What a weekend trying my hand at time attack with Grid Life’s 2020 Chicago event. It’s been a long time goal of mine to get into competitive track racing, and to see it finally happening – despite all the various setbacks from this year and last – has been truly rewarding. The event actually runs…
Finally back on track after over 8 months since my last track day and crash at the October Autobahn Full Laps, Inc. event. This was a Wednesday evening event, similar to how SCCA runs their PDXs. They went from 530pm to 830pm, the key difference being that this was an open lapping day, meaning the…
With the Evo in Chicago ready for the track day and us in between places, I was still able to get an event in with the daily driver, the Golf R. The car is still seriously underprepped for STH, but not a bad way to get some more seat time in. The only change between…
After the first autocross event in the Golf, the one major thing I wanted to do was eliminate the body roll in the front, which was horrendous. I was really happy with the quality of the H&R rear sway bar, so I got the 24mm adjustable FSB from H&R as well. Everything was shipped to…
First alignment for the Evo since the accident – I’m happy to report that everything came out normal. The car has no weirdness in any of it’s alignment specs, though part of that may be due to how flexible the suspension is to adjust for both camber and caster. Regardless, the car felt great after…
The Evo is finally back at it, at its first event since the accident last year. I’m happy to report that everything is back to normal on the car. I forgot just how fast this thing is. It is just on a different level, both power and handling. Exhausted between work, school, moving, and car…
Direct injection cars, and Audis/VWs in particular, seem to have issues with carbon build-up on the intake valves. As fuel is directly injected into the cylinder, the fuel does not get a chance to clean the valve & port. Below is a good image of the difference between the two: This means that no matter…
After an especially long winter due to Covid, we are BACK (ish)! More on that later. The first event of the year was pushed back quite a bit, but even with the extra time we faced a time crunch to have the cars ready. The Evo is still sitting in the shop, so it was…
Big few days for the Golf – with the M3 gone and the garage spot opened up, the first thing I did was get the Golf on the lift for a brake flush. Since the brake flush annoyingly requires the battery and intake to be removed, there were a few things to get done while…
The M3 is officially gone – sold to a gentleman in Washington. This was probably the best car I’ve owned thus far, with amazingly neutral handling, easy to drift, catch, control, and one of the best motors I’ve ever experienced. The naturally aspirated 414hp V8 pulled strong all the way to its 8300rpm redline, with…
Another new battery for the Evo after the Deka ETX16L died – seems like it had one too many discharges after large periods of sitting with no trickle, from when the car was getting repaired. Short update, as much what I posted here still holds. This battery is slightly bigger, slightly more capacity, 1lb heavier.…
Wrapped up the 4-coat detail work on the Evo today – after washing and claying the car, I let it dry before putting 2 coats of “real” ceramic (small bottle) on it. I let the car cure between each coat, and topped that off with a coat of adam’s ceramic spray kit. Finally, after that…
In keeping with stock aero rules, there’s not a ton to do on the Evo. As the clubs I plan on competing with (smartly) allow any stock aero/body, as in JDM or EDM, an obvious one is the JDM rear bumper for the Evo, which, for the Evo 9, looks much better than the chunky…
Purchased some coilover covers for the Evo from ECS Tuning. These were about a perfect fit on the Ohlins, stretching from the top of the coil to the bottom of the spring perch. I’ll likely remove them for racing, but keep them on during other times I’m driving the car. Doing my best to keep…
New bushings ordered before the Evo’s annual corner balance and alignment – still haven’t taken care of since the accident, but everything should still be straight with the car. Noticed the Whiteline outer tie rod ends were torn, as well as the Superpro duro3741k caster bushings. Not sure if this was due to 4-6 years…
