pf01 [r]

My wheels came a scant three days after order, in fact three of them arrived on Tuesday. They look good, I might have gotten a darker hue were it an option, but they do their job and show plenty of rotor. The 18s with new rubber ride wayyy smoother than the worn 19s, I'll see how they handle load after break in.

Purchases, products, plantings [s]

Chilies and rosemary and stuff - plants that are used as seasonings so we don't have to grow a whole bunch to have useful quantities. Since I feel that organic foods are pretentious, I'm going to spray them with DDT every week or so.



The front yard is getting some love. The papyrus is doing well and Jes added some sort of flower. The grass is still flourishing, but now I need a damn lawnmower.



The deck's been cleared off for another coat of stain and then some heavy sealant. I'm not messing around with that thin deck sealant this time.

Also in store for the backyard is replacing all the pvc drain grates (most broken) with metal ones. They're actually cheapest at Home Depot.


Source.

I finally settled on wheels and tires for the vr4. Enkei pf01's with Sumi HTR Z IIIs from Tirerack. There aren't a lot of options for the Mitsu (see tiny caliper on Z above) but I like them and it's time. I stopped by Discount yesterday to see if their store selection differed from their site. Barely.

So the pfs have an extra half inch of width, are forged, and add about fifty pounds of lightness.

Now, as with surfboards, I'm set until I move up to carbon fiber (espp-dependent).


Source.

Along with replacement fridge water filters and a subscription to Roadracing World & Motorcycle, Amazon is sending me Endless Ocean 2.

A story told by portraits [s]

Four glorious hours in the darkroom. I toned these because monochrome just doesn't look good on a monitor, it's all bluish and you can't see detail.

Portraits that tell a story (?) [s]

Assignment three, portraits that tell a story. I went both directions, straight up portraits and capturing a well-defined sequence of events.





I imagine the four prints we turn in should be from the same roll, both have a few candidates but the photojournalism ones are more varied. Of course, the following are just blown up copies of the contact sheet frames.


Maybe a smaller aperture. It was overcast though, so the window wasn't providing much light.


Lens filter worked well with the eyes.




Shoulda gotten that engine chromed. I mixed up mid-motion shots with poseds.


Under the car was tough, it was very dark but it turns out overexposure was possible.




Requisite beer, light was pretty low at this point but I shoulda risked a polarizer.

Double crossed [i]

The results are in. Good data all around and it looks like we have a nice rivalry between the Mazdaspeed 6 and the vr4.



Erik's thoughts regarding the practice and championship...

The championship course was roughly the same as the practice, but run backward with a change to the first slalom. This made the back section very fast, but it turned out to be just under the rev limiter, and had an uphill breaking section at the end that tested the anchoring of one's retinas.

Ian was in the first run group, and chose to run STU, meaning the cars he was up against had the same tires as him, but the added option of sway bars, lowering springs, intakes, exhaust systems, camber plates, and most importantly - wing and emblem removal/addition. He held his own for the first run or two and then got pushed to the back by some tuned up M3s. He was running about a second off the tuned Subies on a fifty second lap, so there's no shame in his fifth place finish in a totally under-built car.

I was working the first station during his group and got an up close view of some very tight competition. Apparently some of the drivers had enough control to 'nudge' the cones to the inside of the first apex without me noticing (a more experienced course worker alerted me to their shenanigans, and once I moved over to inspect more closely all the hijinks stopped, leading me to believe that they were intentionally bumping cones because they knew I - the nearest worker - was too far away to call them on it). Whatever the case, the caliber of driving was up a little from practice, as competitors only had four runs to put down a time and cones dislodged count against the time.

I only had one out-and-out cone to call the whole shift, and who was responsible? Who else…

Ian: Did you see where I hit a cone my last run? I don't know where it happened but they said plus one…

I was next to drive while Ian crewed for me over my break. A survey of the grid showed two other DSP drivers – a Civic SI and a four door Integra. The Integra wore street tires and didn't look fantastic at yesterday's practice (it ran while I worked course), so I was mostly worried about the SI running the same tires I had. The first lap out I was careful to go through the slalom the wrong way (Ian and I had spent much time discussing it and at the moment of truth I suffered from 'analysis paralysis'). When times came in from the other two cars I saw I was mistaken and the Integra, on street tires, four doors and all was going to be my main challenger.

