Half-Fast Motorsports Blog

In June, the day after the 12 hour SCCA race, I instructed for SCCA’s PDX program for the first time. I brought the race car out to test the new motor.

My first student turned out to have been there the day before working pit for the race. After introductions, I asked about his track experience. He said he was a PDX instructor from the upper mid west, with years of experience. I thought “great”, if I tell him something wrong, he will know. Not a fun first time out.

I mentioned this to the chief instructor, and he told me he had not idea, and I would be just fine. He did well, and got signed off solo after the second session.

My car did well except for when the throttle cable came off (LOL). I was able to limp in so I didn’t have to be towed (again).

There were a couple of other racers there, and I had fun playing with them in the instructor group. I was keeping up with cars I thought would be faster than me, but since there is no timing allowed, I never knew how fast I was. I know I picked up time from school, so I felt pretty good.

Can’t wait for my first NASA race.

With my school under my belt, and the track time I have, I asked the NASA Mid-Atlantic director if I was good enough to try for my NASA license. He approved, so I prep the car for 2 days with NASA.

It wasn’t a hard process really, but I had to do some (what I thought initially) were some silly exercises. First I had to drive the entire track for a whole session but only on the right side. Then repeat, but only on the left. This got me into the marbles and off line so I could get some experience not being on line. The last session was spent side by side with another student. In the end, it was kind of cool. Much better than my SCCA school.

On Sunday, we had one session playing hop scotch with another car, passing each other at every turn.

Since it all went well, I was allowed to start in the back of the pack in the Sunday race. I had a decent start, and ran with another worker in a Neon for a bit. I was faster (cool), but when the faster cars from the groups behind me caught me, I messed up and went off track. I spent the rest of the session grumbling about that.

With about 2 laps to go, my excitement peaked and I screwed up a shift blowing my engine. I pulled off completing another engine change.

Even thought I didn’t finish, I showed enough to the director that I have now received my provisional license to race with NASA.

Been a while, but I have some time while I wait for jury duty.

First, it’s spring maintenance. Since I didn’t know what was done prior to my purchase, I decided to replace all the hubs and bearings. Now I know when they were done. New brakes, porterfield ft, Nissan stock units in the rear.

A friend had some 550 lb. springs, so they went in the rear. I am hoping that the additional spring rate will help cure the push. I installed a back brace, new belts and changed the oil. I install some fresh Toyo RA1 tires, in full tread configuration. This way, no matter the weather wet or dry, I will not need to change tires.

Since the car didn’t have the required door bars (2), I had to have another installed. A friend and SM driver who owns Convienance Car Care had one of his tech do that for me. It was done at no charge because I have been a safety worker for 8 years. Good to know someone huh?

I show up at drivers school with a great crew. Alicia and Brantly Blue as well as my girl Christine. We set up shop an I go to class. My good friend Tom Broring is my instructor. Of course as my luck goes, it rained almost the entire weekend. I line up first for my first on track session and pretty much fly compared to the others. There is one guy Mike, who is on his second school, who is staying with me, but doesn’t seem to have enough moxie or speed to pass. We had a great time the whole school running together.

In the first session, I realize I was going to have a few issues with some of the cars in my group. There are 2 GT Pinto’s (yes Pinto’s) that aren’t very well driven. They are unpredicitable in the corners, but have more engine than me on the straights. In order to pass them, I have to out brake them in the turns, which is where I don’t trust them. They will be a constant challenge the entire weekend.

The track is wet the first 2 sessions, but starts to dry as the day goes on. The Toyos are pretty good in the rain, so I am doing pretty well. In each sessions debrief, the instructors comments are normally favorable. I need to push it more, but the wet, and other “drivers” are making me nervous.

At the end of the weekend, we get 3 practice starts, and a 5 lap race. On the pace lap, I see the SM group has left a great deal of mud on track at turn 4. There is a dry line, but off line is quite wet. I am thinking, this won’t be fun.

I am 5th on the grid behind 2 of the Pinto’s. On the first start, I pass one in the first turn. He almost wrecks a car in the braking zone, then goes off track trying to avoid me sneaking around on the inside. Even after 2 days, is situational awareness sucked.

On the second start I gain nothing, but did well. In the 5 lap race, me and an RX7 tangle a bit, I couldn’t seem to get by him, but I had a fantastic time.

After Ferrari club, I decide the season is over.  It’s getting cold and the track day opportunities are limited.  Time to get ready for next season.

First thing is to see if I can better the push.  I do some reading, talk to the experts, and decide I need to increase the rear spring rate, and remove the front sway bar.  All the guys running these cars have a similar set up.  I was also advised to align the front with a wee bit of toe out.  I have found some stiffer loaner springs, so that’s a low cost mod.

Over the winter I decide to attend SCCA’s drivers school and work towards my race license.  Now car prep gets serious.  I have lots to do and have started the long list of all the money I am about to spend.  Hey, can’t say I am not doing my part for the economy. 

