Spring in Montreal

The weather has been all over the place in the past month, from snow to humid heat. Pretty much everyone that has a summer car has put it on the road by this point. Here are a bunch of photos from the past month. Enjoy!

The M3 in the country

BMW's ugliest car: the 2-series Gran Coupe.

The opposite of ugly, Alfa Spider

Super clean 850i... so cool

Not that rare, but still cool

First time I have seen a new F-Type up close...

... it's nice, the changes work are subtle and they work.

The ugliest Mercedes? Why even make a sedan version when the hatch looks so cool.

Cool Mustang, is it a Roush?

Pat installs a resonator to make the Civic less loud, my brother's Insight in the background

This design is aging well

This is a nice angle for the Supra

I have seen this 635csi many times over the years... glad it is still driven

Oscar checks out a modded Civic at the beach

Not a common sight in our small town

We have hired a professional painter for the country house and he has made good progress

A lovely black Civic Type R

The proportions aren't great on the S3, but over all it's a decent-looking car

"Old" F-Type R still looks good

Matte silver S63

This seems to be a Euro-spec E28

Note the much smaller bumpers... nice

Most Audis are good-looking cars, much better looking than their BMW and Mercedes counterparts

I had forgotten how massive these 90's S-classes were

AMG C63 in Old Montreal

AMG GTR in Old Montreal

... not sure if it's a "Pro", but it looked cool

On the OEM wheels and suspension, the MX-5 is not a great-looking car

Nice clean Triumph Spitfire

I like the "quattro" in the grille

Another older Alfa Spider

I don't know if this blue works for this car

The later FWD Alfa Spider

A nice spec for the 992

M3 and TT

A nice 80's 911 near the office

The Civic on the street

I never thought I'd see a London Taxi in Montreal, and it was LHD!

Track-themed Subaru

Track-themed Civic Si

Cool plate on this Quafrifoglio

Various 911's on Jean-Talon

The real 500

Rare and cool 968

80's glamour: Bentley Brooklands

A bit too much...

F355 Spider is a nice looking car

Back at the track... and something else broke on the car

After 3 weeks waiting for the car to be fixed, I was itching to get back on track. On Monday, I went to help Pat secure the exhaust after it came unbolted, and he even took the time to install the resonator I bought last year to make the car a bit quieter. As I drove home, my initial impression was that the car was not really quieter. After a while, I realized that it was in fact significantly quieter (though by no means quiet) at pretty much every RPM except at idle. It was so much quieter that when I briefly floored it on the highway, the car felt slower. This was almost surely not true. 

Anyway, I was ready to head to Tuesday night lapping. I wasn't out to break any lap records, I just wanted to have a trouble-free evening and do a bunch of laps. I also wanted to see of the electronic/VTEC issue was resolved after having changed my wiring harness adapter. On my way to the track, the check engine light came on, which made me wonder if the problem was fixed. I pulled over and tried to check the code, but was not certain if I saw a single flash for code 1, or if it was a normal flash when you turn the key. 

Anyway, I continued toward the track with the check engine light off, and hoped for the best. I was there early and was able to empty the car (more stuff to empty since I have decided to bring more tools and a proper jack with me) and get it ready. It was hot (25 degrees), so I decided to run with the windows down. 

The Civic between sessions

My first session went off without a hitch. There was no check engine light. I was not hitting the cut-off of 4th gear after the esses, but I attributed this slight loss of speed to the warm air and the increased drag running with the windows down. I was enjoying following a former student of mine in a track-built Fox-body Mustang. On my last lap, I managed my best lap, a 1:47.3. This was only a half second off my personal best. I was feeling good about the prospect of pushing a bit more in my second session. I had noticed a small grind when shifting into 3rd gear, which made me wonder if I damaged it driving home with no cluth 3 weeks earlier. Time to start using heel and toe more diligently for downshifts.

