’s time. My previous best had been 1:56.48. For comparison purposes, my best time with the EP3 before the crash was a 1:57.94. I was happy with the car’s performance and in the session, I passed more cars than usual too. I was satisfied with my performance, and picked up a few tricks to putting in a fast lap. I am still learning all the subtleties of the track, but I feel I have improved a lot.

I decided to forego a third session, otherwise I would not be able to chat with my friend at all. I was rewarded with a short test drive of the M3 CS… the car is a beast. It accelerates harder than almost anything on the road, but it’s still quite comfortable. I can’t imagine a better street/track sedan than this car.

I ended up lending the Civic to an American BMW instructor the following day for a 3-day event at Tremblant, but unfortunately, the engine-cutting-out problem returned with a vengeance and the car didn’t complete any problem-free sessions. Hopefully Pat can figure out what the problem is in the coming weeks. I also want to look at the most economical way to fix the excessive oil consumption issue.

A cool Miata with big flares

The M3 CS on track

Yes, that's a factory colour!

Cool mix of cars at ICAR

M4, one of several on hand

A Beautiful Day at Tremblant

The Civic in its natural environment

Yesterday I brought the Civic out to Tremblant for some track time at a BMW club of Quebec high performance driver education event. I have to thank Alex for being extremely understanding, in that yesterday was also her birthday, yet she was totally fine with the idea of me being gone all morning and half the evening!

Pat had been working on the car for a couple of days (one thing he did was remove 40 pounds of non-functioning air conditioning parts!) but he only told me the morning before the event that my front brake pads were toast... I reorganized my day and headed over to Perry Performance to get some Hawk pads from Carl. I went for a real race pad, the DTC-60, since the "street/race" pads I installed this spring really did not last (although they performed well). The DTC-60's performed flawlessly right out of the box.

The car had a small recurring issue where it would misfire at certain RPM... it almost felt like fuel starvation. The issue came and went in the first couple of sessions, which made me more hesitant to really lean on the car, as it is quite unsettling when the throttle cuts out when you are trying to accelerate and keep the rear of the car firmly planted.

I had a great time on track and ended up running most of six sessions on track. I was not able to beat my personal best time set last year, which may be due to the warmer temperature affecting horsepower, or to my driving conservatively. When I compare the data to last year, I can see that my top speed at the end of the straight was lower yesterday by 3-5 km/h...

Clearly, I had one of the lowest powered cars there, so I wasn't really keeping up with the other instructors' cars. That's OK, I am having a good time just being there. Still, I would really like a fresh engine, which makes all the horsepower it's supposed to make and doesn't burn a half liter of oil every session. Othwerise, I am happy with the ergonomics, the handling, the braking, the safety equipment and the general appearance of the car. As a project, the car is almost "complete".

I also felt the satisfaction of driving to and from the track... I love that my car still has a license plate and a radio and is functional as a street car. I also love to see other cars from the event on the road home (I drove a while with a lovely red E46 M3 on the way home).

Apart from the misfire and the oil consumption, the car was great. I had a nice exchange with an E36 M3 in the final session and I dropped the car at ICAR on the way home so Pat could get in some laps to reward him for his hard work on the car.

I got to complete the last leg of the trip home in the much more comfortable Saab, which Pat had driven to ICAR so we could make the exchange. I was home before 7:00 pm, in time to enjoy Alex's birthday dessert. All in all, it was a very satisfying day, despite the less than stellar lap times.

A very cool 280Z on Volk TE37's

One of several cool 80's liveried 944's under a big tent

Cool E30... is it a 335, as the badge says?

1M and E36 M3

GT3 RS and M4 CS

Bennet's E30 M3

Another of the 944 crew

Rare at the track: an R32 Skyline

One of the cleanest older Subaru's you will find

The M4 CS looks like a serious track car... it passed me several times

The guy who had the Fox-bodied Mustang last year now has this Ecotec-powered Exocet... it looks like a super fun track car

One of several E46 M3's

Another view of two of the newest track cars on hand

My neighbour's M2 beside the Civic

Nice-looking Cayman

The Civic basking in the sun

Summer is in full swing and it's a busy time

In the month since I last wrote, I have had a lovely 6-day vacation to Lisbon with Alex, been to a few lapping evenings and been to the country house, both for leisure and to work on it, on several occasions. Summer is flying by. 

The Civic needs a bit of work, but it's been reliable and requires nothing major. Pat and I went to a Wednesday evening at ICAR and I beat my best time from last year, clocking a 1:56.48. I'm sure I can go quicker, as Pat did a 1:55.15 without much effort.

I went to St-Eustache a couple of times, and it's still a bit frustrating, as the excessive oil consumptiom means that I have to push hard early in the session to clock a good time, because the vtec cuts out a lot in the second half of the session. I came within a tenth of a second of my best lap Monday with a 1:01.81. I was surrounded by Civics and GT86's, which was pretty fun.

Lisbon was fun and relaxing, but it's not exactly overrun with cool or rare cars.

We're pouring a lot of energy into the country house, and it's paying off, as we now have a mostly functional house (3 out of 4 bedrooms are ready, and most other rooms). The humidity in the basement seems to be under control, thanks to a dehumidifier. There is much yet to do, but fewer urgent matters than before. 

Common colour for the M2, it stands out

A student's quick K-powered Civic

Less quick, but still fun

A 1952 Chevy with trailer spotted in Deschaillons

The BMW beside out little barn

An unexciting car with fantastic wheels

I don't know why, but I like the electric Jaguar

Rare and cool: 1M

These new Vantage is becoming quite common. 

Alfa 4C in a loud wrap

 Portugal:

I was suprised to come across these antique Fords in a random garage in Lisbon

The Brera still looks good

So does the Smart Roadster

Surprising spot: vtec LHD CRX

Cool mini in a hipster neighbourhood (LX Factory)

Not just an old Jaguar, a Daimler...

Abarth Esse-esse

A very cool E24 5-series

Mini F1 GP Edition

Another design that's aged well

An MG hot hatch

UMM, the Portuguese Jeep

Seat Cupra

I didn't even know Citroen had a new Mehari...