[ninjaboy76]

Man I'm really digging your car! I really like the overall look of it. You might think about adding a few gallons of race gas to your tank until you get the boost spike ironed out. This will raise the knock threashold, and keep you from detonating during the boost spike.

[QuickSilverSTi]

That or Torco.

[Rookie84]

I'm just avoiding going WOT in 3rd gear and up right now. It doesn't seem to happen in lower gears. It sometimes happens in 3rd, sometimes not. The AFR is good though. It reads in 10s when the boost spikes momentarily. I'm going down to Agile on Tuesday anyway so I'm not going to bother finding some race gas. Thanks for the advice, though

BTW, Just did a quick 1st-2nd pull on the way home today... It was first time I went WOT in 1st. Man, I almost missed 2nd because I wasn't used to the car reaching redline in 1st gear that fast. It got to the redline in like... a second. I can't wait to take care of this boost spike issues and start really enjoying this ride. I'm going to a track event this Saturday and can't wait!! Hopefully I don't blow my engine at the track. *knock on wood*

Anyway, I just discovered something very annoying today... I noticed the car was rubbing on the full lock, and got under the car to find out the shop who did my suspension install put the rear endlinks in the front and vice versa. ARRRGGGGHHH. Now it's going to be a busy week. List of things to do:

-Go to Agile to fix boost spike
-Go to the shop that did my suspension install and have them swap the endlinks, install V2 RCE Yellow front springs, and get an alignment
-Install new brake pads, lines, and fluid.

And I want to take care of all these before I go out to the track. I should be able to, but it's going to be a busy week.

[Rookie84]

I was at Agile today and Hill did some street tuning on my car. The boost spike is gone for the most part. The tuning is pretty darn safe as it is so I don't think I'll have much to worry about.

Also, I just raced my brother's 94 Supra TT BPU+ today. We were neck and neck. Just about dead even. My brother wants to run again with racegas in his Supra. I think he will have a slight edge w/ racegas.

[STI_LYN]

I saw your car up at chick fila the other friday. It was looking nice, really nice. I think you were parked by Matt with the Black STi. Def. look forward to seeing you back up there some time. That is a sick setup. The STi's are really holding it down in Northern VA.

[05cgm]

Way to hold your own against your bro's Supra. Car looks amazing.

[Rookie84]

Originally Posted by STI_LYN

I saw your car up at chick fila the other friday. It was looking nice, really nice. I think you were parked by Matt with the Black STi. Def. look forward to seeing you back up there some time. That is a sick setup. The STi's are really holding it down in Northern VA.

You should have talked to me! I was the Asian guy standing around with white long sleeve shirt on. I don't think I'll be at Chick-Fil-A this year anymore... as I'm going back to school next week and won't be back until Christmas break. Thanks for the compliments.

And thanks, 05cgm. I'm really happy that I was be able to hold my own against the Supra.

[Rookie84]

I posted this in general but I thought I would post it here as well to keep it in my journal.



I went to a SCCA PDX at Summit Point Raceway - Shannandoah circuit. It's a tight course with many tight turns. I had a blast!! I wish I started doing this earlier... I only had one track day in Korea(in a S14) but that track was really small and tight with only like 9 corners. I always thought track days were a bit too expensive for such a short amount of driving on track. Well, it's about just right amount of track time, IMO. I got 4 sessions - 20 min each, and I was worn out by the last session.

It was a hectic start... I overslept and woke up at 6:45, and the registration starts at 7:20. It was about 50 min drive to the track, and I didn't even clean all the stuff out of the car the night before because I was too tired after changing the brake pads and fluid (first two corners took me an hour and a half Rest only took me 15 min each, but then I had to redo the first two since I forgot to put the clips back in on the rods But I'm glad I did this... Hawk HP+ and ATE Blue worked flawlessly without hint of fade... but that might be because of me being a noob and not being on the brakes really hard ) It was 7:20 by the time I was out of the garage and on my way. Well, I was the last one to arrive... but just got there in time as people were finishing the tech inspection. Luckily, green group(the newbies ) was the last to go out on the track so I had some time to take a breather.

1st session... It was a session to break down my ego and learn the track. I knew that I would be a bit lost on the track but I didn't expect myself to be THAT lost. Me being a noob and my car having 420awhp didn't mix so well. It was pretty overwhelming and I simply just couldn't handle it. So after first couple of laps, I slowed way down and decided to just learn the lines first. I was pretty discouraged after the session was over... thinking "damn I suck!!"

Then the 2nd session came around, and I was getting used to the track and started picking up speed. But I was stuck behind a train of traffic so I concentrated on the lines again. I got to memorize the track and the lines pretty good.

3rd session. I had the most fun in this session. I was 2nd car out of the pits in this session, and there was only Mazda 6 in front of me After two laps under yellow for warm up, as soon as green flag was waved, I was on it. I passed the Mazda 6 in the first passing zone, and had tons of open room ahead. I really got to drive the hell outta my car. I concentrated on being smooth rather than going all out. I had a close call, though... I was exiting one corner and rather than concentrating on the next corner, I was thinking about a hairpin after that. I went in way too close to the inside. Rather than trying to swerve out of there and make things worse, I decided to just drop two wheels in the grass and ride it out. Luckily it wasn't as bumpy as I expected. I think my instructor was pretty darn scared when I did that I apologized to my instructor for messing up, and then got going again. I was pushing my car pretty well, and really having fun. I still couldn't get the braking points quite right and braked way too early for many corners. Perhaps I underestimated our cars' braking system. In this session, I actually got to catch up to some back markers by the end of the session.

