This is a decent track a couple hours outside Toronto. My first time ever tracking a car other than for drag. Lotta room for improvement I know and the exposure sucks cause I thought the go pro was setup already from the last time I used it, guess not.
Very cool! I can’t wait to get on a track like that. Looks like a lot of fun. You could shave some time with a seat and harness alone…your body is moving all over the place :).
Yeah at the very least a better seat is in the cards, tho I had a bunch of other more important stuff to do first. Like my 3rd gear synchro crapped out on me with less than 2 weeks before the track day that I had already paid for. I don’t really get to the track as much as I’d like tho and the 94 lude seats I have are pretty decent for an OEM seat. I didn’t feel like it was really making it hard to control the car at any point, not to argue that a better seat would help. At 6’4 185lbs I’m a fairly big guy for a Honda and the slight fish eye of the cam might make it look like I’m getting moved around more than I really am. Either way I wanna get at the very least a type R Recaro in there or something, we’ll see how much that helps!
I was gonna ask if you were a big guy cause it looks to me like you’re sitting really far back - but still looks like you can reach the steering wheel OK. The seat looks like it’s fairly reclined though, which isn’t what you want. But like you said, it could be the camera. Seats/harness will make a HUGE difference, but just be careful if you go that route and pick something safe. Since you have a sedan and no roll bar I’d suggest mounting the GoPro to your rear window, similar to this: http://youtu.be/aoTVaC75yLM You should get a much better view. With the wide angle of the GoPro it’s hard to see much with it inside like that - but if you do mount it inside, make sure to switch it to spot metering mode so it meters for the track lighting not the interior of the cabin.
So stoked to see you’ve made it out to the track and I hope you had a blast! I was hooked pretty much immediately, even though it was about 5yrs after my first time before I was able to get out there again. Regardless of what track noobs and hardparkers may tell you - don’t modify the car. Your money is best spent on seat time, gas, tires, and brakes. You don’t need more power, you don’t need bigger brakes, you don’t need aero… when you need that stuff, you’ll know. Get ride alongs whenever you can as well, and take others as passengers who have experience so you can try to soak up their knowledge. Good luck out there!
thanks Colin! I’ll be sure to use tho tips on the go pro next time. I’m a little hesitant to put it outside since it wasn’t mine. As far as mods go the cars already significantly modded. B20V ITR cams/springs, carbon synchros, etc. After a few laps my brakes were smoking if I was pushing the car the whole lap. In the vid I posted I’d already started taking it easy under braking for just that reason. I’ve since done the ITR/Cooper brake upgrade.
My seat is a bit reclined, but I def don’t have that big city gangsta lean going, my arms are a bit too long for my body at 6’4, wy wingspan is more like that of a guy 6’8. I’ll try making some adjustment tho and see how that helps.
I did watch a lot of vids of the track before and after I went and learned from it, more so probably after since I had some real knowledge as to what was actually going on with the track, but I didn’t think to go on rides/take passengers really, which I shoulda since the other 2 guys who came out that day with me, one was also new and a lot less experienced of a driver, he came for a ride with me after he’d spun a few times. The other came for a ride too, he’s a rally guy who mostly does winter/snow rally in a 93 Civic. I need to get to know some of the other track guys in my area better.
Thanks again for the advice guys, I’m hoping to get out to at least 1 or 2 more events this year depending on my work sched and I’ll be sure to put as much of this advice to use as I can. I hope I can find the extra coin to grab a seat, no need to convince me to go with something safe there Colin, I won’t do knock off seats, or usually anything knock off for that matter but I’m aware that rep seats aren’t crash tested. That’s why I when I did upgrade the stock seats in my tega couple years ago, I only did so because these 94 lude seats are also of course OEM meaning they’ve been tested.
Awesome man, that motor must be a blast. For an affordable seat look into the Momo Start 2012 seat. I almost bought it but picked up a Bride Zeta Graduation seat instead in the end. I found the Momo seat for 400-450 shipped on a few sites and it’s not a bad looking seat either. I’m jealous, I have yet to get on a legit circuit track only Auto X so far.
Yeah the motors pretty sweet forgot to mention its also a semi light flywheel, didn’t wanna go full race on that tho. 70MM SK2 Alph TB and Pro series manifold that I port matched to the TB, injectors etc. I know in the higher speeds due to gearing that 8th gen I was chasing near the end would be faster, but in the 1/4 my car pulls on most cars that came stock with a K series. It’s not crazy fast but it’s a satisfying motor considering how little I’ve actually spent on the car. There’s also other mods like F/R camber kits, most bushings (More of those to do soon tho)
As far as the seat goes, maybe I’m just paranoid but I don’t want a fixed bucket unless I caged the car and right now, this car is my daily. In a roll over without a cage, being in a fixed bucket might not be a good thing.
And I’d love to get out to some auto X stuff too and see how this car does, right now I need some more tires tho. I was on rt 615k F/615 R and toasted the fronts after this event (wasn’t much left of them to begin with) I’m gonna take the tires of my street rims RE-11’s for a lapping day I’m going to in september for my birthday, but until then I need those for street, or I gotta find some decent but cheap street tires. Which is tricky for me cause I hate not being on great tires for the season, even my winters are a fairly serious tire and I even run them on a set of old enkie 92’s, not the new re-release versions that everyone has now.