Tag Archives: Redline Time Attack

Congrats to Ken Suen of Sportcar Motion!

Posted on by

Redline Time Attack had their season opener this past weekend (February 16th & 17th). As always, teams that compete in other Time Attack series such as Global Time Attack and Super Lap Battle, find their way into this series to best their times.

Sportcar Motion’s Ken Suen, owner and driver of the FA5 Civic Si lovingly referred to as “Big Red” was out for blood. Last time we covered this car during last November’s Super Lap Battle season finale, mechanical issues prevented him from doing any better that 2 minutes around Buttonwillow’s 13CW road course.

With some new front aero work, as well as a new powerplant, Ken was sure to make this event count. And that he did!

Under the Street FF class, Ken was able to stop the timer at an amazing 1:58.921! Yes, Street Class, Front-wheel drive! Super fast, and most importantly, the new record to beat!

Ken Suen (Custom) (Custom)

We’re glad to report that Ken continues to use an out-of-the-box Mono Flex setup for his car. We’ll see if any changes need to be made as he continues to cut his lap times down. SCM Big Red 2 (Custom)

Once again, congratulations to Ken Suen and the team at Sportcar Motion for yet another memorable run for victory!

Class Wins at Redline Time Attack w/ video

Posted on by

Congratulations to SportCar Motion and Evasive Motorsports for their class wins at Redline Time Attack Rd. 6 at Willow Springs Raceway in California.

Modified-FF
SportCar Motion’s EG Civic took home first place in the Modified-FF class with a time of 1:32.884. This high speed course suited the big power and aero package SportCar Motion prepared for this course. Driver Renzo Marsano beat the second place finisher by over 3 seconds. See the video below for one of Renzo’s laps.

Enthusiast-FF
Mike C. of Evasive Motorsports took home the class win in Enthusiast-FF class with a time of 1:38.941. Mike sits atop the overall points and is the strong favorite for the National Championship. Mike has driven the 2008 Civic Si Sedan to 4 class wins in 4 events. What makes that record even more amazing is that it is done with only a few key modifications. Mike’s Civic is using a revalved set of Mono FLEX dampers which we have been working with him on over the season.

Visit the Octane Report for full event coverage.

Photos courtesy of Duane Uyeda and Arthur Guo of the Octane Report and Loi Song of SportCar Motion.

N1 Racing parts on a street driven Civic Si Sedan

Posted on by

Mike of Evasive Motorsports has successfully been using our Mono FLEX coilovers on his street/ track Civic Si Sedan. The car has finished well in the last few events (class win at Super Lap Battle Finals 2009 and class win at Redline TA 2010 Rd.1) and Mike wants to keep it that way. Mike already added a larger diameter sway bar and a revalve but still wanted more vehicle rotation. So Mike and our engineer agreed the next step was to try some parts from our N1 race kit.

The parts arrived last Friday and Mike brought the car in a few days ago for us to install the parts and perform the needed revalve to make it all work.

The N1 kit is used on many cars competing in Japan’s Civic One-Make race series. Normally these cars use spring rates of 20kg front and 26kg rear. Modifications are very limited to keep the racing tight.

We ONLY used a few of the parts from an N1 kit:

N1 pillowball rear spring seat, Special 20kg rears springs, N1 HAS (Height Adjustment System)

The N1 pillowball rear spring seats are NICE (you can see that the top section can pivot). The spring can now better match the travel radius of the lower control arm and allows the use of a straight spring which are readily available in various sizes and rates. Normally a barrel shaped spring is used for more spring stroke but alternate spring rates are not available.

To make this all work we needed to change the stroke and damping force of the rears dampers. Then in order to balance the car front to rear we increased the front spring rate to 16kg, shortened the stroke, and increased the damping force.

The end result is very aggressive spring rates, short suspension travel and race car like handling. When we took the car out for a test drive on local roads and highways the ride was surprisingly smooth. A passenger would never guess that the car has such high spring rates. The car is firm but not bouncy. It absorbs the bumps well and settles quickly for optimal grip.

A few more pics of the Civic Type-Rs TEIN sponsors in Japan. These cars look so good with just livery and being slammed.

Track Shakedown with Evasive Motorsports

Posted on by

TEIN Engineer, R. Takizawa and I went to ButtonWillow raceway last Thursday, March 18th to test with the Evasive Motorsports CT9A. The EVO 9 will be running in this weekend’s Redline Time Attack at Buttonwillow Raceway in  Buttonwillow, CA. Normally the Evasive EVO runs in the Limited or Modified class which is on  R-Compound tires but for this event they will enter the Super-Modified Class wearing Yokohama slicks.

Mike of Evasive told us of his plans a few months ago so we revalved the dampers and suggested stiffer spring rates to match the grip of the slicks. Without having data on the tires our suggested spring rates and new valving were all calculated guesses. The actual track testing and driver feedback would let us know if the suspension needed minor or major adjustments (minor = damping force adjustments, major = revalving).

Pictured – Mike getting ready to go out for session 1.

In the first lap of the first session we witnessed Mike start a 25MPH parade lap and immediately knew something was wrong after the first few corners. Mike was getting a bad vibration  over 25MPH on acceleration.

His support team comprised of Kel, Brad and Hugh quickly went to work to diagnose and fix the problem. The culprit was worn axle tripod housings. Without having spares axles the crew went to work on a fix and the car was vibration free a couple hours later. R. Takizawa did a quick alignment adjustment and the car was back on track.

Pictured – R. Takizawa adjusting front toe while Brad and Kel take a much needed break after a scramble to get rid of the vibration.

After Mike got a feel for the car and a few semi-open laps we were able to gather some suspension feedback. At first there was slight understeer at corner exit so a front damping force adjustment was made. The change worked a little too well and resulted in a slight oversteer. So TEIN Engineer R. Takizawa made another slight change in damping force. Overall the stiffer spring rates, damper revalving and small adjustments resulted in a car that was predictable and easy to control. More suspension tuning is definitely needed but at this point the car is ready to compete for the first time in the 2010 season. During the next testing phase we may try stiffer sway bar or slightly stiffer springs, alignment changes, and of course more damping force adjustments.

Pictured – In the hot pits. Mike driving, R. Takizawa making damping force changes, Brad checking tire pressures, Kel taking tire temps. and Hugh recording data.

A look at the Voltex front aero which keeps this EVO planted.

We wish Evasive Motorsports the best of luck at the Redline Time Attack.