Ian was instrumental in keeping my tires at proper pressure, cooling off the intake and reminding me that I should go through the offset slalom the right way – all of this allowed me to stay planted in the harness and keep my focus on the driving. I was happy to see my times improve steadily for the most part. The most intense point was finishing my last run (which did not improve on my penultimate fastest lap) and having to wait in the car staring at the clock for the Integra, who had been narrowing the gap all day, to finally finish his final. I kept a slight lead and since there were three cars in the class, I nabbed myself a trophy for the first place finish.

Ian had to work the third run group and I decided to go help him out when I got a call on the cell two minutes before the start

'So, what do I do with the radio?'

Competition being a little more controlled than practice, the radio is used to call in cone penalties, reruns, red flags, tech problems, safety issues, time-out for course repair and other necessary reporting.

With Ian practicing his radio speak (affirmative bandit, that's plus two cones on car five-ought-niner) and myself trying to translate the broken English of the other course workers in our section, we managed to make all the cone calls necessary (albeit way way late). There was a near-collision as the last few stations failed to red flag a speeding Corvette after an RX-7 suffered a spin-and-stall.

Overall the event went very smoothly and left a few lingering doubts, namely:

What class should Ian build for? The downside of buying the expensive performer is that the other car owners in the class have the money to tune them more than the average engineering student.

What happens if the Integra gets race tires? Does EA delve into the realm of power mods?

What class will CR build to? There is a lot of discussion here as he has already started down the path of modification against my better advice. Some of this can be estimated by factoring his times to mine (or Ian's) at the practice and seeing where it would land him in the other F-tuned groups if the same ratio applied to the I/E times from the event. Needless to say, there is no class where the three Falkens and one stretched Nankang will be the state of the competition (Ed: except F-stock which had no entrants), but practice handling the broken traction is applicable to sticky rubber, so it's all good fun now.

How many dates does CS have lined up with Corvette owners?

The results. And afterthoughts...

• If I moved down one class to worse tires and an engine driven fan, I would have had my ass handed to me, which is to say STS is a very competitive category.
• If Ian had run AS instead of STU he would have won his class.
• If CR had run FS he would have won his class (and come in dead last as well).
• If CR ran STU he would face the same trouble Ian did.
• If the proportion of times held up CR and Matt would have run in the mid-low 53s (calculating as a ratio of my best times to theirs).
• One more interesting point - the SCCA classes for the STi, vr4 and Mazdaspeed6 are a little strange. In stock they are (respectively) AS, FS and DS - in street touring they are all STU and in street prepared they are BSP, BSP and ESP.
  

A lack of focus [s]

Truth: variable focus is complete rubbish. Stop using it, everyone. Anonymous Cohort 1 was about 50/50 for having cars in focus at the last autocross. Anonymous Cohort 2 shot yesterday and was about 30/70. More than one person in my photo class have presented photos completely out of focus.

Then I picked up Ted's camera and, being unfamiliar with Canons, left it on fully automatic. I guess their firmware developers think the background is most important. Oh well.


Matt's Mazdaspeed 6.


The vr.


Bill Corbett, Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy doing live commentary on Plan 9 from Outer Space. Well, this was the intro skit.


The street. Jon, Mike, and Ted in the foreground. Ugh.


Mike turned around briefly. Yes yes I have no shame.


We wouldn't have been happier had the Packers won the Super Bowl.

Spoken this weekend:
'Welcome to last year.' Apparently Liar's Club is gone. Colon-dash-open paren.
'How long do you go to jail for statch?' Yeahhh.
'I do what I can. And in the least biased manner possible.' Says someone completely dead to me.

Jack Murphy parking lot [s]

Yesterday was autocross.