After a 20-minute break, I headed out again. I was following a Camaro for a couple of laps when the check engine light came on and the car seemed to have a rev-limiter at 2500 rpm. I limped back to the pits and shut the car off. When I restarted it, it seemed fine and the light was off, so I headed back out. After a single lap, I smelled gas and decided to pull in. I stopped and popped the hood, and immediately noticed that the fuel rail had come off again, as it had in November. I could not undestand why, as Pat had changed the studs to make the fasteners just like the original equipment. I was a bit pissed off, but at least I knew it was a small problem. I saw that all the seals seemed to still be there, so I decided to see if I could wedge something between the fuel rail and the intake plenum to keep the rail in place. I used an oil filter removal tool and an exhaust hanger rubber thing and then tried to start the car. Everything seemed OK, so I decided to drive to Pat's place like this. 

When I was about 2/3 of the way there, I noticed a gas smell again, so I pulled over to adjust the items holding in the fuel rail. I made it to Pat's without incident. He could hardly believe what he was seeing, as no one we knew ever had this weird failure. Even a Google search came up with nothing like this. 

Anyway, the evening was not a total bust. I got in some laps, bumped into people I knew, got to drive with others on the track, and the car should be fixed before next week. To be continued...

UPDATE: Shortly after I posted this, Pat contacted me to tell me he figured out why the fuel rail was coming detached: as the engine torqued, the fuel regulator, which is attached to the fuel rail, was being pushed against the strut bar, which was forcing the fuel rail away from the head. He replaced the bolts with thicker ones and is slightly relocating the strut bar. Yes!

Cool Mustang track car

Typical ICAR variety

This cool helicopter was flying around

Fully caged "sleeper" Cayman S

Unexpected: a super clean Saab 9-5 Aero

Nice M3 and Focus RS

A rare Alfa 4C

Agressive extractor on this Golf R

S2000 on track

MacGyver solution to get home

Second track event of the year... the day I broke stuff

 I bought the car to Pat's last week after my first track event hoping he could diagnose the power loss issue. He noted that I had not properly checked the oil on the car, as the level was a bit low. I thought this might be the issue resulting in my power loss last week. We also ran a new wire from the ECU to the vtec solenoid. Finally, Pat noticed that under the strut bar, there was a vacuum hose that was not plugged in. Surely one of these fixes would solve the problem, I thought.

The car spent a lot of time with the hood up Tuesday

I managed to arrive at ICAR Tuesday quite early, before the first session. I emptied the car and headed out on track. After only one lap, the exhaust became very loud, and I suspected that my exhaust system had again become unbolted. I decided to continue my session, but a lap later, I could here my exhaust dragging on the ground, so I pulled in. I was disappointed, but I figured it was early and I would have time to address the issue. 

I didn't have tools or a jack, but I managed to borrow what I needed, and the ICAR staff were gracious enough to give me some nuts and bolts to re-attach my exhaust. I will start bringing a jack and a ratchet set to the track, since this type of thing keeps happening. Anyway, about an hour later, I was ready to head back out for another session. 

During my second session, the exhaust was holding, but the check engine light came on after only 1 or 2 laps. I was disappointed, as I thought that the issue would have been solved. It wasn't. I focused on maintaining momentum and my driving line, aiming for the best possible lap time with reduced power. The data showed I was managing decent speeds in the corners, but that I was missing 10 km/h or more in the high speed sessions. I managed a 1:48.50, which was not too far off my times from the previous week. 

There was one fix I had in reserve if the electronic problem was not fixed. Sajan had told me that sometimes, the OBD2-to-OBD1 conversion harnesses had faulty wiring. I happened to have a spare one of these from an ECU that came with one of my used engines. I tried swapping it over after the session and got ready to go out again. 

At the beginning of the third session, the car felt great. All the power was there and the check engine light was staying off. On my second warm up lap, I was already in the 1:48's. By the third lap, all was still good, and I was going even faster. I was catching up to a group of three cars when I began to have clutch issues. At one point, the clutch pedal stayed on the floor and I was lucky to be near the track exit at the time. 

I parked the car and tried to figure out the issue. I called Pat and he told me how to inspect the slave cylinder. Sure enough, the bracket holding the slave cylinder had come loose and the piston had popped out of the cylinder. I managed to put everything back together with borrowed tools and had someone help me bleed the clutch, but it began to piss out fluid and I gave up. I drove home with no clutch, shutting off the engine at red lights, and parked the car. 

