03/18/05 A BMW club day at PIR. The weather has cooled down considerably in the last couple of days so the morning was cold and foggy. As the day went on the sun peeked out a few times and overall the conditions were excellent. Some friends showed up, each driving a Focus (I'm looking to buy a used one for a beater myself). Parked between them the 'Lis looks tiny. It is.

I instructed once again and was happy to get an enthusiastic and capable student driving a MINI S. He progressed quickly, paid attention and had fun. This is when teaching is truly enjoyable :) For my own part, I ran the Elise in the instructor group and had a blast. Pretty much passed everyone. Almost all the laps on video were consistent 1:34 even though it felt like I was going quicker. In the final session I had a great 'battle' with a Porsche GT3. He was faster on the straights but I had him in the corners, despite me being on street tires. Initially I caught up with him and he let me by but stayed with me. After a few laps with the Porsche still in my mirrors at the end of every straight I waved him by (this was the only time someone passed me the whole day) and followed him around for a bit. A few highlights were worth doing a short video.

At the end of the clip you can see the turn 10-11-12 sequence that I'm now taking quite a bit faster, even hanging the tail out a little in 12 for the spectators :) This is about as hard as I want to push the car on these tires. The 'battle' with the GT3 finally yielded three laps in the 1:33's so that appears to be my personal comfort limit on the Goodyears. The car is quite fun at this pace so frankly I'm not all that tempted to go to R compounds. Perhaps I won't. The Elise as it is right now (stock except for the GS-D3 tires) is a nice combination of speed and forgiving handling. Just enough edge to keep it interesting, fast enough to pass most things out there when pushed, yet docile enough to allow playing with throttle steer without scaring myself. A great track toy :)

03/22/05 Received the Heel-And-Toe pad from Sector111. One glaring issue with the Elise has been that the brake pedal is too low, making it virtually impossible to heel-and-toe. Those who watched my videos and wondered why I shift so weirdly going into the chicane, wonder no more. In fact my spin a couple track days back was a direct result of that. Now granted, the pedal can be adjusted to eliminate most of the problem. But that requires crawling under the dash on your back or paying the dealer to do same. Neither sounded too appealing so I decided to get the pad instead, which effectively raises the brake pedal about an inch with a 1-minute install. Unpacking it I was pleasantly surprised to find that it comes in a neat custom pouch. No impact on function of course but a nice touch. Makes me feel good about spending the money :)

Installation was indeed a simple one-minute affair and the pad looks great in place. It also does work as advertised - heel-and-toe is now effortless so I won't have any more excuses for messing up the shift into the chicane. Below are pictures of the brake pedal fully depressed before and after pad installation. Notice how far below the gas pedal my foot is in the first one.

Verdict: a cool no-hassle solution, nicely made and even well presented. To me, well worth the money. Recommended.

04/29/05 The day was iffy weather-wise. I meant to run the Box all day and it did quite well in the morning, but over lunch I felt like a change. So I went home and got the 'Lis.

Yes, a change it is. The Box is great at playing the underdog and embarassing the hell out of bewinged Porsches in the corners, but the Lotus is not an underdog. It fights valiantly for the lead in the pack. I had much fun chasing foes like a modified Boxster S, a supercharged NSX, et al. Street tires vs their R compounds, no matter. Full 15 seconds per lap faster than the Scion. This pace is equal to a Lotus 23 on slicks. Except this is a street car on street rubber, OEM brake pads and stock (not even 'sport') suspension. As many shortcomings as the 'Lis may have as a street car, on the track it just shines. Even in the rain, for a quarter session. And the heel-and-toe pad really works, too. More please.

05/20/05 A rather wet Porsche club trackday. In preparation for it yesterday I changed the front brake pads. The OEM pads had lasted 6 trackdays and worked extremely well so I got same for replacement from the dealer. They're made by AP Racing. A bit steep at $189 for just the fronts, but they do come with all new pins, clips and even adhesive anti-squeal backing. Another one of those deals where at least you feel you're getting something for the money :) The change procedure is very painless, too, taking only about 5 minutes per side.

The morning started with rain. In fact the first instructor session was run in torrential downpour. The Elise and its Goodyear shoes handled it as well as could be asked for and it was actually good to break the new pads in a bit gentler than a full-on session.

The turnout was rather limited and consisted of mostly Porsches of all flavors. The most exotic car there was a 360 Challenge Stradale - very neat machine. Love the sound.

The second and third sessions were mostly dry, followed by another rain-soaked one. At one point I decided it would be a good idea to 'dry' a puddle in the middle of turn 10 by splashing through it. I took the appropriate line and the splash itself went without incident, but it got the tires wet... Fortunately I was expecting SOMETHING to happen so I was ready and it was almost a non-event, as the short video demonstrates. One funny thing about the clip is that I had accidentally disconnected the microphone and so there was no sound. I just found an earlier clip and pasted the sound from it. Came out OK I think. Hollywood, here I come! :) Another moment came when I was showing a student lift-throttle oversteer in 12. Another save, right there for the spectators. I was hoping someone would capture the moment on camera but no such luck. Ah well. A fun day, definitely.

UPDATE: While nobody got a pic of my sliding around, Dave Birkbeck did get a nice one of turn 12 entry in the rain...

05/27/05 Lotus club trackday - the fourth track outing for me this week, and a very satisfying one. Lotus days are known for the coolest machines showing up and the most tracktime. Today was no exception. 170 track miles, two tanks of gas, lots of fun. The usual mix of Loti, vintage racers and regular performance machinery was onhand.

