HCOC Sepang Track Day

Re-drafted to shorten the post :)

HCOC = Honda Cars Owner Club

But that didn't deter me to join their closed track day today. Went together with Fahrein (Civic FD2Rs), Harun (Civic FD2Rs) & Edrin (EG6). The session was nice. A total of 40 cars only, which is very few. Divided into two groups, newbies and non-newbies. Obviously, I did not qualify as a newbie anymore :(

During the 20 minutes warm-up session, after a sighting lap, started to attack already, to test out the new Endless CCR brake pads and Hankook RS2 tyres. Purposely braked at 150m mark to the high-speeed first turn, however, I over braked and had to lift. WOW! Superb brakes!

But round T1, the car was understeering like a sand barge! Felt like the track was wet, which it was not. Really, really bad. But continued to complete the lap. On the 2nd hot lap, same story, bad understeering. While trying to catch up to an FD2R ahead, going down T12, the car was understeering towards the outside kerb. Twitched the steering a bit more, to try to make it round the corner, but the rear just snapped! I went into a big spin! Damn.

Immediately pitted afterwards. Found out, parts of the front tyres were badly delaminated (see pic below), because I spun over the kerb. So sad and dissapointed since those are new :( Parked the car and rode shotgun with Fahrein in the 'race simulation' session.


Back in the pits, friends advised me to check my tyres pressures. They were 270/240kPa front/rear hot. Kinda high. So lower them to 250/220kPa hot. Then out I went, this time with DCCD at 'full open' setting. Less understeer, but it was swerving badly around long sweeping corners. I thought I had a puncture! So back into the pits. Up to this point, I just did less than 5 hot laps. Definitely too few laps. But despite all that, recorded a new best lap of 2:47.

Again, reduced tyre pressure to 240/210kPa hot. But had to wait till the last 'race simulation session' to try it out. I was the 4th car, with an EG6 and three FD2Rs ahead. After a single sighting lap, all hell broke loose! Passed the EG6 right after the starting line and by the first corner, I was side-by-side with the 3rd placed FD2R. But he had the line, I had to yield and stayed behind. At the start of the back straight, quickly passed the FD2R ahead of me and then caught the next one, at T15's braking zone. The CCR pads gave me a lot of confidence and allowed me to outbrake the 300kg lighter FD2R! Amazing.

The next FD2R was a bit harder. We were side-by-side into T1, but he had the grip (and bigger balls), went round the outside and get the better line into T2. Again at T4, I was on the inside. He tried the same tactic, but unfortunately T4 is an uphill corner where turbo torque is very handy. I managed to pass him and was ahead of everybody!

The FD2R tried to keep up but made a mistake into the T7/T8 complex and dropped back, passing the baton to a pair of EG6s, which one of them is a fully prepped track car. Managed to hold them back for about a lap. But at the very difficult T9, under pressure, I braked too late and totally missed the apex, releasing the two EG6s.

For the next 2 laps, I was on my own. The others have fallen back quite far behind. But I noticed my water temperature was approaching two third mark, so eased up a bit. Later the brown EG6 missed his braking to T14, so I managed to pass him again. Almost passed the red EG6 track car too, but by then the race has ended. It was quite exhilarating to see the chequered flag being waved from the tower. Felt like a real race!

Even though it was just a simulation, that made the session well worth it. I had great respect for FD2R and their legendary track performance, but I've proven that my car is not a slouch either ;)

Observations:

- Endless CCR: expensive, but worth it. Consistently touched 199km/h before braking at 150m into the frist and last corners. In fact, it was strong enough to unsettle the back of the car going to T4. My pivot speed meter showed 1.2+G of max braking force! Superb

- Hankook RS2: not as grippy as I expected, but maybe I expected too much. These are not slicks anyway ;)

Car settings:
- 270/240 kPa hot + DCCD auto = huge understeer and snap oversteer. Judders under braking. Useless.
- 250/220 kPa hot + DCCD full open = less understeer, very unstable through long corners, tyres felt greasy
- 240/210 kPa hot + DCCD 15% locking (one click above ful open) = good setup. Still understeers around slow & tight corners, but throttle can be used to reduce it