PIR, Jan. 08, Now with Time Attack!

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Shoaz

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We had an event at PIR this past Sunday, and in addition to Time Trials I ran Time Attack for the first time ever, which was pretty fun.

Anyways, here's the vid, just five seconds short of a whopping twenty minutes:

Hi-Res, 115.6M

Med-Res, 77.1M

Included is lots of chasing around cars that have no business being bothered by a Taurus, like an M3, a C5 Z06, and various Evos, which showed up in droves for some odd reason.

NASA Arizona has hosted Time Attack for a few years, but I'd never participated previously. It's been getting some recent attention from the locals smack-talk-wise, so naturally I got sucked up in it a little bit. The format was also changed so that everybody ponies up $20 cash at the track which is then paid out to the top three spots in each class at the end of the day. I managed to win my $20 back, so I am now a "professional" race car driver. :biggrin:

Time Attack is sort of like Autocross on steroids; two timed laps, period, the fastest of the two is your time. Cars are staggered so that everybody has clear track.

The flavor of TTD, the Time Trial class in which I run, has also changed as of this year. A local smokin'-hot-foot driver been running a 240SX in TTE, the class below us, and beating our times. That's not been a problem since he's been in TTE, but he took the opportunity to add some mods that not only made the car even quicker, but pushed it up into TTD. Bastage. He completely slaughtered my old track record this weekend, which was 1:13.8 with something like a 1:12.5. Another guy in TTD with an Integra just recently found some speed with a new tranny and has been outrunning me lately (and I've been admittedly slow the last few events), and has been understandably a bit discouraged that Jeremy has shown up with his 240SX in TTD just when he managed to finally start beating me. He's the guy I was talking to just before my Time Attack session starts, that he wasn't going to run TA because he thought Jeremy was going to. He did finally did go get his car, and managed a 1:13.9 in TA-A, just a tenth off my old record, while I eked out a 1:14.67 in TA-B, which was my fastest lap of the day. I got beat in TA-B by the red TTC Civic that passes me in the vid, driven by both the guy that owns it and Tage Evanson, who owns the Corvette-killing Civic seen in my vid from November. Notice that Tage managed a lap two seconds faster than the guy who owns that car.

Time Attack results can be seen here.

Anyway, enjoy the vid...it was a fun day.
 

K-Dawg

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You did this in the future? :cool:

BTW, that's pretty sweet. Do you need a competition license to do that?
 
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Shoaz

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You did this in the future? :cool:

Oh, buggers. It should say Jan. 6th. EDIT: I meant Jan., 2008

BTW, that's pretty sweet. Do you need a competition license to do that?

No, you can run DE with just a driver's license. Time Trials requires a competition license or a Time Trial license. The TT license is pretty easy to get, though, once you've gone through the DE program. Anybody in DE3 and up can run Time Attack (although I think they were letting DE2 guys run, but I'm not positive about that).
 
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SHOspazz92

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Eric, I'm curious; How well balanced do you feel the car is? I know the engine is relatively stock save for a Y-pipe (IIRC). Do you plan on eventually putting more power down to the ground (An Oxymoron with a SHO, I know), Or just leaving it as is?

Also, What kind of times were you making with the Silver car?

-Sam
 

Shoaz

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Eric, I'm curious; How well balanced do you feel the car is? I know the engine is relatively stock save for a Y-pipe (IIRC). Do you plan on eventually putting more power down to the ground (An Oxymoron with a SHO, I know), Or just leaving it as is?

Well, for what it is it handles pretty well. The handling isn't the hard part right now, it's just heavy. Those freakin' Civics have less power, but are light enough that they just fly by.

The coilovers give a lot of adjustment possibility via the spring rates, and it seems to respond pretty well to that.

So right now I'm trying to sort out the best ways to get weight out without getting bumped up a class, although moving up to TTC is also an option. If I had enough classing points to spend I'd be doing things to the motor as well, like EH runners, BBBs, MTX cam (or better), etc., etc.

Also, What kind of times were you making with the Silver car?

Oh, man....gotta strain my brain to remember...I seem to recall 1:16s or 1:18s but I don't really remember. I'll see if I can turn up something in my notes. FWIW, we ran at AMP for an entire year when it was open rather than at PIR, so the silver car didn't run at PIR with the coilovers as much as we do now.
 

NJSHO

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Im starting to think my next track car should be a civic. Everything for those cars is probably dirt cheap compared to the SHO. Lighter is easier to tow, easier on brakes, easier on tires, and you can still pass vettes.
 
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Shoaz

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Moving to da Honduhs is definitely high on my list if I ever wad up the Pumpkin. I looked really closely at buying a race-ready PTE CRX about a year ago, but just couldn't justify switching while I still have this car.

There are a lot of advantages; cheap parts, plentiful parts, lots of mods, lots of modularity in that lots of different motors and trannies and pieces all bolt together, light weight, huge support base, lots of competition, etc., etc.

They do, however, have their problems. Failures aren't uncommon, even in the engines and trannies. People cope, though, since replacements are just a j/y trip away. Seems like a hassle to me, though. A common issue seems to be keeping the axle seals together and the drivelines in the tranny. Maintenance access isn't the easiest for some things, but that probably just takes getting used to.

One of the things I really enjoy about running a SHO is that it's unusual and unique. If I were running a CRX or a Civic or a Teg I'd be just another Honda out there tearing around. Once up on the curve you do get attention just by doing well, but then nationally there are tons of whatever you're running that'll be hopelessly better funded and faster than you.

So it's all a tradeoff. I'm gradually sneaking up on getting my cage fixed and moving up to the race group, but we'll see. TT and TA are a lot of fun, and we've had several guys move back to TT from the race group for a number of reasons, as well as several guys who run both.
 

bubba

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I was going to go the honda way and didn't do it. It'd be fast but not what I would want in the end.
 

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