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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#151249 2018-11-11 13:09 |
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T1 Trackspotting
(Uh yes I'm referencing that English movie) Saturday is trackday! Finally got another chance to bring the Evo trackside again.
This is also an assesment to all of my new upgrades, so it would be interesting to see how it all turns out. I also do some car spotting on the site, so uhh.....a bit of warning: A hell lot of pics.  And finally, my wallet started to make a recovery......but only in short time [10 Nov 2018] Hoo boy it's weekend! An it was a cool but sunny day, my perfect kind of weather to do activities, including trackday. I woke up ultra-early at 7 am and after some preparations, ready to go to the track at 9am. But before I enter the car, I stumbled across my stuff that I'm trying to sell at the previous update. I realized 2 things:
-I forgot to list my stock brakes as well to be sold -I should try to sell my parts at the track And oh, sadly nobody answered by offer to go to Tsukuba together. Rantaro is also busy at the moment so I have to go alone. Having those in mind, I tried to pack anything that I could carry in the backseat and the boot. At the end of the procedure, there would be stock shocks and springs as well as the previous front anti-roll bars in the backseat, and then stock brakes, stock steering wheel, Momo Model 78 wheel, and old battery at the back. I also carried some cardboard boxes, papers and a whiteboard pen. I'll explain this later. While doing this I blasted 'Take on Me' to cheer myself up. Cue me screaming at the chorus. I arrived at the track around 10.20 am. Surprisingly, despite it is Super GT's final weekend, the track is still fullfilled by drivers with various types of cars. Some time attack teams was spotted too, mostly making final tests and researches before the winter holiday. Near my parking spot I began to unload my stuff and built a makeshift stand using boxes and papers mentioned earlier. Then in the biggest piece of paper I wrote:
They're written both in English and Japanese by the way. With the makeshift stand done, I went to the circuit tower to borrow a VBox recorder at the stewards office. I also told them about the makeshift stand and asked for permission for it. Fortunately, they don't seem to mind as sometimes other visitors would sell their parts too. I went back to the parking lot to move my Evo to the pitlane and install the VBox.
With all the pit lane preparations done, I started my Evo and rolled out to the pitlane exit. It was quite a crowded day, so I had to wait for the exit signal to go green, unlike in the previous trackday (which wasn't crowded).  The signal went green and I safely joined the track. Now here comes the assessment. 
 As I (and you guys) expected, the anti-roll bars and coilovers did their job very well. Only a micro-sized roll can be felt from my seat. The brakes did a brilliant job stopping the Evo too. Combined with my lighter seats and wheels, I could significantly reduce my braking distance. The only problem was I can't feel any difference from the engine side other than better acceleration and the engine hit the limiter quicker, but after all the gearbox is still the stock one. Looks like it can't cope with the engine tune, upgraded clutch and synchro repalcement. Also, the anti-roll bar upgrade means the Evo is a bit tighter to steer around than before. Good thing I swapped the steering wheel to Momo Model 69 beforehand, otherwise I'll develop a lot of problems on both arms and palms if I stick on using Momo Model 78, which felt like a go-kart wheel to me.
 With the general assesment done, let's move on to the next step, which is lap time score assesment. Here goes! 
 As per previous trackday, I only intend to use the VBox for an hour. After an hour passed, I averaged at high 1:05.xxx range, which is a huge improvement (to me at least) from the previous trackday where I averaged at mid 1:06.xxx range. But it still bugged me as not only I think I could score better, my best time was slower from the previous trackday. At the previous trackday I scored 1:04.835 as my best. This day I can't even touch 1:04.xxx territory, with 1:05.138 as my best despite my efforts. I returned to the pitlane to return the VBox and attend my stand, feeling a bit baffled.
After I went to the circuit tower to return the VBox and thanking the sterwards, I returned to my stand. There I found someone standing beside it. "Excuse me, are you the owner of this stand?" he asked. "Yes, can I help you?" I replied. "I called you but you didn't answer!" he replied, with a bit of serious tone. "Ah I'm sorry, I've just returned from the track. Look at me, all sweaty from scoring laptimes." then I checked my phone, and indeed there are several missed calls made by him. "I see, it's okay sir, you're working hard today." he replied to my excuse, trying to break the tense he created. "Um, I see you have an Evo III. Did you just changed the suspensions?" "Nah, just the shocks and springs. Do you have an Evo III too?" "Um, no sir, I recently bought an Evo II to be exact. I mean, Evo I to III has the same base construction right?" "Aah yes I get your point. Hey you're a lucky guy! Did you brought it here?" "Well that's the problem sir. The original shocks and springs are busted, since it was in bad condition" "Mmm I guess the previous owner was a rally racer or street racer" "I guess you're right sir. Anyway, how much for the shocks and springs sir?" "V$1000. Is that okay for you? You might bargain if you want." I offered "No sir, I think V$1000 is worthy of that condition" he answered, refusing the bargaining chance. "Alrgiht, deal then. Do you need brakes and front anti-roll bars too? I also changed them recently. And as a thank-you gesture for buying my shocks and springs, I'll let you decide the prices" I continued to offer my parts to him. "Um, I can't bring the front anti-rolls home, sorry. I don't have space for them to carry by hand. But uhh, as of the brakes, can I have them for, say, V$400?" he replied. "Wise price choice, deal!" With the deal done, he thanked and left me with a smile. I also wished him luck repairing the Evo II. Man, I really wish to see said Evo someday. After some time, nobody came to my stand and I was bored. So I whipped out my camera and started to wander around the last corner to the first one to do some car spotting to kill the time. I found some interesting cars, which I'll do the highlight below. Most of the cars appearing at the trackday are either bone stock or lightly tuned. Take this Evo X as an example. It has some exterior and interior mods applied, as well as those SP1s and Project Miu BBK set and unknown coilovers. It is a bit too low to my taste, but still cool to me nonetheless. It produced around 330 BHP, just like it's Group NR4 rally car counterpart.  And then there's this RX7 FD. Though the owner jokingly said he didn't plan to do an Initial D cosplay, lots of people swarmed his FD at the parking lot nonetheless, either because it accidentally resembles the RedSuns FD even if it is not accurate beyond the colors, or because turns out it is the Bathurst Edition, which is considerably rare. Deep down the engine bay it is also a sleeper, with the rotary engine able to extract 400 BHP despite using single turbo.
