Friday, March 20, 2009
Air compressor
This morning I bought a small air compressor to help in experimenting with and maintaining tyre pressures both on and off a track. It's a nice little unit and despite not having a terribly accurate pressure gauge it does the job!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Fuji International Speedway (FSW) March 10th 2009
What a day !
I woke up at 7am, grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed off to Fuji.
I was very excited about trying out new tyres and brakes and despite some rain in Tokyo I was positively looking forward to clear skies and dry conditions once at my destination.
The weather certainly didn't disappoint ! Clear skies, cool wind, perfect conditions as the photo below shows (taken at Fuji Speedway heading towards Paddock A I believe)
Together with Tom's friend Runman (BMW) we decided to run the 10:10AM session.
I quickly taped the lap timer sensor to the right door side step, took out all the unnecessary weight and checked the tyres. I started off with 220kPa (cold) air pressure in all fours, which after 5 laps went up to some 250kPa (except the rear left which remained at 230kPa for some reason).
I had a great run ! I recorded my fastest lap of 2'19''75 actually at the very end of the session and a top speed of 203km/h although i wasn't really pushing that much. Today was more about tyres and brakes for me. And the tyres worked beautifully ! What an amazing grip ! Great feeling of confidence whilst cornering ! I couldn't have spent my money any better if I tried and what a difference to what I had before ! Go ADVAN !
For the 2nd session, Tom's friend Derek (Mitsubishio Evo X) joined in and this time I up'ed the air pressure to aim for 260kPa after 4-5 laps. The session didn't go as well and in fact the pressure was too high and I didn't have as much grip as I did in the 1st session. On top of that a fairly crowded session meant I had to constantly watch out for faster cars which distracted my concentration considerably. Nothing really to write about here...
For the 3rd and final session of the day at 1:30pm, Tom and I decided to plug in Traqmate, a GPS based lap timer with data logging into my car. I also dropped my tyre pressure so that I could run on no more than 240kPa after a few laps ! The car felt great and tyres worked a lot better than in the 2nd session and almost as good as the 1st. The problem was disconnecting my HKS CAC to run traqmate meant I had the old 180km/h limit imposed on me so I couldn't get a better lap than the one from the 1st session. Oh well ! I had fun and lots of practice at least!
Video from today's session
And to finish off, on my way back home I was running out of petrol just before entering Shuto Expressway so decided to be safe and detour for some High Oku. On my way back onto the highway I marginally crossed the yellow line seperating lanes entering the highway from the normal road and it so happened a cop on a bike saw me and pulled me right over. I tried the "I don't speak japanese routine" but it didn't work. The cop spoke English and after apologising and bowing about 12 times slapped me with a 6,000yen fine and 1 demerit point ! (I won't even get into why I think it was a token fine but let me say Japanese drivers (especially taxi drivers) break rules constantly and get away with them but like I said I won't get into it)
I woke up at 7am, grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed off to Fuji.
I was very excited about trying out new tyres and brakes and despite some rain in Tokyo I was positively looking forward to clear skies and dry conditions once at my destination.
The weather certainly didn't disappoint ! Clear skies, cool wind, perfect conditions as the photo below shows (taken at Fuji Speedway heading towards Paddock A I believe)
Together with Tom's friend Runman (BMW) we decided to run the 10:10AM session.
I quickly taped the lap timer sensor to the right door side step, took out all the unnecessary weight and checked the tyres. I started off with 220kPa (cold) air pressure in all fours, which after 5 laps went up to some 250kPa (except the rear left which remained at 230kPa for some reason).
I had a great run ! I recorded my fastest lap of 2'19''75 actually at the very end of the session and a top speed of 203km/h although i wasn't really pushing that much. Today was more about tyres and brakes for me. And the tyres worked beautifully ! What an amazing grip ! Great feeling of confidence whilst cornering ! I couldn't have spent my money any better if I tried and what a difference to what I had before ! Go ADVAN !
For the 2nd session, Tom's friend Derek (Mitsubishio Evo X) joined in and this time I up'ed the air pressure to aim for 260kPa after 4-5 laps. The session didn't go as well and in fact the pressure was too high and I didn't have as much grip as I did in the 1st session. On top of that a fairly crowded session meant I had to constantly watch out for faster cars which distracted my concentration considerably. Nothing really to write about here...
For the 3rd and final session of the day at 1:30pm, Tom and I decided to plug in Traqmate, a GPS based lap timer with data logging into my car. I also dropped my tyre pressure so that I could run on no more than 240kPa after a few laps ! The car felt great and tyres worked a lot better than in the 2nd session and almost as good as the 1st. The problem was disconnecting my HKS CAC to run traqmate meant I had the old 180km/h limit imposed on me so I couldn't get a better lap than the one from the 1st session. Oh well ! I had fun and lots of practice at least!
