Everybody has been asking about my weekend. Until now, I’ve said “it was good.” If you really want to know how my weekend went, read this.<br/><br/>The car was still ready to go following my last weekend, so I took Friday off to tie up some loose ends, and pack up. Left Arlington around 4:20pm, and arrived at the track entrance at 5:45pm. Not bad time considering I closely followed the speed limit and it was rush hour. I get in to the track, shuffle around a few parking spots in the woods, and finally settle down. Unpack the car, swap over to track tires, set up tent, and the rest of the night was just spent bullshitting with friends as they arrived.<br/><br/>Wake up the next morning, grab a quick shower (note for future: 45 minutes before the morning meeting is too late to wait), which ended up having a little warmth, but just cold enough to be really uncomfortable. Attend morning meeting, attend instructor’s meeting, find that my two students both have similar cars to mine, and we’re all set. <br/><br/>BJ arrives before my first session so I take him out. I hadn’t been on Summit Main in over a year so I was quite rusty and slow. Regardless, he thought it was amazing. The session ended a bit early as I started having steering issues in hard corners. I pull in to the pits assuming my weekend is over because the crappy camber kit I had recently installed was slipping. I talk to some people about it, and my friend Adam says I might want to look at my shock towers; there is a chance that I was just bottoming out the suspension. To my surprise, even with 600lb/in springs installed, the upper control arms were slamming in to the body of the car. When that happens at speed, it makes the car a handful. Note: <a href=”http://www.skunk2.com/Suspension/index2.php?prodId=fckpro” target=”_blank”>Skunk2 control arms</a> not only come with the lowest quality fasteners in the world, but their design is kind of crap. To top it off, their customer service is miserable… I ordered replacement fasteners a couple weeks ago, but still haven’t received them. Unfortunately, nobody else makes anything comparable. Anyone want to go in to business?<br/><br/>As an instructor, you don’t really have much free time to work on your car so I’m forced to adjust my front height during my next session. I ended up raising the car about 3/4″, which solved the problem, but now the car looks like it’s ready to go muddin’ (or just enter the driveway without scraping and/or pulling my front bumper off) <img src=”http://www.iammike.org/cutenews/data/emoticons/tongue.gif”/> I’m pretty sure I’ve got more than enough suspension travel now so I’ll likely lower it down about 1/4″ when I get a chance.<br/><br/>Third and final session of the day turns out to really be my first. I’m mucho slow as I’m trying to figure out how I used to go around the track quickly. The front end was pushing a little bit so I took a pound of pressure out of the front tires for my first session the next morning.<br/><br/>The rest of my sessions go pretty uneventfully. I picked up a good bit more speed, but am finding that I’m gear limited in a lot of the corners. In 3, 9, and 10, I’m just unable to enter and/or exit at what I want to because I’m hitting the rev limited in 3rd. An easy solution would be to try fourth, but I’d be so down on power at the exits that it’d be a joke. A tougher and more expensive solution? A new tranny (and maybe motor).<br/><br/>As far as weekend festivities go, this is annually one of the best weekends to attend, as it was <a href=”http://www.hyper-fest.com/” target=”_blank”>Hyper-Fest 6</a>. This event combines all the usual weekend stuff with a car show, drifting, a band, a daisy duke contest, and a fireworks display. We also have a little banquet for competitors at each event… Someone was nice enough to pick up a keg of Newcastle for it, which I was in turn nice enough to have a large part in draining. The rest of Saturday night was downhill, but fun, from there. Beer, boobs, a guy getting a tug from his girlfriend in front of a handful of us as I shined my headlamp on them during the fireworks display, met a bunch of people from forums I frequent, put a dent in my knee thanks to a trailer hitch, made a phone call or two, and passed out.<br/><br/>Both of my students were great guys. My beginner had an old CRX HF with a B18C5 motor (Integra Type R), a basic suspension, and Flaken Azenis. He had a great attitude throughout the weekend and really started picking up some speed. His motor was awesome… I’m jealous… Unfortunately, he was also on stock brakes (upgraded pads of course), which really held him back in my opinion. My intermediate student didn’t need me at all. He had had a lot of weekends under his belt, was 100% comfortable, and very quick (Kenny, if you read this, don’t let it go to your head). He had the exact same car as me, but with a B18C1 (Integra GS-R) motor, and an LSD. It was really good for me to ride along with him, because his car is probably better sorted than mine (read: he’s put more time and money in to it) and it gave me a good idea of what I need to do to mine.