The Billet cores are now in transit and should be with Turbo Dynamics tomorrow. Unfortunately, I am now taking part in the MLR Sprint with the first round being this Saturday at Silverstone, so this means that I will be unable to have the turbo sent off, received, fitted and mapped in time. Well it could happen but there is a risk I may not have the car ready for Saturday. Attending and running in the Sprint is more important to me this week.

The turbo can wait and personally I can't wait to see how the car currently performs on track after the turbo / chassis mods.

I'm not taking this entry in to the Sprint seriously, as it is more about having a bit of fun for the day and seeing how the car goes on track.

Since Silverstone is only down the road from me it makes perfect sense to utilise the track opportunity. Should be a good laugh if nothing else..... and that's what it's all about for me!

I will be speaking to Iain early next week to fix a date to drop the car off for the turbo change.... in theory within the next couple of weeks.

Anyway.... in preparation for this weekends jaunt to Silverstone I thought I best get the car out and give it a clean! It was also an opportunity to take a few photos.







I will report back on how this Saturday goes.

 

Looking good The best colour IMO, I am a bit biased though
Enjoy the track time

Dave

 

When do I get taken for a spin in this Mr?

All the best for this Sat mate!

Jag

 

Compewting in the car > I see coil overs, big brakes and a power hike in your near future !!!

Good luck fella and enjoy the day !!

Lee.

 

Spanner Monkey,
Thanks - Should be a laugh on Saturday.

Jag,
Why would you want a spin in this car..... compared to yours! lol Anytime you are at any track event I attend, you are more than welcome for a "slow" lap.

Lee,
Over my dead body mate! I was only talking about "coilovers" to Rich the other week.... I will only ever "consider" them once my OE shocks fall apart. I don't care how slower that makes me on track. It will be interesting to see how these PF disks and bells hold up, not that I suspect any issues will persue with single laps. I'm more interested in how the chassis mods fair up when being pushed a tad.

You should get your car on track for the MLR Sprint..... it will ease you in to the "mode" for TA and you can never get enough track time imo. It's a shame that Rich won't be there this Saturday, as they are at Holland doing the Dutch TA Series. The worst thing is it means I won't have a "Pit Bitch" to polish my windscreen!

 

"Pit bitch" Luv it

Would love to get to Silverstone but its far too south for us northerners

I am at Tracktive on Friday having the map adjusted to suit my latest mods were at Oulton on Tuesday having a play which I am looking forward too

 

Lee,
Hope all goes well at Tracktive on Friday!

I was meant to be doing a late night mapping session with Rich this week, to ensure the new Billet was set-up correctly. Alas that never materialised in time (the turbo I mean), but I suspect I will be back up to see Rich over the coming weeks. The Billet wheels should be with Turbo Dynamics today, so it won't be long now before I get it on the car.

It will be very interesting to see how it performs once it gets fitted and the car remapped.

I have also discussed the duel mapping that we will look at for 95 octane fuel. All straight forward and again it will be interesting to see how this pans out and how much the engine will knock out on lower octane fuel. Might be an interesting venture for a number of people, especially with the current cost of the more exotic brands.

 

I was caught short on a blast out with another 20 or so scoobs a while back and had to fill up with some normal fual, to my suprise as I pushed a little harder and then harder my "knock link" never lit up? not very scientific I know but it did suprise me.

Lee.

 

Assuming all things being equal and your original map was for VPower, your knocklink must be about as much use as **** on fish then. I would never recommend doing that for a car that is properly mapped for a higher octane fuel...... you're asking for trouble without an appropriate map for the fuel you're using (assuming the lesser octane against what your car is mapped for).

Not that any piston likes det, but the OE pistons in these engines certainly don't like it.

Driving with 95 (not mapped for) and then driving it "hard" for the same situation is chalk and cheese imo. If I got caught short (without any map changing facilities) I would not have a problem with 95.... but I would make sure I didn't run it on boost for that period. I certainly would not rely on a (I suspect uncalibrated) knocklink for information.

 

your not the first to comment that these things are sh1te

 

The key is calibrating them. They're not foolproof, but mine (which has been adjusted) certainly correlates pretty well with detcans.

 

Properly calibrated with careful siting of the knock sensor, they certainly have their uses.

 

Agreed - much better than nothing, but only if adjusted IMHO.

 

A common fault on knocklinks is for the LED pins to vibrate out of the PCB board and stop working, the most common one being the big red, so every once in a while give the knock sensor a whack with a spanner and check the big red LED lights up.

 

Having modified mine to relocate ("remote") the LEDs, I can certainly confirm that the build quality is poor: it's a very cheap PCB, on a par with the sort of boards I used to etch myself as a teenager lol

 

I used to have a Telly like that, the good ole days


Tony

 

Shaun,

I've just read through this entire thread, on an off for the last couple of hours - makes for great reading I must say!

As a Hawkeye STI owner myself, albeit the UK 2.5 version which I appreciate is somewhat different to the JDM, your thread is extremely helpful!

I am looking to undertake some choice chassis modifications before upping the power (currently standard bar PPP), so your updates regarding the mods you've done are superb! From reading what you've done, I think I may start with the ALK and rear ARB - I may change to coilovers in the near future as my shocks are now knocking - so I will look to purchase adjustable topmounts with them. Thanks for the info, this thread has cemented the route I'm going to take to modify my car!!

Keep up the fantastic work, and good luck for Saturday - I'll be watching this thread with interest!

By the way, hope to see you at a WMI meet/event at some point soon!

Cheers, Alex

 

Hi Alex,
Appreciate your comments and I'm glad the information provided has been of use. This is the exact purpose of this thread!

