One Lap in a Yaris

Nothing happened today.

Worked.  Had lunch with the boss.  Got paid.

Oh, that Jeff guy showed up from California.  (actually, he came here from NY... long story)  So, the car is ready, the drivers are ready.  All we have to do is pack and hit the road tomorrow.  Woohoo!

But, really... nothing happened today.  Maybe tomorrow something will happen.

 

I should be sleeping

It was a good day.  The sickness I was worried about this morning seems to have passed.  It was mostly gone by lunch time, so that's good.  I really wasn't looking forward to the notion of doing the One Lap while either sick or drugged up.

Got the car washed.  I know that doesn't sound like a big deal, but the older I get, the more I have trouble getting motivated to wash a car. (sort of like mowing the lawn... a task that I finally started hiring someone to do this year)  I've owned this Yaris for almost two months.  I gave it a spray-wash at the car was a couple weeks ago, that's the closest I've been to washing it.  Today was the first time I've actually given the car a good old-fashioned wash.  Also the first time I'd really taken a close look at the finish.

If you read the Yaris forums, you'll find more than a few (or maybe it's just a vocal minority?) people who think the paint quality on the Yaris is the worst ever... to the point that they're saying there should be a recall, and a couple people are even talking about class-action lawsuit... geez.  Their major complaint:  paint chips on the hood.  Well, my year-old Yaris with nearly 7,000 miles on it has exactly two tiny chips on the hood, and the paint everywhere on the car seems on par with every other mid-to-low priced car.  Not a show quality paint job, but good enough.

I was kinda bummed to find several areas where it looked like someone scrubbed the paint with a Brillo pad.  Okay, realistically, it was probably something like a Scotch Brite pad.  I didn't spend a lot of time on them, but they all seem to be pretty minor and will buff out okay.  Good news for me:  Unlike my red Miata, the Yaris is clearcoated.  Woohoo!

So, I washed the car.  Spend a few minutes buffing out all the cone marks (I've been a bad, bad boy lately), put a coat of wax on the front end,(didn't take the time to do the rest of the car) and thoroughly cleaned and Rain-X'ed the windows. 

All that remains is to pack everything and load the car, and we've got plenty of time for that.  Jeff emailed me a while ago, he's in South Carolina tonight (left NY early yesterday morning) and will be here tomorrow. 

It's all coming together!

 

Crunch Time!

I now have about 48 hours left to prepare for the Tire Rack One Lap of America 2008!  Panic is setting in.  What have I forgotten?  What do I need to do?

Well, I've decided not to do an exhaust.  I'd rather order some parts, a decent muffler and resonator, some mandrel bends, etc and have a trusted friend weld it for me than to be in a rush and have an exhaust shop bend up something that's less than optimal.  There's not a ton to gain from an exhaust on this car anyway, might as well try to get it right and get the most from it.  So, as much as it would be nice to be able to hear the car more on track... we'll just have to get by with being the quietest car out there this time!

With that decision, there really isn't any other major prep to do.  I need to wash the car.  I need to Rain-X the windows.  I need to pack everything and load the car.  That's about it.

Except for all that stuff I'm forgetting.

Oh, and wouldn't you know I picked up a bug from one of those darned kids at the BMW school?  It's not bad, and I hope my good ol' immune system kicks it. (my wife calls me a "carrier" because I don't often get really sick)  Felt a little tickle in my throat yesterday... almost wrote it off to talking and yelling all day Sunday, but I knew better.  Today, that is gone, but I have swollen glands in my neck (a good sign that the immune system is at least TRYING) and my ears are ringing a helluva lot more than usual. (chronic tinnitis is a bitch)  Anyway, if I see any more symptoms that concern me tomorrow, I might swing by a doctor and beg for some antibiotics to ensure that I don't have problems on the road next week.

Tach is Fixed

Good news on the tach.  I took it apart and a screw fell out.  There's a little circuit board on the back of the internal assembly held on by two screws that were apparently never tightened.  And, of course, that circuit board is what holds the whole assembly in place in the case, so it made for a bad situation when one of those screws fell out.

Both screws are now secured with a drop of Loctite (I'm developing a fondness for that stuff) and should be solid now.

Huh?  Oh, you want a picture?

Driver's Eye View

Ignore my messy workbench.  The little blue display behind the steering wheel is a ScanGauge II if you were wondering.  It's a nifty little gadget that lets you read just about anything that you can get from the OBD interface, plus some calculated parameters, like MPG.  The silly car has no temperature gauge, so the main reason I bought it was to be able to keep tabs on coolant temperature.  It's proven to be useful for adjusting driving habits for better fuel economy, as well... among other things.  When I get around to messing with a cold air intake, it will show me air intake temperature, so I can gauge the effectiveness of those efforts.  Oh, and it can read and reset error codes in the ECU.

