Todds track/daily s2000
08-28-2016, 04:06 PM
#151
30/05/16 YEZ RACING X TRAK LIFE WAKEFIELD TRACK DAY
I was excited to be back at Wakefield and had high hopes for this day. It was my first open pit lane track day in a long time. For those that are unfamiliar. Open pit lane days are usually private days with a small number of cars (usually a large bunch of friends) that doesn't have set sessions but allows you to get out on the track as much as you want during the day. They're perfect for beginners, offering the most track time possible but they're also good for testing, which is what I use them for. They don't have official natsoft timing but this also makes the day cheaper than usual which is another great bonus.
This particular day held by the guys at Yez Racing and Trak Life was for 30 cars with a lot of the people attending being friends or friends of friends. This kept the days vibe super chill with everyone hanging out. This is why I love these type of days. Friends racing together and hopping into each other's cars and having fun.
My goals for the day were to test out the effect the Spoon X brace had on the car, play around with tyre pressures, get Adam Casmiri to drive the car and tell me his impressions and to drop further into the 1:09 bracket.
Going into the day I hadn't touched the car other then fitting the X brace and putting in the new battery. I wanted to push my driving and get my desired times there rather than putting more mods on the car.
The morning was freezing and the track opened a little later than usual due to the amount of fog still sitting around. Literally from the pit wall you couldn't see past the back straight so racing was going to be dangerous but eventually the track opened and the first few cars headed out.
I decided to head out and just get the feel of the car and make sure everything felt good. It was still very cloudy and there was no heat in the track yet so no PBs were going to be set just yet.
I wasn't pushing or trying to go relatively fast this early on so I just kept doing lap after lap. Surprisingly on my 11th lap I got my fastest time which was a 1:10.6. I was happy with this so I came back in. Checking over the car afterwards my tyre pressures were up at 35PSI hot so I dropped them down to 34PSI.
Also to note. After 11 laps my max oil temp was only 108 degrees. No need for an oil cooler just yet with cold winter temps.
I waited a while before heading back out again as the sun had finally come out and was heating up the track.
Again I wasn't really trying to set a PB just yet but instead focused on practicing and fixing certain areas of the track, mainly T3 to T4 and the fishhook.
After seeing Sams (SamB87) comments on my past PB vid about pushing harder and keeping a straighter line between T3/4 i practiced this a bit this session. It seemed to work and my top speeds were up in this area of the track.
Other corners didnt feel as good to me and the car felt looser in the rear end and felt like it wanted to slide out more than usual. Colder track and higher tyre PSI are probably the reason for this. I usually have my RS3 PSI around the 30PSI mark hot but i keep reading people like 32-34PSI. Some have even said 36PSI i their preferred range. What do any of you guys reading like?
I did a total of 10 laps in this outing and dropped my lap time down to 1:10.2. I still wasn't pushing as hard as usual through the kink but was focusing on line changes in other sections so i definitely thought by the end of the day when i put this all together we'd have a new PB!
Not happy with the looser rear end i dropped the PSI down to 32PSI all round.
I spoke with Adam and arranged for him to take the car out for some laps to get some impressions of the car to help with fine tuning a few aspects and to get his thoughts on what it could benefit from. From his 5 or so laps he said the car was really fun to drive and he had a blast and that it felt really well set up. He said the suspension is great for what it is, power is good at the moment, the car is okay on turn in, rotates well and there's enough compliance there to get out quickly. I asked about the tyre pressures and he said they felt good at 32PSI and he would leave them there to keep that balance between feel and grip. He mentioned the front could use a bit more camber to help with turn in though (i already knew this as im maxed out at -2.3 degrees currently). Offset camber joints will go in in the near future.
He said the brakes are probably the biggest thing holding me back at the moment. I'm on HC+ and RDA blank rotors so i cant really expect anything else out of them. The plan was always to upgrade pads to a race pad after these HC+ run out anyway.
He mentioned that on a couple corners, mainly the sweeping fishhook he could feel the rear torsen LSD open a little bit and allow the inside wheel to free spin so all the power isn't being applied. Obviously a LSD will improve this so we spoke about options for that.
We came to the conclusion that going forward the first port of call is to
1. Change my brakes (this was the last track day i was going to be using the HC+ anyway).
2. I said i would like to add the suspension arms next to increase front camber and fix the bumpsteer in the rear and fine tune that rather than get more power to go faster. He agreed this would be a good idea
3. LSD or install my haltech and tune. I'll probably go with a LSD first as im having the issue of the torsen opening already and increasing power will just have more power trying to be put down exaggerating this problem
4. Whichever doesn't get done at step 3.
I think is is a really good set out plan going forward and with each step the car should get faster and easier to drive at the limits. I like testing one thing at a time so ill work through these steps at a slow pace probably but by the end hopefully the car will come out comprehensively faster than it is now. I also want to do the others mods first before throwing in the ecu and tuning for more power because that's the easy way out
After Adam drove the car I hopped in a friends stock AP2 s2000 to have a drive to give him my impressions of the car compared to mine. That was a fun experience and I feel like I gave him some good information to take away. He just enjoys the AP2 for what it is and has no plans for serious mods but it's still a fun and fast car to drive. I think we went around the 1:12 mark with both of us in the car.
After a bit of midday fun it was time for me to hop back into my car and really push that PB lap. Over the next two shorter 'sessions' I practiced bettering my lines through T3/4 and at the fishhook for a few laps then trying to put them together. I got faster dropping my time down to 1:10.0. I actually got 8 1:10.0-1:10.1 laps in these two sessions from about 15 or so laps so the car is still very consistent but it's also really frustrating not being able to push though to that 1:09 barrier constantly
I knew the time was there but I just had to push that little bit harder.
