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vtluu
05-11-2005, 05:10 PM
What a weekend!
- Worked Main Time Control (MTC) at Rim of the World Rally.
- Ran at the autocross organized by Team Blew (http://www.teamblewracing.org/). Won! Set FTD at the practice Friday and FTD at the competition Saturday!
- Did a track day with TCRA (http://www.touringcarclub.com/) at Willow Springs International Raceway's "Streets of Willow Springs" racetrack.

Between working the MTC and running and helping out at the autocross I didn't have a lot of time to go out and take photos; here's what I got:

There was a car show at the fairgrounds. I didn't care for all the riced out rides but I really loved GravelCrew's entry:
http://www.norcalevo.net/gallery/albums/album260/IMG_0026.jpg

Mitsubishi's new '06 Eclipse GT in blue; breaks the big basket-handle wing tradition, for better or worse...
http://www.norcalevo.net/gallery/albums/album260/IMG_0027.jpg

Also breaks the scales at around 200 lbs heavier than the 3G. And FWD as before. Why, why, why?
http://www.norcalevo.net/gallery/albums/album260/IMG_0028.jpg

Evo IX on display. I finally got a close-up look at those little ports in the bumper, and what's behind them is the the FMIC tubing. Huh?
http://www.norcalevo.net/gallery/albums/album260/IMG_0030.jpg

Orange '06 Eclipse, with the ricey "fang" factory option I guess.
http://www.norcalevo.net/gallery/albums/album260/IMG_0033.jpg

RalliArt Galant concept. :shrug:
http://www.norcalevo.net/gallery/albums/album260/IMG_0034.jpg

WORKS's booth at the vendor exhibit.
http://www.norcalevo.net/gallery/albums/album260/IMG_0037.jpg

Subaru/SPT/ESX trailer and showcase; and on the other side...
http://www.norcalevo.net/gallery/albums/album260/IMG_0042.jpg

... Pat Richard's service area.
http://www.norcalevo.net/gallery/albums/album260/IMG_0043.jpg

More of the SPT/ESX showcase area.
http://www.norcalevo.net/gallery/albums/album260/IMG_0044.jpg

Amy Bebervanzo's Evo 8 RS rally car coming in to MTC; they must have stopped at a car wash along the way...
http://www.norcalevo.net/gallery/albums/album260/IMG_0048.jpg

Service area photos; one scubie (Ken Block)...
http://www.norcalevo.net/gallery/albums/album260/IMG_0049.jpg

And another (Pat Richard)...
http://www.norcalevo.net/gallery/albums/album260/IMG_0051.jpg

And another (Doug Chernis)...
http://www.norcalevo.net/gallery/albums/album260/IMG_0053.jpg

And another (Peter Workum), and another (Wyeth Gubelmann)...
http://www.norcalevo.net/gallery/albums/album260/IMG_0054.jpg

George Plsek's Evo 6 which unfortunately DNF'ed late on the second day...
http://www.norcalevo.net/gallery/albums/album260/IMG_0055.jpg

Amy coming in to the final MTC; this time with some dirt on the car.
http://www.norcalevo.net/gallery/albums/album260/IMG_0063.jpg

vtluu
05-11-2005, 05:11 PM
Streets of Willow Springs: 1.7-mile technical track featuring some sweeping S-turns and a 20-degree-banked "bowl" turn into the back straight. Weather was clear, warm, calm in the morning but extremely gusty in the afternoon. I ran with the "blue" or "time trial" group; the "green" group was a drift group and other than a couple guys who knew like they knew what they were doing, the rest looked absolutely clueless on the track.

After my 1st session I investigated some clunking noise coming from my rear suspension. Turned out one of my rear swaybar brackets was broken; I noticed some noise on Saturday morning so I suspect it happened some time during the autocross practice on Friday. No wonder the car seemed so pushy through the "skidpad" turn at the autocross Saturday!

Late in my 3rd session I apexed turn 6 a bit early and ended up going early into 7 as a result, hugging the inside and spinning out a result: http://www.norcalevo.net/gallery/albums/album06/Spin.wmv

Result was minor damage--scratched up undertray, tweaked bumper lip and a few rocks lodged between my FR wheel and tire; could've been much worse. I patched things up and went out for my 4th session where I drove at a bit more relaxed pace (1:40s rather than 1:37s).

