mav1178
09-09-2004, 04:00 PM
Yes, yet another post about drifting… it’s all about drifting these days. Anyhow…
I participated in the 3rd round of Formula Drift at Infineon Raceway (Sears Point) in July… it was certainly an eye-opener for me. I learned a lot about adapting to different tracks, and I also found out that I had a long ways to go before I can say I have come close to mastering drifting with a KA. That said, being that the event was at Irwindale (less than 35 minutes away from my house) made everything SO MUCH EASIER in terms of logistics… the mere fact that I can break down at the track and not worry about getting my car home was in itself a huge sigh of relief.
Thursday 8/26 there was a practice event at Irwindale; it was open only to Formula D participants and any teams that needed extra testing. The course layout was pretty much …. D1 again. I mean, there really isn’t any other way to run Irwindale, no big deal. The first two or three laps out, I was scared of the wall. I had run the course at Irwindale before, but it was also with the cones much farther in and more margin for error… this time around, the inside cones were set up closer to the infield concrete wall, and I got intimidated by the walls… I couldn’t figure out what was wrong until I got out after the third run or so, and watched some of the other drivers drive the course. They were on the throttle much longer than I was, and downshifted way deeper into the sweeper than me. I then sucked it up, went all-out for one run, and surprisingly was able to finish the entire sweeper! The way I drove the course was 3rd gear entry into the first clipping point, clutch kick, full throttle throughout the transition point at start/finish, then more WOT until at least 1/3 into the sweeper, ride the car and downshift into 2nd gear, then throttle modulation the rest of the way… I actually got quite comfortable with the course, and was able to improve my line by the end of the practice session. I ended up saving my tires so I can drive on them on Sunday without having to change the setup of the car… to me, it was perfect.
Saturday was a frantic struggle to…. Well, nothing. Got my tools together, relaxed during the day, and generally did nothing. My buddy Benson, however, wasn’t so lucky. He blew the #2 cylinder of the SR in the white Kaaz USA car, and had to scramble last-minute to get his own black Sileighty together to be able to compete on Sunday. Saturday was spent swapping harness/ECU, installing the Autopower cage, and a bunch of other stuff. Yikes. Thank goodness my KA has been reliable so far… in fact, to say that my KA has been reliable is an understatement. Other than a few heater hose/core issues over the past 20 months or so, I have *never* had a problem with the engine in terms of power or consistency of performance. Consistent in making low power!!!
My car setup, in case some of you were wondering:
KA24DE
JWT ECU
5Zigen Pro Racer 80mm exhaust
AEM intake
PDM test pipe (2.25” I.D.)
KG/mm suspension
Cusco arms (some)
Whiteline anti-roll bars
Custom cage, Bride seat, Takata harness, Sparco Tech 5 suit, Bell helmet
17x8.5” 5Zigen FN-01R w/ 225/45-17 Yokohama AVS ES100 ~33PSI
16x8.5” Watanabe RS-8 w/ 205/55-16 Yokohama AVS ES100 ~31PSI
Nothing special about my setup… quite simple compared to the rest of the field actually. But a lot of folks assume I have SR or a lot more power…. And that’s fine with me.
Sunday, get to the track around… 9AM or so. Driver’s meeting at 11AM, and since I was not a part of any booth I showed up very late and almost didn’t do anything prior to the start of practice. My “pit crew” Marc M. and Jayson P. helped me unload the tools, set up the tent, put on my test pipe, and after the driver’s meeting I went out for my first practice runs of the day.
It was incredibly hot that day, probably a good 90-95 degrees even prior to noontime. Everyone in the pits was cooked. I had to go on the track with more than two bottles of water/Gatorade in my car… and that’s just for a few laps. I was worried about overheating, but the Koyo radiator held up surprisingly well. The first few laps out, it was the same as the day before… just driving like normal, nothing fancy/special about the way I drove. By the middle of the practice session, more people started to fill the stands and line up near the fence, and it started to make me nervous. Plus, I was sooo tired from the lack of sleep the night before, I dozed off between runs…. Not exactly the best but I kind of had no choice.