I waited till I went out once more and left it to about 2.30PM before I went back out as by this stage it had started to cool off a bit but the track had had sun for a good few hours now and would be nice and warm.
After my last two sessions I dropped the PSI once more down to 31PSI all round in hopes of maybe having that extra big of grip to help get into the 1:09s haha
I went out on track and did my warm up laps and what not and started going for it. Immediately I caught up to a 33 GTSt stuck behind some traffic and we were finally able to get through it on the back straight. Instantly he pulled away from me down the straight but under braking through the kink I was able to cut the gap down. Again going up towards the hill he would pull away again but all the way from T3 to the fishhook the s2k shone and I would get back right on his tail before he'd pull away on the back straight and then the front straight again. We actually kept this up for about 5 or 6 laps before we both oversteered and slid onto the front straight together and I was able to pass him and continue for another two more laps.
This battle was honestly the most fun I've had on track. We were both pushing and evenly timed and were able to pass other cars without too much interruption. Coming back into the pits we saw each other and had smiles and a thumbs up and it wasn't until then I checked my lap timer and I had actually pulled off two 1:09 laps!
1:09.8 and 1:09.6
I was ecstatic! Finally some good 1:09 times!
I hadn't heard it while driving but coming back to the garage I heard my go pro beep so I thought the battery must be going flat so I went to turn it off and the go pro was displaying SD ERR on the screen and It hadn't recorded my final session!
Gutted! Not only was the PB lap gone but the awesome battle wasn't captured
I later tried to plug the go pro in to the comp and transfer the Adam footage to look at his driver lines and such and those files had corrupted also. So not one video from the day! Can't let that ruin what was in other ways an awesome day though. So no video for this time but a pad change and I'll head back out to get even lower into the 1:09s!
PROS:
- PB!!!
- Such a fun day!
- Lots of info going forward with the car thanks to Adam
- Time for a brake upgrade after 1.5years/10 track days
CONS:
- Nothing really. Was a super awesome day!
Few photos from the day with my friend Phils S2k
I was excited to be back at Wakefield and had high hopes for this day. It was my first open pit lane track day in a long time. For those that are unfamiliar. Open pit lane days are usually private days with a small number of cars (usually a large bunch of friends) that doesn't have set sessions but allows you to get out on the track as much as you want during the day. They're perfect for beginners, offering the most track time possible but they're also good for testing, which is what I use them for. They don't have official natsoft timing but this also makes the day cheaper than usual which is another great bonus.
This particular day held by the guys at Yez Racing and Trak Life was for 30 cars with a lot of the people attending being friends or friends of friends. This kept the days vibe super chill with everyone hanging out. This is why I love these type of days. Friends racing together and hopping into each other's cars and having fun.
My goals for the day were to test out the effect the Spoon X brace had on the car, play around with tyre pressures, get Adam Casmiri to drive the car and tell me his impressions and to drop further into the 1:09 bracket.
Going into the day I hadn't touched the car other then fitting the X brace and putting in the new battery. I wanted to push my driving and get my desired times there rather than putting more mods on the car.
The morning was freezing and the track opened a little later than usual due to the amount of fog still sitting around. Literally from the pit wall you couldn't see past the back straight so racing was going to be dangerous but eventually the track opened and the first few cars headed out.
I decided to head out and just get the feel of the car and make sure everything felt good. It was still very cloudy and there was no heat in the track yet so no PBs were going to be set just yet.
I wasn't pushing or trying to go relatively fast this early on so I just kept doing lap after lap. Surprisingly on my 11th lap I got my fastest time which was a 1:10.6. I was happy with this so I came back in. Checking over the car afterwards my tyre pressures were up at 35PSI hot so I dropped them down to 34PSI.
Also to note. After 11 laps my max oil temp was only 108 degrees. No need for an oil cooler just yet with cold winter temps.
I waited a while before heading back out again as the sun had finally come out and was heating up the track.
Again I wasn't really trying to set a PB just yet but instead focused on practicing and fixing certain areas of the track, mainly T3 to T4 and the fishhook.
After seeing Sams (SamB87) comments on my past PB vid about pushing harder and keeping a straighter line between T3/4 i practiced this a bit this session. It seemed to work and my top speeds were up in this area of the track.
Other corners didnt feel as good to me and the car felt looser in the rear end and felt like it wanted to slide out more than usual. Colder track and higher tyre PSI are probably the reason for this. I usually have my RS3 PSI around the 30PSI mark hot but i keep reading people like 32-34PSI. Some have even said 36PSI i their preferred range. What do any of you guys reading like?
I did a total of 10 laps in this outing and dropped my lap time down to 1:10.2. I still wasn't pushing as hard as usual through the kink but was focusing on line changes in other sections so i definitely thought by the end of the day when i put this all together we'd have a new PB!
Not happy with the looser rear end i dropped the PSI down to 32PSI all round.
I spoke with Adam and arranged for him to take the car out for some laps to get some impressions of the car to help with fine tuning a few aspects and to get his thoughts on what it could benefit from. From his 5 or so laps he said the car was really fun to drive and he had a blast and that it felt really well set up. He said the suspension is great for what it is, power is good at the moment, the car is okay on turn in, rotates well and there's enough compliance there to get out quickly. I asked about the tyre pressures and he said they felt good at 32PSI and he would leave them there to keep that balance between feel and grip. He mentioned the front could use a bit more camber to help with turn in though (i already knew this as im maxed out at -2.3 degrees currently). Offset camber joints will go in in the near future.
He said the brakes are probably the biggest thing holding me back at the moment. I'm on HC+ and RDA blank rotors so i cant really expect anything else out of them. The plan was always to upgrade pads to a race pad after these HC+ run out anyway.
