CFR recently updated their website with the results from the June 26 event in Ft. Pierce. Here they are:
Beyond that, we’ve ordered a new clutch cable as our clutch feel has started to get stiff, a sign that the cable is on the way out.
We installed the larger NX2000 brakes onto our SE-R this Sunday, after we retested the braking distances. The average distance of ten stops was 161 ft. While we had the VC2000 hooked up, we also retested the 0-60 time, coming in with an average of 7.6 seconds, about .6 faster than we basedlined the car at.
The brake install was very straightforward, we only needed to trim a little bit of material off of the backing plates for the larger NX2000 caliper brackets to clear. After the brakes were bedded in (using the same type of Carbotech Bobcat pads) and allowed to sit overnight, we retested the 60-0 braking distances. They were shorter by about 5 feet.
Looking at the numbers a little closer, it’s pretty clear that if the original brakes hadn’t faded on the 10th stop, the averages would be even closer. This highlights that big brakes don’t actually help your car stop in shorter distances, you install them for their increased thermal capacity. Your tires and their contact patch are actually more important for braking distances.
Kim and Per competed at the CFR autocross today in Ft. Pierce. Woooweee was that hot. The temperatures were in the 90s with quite a bit of humidity. We wound up cooling down the Falken Azenis RT-615s after every run, as this sweeper intensive course put some serious heat into the rubber. We’re not sure how we wound up, we’ll post the results when we see ‘em!
Our tire pressures wound up being 37 front and 33 rear, that allowed a little bit of oversteer without being uncontrollable. We think that’s why the 15x7s on all four corners are faster than having the 8″ wide rims up front, the car is much more controllable on that hairy edge of handling, you can balance the car between a little bit of oversteer and a little bit of understeer without trouble.
This week we’re going to install the larger calipers and rotors from a NX2000. This morning we painted the calipers as they had been bead blasted when they were rebuilt and were starting to rust.
Last Friday, we noticed a new and substantial oil leak from the front crank pulley seal. This is the same seal that we replaced when we installed the GoFastBits underdrive pulley. Closer examination showed that the pulley actually had a groove dug into it. This, coupled with a prematurely worn seal caused our oil leak. We reinstalled the stock pulley and a new stock sized serpentine belt.
We’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and soon we’ll be looking for our next project car. The car will start in print in the October issue of GRM.
We autocrossed the SE-R in Jacksonville this weekend. Per finished first in STX and while our normal STX competition was at the SEDiv event in Atlanta, we think the car and drivers did pretty well. Kim finished in fourth out of four, but she was under 2.7 seconds behind her co-driver. That’s quite good for such a fast, yet technical course.
You can see the results here.
June 19th Results
The posts on the Civic project car page reminded us that we’ve got a brake upgrade in the works for the Sentra as well. We shaved a few feet off our stopping distance with new Carbotech brake pads. Now we’re going to upgrade to NX2000 rotors and calipers, with fresh Carbotech Bobcats. First we need to rebaseline the stopping distance. We’ll do that next week and then swap out the brakes for the retest. Stay tuned!
We’ve decided to abandon the idea of running the 15x8 wheels on the front of our SE-R. The wider wheel supports the 205/50R15 better, but in reality, only the grip in transitions is improved. So, since we can’t fit the 8’s in the rear, we wind up with a car that is twitchy in slaloms and not any more grippy in sweepers.
Despite a wet forecast (and wet roads), Per and Kim autocrossed the SE-R this Sunday in DeLand. We ran first heat, with wet conditions changing to drying conditions. Per held FTD for a short while and improved another 1.3 seconds, but smacked a cone before the finish. He wound up about 1.5 seconds back from FTDIndex (by our recollection). Kim was 18th on index out of the 42 drivers that were crazy enough to slide around the oddly “muddy” asphalt.
Two sick puppy dogs prevented Per and Kim from autocrossing the SE-R this weekend in Ft. Myers. The dogs are feeling better now, thankfully.
Production of the August issue of GRM and its proofing will also keep Per from attending the Toledo National Tour this upcoming weekend.
And for the hat trick, the first installment of the SE-R will actually start in the October issue of GRM. We ran out of space in the August issue!
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