Week 5 & Week 6: Going Virtual!

Since the March RallyX Event was canceled (too much standing water), and there wasn't much going on in general, I was forced to seek alternative ways to get my racing fix. These two weekends were spent playing my two favorite racing games - GTR2 and Richard Burns Rally. Both of games have fantastic physics and bring you the most realistic racing experience out there. Coupled with a racing wheel, this makes for a good alternative to actual racing when such is just not available.

To keep things productive, there was also a lot of pre-season prep and engine build activity in the past few weeks. The engine build is a secret for now, all I will say is that it is promising to be sweeet!.

08 STI Impressions - good driver / bad driver

2 in 1 off topic post about the thoughts in my head.

2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STI
Car & Driver was back out at the Ice Races this weekend with the 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STI. I've had mixed feelings about the new body style. At first, I jumped on the hater bandwagon - complaining is fun and the pre-release images of the new chassis definitely deserved it. After seeing the car in person, I had to quietly admit to being a closet lover of the new body style all along - sleek, practical, mature, and mechanically superior to the old stuff - how can it be bad?
I'll tell you how - no soul. Soul, in a car, is something that I have not seen any magazine or car show be able to clearly define. But to an enthusiast, soul is everything. Soul is the reason why we drive 20 year old heaps of junk that leave us stranded at most inopportune moments. Soul is the reason why Alpha Romeo's, DSM's, MR2's, and Porsche exist. Soul and character is something that all Subaru Imprezas up to the 2008 model had, and had a lot of. When I went for a ride with one of the Car and Driver guys, I felt like I was in a generic rental car - it was cold, solid, quiet... like a business class hotel room. Despite all of it's mechanical glory, the car does not stir the same kind of emotion I get sitting down into my car, a GD WRX, or an EVO8. I don't think I could ever own one.

Never the less, here is a C&D video of the ice racing goodness i.e. driving a Subaru the way it should be driven.


Good Driver / Bad Driver
I got beat pretty bad yesterday. Sure I still trophied, but 8th out of 25 is not good in my book. I was running times in the 2min range, while the guys in the new STI were in the 1.7's (Results). When I rode with one of them, he took the exact same line I did and was 20 seconds faster. The reason - most likely better tires and better differentials. Well, I think that thinking this way makes me a bad driver. It is very easy to write everything off to hardware, instead of sitting down and thinking about improving your own driving. If you insist on improving your own hardware, the nut behind the wheel is always loose!

Week 4 (March 8th): Real Ice Racing on Saginaw Bay

Why do I say real ice racing? Because, while last time there was a significant amount of snow on top of the bay, this time around - ice rink. Shiny, cold, and very slippery. This made driving become a very strategic exercise - you drive from grippy spot to grippy spot, slow down early, and do slow motion drifts around corners. It can also be somewhat frustrating, when you feel the back end of the car starting to go around... you may only be going 5mph at the moment, but there is no grip, so nothing you do makes any change to the direction of the vehicle.
I think that ice racing, like nothing else, teaches you to think about the effect your right foot has on the dynamics of the car, because that is really all you have. The steering wheel does very little, unless you are going very very slow. In basic terms, here is the strategy I was using to get through corners:

• Engine brake early. Regular brakes are relatively useless as the wheels lock up at the lightest touch.
• Turn in early, although it doesn't really matter, since the front wheel will just push endlessly
• To end said shenanigans blip the throttle to induce lift-off oversteer and get the car pointed in the right direction. This is done before the turn, effectively sliding past the cone sideways.
• Modulate the throttle to accelerate while keeping the car pointed in the right direction.

Good times!

Past, present, future

Let me just give a brief summary of the first few events in the year of motoring.

Week 1 (Feb 16th, 2008): Mini Sno*Drift RallyX
I don't get scared easily. When I went to walk the course at Bob's Family Raceway in Clarsville, MI, on this beautiful February morning - I was scared! The course consistent of a very icey surface with mud-holes, and scary looking chunks of solid ice extracted from said holes. I was glad to have my skid plate on. Despite my initial reaction, the day went smoothly, nobody broke anything, and it was a lot of fun - definitely the most sliding I have ever done at a rallyX. The slippery surface did not keep me from taking the PA lead during the first half of the day. When the surface thawed a bit in the afternoon, however, the Blizzaks started showing their hatred of mud, while the Nokians (I want some!) on Jen's and John's cars kept going strong. Destroying 4 cones after the finish on my last run placed me solidly in 2nd. This just goes to show once again how consistency is the #1 requirement in rally racing.


Week 2 (Feb 21th - 25th): Trip to NC, VIR, NASA, and all sorts of fun
A few weeks ago I went to visit my buddy Ryan in North Carolina, as well as shake off the winter blues off a bit with some VIR (Virginia International Raceway, one of the best 'real' race tracks in the country) action. The road trip down South from Michigan is in itself a motorsports event. The freeway winds its way through the hills of South East Ohio through the mountains of West Virginia and Virginia. I could not resist taking my usual US52 scenic detour up Big Walker Mountain - incredible!
The event at VIR was a full blown NASA race weekend, with not only a circuitcross and HPDE's, but races for pretty much every type of racing NASA does... short things like stage rally. The first day was spent at the skid pad, followed by lots of walking around the paddock and the infield, watching everything from spec Miatas going at it like an angry swarm; to swapped 240's and AE86's drifting sideways at 70-90mph down the hill on the Patriot course.
As for the racing itself, I placed 5/22 in NASA-X E , which I am happy with, considering my very limited on-track experience. The Patriot Course itself is very interesting and challenging. Aspects like drastic elevation changes and the blindness of most of the major corners make it very technical.
The only downside to the trip was having to come back to Michigan, and as if to drive this point home, I-75 was closed in the middle of Detroit due to construction (In the middle of the winter? What are they thinking?!), forcing me to drive around some very much questionable neighborhoods.

Week 3 (March 1st, 2008): Ice Racing on Saginaw Bay

To everyone who has ever driven around looking for a parking lot to do donuts in after a big snow-storm (which I think is about 90% of Subaru owners out there) - find an ice run even near you - NOW. Imagine a huge parking lot - no poles, no curbs, no cops. I don't know why I have never tried this before, it is brilliant, absolutely brilliant!

New format - A year of motoring!

Clearly, the blog did not end up being as 'daily' as I hoped it would. Getting busy with things like Sno*Drift, RallyCross, and a trip down to VIR will do that to you!

However, this gave me an idea for a slightly new format. Allow me to explain it - last spring, when motorsports events were starting up for the season, I looked at my calendar and told a buddy of mine "You know, I can pretty much be racing every single weekend for the next two months"... and I did. Actually, I was autocrossing or rallycrossing pretty much every weekend well into October.

So this year, I'm starting early!

Let the YEAR OF MOTORING begin!