He mentioned that on a couple corners, mainly the sweeping fishhook he could feel the rear torsen LSD open a little bit and allow the inside wheel to free spin so all the power isn't being applied. Obviously a LSD will improve this so we spoke about options for that.
We came to the conclusion that going forward the first port of call is to
1. Change my brakes (this was the last track day i was going to be using the HC+ anyway).
2. I said i would like to add the suspension arms next to increase front camber and fix the bumpsteer in the rear and fine tune that rather than get more power to go faster. He agreed this would be a good idea
3. LSD or install my haltech and tune. I'll probably go with a LSD first as im having the issue of the torsen opening already and increasing power will just have more power trying to be put down exaggerating this problem
4. Whichever doesn't get done at step 3.
I think is is a really good set out plan going forward and with each step the car should get faster and easier to drive at the limits. I like testing one thing at a time so ill work through these steps at a slow pace probably but by the end hopefully the car will come out comprehensively faster than it is now. I also want to do the others mods first before throwing in the ecu and tuning for more power because that's the easy way out
After Adam drove the car I hopped in a friends stock AP2 s2000 to have a drive to give him my impressions of the car compared to mine. That was a fun experience and I feel like I gave him some good information to take away. He just enjoys the AP2 for what it is and has no plans for serious mods but it's still a fun and fast car to drive. I think we went around the 1:12 mark with both of us in the car.
After a bit of midday fun it was time for me to hop back into my car and really push that PB lap. Over the next two shorter 'sessions' I practiced bettering my lines through T3/4 and at the fishhook for a few laps then trying to put them together. I got faster dropping my time down to 1:10.0. I actually got 8 1:10.0-1:10.1 laps in these two sessions from about 15 or so laps so the car is still very consistent but it's also really frustrating not being able to push though to that 1:09 barrier constantly
I knew the time was there but I just had to push that little bit harder.
I waited till I went out once more and left it to about 2.30PM before I went back out as by this stage it had started to cool off a bit but the track had had sun for a good few hours now and would be nice and warm.
After my last two sessions I dropped the PSI once more down to 31PSI all round in hopes of maybe having that extra big of grip to help get into the 1:09s haha
I went out on track and did my warm up laps and what not and started going for it. Immediately I caught up to a 33 GTSt stuck behind some traffic and we were finally able to get through it on the back straight. Instantly he pulled away from me down the straight but under braking through the kink I was able to cut the gap down. Again going up towards the hill he would pull away again but all the way from T3 to the fishhook the s2k shone and I would get back right on his tail before he'd pull away on the back straight and then the front straight again. We actually kept this up for about 5 or 6 laps before we both oversteered and slid onto the front straight together and I was able to pass him and continue for another two more laps.
This battle was honestly the most fun I've had on track. We were both pushing and evenly timed and were able to pass other cars without too much interruption. Coming back into the pits we saw each other and had smiles and a thumbs up and it wasn't until then I checked my lap timer and I had actually pulled off two 1:09 laps!
1:09.8 and 1:09.6
I was ecstatic! Finally some good 1:09 times!
I hadn't heard it while driving but coming back to the garage I heard my go pro beep so I thought the battery must be going flat so I went to turn it off and the go pro was displaying SD ERR on the screen and It hadn't recorded my final session!
Gutted! Not only was the PB lap gone but the awesome battle wasn't captured
I later tried to plug the go pro in to the comp and transfer the Adam footage to look at his driver lines and such and those files had corrupted also. So not one video from the day! Can't let that ruin what was in other ways an awesome day though. So no video for this time but a pad change and I'll head back out to get even lower into the 1:09s!
PROS:
- PB!!!
- Such a fun day!
- Lots of info going forward with the car thanks to Adam
- Time for a brake upgrade after 1.5years/10 track days
CONS:
- Nothing really. Was a super awesome day!
Few photos from the day with my friend Phils S2k
08-28-2016, 04:09 PM
#152
An update of a different kind for me. No new parts this time but I'm definitely loving the look of the car now.
I've just moved out of home so the updates haven't been happening and the car has once again been neglected after my last track day. I have Honda nationals down at winton raceway on July 31st so there's still a while until my next track day and I was itching to work on the car.
Since I picked up the car in December 2013 I have never actually cleaned the 'properly'. I'm quite lazy when it comes to cleaning with a quick house and wipe down usually the most I do. The car did look okay but you could definitely see it had been neglected a little. I decided to give the car a detail to freshen it up a bit.
Ive never detailed before (I barely wash the car haha) and really had no idea on what to do so I asked some friends on what to buy and what to do etc.
I made a quick trip down to SCA and collected a few things and got to work.
On Friday I stripped down the car and removed most things to get a flat surface to work with. I gave the car a good and thorough wash with meguiars washing solution and let it dry.
Next I got out the meguiars clay bar kit and gave the whole car a good scrub. I was surprised at just how much the clay bar picked up off the car that appeared to be 'clean'.
This is just half a bonnet haha
Almost three years of trackdays
After the clay bar I gave the car another wash and used a chamois to dry and then gave it a quick clean with the detail spray.
At this stage I could see a big difference to when I started and was quite happy. I probably would've left it here but a friend offered to come over on Saturday and help polish the car and get it to that next level.
Come Saturday morning and my friend rocked up with his equipment and we got to cutting and polishing the car. He taught me a few things and I had a couple goes hand polishing a few parts while he worked the car over with the machine. We were done fairly quickly and the car turned out amazing.
The paint is super smooth and a lot of the little marks and scratches I noticed are now gone. The paint is really shiny and reflective and definitely looks 100x better than it did previously.
Some pics of the car after we were done.