I love the green Esprit V8. The black wheels with yellow Lotus emblems make it look mean and purposeful.

Yes, that's a genuine Porsche 962 being towed behind an old van. An odd sight. He didn't run the main trackday but did take a dozen laps over lunch, easily getting under 1:15 lap times (best I managed today was 1:32 for comparison). An impressive car to watch - he must have been hitting 180+ on the front straight, where my Elise barely gets over 120. The car is strangely quiet, too, and the turbo wastegates sound like tires chirping. Cool.

The weather was clear but quite hot. I must have drank 15 bottles of water to stay hydrated. The driving was fun - a fairly low turnout meant just a few cars in the advanced session, some of which were reasonably matched and the rest were easily passed. I had several session-long 'battles' with cars ranging from other Elises to M Coupe to an old Alfa GTV on race tires (that thing was FAST). Was mostly working on my lines through the newly configured chicane (some excitement there, as this short video shows) and through turns 10-11-12. A bit more excitement in those that actually saw me off the track on entry to 12 but I didn't have the camera on for that session. Today also marks a rite of passage in a way - it was the first time I learned something about track driving from David, whom I've instructed extensively both in cars and on bikes over the last couple years. We were discussing shift points between 10 and 12 and the fact that he shifts much earlier than I do and applies power where I coast. I wasn't happy with my way so I tried his and sure enough, it works much better! This is quite gratifying, in addition to being useful. A good day indeed.

At the end, with most people already gone, only a few hardy souls remained.

And yes, there were some hardier than our group because there were two more sessions after we called it a day. Whew, Lotus club is definitely all about tracktime. I could have easily gotten 250+ miles today if I were up to it physically. But I wasn't. The tires are also starting to show significant wear, the left front especially (most turns at PIR are right-hand). The car now has 4,080 miles on it and this is the second set of tires.

On the way home, turned on the AC and was greeted by a LOUD buzz. It's basically a 10x amplified version of the annoying buzz I've been chasing since day one. It resonates with engine RPM but only happens this loudly when the AC is on. I can push the button and the buzz goes away, push it on again and it's back. Hopefully the dealer will be able to fix this, finally. We'll see.

06/06/05 Decided to drill the antirollbar tabs so that the drop links can be moved to stiffen the bar a bit. Pretty simple operation, especially when one has a lift.

The hole on the left is the new one and makes the bar similar to what came with the Sport 190. We'll see how well this works.

While messing around the front suspension I may have finally discovered what was making the buzz I've been chasing so long. There is a hard plastic drain tube (I'm assuming for A/C condenser) that comes out by the passenger side wishbone. The thing was loose against the chassis and definitely prone to rattle and buzz. I put a piece of foam under it and then secured the tube to the wishbone.

A quick test showed the noise gone even with A/C on, so I hope this finally does it. But then again I've thought this before...

06/15/05 While changing the oil in the Box decided to do the 'Lis as well - earlier than due but a good idea given the usage I've put her to lately. Removing the undertray is always an adventure. This time one of the bolts wouldn't come out when asked nicely so it took a dremel, a wide assortment of unlikely tools, some patience and a good deal of luck to extract it. I put a new stainless bolt in its place. Two hours later, mission accomplished. Someone asked me what I was doing changing oil at midnight... Seemed like the thing to do.

Speaking of service, a couple of days prior the dreaded noise surfaced once again (I thought it would) and so I kept the appointment at the local dealer, Tonkin Gran Turismo. Yes, there is now a local dealer in Portland which certainly beats driving 170 miles to Seattle. In more ways than one, it turns out. When I got the car back not only was the noise remedied (hopefully!) but the car was washed thoroughly - something Park Place never even thought of doing - and even more importantly, they checked suspension bolts that were supposed to be tightened during 1st service (they weren't, only finger-tight) and reprogrammed the ECU (which was also supposed to have been done but wasn't at Park Place). All under warranty, no charge, as opposed to Park Place's $200-some fee after 'discount'. Glad I live here and not there.

Next track day is on Tuesday, the 21st. Maybe I'll get to play with a GPS datalogger....

06/21/05 Another track day, this one at Pacific Raceways near Seattle.

It's actually a pretty cool setup - private day, 25 cars, open track (run whenever, as much as you want). PR is a nice track, too. Many elevation changes in stark contrast to the flatness of PIR. Scary at times, of course - no runoff and plenty of trees. And of course track surface that loves to eat tires. Some bumps as well, ones that upset the car mid-turn if you're not careful. Like this:

Overall, a good deal of fun playing on the track occasionally chasing some friends (they were faster but on R compounds - that's my excuse anyway). I only had video on for a few sessions and it started misbehaving towards the end by cutting out in left-hand turns, but I did get this 1:44 lap with only one blackout on tape:

The best lap on tape is 1:43 but there's so much cutting out it wasn't worth digitizing. I may have done as well as 1:42 later in the day, not sure. Between the sessions someone pointed out that I had cords showing on left front tire. So a scramble to try and find replacements in time for Friday's trackday at PIR... Eventually ended up ordering 2 new front Goodyears from TireRack. Hopefully they'll get here in time. If not, the Box gets the duty for the whole day instead of just morning. And speaking of the Box - after driving home some 150 miles on the freeway I realised the Box is a MUCH more satisfying car in the real world than the Elise. Sure, the 'Lis is a blast on the track. But faced with freeway miles or around-town errands, give me the Scion any day. Good to have one of each then :)