New venue - MC Motorsport Tuning Session

I am getting a little bored of the same old circuit so it's time to diversify a little.
On Friday May 13th 17th I will attend a Tuning Session at RAC Driving Centre ran by MC Motorsport.

The session will be on the so-called road circuit so I presume it will be fun. It is a 1.6km circuit with a decent combination of corners and a few medium speed straights.

See you there !
- Rod

Hot Lap video !

Here is the in-car footage showing the latest hot lap (and best lap) from Barbagallo.



More on GPS data analysis for this lap later

- Rod

WASCC Tuning Day - 19th April 2011

Today I attended yet another WASCC tuning day at Barbagallo and as it turned out it was one of the better days thus far ! Here is why ...

I woke up early and jumped into my car and drove some 40kms north to the circuit. On my way there I stopped at BP to put some high octane fuel into my newly acquired 20L jerry can and left my car's tank at around 50% hoping for a lighter run.

Once I arrived I bumped into Aaron who was just getting his EG Civic ready and so both of us started to prep our cars.

There was only 1 car on the track, the weather wasn't too hot and there was no wind. I quickly adjusted my rear suspension to a setting of 4/7, turned my video camera on and went out !

After a warm up lap and a few hot laps I clocked 1'09''36 comfortably beating my last year's record of 1'10''20 ! Here is a snapshot of the times in my 1st stint.

So what was different ? Firstly, a clear track (literally no traffic), a lighter car with only 45% of the tank of fuel onboard and 3rdly a MUGEN ECU and its fantastic 6000rpm VTEC switchover point ! There was also the fact that I drove faster in that lap exceeding 191km/h. This new ECU has a distinctive behaviour in that it seems to be feeding a lot more fuel into the engine (very fuel hungry!) and with a sooner VTEC switchover you can feel a distinct rush of acceleration. Redline remains unchanged.

In my 2nd stint I was fighting a lot more traffic and it seemed like on two of my hot laps (lap 4 and 6) where I was on the way to beating the above time there was always some slower car in the way. I wouldn't have minded if it had been on a straight but it was always around corners where safety had to take precedence.

Another issue I experienced was fuel starvation going up hill from the back hairpin and whenever I had less than 25% of petrol in my tank. Unfortunately I didn't top up enough to avoid this :( Perhaps a new fuel pump is needed for these scenarios ?

Here are results from my 2nd and final stint.

Anyway good day today ! Good results and the car survived and worked as expected.
I'll be changing my engine oil and transmission fluid next and probably won't hit the track until June when the weather is nice and cool !

I'll leave you with a photo of the ECU after it was all over.

Video is coming soon ...

-Rod

Oh what a tweak !

I couldn't stand how dirty the car was and decided to give it a quick wash.

Once back in the garage I went straight for the newly acquired T-wrench and began to remove my old spark plugs. All was going smoothly until I got to the left-most plug. It must have been tightened way too much making it almost impossible to budge. If it wasn't for a custom "extension" I made to the T-wrench I wouldn't have been able to do anything.

In the end I got them all removed.

When the new plugs went in, I started the car and it idled just as I expected.
I then plugged in my Mugen ECU which as you remember from earlier posts always resulted in pinging and had to be unplugged before any serious engine damage could occur. Anyway I took the car out for a test-drive, warmed up the engine and decided to test it ! Amazing !!! No pinging, no ticking and a surge of power like I had never felt before. It idles higher and is therefore louder but who cares ! It works and I am stoked !!
Ryo from SEEKER always suggested that I should upgrade these plugs. What a difference !

Here I am at the local BP station for a partial refuel.

The car is ready for Tuesday's time attack.
I also bought a 20L jerry can today to help me run a little lighter. Hopefully this works.
I am hoping to slash a second off my best lap but wouldn't mind 2 !

Stay tuned for the updates in the days to come.

- Rod

Latest parts from Japan

Today I got a new set of front disc pads from Project Mu.

These of course are Level Max700 Circuit Sports pads which I used at Suzuka International last year. Overall they have been the best pads I've used so far although I'm a bit worried they might underperform at Barbagallo. This pad needs to be brought up to its optimum temperature fairly early or otherwise it suffers from an annoying judder. I'll try them out at Barbagallo next week !

The other part I got my hands on is a set of NGK racing spark plugs #9.

I am currently using an #8 which is enough but I am hoping to start using my MUGEN ECU from the next outing on and for that I need a #9. Again will let you know how they perform !

I am tentatively planning to hit the track next Tuesday. See how we go ....

- Rod

Latest video from Barbagallo

I've changed my internet service provider so I can finally get what is locally referred to as the lightning fast 4G internet. I don't want to make you laugh but in Australia what is considered fast is around 10Mbps on a GOOD day. Of course in Japan we're talking 100Mbps as an absolute norm but what can you do.

Anyway now that I got this whinge out of the way, here is a video of a couple of laps from Barbagallo where you can see me and a couple of my mates' cars.

Enjoy !



- Rod