01POV does Wakefield ! my 1st wakefield experience

[zco]

It’s a long read, so be prepared to set aside 5-10minutes at work haha

As some of you may know, i had recently purchased BarefootBonzai's 01POV EK K20A, and thought it'd be good to show off all his hard work in NSW.. so i took it to wakefield lol.

heres a pic of the EK and my mates black EG

Preparation
Before I headed to the track, I spent shitload of money prepping it, which consisted of buying the right oils, brakes, tyres and etc. I stocked up on Castrol edge 5-30 (which was on sale at REPCO for $35/bottle , got hooked up from my mate at Autobarn with some Motul RBF600 Brake fluid, Motul Gear FF type2 LSD MTF, and New coolant (Thanks KOVAL). Thanks to JDMYard who supplied me with a Baffled Sump, and a New Hamp oil filter. Used DBA 6x6wiper slot 4000series rotors, Used Endless CCA pads from Kiet and used semi slicks from Chi.

(Servicing was done at JDMYard with the help of Marc/BADHBT, Yonas and Z10. A Huge thanks to them as they helped prep this car)

When i say Used tyres, I really mean they were Used, well old. They were mounted to my 16x7 42+ Desmond Regamasters

Fronts: RE55S 205/55/R16 which were built in 2003. (yes, they were the wrong size and 6years old LOL)
Rears: RE540 205/50/R16 which were built in 2002. (yes wrong size again, and these were 7 years old haha. the RE55S are the replacement of these tyres)

-These set of tyres were all i could grab my hands on at the time, and they were rock hard..

Anyway, I had mounted the wheels onto the car, headed out to JAX Tyres in Liverpool for a wheel alignment. Being a complete noob at the track, i didnt know what was required for camber, and toe settings, so i took the advice of the worker there.

These were the settings he set it to:
FRONT: Toe Out 1mm each side with -2.8degrees of Camber
REAR: Toe In 0.7mm each side with -1.4degrees of Camber

-Those that know their alignment settings can already predict how the day will turn out lol. The correct settings i should have used are:
Front: Toe out 1mm each side , -3.0 camber
Rear: Toe OUT 1mm each side , -1.6 camber

Ive never driven at Wakefield before, so this is my 1st experience. With those alignment settings in consideration. I headed down to Wakefield Park, and the weather was just pathetic. It was raining, temperature was about 7-11degrees for the day, and I wasn't looking forward to driving in the rain..

update next post soon

[zco]

The Track
it was time to see how fine of a machine Barefoot had built, and from my experiences so far, I'm pretty confident it wasn't going to be a let down.
I went out for a total of 5 sessions

**Session 1
The ground was completely wet.. like seriously wet. It was still raining when I came out. Had the wipers on and all.. did a few warm up laps which were useless as the tyres were hard rock, the ground was completely ice cold and i added to the fact that i get too excited, i decided to give it a few hits. As expected, I kept spinning out in the wet. I didn't care. It was so much fun, i didn't even look at the lap timer haha. This went on for about 15 to 20minutes, and was probably the best time I've had with a car in a while lol. (I did feel safer speeding regardless of conditions as i was at the track.. spinning out at 100km/h was a good adrenalin rush). I headed into the pits after the session ended, and looked at the lap timer.. they were filled with 1:30's and 1:40's, with a best of 1:29 HAHA. Boy was i in trouble..

**Session 2
The ground was still wet, but it had stopped raining which was a good sign. I headed out again, thinking that the rear was too stiff, hence all the spinning out from Session 1, so i completely softened the rear dampers up. Dampers were set on 0/12 for the rear, and 4/12 on the fronts. For the first 2 laps i spun out even more, and these were warm up laps. So into the pits i went and changed it back..5/12 front, 6/12 rear. It definately felt much better. Didnt spin out (as much lol). The lap timer started to read 1:23-1:25 in the wet, and i thought that i'd start taking it serious. I began making up my own lines, (passengers weren’t allowed so no one showed me the lines) and as the ground started to dry up abit, i manged to clock a 1:17:6X.. not too bad for a 1st timer in the wet i thought..
**Session 3
The sun was out so it started to dry.. thank god! I started to get tired of doing 1:20's..

I quickly learnt from others around me that I forgot to check my tyre pressure, and little do you know, they were on 40psi COLD. What a noob i was. I got told to put it on 30psi cold, (but i think i should have tried 33-34 cold first). We didn’t have a pump so couldn’t jack it back up so that was a let down..

Anyway, so i went out for the 3rd session. Pulled out some happy smooth laps, spinning off the track 3 times that session. Which was a huge improvement over the last 2 sessions.

I think it was the combo of a better pressure in tyres, and the rear suspension being set properly. There was a Mini cooper S that i had my eye on for this session.. and set myself a personal target to chase him down. the gap between us decreased as every lap went on. The lap times for five consecutive laps of 1:16, 1:16, 1:15, 1:14 and then a 1:13

Thorughout this session, i noticed the car felt really wobbly and unstable in the rear. I think it was because of the old tyres, or the sussy, so I thought I’d be a pro, and stiffen it up more for the next session.
Front from 5/12 to 6/12
Rear from 6/12 to 7/12

**session 4
The ground was mostly dry by now, probably 90% of the track looked dry. I was then able to push the car to the limits, and you'd think this is where I’d beat my time, but unfortunately not.
Being able to push my car more, meaning I had to put more pressure on the brakes to stop in time for the turn. Dont get me wrong, the brakes were superb(well at least i thoguht they were). The Fluid and rotor/pad combo held up good. Brakes didnt go spongey, or fade at any time. But there are other aspects of the car that let me down.