Guess what I broke?

Let's hope this is the first and only episode of "Guess what I broke on the Yaris today!"

Drove to one of our local autocross sites to instruct at the BMW teen driver car control clinic.  Got there early and the course setup was already done, so I took the opportunity to do some acceleration runs in a pleasantly controlled environment (and with a favorable temperature... probably around 65 degrees).  Did several runs, and found that 0-60 is repeatable at about 8.6 seconds, with a best of 8.4.  Cool!  Way better than I expected.  Quarter mile time was about 16.7, which isn't bad at all considering the best I ever got out of my '96 Miata was 16.1.  So, I'm happy about that.

Played a little bit doing some test runs on the course, and did a few demo runs for the students, then parked the car for the rest of the day.

So... what broke?  Well, I noticed a rattle on the way home.  Quickly pinned it down as being the tach.  At first, I thought it was the mounting of the tach, or maybe even just the flimsy top of the dash somehow rattling.  But... no.  The tach is broken internally!  The whole mechanism is loose inside.  It still works, but that rattle will drive me nuts and I'd have to kill Jeff before the end of next week.  That would be sad, so I guess I need to fix it.  Unfortunately, I don't have time to order a new one, so I guess I'll take it out and see if I can take it apart and tighten whatever is loose.

It's always the aftermarket stuff that breaks.  Always.

Oh, and did you know a Yaris gets a healthy 2nd gear scratch when doing a full-throttle acceleration run... even with grippy tires?  Yep.  Every time.  Hmmm... do you think the clutch is covered under warranty?

 

Final Wrenching

I believe the last bit of wrenching on the "race car" is done.

The Dezod brake pads have been replaced with Endless Y-Sport pads.  Initial impressions are that they are significantly better pads.  The Dezods were fine for street use, had better initial bite than the stock pads, but even just bedding them in I could tell that they didn't have a very high tolerance for heat, fading noticably after half a dozen or so stops from 45-60.  The Endless pads seemed... well... endless.  They took everything I threw at them and only showed a hint of fade once... and they recovered from that in about 30 seconds.  I think they'll be outstanding on the race track.

Brake and clutch fluid have been flushed with Endless S-Four brake fluid.  This stuff is good to 563 degrees F, which should be plenty of protection for our purposes.  Thanks to my dear wife for the use of her left foot, we got everything bled.  The most awkward thing I had to do today:  Figure out how to get brake fluid into the brake fluid resevoir!  I should have taken a photo... but it's pretty well buried under the cowl.  I had to rig up a funnel with a piece of hose to get fluid in it!

Re-mounted the tachometer so that it is more solidly mounted and drilled a hole for the wires so that they're not running across the dashboard.  That looks much nicer.  Also fidgeted with the switch on the back of the tach... it can be set to work with anything from a 2 to 8 cylinder engine.  I switched it to 3, so now it reads higher than the actual engine RPM.  Why do that?  Three reasons.  1. instead of the rev limiter kicking in at 6500 (bah!), it now appears to kick in at 8600... it's a psychological thing.  8,000 rpm seems much more "racy"  2.  my fancy tach goes to 10,000 rpm... I paid for all that extra range, I want to use it!  3. This is the one that's actually relevant.  It gives a little more "resolution" on the tach readout.  When you're coming up to a shift point, what you see on the tach, while the actual number is inaccurate, the display is more precise.  What shows as 500 rpm between 8000 and 8500 is actually only 375 rpm.  I'm sure it will make all the difference in the world when we get to the drag strip! 

BTW, I hooked up the G-Tech and got one good timed 0-60 run in before I started bedding in the brake pads.  Traffic was too busy for that sort of thing today, so I only got the one run.  With minor wheel spin on the launch, I managed 9.016.  Not bad considering that most magazine tests on this car claimed 9.5-10 seconds.

What else did I do today?  Oh, I checked the alignment.  I'm starting to question the levelness of my garage floor, so I'm not going to make any claims to exact camber numbers, but we've got about -2.5 to -3.0 degrees and it's within less than half a degree from left to right.  Good enough for this hack driver.  I gave the toe one final tweak to center the steering wheel, and now have exactly 1/8" total toe in.  Perfect.  I didn't check the rear.  No adjustments back there without using shims... it should be the same as it ever was, -.9 degrees camber and a smidge of toe-in.  While I had the front wheels off to do the brake pads, I put some Loctite on all of the coilover adjustment lock rings and retightened them all.  Hopefully, we'll get through the week without any issues there.