I fine-tuned the line I was taking, because in order to do good at Irwindale I had to enter the sweeper with as much speed as possible, and carry that throughout the entire course. I did not have the luxury of 300RWHP or good power/weight ratio (I ran essentially with a full interior, and my entire sound system/amp/sub still mounted in the back of the car, and a full tank of gas)… so every little bit counts. By the end of the practice session I was extremely happy with the way I was driving, so I parked the car in the pits and had an early lunch.
Then we waited until 3PM for the start of qualifying. The first person out, Taka Aono from Club4AG, crashed his Corolla on the 2nd lap of qualifying and everything was stopped for about 15 minutes while they cleared the track. That (and the bad lunch) really screwed me over, as I started to feel sick from the heat and the lunch and the agonizing wait. I just wanted to get it over with!!! Finally almost 45 minutes later, I got my chance to qualify…
The format was 1 practice run, followed by two consecutive qualifying runs… in hindsight I should have ran a better line through the sweeper (a higher line w/ late apex), but what has been done is done and I have to accept what I was able to do out on the track. My video:
http://www.worldwidechang.com/Irwindale/AlexFormulaD082904.mpg (15.5MB, right click and “save as”) (video may not work as I am changing DNS settings in the next day or two)
On my last run, I managed to miscalculate and overestimate the ability of the tires to dissipate heat… the tires were cooked from 3 straight runs (in practice we all only ran single laps) and once I got on the gas after the sweeper, the rear tires lit up and the car went way too wide. I ended up swiping the go-kart barriers… kind of embarrassing. But whatever, I had tons of fun and would do it all over again if I could!
Unfortunately I didn’t qualify top 16, but the way I saw it I had no realistic chance. On paper there were more than 16 drivers/cars who could drive better than me on any given day, so I had no mathematical chance to get to the top. Regardless though, it was great to talk to the guys in the pit area afterwards who came up to me and asked about drifting with a KA in Formula D. To me, that was the perfect moment of the day, being able to be out there and talk to fellow enthusiasts…
One note: my buddy Jason Ryan @ Grip Video is currently in training in Hawai’i to be deployed to Iraq for 2 years (and thus he couldn’t make it out to Irwindale), so in his name I sported a sticker to keep him (and our troops) in our thoughts. Just a kind gesture from one enthusiast to another… :grin:
-alex
I participated in the 3rd round of Formula Drift at Infineon Raceway (Sears Point) in July… it was certainly an eye-opener for me. I learned a lot about adapting to different tracks, and I also found out that I had a long ways to go before I can say I have come close to mastering drifting with a KA. That said, being that the event was at Irwindale (less than 35 minutes away from my house) made everything SO MUCH EASIER in terms of logistics… the mere fact that I can break down at the track and not worry about getting my car home was in itself a huge sigh of relief.
Thursday 8/26 there was a practice event at Irwindale; it was open only to Formula D participants and any teams that needed extra testing. The course layout was pretty much …. D1 again. I mean, there really isn’t any other way to run Irwindale, no big deal. The first two or three laps out, I was scared of the wall. I had run the course at Irwindale before, but it was also with the cones much farther in and more margin for error… this time around, the inside cones were set up closer to the infield concrete wall, and I got intimidated by the walls… I couldn’t figure out what was wrong until I got out after the third run or so, and watched some of the other drivers drive the course. They were on the throttle much longer than I was, and downshifted way deeper into the sweeper than me. I then sucked it up, went all-out for one run, and surprisingly was able to finish the entire sweeper! The way I drove the course was 3rd gear entry into the first clipping point, clutch kick, full throttle throughout the transition point at start/finish, then more WOT until at least 1/3 into the sweeper, ride the car and downshift into 2nd gear, then throttle modulation the rest of the way… I actually got quite comfortable with the course, and was able to improve my line by the end of the practice session. I ended up saving my tires so I can drive on them on Sunday without having to change the setup of the car… to me, it was perfect.
Saturday was a frantic struggle to…. Well, nothing. Got my tools together, relaxed during the day, and generally did nothing. My buddy Benson, however, wasn’t so lucky. He blew the #2 cylinder of the SR in the white Kaaz USA car, and had to scramble last-minute to get his own black Sileighty together to be able to compete on Sunday. Saturday was spent swapping harness/ECU, installing the Autopower cage, and a bunch of other stuff. Yikes. Thank goodness my KA has been reliable so far… in fact, to say that my KA has been reliable is an understatement. Other than a few heater hose/core issues over the past 20 months or so, I have *never* had a problem with the engine in terms of power or consistency of performance. Consistent in making low power!!!