I spun out heaps more than last session, but it was more dry. I didn’t understand why, so I just assumed it was my shit driving coz it was my first time. The more and more I pushed it, the more I spun out entering the turn. I started to slowly eliminate possible problems of why I could be going so bad.

When it was partially wet (session3), I couldn’t push it as hard in the corners. When it dried up for session4, which allowed me to pushed the car harder, but when it got to a certain point of the cars limits, the rear end would constantly flicked out. WAY too many times. It was a nightmare to drive.

After the session, I had asked a few guys why my car is behaving as it was. I learnt that Rear toe-in will cause your car’s rear end to flick out when entering a corner. I then realized that its exactly what the guy at the tyre centre had described to me. He said that the rear will flick out more to counteract the understeer of a front wheel drive car.. It made sense to me at the time of the alignment so I trusted him to do his job. But in this case, it wasn’t needed because the handling of the car didn’t understeer. It was the rear that kept flicking out too much which is why I couldn’t push it harder than i already did.

So having learnt that, there was really nothing more i could do but try harder with what i already have. I checked over my car, the oil was still clean, and didnt burn off. Gearbox and clutch held up good, and brake pads were still fine. Rotors didnt change colour, and tyres finally had some heat in them. checked the pressure and it was about 34psi.

*session 5.
Went out and tried my best with what i had. I knew that i couldnt push it any harder because i'd just keep spinning out, but I just couldn’t resist not pushing it, so again, i kept spinning out. LOL. i got really annoyed and realised that i needed some sort of comparison of my noob driving skills. i pulled into the pits and asked a mate of mine to drive for the rest of the session as i observed. He is a more experienced and knowledgeable driver, and has clocked numerous 1:0X's before in several other cars.

He came back after the session had ended and the first thing that came out of his mouth was "this car is ****ed to drive" HAHA i asked him why, and he couldnt get over the fact at how much the rear kept kicking out. He managed to clock 3 easy 1:12:XX laps in the car.. So that was the end of session5, and we called it a day.

Results
Having it been my first time driving around a track, and managed a 1:13:91 on a partly wet ground, with an experienced friend doing 1:12:XX on a more dry surface, I think I did pretty good for what I had..

Wakefield was a huge learning curve. I now have a greater understanding of a car's behaviour on the track. It's a much more safe playground for us to play on, instead of bulleting the car around areas such as OP and RNP

These are the things ive learnt from that day.
-Track/Circuit racing is not easy, and that alot of preparation knowledge and understanding is required to drive.
-It is expensive. Im a student with a part time job, and its not easy on the pocket. This track day burnt a nice hole in my wallet, but the lessons i learnt are worth far more.
-All the issues and headaches before hand, and during the day are definitely worth it !

Things i would change before i head back:
-re-do the alignment to the correct settings
-I'd probably look at a spring rate of about 16kg's all around. These are excellent coilovers, but they didnt compare to the J's Racing ones i had before on my previous EK.
-Get NEW and Correct size semi slicks. These did the job for the day, but obviously could improve.
-If i was to go back with the same coilovers, I'd probably leave the dampers at F:5 and R:6
-Definitely need gauges to tell you your oil temperature and etc.. I was so hesitant to do cool down laps. It was constant thrashing haha

For a more serious track machine
-I’d look at new bushings all round.
-A New camber kit.
-Look into getting a more suited Seat for me.

and Lastly, BarefootBonzai, you built a very exciting machine. All credit goes to you for the amount of time and effort you put into this car. Apart from the wheel alignment settings, it was a fullysikk driving experience.

I strongly urge anyone and everyone to try Wakefield as i cant put into words how exciting, and fun the day was.

I hope that was a good read LOL it felt like forever typing it

[EG5]

Awsome!!!

[jords]

Nice one Zco, good to see a K series doing well.

[burak213]

good job man

[jords]

Is the car still for sale?

[vinnY]

shell is for sale afaik

good going zico, nice to see more people hitting the track from here

[e240]

Great Read - Go Zero Toe on the rear, that would help.

[Slaz]

Well written mate, good read.

[Benson]

Nice write up zco!

You'll learn heaps more when you get more track time and seat time.

[Zilli]

good stuff getting out there Zico, and pretty respectable times considering you've never been out before!

My understanding was negative toe is what would cause the rear to swing around mid coner, IF you got off the gas, i could be wrong though...

i find that a light application of throttle through a corner is what keeps it stable, wheras if you get off it, the car will come around with the shift of weight

[Tegzieboi_BAR]

good stuff getting out there Zico, and pretty respectable times considering you've never been out before!

My understanding was negative toe is what would cause the rear to swing around mid coner, IF you got off the gas, i could be wrong though...

i find that a light application of throttle through a corner is what keeps it stable, wheras if you get off it, the car will come around with the shift of weight

That definitely makes sence to me... need understeer 2 counteract with oversteer and vice versa...

Was a gret read Zico... im plannin on my 1st track day in a couple of months n its given me a great insight n a couple of things 2 look out 4... best of luck in the future runs.

Btw, whats a decent time around this racetrack 4 a n/a honda?