http://picasaweb.google.com/jimmysc13/MarchHCRound34#

H2 has really caught on, and people truly enjoy the class.  The weekend saw 3 new-ish racers who after there first race were excited about the class and the group that races in H2.

Fred(blue EG B18c5) made his second race, and is looking to run a good portion of the races this year as he has teamed up with Mark. Vic (orange/silver EK b18c5) also made his second race and is looking to make a run towards Nationals, Vic is a former SCCA ITE/STU racer. Andrew (blue/green RSX typeS) also made his second race, and is looking to run the whole season and nationals.

I felt like a new guy, while i did make a race last year it was in low attendance and i was putting around.  It has been since ~may of 2008 since i last raced close wheel 2 wheel. AND BOY DID IT FEEL GREAT!!!!!!!!!!

The race was at Series Point, or Infinion as the new people call it, and it rained HARD friday, and we had a light mist saturday morning.  I decided to sit out saturday morning practice because i felt there was a good chance for “stupid stuff” to happen.  It proved to be a  smart move as the session was cut short because so many cars went off and needed to be towed.

Qualifying

I was very nervous, but took it easy and by this time the track was dry, except in the ‘S’s.  I took it easy and worked my way around the track trying to remember how to drive.. slowly gaining confidence.  I was surprised to see that i qualified p2, but new the race would be tuff, as Mike Lock had an issue during qualifying and didn’t get a time.

The Race

the race went good, the flagger flinched, and i launched, but stopped quickly.  I will let the video tell the rest of the story.  The car wasn’t working well, and i wasn’t driving well.  I guess it just goes to show “no replacement for seat time”.

After the race Andrie was talking with me about what the car was doing, and what i wasn’t happy with.  We had already went down 150lbs in rear spring rate so that i could be more comfortable in the car and push it.  After looking over the car, Andrie convinced me to lower the.  I had been running at a much higher ride hieght because when i ran last year i was bottoming out the UCA.  We ended up dropping the whole car about ~.75 inches.

This would prove to solve many of the “issues” i was having with the car.  That would include a “bounce” , like there was to much compression/rebound in the high speed, braking into the carousel  the was light and i couldn’t brake,

i qualified p4 for sundays race.  watch the video..

Going to get the windshield installed tomorrow, Thursday valve adjustment and fire it up!!!, friday setup suspension.

So I am into lots of things, racing being one of them and the one that i pour everything into right now.  But i also have a love for older Muscle cars done up in the street rod fashion, Rat Rods, and just cool shit really.

So to start it off, i fell in LOVE with 2 cars i didn’t think i would ever really like

This thing was sooo rad, nice and clean looking i said to my self “hell ya id cruse around in that”

It just LOOKS clean, the wheels could probably be a bit smaller but it just looks super nice.

And these things, fell in love with them too…

This one happen to have a mid-engine conversion… Didn’t look like it had ran yet though…

a more stock engine bay…

I just love the way this car looks when it is modified a bit..

this one too

Seibon

It had a cage in it, that would pass NASA/SCCA tech.. but haven’t seen in it race any were…

I liked this greddy one

the engine bay of the GReddy car

And this ford, IF THEY WOULD bring it here, it would sell decently, at least better than the current focus…

And for me, the coolest thing i saw at SEMA.  KIA announced it is OFFICIALLY into motorsports and teamed up with Kinetic Motorsports (very strong, well ran, well-funded, historically BMW only team)

A nice looking 60s something Camaro with DC vinyl

a neat Road Rally/desert racer/DaKar rally type deal..

a 4 rotor RX8 drift car.  damn once this thing is running horry shit mang…

love this thing

I’d race one of these in a HEART BEAT..

Another truck/desert racer much more “stock” looking though

This thing was built/ and is driven on the street and drag raced in Japan.  We were talking to the owner/builder and it was funny he love the big american muscle cars and loves going straight, we love the light/small imports on the road course.  In very very broken english he said, “Lets switch then, you asian me white. make sense then.”  We all laughed..

FYI its got VOLK wheels..

Another prius, this one done by the factory

A hybrid/green race car/time attack car.  Battery and E85

a killer looking insight

sweet rat rod

“CHOPPA!!!!!”

RockStar Chevelle

love the show, and him WEST COAST!!

Loved this thing too…

and end it off with a shot of the rear of a Zonda….

But on veterans day we manage to have enough time to put the motor together.  It needs a crank pulley, valve adjustment, and spark plugs.  But it is all ready to go!!

This week, on Wednesday again, we will put the trans on the long block and drop it into the car.  The valve adjustment, spark plugs, and crank pulley will all be done at that time.