Hope your mods work for you. I'm sure they will.

Will certainly attend future WMI meets. Pop over and say hello.

 

shaune
What tyres will you be running mate

 

RE070's Paul. Not the best for single lap sprints on a race track surface, especially with tomorrow being lower temps. Not that it matters as I have no interest on how the car gets placed.... It's just cheap track time to see how the chassis feels.

 

shaunee
your right they will not be that good there mate
Not sure you wil even get any info from doing 1 small lap at once
good luck

 

Im popping down tomorrow to watch, "for a laugh"..

 

You can be my Pit Bitch then Cliff.... That will wipe the smile off your face!

 

Save ya money shaune on future mods mate and get someone else in the sprints,,
You are just not cut out for it mate

 

It's a good job my feelings aren't hurt that easily!

 

Out on Track - MLR Sprint Series - Round 1 Silverstone
I hadn't quite imagined that my first time on track with the Hawkeye would be in a competition Sprint series. lol

For the cost and the locality it was a bit of a no brainer for me, so I thought "sod it".... I might as well have a go regardless of how I do. I didn't quite imagine I was going to do so bad!

Turned up at Silverstone with my basic tool kit and this time no spare track tyres... what I was turning up on, was what I was going to run on. First time I had turned up to an event without changing tyres for well over 6yrs. Not the best thing to do, but I couldn't be arsed with all that stuff now.

It was nice just to get my tool kit out of the boot and be ready to run without any stress.

So after signing on and prepping the car with my appropriate competitor numbers I was all ready to go.





There were not many of us "Scoobs" at this event, but that would not be any great surprise when you consider this is an EVO event. Still a few of the usual suspects turned up to compete:

John Felstead (JDM STI - 360bhp)
Mark Ward (UK STI - 400bhp)
Steven Darley (JDM SPEC C - a shedload of bhp)
Steve Beattie (JDM SPEC C - a shedload of bhp)

The day was split in to the morning session being all practice and the afternoon being the competitor timed runs.

The circuit used at Silverstone was the new layout at the Stowe Circuit. Which is now surrounded by armco (very little run off now - if any in most places) and the track now runs anti-clockwise. Gulp! It also contained two chicanes down the back straight that were constructed of tyre walls - double gulp. This proved to be not the best place for me to be.

I might as well cut to the chase and get down to how I (didn't) perform. It was without doubt the WORST I have EVER been on track by a country mile. I couldn't work out the road position on any of the bends, was crossed up and all over the place for the last third of the circuit.... it was that bad. I was quicker in the morning practice (as I was improving on each run), but when it came to the competitor runs in the afternoon I just totally "lost it". Once the confidence was lost and the frustration crept in, I just gave up after three runs and missed the following five timed runs.

I don't know what it was.... but I was just utter crap.

Just to get something straight.... I have never and nor will I ever be a "driver", but the end result coming LAST (roflol) was beyond my wildest nightmares. **** happens though and like I said, I know what I wasn't doing right.... but somehow I couldn't get it clear in my head, how to do it right. I couldn't even launch the car off the line properly once, which I can normally do with ease. Nothing went right at all.

I really don't know why I couldn't get my head around the track that day.

Anyway... I will be back on track again, but I think I will leave the competition stuff for the time being! Need to get some much needed practice and confidence again.

Apart from the spoon behind the wheel, the car did what I asked of it (which was all wrong, but it did it none the less). I was quite surprised how good the car felt in all honesty with the OE suspension. The likes of John and Mark did storming peformances and both of them have similar chassis mods to me, so that proves that even for this kind of remit the OE kit can perform well. Again, I certainly don't anticipate in changing the suspension.

One other thing worth mentioning.... and I have always alluded to this and accepted it. The car did suffer with the TMIC. John was experiencing the same "issues". The car felt a bit "flat", but when you consider you are waiting in a queue and everything is heating it... you certainly appreciate why inlet temps rise. In reality it is not a great problem, unless you were doing these kind of sprints all the time and wanted to get the best out of your set-up. For the road it certainly is not an issue.

Congratulations to John, Mark, Steven & Steve. They all did very well and after I "gave up" I had a good laugh between Mark and John - getting them both gee'd up to beat each other.

 

To be fair Shaun, the RE070's on that track surface were giving apauling grip, entry into the chicanes at decent speed was quite scary, i was very close to going off backwards on most of the last section of track too. Launching was difficult too, my back wheels were spinning up a lot, it was quicker to not use full power off the line there.

I think on decent tyres you would have done a lot better, unless you are comfy with a wild ride they were definately hopeless.

Was a right good laugh having you winding Fud and me up, made for a really fun day.

 

Hi Shaun, sounds like a difficult day out, to say you where "brave" entering a timed sprint day when you have never put the thing on track before is an under statement. Once any disappointment goes away I know you will take what you have learnt from the day in a positive manner and you will be left with a path of what "may" need upgrading if you are to enter this type of event again.

Car is looking sweet in the pics by the way

Look forward to your thoughts on this day out in a weeks time once you have had time to digest who, what, where, when & how the day went

Good on yer for having a go though,
Lee.

 

On the TMIC issue, i actually think the problem isnt the top mount, it's the inlet temperature taken at the MAF sensor, that is getting cooked by the heat from the engine bay, and it's that measurement the ECU uses to control the ECU parameters.

The inlet temps were up as high as 50 degrees C on my car, which definately kills the engines response, driving home the car felt a lot faster!

 

My smile remains. Its the taking part that counts and you were up against some rather quick cars yesterday. "Good on ya" for having a go. It made me realise just what I want out of my scoob,,,,,FUN
(think I will be getting api to fit that oil cooler sooner rather than later)