NER's third points event today and what a blast it was (isn't racing always a blast?)! With my refreshed alignment (thanks to Kaizen Tuning), and flipped Hoosiers, I was ready to see what I could do. We even had a surprise visit from Alex of DSG! He came out to play today and test out his new launch control and make sure the car is running properly.
The course seemed to be relatively simple, with a tricky turn-around at the beginning. If you over-cooked that turn, you would lose a lot of time trying to recover from it. Sometimes a simple course can be refreshing, and I'm sure it was laid out in such a fashion in case it would start raining again. B Street Prepared is becoming very interesting, and each race has truly been a battle for the first place. I took first with a 48.3' clean as my fastest run, and a 48.2' was my fastest dirty run. There was definitely more time out there, but I didn't want to get greedy, so I focused on being smooth and consistent instead. The results of the event are located here.
As for the results of my alignment from Kaizen Tuning (which I can't thank enough again for fitting me into their schedule!), it was very solid and felt great. Getting more negative camber in the rear is going to be key I think however, so we're aiming to move the rear to -2.0 camber, with 0 toe, and then move the camber up in the front to possibly -2.7. In order to do all of this however, I needed to order brand new adjuster bolts, as after only 40 miles and one run on the autocross course, the adjuster bolt began to spin. Flipping the Hoosier's and bringing up the tire pressures felt great, so at least there is good news there. Hopefully my alignment won't be too far off from where I need it for next Sunday, but until then, stay tuned. Below are two videos of my fastest runs for the day.
Early morning gathering at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum on a Saturday? Sure! I suppose I could manage that after pulling an "all nighter" installing my old rollbar for an RX-8 road racer from Pennsylvania, Francesco. Once there, I got to catch up with some friends for awhile, such as Josh (Altspace), Scott of Kaizen Tuning, Mike Lee and his beautiful M3, and others. What's always nice about the Coffee & Cars meets is that it's very casual.
Unlike many other gatherings I've attended, these gatherings are low-key, with some beautiful cars, tons of photography, cool enthusiasts, and ZERO tolerance for show-offs. That being said, there is never any fear in having the Police come to an event to start giving everyone a hard time because of someone ruining it for everyone. Much respect going out to Scott for letting me park next to him for some pictures by the castle. I know people have a lot more interest in his GT-R than my RX-8, but the two cars side by side came out beautiful in the shots, especially how well the vinyl work on my car popped out. Be sure to check out the pictures thread on YuppieRacing for more pictures of everyone that attended.
After hanging out for awhile, we all parted ways and I took a trip over to Kaizen Tuning to drop off Serenity for some work. After seeing the wear marks on the Hoosiers and discussing it with a few other racers last event, she is desperately in need of an alignment, having my Hoosiers flipped, and my street tires as well. Once I got to the shop, I got to speak with Malcolm, who is one of the coolest cats of the crew there at Kaizen. He is a very down-to-Earth kind of guy who you can talk to about anything. When it comes time to get down to business however, you are treated not just with respect, but professionally as a racer. If anything, he probably takes whatever motorsport you compete in just as seriously as you do; and I like that because it's hard to find that mentality these days.
I'm looking forward to see the result of his work, especially to see how well she will perform on Sunday's race. Thanks again to Scott for helping me out when being in a time-crunch, and massive respect to Malcolm for taking on the task of dealing with my car and my overly particular needs. Once I get her back, I'll be filling the motor mounts with polyurethane, so look forward to updates on that, along with a nice DIY. Until then, stay tuned.
NER's third points event today and what a blast it was (isn't racing always a blast?)! With my refreshed alignment (thanks to Kaizen Tuning), and flipped Hoosiers, I was ready to see what I could do. We even had a surprise visit from Alex of DSG! He came out to play today and test out his new launch control and make sure the car is running properly.
The course seemed to be relatively simple, with a tricky turn-around at the beginning. If you over-cooked that turn, you would lose a lot of time trying to recover from it. Sometimes a simple course can be refreshing, and I'm sure it was laid out in such a fashion in case it would start raining again. 
B Street Prepared is becoming very interesting, and each race has truly been a battle for the first place. I took first with a 48.3' clean as my fastest run, and a 48.2' was my fastest dirty run. There was definitely more time out there, but I didn't want to get greedy, so I focused on being smooth and consistent instead. The results of the event are located here.
As for the results of my alignment from Kaizen Tuning (which I can't thank enough again for fitting me into their schedule!), it was very solid and felt great. Getting more negative camber in the rear is going to be key I think however, so we're aiming to move the rear to -2.0 camber, with 0 toe, and then move the camber up in the front to possibly -2.7. In order to do all of this however, I needed to order brand new adjuster bolts, as after only 40 miles and one run on the autocross course, the adjuster bolt began to spin. Flipping the Hoosier's and bringing up the tire pressures felt great, so at least there is good news there. Hopefully my alignment won't be too far off from where I need it for next Sunday, but until then, stay tuned. Below are two videos of my fastest runs for the day.