I've just moved out of home so the updates haven't been happening and the car has once again been neglected after my last track day. I have Honda nationals down at winton raceway on July 31st so there's still a while until my next track day and I was itching to work on the car.
Since I picked up the car in December 2013 I have never actually cleaned the 'properly'. I'm quite lazy when it comes to cleaning with a quick house and wipe down usually the most I do. The car did look okay but you could definitely see it had been neglected a little. I decided to give the car a detail to freshen it up a bit.
Ive never detailed before (I barely wash the car haha) and really had no idea on what to do so I asked some friends on what to buy and what to do etc.
I made a quick trip down to SCA and collected a few things and got to work.
On Friday I stripped down the car and removed most things to get a flat surface to work with. I gave the car a good and thorough wash with meguiars washing solution and let it dry.
Next I got out the meguiars clay bar kit and gave the whole car a good scrub. I was surprised at just how much the clay bar picked up off the car that appeared to be 'clean'.
This is just half a bonnet haha
Almost three years of trackdays
After the clay bar I gave the car another wash and used a chamois to dry and then gave it a quick clean with the detail spray.
At this stage I could see a big difference to when I started and was quite happy. I probably would've left it here but a friend offered to come over on Saturday and help polish the car and get it to that next level.
Come Saturday morning and my friend rocked up with his equipment and we got to cutting and polishing the car. He taught me a few things and I had a couple goes hand polishing a few parts while he worked the car over with the machine. We were done fairly quickly and the car turned out amazing.
The paint is super smooth and a lot of the little marks and scratches I noticed are now gone. The paint is really shiny and reflective and definitely looks 100x better than it did previously.
Some pics of the car after we were done.
08-28-2016, 05:18 PM
#153
Well the car is finally one colour and it looks amazing! 
Seriously could not be happier with how it turned out!
If we jump back to the detail post from two weeks ago you'll notice the car is missing a few parts. I removed what I could to get a nice flat surface for buffing but then continued to strip the rest of the stuff off in preparation for the wrap. In fact the last couple of weeks have consisted of a lot of prep work.
- I stripped the car of everything that wasn't a major body panel.
- I sanded/primered and smoothed the boot lid/asm wing and rear bumper.
- I sourced and installed a rear JDM numberplate bracket and sprayed the rear of the car black to clean up the exposed areas due to the cut bumper.
- My friend Alex made a rear numberplate surround for his car and also gave me one so I cleaned that up and got that mounted.
- After removing the side diffusers I installed nutserts into the chassis to replace the tek screws they were originally mounted with.
- I got rid of the old numberplates and ordered new ones that suited/fit the new bumpers better.
After completing all that prep work it was time to take the car around to Jeremy and Johnny at Prowraps and Graphics to get them to do their thing.
This is actually how I drove the car from home to the workshop one weekday morning. Definitely was a funny drive.
After much debating I chose the Silver Metallic colour from the Avery line and a full 20m roll was ordered.
A few people have asked me why I bothered to wrap a whole car in the same colour and why I didn't go for a wilder colour.
The answer is simple. I liked the silver on the S2000 and I wanted to keep that simple classic look but being a track car most of the time it made no sense to spend 5-10k on a paint job that would ultimately get ruined at the track.
Wrapping the car was the quicker, cheaper, simpler option. It also allows for a much simpler process of colour matching any new parts I order in the future.
So the colour was chosen, the car was prepped and dropped off so all that was left to do was wait for the call to say it was done.
Being friends with Jeremy I popped round a couple of times during the week to see the car and helped out where I could.
I've never vinyl wrapped before so it was interesting to see the process and I even tried my hand at a few flat objects.
I'll just do a bit of a pic dump for this section of different bits and pieces from the wrap process.
Rear section finished
Can really see the colour difference here
From this
To this
To this
I decided to wrap over the stickers on the wing end plates myself. I really like the end result with the voltex logo being embossed through the wrap.
And finally the car all done and ready to drive home on Sunday night.
The colour of the car now is perfect. It's actually very close to the OEM colour Sebring silver which was one step lighter/brighter than silverstone. So I've kept the silver colour I like but also made the car somewhat unique amongst the sea of silverstone cars in Australia.
This pic shows the difference between the two colours perfectly.
What I really like is that to an outsider who saw a before and after pic of the car they'd really only notice the front bumper now being the same colour as the rest of the car but if you take a closer look at the details you'll see that a lot has actually changed. The car just feels more complete now that a lot of those smaller jobs I wanted done have been ticked off. And while I'm not done with the exterior just yet the car is looking so much better than it did before.
I just have to say thanks to Jeremy and Johnny at prowraps for doing an amazing job on the car and I would definitely recommend them for all your wrapping needs.
Now to go out and enjoy the car some more
Seriously could not be happier with how it turned out!
If we jump back to the detail post from two weeks ago you'll notice the car is missing a few parts. I removed what I could to get a nice flat surface for buffing but then continued to strip the rest of the stuff off in preparation for the wrap. In fact the last couple of weeks have consisted of a lot of prep work.
- I stripped the car of everything that wasn't a major body panel.
- I sanded/primered and smoothed the boot lid/asm wing and rear bumper.
- I sourced and installed a rear JDM numberplate bracket and sprayed the rear of the car black to clean up the exposed areas due to the cut bumper.
- My friend Alex made a rear numberplate surround for his car and also gave me one so I cleaned that up and got that mounted.
- After removing the side diffusers I installed nutserts into the chassis to replace the tek screws they were originally mounted with.
- I got rid of the old numberplates and ordered new ones that suited/fit the new bumpers better.
After completing all that prep work it was time to take the car around to Jeremy and Johnny at Prowraps and Graphics to get them to do their thing.
