mr.autox

since my results from sunday aren't up yet here is a teaser of how the day went

[youtube]EO7R-rFwrXc[/youtube]

187sks

Nice video! Looks like a fun course.

That's REALLY good to PAX that high with almost everyone indexed. It's pretty stupid here because so many people aren't indexed that the PAX results are useless. In a similar sized field I usually PAX around 50th, but in reality if everyone was indexed I would be around middle of the pack.

I'm tempted to pull mods and run in HS. I probably would if I wasn't working on the Cougar. I doubt it'll get out this season though.

mr.autox

well i'm getting behind on my updates so this will be a 2 race update.

my video from cumberland is up on you tube(the one a few posts up), i'm going to try to get my fastest run up as well. As you can see the day was very very wet. It rained all day with no breaks whatsoever. I brought the slicks just in case but there was too much standing water to run them....or was there? A few of the crazy drivers out there that had ran the day before decided that they didn't want to change tires and ran on there r-comps and were surprisingly fast. The course designer really tightened everything up to try to slow people down and it was very very narrow in sections so I didn't do as well as I could have if I was able to throw the car around a little more. here are how my runs went.

1st run: 57.366
just feeling the course out, the xs' don't make great rain tires but i'm sure they were better than my hoosiers. traction sucks everywhere especially the ending where a few people have already spun.

2nd run: 56.129+1
well I tried picking up the pace and got a cone somewhere, oh well 3 more runs to go

3rd run: 55.383(fastest)
found some more time going through the hairpins i'm still plowing everywhere

here is the video of my fastest run

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4th run: 55.584
i'm trying to catch the bmw in fsp but there is no grip and the open diff isn't helping acceleration

5th run: 55.880
well looks like 55s is the fastest I could go today, tried running the whole course in 2nd but it bogged trying to dig out of the 2nd hairpin.

I ended up getting beat by a second in fsp by a 76 2002 who was running a little better rain tire than I was but i'll have my revenge when things dry out next time. I ended up 32 out of 54 overall and 26th on pax.

I still have to work on my wet driving skills but in the end I had a fun, soggy day.

2ND RACE UPDATE:

I had a long break from may 3rd to the 24th. One of my wdcr-scca events got cancelled which left me fiending for some racing. Luckily the mercedes benz club got the ok to race at their site. This is a new club for me and I was very happy with how things ran through the day. The merc club races at millbrook highschool in winchester, VA. The site is a little smaller but the course was fun and it gave me 7 runs more seat time. The weather was a little hotter than I like roaming around the low 90s all day but the 20-30% of showers ended up only being a light rain which dried up before afternoon runs. Instead of explaining the course i'm going to let my in car video explain it for me.

[youtube]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_sRukXg-x8o&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_sRukXg-x8o&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/youtube]

here is one of my scary moments

[youtube]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7RVfQBKwF4o&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7RVfQBKwF4o&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/youtube]

The way the club runs their events is the morning runs are considered practice and the afternoon are competition runs. I don't have the times for all my runs but for the most part i was in the 46s for all my runs except one which I got a little sideways in the slalom and had to correct or spin.

I was happy once I got my first run out of the way. It appears that my car does have some speed this year as I was in 2nd overall after the morning heat. I ended the day 3rd overall out of 40 drivers. I was 4th overall in pax. FTD was a 44.7 in a very well driven FS 03 svt mustang. I beat every mercedes there in a hyundai accent, it was funny to see the expressions on people's faces at the end of the day.

The car handled the course very well, i thought i'd be caught between gears most the day after the course walk but it turned out I could run most of the course in 2nd with a downshift to 1st once or twice. The right front tire took a beating since practically all the course was left handed turns. I had to cool the tires down in the afternoon to stop them from greasing up too much. I ran the tires at 31/28 f/r hot pressures. The overall time deficit was due to my lack of power and not being able to get off the turn arounds efficiently. I can guarantee I was the fastest car through the slalom and the sweeper after it but lost time in the numerous turn-arounds. I had a blast and will definately race with the merc club again.

next up is the 2nd points event with wdcr-scca, hopefully I can duplicate my performance from the 1st points event with another win.

mr.autox

wow i've been really busy lately and haven't had time to update this thread(i will explain just how busy below)

Well after the winchester event it was time for the 2nd points event at fedex field with wdcr-scca. I was itching at another chance for a win until I heard news that another driver was going to be in fsp for the day. Marshall cone is a very experienced driver in the wdcr ranks with numerous local championships national wins. He decided it was a good day to drive our fellow competitor's mini cooper. Well I still have a shot at least or do I?