A total work over of the car is in order.  Hubs, bearings, brakes, suspension are all getting attention.  I found an offset poly bushing I can put in the front that will give me more caster, which will improve the push, so it’s going in when I do the rest of the work.  Play date scheduled in Febuary for the repairs and upgrades.  Now, it’s time to order parts.

So you might be thinking, Ferrari club?  Ya, Ferrari club. 

A local dealership Ferrari of Washington hosts several track events at Summit Point.  Since the number of Ferraris in the area are too small to host a single mark event, they allow other of us lesser folks to join in on the fun.  It also helps that I have an in.

My day starts on Friday with car prep (as usual).  I get there early, but still with all the meetings car prep, tech and registration, My first session starts before I am ready.  I decided to go with the tires I bought at the 12 hour event, used Toyo’s.  I had purchased some new wheels and some used Hoosier R compound tires and was quit excited to give them a try.  I decided since I had installed a rear sway bar a few weeks ago, I would only go with one change at a time.

The car felt much better.  I still got a little push in the corners, but is was far better than to date.  As I built speed, the tires became the limiting factor so on day two, I install the new Hoosiers.  I had to roll the fender lip in the rear because there wasn’t very much clearance.  I only have about a fingers width between the tire and the shocks on both front and rear, perfect!  Man these Hoosiers are wide!  The stock tire is 205/50, the Hoosiers are 225/45.  The big difference is going from 6″ to 7″ rims.

It was a little chilly, so I decide to take it easy the first session to get the tires up to temp.  By the second session, I relize why everyone raves about these Hoosiers.  Wow these things grip.  I am still getting a push, but it’s far less.  By the end of day two, I am feeling far more comfortable in the car.  I still am getting the push, and my rear tires aren’t coming up to pressure in the rear (cold), but the fronts are handling and appear to be wearing well.  The rear tires pick up all kinds of debris that never comes off, they aren’t sliding it appears.  One thing I did notice, the Hoosiers cause the car to follow road crown and such.  In spots on the track, the car seemed to wander a bit.  I think that’s due to the extra width and stickyness of the tires.  I guess that’s the 2.5 deg of camber talking.

There was an incident involving a Lamborgini on Friday, so I was told I will need a check out ride with an instructor before I can take passengers.  The check ride goes well, with the instructor saying lots of nice things about my driving.

Day three starts with me rotating the tires so i can wear off the tire boogers that built up on the rears from the day before.  All went well and I picked up a lot of speed.  There were several much faster cars, I was doing a better job of keeping up with.  I am still the little fish in a pond with big fish, but several folks approched me and said they were impressed how good I was doing in that “little car”.  Gotta love those Ferrari guys, (little car huh?).

In the end, I am tired from 3 days on the track, but the car goes on the trailer in one peice and running.  It was a successful weekend

(Ya, 2 posts in one day, I am trying to catch up.)

I arrive at Summit again, but this time I get to drive the big track, Summit Main. I drop the car at my paddock spot, and head for worker camping for a good nights rest.

Getting up early on Saturday, I switch out the tires, going back to the R-compounds from the street tires. As mentioned, I shake the suspension and find it’s again loose. I figured it was the nut on the shock again, so I pull the wheel to tighten it. Strange, it’s not the nut. The bearing is loose on the left front, crap! I find someone with a 32MM socket, and tighten the axle nut. It appears it wasn’t tightened all the way when the suspension was reinstalled after the engine swap. The right side was the same way. Another item for the check list I guess. After the classroom sessions, I did the final checks and jumped in the car. I was first on grid for my session.

Since this was my first time driving with NASA, they wanted me to have an instructor. He was late, and I didn’t get out on track for about 2 laps. I was taking it easy since I was again unsure of how the car would react to a dry track, and the new suspension. My instructor said I was doing just fine, but needed to show him I could threashhold brake.  We worked on that through the next 2 sessions, and the first one on Sunday. I guess he was happy, as after that, I was left on my own. He said I was ready for HPDE3 (open passing with a point by).

The car still pushes, but it’s loads better than it was. The engine and suspension mods are working out well. Before the next track day, I will have to install a rear sway bar to help this beast turn.

Now that then engine is installed, it’s time to try this new suspension again.  I had made one other modification to the suspension after the engine blew.  On these cars, the rear wheels toe in from the factory quite a bit.  The only way to fix it is to bend the rear beam.  Along with a few other guys, I had a fellow, Steve Foltz, fly in from Colorado.  Steve has a rig that will bend the beam so it’s straight.

I signed up for the SCCA PDX at Summit’s Shenandoah circuit. I took Friday off to get some last minute things done to the car. The alternator had been found to be not working after the engine installation, so I swapped it out with the extra I had that came with the used engine. I went over the car again to make sure all the little details had been covered, and to make sure nothing would fall off.

As I headed out for the track Saturday morning, the weather forcast didn’t look good. A tropical storm (former hurrican Hanna) was coming up the coast, and it looked like it would be a rain event. I wasn’t too worried as tracking a car in the rain was kind of fun, you really get to see if you are smooth. I had some street tires with plenty of tread, so I was okay.