  As I mentioned earlier, some time attack teams made an appearance. Some of them are the Boxer Master Sports. As their name suggest, they specialized on Subaru boxer engines, and they're building a time attack racer out of an GC8. Turns out this is the 22B I mentioned at the first trackday update, and it isn't even a legit 22B. But eh, they're rare anyways. Their setup consist of the aero in the pics, second seat for ballast, and inside the engine bay they have a billet EJ20 with twin turbos, producing 680 BHP. It was so fast I almost can't snap it on the track. It scored 0:58.779 as their best of the day.
  There's also this amazing MX-5 NA built by Freshman Racing. Below the hood they thrown in a N/A 13B engine taken from an RX-7 FC. They've upgraded it so it could produce up to 335 BHP. Combined with the chassis, which weigh less than 900 kg, plus that aero-friendly fastback roof, it was a pocket rocket on the track. It received the nickname "Tomato Girl" for it's distinct tomato red colour and it's plucky size, rendering it cute. Despite this normally being an insult or joke for red-haired girls, the crew didn't mind as not only it is a unique nickname for them, they've established themselves as one of the best NA builders on Tsukuba. And I agree with them: Despite the cute image garnered by the MX-5s in general, this one is one of the most savage MX-5s I've ever seen and got passed by. It scored 0:59.487 as the team's best of the day.
  But what's more amazing is the appearance of european cars here, outside of Best Motoring and Hot Version clips. The one that particularly looks amazing to me is this legit M3 E46. At one moment it entered T1 too fast, but luckily the driver pulled a nice save by drifting it, causing the enitre pit exit to holler and scream in joy. I managed to capture the moment, showing the body roll of the E46.
 I talked to the owner for a while after he returned to the pitlane and receiving praise for aformentioned drift. He is Ryoji (36), working as a real-estate sales manager at Tsukubamirai city. His little sister is a staffer at Tsukuba University, and he visited her once in a month to check on how she's doing. With quite a big salary, it is no wonder he could import an EU-spec M3 E46 for V$52000. That price tag including the H&R Clubsport coilovers, the custom Jagermeister orange paint and engine balancing once the car hits the Japan soil. After some more engine mods, the S54 engine now produces 395 BHP.
 I told him about Rantaro and his preference over european cars, as well his Merc II - I mean Mark II GX70 which he modded into a fake Merc I showcased in thot-baiter update. Ryoji seemed to be interested, so we exchanged contacts and he told me he might want to have a meetup arounf this month. I'm quite sure Rantaro would die of happiness seeing this M3 E46, especially in this neat and motorsport-inspired paint. He even gave me a shotgun ride afterwards! The engine's power delivery is smooth and admirable.
 Another one that is striking is appearance of a Renault Clio MkII here. I didn't expect someone buying a Renault here! And yes, they sold them locally here bar the special editions. Everything is stock expect some engine tune and those Advan wheels. It was almost ended up in the wall at T1 when the driver overcook his trail braking point. Nonetheless he could save it, almost resulting in a drift. He didn't hold it though, sooo.......
  It really feels like seeing Gran Turismo come to life. And with spotting job done, I return to check my stand again. Someone offered to buy my anti-roll bar for V$200, more than what I would set for it (V$160) so I immediately struck a deal with him.
Hours later and until the trackday session no one else bought my parts. With V$1600 in hand I decided to call it a day and go back to my crib. [11 Nov 2018] I woken up by the notification that someone offered V$800 for my seats , without even considering to bargain it. I immediately accepted the deal and called the delivery service to pick up my seats and send it to the buyer. Some said he is going to start a motorsport-themed cafe at downtown. I spent the rest of the day updating my sales chart and started working on some batches of last documents needed to be translated before winter holiday.
I also contacted an NZ company providing suspension works and fabrication for Evo I-III. They said their control arms and lower arms can fit stock subframes with no problem. That's a relief as I would like to cut cost on suspension tuning, but for now I'd prefer to wait for my paycheck to come and my parts to be sold first to make financial management easier to do. Here comes the final handling tune, I guess With the rather lengthy udate over, I don't think there's a need for TL;DR version though. As of the cash however....... And finally, a bit of OORP: Thank you for stopping by this update and see you soon!
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