The course was very unfriendly to lower powered cars as it really really used the hills of the lot. It was a very fun course with lots of technical bits but as you will soon find out I didn't have a very good day at all.

1st run: 68.291
just feeling the course out but marshall is already beating me by 1.5 seconds

2nd run: 66.916
step it up a little and feeling good till I here marshall ran a 64.794+1 which means his dirty run is still faster than my clean run, time for a hero run.

3rd run: 65.659
this puts me in the lead until marshall runs a clean 64.470 and to add insult to injury I hear some ticking coming from the motor

4th run: 72.911
I hope for the best but as soon as I take off from the start the car feels down a good 20-30hp. I try to limp the car around the course and expect the worst. The tick has turned into a knock.

The end of the day turned out being better than I had thought results wise. Without my 4th run I was overtaken by andrew baker in his scirocco for 2nd by 4 tenths so I ended up 3rd out of 5 drivers in fsp but my pax wasn't bad with a 64th out of 224 drivers.

The bad news was my motor was calling it quits and I still had a 65 mile drive home. Time for some praying to the automotive gods for some help. I made the entire trip home with a motor that sounded more like a rock tumbler than a car engine.

here are a few pics of the carnage after I had a chance to take a looksy


this is what was left of my #3 cylinder rod bearings


this is the condition of the rest of the bearings not good

187sks

Wow, that really sucks. sad.gif

I started getting a lot of ticking towards the end of last season if I ran more than 3 runs. I ran once this year and the ticking started after my first run. Now it ticks every time I start it up and never fully goes away although it gets way better when it's warmed up. There won't be any more autox for me until I get the issue solved one way or another. I'm just hoping the engine doesn't decide to come apart on me like it did to you. Thjat's a really catastrophic failure. At least you made it home though.

Are you going to put in another 1.5l?

mr.autox

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(187sks @ Jun 25 2009, 12:17 PM) </div><div class='quotemain'>Wow, that really sucks. sad.gif

I started getting a lot of ticking towards the end of last season if I ran more than 3 runs. I ran once this year and the ticking started after my first run. Now it ticks every time I start it up and never fully goes away although it gets way better when it's warmed up. There won't be any more autox for me until I get the issue solved one way or another. I'm just hoping the engine doesn't decide to come apart on me like it did to you. Thjat's a really catastrophic failure. At least you made it home though.

Are you going to put in another 1.5l?</div>

you beat me to the punch, I was going to throw together some more race updates and tell how things were going with the car but i will spill my guts now.

I have already replaced the motor with another 1.5 with 50k on it. I got a steal as well, 250 bucks delivered to my shop. While it was out I did some basic maintenance like timing belt, plugs and gaskets and such. I also replaced the clutch and resurfaced the flywheel. I'm just finishing breaking in the clutch this week and have my first race on the new motor this sunday. Everything seems to be looking good, i've put about 200 miles on the car since I got the new motor in. I will definately have the oil pressure gauge hooked up this time around and have a little extra oil in the sump.

I will let everyone know how things turn out this sunday. I will also put up some pics since I did some extra detailing while I had things apart on the motor. Lets just say i'm representing south korea a little more now.

187sks

Didn't mean to interrupt the updates. Glad you got another engine in their for a great price. I've considered getting another 1.6l but since the transmission is also giving me trouble (grinds second bad even with fresh MT-90 now) I think I'm going with either a Beta + Beta trans or a 2.4l Theta + Theta trans. My budget is leaning towards the Beta though since engine and trans are only around $1k typically where a Theta + 5 speed trans runs about $2500 and I would still have to solve out the CVVT issue.

