D_Eclipse9916
20+ Year Contributor
- 1,430
- 16
- Mar 4, 2004
-
Vienna,
Virginia
Warning: LONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But lots of pictures...
Date: July 28/29th
Track: VIR North Course
Event: NASA Track Day - VIR "Heat Wave" (boy that was accurate)
Class: HPDE 2
Car: 1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX
Decided to share a little bit about how us Mid-Atlantic, me, and somtimes on a lucky day one other dsmer.... go out to the track.
A little background leading up to the track event. Got some Brian Crower 272s in on Monday and got a little too excited about wanting them in and since time was short with me working the entire week, I sent out my car to get the cams done, by the only guy I would let touch my car, Martin at VIP Garage. A very pleasant experience.
Since I was working at the track Friday for the GRM Ultimate Track Car Challenge, I got the car ready late thursday night by doing a quick tranny, transfer case, rear end, coolant, and brake flush. Checked over the car and packed her real quickly ending up taking till 12:30 Friday morning (got out of work real late). But I had to be at VIR at 7:30AM and the track was 4.5 hours away. Went to bed and woke up 3 hours later to start on my trip. Worked Friday and had a good time and checked over my car one last time. Noticed a little oil on my valve cover but ignored it thinking it was just from spillage from filling oil.
That night I stay at my girlfriend's relatives and head out early for the driver's meeting at 7:30AM and to get my car unpacked. I get there and do ANOTHER inspection and put on my track tire/wheel combo. This would be my first road race session on hoosiers and I was really excited.
First Session Saturday: Pull into grid, meet my instructor, a honda fan boy...uhoh. Feared the worst but couldnt be much worse than my instructors before that all just had to say, good turn, good job....literally almost nothing else. Strap in and starts talking, however to my surprise, he is being very helpful in just the first few minutes. The pace car rolls and we all head out, when the pace car pulls in, I get on the throttle and am lucky to start bhind some quick cars. First corner approaches as I reach for my brakes the car feels a little sluggish but I credit it to cold brakes, as I come around the first bend I hear some scratching and the car comes pretty quickly out. Welcome to my first experience and lesson on hoosiers, you gotta shed all the rocks and dirt from paddock. After the first few turns they start to get sticky and I am enjoying every minute of it.....that is until a puff of smoke comes out of my carbon trix vent...uhoh, maybe just that oil hit something hot. Then another puff, alright pull over. Get out, cautiously open the hood and there is oil EVERYWHERE, I mean everywhere, in the suspension, on the tranny, on top of the valve cover, heat shield. Yuck. So I pull her in and check oil, a quart and a half low. Serious problem. Filled her back up with oil and take off the only thing that had been changed since the last track event , valve cover. Coat the crap out of iot with rtv and put it back on hoping enough time for it to cure for my next session.
Second Session: Go out and do 3 laps just to see if it holds, guess what? Nope..oil is everywhere again, pull her over and now im frustrated, it doesnt leak at idle, I guess it just needs serious oil pressure. So I ask my friends to watch and let me stutterbox, whn I hear a WHOA from my friends I back her down. Turns out a crack had developed in my valve cover and was shooting oil on the hood at high pressure causing it to shoot everywhere. Again....RTV for the rescue and then put metal epoxy on it.
Third Session: My instructor is feeling for me and crossing my fingers with me that it solved the solution. Go about three laps pull over and pop the hood......
...I cry with happiness and jam up the thumb....we are in business! I get the signal from pit out and come flying out of the pits with excitement. The car is just having fun and and I finally get to learn some technique. I start to really nail the corners with the hoosiers and go faster and faster every lap. Pull in with a huge smile on my face.
Saturday Night: Call up Martin at VIP Garage as I know your all wondering now, where did the crack come from? Explain the situation quickly and without even asking he has a valve cover ready for me to pick up when I get home. Martin has never had an issue with me or my friend's cars and has done an incredible amount of work on Evos and DSMs and I was glad and wanted to really put up a huge thumbs up to Martin for getting my cams done at last minute even though he was extremely busy, and although we would never prove that he could of possibly cracked a valve cover, he took care of me without a snag. Definitely the best experience, as ive had multiple issues with just even parts, not installs with other vendors. Plus they are supporters of this site so once again give Marti a call as he has done me very well.
Sunday, First and Second Session: Now is the time I get to learn, I manage to nail down my corners and begin to push the limit of the hoosiers in cornering. And goddamn they have a high limit. My instructor is very helpful an we start to weed out my problem areas. One issue of main concern and the only thing written in my logbook that I needed work on was compressing my brake zones. The RTV held and had no more oil everwhere, only had a momentary spike of temperatures above 220 but mostly kept it between 210-220.
Third Session: My instructor comes over to me and talks with me about some of my technique and where I can improve. Then moves over to my car, I grab my helmet thinking we are getting ready and he slaps the solo sticker on my car
.... So this would be my first solo session! I went out there and had the blast of my life, drove more aggressive then I have before and really got to getting deep into the brake zones. I came into 17 at VIR which is a high-speed hard right downhill onto the straight and overcooked it a little and got sideways (a lot!). Surprisingly my reaction was very calm and I just slowly gave it more throttle and shuffled the steering wheel and got her right back in line. My amazement that I handled it much more calmy than I had ever done before.
Overall: Had an amazing weekend despite 90-100 degree temperatures and very high humidity along with 130+ track temps. Need new pads and rotors for my wilwood 13x1.10 setup, too bad I cant afford them, they survived a LONG time for what I expected, only went through three pad sets and these same rotors for a long time. Time to call TCE, eventually
. Poor Credit Card..