Other than the little oopsie at the track, and the 1-hour detour to Lancaster on Sunday night after my friend Nick ran out of gas about 10 miles out of the racetrack, a great weekend! :)

vtluu
05-11-2005, 05:12 PM
Here's a video of my "fast" lap. (http://norcalevo.net/gallery/albums/album06/sow_20050508_lores.wmv) I was fairly consistent in my 3rd session, running a string of 1:37s (fastest was a 1:37.0) which was in line with some of the Spec Miatas running in the "race" group that day. I believe (based on SpeedVenture's 12/4 Evo Challenge result) a decently fast time around for an Evo with my level of preparation is around 1:30. Now, my rear swaybar was broken (bracket had snapped) so figure that was costing me maybe a couple seconds a lap, what with all the long sweeping turns and all. That leaves about five seconds; where/how?

hagakure
05-11-2005, 07:00 PM
Hey Tam,

Nice videos. You were wondering about how to shave off those 5 seconds...it appears that you were apexing early fairly consistently, as you were still feeding in steering after the apex on several corners....I am sensitive to this, as it has been my problem in the past. You just have to force yourself to wait, and flow through on the late apex. Have you been finding that you have a propensity to have to over correct on connected corners? I'm certainly not a pro, but just an observation from the video. Peace!


Percy

vtluu
05-11-2005, 07:12 PM
Thanks Percy, I'll have to watch the full session videos but I think you're right... For example I definitely noticed what you're talking about on the turn 5-6-7 complex. I was consciously focusing on choosing and hitting my apexes but T5-T6-T7 never felt "right"--always felt like I was playing "catch-up" with the turns.

A previous instructor of mine at NCRC said that autocrossers often have a tendency to apex early. I'm guessing it's due to being used to driving on courses that are much tighter--on a road course the apex comes later just because things are scaled up relative to an auto-x course.

What about my little spin? Anything I could have done better? You can see me countersteering trying to correct it but after I realized it wasn't gonna happen, I just put both feet in and hoped for the best...

earlyapex
05-11-2005, 07:46 PM
What about my little spin? Anything I could have done better? You can see me countersteering trying to correct it but after I realized it wasn't gonna happen, I just put both feet in and hoped for the best...

First off, sounds like an awesome weekend. We should really put together a little norcal "track junkie" group with all the hardcore track people!

Your spin: you weren't taking that section very well. I see you hesitate with your steering input going into the first corner, then you do too much steering and it finally caught up with you in the last one, looks like you gave the car too much steering input mid-corner trying to play catch-up and it unweighted the back end. Also, once you started spinning, from what I could see in the video, you gave way too little steering way too late, but you did do the right thing afterwards, both feet in and steering into the spin. Was your rear swaybar broken at this point?

From watching the full lap, it looks like you are taking alot of corners this way. You hesitate on intial turn in, realize you did that, then jerk the steering wheel and give it more input. I think this is your autox roots shining through. With autox, that can give you good rotation on a tight course, but on a open-track, well, you can see what happens. :) When I made the transition from autox to open-tracking I did the very same thing. You are also apexing WAY too early on some corners and not getting on the gas early enough. One thing I have realized with the evo, is that the gas pedal is a GREAT tool for rotation. When I was getting used to the EVO, I kept getting on the gas earlier and earlier because I could, there where some corners where I was actually on the gas before I had even apexed.

At the end of the full lap video, you took the turn into the skid pad section pretty well, looked smooth, and you fed in steering input as you took the section instead of just trying to jam it all in at one point.

All in all, streets is a pretty technical track. Was this your first time there? I wouldn't be too worried. I was the same way the first time there. I haven't been back there for like.. 6 years so I don't even know how I would do there either. :)

btw, what is the little bump on your dash board in the middle?

vtluu
05-11-2005, 08:06 PM
Thanks Bryan. The swaybar bracket broke sometime at the autocross practice on Friday. I first heard some noise from the suspension while driving around Lancaster on Saturday morning, took a casual look and didn't see anything. It wasn't until I was at SOW that I actually spotted the problem. I dialed in more rear damping force to compensate but this wouldn't have helped in steady-state cornerning. Also meant that I couldn't get on the gas as early because it tended to make the car push, which might partly explain what you saw about me being late on the throttle.

The little bump on my dash is the GPS antenna for my nav system. There's a little plastic tab between the vents you can pop out to run wires in through there; the wire for my shift light runs out through the same opening.

I think this criticism is encouraging--if I was making so many mistakes and still managing a 1:37, think how much faster I'll be when I do it right--with a working swaybar! :lol:

earlyapex
05-11-2005, 08:14 PM
Think about how much more you would have spun with a working sway bar! :P

Yea, I wouldn't analyze this event too much since you where driving your car without a rear swaybar.

Are you going to the GGLC thill event in July?

Also, what turboback do you have? I can barely hear it in the video. My turboback, even with my helmet is uber loud on track, which I like since I can read the car better.