This is actually how I drove the car from home to the workshop one weekday morning. Definitely was a funny drive.
After much debating I chose the Silver Metallic colour from the Avery line and a full 20m roll was ordered.
A few people have asked me why I bothered to wrap a whole car in the same colour and why I didn't go for a wilder colour.
The answer is simple. I liked the silver on the S2000 and I wanted to keep that simple classic look but being a track car most of the time it made no sense to spend 5-10k on a paint job that would ultimately get ruined at the track.
Wrapping the car was the quicker, cheaper, simpler option. It also allows for a much simpler process of colour matching any new parts I order in the future.
So the colour was chosen, the car was prepped and dropped off so all that was left to do was wait for the call to say it was done.
Being friends with Jeremy I popped round a couple of times during the week to see the car and helped out where I could.
I've never vinyl wrapped before so it was interesting to see the process and I even tried my hand at a few flat objects.
I'll just do a bit of a pic dump for this section of different bits and pieces from the wrap process.
Rear section finished
Can really see the colour difference here
From this
To this
To this
I decided to wrap over the stickers on the wing end plates myself. I really like the end result with the voltex logo being embossed through the wrap.
And finally the car all done and ready to drive home on Sunday night.
The colour of the car now is perfect. It's actually very close to the OEM colour Sebring silver which was one step lighter/brighter than silverstone. So I've kept the silver colour I like but also made the car somewhat unique amongst the sea of silverstone cars in Australia.
This pic shows the difference between the two colours perfectly.
What I really like is that to an outsider who saw a before and after pic of the car they'd really only notice the front bumper now being the same colour as the rest of the car but if you take a closer look at the details you'll see that a lot has actually changed. The car just feels more complete now that a lot of those smaller jobs I wanted done have been ticked off. And while I'm not done with the exterior just yet the car is looking so much better than it did before.
I just have to say thanks to Jeremy and Johnny at prowraps for doing an amazing job on the car and I would definitely recommend them for all your wrapping needs.
Now to go out and enjoy the car some more
08-28-2016, 05:21 PM
#154
Had Jono at ISO-Media take some photos of the car the other day. First proper photos of the car since going one colour so i was very keen to have them done.
Beyond stoked with how the photos/the car came out
now for a big photo dump haha
enjoy.
started off at norwest car wash and jono and i washed our cars
then we cruised on over to lane cove national park to get some more shots
Beyond stoked with how the photos/the car came out
now for a big photo dump haha
enjoy.
started off at norwest car wash and jono and i washed our cars
then we cruised on over to lane cove national park to get some more shots
08-29-2016, 02:47 PM
#158
Well here's another update for you guys.
After my last track day my brakes were shot. The rotors had a nice big lip on them and the HC+ pads were down to about 2mm of material left and squealing like crazy so it was definitely time to replace/upgrade before Honda nationals.
Going by this thread I installed the rotors and pads along with the braided lines and cooling kit in January 2015 so 1.5 years/10 track days of life out of rda blanks and HC+ pads is pretty great in my opinion.
After being quite happy with the performance of the HC+, this time around I decided to go for a more track orientated pad.
With the car not getting driven a lot on the street and the pursuit of faster lap times the top priority a full track pad made sense.
A track pad would get me more consistent braking, more initial bite and better pedal feel. These three things should definitely help at the track and get me lapping faster more consistent times.
Having used the HC+ and being happy with them, moving to the club racer was the obvious choice but I researched other brands as well and basically was down to deciding between the PMU club racer, endless ME20 and the winmax W5.
All three pads were around the same performance level with similar mu ratings, temp range and initial bite.
Pricing and availability were big factors and eventually decided my pad choice.
- The club racer were readily available in aus but was also the most expensive of the three.
- The endless were only attainable if I was to order through streeter and had a 6 week wait on them. Surprisingly they weren't as expensive as I was expecting and once the dollar recovers a bit I'll definitely pick up a set to test out.
- The W5 were readily available through race brakes Sydney (5 minutes from my house) and were also $80 cheaper than the other two.
Sounds like a good option right!?
I was sold!
Upon speaking to Matt at race brakes we decided that with the s2000 braking set up (most of the braking done at the front) and it's light weight that a W5 front/W3 rear would be sufficient.
To finish off my brake upgrade I used my last set of RDA blanks I had laying around at home from eBay sales 2 years ago. Got to love $100 sets of rotors
I also ordered some fresh RBF600 from autosphere.
As the car would be up on stands and I would be swapping out the brakes I decided it was the perfect time to do my major service as well and swap out the engine, gearbox and diff oils. I ordered them and from there it was just waiting for everything to turn up.
Parts list
RDA 300mm blank front rotors
RDA 282mm blank rear rotors
Winmax W5 front pads
Winmax W3 rear pads
Motul RBF600
Penrite 5W-40 engine oil
Hamp oil filter
Amsoil synchromesh trans oil
Amsoil severe gear 75W110 diff oil
I didn't take a picture of everything together this time but I did get a picture of the winmax pads. I have to say they were packaged very nicely and the pads themselves look great in that beautiful gold colour. We will see if it lasts as the teal colour of the PMU pads tends to burn off after one track day.
From here you know what happens. I swapped out the old worn parts and put in the fresh new parts so there's no real need to go into detail about all that.
I will note though that the spoon X brace i installed must be removed for oil changes as it gets in the way. This is quite annoying with how much I change oil so I'm deciding whether I should keep it or not.
Rear done
Front done
I should really give the calipers a spray with the high temp paint again as they're starting to look a bit tired. Also note that the hub cover has been sprayed as well. Looks so much nicer not having to see those rusted out discs through the wheel any more.