I got a little sloppy on the charting. Oh well, it's all there. Getting so many runs was a real feather in our cap. Jon was testing the limits of traction, or so I noticed when I rode with him. Sliding off course was a real black eye for me on the first two runs. Erik peaked early, Ian improved until his tires stopped gripping. He's got some nasty chunks missing.

Most times were in the 63-65 range. The other SD SOLO photographer was happy with the 61 he ran in his rx8, a stock Vette managed a 56, and the karts were pulling low 50s.

Key lessons learned:

• Off camber corners are significant.
• Racier tire setups don't give much warning before breaking loose.
• Skillful driving and r-compounds are a good substitute for being short on power.
  

The results of the April event, for comparison.


White Lambda was definitely pushing the Ac around. For more photos of the event, including Jon with a cone in his wheel well, check my blog-dedicated flickr.


Yes folks, that wheel is off the ground.

Rollies [r]

Is it a shame I have new wheels and tires before Jon? Yes. Will that be the case when his come in and they're shiny and scratch-free? No.

While I'm on the subject, here's my experience with Edge Racing. I ordered some wheels and tires from them since they advertised in Grassroots and had good deals. I was surprised to not get a confirmation email immediately. I was surprised the order did not ship within 24 hours as advertised. I was surpised I didn't get an email explaining that the tires were on back order. It wasn't until I called that I learned the tires were back ordered in spite of what the availablity quote indicated. I asked for expedited shipping to compensate for the delay, the csr declined. I asked for an order confirmation email, the csr said the 'order shipped' email was sufficient.

I'm the passive-aggressive type consumer who won't throw a fit, but instead pass the experience on to others and, naturally, never patronize them again.

Here's a report card of all my tire-related purchases. Since it's Corporate America, I believe the grade school rating system is appropriate.
Tire Rack (online) and Les Schwab (in store) get pluses for expediency, inventory accuracy, and complaint handling. (Tire Rack quickly replaced a strut I ordered that appeared to have been previously installed).
Edge Racing (online) gets a check for expediency, inventory accuracy, and complaint handling. By contrast, Craigslist gets a plus for expediency and inventory accuracy, a check for complaint handling.

Price wise: Craigs < Edge < Tire Rack < Les Schwab

Back to the TSWs. I like them considerably more than the stock wheels and more than I thought I'd like them before mounting. They're still a bit shiny for a Japanese coupe but a good dose of brake dust will solve that. We'll see how the Falkens will stand up to autocross.

Crossed up [s]

Today was autocross. Here are some pretty pictures courtesy Connie and Ted.


Jon in the RSX(-S) coming out of the first chicane into the fast left.


Christine: 'Jon drives like an old man. The oldest brother still holds the title for reckless driving.'
I have a feeling this directly corresponds to the controllability of our respective vehicles. Jon has a light fwd car, I have a heavy awd car, Ted has a heavier rwd car. But I'll test this hypothesis in May - provided Jon doesn't put his car in a lake trying to get to Country Kitchen Buffet.


Erik in the 240sx right out the gate.


Connie: 'Ian's car felt a lot lighter than the vr4. The vr4 felt lower, like it had a lower center of gravity. I really wanted to ride in Erik's cause it had so much smoke, it woulda been a good ride. Jon doesn't have smoke.'
I'll be rerouting my exhaust from the turbos to the wheel wells.


Ian in the STi with Ty calling the turns, handling the gps, and deciding on radio stations.


Connie: 'Spinning out is way more fun than being in a car that is controlled. The first ride I had with Ian, that was the best, that was when he spun out on the first turn and took out like half the cones and missed half the course. That was the best ride.'
'I'm surprised Ian spun out, because I heard awd doesn't spin out.'


The vr4 through the first chicane.


Connie: 'You could feel the weight of the vr4 being thrown around.'

Like any worthwhile activity, this event produced numbers begging to be analyzed. The data is as impure as can be; there is no accounting for tagged cones, cooldown time in the grid, and other such inconsistencies rightfully ignored because the event was a practice.

But like all good analyses, the proper mixture of sketchy telemetry and unfounded inference can bootstrap you to a solid conclusion.

