Vince's Stuff

Wednesday, October 18, 2023

Mosport: as fun as ever, luck with weather, and a new personal best lap time!

Our cars in the paddock, driven to the track 500 km each way

I try to get to the three major tracks within a 500 km radius of home at least once a year: Tremblant, Calabogie and Mosport. In actual fact, I most often fail, for whatever reason: track car reliability or availability, budget constraints or time constraints. This year, I got in a few laps at Calabogie on the lunch break of our school and I did not manage to get to Tremblant. We were out of the country for the first half of summer, and when we got back, the car was not back from its refresh for another five weeks. It was therefore quite important for me to make it out to what has maybe been my favourite event of the past years (given that I don't have a car that can participate in club racing): the Perry Performance Thanksgiving weekend at Mosport. Carl organizes a fantastic event year after year, and there are three days to choose from on the long weekend. Rob and I decided to run on the Saturday only, and we were praying for good weather. The forecast was looking not that great, but in the end, we lucked out: it did not rain at all during the Saturday portion of the event.

Last year was the first time I had been to Mosport in 6 years ( Story here ) and I had managed my lifetime best lap time, a 1:40.77, but had come away disappointed with not cracking the 1:40 mark. Based on the performances of my friends in their Civics, I should have been able to do a 1:39 or better... it was not to be. Of course, I was very motivated to try again this year, and the car had a few improvements (including an LSD) that should make it possible. I know it's maybe not the best strategy to arrive at a track day with a specific lap time in mind, but I really wanted to meet this challenge. When watching the video of last year, I can see that I was slow in corners 2 and 4 (for me, the two scariest corners) and there was surely a second to be gained there.

We left Montreal before rush hour on Friday. Rob was driving his lovely E36 M3 while I was in the Civic with Choo, who would be sharing the car, since his Civic has not recovered from its blown engine at last year's Mosport event. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express at Bowmanville and arrived at the track in plenty of time for the driver's meeting. Carl warned us about the cold track in the morning, and of course, he was right to do so.

While doing a bolt check on the Civic, Choo noticed that one of the axle boots was ripped and that the axle had lost a ton of grease as a result. On top of that, he said there was play in the axle now. I was a bit pissed that we had not checked this in Montreal, especially since Choo had spare axles at home, but we tried to switch to problem-solving mode. I was not very useful here, but Choo was. He found some axle grease (thanks Kevin) and used a tie wrap to re-seal the boot at a point past the rip. He was worried about the small amount of play in the axle, but it turned out to be a non issue. The car ran reliably all day.

By the time this was done, the first session was just rolling onto the track. There was no pressure to maximize every minute of each session, since we had access to 7 sessions of 30 minutes each. Thirty minutes on a race track is a lot, so 210 minutes is a very generous amount of track time. I took it easy on the first laps, as the track was cold (but dry) and did not inspire a ton of confidence. I was in the advanced group, and I felt like I was the slowest car out there (maybe I was). There were several Porsches in the group, GT4's, GT3's and a couple of race 911's. My first laps were in the 1:50's and I eventually managed a 1:47 near the end of the session. It was hard to imagine that I would be able to shave 8 more seconds off my time in the later sessions!

The second session was uneventful, I was still getting passed non stop. The car felt good and I was able to confidently apply throttle in turn 2 without the front end washing out, probably because of the newly installed LSD. When I got passed by Cayman GT4's running together, I was sometimes able to get a tow and my top speed on my best lap was 204 km/h. I managed a best lap of 1:41.66. I made myself not brake at all for turn 4, and this worked just fine. I did of course lift off the throttle, for quite a long pause. When I used to race at Mosport with my 1.6 liter Civic, I was able to take that corner flat out and get to the braking point at 177 km/h. My data shows that on my best laps, I was now only managing 163, so there is probably a time loss there from not carrying enough speed through corner 4. Still, I was satisfied with the session. The car felt good, and I felt quite confident I would get into the 1:39's at some point in the day. The car was using a ridiculous amount of fuel, given the very high average speeds.

