Dr. Marus or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the RB26DETT

[MarusGTR]

A little late and off topic but how did you like Malta?I was there this past summer !

Being a guy used to drive 15 mins to get milk, Malta was like another world. I was staying at a small friendly family-operated hotel and would only have to do brisk walks to the conference center and to other hotels where I had made friends. I'd usually grab a few fruits from the mobile fruit stands everywhere I went, especially when I'd wake early in the morning to go the conference center all prepped up.

It was... refreshing. I'm very grateful for the experience.

I was there in July, if you were too, its too bad we were oblivious to it! You could of joined us scientists sharing a couple cheap wine bottles on the beach at sundown.

PS: As much as I did like this new world, being around 90% teenagers partying 24/7 just made me feel -old-. I was in Saint-Julians so you can imagine how it was at night.

[DJ]

A little late and off topic but how did you like Malta?I was there this past summer !

[MarusGTR]

Thanks I'll take a look. As for my lines, like for example at no.7, I kinda got in the apex in too early to have less load on the tires while steering (keep the arc straighter but slower). Pretty much all of my speed/lines reflect this... when I started getting more ballsey my lines started getting more late/arced but then my control arm said no, not happening.

[bobbo]

Thought I'd share this vid if you don't mind Marc. It's from a lapping day the year before so a fair bit less power, worn out rear diff and crappy AMS pads plus my friends Dad on board.
I got black flagged because I forgot to put my window up.
The camera position gives a good idea of roughly where I brake (deeper with no one onboard) and the line I like to use.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=FK0Z8vNRGSo&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DFK0Z8vNRGSo%26

[bobbo]

Also, you may notice that Bobbo's GTR is not only mint, its laced with magic. It came out from the dirt road fresh as a rose while I came out like I had done the Paris-Dakar.

LOL!

BTW I like that pic you took of me. Don't suppose you could email me a copy of it? docz1@hotmail.com

Next year if I'm around and you can make it out to some lapping days we'll put some radios in the cars and take turns following each other. It'll give you a good opportunity to see the lines from a good perspective and I can follow you and point out any areas where you could try something different.
From your video you are doing really well and there are only a few corners where you're off the ideal line (although safe). Going into 7 you are tight IMO but it's a tricky corner and takes BALLS to really cook through it. I'm still learning that sequence after 4. I'm sure I can get more speed through there.
That being said I'm almost to the point where safety is becoming a concern.
Keep doing what you're doing and I'm subscribed to this thread. A great balance passion, education, entertainment and cheeze

[MarusGTR]

^ read new chapter first

Here's some track footage. It's embarrasingly slow but gotta start somewhere. And I guess I was right of being a little cautious after all.

[MarusGTR]

ASCC Time Attack 2012 - Part 2



The rest of the day went out smoothly and was a good time. I got my competition license, I met a few more people, got some more tips from Bobbo, even got to ride shotgun in his Legacymobile for a spin around the track.

Bobbo was nearly ejected from the car as my passenger door C hinge started getting loose from the Gs, good times.

Still, something at the back of my head was holding me back. While I'd pick up quick on the technical corners of the track, I would still be horribly slow through fast apexes. I was holding the more experienced drivers of the field back. Like I had mentioned, I'm far from a carefree driver. It doesn't help that I drive my cars like their part of my body, I feel every nook and cranny shake, flex, etc.

I usually can't disconnect that part of my head that keeps simulating racing lines, scrub zones, friction factors, G forces and chassis load distribution in real time. It didn't help I could never seem to rise to my own technical expectations, "you scrubbed too much, too slow in, sloppy out, again, again, AGAIN", I was too quick on putting my driving skills in doubt. The two straights were the exception; you would simply mash the gas and let her rip, which I did but it wasn't enough to cut on my overall time.

The crash I witnessed also put some doubt into the integrity of my GTR. Newsflash, I had bought her for 8000$ taxes in from some middle-eastern accented dealer. I had fixed her up bit by bit with what I could. But it was too easy to consider that I could of missed some faulty hardware, or had the improper tools/technique on some jobs. She was old, she had an old engine.

This stayed with me all day, even so that back at Bobbo's for the night I kept rolling back simulations in the back of my mind. I think it was just my way of trying to rationalize some way of going past my limits, my fear.

I was sucking all the enjoyment out of my dream of racing.



