We still have along way to go but our car is deffinately starting to show some real speed potential. After working 18 hours Saturday and all morning Sunday, plus many late night hours during the previous week we were able to pull her off the jackstands she had been sitting since mid January.

The turbo is not yet completed so we ran NA with the only mod being a Megan Cat Back, eurathane motor mounts and 10lb flywheel but just those made a very nice improvement over stock. You get much better control when the motor is not rocking like an old lady knitting a scarff on the front porch, lol! (

(The Megan is loud at idle but deep and growly, quiets down alot once the RPMs are up, with a cat on the stock manifold at least)

We are still on street tires though they are really doing well, until I got them to hot on a 4 th run, alot of grip, very linear breakaway, Hankook 212's.

ABS removal really improved my braking ability, far better feedback and with such great tires I can threashold brake finally and very effectively, something ABS just did not let me do properly.

Ok, to the racing, SM class is dominated by highly modifyed STI, EVO 8, M3 and a few super lite Civics, it is a very fast class, we finished 7th out of 17 cars, 2.38 seconds behind the first place STI and just .037 behind a very built 480WHP different STI as well.

Since I had to tweak the breke bias on the way to the event as the first time I drove the car, except up and down the block to ensure it was safe to take on the road, I had no time to even toss the car around a few turns to get a feel of the latest changes. The front subframe is not even aligned, rear toe is out of whack on one side(some testing not yet completed) and just no time to dial it all back in. The car deffinately turns one way better than the other, lol, kind of interesting really.

Considering, all this, alignment, drivetrain mods, brakes not yet setup properly(first run I was a bit cautious!), street tires, nearly stock power, zero seat time, etc. I am very pleased with the results and am just now starting to see the true potential of the tC. Right now the stickest autocross tires are DOT race tires, Kumho 710s, the top finishers all ran on them, we finished amazingly well for a partially developed, rather heavy FWD car.

On the way home I felt confident enough in how well the car was working to tackle a very technical seldom traveled mountain road. I stay in my own lane almost exclusively while doing so which requires alot more concentration to attain speed compared to using the full road surface which I have to fight myself not to do, lol!

Even at this point the car is getting faster than I care to drive on public roads, it is getting that good. I pushed it fairly hard on a couple of sections that were a bit safer to do so and it just stuck like glue but I could certainly feel the imbalances of the alignment at play but at no time anywhere near losing it. The brakes were just incredible, maybe the best brake setup I have even had.

Anyway, I will let you guys know the next time we get her out once dialed in a bit more, today I need to work on a few issues and then maybe can get back to the turbo manifold.

But, doing so well on stock power is making me rethink a few things, possibly finishing up the tirbo system then selling it and getting the SC instead or considering some serious but driveable NA mods, fast is not all about power;)

Rick

 

Thanks for the update, Rick. Sounds, to me, like the alignment should be your priority before the next event. Keep it up.

 

Most welcome and it sure is but it is going to be a long and involved process over a few months at least to really dial the car in, just going to keep getting better

Rick