Last session. I was pretty tired by this point. Track driving takes a lot out of you... I now have a whole new respect for racers. Although I was tired, it was my best session. I got the braking points down and got to really dig into the corners. Well, I did overcooked my entry a few times, though The tires were starting to lose their grip a bit, causing some understeer and I ended up missing some apexes by a little bit. But overall, it was the smoothest of all sessions and I really got to push it within my ability.

Oh, and there is a banked concrete corner very much like Nurburgring bank. It was scarely because I didn't know how fast I could go, but it's damn fun! Overall, I think it's a pretty fun track.

On thing I wish I had done... I wish I had done some track days before I modified my car so much. With so much power, it's hard to notice my mistakes because the power makes up for it. I just think it's too much of a car for me to handle at this moment, and I feel like I will learn faster in something like a Miata. Maybe I should consider picking up a cheap race car I'll have to do few more track days and see if I would really want a cheap 2nd car to learn on.

My suggestion to all of you... if you haven't been to a track, do so before spending so much money modifying your cars! This is the best modification that you can do to the car - driver. Go out there and enjoy what you have right now before spending money to upgrade for upgrade's sake. It's really an eye-opening experience. Well, I bet this suggestion is more fit to somewhere like Supraforums since many of you already go to track events a lot. I owned one a few years ago and man, most of those guys are just interested in power and drag race... when their cars are such a capable performer on a track. Anyway, that's it for my noob experience at the track.

[Nis01]

Awesome post. I plan on running that track in October with TrackDaze. I've heard good/bad things but I am excited to get out there nonetheless. I'm glad you enjoyed your track outing, just be warned... its a slippery slope and gets expensive fast. I did one track day a month back and have already done another and am signed up for 2 more in the next month...

[BoostJunkie]

Good write up. Don't worry, with practice the skills will come naturally. I agree with you though that you have a lot of car for a beginner. I started tracking my car when it was stock and slowly worked my way up from there. You'll get it though, just dial it back a bit until you get the basics down. And once you start picking up speed those pads will be toast, you're gonna want something more aggressive

I've only done Shenandoah once and I thought it was a pretty cool track. The lack of runoff space makes me a little nervous but there are definitely some cool sections and it's pretty technical. You should really try to make it to VIR sometime, I think it's a much better learning track. TONS of runoff so if you go off it's no big deal in most spots, and it has a little bit of everything.

[Rookie84]

Since I'll be back in school next week, I plan to go to Nelson Ledges and Mid-Ohio whenever I can. I am definitely going to do a track day or two at VIR next summer, though I think I'll just do one more event on HP+ and then invest in a set of Pagid Yellows for track only pads. So, yeah... it looks like it's going to get expensive fast My plan was to build the block in winter, but it looks like I'll have to push that back a little.

[nolag04]

Are you tking the STi to Ohio when you go back to school? That would some fun to play with in the MIDWEST snow... i am taking mine home for christmas to Detroit...lol

[Rookie84]

Yes I am! But I can't really play around if it snows too much because my car is too low... a couple inches of snow would be just perfect for me to play around, although I'd imagine it would be very hard to control my car with so much power especially in snow Hopefully you'll get some snow while you're there and get to play around. Well, knowing Midwest weather, I'm sure you'll get plenty.

[Rookie84]

Update: Just got done installing an alarm system and Hella Supertones. Man those horns are F'n loud! The alarm system is Magicar New Gold II. It is made by a Korean manufacturer and I picked it up for about $250 when I was in Korea. It is a two-way alarm with remote start and many other cool features. Install was a b!tch, though... My friend(STI81) installed it for me(I suck at anything electrical) and it took like 9 hours to finish everything. Their install instruction manual sucks. Huge thanks to him for the hard work and doing such a great job. Supertones I installed myself as it was damn easy to do with the harness made by Lightwerkz. It was literally plug and play with that harness.

[Rookie84]

OMG, I had the scariest moment driving home... I'm still shaking a bit Well, I was exiting a highway and got on it a little bit. I went WOT in 3rd, then shifted into 4th. Right after I shifted, I hear loud "POP!!!!" and the engine revs fell. I put it out of the gear, and put it in 4th again, and the engine dies... So I put it out of gear, and coasted to a shoulder of the ramp. I was thinking, "Oh ****, maybe the rods let go... I thought the time would come but never expected to be this soon... " I tried to start the engine again, but it would start up and then die right after. So I call AAA and my friend, and my friend who was just hanging out with me and was on his way home came right by. We checked the underside of the car for oil, but there was nothing. Then we opened the engine bay, it was clean. I was thinking... "hmmm... this is weird." As I was searching for oil in the engine bay with a flashlight, I saw a hotside IC pipe popped off right before the fender!!!!! We put it right back in, and the car started right up. It idled a bit rough because of me trying to keep it alive when it was dying by giving it some gas, so I guess there was some gas that needed to burn off. After I gave it a quick rev-up, it ran like a champ just like it did before OMG, I was so relieved. My friend and I lit up a cigarette, laughed it off, and went home. Oh man, that was a scary moment. I really need to get those IC pipes bead rolled... Agile said they couldn't do it because they didn't have a bead rolling machine that can roll 16 gauge piping, but since I know of a place that can, I guess I'm just going to have them do it. Man, I'm so glad it wasn't a broken rod!!! I'm also glad this didn't happen while I was out on a track. Whew, I'm going to need some time to calm down before I go to sleep tonight