The next morning, Bobbo talked tech while eating breakfast and prepared for the Time Attack. I had slept well and I had come to a resolution: I was going to push myself today. Bobbo, participating to the series, was rolling with this GTR and I'd have some kind of baseline to compare with. My friends had left for Moncton the night before so it was just him and me.

So after fueling my GTR and the jerrycan, grabbed some grub and a pack of water bottles we went on the highway for some GTR dogfighting. I had a trick up my sleeve and I didn't even know it; I could cloud Bobbo in a black smokescreen with my low 10 AFRs.

Again, we made it at the track and registered, tagged, etc.



Pictures are courtesy of a track acquaintance that was doing the T-A with an 'eagle eye' STi.

So back at the track, Bobbo made a point of telling me I was crazy to still run the boost restrictor. He had a point. I had kept it in to conserve the piston rings but everything pointed to a healthy engine. The real argument here was that raising boost would lean my AFRs and running too rich was detrimental to engine life/performance.



So we did it, took the little bugger out. Kept it as a souvenir. On a few practice laps out I couldn't see my boost increase on the gauge but AFRs had gone from wonky high 9 low 10 to solid high 10. The wideband was pulling its money's worth.

Also, you may notice that Bobbo's GTR is not only mint, its laced with magic. It came out from the dirt road fresh as a rose while I came out like I had done the Paris-Dakar.



Interestingly, my hotlaps in the practice had earned me the pole position in my group starting grid. Because the track is extremely technical and narrow, passing is only allowed on the front and rear straights, so the TA starting grid is set by hotlap times so to not create bottlenecks.

Bobbo ran in the other Group first while I would be marshalling/flagging turn no.7.

Driving like a beast, as usual.



I was paired with a guy driving the most backyard racecar I had even layed my eyes upon. Don't take me wrong though, I absolutely loved it. A middle aged american, he had built a SR20DET 510 with his son as a project, having himself built a 510 with his own father as a kid. He was running intercooler-less a few months before coming to AMP.

Custom parts included a hood spaced with slices of rubber, a coke bottle coolant overflow tank, a shifter ball wrapped with real skin just tied together at the shaft. That's the stuff that's on top of my head but that thing was pure art.



Being at turn 7 was both a gift and a curse. I could see why I had been lagging people behind. I would usually scrub a good amount of speed before getting into the apex. But from my perch, I could see that most wouldn't even touch the brakes.

Pure insanity. Especially two of them, one with an old early 90s 3 series that was floored to the limiter at turn 7, the other, this Evo IV:



Both myself and guy were a little worried about our turns coming up. But we went at it.

Turns out he had some major balls. He had picked up so much slack observing turn 7 from the perch that he was pushing his 510 to the limits, enough so that one of my sessions ended in red flag. He had spun out at no. 7.

The red flag was also bad news for me. I had been demoted in the grid again. I was back to my old antics of overthinking. I was getting increasingly frustrated at getting blue flagged (back off for faster driver overtake) in my 2nd session that I finally decided to let things go.

I got back into the pits and checked the car a bit, torqued the lugs, made sure tire pressure was good. I had even thread wear, just a hair off the sidewall wear indicator.

Time for round 3.

After heating up my tires I pushed her, shaved off 2 seconds off that lap alone and I was just getting started. But then I noticed some vibration off my front left wheel. Thinking my lug nuts were loose I got into the pits, jumped the barrier to get my gear and torqued them down again. Since I had been in the pits during my timed session, I was DQed and drove the GTR out of the pits and into the Paddock. This is where I met the STi friend, as being in the other running group he was in his waiting period, and we started talking.

Turns out the guy in the Evo IV was shattering everybody's times... and it had been his summer on the track and first time in a T-A. I must say, ignorance is bliss. No flying fucks given. He was eating his sidewalls, pushing his light car like a tank. And it was working.

Anyway round 4 came up and on my warmup lap I again noticed some wobble but since I told myself it was paranoia, I pushed on to my hot lap where the wheel started to shake uncontrollably under rightward corners. I had to DQ myself and slowly went to the pits.

I was 600kms from home and I had nearly lost a wheel. What could of been the problem? The track was closing soon and my options were limited. So I borrowed some tools from other drivers and lifted her up. Everything was in place. My STi friend couldn't even see where I could of gotten the wobble from. But that's when I grabbed the kingpin arm and gave it some muscle. It had major play from the top.

The goddamn AMS control arm had gone loose in its sleeve.