<br/><br/>Now that I really feel that I’m back in to the track thing, I’m realizing that my car is simply too slow to keep up in the instructor’s group. Aside from the random non-prepped Miata or two, I don’t have a chance out there. Note: I do not race, but I also do not like having to hold my hand out the window allowing people to pass. That said, I’ve put together a little list of the things I’d like to do to my car in the near future:<br/><ul><li>Lose some weight. The car is light as hell, but it’s also a good things to shed a few pounds. I’m thinking some bling bling lower control arms, a lightweight battery, and a carbon fiber hood.</li><li>Downforce. This will hurt me in the straights, 120mph versus 118mph still makes me the slowest <img src=”http://www.iammike.org/cutenews/data/emoticons/tongue.gif”/> I’m thinking a nice front splitter and a duckbill spoiler. My only concern here is the fact that I have to get the car in and out of the driveway and I’m not sure the splitter would agree with it. I suppose that’s what they make quick-release fasteners for though, huh?<br/></li><li>Buy a pair of <a href=”http://www.soloracer.com/gforcecamlock6.html” target=”_blank”>G-Force harnesses with the split sub-belt (6-point)</a>. The student in the CRX had them and I really liked them; more contact points and they don’t kill your boys.<br/></li><li>Buy a Sparo mount for my passenger side. I have a <a href=”http://www.sparcousa.com/pseats_comp.asp?id=468″ target=”_blank”>Sparco Evo seat</a> just sitting at my house; I should get it in the car rather than on the bed for my <a href=”http://www.iammike.org/index.php?subaction=showfull&amp;id=1180244601&amp;archive=&amp;start_from=&amp;ucat=2&amp;” target=”_blank”>Forza 2 setup</a>.<br/></li><li>Get an <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_slip_differential” target=”_blank”>LSD</a>. The Civic student had one and it was just amazing to feel it work. I previously figured I didn’t have enough power for it to matter, but seeing his car stick under acceleration told me I am wrong.</li><li>Get a new tranny. This kind of goes hand in hand with the LSD. I should try to source something that is already put together. The better gearing will no longer make my car a 4-speed (I never use 5th) and should allow me to easily be in 4th in those corners that I’m running out of revs in 3rd in.</li><li>Get more power. As much as I’d like to get a new motor, mine has never failed me and I just don’t have the money lying around to throw at something that isn’t necessary. I think for now I’ll just get quality bolt-ons like a header, exhaust, intake manifold, and maybe pick up some engine management since I know I’m running a bit rich based on the soot deposited on my bumper. I really realized I’m down on power when I saw that my exit speed out of the turn before the long straight was 10mph faster than my one student, but before braking for the turn following it, he was 10mph faster than me.<br/></li></ul>The above will likely take me a bit of time to acquire since I do things slowly (I’m very budget minded), but I don’t see any reason it shouldn’t all be complete for the beginning of next season.<br/><br/>I also made a list of the adjustments/fixes I need to do before my next weekend:<br/><ul><li>Unbolt steering wheel, shift it a notch to the left.</li><li>Check all bolts on front end of car; hearing a popping noise similar to the one I had on the left side before I replaced the balljoints and bearings.</li><li>Flush brake fluid. I haven’t done this in a long time and my pedal did get softer over the course of the weekend. With this one, I also need to inspect my calipers… I know at least one is leaking.</li><li>Tighten rearview mirror. It was shaking violently going down the straight at 120mph. I think the addition of the <a href=”http://www.streetlightz.com/broadmir.html” target=”_blank”>Broadway Mirror</a>’s weight loosened some junk.</li><li>Adjust clutch pedal. I have about an inch of pedal movement before there is any resistance.</li><li>Lube pedals. Squeak, squeak!</li><li>Mark camber. Since I had to raise the car up I no longer no exactly what it’s at, but I know it’s pretty close to even. By scoring the arms, I’ll know if anything shifts.</li><li>Wash wheels. They are covered in brake dust and have been for a year now. After wahsing them I’ll be able to inspect for any stress cracks.</li></ul>Overall, a very good weekend for me. Only missed a single session, car ran well (no burnt oil, no coolant drank, no weird vibrations), seemingly left the track with more rubber on my tires than I had arrived with (racing tires pick crap up from the track  surface), and my brake pads still don’t seem to be wearing at all. That = good stuff. Unfortunately, it seemed like a lot of others did not fare as well; the crowds on Saturday (I think it’s safe to attribute it to this) had a lot of people driving beyond their limits and a lot of nice cars ended up getting tower home. Things calmed down on Sunday as either the idiots had been weeded out already, or the idiocy really was due to the crowds.<br/><br/>Oh, I also ventured a little out of my little friend bubble and met some new faces this weekend… That felt good.<br/><br/>Next event? August 25 and 26 at Summit Main again.<br/>