Video from today's session
And to finish off, on my way back home I was running out of petrol just before entering Shuto Expressway so decided to be safe and detour for some High Oku. On my way back onto the highway I marginally crossed the yellow line seperating lanes entering the highway from the normal road and it so happened a cop on a bike saw me and pulled me right over. I tried the "I don't speak japanese routine" but it didn't work. The cop spoke English and after apologising and bowing about 12 times slapped me with a 6,000yen fine and 1 demerit point ! (I won't even get into why I think it was a token fine but let me say Japanese drivers (especially taxi drivers) break rules constantly and get away with them but like I said I won't get into it)
Saturday, March 7, 2009
HKS CAC has been installed !
On Friday 6th I finally received the much awaited HKS Circuit Attack Counter.
This morning I had it installed by the Super Autobacs crew however for enabling the SLD (Speed Limit Defenser) functionality they charged me an extra 4,000yen :( I was trying to save some money by buying the unit online and having it fitted by Autobacs but in the end I think my total saving was no more than 1,000 yen. Oh well!
Putting that aside, they have done an excellent job ! They secured the cable connecting the CAC to the car's ECU with 3M dash clip-ons in such a way that you can hardly complain about any cables getting in the way. As far as the magnetic sensor is concerned they ran the cable under the driver's seat and if whenever I go out to a track and I want to use it all I need to do is put the sensor out through the side step, secure it to the side step with some tape and off I go!
I've been having some difficulty getting through the manual though as it's in japanese and i haven't been able to find an english version of it. Some settings especially the P-P is still a mystery. I am told it's a setting for a particular type of magnetic strip available on a racetrack ...
I took some photos this morning near a shipyard dock in front of Tokyo bay. Enjoy !
ADVAN Neova AD08s
This coming Tuesday I'm off to Fuji Speedway with Tom and some guys from SDIJ as long as the weather holds up (it's been raining here the last 5 days)
Look out for the Fuji report in my next post together with some first ever lap times !!
This morning I had it installed by the Super Autobacs crew however for enabling the SLD (Speed Limit Defenser) functionality they charged me an extra 4,000yen :( I was trying to save some money by buying the unit online and having it fitted by Autobacs but in the end I think my total saving was no more than 1,000 yen. Oh well!
Putting that aside, they have done an excellent job ! They secured the cable connecting the CAC to the car's ECU with 3M dash clip-ons in such a way that you can hardly complain about any cables getting in the way. As far as the magnetic sensor is concerned they ran the cable under the driver's seat and if whenever I go out to a track and I want to use it all I need to do is put the sensor out through the side step, secure it to the side step with some tape and off I go!
I've been having some difficulty getting through the manual though as it's in japanese and i haven't been able to find an english version of it. Some settings especially the P-P is still a mystery. I am told it's a setting for a particular type of magnetic strip available on a racetrack ...
I took some photos this morning near a shipyard dock in front of Tokyo bay. Enjoy !
ADVAN Neova AD08s
This coming Tuesday I'm off to Fuji Speedway with Tom and some guys from SDIJ as long as the weather holds up (it's been raining here the last 5 days)
Look out for the Fuji report in my next post together with some first ever lap times !!
Monday, March 2, 2009
HKS Circuit Attack Counter
As mentioned in one of my earlier posts, during my 1st practice at Fuji Speedway I realised that my car was limited to just 180km/h.
Since that time I was wondering whether I should get an HKS SLD (Speed Limit Defenser) or a more costly ECU upgrade to remove such a limit.
It wasn't until last weekend that I came across an HKS Circuit Attack Counter which turns out to be an ideal solution !
It's both a lap timer (manual and automatic through a magnetic sensor installed under my car), speed gauge (for when I go over 180km/h) as well as an SLD to remove the factory imposed limit!
I bought one yesterday and awaiting its delivery this week.
I will probably have it installed by the guys from Autobacs sometime later this week (they have a rule that if you buy elsewhere they will only install it on weekdays not weekends...)
Photos coming soon also !
Since that time I was wondering whether I should get an HKS SLD (Speed Limit Defenser) or a more costly ECU upgrade to remove such a limit.
It wasn't until last weekend that I came across an HKS Circuit Attack Counter which turns out to be an ideal solution !
It's both a lap timer (manual and automatic through a magnetic sensor installed under my car), speed gauge (for when I go over 180km/h) as well as an SLD to remove the factory imposed limit!
I bought one yesterday and awaiting its delivery this week.
I will probably have it installed by the guys from Autobacs sometime later this week (they have a rule that if you buy elsewhere they will only install it on weekdays not weekends...)
Photos coming soon also !
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