Basically somehow, the control arm made contact with the wheel well and one of the clamps got crushed, causing the clamp gap to expand and making the main shaft loose in the process. By the time that was found, the T-A had ended and people were starting to pack up. I had missed most of the T-A. And I needed to find some fix as the track was closing.

With Bobbo lending a hand, he found a way to secure the clamp back in place for me to limp back home.

I wasn't too happy about my day. I hope I'll have the chance to make it up for it someday.

[bobbo]

You went to Malta! Tough to beat for sure.
As for any Poles I guess it would depend on how much they're into history.

[MarusGTR]

^Thanks for clearing that up and sorry to any Poles reading, not too sure how they'd appreciate my intepretation of them sounding german lol

Guess I need to travel more eh? :P

[bobbo]

The car was a GT500 apparently an animal making around 700hp. The "German" accent is a Polish accent and the passenger was the owner. His helmet hit the windshield as a result of the seat breaking.
Hard to keep your foot down when in your periphery there a badly mangled car off on the side of the track.
Needless to say that car is gone but the motor was salvaged.

[MarusGTR]

^ Nope, it was in early september.

Sorry for the poor grammar guys, I fixed some of the structure. I'll finish the story soon.

[amnash]

ya the bridges in Hali can get a little crazy sometimes and having a r/h car wouldn't help, that made me laugh about throwing the loonie at least youre a good shot or it could have got kind of expensive if you kept missing lol

this isnt the same time i was there was it?

[Rush_in]

and then what happened?

[MarusGTR]

ASCC Time Attack 2012 - Part 1

If you recall the ASCC was hosting two of its Time Attack specials (#2 and #3) with a day just before for open lapping. I would only be participating in TA#2 as a way to gauge myself and the car, since I could not afford to participate in the series.

And since I didn't have my competition license, going to the open lapping day would kill two birds with one stone; I'd get to know my new GTR better (new brakes, new suspension, etc) and get some practice while I could get an official as a passenger to write off my license.

So, as I was going to be in Halifax for a few days and the event was somewhat of a proving ground for myself I asked a few friends of mine if they wanted to join up for support. Two of them said yes, as one is a Halifax native he could see his sister and the other was simply interested in joining and would be hosted by the other friend. So by my arrival in Moncton a day before the open lapping, cue a comedic turn of events.

Disclamer, from here on there's not a lot of pictures since I forgot my camera in Moncton. That and my friends took awesome footage of me that ended up being corrupted by GoPro's poor shutoff/file management. Its going to be text heavy.

Anyway, their girlfriends joined in, causing the cars in the group to get different departure times. Friend A left early for his sister's, but being GPSless in a stripped out RHD and being as comfortable in Halifax as a deer looking at headlights I'd be trailing Friend B who was equipped with GPS. Halfway across NS, myself and Friend B decide to split up; I was running out of gas and had to fuel up. Since I didn't want to make Friend B any more late, I'd split up and go to Bobbo's while Friend B would continue on to Friend A. I stopped at the first Shell I saw from an overpass.

So I called up Bobbo and turns out that as usual I had been too late and he was already out with the Mrs. So this meant I had to catch up with Friend B before I'd lose any recognizable road markers. I look at the pump, there's sign taped to it: V-Power shortage in the maritimes. I then raced off to the closest gas station, it had premium, I fuelled up, hopped back in the car.

"Where's my goddamn key?" I use my GTR key on its own, no rings, so it slips easily in my pocket.

I get out the car, start looking everywhere, pockets, under the seats. I lose a good 10 minutes looking like a possum turning everything upside down. I get frustrated and pat myself down again. You know that little useless midget pocket? Yeah the key had slipped in there so snug I couldn't feel it.

So with the RB all fueled up I roared back on the highway and called my friend to see if he's still on the main 4XX highway, which he was. I then tell him to get on the side of the road near a mile marker and put his hazards on so he'd be easy to spot. Night had creped up on me way too quickly. So I start to go into scanning mode, trying to figure where he could be by exit numbers and rolling mile markers with my limited field of vision. Then pretty much where I'd expect them to be, I see a car with hazards on the side of the road.

Remember what I said about my N1s not having lows? It makes it hard to recongize cars with only fogs...

So I stop right behind the car, only to realize its not the right one by the time I reached the rear bumper. Being RHD, I could see the occupants, a guy my age and his wife on the passenger side of the car looking a bit distressed. So I roll my window down and asked if they needed help. Guy, looking a bit confused to the RHD/samaritanism comes up to me and tells me they're ok, they were just a little shook up because their older son had power puked everywhere in the car and they had no way of dealing with it. I laugh and looked behind to my stripped out cabin where I had stashed all my track gear and pull out a roll of blue shop towels.

