First day on the track with RIO - Tuner-Junction

jadkar · #1 (**permalink**) August 8th, 2006, 11:02 PM

This may get long

Today I was at Pocono with the Poughkeepsie Car club. We ran on the North course which is 1.5 miles long and uses turn 3 of the Nascar speedway. It was an awesome day weather was perfect, low 80s all day. We had four 30 minute run sessions and I averaged 20 laps per session so that works out to roughly 30 miles per session. When all was said and done I put about 120 very hard miles on RIO.

All I can say is screw drag racing!!! I was getting bummed recently because I got caught up in the 1/4 mile rat-race which is bad for me since I built the car for road course driving. I need to stick to what the car was built for because it was truly unbelievable today!!!! I can't get over how this car ran (neither could anyone else in my run group).

In a nut shell the suspension, brakes, tires, engine/SC worked phenomenally! I passed every single car in my run group and stayed "close" to an open wheel formula Ford type car for about 2 laps

In my group I specifically had about 5 guys who came up to the car in the Paddock looking shocked and confused.

There was this one poor dude in a stripped down 5.0 Mustang LX completely setup for the track. He battled on my tail for a little while and my instructor told me to let him pass on the next straight. As soon as my instructor said that the guy got sideways behind me trying to keep up!! My instructor instantly says, "Maybe he was having a much harder time staying with you then I thought". Later in the Paddock the guy starts eyeing the car and walks over to me eating while I was eating lunch and says...."Is this your car?" I replied, "yeah". He looks back at me shaking his head and says, "Insane!!!". He continued telling me that he couldn't believe he couldn't keep up with me and when we got to the next straight I was just gone!! I had a few BMW guys basically have the same type of reaction and then one older guy in a Porsche 911 told me every time I passed him he had to take a double take and he couldn't believe he was getting passed that fast by a CRX!! He said he used to have a HF and it was super slow, he knew these cars had potential but was completely confused when I passed him like he was standing still.

So it was an incredible day. As far as the dynamics go, the car has a very hard brake pedal which is better than a soft one

Brakes never faded once nor did I lock them up. The nervousness that I thought this car may have was just not there at all. It was super predictable, lap after lap she did the same thing the same way. Under-steer wasn't even that big of an issue, I mean it was there but easily modulated. The Spoon LSD ruled the day, hard on corner exit and that thing just hooked up like mad.

I do need to do a few things though. At the end of the session I measured my front rotor temps and I was at a whooping 560 degrees

I need to add ducting big time!! My rear were only at 180 degrees. While I was at it I measure my friends SVO Mustang and his rotors were at 360 so I definitely need to do something. I also blew out a baffle in my exhaust, the car got wicked loud (pretty cool actually). Karen came by for the last session and said no matter where I was on the course you could hear my car!! Lastly, I completely chewed through my front tires. I took off about 50% of the tread!! So I have to start thinking about my next set.

Other than that we had a Ford GT go into the wall backwards at 100mph, that was not good. Other then that inceident it ended up being a great day and I had a successful time teaching people that little CRXs are a nasty force to deal with on a track

Here are some pics (full album will be up soon).....

getting ready to go out

Turing onto the super speedway

If you know my car and how stiff I made the suspension then you can appreciate how stuffed it is here.

My instructor watching as I drive my first solo event

Audi 2.7 twin turbo quattro giving me the "point by"

within 100 yards I'm already flying past him

Entering the hairpin onto the speedway at about 70mph and almost going "tripod". No drift, all grip!!

Pit in, session over

Ford GT, into the wall at over 100mph. Looks OK until you notice the top of the door and the hood..... yeah the whole car is twisted

jon ROCKS!!!! · #2 (**permalink**) August 8th, 2006, 11:14 PM

good stuff for rio

no bueno for the gt

charliemopps24 · #3 (**permalink**) August 8th, 2006, 11:19 PM

Wow john, this proves it. You made a car that is perfectly rounded. It is at home at the 1/4, road track, a show or as a daily driver. It's easy to build a car that is good in one of those areas, but to hit the nail on the head in every single one.

88 rex · #4 (**permalink**) August 9th, 2006, 12:16 PM

Woot for Rio!!!! Looks like you had a blast and I'm glad you finally got to stretch the legs on that thing.

Now your BFG's are nice and shaved for E-town.

ATISTANG · #5 (**permalink**) August 9th, 2006, 01:07 PM

Good shit, looks like you had a blast

98'Lude · #6 (**permalink**) August 9th, 2006, 01:30 PM

You should buy another set of wheels/tires for the track. Then you could run teh mad R-compound sickness.

ezeedee · #7 (**permalink**) August 9th, 2006, 01:43 PM

sounds like you had fun, and 98'lude is right, you need some different wheels and R compounds. you could pwn everyone worse.

jadkar · #8 (**permalink**) August 9th, 2006, 02:44 PM

^^^

R compound tires are the shit. However, even with about a dozen track days I'm still considered a novice. I'm still very much a student and while learning it's better to do so on street tires. Street tires "talk" more than R compound tires do at the limit so it's easier to stay out of trouble. Trust me soon enough I will be switching to dedicated R compounds, maybe next summer

Regardless, on the street tires the car was absolutely embarrassing every car in my group. There were 3 Ford Mustangs, a 911, 3 BMWs (e46), Audi A6 2.7t, 84 VW Gti (race prepared), Dodge Neon, etc.