Notable sources of variation that may benefit future autocross efforts:

• We ran in the first group having walked part of the track so course knowledge started at nil.
• Marked improvement for the afternoon runs 7-12 can be attributed to track familiarity gained from the first runs, working the course, and doing ridealongs.
• The tarmac was much warmer for the latter session.
• Turnaround time between runs was nearly ten minutes in the morning, closer to two minutes in the afternoon.
• In the afternoon we were accompanied by individuals who often use phrases such as 'Balls to the wall.', 'My 5-series could...', and 'Slam it slam it slam it.' Not that any of us would succumb to peer pressure.
• Tire characteristics varied widely among cars. Erik even switched his out at lunch.
  

And though the color of his curve fit indicates otherwise, Erik was the one among us with prior scnax experience. And it's pretty easy to tell based on his solid first run and:

Standard Deviation (seconds)
E: 1.61. Speaking purely, lap times will approach and asymptote with diminishing returns. Erik's pretty far along this path. Sway bars and tires will certainly shift the curve downward, and maybe give him a little more to work on.
I: 3.98. The number fits the flatness of the curve; he started out a much better driver than the rest of us.
C: 5.61. The plot suggest I have some work to do and it definitely felt that way on the track.
J: 4.35. It looks like had he continued with fun runs, Jon would have broken 70 pretty quickly.


Jon says competitive driving is so divine.

Postgame discussions:

E:
Don't you just sleep better knowing that if you die before morning [ed: I didn't die before morning], at least you can say you have executed a four-wheeled power slide in your 320hp dream car? Doesn't the 15-year old playing GT1 on PS1 in the back of your conscious finally rest easy now that one of life's major goals has been achieved? It's sort of like coming back from surfing double-ohs last winter at Scripps.
My favorite outcome was what Jon took away.

E: So, what did you think?
J: I feel sooo much better about driving on the street now. I know how to recover if I slide. I can control it.

I mean that says it all. One less Sigalert for the morning commuters because Jon will not be the one getting a body massage from the guardrail when he hits that gravel patch in the middle of the onramp. And he's not scared of the top third of the tach anymore. Even if he never fancies himself a gearhead, at least he's not among the ignorant, and has more cred than 3/4 of the RSX(S!) drivers out there.
For next time, I suggest different run groups so we can get ridealongs/crew for each other/throw things at your friend as they pass while working the course.

C:
In the end, it was nice to hear the birds on all four corners of my car chirp in unison, if not wayyyyy before they would have with the Kumhos. I can see why an awd road car can get away with two lsds when a rally car cannot.
That long left is on the list with the first turn on a wave, first knee on the ground, maybe something involving a girl but probably not. Oh mitzvahs! And now I get to change oil just like in GT3!!!
Next time:

• Yes different run groups. Allows ridealongs and I can shoot when I'm not on track. I'll bring my stash of smoke balls.
• Ty. He lit up the kart track like a true Italian, it'd be a lot of fun to send Slash's 1400 lb through a tight autox course. Especially if he got these and these.
  
• First person to knock down a cone has to pick up our lunch order. This includes cones in the parking lot and ice cream cones.
• Sleepover beforehand featuring a speed movie and video gamery. Maybe some practice photography.
• Wagers, maybe older vs. younger brothers. For instance we compute our rank versus other cars of the same make and model. Whoever is lower buys boba. Say E is the first ranked 240sx and I am the third ranked vr4. Jon and Ian would have to average above second rank among Imprezas and Integras to win.
  

E:
You get a lot less chirping when you switch to a lo-pro from an all-season. My canary never let me know the traction was giving out until too late on the Kumhos, although they were ultimately faster than the all seasons. I haven’t committed to the R’s yet, but damn it’s tempting – I want to do 3-wheel turns!
Funny, you ended up being the fastest vr4 there your first time out and I ended up as the slowest 240 out there even with my experience.

C:
Sure I may have been the fastest vr4, but all the gto drivers were total noobs. The 240 kids were seasoned professionals.