By the third session, I knew there was no excuse not to go sub 1:40. The track was warming up and there were no issues with the car. I was going more and more quickly. Lap 8 was a 1:40.99, lap 11 was a 1:40.59 (new personal best), lap 13, unbelievably, was a 1:40.00! Fortunately, on my next lap, I did it, a 1:39.89. Finally! I felt that whatever else happened in the day, I had accomplished what I had set out to do. I had a leisurely lunch and even lay down in the grass and dozed off for a while.

In my 4th session, I didn't go any faster but in my 5th session, I managed a 1:39.14, one of three laps in the 1:39's. Of course, this meant that I should be able to hit the 1:38's, right? I came very close on my last lap of the 6th session, with a 1:39.01. Come on! Was I really going to have to wait until 2024 to hit the 1:38's? There was only one session left to do it.

The last session of the day was going well, I hit the 1:39's on laps 3,5,6,7 and 9. Then, on lap 11, I could see my delta was in the negative and that there was a real shot of improving, but at the end of the straight, I was catching up to one of the 911 race cars that seemed to be on a cooldown lap. I was yelling in the car... it was not slow enough for me to pass it into turn 8, and I was sure I was going to lose time behind it. Looking at the video, I think I did lose a couple of tenths of a second there, but I was still able to manage a 1:38.68. I was very happy with this, and decided to call it a day at that point. Why push my luck? I had driven a whole bunch of laps in the day and I had managed a satisfactory lap time with maybe 10 minutes left in the last session. I still needed to drive home in the car...

So was I one of the fast cars in my group? Still no. I was not even the fastest Civic (I think Jérémi Martel was). There were people who had never been to Mosport who were faster than me in Golf R's. I can see in the video where I can go faster (still turns 2 and 4) but if I compare my speeds with data from other years, I went the fastest ever in corners 3, 5, 8, 9 and 10. I was 4km/h short of my best ever in turn 1, 6 km/h short in turn 2 and 14 km/h short just before turn 5. Those "record" speeds were achieved with a lighter car, on R-compound tires, but there is no reason I shouldn't be able to eventually match them with this Civic in optimal conditions.

All in all, it was a very satisfying way to end the season. There is only one more event, Perry's track day at ICAR this Saturday, but it looks like it might rain, a lot. If the season is already over then, I'm OK with it. As I have mentioned before, I like putting the car away for winter in pretty much ready-for-Spring condition (of course, we will need an axle, an oil change, maybe some new brake lines...).

Here is a video of my last 3 laps of the day:

Bonus: short video from the pit lane, my car appears near the end:

Three Civic coupes

The car between sessions, beautiful weather for October

In the pit lane

Another cool pit lane shot

New GT3 RS, cool plate

There were a bunch of GT3's and GT4's

Another angle for the GT3 RS

Cool M4 CS in the background

The fast Civics of the Martel brothers

Just like last year, a Mclaren at our hotel

Civic getting a rest

My Civic, Kevin's and Jérémi's

Nice E46 M3

Packed up and ready for the drive home.

Wednesday, October 11, 2023

Back at ICAR, everything is still working.

Summer weather at ICAR last Tuesday

It was hot last Tuesday at ICAR... like summer hot (26 degrees). Still, I really wanted to try and set a good lap time before the end of the season. I was pretty sure the car could do 1:14's and I wanted to prove this as soon as possible. I had a problem with my GPS the week before, so I didn't have any data, except for the last session's, which was a 1:15.70. I was hoping the heat would not rob the engine of too much power, but everything seemed OK in the first session. I managed a 1:15.18 near the end of the session, so I was very motivated to try to break into the 1:14's. In my second session, I was able to click off two laps in a row in the 1:14's, the best being a 1:14.74. I was pretty happy about that. Since I chose to only run in green sessions, it was pretty dark by my 3rd session and the track felt slower (the 944 driver confirmed it). I was a full second slower. I decided to call it a night, because the car was running well and I would be heading to Mosport only 3 days later. I wasn't terribly happy with the last session, but I was happy with the car and I had improved my driving in the chicane as well. The trick, I believe, is to treat the left-hander at the entry of the chicane as if it were a standalone corner, because if you are slow enough to make that left, you can surely make the right that forms the second part of the chicane. My struggles concerning gear selection (since installing the new final drive) are resolved: I always upshift to fourth if there is any doubt. Even when running a 1:14's, I was being passed, by the 350Z, a Cayman race car, a Cayman GT4RS and the blue MR2. That's fine with me, I think I'm doing all right for a normally aspirated front-wheel-drive car. I think the fastest Civics are doing high 1:12's, which is impressive, but I'm pretty sure they are lighter than my car and more powerful. Can my car run a 1:13? Maybe, if all the planets align... I hope it doesn't rain on the Perry Performance family track day in a couple of weekends so I can see what the car can do before I put it away for winter!