So now we get to the part that Alex will really like
Since running my voltex front bumper I've basically just shoved the ducts through the bumper openings and left them there. According to Alex they looked like octopus tentacles flapping about. And while they have done a good job I'm sure cooling has not been optomised.
While doing the swap I decided it was a good time to sort this out.
After being inspired by Kams cooling brackets I decided I wanted to make some of my own.
I looked around for the brackets but couldn't find anything in my required size or style and when I did they were insanely expensive. I was giving up hope when a mate suggested I look at reducers used in plumbing. A quick trip to bunnings revealed exactly what I wanted.
I grabbed two PVC reducers that had 90mm openings and 75mm secondary steps (perfect for 3inch ducting) and I cut off the remaining material I didn't require.
After smoothing out the inside of the tubing and giving it a coat of black paint I mocked up my brackets out of alloy strip and mounted them to the headlight supports.
All that was left was to trim the ducting down a bit as the whole length wasn't needed anymore and I was done.
The brackets hold the ducting just behind the bumper openings now and should provide much better cooling capabilities while also looking a whole lot better.
Im booked in to get an alignment on monday and then im ready for H Nats next weekend
After my last track day my brakes were shot. The rotors had a nice big lip on them and the HC+ pads were down to about 2mm of material left and squealing like crazy so it was definitely time to replace/upgrade before Honda nationals.
Going by this thread I installed the rotors and pads along with the braided lines and cooling kit in January 2015 so 1.5 years/10 track days of life out of rda blanks and HC+ pads is pretty great in my opinion.
After being quite happy with the performance of the HC+, this time around I decided to go for a more track orientated pad.
With the car not getting driven a lot on the street and the pursuit of faster lap times the top priority a full track pad made sense.
A track pad would get me more consistent braking, more initial bite and better pedal feel. These three things should definitely help at the track and get me lapping faster more consistent times.
Having used the HC+ and being happy with them, moving to the club racer was the obvious choice but I researched other brands as well and basically was down to deciding between the PMU club racer, endless ME20 and the winmax W5.
All three pads were around the same performance level with similar mu ratings, temp range and initial bite.
Pricing and availability were big factors and eventually decided my pad choice.
- The club racer were readily available in aus but was also the most expensive of the three.
- The endless were only attainable if I was to order through streeter and had a 6 week wait on them. Surprisingly they weren't as expensive as I was expecting and once the dollar recovers a bit I'll definitely pick up a set to test out.
- The W5 were readily available through race brakes Sydney (5 minutes from my house) and were also $80 cheaper than the other two.
Sounds like a good option right!?
I was sold!
Upon speaking to Matt at race brakes we decided that with the s2000 braking set up (most of the braking done at the front) and it's light weight that a W5 front/W3 rear would be sufficient.
To finish off my brake upgrade I used my last set of RDA blanks I had laying around at home from eBay sales 2 years ago. Got to love $100 sets of rotors
I also ordered some fresh RBF600 from autosphere.
As the car would be up on stands and I would be swapping out the brakes I decided it was the perfect time to do my major service as well and swap out the engine, gearbox and diff oils. I ordered them and from there it was just waiting for everything to turn up.
Parts list
RDA 300mm blank front rotors
RDA 282mm blank rear rotors
Winmax W5 front pads
Winmax W3 rear pads
Motul RBF600
Penrite 5W-40 engine oil
Hamp oil filter
Amsoil synchromesh trans oil
Amsoil severe gear 75W110 diff oil
I didn't take a picture of everything together this time but I did get a picture of the winmax pads. I have to say they were packaged very nicely and the pads themselves look great in that beautiful gold colour. We will see if it lasts as the teal colour of the PMU pads tends to burn off after one track day.
From here you know what happens. I swapped out the old worn parts and put in the fresh new parts so there's no real need to go into detail about all that.
I will note though that the spoon X brace i installed must be removed for oil changes as it gets in the way. This is quite annoying with how much I change oil so I'm deciding whether I should keep it or not.
Rear done
Front done
I should really give the calipers a spray with the high temp paint again as they're starting to look a bit tired. Also note that the hub cover has been sprayed as well. Looks so much nicer not having to see those rusted out discs through the wheel any more.
So now we get to the part that Alex will really like
Since running my voltex front bumper I've basically just shoved the ducts through the bumper openings and left them there. According to Alex they looked like octopus tentacles flapping about. And while they have done a good job I'm sure cooling has not been optomised.
While doing the swap I decided it was a good time to sort this out.
After being inspired by Kams cooling brackets I decided I wanted to make some of my own.
I looked around for the brackets but couldn't find anything in my required size or style and when I did they were insanely expensive. I was giving up hope when a mate suggested I look at reducers used in plumbing. A quick trip to bunnings revealed exactly what I wanted.
I grabbed two PVC reducers that had 90mm openings and 75mm secondary steps (perfect for 3inch ducting) and I cut off the remaining material I didn't require.
After smoothing out the inside of the tubing and giving it a coat of black paint I mocked up my brackets out of alloy strip and mounted them to the headlight supports.
All that was left was to trim the ducting down a bit as the whole length wasn't needed anymore and I was done.
The brackets hold the ducting just behind the bumper openings now and should provide much better cooling capabilities while also looking a whole lot better.
Im booked in to get an alignment on monday and then im ready for H Nats next weekend
08-29-2016, 03:01 PM
#160
31/07/16 HONDA NATIONALS WINTON
When this event was announced I knew I had to do it and I signed up straight away. After a few years of being absent H nats was finally back and I knew it would be an awesome event to get to and try out winton for the first time and see all of my Melbourne friends again.
