skills

footwork

sweet

happy halloween!

nothing's better than reconnecting with a car that has a lot of sentimental value.. i had the pleasure of driving my old civic in its full b16 glory! rad was ultra kind to let me drive it all day while he was tire warming for steguis.

chris shenefield set him up with some suspension magic, the quaife works wonders, and how sweet it was to turn the wheel again.

bmwclub at nassau from dan cheung on Vimeo.

not bad for hankook rs2's and a less than ideal alignment. very neutral balance and confidence inspiring. more negative camber up front and some star specs would really be the ticket! thanks a million rad! and congrats on the class championship steg!

a little sidenote- not to give chrome dome dixon an even bigger head but he really has the turn-in technique mastered. i've never felt anyone drive the way he does and there's a reason he earned a 'free' yellow corvette. you can't see it in the video so much as feel it when you're riding shotgun. he has this uncanny timing of dabbing the brake, loading up the front, and turning in.. all perfectly timed. it is an amazing feeling and he nails it nearly every time. it really is inspiring.

-dan

devens

jay's evo is better than ever! more power, better handling. here's a pic of gj and i enjoying a run at the bmw school at devens.

-dan

Fuel Strategy, Strata & Pb

This year I have been trying to make a bit more HP without spending too much $$. One thing I tried was some different race fuel. I did a little research about E85 and thought that would be cool. Too bad it's not available around here, at all. I even got in touch with the local Rockett brand dealer about their new E85 race gas. He's not carrying it, no demand. Then I heard about some super new VP stuff called Q16. Apparently it's a little tough to tune. We (Adam Fuhs) and I eventually settled on C16.

I get the tank nice and low in the evo and add a 5 gallon drum of the C16. Did some driving to mix the fuel.

First set of logs results in very similar AFR's to pump gas. Second set of logs is a bit richer and the car stinks a bit more. By the 3rd logging session this car reeks. To the point I'm almost dizzy. The AFR's are also very rich. Pretty sure we're into the C16 now.

At this point we're a little confused. A little searching shows the specific gravity of gasoline is slightly higher than the C16. As it turns out the gasoline and C16 stratify. They form layers and don't create a homogeneous mixture. Gasoline on the bottom and C16 on top. Hence the leaner AFR's shifting to super rich AFR's. Called up VP and they confirmed the theory. Unleaded and leaded gas don't really "mix".

Off I go to drain the evo's tank so I can move onto something else. What am I using the leftover for??

I hate to say it but the lawn didn't get cut any faster.

One thing I finally learned was how much fuel my car has when it hits the "E" light. Without the luxury of a tow vehicle and trailer I bring race gas with me and mix with the leftover in the tank. This means I calculate how much fuel I need to get to the event site and make sure I'm at "E" or below. Thing is I never knew how much gas was actually in the tank. I estimated about 3 gallons. So I drained the tank fully. Then slowly refilled with pump until the light turned off. 2.3 gallons. At the 1/4 tank mark the evo has 4 gallons left. Sweet, now the octane numbers for the mixed gas will be more accurate.

Now you might wonder how to figure out what your octane is once you mix the gas. It's pretty simple as the octane is based on proportion of one fuel to the other.

Your variables:

A = Pump Gas Octane

B = Volume of Pump Gas (gallons)

C = Race Fuel Octane

D = Volume of Race Fuel (gallons)

The math:

(A x B + C x D)/(B + D) = New Octane of Mix

Example:

A = 93 Octane

B = 2 gallons

C = 104 Octane

D = 5 gallons

(93 x 2 + 104 x 5)/(2 + 5) = 101 Octane

So that was my fuel saga. I'm back to regular old 104 unleaded. Oh well.

-J

7-11-09 NNJR SCCA (or the benchmark version 2)

Photo: Courtesy of Steve Wasp

So I was excited to run this event. Not only was there no pressure but it was held on the old NNJR lot. This is the place where it really all started for Kevin, Dan and I in the Civics. Can't forget Ed Morfe in his A4. We would battle constantly. There was no consistency. One guy would win one week and get crushed the next. That was probably 6 or 7 years ago at this point.

Well after I get through tech Mr. Uber Car Whore (PA :P) asks me if I want a co-drive. Typically I say no. This time it was Pat Salerno. That's a tough one to turn down.

Anyone who read my DOTM on the Autox4u site may remember that he and Junior are 2 drivers I looked up to (and still do). Pat has also been one of my raw/PAX benchmarks at National events for several years now. He's in a very fast, well setup car and has been for a while. That's the best kind of benchmark.

So we proceed to swap runs and just have a good time. We both noted the lack of grip. The lot was very dirty in spots and the car is way too stiff for that site. Pat never did get down to my time, but was very close. Did I mention I don't think there was a clean run in this car all day? It was very cool watching Pat drive. He's alot like Corey R., but more aggressive and amped up. I could tell he was a LFB guy the moment he started driving. Very precise and controlled. A bit of contrast to my style of tossing the car.