The car desperately needs to be washed, and I'm still thinking about taking it to an exhaust shop for some surgery to give it a little bit of a voice.  I might look at the clutch pedal and see how easy it is to adjust, its release point is way too close to the floor and caused me to miss a couple of 2nd gear shifts this afternoon.

That's all for now!

 

Heel & Toe

I'm pretty sure most folks who read this are racers, or wannabe racers, or at least car people, and probably know what "heel and toe" means.  But, since I had to explain it to my wife at lunch today, let me begin with a brief explanation of what I'm talking about.  Heel and toe refers to the act of blipping the throttle with a "heel" while braking with the "toe" of the right foot. (Or is it the other way around?  No matter... whichever way your foot likes to twist.)  Now, why would a person want to do that?  Well, if you've driven a stickshift for any period of time, and done so "agressively", you know that an abrupt downshift can really "rock the boat" so to speak, and possibly even break traction on the drive wheels.  In a racing environment, when cornering at 95% of capacity (or preparing to)... upsetting the car like that is what we technically refer to as a Bad Thing.  The first thing you need to know is that (even if you're not braking) a blip of the throttle to bring the revs up close to where they need to be for the lower gear you're shifting into will make the transition smoother and upset the car less.  So, on a race track, when we need to brake hard and downshift for the turn ahead as quickly as possible WITHOUT upsetting the car, we use the left foot on the clutch, and the right foot has to brake hard AND blip the throttle at the same time to smooth the downshift.  Cool, huh?  Yeah, I know, we make it look easy out there racing around... but we're really quite busy out there!

Why do I bring this up?  Because I find the Yaris to be IMPOSSIBLE to properly heel-toe in!  The accelerator pedal and the brake pedal are so far apart that I just can't do it.  I can aaaalmost do it... but even with my widest shoes, my foot is just barely on the brake and could easily slip off. (see "Bad Thing" above)  So, I needed to modify the accelerator pedal to get some of it at least 1/2" over to the left where I can reach it.  Simple enough, eh?

Now, these days, most of the kids on the street (you know the ones, dare I say "rice boys", with the big exhaust tip and no muffler, giant wheels and no ground clearance... yeah, those guys) think that "pedal covers" are a required fashion accessory, so they aren't hard to find.  I checked eBay and several other places.  You can get them in red, blue, yellow (the color of speed), chrome, brushed aluminum, faux titanium, with rubber inserts, with carbon fiber inserts, with freakin' lights, and of course, there are the coveted "JDM" (Japanese Domestic Market... a seriously bastardized term) pieces.  None of these really turned me on.  There were a couple of generic kits that might have done the job, but they were all sold as kits, and I really didn't want to add anything to my clutch or brake pedals. (the last thing I need is something coming loose on my brake pedal when I'm hard on the brakes!)  All I really wanted was an extension for my accelerator pedal.

After a fair amount of searching, I eventually found the ultimate USDM (made in China) accelerator pedal that I needed.  Better yet, I found one on eBay for $17 shipped, and it was coming from GA, so I knew it would get here quickly.  It arrived today, woohoo!

With any generic aftermarket part like this, you never know for sure how it's going to fit or how you're going to secure it.  I got really lucky with this one.  The pedal is cast with a reinforcement channel down the middle and two going across it.  The stock pedal has grooves in it.  These fit together perfectly so that the new pedal can't rotate on the stock pedal.  All I had to do was secure it against the stock pedal and it would be good to go!  I scrounged around the garage and found some nice spring steel clips (leftover from a mini-blind installation kit), cut and ground them to fit and bolted it all together with a drop of Loctite on each screw.  It's super-solid.  Very nice, if I do say so, myself.

 

Installed and Ready

Reinstalled the pedal assembly in the car (drive by wire is pretty cool in that regard... two bolts and one connector, no fancy linkages or cables to deal with) and verified that there was no interference with the new pedal. (I have a ScanGauge connected to the OBD port which lets me read throttle position... max TP is the same after as it was before)  All is well there. 

All that remained was a test drive to make sure it works. (okay, I actually had already tested it... I did a test fit with a piece of coat hanger wire holding the pedal on before I started making brackets)  It works great!

And now, I can Heel-Toe and Hang Ten all at the same time!

Never let it be said that I take myself too seriously.

Hang Ten, Baby!