My car setup, in case some of you were wondering:
KA24DE
JWT ECU
5Zigen Pro Racer 80mm exhaust
AEM intake
PDM test pipe (2.25” I.D.)
KG/mm suspension
Cusco arms (some)
Whiteline anti-roll bars
Custom cage, Bride seat, Takata harness, Sparco Tech 5 suit, Bell helmet
17x8.5” 5Zigen FN-01R w/ 225/45-17 Yokohama AVS ES100 ~33PSI
16x8.5” Watanabe RS-8 w/ 205/55-16 Yokohama AVS ES100 ~31PSI
Nothing special about my setup… quite simple compared to the rest of the field actually. But a lot of folks assume I have SR or a lot more power…. And that’s fine with me.
Sunday, get to the track around… 9AM or so. Driver’s meeting at 11AM, and since I was not a part of any booth I showed up very late and almost didn’t do anything prior to the start of practice. My “pit crew” Marc M. and Jayson P. helped me unload the tools, set up the tent, put on my test pipe, and after the driver’s meeting I went out for my first practice runs of the day.
It was incredibly hot that day, probably a good 90-95 degrees even prior to noontime. Everyone in the pits was cooked. I had to go on the track with more than two bottles of water/Gatorade in my car… and that’s just for a few laps. I was worried about overheating, but the Koyo radiator held up surprisingly well. The first few laps out, it was the same as the day before… just driving like normal, nothing fancy/special about the way I drove. By the middle of the practice session, more people started to fill the stands and line up near the fence, and it started to make me nervous. Plus, I was sooo tired from the lack of sleep the night before, I dozed off between runs…. Not exactly the best but I kind of had no choice.
I fine-tuned the line I was taking, because in order to do good at Irwindale I had to enter the sweeper with as much speed as possible, and carry that throughout the entire course. I did not have the luxury of 300RWHP or good power/weight ratio (I ran essentially with a full interior, and my entire sound system/amp/sub still mounted in the back of the car, and a full tank of gas)… so every little bit counts. By the end of the practice session I was extremely happy with the way I was driving, so I parked the car in the pits and had an early lunch.
Then we waited until 3PM for the start of qualifying. The first person out, Taka Aono from Club4AG, crashed his Corolla on the 2nd lap of qualifying and everything was stopped for about 15 minutes while they cleared the track. That (and the bad lunch) really screwed me over, as I started to feel sick from the heat and the lunch and the agonizing wait. I just wanted to get it over with!!! Finally almost 45 minutes later, I got my chance to qualify…
The format was 1 practice run, followed by two consecutive qualifying runs… in hindsight I should have ran a better line through the sweeper (a higher line w/ late apex), but what has been done is done and I have to accept what I was able to do out on the track. My video:
http://www.worldwidechang.com/Irwindale/AlexFormulaD082904.mpg (15.5MB, right click and “save as”) (video may not work as I am changing DNS settings in the next day or two)
On my last run, I managed to miscalculate and overestimate the ability of the tires to dissipate heat… the tires were cooked from 3 straight runs (in practice we all only ran single laps) and once I got on the gas after the sweeper, the rear tires lit up and the car went way too wide. I ended up swiping the go-kart barriers… kind of embarrassing. But whatever, I had tons of fun and would do it all over again if I could!
Unfortunately I didn’t qualify top 16, but the way I saw it I had no realistic chance. On paper there were more than 16 drivers/cars who could drive better than me on any given day, so I had no mathematical chance to get to the top. Regardless though, it was great to talk to the guys in the pit area afterwards who came up to me and asked about drifting with a KA in Formula D. To me, that was the perfect moment of the day, being able to be out there and talk to fellow enthusiasts…
One note: my buddy Jason Ryan @ Grip Video is currently in training in Hawai’i to be deployed to Iraq for 2 years (and thus he couldn’t make it out to Irwindale), so in his name I sported a sticker to keep him (and our troops) in our thoughts. Just a kind gesture from one enthusiast to another… :grin:
-alex