Here's our fast videos from morning runs and a couple side view shots of my afternoon runs. Also corded the front tires in the afternoon. 34 runs sucks. Thankfully I've got another set coming from Hoosier and some input to help them last longer. I <3>

New content?

So it's been awhile since I posted anything worth a damn to this blog. It's a bit rough with 2 little hombres and a busy j-o-b. Most of my extra time has been spent on the concrete under the evo or out doing some logging.

Good news is I have some video from the Finger Lakes Tour and DC Pro. Both awesome events. Very happy with my results and couldn't be happier with the way this thing drives.

I've also got a couple random tidbits of knowledge. A stack of fresh 285-30-18 A6's is 4" taller than when mounted on 9.5" wheels. waa-waa. McCance says they are only an 1" or so shorter on a 10" rim. They fit his bsp car pretty well.

For now here's my DC video, I'll have finger lakes and some more soon.

-Jay

150r onboard

last session of day.. ultra tired so i played chasecam for mike- now he has his own custom video. that's good service!


njminigp practice 4/19/09 from dan cheung on Vimeo.

supermoto!

ok, technically not supermoto.. more like superminimoto.

here's some tard action from the njmp kart track..


njmp minigp 3/29/09 from dan cheung on Vimeo.

always looking for an adrenaline fix, i picked up this motarded crf150r ready to rock and got some 'tard action to improve my 2 wheel game. i'll be at the etown roadcourse this saturday while you nnjr guys are on the other side!



dan

deals

sportsmanguide.com

search piloti. $30 a pair..


also tirerack has killer sale on the bridgestone re01r's.. just ordered some fronts for my s2k..

click on the tirerack link to the right!

-dan

Joaquuin Phoenix....brilliant

This is awesome...seriously.  Is he acting, doped up, or just a space cadet?

mmc 1/31/09

(^pics from ponycars.net more here)

since we had to pick up the rs from a local monticello shop for a powerplant 'refresh' since our first mmc event, what better time than the morning of yesterday's event. (thanks for the ride up mike!) the crank had seized at the very end of our first event- i'm guessing oil pump failure due to high mileage. the 35k mileage replacement engine runs like a champ and we were back in business.

not sure everyone knows the story but adil and i share the 2.5rs 'rallycar'. not only does splitting expenses make sense- but the valuable seat time we get riding along with each other, giving feedback, discussing technique/lines, etc.. allows us to improve our skills at a faster rate. it doesn't hurt that we've competed against each other for years along the way autoxing and get along very well.

i'd highly recommend doing the shared car thing with the right person if the events you run are codriver friendly. adil uses it for family trips/rallyx/mmc, while i also get to bash it through the woods since my self-preservation gene is missing.

anyways- here's some in-car from yesterdays event.


MMC winter driving series 1.31.09 from dan cheung on Vimeo.

plenty of great footage but tried to keep it short. (thanks for the wide angle AC!.. i need to buy a DVR.) adil was fond of my ninja reverse move (while the car was out of control i figured i might as well be ready to back it out) and i hope you can appreciate his badass run. very smoooth, clean and tidy. we didn't catch my first ultra 360 (spun the car all the way around at speed without missing a beat) but i did capture my end of day attempt on camera.


we had a TON of fun, the north course was AWESOME (4th gear on the back straight!), and MMC put on another world-class event. i can't compliment the very friendly and professional MMC folks enough!

for all of you that haven't attended yet- beg borrow or steal snow tires! get out there!

visit our friends at axis for more badass content!

-dan

MMC onboard

From mmc

the event ROCKED!! by far the best 4 wheeled event i've ever experienced (and i've done a lot). despite what you might think, this was VERY safe, only 1 real causualty- mike busted his bumper and headlight on a tirewall.. but with about 30 drivers on track all day long, that isn't half bad. normal track days usually see tons of carnage.

by the end of the day, i was driving with zero fear, pitching the car sideways into high speed corners like second nature. took a lot of laps to get to to that comfort level but the point is, this event gave us the opportunity to get a TON of seat time to get to that point!

i was having so much fun i never checked the connections on the camera as the day went on (lots of movement in car and camera bag wasn't strapped down). so all of our killer vid on different cars is audio only. doh!

so here is my onboard from early in the day (pre-mastering of the scandanavian flick and before my balls grew) but it gives you a good idea of the track and conditions.


Monticello Motor Club Winter Driving Series from dan cheung on Vimeo.

you can see the low grip levels and don't let my exhaust with the db level of a sewing machine fool you.. i had it flat out most of the time! poor rs was way underpowered in comparison to the other cars i drove. char's evo was a rocketship!

adil rocked the 911 all day and steven k brought out the cayenne turbo! lol. i'm sure the axisofoversteer guys will have their vids up soon.

please MMC- let's keep these events going! we'll all be there again!

dan

winter driving series!

open track day on snow?? we're in!

here's a vid from the last event with mirra driving




all details here.. click on winter driving series

http://www.drivemmc.com/

-dan