June 20th Autocross - Brother's Eunos...

Saturday Nite Prepping - Putting On The Race Rubber...

Spent about 2 hours Saturday night taking off the Starsharks and putting on the 185 R-comp Advans, and adjusting the suspension a little higher. During the last race, the car smelt like a hibachi with the fronts burning into the top of the tire liners...

All Done...
Took my brother's "new" Eunos out after a LONG LONG layoff. Never got it going as the back end was way too loose. Probably due to the added camber on the rear rubber that was worn and molded to less camber = less outside tire edge on the ground! I should have thought of lowering the pressure...Doh!!!

My 3rd run was my fastest with a 38.1 and change...good for 5th in E Modified. On my forth run, I decided to push the car a little more resulting in some Initial D action...

Vid from the other angle...

Well...at least the CAR looked much nicer than BEFORE:





My brother took 1st in a 2-man STS class but was not really feeling it cause his wagon was oversteering too in the transitions. Maybe in two weeks, we'll both co-drive the Eunos...

Results: http://www.sccahawaii.org/2008results/7-20-08.pdf

SCCA Hawaii Autocross - July 13, 2008

This past Sunday was the first autocross after a 2 month break for the 50th State Fair, which is also held at Aloha Stadium. And, it was like learning to walk again as both me and my brother felt that we weren't really focused after the long layoff. In fact, a LOT of people must have had the same feeling as everyone was DNFing...even experienced racers like Erik in his Subi Wagon!!!

"Ahhhh...Left Turn There!!!!" My brother DNF'd away his first 3 runs!!! On his last do-or-die run, he managed a 34.8.

On my first run, I got lost and did a 37.
On my second run I coned away a 34.8.
On my 3rd run, I decided to NOT left foot brake and did a 34 flat.
On my forth, I over drove the course and went back up to 34.9.

We both did lots of fun runs and my brother bested me with a 33.8! I could only repeat my 34 flat with numerous 35's thrown in there. Although, I did have one really good run that might have broken into the 33's, only that the lights malfunctioned and I ended up with a smoking 14 seconds!!!

Results for STS:
Steven BMW 325it 37.017 36.862 1 34.086 34.893 34.086 43 27.814 29
Gregg Mazda 6-Wagon DNF DNF DNF 34.841 34.841 54 28.430 40
Erik Subaru RS Wagon DNF 36.703 36.635 35.971 35.971 76 29.352 57
Malcolm Toyota Corolla 47.225 37.594 37.096 DNF 37.096 93 30.270 74

A Sea of Cones to Get Lost In...
The course was a really open high speed layout and I got up into the 45mph range in 2 places on the course. Although, there were probably 2 or 3 places where you HAD to slow down to get the proper line for the section, else, you ended up plowing away lots of time.

Not much time to think, analyze or recover as the next race is this coming Sunday!

Feb. 17th SCCA - Back In The Game...

I was taking these "focus factor" pills before last Sunday's SCCA race and...they must have helped...I finally got back to #1.


Although the day started out rainy, our class lucked out and ran in the 2nd heat, and by that time, the track was getting reasonably dry. Running in the 1st heat must have been about 2 to 4 seconds slower than in the drier conditions.

Mazda 6 Wagon - about 2/10ths behind on a ragged run.


BMW 325 Wagon - at full throttle heading towards the bottom sweeper.

Last Sunday's course was a wide open and high speed track that really favored the high powered cars. Even my car got up to about 40mph or faster at about 4 points on the track. So I would think the high powered cars got up to over 50mph!

Compared to my last several races, my course vision was a LOT better as I was looking way ahead on all except for one run. The problem with that run was that I got behind on one section, and once you get "behind the course," you'll never catch up!

But even if you're looking ahead, the other BIGGER key was that I picked a fast line, especially on the last run.

It seems that for my car, on this course (maybe most autox courses?) I need to take a line which really "opens up the course" and lets me exit the turns set up on the quickest straightest lines allowing full gas asap for the next section. And, in the slaloms and transitions, my brother reminded me to "attack the back" of the cones, which really keeps you ahead of the course.