BTW. I apex early on some corners, it fits my driving style better since I trail brake alot. Hence my username. :P Ask Methods4 how many times he almost ended up in my backseat because of it. :oops:

SouthernCrane
05-11-2005, 08:20 PM
sounds like a great weekend tam :D Nice pix too.

vtluu
05-12-2005, 03:25 AM
Not sure when my next track day will be; still hoping to hit Buttonwillow and big Willow Springs sometime this year... I'm aiming for a total of about 10 track events this year (SOW was my 6th, 5th this year) but with autocross and rally competing for my time and budget, scheduling is a bit tricky.

hagakure
05-12-2005, 08:29 AM
Great advice and observations Bryan, and good driving first time out at the streets Tam!

We should put together a group of guys that are fairly hardcore about tracking their cars. We should plan a few trips down south for the summer and fall. I want to make one of the speedventures Buttonwillow weekends in the fall, would be good to have company. Peace guys!

Percy

earlyapex
05-12-2005, 10:03 AM
I'm down for buttonwillow, the drive down pretty much sux but the track is worth it.

I'll be doing these events with GGLC:

July 27th - Thunderhill
Sept 13th - Thunderhill
Oct 17th - Buttonwillow

GokuSSJ4
05-12-2005, 11:13 AM
1:37's not bad for streets of willow, aim next time for low 1:30's :wink:
glad that you had plenty of fun

hagakure
05-12-2005, 11:48 AM
I'm down for buttonwillow, the drive down pretty much sux but the track is worth it.

I'll be doing these events with GGLC:

July 27th - Thunderhill
Sept 13th - Thunderhill
Oct 17th - Buttonwillow


I would not mind doing the buttonwillow event on the 17th, but for that long drive I'd rather do a 2 day event....What about september 30th and october 1 with Speedventures? If we can get a large group of norcal evos, maybe we can convince speedventures to give us a break on the entry fee....


Percy

Percy

earlyapex
05-12-2005, 11:57 AM
Two day event might be too crazy for me.

I'd spend like $300 on just gas at the track for the 2 days. :-O

We'll see.

Eclipse
05-12-2005, 02:59 PM
I'll be at BW in Oct but not in my EVO.

With GGLC it's like 2 days worth of track time of other groups. The last session you're practically alone. It was worth it just for that.

I ran out of gas in my last session, it would cut out in high G corners but only filled 12 gallons. Just got the CC bill, three and a half fillups with all but one 100 proof diet. :shock:

Scott

earlyapex
05-12-2005, 03:06 PM
I'll be at BW in Oct but not in my EVO.

With GGLC it's like 2 days worth of track time of other groups. The last session you're practically alone. It was worth it just for that.

I ran out of gas in my last session, it would cut out in high G corners but only filled 12 gallons. Just got the CC bill, three and a half fillups with all but one 100 proof diet. :shock:

Scott

I was at the pump after every session because I never drive on the track with less than 1/2 tank for that reason.

I was burning 1/2 tank every session at GGLC buttonwillow. :shock:

vtluu
05-15-2005, 03:42 AM
Some great photos from Ray Krebs III of my car at the Rim Of The World autocross:

Cool "aerial" angle:
http://www.norcalevo.net/gallery/albums/album260/IMG_4058.jpg

Riding on two-and-a-half wheels; lovin' those LSDs!
http://www.norcalevo.net/gallery/albums/album260/IMG_3899.jpg

Ooh, an audience! Don't choke now!
http://www.norcalevo.net/gallery/albums/album260/IMG_4079.jpg

Show off your tread! Show off your lean! (Note to self: get stiffer springs.)
http://www.norcalevo.net/gallery/albums/album260/IMG_4092.jpg

Lesson learned? Stickers don't make you faster, but they will get you into more photos. :D
http://www.norcalevo.net/gallery/albums/album260/IMG_4080.jpg

EVO GRIM
05-15-2005, 07:39 AM
Lesson learned? Stickers don't make you faster, but they will get you into more photos. Very Happy

Lol! Nice pics. Wow thats a short course.

dohcvtec
05-16-2005, 11:42 AM
Anyone object to a del slo tagging along with you evo peeps? :)

And A girl who rallys her evo? Hmm, she single? :twisted:

Sounds like you had an eventful weekend!

GokuSSJ4
05-16-2005, 12:07 PM
nice pics !!!

vtluu
05-16-2005, 02:43 PM
And A girl who rallys her evo? Hmm, she single? :twisted:
I remember skimming her bio in the Rim of the World Rally Souvenir Programme. Single or not, she's been rallying longer than, um, some folks here have been alive. So keep that in mind. ;)