Anyways on to the pics! Yes, I lost my front lip midway through saturday...
Date: July 28/29th
Track: VIR North Course
Event: NASA Track Day - VIR "Heat Wave" (boy that was accurate)
Class: HPDE 2
Car: 1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX
Decided to share a little bit about how us Mid-Atlantic, me, and somtimes on a lucky day one other dsmer.... go out to the track.
A little background leading up to the track event. Got some Brian Crower 272s in on Monday and got a little too excited about wanting them in and since time was short with me working the entire week, I sent out my car to get the cams done, by the only guy I would let touch my car, Martin at VIP Garage. A very pleasant experience.
Since I was working at the track Friday for the GRM Ultimate Track Car Challenge, I got the car ready late thursday night by doing a quick tranny, transfer case, rear end, coolant, and brake flush. Checked over the car and packed her real quickly ending up taking till 12:30 Friday morning (got out of work real late). But I had to be at VIR at 7:30AM and the track was 4.5 hours away. Went to bed and woke up 3 hours later to start on my trip. Worked Friday and had a good time and checked over my car one last time. Noticed a little oil on my valve cover but ignored it thinking it was just from spillage from filling oil.
That night I stay at my girlfriend's relatives and head out early for the driver's meeting at 7:30AM and to get my car unpacked. I get there and do ANOTHER inspection and put on my track tire/wheel combo. This would be my first road race session on hoosiers and I was really excited.
First Session Saturday: Pull into grid, meet my instructor, a honda fan boy...uhoh. Feared the worst but couldnt be much worse than my instructors before that all just had to say, good turn, good job....literally almost nothing else. Strap in and starts talking, however to my surprise, he is being very helpful in just the first few minutes. The pace car rolls and we all head out, when the pace car pulls in, I get on the throttle and am lucky to start bhind some quick cars. First corner approaches as I reach for my brakes the car feels a little sluggish but I credit it to cold brakes, as I come around the first bend I hear some scratching and the car comes pretty quickly out. Welcome to my first experience and lesson on hoosiers, you gotta shed all the rocks and dirt from paddock. After the first few turns they start to get sticky and I am enjoying every minute of it.....that is until a puff of smoke comes out of my carbon trix vent...uhoh, maybe just that oil hit something hot. Then another puff, alright pull over. Get out, cautiously open the hood and there is oil EVERYWHERE, I mean everywhere, in the suspension, on the tranny, on top of the valve cover, heat shield. Yuck. So I pull her in and check oil, a quart and a half low. Serious problem. Filled her back up with oil and take off the only thing that had been changed since the last track event , valve cover. Coat the crap out of iot with rtv and put it back on hoping enough time for it to cure for my next session.
Second Session: Go out and do 3 laps just to see if it holds, guess what? Nope..oil is everywhere again, pull her over and now im frustrated, it doesnt leak at idle, I guess it just needs serious oil pressure. So I ask my friends to watch and let me stutterbox, whn I hear a WHOA from my friends I back her down. Turns out a crack had developed in my valve cover and was shooting oil on the hood at high pressure causing it to shoot everywhere. Again....RTV for the rescue and then put metal epoxy on it.
Third Session: My instructor is feeling for me and crossing my fingers with me that it solved the solution. Go about three laps pull over and pop the hood......
...I cry with happiness and jam up the thumb....we are in business! I get the signal from pit out and come flying out of the pits with excitement. The car is just having fun and and I finally get to learn some technique. I start to really nail the corners with the hoosiers and go faster and faster every lap. Pull in with a huge smile on my face.Saturday Night: Call up Martin at VIP Garage as I know your all wondering now, where did the crack come from? Explain the situation quickly and without even asking he has a valve cover ready for me to pick up when I get home. Martin has never had an issue with me or my friend's cars and has done an incredible amount of work on Evos and DSMs and I was glad and wanted to really put up a huge thumbs up to Martin for getting my cams done at last minute even though he was extremely busy, and although we would never prove that he could of possibly cracked a valve cover, he took care of me without a snag. Definitely the best experience, as ive had multiple issues with just even parts, not installs with other vendors. Plus they are supporters of this site so once again give Marti a call as he has done me very well.
Sunday, First and Second Session: Now is the time I get to learn, I manage to nail down my corners and begin to push the limit of the hoosiers in cornering. And goddamn they have a high limit. My instructor is very helpful an we start to weed out my problem areas. One issue of main concern and the only thing written in my logbook that I needed work on was compressing my brake zones. The RTV held and had no more oil everwhere, only had a momentary spike of temperatures above 220 but mostly kept it between 210-220.
Third Session: My instructor comes over to me and talks with me about some of my technique and where I can improve. Then moves over to my car, I grab my helmet thinking we are getting ready and he slaps the solo sticker on my car
.... So this would be my first solo session! I went out there and had the blast of my life, drove more aggressive then I have before and really got to getting deep into the brake zones. I came into 17 at VIR which is a high-speed hard right downhill onto the straight and overcooked it a little and got sideways (a lot!). Surprisingly my reaction was very calm and I just slowly gave it more throttle and shuffled the steering wheel and got her right back in line. My amazement that I handled it much more calmy than I had ever done before. Overall: Had an amazing weekend despite 90-100 degree temperatures and very high humidity along with 130+ track temps. Need new pads and rotors for my wilwood 13x1.10 setup, too bad I cant afford them, they survived a LONG time for what I expected, only went through three pad sets and these same rotors for a long time. Time to call TCE, eventually
. Poor Credit Card..Anyways on to the pics! Yes, I lost my front lip midway through saturday...
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