The guy just lit up, I gave him as much as he thought he needed. In an understandable hurry, I left them to sort things out with the RB roaring, to find Friend B just barely a km later. I still feel really bad for making them wait like that.

So, Friend B takes point and I follow his trail, something that got harder to do as we went deeper into Halifax, to a point where we got to the bridge pay toll, especially since it was multi-lane tolls converging to two lanes. If I got out to pay, I risked losing Friend B as they were unaware of my handicap. So I just drove up to the toll, rolled the window passenger window down and made a loonie rimshot from the RHD driver seat, where I proceeded to dump the clutch when the light went green to cut in front of an SUV that would of blocked my line of sight.

All said and one, we finally group up, and with Bobbo's help we hung out at a local pub, ate huge peanut butter burgers and drank homebrew. I then went to Bobbo's where I crashed for the night.

Next morning, cue Days of Thunder theme song.



Source and for other pictures of the event, hit link.

Sung by no other than Whitesnake's lead singer. Coincidence? I think not. Sadly turns out I'm the polar opposite of Cole Trickle. I'll get to that later.

So with everyone registered and tagged we were ready to go out on the track. Sadly, for my license I got paired with a very conservative official. That wouldn't help my times but I just needed to show some consistency, which I didn't at first; my first time in corner no.2 my line got wonky really quickly because of the different suspension and considerably better brakes, following with some powersliding, which he didn't appreciate too much. In turn no.7 I attempted to get a little ballsy and hit the breaks late so I'd release just before the apex but with my poor experience resulted my my rear end getting loose and I had to correct the resulting oversteer.

We then got into the pits and let the other group get some laps in.

During that time a car got in late; a late model convertible Roush (or GT500 Bobbo?) mustang that had just been out the shop for a major track-oriented overhaul. The owner matched the pricey car, a rich thin short bloke with a thick german accent in a full racing suit. The car had been uncooperative all week after multiple problems popping up, including an ECU problem the same morning, causing its tardiness. The car simply didn't want out.

And my group was called back in. I went out with the official again and merged in the field right behing the mustang with no one behind me for at least 1/2 a lap. By the time I caught up at the no.6 crest (this is where cars get pushed the hardest for the back straightaway, you have to gun the engine after the slight lift off)...

...I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

The mustang was on the straightaway, barreling towards the right into a dirt bank so hard that I saw chunks of lawn explode as the huge mass of steel flung up in the air like foil and land hard on its roof*. By the time I two-foot stopped I was the only car still on the track, the marshalls had called the other cars in the pits, I was the only one left. Being that it was quite an unusual event, the official got out of the car and instructed me to get a fire extinguisher from the main tower (against the regulations but I complied, it was an isolated crash).

*As I recalled the roll cage had been severly bent and one of the passengers' helmets had gone through the windshield, but I can't recall actually seeing the car up or upsidedown. It was blur.

By the time I got back at red flag speed there was a truck crew tending to the driver and co-pilot and other drivers were tending to dusting off the track. The convertible's roll cage had done its job, the driver was up and talking to officials about what had happened. With a little CSIing were quick to notice that the rear differential, which had been left on the track where it had been found, sheared right off before the car even hit the dirt. One of the traction arms had been sheared off, the other looked suspiciously untouched as if it had never been actually secured.

Basically, the crest had caused a shift in weight distribution and by punching the gas, the diff locking up and with only one traction arm holding the assembly, sheared off and flung the rear of the car up in the air. Since they were going at speed, the rear slammed back onto the pavement and flung the car uncontrollably towards the bank.

The car really didn't want to go out that day.

By the time the track reopened, my friends arrived with subs for lunch, missing all the action. They still got to see the carcass that had been left there as a warning for the rest of the day.

[MarusGTR]

^ Its your typical off the counter dry powder extinguisher. It was a remnant of my old apartment and I paired it with an old dirty extinguisher mount I found in the basement. Its ABC, so it does oil and accelerants.

Since I didn't want to start drilling holes in the floorpan willy nilly for a position that'll be likely temporary, I opted to use the shaggy OEM carpet and velcro instead. So I contact-cemented some pretty solid industrial velcro strips to the underside of the mount.