Ill have a blog post about HPD and SEMA here shortly too.

This weekend my best friend is coming up from SD for an “engagement party”, then i am going to SEMA in vegas. That weekend is NASA NorCals last race of the year. the following weekend I am going to Honda Performance Development for an open house. And then shortly after that Thanksgiving comes up. My goal is to have the motor back together before December 1st.

And during that time we have to fabricate some new suspension parts, from scratch. This will probably occupy a 3 day weekend.

The schedule is looking like i probably wont be on track until January, however i will push to have the car on track in December. Track time during the winter is very cheap usually so i am looking to gobble it up.

I will have my camera, and laptop with me next week at SEMA so i’ll be posting some pictures of the cooler stuff I see.

Here are some pictures taken by Chris the team photog.
RTR 09 TSX

Garham Downey-Redstone Motorsports-

Andrie Hartanto 07 TSX www.prima-racing.com

the corkscrew

Patron/highcroft Acura LMP1

De Farren Acura LMP1

On to the pictures of the car. My task is to get the brake system done. This isn’t as easy as i thought it would be, especially the front. This was super close to the car but i got it done.

Tilton Bias Valved Mocked up

and the Rear, were it will split.  I forgot to buy a bulkhead T, so i orded one today, and will finish off the rear once that gets in.

I am waiting for more nut-certs to come in so i can mount the battery, ill likely be changing to a different battery also.

I left off with the drive side gusseting just getting wrapped up.  The driver’s side followed.  But we were short on time so i don’t have any pictures of it.  Here is the passenger side with a coat of paint

Next we moved onto the B-pilliar integration.  When the cage was built, it was built very tight to the car, so there wasn’t really any room to do the typical B-pilliar integration.  Mike came up with the idea to do it down low.

driver side… note the plate was clean, these pictures were snapped a few days after we did the welding and the weather turn rainy/cold and rust was quick to set in

Passenger side

next were the battery mounting plate and  fire system mounting plate.

laid out and starting to weld

welding more

fire bottle mounting plate welded in, and nut-certs in

battery mount plate done.

fire bottle mounted and lines ran. 1 nozzle directly onto the fuel tank.

two nozzles for the driver

three in the engine bay

This system came with 2 pull mechanisms, i mounted one on the passenger side of the car, and one on the drivers side.  So that I can reach one, while belted in and a corner worker could pull one no matter what side of the car they ran to in the event of a fire.

everything is all painted up in these pictures also

Here is the new HPD/HRL window banner along with the gussets painted

I also tackled and started the process to install a bias valve for the brakes.  The first step is removing all of the OEM lines.  This can be pretty messy but the might vac (brake vacuum bleeder) made the job easy.  I just DC’d all of the OE hard lines were they connected to the SS lines, hooked up the plastic line and turned it on at every corner.

Here is the fire wall with all of the OE brake line stuff removed.  Sorry for the blurry picture…

When removing all of the OE brake lines it cleared a spot for the electric PS pump.  Fabbing the mount for that, and running the brake lines will be done next week with the help of Mike U along with figuring out how mount the battery box.

So the fab work is flowing, and almost complete.  In two weekends the car will be waiting for the motor to come back from the machine shop.  And progress on that is under way, as all of their contract motors are “done” for the season.

Thanks for looking, and i will be on the track soon

Here he is with he template done and starting to cut it out of the plate

Here is the first guest with everything done and the final test fit.

tacking into place

All done being tacked into place

And all welded in

both sides done!!!

Tonight will be spent on the battery mount and fire system mount, along with the B-pillar intergration/guessesting.

For some odd reason we call my dog emre “pumpernickel” some times, and i saw this on the way out to Utah in NV.

these are the view from on top of the garages that are on pit lane

and then these random pictures from the way home

So that is it for pictures, i know i know kinda of a let down, didn’t have any of cars..  Well we were really busy the whole week, check out www.twitter.com/thenextenth to catch up on what went down, and when we weren’t busy we were socializing!!

So on the to the updates…

I took the car down to my buddy and fabricator, Mike Lock, to do some work.  After ~2 hours, several beers each, cuts from razors, cuts from glass, and a few hundred select words we accomplished this..

A note to any one, buy the snap-on/blue point/Mac tools window remover tool.  We did this with the plastic cheap “snap” razors and it was horrible.

And here is the car

So thats it for now.  We were burnt from pulling the window out and i need to pick up some other small things to go any further.  Tonight we should make some good progress.

Check back tomorrow for more updates.