Here is a video of my best laps:

Four four-cylinder cars

Nicely modified Cayman

Rare Cayman GT4RS

... they look pretty similar side by side

Nice AMG GTR

Also nice: Nismo 370Z

Nice E92 M3, another Cayman in the background

Nice wheels on this Elantra N

Cayman GT4 and the 350Z that always passes me

Clean Civic Si

More Hondas

Pink clouds

Very clean EP3 from Ontario

The Civic and a cool NB Miata

Almost sunset

Photos from Facebook... it was dark in the last session

Photo from the mobile tower

And another, looks like I'm braking and turning

Wednesday, September 27, 2023

Civic back on track: reliable, fun, not slow!

The Civic back at ICAR

Things did not go perfectly on my first time on track since late May (almost 3 months!). However, I still had a great night. I picked up the car last Monday evening, but was unable to get a wheel alignment in time for the Tuesday ICAR track evening. The car was aligned last Wednesday and has just been sitting on the street, waiting for an event (I did drive it to Longueuil last Friday to file some documents in Court, and all was well).

I wasnt't too worried about the car's reliability. Mainly, I wanted to make sure I would get in some laps and gather some data before nightfall... the sun sets before 7 p.m. these days. My plan was to load up the car and head to the North Shore in the early afternoon to avoid traffic, then work with my laptop from a library in Mirabel. I loaded up the car with the usual trackday items, and didn't bother even looking at my checklist. This is what I usually bring: a Rubbermaid bin with some fluids, a jack stand, a ratchet set and some shop towels, a tool bag with a torque wrench and a few other items, a backpack that has my devices and chargers, including 2 Gopro cameras and my external GPS device, as well as my Hans device, a sports bag that contains my helmet, balaclava, gloves and socks, my race suit in its bag, and finally, a backpack with my laptop, some drinks and a spare t-shirt. I usually bring a bottle of motor oil, but I forgot to yesterday.

I left the library pretty early, filled the car with gas, bought a liter of oil, and arrived at the track around 4 p.m. I was hoping to get my tickets and bracelet early, but the ICAR employee only opened a few mintes before 5 p.m. I was parked next to a nice guy with a Porsche 944 track car and a big trailer and he graciously offered me the use of any tools I might need. As I went through my "devices" backpack, I realized that I had forgotten the pouch with one of the Gopros, that the Gopro I had had a dead battery, and that I didn't even have a cable to charge a Gopro, or my external GPS device (same cable, mini-USB). I didn't so much mind not being able to film, but I really wanted to know my lap times and gather some data, since the car has undergone a few changes since my last session. The fact that I forgot this little pouch was really the only thing that went wrong with the evening, and it's really not a big deal.

I used my time to set the tire pressures (26 psi front, 28 rear) and generally get ready for the first session. I tried to check the oil, but the oil is so new I can barely see it on the dipstick. Luckily, the car was fully ready by the time I had noticed that the ticket booth was open, since there were already 6 or 8 people in line. At 5 p.m., many of us were still in line, so the evening would not begin on time. In the line, I bumped into Marie-Laurence Paquin and her student Marco (last generation Subaru STi with 400 hp) and we caught up a bit. I actually saw a bunch of people I have raced with in the past, including Dave Gosselin (Champcar Civic), Paul Gravel and Jocelyn Hébert (SPC Civic FK8), Cyndie Picotte (Civic EK K-swap) and even Carl Wener (only there to hang out and deliver parts). There were several cars from the "Track and Time" crowd, as they have a time attack at ICAR this coming weekend.