EDCM

The modern automobile is chock full of cool electronic devices with long names and convoluted acronyms.  We have the ECU which uses the O2 sensor input to control the PWM of the EFI, ABS to help soccer moms run into fewer things in their minivans (sometimes), TCS so that cars with too much power can be driven in the rain (sort of)... and then there's DBW, COP, CPS, CAS, EGR, PCV, and a host of others.  (get to the point, Loren)

After over 18 months of exhaustive Research and Development on race tracks across the country, I now present to you, the first functional prototype of the Electronic Driver Control Module (EDCM).  It is the latest "must have" accessory for every amateur racer. (we presume that the pros already have this, just in a more sophisticated fashion, and at a cost of about 100,000 times more)  In our research, we learned that there are instances when a driver might overestimate the level of grip available, or find a long straight where more power would be useful, or... every now and then... find themselves in a situation where their skill level was exceeded by their confidence.  The EDCM was designed to help with all of these things!

Electronic Driver Control Panel

The EDCM easily mounts within reach of the driver.  Or, if your driver can't be trusted to make his own adjustments (many of them can't), you can position it in the cockpit out of the driver's reach.  It can even be mounted on the OUTSIDE of the car, or stashed neatly under the hood.  For best results with trusted drivers, we recommend placing it within the driver's reach and line of sight for quick and easy adjustment on-the-fly.

In our test application, the top two knobs are merely inputs.  Our research team is still working on the controls for Variable Grip Tires (VGT), so for now, the Grip input is set based on observed or expected track conditions.  For an early morning session, set the Grip knob low to avoid nasty driver-induced spins.  As the tires warm up and grip improves, the grip knob should be adjusted to reflect the available grip.  On some cars, the Power knob might actually do something.  Sadly, on our test mule, it is completely non-functional.  Our crack team of researchers is investigating this issue.

The lower two knobs are the critical adjustments provided by the EDCM.  They allow driver Skill and Confidence ("Balls") to be adjusted to suit conditions.  Our testing has revealed several conditions that can be extremely hazardous.  These conditions generally involve the Balls setting being too high and/or the Skill level being too low. 

EDCP Detail View

It is highly recommended that Grip and Power levels constantly be monitored, as well as periodic observance of the Skill level.  It has been noted that driver Skill can decrease exponentially with dehydration, sunburn, lack of rest, poor nutrition, improper hygeine, and being in close proximity to drivers of lesser skill.  The skill knob may require adjustment to reflect these conditions.  It is crucial that any reduction in skill always be accompanied by an equal reduction in Balls. 

Recommened Settings

Grip:  Always keep Grip in the green, especially if power is in the yellow or red, or if Balls is set in the yellow.  If Grip declines to the yellow or red, Skill should be adjusted up if possible and Balls should be adjusted down along with Power.

Power:  Power should be adjusted relative to Grip.  It is believed that setting Power in the red can result in catastrophic engine failure, however, this function remains largely untested at this time.

Skill:  Skill must always remain in the green.  If Skill declines to the yellow, driver should exit the track immediately!  Skill set in the yellow is adequate for street driving in most conditions, but if Skill must be set to red for any reason, it is highly suggested that a replacement driver be sought out.

Balls:  Balls is by far the most sensitive adjustment.  It must remain synchronized with skill and grip at all times.  Minor adjustments to the Balls can have dramatic effects.  Driving with Balls set in the red can be hazardous unless Skill and Grip are at maximum.  Driving with Balls in the blue... well, now that's just sad, isn't it?  The recommended setting for Balls is toward the high end of the green for most drivers.  If the driver carries a fat wallet, yellow may appropriate if Skill is at or near maximum.

Warning:  Embarrassment, dented bodywork, property damage, injury or death may result if at any time Balls exceed Skill!

$120 well spent

Got the windows tinted today.  Made a feeble attempt to do it myself yesterday.  Wasted about 2 hours of my life on one window... decided it was best to just let the pros do it.  Looks nice.  Should keep the car cooler.

 

Bitchen' tint, man!

Unless I get some motivation in the next day or so, I'll probably spend most of Saturday finishing up the car prep.  Still need to pack, that's always fun.  But, my dear wife made me a list yesterday.  She swears that having a list will make it easier.  I swear that I'll either lose the list, or I forgot to put something important on the list!

Autox Photos

 

 

Here I come!

 

Huge thanks to Jerrimie Estelle from FloridaRacing.org for snapping some photos for me.  I asked him to get some good shots of the suspension working so I could see how far it was rolling over and what it was doing.  He did a good job of it.  Enjoy:

Body Roll to the Left

 

Body Roll to the Right

 

A little wheel lift for good measure.