Winton has always been described to me as a super fun track and very good for S2000s and With the resurface carried out earlier this year, friends had told me that the track had gotten quite faster so I was super keen to get down there and try it out.
With the points system I was placed in group 3 (6.01-9 points) with a total of 7.25 points. Interestingly minus my weight reduction points (1.1) I had a total of 6.15 points only just putting me into group 3. Goes to show that it still is quite a basic set up but it is achieving a lot.
Group 3 had some very quick cars (*cough* Peter *cough*) so I knew I had no chance of winning anything so I just wanted to focus on my own car.
Similarly modded S2000s down in Melbourne were getting sub 1:40s with track experience.
It was going to be a day of firsts as well. First time at winton, first time using my new brake pads, first time using racing boots. With this in mind i set myself a goal of 1:40-1:42 for the day as I didn't really know what to expect.
I made the decision to tow the car down on the off chance that something went wrong (2.5years of tracking and still no issues - touch wood) as I have access to a 4WD and car trailer. I organised everything on that end and loaded the car up on Friday afternoon so everything was ready to go Saturday morning.
The drive down was fairly uneventful. My dad and uncle came along for the weekend so driving was shared keeping everyone fresh and we made good time. Just outside of Wadoonga one of the tyres on the trailer blew around the entire sidewall (16yo tyres will do that) so we changed that and got to Wangaratta fine and unloaded the car.
Room with a view ��
That night everyone who had come down from Sydney and was staying in Wangaratta went out for dinner together. It was a friendly atmosphere and some good pub food was eaten.
Later on the rain hit and we woke up to a wet and dreary looking morning.
Driving to the track was no good either as it was still raining lightly and the road was soaked but upon arriving at the track the rain stopped and everyone was hoping it would hold off for the rest of the day so some racing could take place!
SESSION 1
First session out the track was soaked so everyone was taking it easy. Despite this there was still numerous spins and offs in all the sessions so the groups were moving very slowly.
I think I did 4 or 5 laps this session taking it very easy but still sliding around every corner and came back in with a time of 1:53.3 (racechrono).
The new W5 pads felt awesome once up to temperature but were a bit sketchy on the first lap trying to get some heat into them in the wet.
Tyre pressures were set at 30psi beforehand and they crept up to 34psi so I dropped them back down to 30.
SESSION 2
By the time the second session had come around the track was really starting to dry out and people were starting to put down some decent times.
I made the call that I wanted to drop 4 seconds off my previous time as I thought this would be quite a large margin.
I just went out there and concentrated on my lines and braking points and just tried to put together a clean lap. Watching car after car go off the track and have to be towed back in I also didn't want to cook it and go off so I played it safe and too my surprise I watched the lap times tumble.
1:50.9 1:44.5 1:44.2 1:42.5 1:40.9 1:40.5!
I was shocked! I had just taken 13 seconds off my previous lap with my first proper try at winton. Not only that but I had already achieved my goal for the day and had gone quicker than I thought I would.
The pads were awesome, the boots made heel toeing so much easier and I was able to control both pedals with ease.
I checked tyre pressures again and they had crept back up to 34 so I again dropped them to 30 and that was it.
SESSION 3
I took my uncle out this session for some passenger laps. He's raced all sorts of cars for years most notably old rx3s in touring races and sprint cars. He enjoyed it and said the car felt good but this session a vibration started to occur when I got on the brakes.
Still managed a cruisy 1:42.1.
SESSION 4
By this stage I was hungry for a 1:39 so I went out this session with the intent on getting it. My driving was sharper and I was accelerating more and braking later at turns.
Still not knowing the track perfectly I seemed to mess up somewhere different each lap. This sucked as I'd put together a good lap then cook it on the last turn or something.
Still I managed to take another second off my previous time and got my 1:39!
1:41.7 1:39.8 1:39.5 1:40.3
One thing that had happened this session was that that little vibration had turned into a fairly big vibration when I got on the brakes. Driving normally it'd be fine but as soon as I began to brake the car would vibrate so I think the new W5 pads are just too aggressive for my el cheapo rda blanks and they've warped. I noticed after this session that all the nice gold paint on the pad backing had begun to bubble and wear off. Definitely more noticeable in the rear than in the front so I have to address this me thinks.
I came in and was almost going to drive the car onto the trailer and pack up but I decided to do the final session as I didn't know when I'd get back to winton again and didn't want to go home with 'what ifs?'
SESSION 5
Now that I had my 1:39 I wanted a 1:38 haha
I just wanted to go out and clean up areas of my previous lap where I knew I could make time.
Again I made little mistakes here and there but nothing too major this time round and again my times improved!
1:42.1 1:40.7 1:39.7 1:40.2 1:39.1
The 1:39.1 would end up being my PB for the day and that lap was far from perfect. Slow sweeper speeds, massive understeer on the last turn and a few areas where i couldve been faster but all in all for my first time at winton im happy. Definitely know what i have to improve on for next time.
Here the data analysis for the PB lap. Lots of red there so still lots of time to be made up.
My optimum for the day was 1:37.88 (Note that racechrono recorded a 1:39.3 but natsoft was !:39.1)
PROS:
- Winton is awesome! Definitely coming back!
- Car felt awesome!
- Awesome time for my first go at Winton.
- New pads are great.
- Racing boots are great. Definitely a good investment.
- Another track day completed with no real issue to the car.
CONS:
- Rotors are dead.
- My sweeper entry speed is really slow so lots of time to make up there.
- Could be quicker through the S so again more time to make up there.
- PB lap included understeer through a couple of corners. More camber needed.
video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XaRAb5BPbY Pictures from the day
When this event was announced I knew I had to do it and I signed up straight away. After a few years of being absent H nats was finally back and I knew it would be an awesome event to get to and try out winton for the first time and see all of my Melbourne friends again.