I was actually asked late in the day if I wanted to move up in to the "experienced" run group from "intermediate" but I declined. Even know the car was running good it is the first day at the track since my build. I wanted to return home in one piece so I could do an extensive check of all components.

Right now RIO is all washed and waxed sitting on jack stands, tonight I'm gonna take the tires off and check everything. I do have a strange noise coming from the front left I need to address, I heard it on the 1.5 hour drive back from the track. I also want to put fresh brake fluid in and inspect the pads.

BTW, for anyone who wants to know. Just as Barry suggested the Ingals front camber adjusters DO move under track driving

Damn things moved all the way out to their most negative setting. Which is bad because it blew out my toe adjustment while doing so.

I will give a full run down on my findings later.

ezeedee · #9 (**permalink**) August 9th, 2006, 02:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jadkar

Just as Barry suggested the Ingals front camber adjusters DO move under track driving

Damn things moved all the way out to their most negative setting. Which is bad because it blew out my toe adjustment while doing so.

mabye its a good thing you dont run R compounds, they would have been corded by the time you got home.

88 rex · #10 (**permalink**) August 9th, 2006, 09:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jadkar

BTW, for anyone who wants to know. Just as Barry suggested the Ingals front camber adjusters DO move under track driving

Damn things moved all the way out to their most negative setting. Which is bad because it blew out my toe adjustment while doing so.

I will give a full run down on my findings later.

You should see how much your friend Larry wants to sell those RA1's and then pick up another pair somewhere else. They are a good step up from the BFG's yet not a slick (until shaved down).

SPC makes adjustable upper ball joints for the CRX. I know you just spent some extra on the ingall's but it might be something you want to look into. I didn't know the ingall's kit moved. Good to know.

88 rex · #11 (**permalink**) August 9th, 2006, 09:32 PM

Ok, I did a quick little search for SPC ball joints and found that they will cut your shock travel some by being taller and more likely to hit the fender wall. Maybe not the best option

jadkar · #12 (**permalink**) August 9th, 2006, 09:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 88 rex

Ok, I did a quick little search for SPC ball joints and found that they will cut your shock travel some by being taller and more likely to hit the fender wall. Maybe not the best option

I'm thinking of not jumping to conclusions yet (even though I already did) I called Ingals today and they said I'm only the 3rd person to ever say that their adjusters slipped. So, I'm going to look again tonight, maybe they didn't move and I just think they did. Also, the guy suggested that if they did move I could always set them where I want them and make one spot weld on the adjuster to keep it from moving again. Of course they won't be adjustable anymore, but I wasn't gonna adjust them once they were set anyway.

hcarcrx · #13 (**permalink**) August 9th, 2006, 10:17 PM

sounds like you had a ball John!! better a red ford than a rio red crx

cant wait to see the rest of the photo shots!!

jadkar · #14 (**permalink**) August 9th, 2006, 11:26 PM

So I just got done checking over the entire car and it seems that the following are the only things that don't look good.

- I blew out my driver's side CV boot (inner). I have no idea how, but I've had horrible luck with the HASPORT axles.

- I rotated my tires because the fronts are about 50% worn.

Other then that everything looks solid. I also, take back the comment about my camber moving. I now don't think it slipped at all. Next track event is Watkins Glen!!! Gonna get 2 full track days in the beginning of September. By that time I'll have the GSR intake cam in and re-tuned!! The Glen is a nice long 3.5 mile track with lots of hills, should be loads of fun. I'm thinking I may see 135mph on the back straight

BTW Will........ I can't use those RA1s at Larry's house because remember they were NSX sizes

88 rex · #15 (**permalink**) August 10th, 2006, 07:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jadkar

- I blew out my driver's side CV boot (inner). I have no idea how, but I've had horrible luck with the HASPORT axles.

BTW Will........ I can't use those RA1s at Larry's house because remember they were NSX sizes

I've been hearing lots of bad things about their axles lately. Weird.

Larry had a pair of 205/50/15......perfect size. If he's selling for a decent price then you'd just need to get 2 more.

jon ROCKS!!!! · #16 (**permalink**) August 10th, 2006, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 88 rex

I've been hearing lots of bad things about their axles lately. Weird.

Larry had a pair of 205/50/15......perfect size. If he's selling for a decent price then you'd just need to get 2 more.

i always liked driveshaftshop.com's stuff, and raxles