Good luck on Sunday. It's been a bad period of time for Accent engines blowing.

mr.autox

here is another late update:
when the car was down I still attended a race at the cumberland airport. I had my lc ready to go but I was hoping someone would give me a co-drive for the weekend. Paul(gimp) helped me out big time and gave me a co-drive in his bmw 318ti. A quick mod list off the top of my head

intake/axle-back exhaust
ground controls
koni yellows
vorshlag camber plates
big front bar/ no rear bar
225 dunlop z1s shaved
schroth harness

He runs it in st class and I have to say i'm impressed with how easy the car was to drive once I remembered to turn the damn traction control off. It has good grip but it if you get on the throttle too soon it will push just like a front drive car. I co-drove with paul's gf kate and was hoping not to get trounced. Paul got lucky and got a co-drive in a cobra replica with a vortech blower making 475 whp.

here's how my runs went:

1st run: 59.697
not to bad for doing the whole run with the traction control on oops

2nd run: 57.570
remembered to turn off traction control and picked up 2 seconds who would have thought it

3rd run: 57.486
I picked up another tenth trying to get used to the car

4th run: 56.965
I found some time just being a little smoother in the slower sections I took the lead in st on this run time to go for broke

5th run: 59.002-off course
well I pushed as hard as I could and it was a little too much. I oversteered coming through the fastest section on course and couldn't correct in time and missed a gate, then missed another doing the same thing at the end of the course. Oh well it was fun anyway

I ended up doing much better than planned I won st class, I was 66th overall out of 101 drivers and finished 39th on pax.

paul had a good day too for driving such a ridiculous car he finished 19th overall with a 31st on pax.

thanks again to paul and kate for letting me beat on the bmw for a day.
here are some pictures of myself and paul driving our stolen cars.

mr.autox

New update time:
I figured it was about time to get back into some action after seeing some of the best drivers on the east coast at the dc prosolo. I got the car up and running again friday the 19th. I took it easy to break in the new clutch and make sure nothing was going to blow up on me again. Everything seemed good to go so I was ready to race again.

My next event was in lancaster, pa with the susquehanna region scca at park city mall. This was my first time at this site so I wasn't sure what to expect. I was pleased when I showed up and saw a pretty technical course for such a small lot. My only concern was how dirty the course was. Temps were good and I was running in the 2nd heat so the course should get sweeped a bit.

here's how my runs went:

1st run: 53.365
i tried to lay down a quick run my first time out and was very happy with how fast the run turned out. The car was running good but I was getting some oil smoke out the exhaust through the last sweeper, time to replace that pcv valve. The course was still really dirty but i'd have to make the best out of it.

2nd run: 54.210 -off course
somehow I ended up on the wrong side of a slalom, guess I wasn't looking ahead enough

3rd run: 53.543+1=55.543
I tagged a cone somewhere on course but i'm still not as fast as that 1st run

4th run: 53.849+1=55.849
PA is unlucky for me I guess. I'm really cone happy when i'm racing with susquehanna region. The car was pushing a little more than I liked but it got cloudy and cooler so I think my tires were a little cold.

Well it wasn't what I expected but I had to rely on my 1st run which surprisingly was my fastest even without the cones. The car held up well except for my exhaust which broke a hanger sometime on the drive up or during the event(don't know which).

I was curious to see how I did in class and was surprised at the end of the day when there was only 1 driver left that could beat me. I left the event not knowing how things turned out. I got to check the results on tuesday and to my surprise my quick time stuck and I had won fsp. Even better was I placed 12th overall out of 109 drivers and ended up 9th on pax. This is my best result to date. Things seem to being looking up hopefully they will continue without any hiccups.

I was more proud of the amount of respect the car and I earned at the event that day. Being that it was at a mall there was a large group of spectators many of them who were naysayers. I overheard quite a few negative comments from spectators about hyundais before I had my runs and had a lot of fans after my runs. I think I spent more time talking to people after my runs than I did racing during the day.

here is the only pic I could find from the event, thanks to whomever took it



Next race i'm back at fedex field for the 3rd championship event.

187sks

Wow, amazing results! Good job!

The BMW looks like fun.

Last time I ran I ran in ST. I think I came in 34th out of 35 if I remember right. lol.