Building for the road course...again

The cars an animal lol.


Tons of traffic tonight. Not a single clean lap. Lots of footage of me yelling at people who wouldn’t point by. Too many of those people. I did learn a lot though that’s for sure.

 

Awesome clip someone at the track got. I ripped it off Facebook.

car makes a lot of grip

 

Needs more fart can

 

Yea idk. Mufflers blown I think or something. fuck sounds bad. Ah well

 

No I mean if you are going to drive a honduh embrace it and get something that really sounds like fast and the furious

 

Haha yea well... There’s an eBay titanium cat back available. 3”. 20lbs. It actually looks pretty legit. Might send it

 

In car from Saturday. The straight line speed is like non existent but what excites me is how effortlessly this fucking thing flies through the corners. Like go watch my Mazda footage. Shit ain’t the same lol. Quick little civic for sure.

my driving is 7.5/10’s at BEST. Still trying to adjust to the new setup but I’m getting there. Also seeing traffic in the distance I held back a bit to avoid having to majorly slow down.

Decent lap though

 

Here’s the tire wear on my falkens after last Saturday evening and this past Friday full day track day. Looks like the camber is bang on. I love it.

No messing around and guessing like with the Mazda. We read the tires and adjusted alignment in small increments until getting it perfect it looks like.

These tires are track only. The only street mileage is driving to and from the track. I have another set of wheels for the street.

 

Went out to the track tonight for a 5-9 session.

Perfect conditions. Warm sun keeping the track temp nice and cool air temp good for every last horsepower…lol


laid down a new personal best. Shaved over 1 second from my first session tonight to my last.

I’ve now matched my personal best from my Mazda when it was at its best. Damn. For a car with like half the whp…that’s impressive considering the Mazda also had tires brakes suspension and everything else.

Driver mod is increasing of course. I’m finding the less I think about it, the easier and softer I drive the car, the quicker it goes.

Carrying some serious mid corner speeds now. The car has more in it as is. More seat time to go!

 

Lap from Sunday. I’m gaining the confidence. I’ll be working on braking later, harder, and trailing into the apex while releasing the brake. I know I have minimum 1 second of time to find doing so.

good lap here, not a record but it did match my personal best from my speed so that’s something

 

Don't feel like you have to trail brake to be fast. Some people are more comfortable stopping before the corner and powering through. With your low power it could be faster to get on the gas sooner

 

Yea I’m not 100% sure. With the Mazda I trail braked that thing a shitload. Mostly to get it to turn, and help bleed the speed.

The civic is so tail happy/rotate happy that even minor trail brake really brings the rear around. That means is I can charge harder, enter with more speed, but my brake pedal application and release need to be tight.

the civic bleeds speed so quickly I’m honestly still over braking even though I’ve moved my brake point up pretty late.

I think at this point, I need to brake later, and release earlier. The car makes way way more grip then I have the balls for currently. Its uncomfortably grippy lol.

the trail braking in theory should help reduce steering angle at turn in, meaning I can mash the pedal sooner as I’ll have my wheel pointed more or less straight as I exit. This can be translated well once the car makes 500whp. The guy with less steering angle will always be able to apply more power sooner then the guy with more steering angle.

the shit I’m learning has been a total trip but the lap times are there so the shit works. Think about all the cars the Mazda was passing. Now I’m doing it with half the HP.

 

Next hardware change for the car will be stiffening up the rear sway bar, and maybe even upgrading the front sway bar which I never in my life thought I’d need to do…it’s being suggested based on my driving feed back and once again tire wear

 

You ever consider learning how to left foot brake? I know it's going to feel weird and unnatural but it could be worth giving it a shot.

 

Lol. It’s funny you mention this. I do it a ton in my girlfriends automatic Mazda 3. It’s a great technique to know how to do.

It’s unfortunately really difficult in a 3 pedal car. I have tried on the street lol

 

Just don't use the clutch to shift

 

Haha. My race car buddy left foot brakes a lot but sequential life so it’s not an issue. He mentioned it would be helpful but it’s just too much in a 3 pedal car. You end up having to do so much to get that left foot technique working that there’s almost no point.



Speaking of my race car buddy he had a slight off at pikes peak 2 weeks ago. I time stamped the off but the entire video is insane. The car is crazy and he’s crazy.

 

I know it's difficult in a 3 pedal car but if you run the same courses usually you remember which gear you need to be in entering a turn. Maybe go out for a non points event and just practice doing LFB and memorizing the turns.

It is cool to see your videos and progress. If it wasn't stupid hot here in SC I would hit up more track days. I have to wait till the fall before it's worth it to go do that.

 

Yea maybe I’ll give it another go and see if I can use left foot braking effectively.

Im itching to get back to the track so I can try some deeper braking with trailing. I feel like I’m close lol.

with the 4-5 good track months we get here I try to take maximum advantage. I’ve been out 7 times this season so far. Just collecting as much seat time as I can. No competition this year. Maybe next season. Maybe.

I like reviewing my videos after. I can see the improvements and the differences in speeds. My shift points, my exit speeds, entry speeds to the next corner. All of it is steadily increasing and that’s all I’m truly after. Improvement.

 

honestly clutchless downshifting is pretty easy, and if you have working ears you can tell pretty easily if you are fucking it up and damaging something . upshifting with my MS3 kinda sucks since the stock throttle mapping hangs the revs a bit for emissions, it was easier in my old ranger which had an actual throttle cable.