Well...that's what worked last week, at least. Hopefully it works in next weeks Hawaii SCCA Championship Runoffs...

STS
Steven BMW 325it 35.609 39.002 1 35.121 34.602 34.602
Gregg Mazda 6-Wagon 35.861 35.037 35.591 34.853 34.853
Aaron Lexus IS300 DNF 35.812 35.737 38.132 1 35.737
Ryan Lexus IS300 40.269 1 37.767 36.966 38.857 1 36.966

Full Results: http://www.sccahawaii.org/2-17-08.pdf

Eibach Rear Sway Bar...

Eibach Rear Sway Bar vs. Stock Sway Bar.

In place after the Rubics Cube install.

Front bar installed.

Hopefully...with front and rear...good for 1/2 to 3/4 seconds??? We'll see this coming Sunday...

Today I bummed around again and didn't ride this whole weekend! But, I did take about 3-1/2 long and sweaty hours today installing my rear sway bar. It was an extra extra hard Rubicks Cube to get the old bar out and the new one in. And, it took extra long cause I didn't mark the endlinks and took the whole bar out again cause one side didn't "look" right. It would have been way faster if I dropped the muffler...

Hopefully, the front and rear sways will help put down a squarer grippier foot print...greatly speed up the turn settle in time...and say good bye to this much rocking and rolling...

Eibach Front Sway Bar...

1/2 second or 1/4 second faster...that is the question...

Spent all Saturday bumming around so I decided to install my new Eibach 27mm front swaybar on my e46 bimmer wagon AT NITE...

The hardest part was deciding how to jack up the car and I ended up surfing the web for 1/2 a day deciding how best to do it. Finally decided on using the "central jacking point" and it seemed to work good with no apparent crushing of any parts under the car - unlike how some newer year bimmers which don't seem to have the jacking point???

Once the car was jacked, the rest of the install went really easy...

For me, I can't really tell any difference while street driving...seeing how you can only go like 4/10ths or so.....probably right where the stock sways work perfectly fine...

Maybe tomorrow I'll get the rear one on...

SCCA Hawaii Sept. 9th Autocross

Wagon's Rule STS...

Tires must have worked...me up on my tippy-toes on trail breaking...

After not racing this car for almost 6 months or so...this was my first race back with the Bimmer and the first on my new 17's and 225 RE01 rubbers. Originally, I didn't want to race without putting more suspension on (sways, springs, shocks), but since I couldn't bring the Eunos out...I HAD to race my car.

The first couple runs were just TERRIBLE and the car felt like a slug cause I was driving it like my brother's R-comp 2 seater. But after sort of getting back in sync with the slower response, I did a pretty good 3rd run at 35 flatish...BUT!!!, hit the 1st d@mn CONE out of the start chute 35.0ish----->37ish!!! With the pressure on, I luckliy squeezed out a much better 4th run that really felt "gingerly fast" at about 34.5 and change ...I was happy :-)

According to the datalogger, I could generate about 0.90 to 0.93 G's continuous in the sweepers and over 1.0 G peak, especially in the "banked" drainage grate turn. I was really afraid of abusing the new treads, but they held up exceptionally well considering the non-sport suspension on my car. Must be that free camber mod helped a bit, cause I was VERY late on one turn and the car still actually turned instead of just plowing...whew...I could just picture the scrubbed off edges on my front tire with that bit of lousy driving...

My brother's 6 with new coil overs...and still on indestructible mud and snows...

I drove his car the other day and it has NO front end grip, compared to my RE01s. Gotta watch out for him if he ever coughs up the bones and gets some "good" tires cause in the fun runs, he ripped off a 35.2ish run which would have been only about 7/10s off my best run of the day. And considering, I'm on what many say is the "best" STS tires available, good tires for him could easily be worth 1/2 second as his suspension is definitely overworking his tires now...

My friend Erik808's non-wrx-subie generating some G's tippy-toeing through the right hand sweeper into the finishing shot...good for 2nd place in STS...

At this event were the most wagons I've ever seen at SCCA...






Results: http://www.sccahawaii.org/9-9-07.pdf