I guess this is what I have to get used to. I have never had these weird issues with any Civic in the past. I will start carrying a jack, jack stands and more tools with me. I had the car towed to Pat's shop and he will surely be able to change whatever clutch hydraulics need changing. What's sad is that I'm not sure if I solved the electronic issue or not, since I only got 3 laps in the final session. The last lap was a 1:47.27, which is encouraging, but I won't know for sure until I drive on track a bit more. To be continued...

As always, a nice variety of machines

Civic jacked up for exhaust repair

ICAR's cool WRX's 

A really nice Mustang race car

The Civic back at home, waiting for a tow

Track season starts early

It's been snowing for 2 days... hard to believe after the 20+ degree weather we have seen on certain days.

Photo from yesterday, unexpected snow

As planned, I pulled the Civic out of storage on April 1st. I had to wait a few additional days before I was able to get the BMW out of the barn at the country house, since the barn doors were still frozen in ice. When it was possible to take out the BMW, I parked the Saab at the country house, where it is now sitting. The plan is to sell the Saab in the next few weeks to make way for a new winter car for next season.

The BMW was put away in good working condition and all seems well now that I have swapped on the summer wheels. There is still an intermittent check engine for a throttle position sensor, but the car is working fine and is not leaking oil anywhere.

As for the Civic, I had put it away in working condition. On my last track day in November, there had been no vtec engagement issue on my last session and I had hoped that the issue was solved when I properly secured a wire to the vtec solenoid.

Amazingly, there are two local tracks (Riverside and ICAR) which have began hosting track events as of a couple of weeks ago, so I was eager to head out with the Civic. I was able to head to ICAR this past Tuesday for a couple of sessions. ICAR decided to start the Tuesday lapping at 1:00 pm instead of 5:00, so people could get in some track time despite the 8:00 pm curfew. 

I managed to get to the track at about 2:00 pm and was chatting with the owner of a nice Mazda RX8 R3 while I emptied the car.

There were not many people on track at that hour, but at least that meant I could gather some useful data without my lap times being affected by other drivers. My plan was to take it easy for a few laps to make sure everything was in order. The car felt good. The front end was not gripping that well in the slower corners, but the car felt stable where it counted in the faster corners. After a few laps, the vtec issue appeared again. The engine would drop out of vtec then it would return. This got worse as the session went on. I managed a 1:48.06, about 1.5 seconds off my best laps of last season. On that lap, I clearly had full power, as I hit 168 km/h on the back straight. I was on a mid-1:47 when I lost power on the start-finish straight. I just decided to focus on running clean laps and see how much speed I could maintain in the corners. I never managed to hit the rev limiter in 4th gear, which shows that the engins was not pulling as strongly as it did in November. 

I went out for 2 more sessions, but the problem persisted, so I was losing about 15 km/h at the end of each straight. Still, I managed laps in the 1:48's in each session, despite the power loss, so I was feeling good about the overall performance of the car (and the driver). With less power, I was getting on the gas earlier at the start of the super long right-hander, and this generated some of my best speeds ever in that corner. I have to remember to get on the gas more aggressively after the hairpin at the end of the back straight. 

There were no other issues, so I was pretty satisfied with my afternoon. The issue is likely an electronic or voltage issue, and Pat says we will run a couple of new wires to the vtec components. I hope we find the solution quickly. You can't see if the problem is solved with street driving, as the problem doesn't manifest on the street. I assume there is a heat component to the issue. I will drop the car off at Pat's tomorrow so he can take a look at it.

The Civic at ICAR

Not many other cars, but some interesting stuff nonetheless

This NSX belongs to ICAR, as does the F430 on the lift

As spring is really here, there are more and more interesting cars on the road.

Clean E28 5-series

In the past 2 weeks, Oscar has learned to ride a bike with full confidence

Zoom photo of a woodpecker at the country house

What are the odds? C63 sedan and 507 edition Coupe on the road together

Ur-S4

M3 fresh out of the barn, ready for action

Nice S5 sedan

RS5 coupe

I love the new RS6 wagon

The Civic on its first day out of storage

MGB-GT on 80's MSW wheels

The Saab, dealing with a resurgence of winter weather

A loud EP3 Civic

Ford GT and GT40

Nice phoenix yellow M3

Very clean Mustang

A rare CR-Z on our street

A clean E46 sedan in the neighbourhood

The Civic in storage

Another cool RS6