Winton has always been described to me as a super fun track and very good for S2000s and With the resurface carried out earlier this year, friends had told me that the track had gotten quite faster so I was super keen to get down there and try it out.
With the points system I was placed in group 3 (6.01-9 points) with a total of 7.25 points. Interestingly minus my weight reduction points (1.1) I had a total of 6.15 points only just putting me into group 3. Goes to show that it still is quite a basic set up but it is achieving a lot.
Group 3 had some very quick cars (*cough* Peter *cough*) so I knew I had no chance of winning anything so I just wanted to focus on my own car.
Similarly modded S2000s down in Melbourne were getting sub 1:40s with track experience.
It was going to be a day of firsts as well. First time at winton, first time using my new brake pads, first time using racing boots. With this in mind i set myself a goal of 1:40-1:42 for the day as I didn't really know what to expect.
I made the decision to tow the car down on the off chance that something went wrong (2.5years of tracking and still no issues - touch wood) as I have access to a 4WD and car trailer. I organised everything on that end and loaded the car up on Friday afternoon so everything was ready to go Saturday morning.
The drive down was fairly uneventful. My dad and uncle came along for the weekend so driving was shared keeping everyone fresh and we made good time. Just outside of Wadoonga one of the tyres on the trailer blew around the entire sidewall (16yo tyres will do that
) so we changed that and got to Wangaratta fine and unloaded the car.Room with a view ��
That night everyone who had come down from Sydney and was staying in Wangaratta went out for dinner together. It was a friendly atmosphere and some good pub food was eaten.
Later on the rain hit and we woke up to a wet and dreary looking morning.
Driving to the track was no good either as it was still raining lightly and the road was soaked but upon arriving at the track the rain stopped and everyone was hoping it would hold off for the rest of the day so some racing could take place!
SESSION 1
First session out the track was soaked so everyone was taking it easy. Despite this there was still numerous spins and offs in all the sessions so the groups were moving very slowly.
I think I did 4 or 5 laps this session taking it very easy but still sliding around every corner and came back in with a time of 1:53.3 (racechrono).
The new W5 pads felt awesome once up to temperature but were a bit sketchy on the first lap trying to get some heat into them in the wet.
Tyre pressures were set at 30psi beforehand and they crept up to 34psi so I dropped them back down to 30.
SESSION 2
By the time the second session had come around the track was really starting to dry out and people were starting to put down some decent times.
I made the call that I wanted to drop 4 seconds off my previous time as I thought this would be quite a large margin.
I just went out there and concentrated on my lines and braking points and just tried to put together a clean lap. Watching car after car go off the track and have to be towed back in I also didn't want to cook it and go off so I played it safe and too my surprise I watched the lap times tumble.
1:50.9 1:44.5 1:44.2 1:42.5 1:40.9 1:40.5!
I was shocked! I had just taken 13 seconds off my previous lap with my first proper try at winton. Not only that but I had already achieved my goal for the day and had gone quicker than I thought I would.
The pads were awesome, the boots made heel toeing so much easier and I was able to control both pedals with ease.
I checked tyre pressures again and they had crept back up to 34 so I again dropped them to 30 and that was it.
SESSION 3
I took my uncle out this session for some passenger laps. He's raced all sorts of cars for years most notably old rx3s in touring races and sprint cars. He enjoyed it and said the car felt good but this session a vibration started to occur when I got on the brakes.
Still managed a cruisy 1:42.1.
SESSION 4
By this stage I was hungry for a 1:39 so I went out this session with the intent on getting it. My driving was sharper and I was accelerating more and braking later at turns.
Still not knowing the track perfectly I seemed to mess up somewhere different each lap. This sucked as I'd put together a good lap then cook it on the last turn or something.
Still I managed to take another second off my previous time and got my 1:39!
1:41.7 1:39.8 1:39.5 1:40.3
One thing that had happened this session was that that little vibration had turned into a fairly big vibration when I got on the brakes. Driving normally it'd be fine but as soon as I began to brake the car would vibrate so I think the new W5 pads are just too aggressive for my el cheapo rda blanks and they've warped. I noticed after this session that all the nice gold paint on the pad backing had begun to bubble and wear off. Definitely more noticeable in the rear than in the front so I have to address this me thinks.
I came in and was almost going to drive the car onto the trailer and pack up but I decided to do the final session as I didn't know when I'd get back to winton again and didn't want to go home with 'what ifs?'
SESSION 5
Now that I had my 1:39 I wanted a 1:38 haha
I just wanted to go out and clean up areas of my previous lap where I knew I could make time.
Again I made little mistakes here and there but nothing too major this time round and again my times improved!
1:42.1 1:40.7 1:39.7 1:40.2 1:39.1
The 1:39.1 would end up being my PB for the day and that lap was far from perfect. Slow sweeper speeds, massive understeer on the last turn and a few areas where i couldve been faster but all in all for my first time at winton im happy. Definitely know what i have to improve on for next time.
Here the data analysis for the PB lap. Lots of red there so still lots of time to be made up.
My optimum for the day was 1:37.88 (Note that racechrono recorded a 1:39.3 but natsoft was !:39.1)
PROS:
- Winton is awesome! Definitely coming back!
- Car felt awesome!
- Awesome time for my first go at Winton.
- New pads are great.
- Racing boots are great. Definitely a good investment.
- Another track day completed with no real issue to the car.
CONS:
- Rotors are dead.
- My sweeper entry speed is really slow so lots of time to make up there.
- Could be quicker through the S so again more time to make up there.
- PB lap included understeer through a couple of corners. More camber needed.
video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XaRAb5BPbY Pictures from the day