As the other cars rolled in, it was the usual mix: Porsche GT3 and GT4, R35 GTR, a bunch of Hondas, from CRX's to modern Civics, a few Miatas, some Audi, BMW and Mini products, a few GT86's. There was something for every budget (7000$ Civic or Mini to brand new 250 000 $ or more GT3RS). As I have mentioned before, this is something I like about ICAR's lapping evenings. People are not snobby about what you drive, they care more about how you drive.

As soon as I had my tickets, I hopped into the car. The GPS seemed to be connected to my phone, and I headed out in the first session, a mix of Green and Yellow level drivers. We were in the "new paddock", which sees you enter the track just after the new chicane. I took it easy on my out-lap and on the second lap, making sure the brakes and suspension felt OK... they did. The engine felt like it was making great power so I sped up a bit, and tried to add more speed lap after lap. The lap timer app was having some issues though, and showing clearly incorrect lap times. My previous best lap time had been a 1:16.48 and I was quite sure that even on my first night back in 3 months that I would be able to dip into the 1:15's. There was a red flag part way through the session due to the breakdown of a K-swapped Toyota GT86, and so the session was sort of split into 2 parts. I noticed the vtec disengaging for a couple of seconds before the right hander into the front straight, and figured I probably needed to overfill the oil to prevent this from happening. The new gearing, so far, does not feel ideal for this track. Whereas I could easily hold third gear in certain places, I now needed to grab fourth for a short while or ride the redline in third. All evening, I experimented with this. The session was uneventful and I don't think anyone passed my. I passed a couple of cars, which is normal in a mixed green/yellow session.

The next session was a red group session. Dave told me he heard the following session would be green, so I got in line. A minute before going out, I was told it was a yellow session and that I could go out if I respected the yellow group passing zones. I asked if the following session would be green, and when they said it would, I decided to do 2 sessions back to back. There was no issue running with the yellow group. I never got stuck behind someone in this session, people were courteous and would let me pass. I think no one passed me. I still wasn't getting reliable lap data, but it seemed I was running in the 1:15's when I had open track. In my third session, the one right after, I came in after 1 lap because the lap timer was not working at all. I lost the data from this session, but I don’t know if it was reliable, there were several laps indicates as 1:15’s, so some must have been accurate. I think this is probably when I went the fastest but I have no way of knowing. I was still trying to figure out the best line for the chicane, and the best moment to lift off the gas and brake.

I had managed to get in 3 sessions in daylight and all had gone well. When I headed out for my fourth and last session, it was mostly dark. I went out behind an orange coupe like mine and Hébert's FK8 race car and assumed they would just take off, but in the end, we ran together for most of the session,. Eventually I passed the orange Civic, and the FK8 pulled away in the second half of the session. The only car to pass me was an SPC Hyundai Genesis Coupe, which was much faster than me. I know Dave and Cyndie were faster than me in the 1:14’s or better, but I never crossed their paths. The 944 had caught me by the end of the session. I'm pretty sure the lap timer was finally working properly and I clocked a 1:15.70. I don't think it's possible that was my fastest lap of the day, because I probably slowed down a bit due to my inability to make out all the track's reference points in the dark. The reason I know the car can go faster is that it is now equipped with a limited-slip differential, and I can feel it on track. I can get on the gas earlier with no wheelspin.

How was my driving? I think pretty good. There are two spots where I seem to gain on people: the last corner before the front straight, where I turn in early and take a wide ark, getting on the gas early, and the high speed right-hander after the chicane, where I try to turn in early and aggressively and stay full throttle as long as possible. In the other corners, I am not really losing ground to the others. I know there are several tenths of a second to be gained in the chicane, and I have to figure out both the best line, the right moment to lift from full throttle, and when to brake (basically, it all needs work!).

Over all, it seems like the car is where I want it to be. I'm confident the car can run in the 1:14's if I drive more consistently. I'm still impressed that what is a 12-15 000 $ car can be driven to the track, perform at this level, then drive back home afterwards. I had a fun evening, I got to play around with other cars on track and the car came home in excellent condition. So, to answer the question "Can you have fun without knowing your lap times?", the answer is yes, althought it feels like a little something (data) is missing.