I got there and switched the race tires for the street tires. When I was checking the suspension as I always do, I noticed a wiggle in the front end. It seems the nut that holds the shocks in place was loose. This has become a reoccuring problem, and I have to check it before each session.

We get through the classroom “chalk” talk, I step outside and it’s raining pretty good now. My turn comes up and I take to the track. With the exception of the last session the day goes like this, car won’t turn, windows fog, and I am for the first time scared on the track. The tires weren’t up to the task, and the handling stunk. At least I wasn’t the only one with problems, a civic spun in front of me on the first lap of the first session, and several cars ended up off track, one even hit a barrier.

I kept the car on the pavement, and the last session was pretty good as the rain had let up a bunch, but I learned nothing about the suspension AGAIN!

I am signed up for the NASA event in 2 weeks, hope it doesn’t rain.

After my blow up at the last event, I needed to get the engine replaced.  I had several options including a rebuild, but time and money meant I go with a used one. I was able to secure a junk yard engine with fairly low miles. I know it’s not the greatest thing, but for $500, I couldn’t say no.

Now for the install. I did a lot of research and found the secret to this engine swap is to pull it out from the bottom. A good friend loaned me his garage and help. Luck would have it, the guy next door, Martin, is the parts manager for a Nissan Dealership. He came over to help too, and provided me with my first sponsorship. He created an account at the dealership for me, and I get all Nissan parts at cost plus 10%. Cool deal.

The weekend came and I pulled the car into the garage the weekend before the engine swap and secured the last of the parts. When I got there Saturday morning, Mike my buddy, had already gotten started by pulling the axles, wow!

Not much clearance..

We spend the morning disconnecting everything. Rumor had it, there were no 2 connecters that were alike, so I didn’t mark anything (dumb move, but more on that later). The extraction went well. By noon, we had the engine out and started swapping parts from one engine to the other.   With no snags, we had the engine and trans reinstalled in the engine compartment before the beer started flowing. Sunday we would start hooking everything back up.

Install

Sunday came and Mike again got an early start.  He had lots of the bottom stuff done (exhaust, axles, shifter), I started working on the top stuff.  Martin was there also busily hooking up connectors and lines.  Soon enough we had all the vital fluids filled and we were ready for fire up.  We turned the key, she cranked, but wouldn’t start.  I did some checking and found she would run on carb cleaner, but not on her own, fuel problem…

After wasting half the day trying to get it running, we decided to call in the reserves in the form of one of Martins ace techs from the Nissan store.  It will have to wait till Monday.

Monday arrived, and I followed Mike to his house.  He went on to meet the master tech and Martin, I stopped to get the beer (payment for the labor).  When I arrived at the house, Mike said “watch this” and started the car. It seems the master tech found the ABS connector, and the ECU connector had been switched (oh crap!).  What I couldn’t find in half a day, he found in about 45 seconds.

We toasted our success, and put the car back on the trailer.

With the exception of the tools, all this stuff is trash

I was a great morning.  I signed up for the SCCA PDX following the 12 hour endurance race in early June. 

All my friends from the track were there, so I wanted to make a good showing.  I prepped the car and lined up on grid for my first session.  I was second in line behind a BMW.  Behind me were several more BMW’s a Corvette and a newer Rabbit GTI.  These are fast cars, but it’s just a track day, right?

I was taking it easy since I didn’t know how the car would act, but on the first lap, I blew past the BMW and was pulling away from the field. Here is one lap from that event posted on youtube.com

And a pic of me one the second lap leading all the “faster” cars.

The car was doing well, but I still hadn’t really pushed it yet. I had purchased some new tires at the event, R compound Toyo tires, so this was also new.

As things go for me, there was a problem. On lap 6, just when I was getting going, the engine decided to blow up. A large cloud of smoke exited the tail pipe and I pulled off.

Oh well.. There goes $200 for 6 laps. I still don’t know what the suspension has to offer, but it was fun anyway.

Next up, a new engine….

Now that we know the car works, we need to start the ITA conversion.

Consistent with the rules, I do some searching and find the uber set up is too expensive. I opt for Megan Coil Overs from Underground Motor Sports. They come with camber adjustment for the front and are true coil overs. I figure for $800, they will work for now. Sure they may not last as long as the Koni set up, but at half the cost, I thought the track time I get with the rest of the money will would have better value.

I also bought a front Progress Sway bar from the same supplier I will find out later, I should have gotten the rear, but we all make mistakes. More on that later.

Installed, they look great

I also find out that the rear suspension beam will need to be bent to resolve the rear toe in issue. There is only one or two guys in the country that can do it, so I need to work that out, but that will have to wait.

After adjusting everything up, she is sitting low, lean and mean

I also bought a camber gauge and do my own alignment. After lowering and setting the camber to 2.5 deg. the toe is perfect at 1/16th inch toe in (too spooky).

The next track day is scheduled..