1st Autocross coming up!

[VelocityYellowRules!]

So finally onto the final canola field today!

The Dawson Creek (no, not Dawson's Creek) Auto Cross clubis having an X-Cross this Saturday, the 7th, so I thought as I ought to be done combining I would go and see what it was like.

They had one on the 17th of Sept, YouTube video is available. Lots of imports but much to my surprise a black C6 ZR1!!

A Subaru WRZ or what ever it is called apparently won.

I looks like it might be educational, everyone gets 5 runs, $45 fee. I might even be able to bring my son on the runs, am trying to convince my gf to take the SER and my friend that I gave my 280 ZX to to bring it, we'd make a convoy of 3 yellow vehicles!

The plan with the CEL light is to bring it to the dealer Thursday or Friday, probably get the oil changed, ECM updated and see what heck is the story with the CEL light finally, what is causing it to throw a code and bring an end to this episode.

Any auto-crossing advice? It will be a 1st gear 50 to 60 km top speed event apparently..............

Cheers,

Garry

 

[HLN A55]

My only advice would be the you might want to do the run in second gear LOL

Best of luck with CEL. I sold my E55 AMG for recurring CEL that not a single person in Canada knew how to fix. Literally... I loved that car and I would still have it today were it not for this issue.

Having said that, I'm confident that your ride should be relatively easy to diagnose and advise on.

 

[DrJer]

Don't check your times... just have fun!! 2nd gear... spinning is slow... smooth is fast.

 

[VelocityYellowRules!]

HLN A55, DrJer,

Wow. Really? Do it in 2nd gear? I thought that will a max speed of 50 to 60 km I will not be that high in the engine speed in 1st.......

I do agree though, bugger the times. This is the 1st time I'm trying something like this so better to see if I can do it without slaying 1/2 the cones.

My biggest fear whicih I am sure will be explained to me on Saturday is to how to tell the difference between which cones I zig zag around and which I go through in a straight line! Not giving you guys any confidence eh!

I might try it in 1st and 2nd gear. When the road dries I might try slaloming on the yellow dash line and see how that goes. Thank goodness for long, straight and infrequently travelled roads around here! My biggest threat right now are combines and deer.

Pity that no one could ever deal with the CEL issue. That is so annoying as my head was constantly filled with images of valves burning and who needs that.

So Thursday morning it goes in and I hope they can look after it so I'm not always looking at that light. Colin was right, I may have to fish out some masking tape!

Cheers,

Garry

 

[LSXtasy]

You'll love it. It's a blast. Just learn the course by walking it as many times as possible first. Don't get stressed out about how you could've done better or where you messed up. Just enjoy the experience and try and have as much fun as possible.

 

[xlr8r]

HLN A55, DrJer,
Pity that no one could ever deal with the CEL issue. That is so annoying as my head was constantly filled with images of valves burning and who needs that.

Garry

Garry. Remember these GM cars have a flashing CEL for the real dangerous stuff. The solid light is supposedly the emmmission system every time--and my bet is still that you need to do something with the cats.

Once you upgrade to that Akropovic exhaust/header combo and re-tune, everything should go away nicely.
[mob][/mob]

 

[VelocityYellowRules!]

Good morning xlr8r,

Emissions I can live with especially if I end up getting Manny to put me on some headers this spring in Edmonton!

I also would not think that it is the most severe of problems if it takes 50 to 100 km for a sensor to trigger an error code. I've been wondering why it doesn't come up sooner than that given the probably scan rate of most sensors.

Then again I've also been most annoyed by my OBD2 reader not to be able to pull an error code while the dealers code reader pulled a bunch - low voltages from when I didn't turn the exhaust controller to off and didn't drive the car for a week.

It is less what it is than knowing what it is for me.

Plus I do have a small worry that the CEL light might prevent me from autocrossing on Sunday when they do the vehicle inspection before hand. Or maybe they just worry about leaks and loose body parts??

But two more days until it goes into the hands of the dealer techs for them to see what they can do about things outside of lowering my bank account...........

Cheers,

Garry

 

[Manny@Dasilva]

Good morning xlr8r,

Emissions I can live with especially if I end up getting Manny to put me on some headers this spring in Edmonton!

I also would not think that it is the most severe of problems if it takes 50 to 100 km for a sensor to trigger an error code. I've been wondering why it doesn't come up sooner than that given the probably scan rate of most sensors.

Then again I've also been most annoyed by my OBD2 reader not to be able to pull an error code while the dealers code reader pulled a bunch - low voltages from when I didn't turn the exhaust controller to off and didn't drive the car for a week.

It is less what it is than knowing what it is for me.

Plus I do have a small worry that the CEL light might prevent me from autocrossing on Sunday when they do the vehicle inspection before hand. Or maybe they just worry about leaks and loose body parts??

But two more days until it goes into the hands of the dealer techs for them to see what they can do about things outside of lowering my bank account...........

Cheers,

Garry

Garry , go drive the car . The light is nothing to worry about . Check engine lights come on cars all the time , just emissions related , nothing else .

 

[VelocityYellowRules!]

I must sound worse than an (forgive the sexist comment please) old woman with all the fretting and worrying that I am doign about this CEL light!

You're probably right though Manny. I mean I have a Ford pickup truck and the CEL comes on maybe once a week and goes off and I don't give it a second thought. Maybe because I have three pickups and only one Z06!

Emissions I can live with.

I would be driving the Z06 right now since it rained about 0.8" yesterday so the final field of canola will be a few days in drying but it is only plus 5 and there is a north wind that would drop the bollocks off a bull right now.

Somehow it seems improper to be driving the car when I would have to be using the seat warmer!

I am excited to go to Dawson Creek. I'll have to clean the car up nicely and I am hoping that the black ZR1 comes back, it must be a Grande Prairie car as there was no front license plate in the video clip. Gotta represent my marquis to the crowd.

Cheers,

Garry

 

[HLN A55]

I did a full track day at race city last year with my z06 after the cel came on. I'm with Manny... Drive it

Once in a while it would come on and it was either an o2 sensor or sometimes the car would error out on low voltage in traffic. This was mostly a result of the cam/tune allowing revs to drop quite low at times at idle when starting and stopping. I didn't mind.. Sitting in a car that sounded like the beginning of "Hot for Teacher" was worth it.

 

[VelocityYellowRules!]

Good afternoon HLN A55, Manny,

Maybe someone should have written a book for me "How to drive your Z06 for idiots"!

Thanks for echoing Manny's thoughts on the CEL from your experience HLN A55....... It makes me feel more confident when others have done what Manny is recommending.

I had no idea a tune was so important. I found a 2008 Z06 with dyno numbers, 454 wrhp stock, 459 wrhp with the Vararam, 474 wrhp with the Vararam and TUNE!

A 5 wrhp gain from the Vararam is actually impressive as this is a static dyno run so there is no air being forced into the Vararam while the car is moving. But picking up an additional 15 wrhp from the tune is impressive! But I would expect that the hp would increase once the car is in motion thanks to the Vararam and am not sure if the tune would further increase hp as much.

So with this in mind and now that Manny has explained to me what a tune actually is, it leads to the next question.

IF Manny comes to Edmonton next spring assuming we get 10 cars that need things like headers (me hopefully included!), how long does it take to perform the tune, what is needed to do it and would we be able to bring Manny`s preferred tuner on say the final day or two to finish setting the ten cars computer up, assuming we all get tunes at the same time.

As well, have I understood things as well that you not only do a tune for the engine but you can also do a tune for the transmission? ECM is for the engine computer, so what the heck are people doing a tune on for the TCM???????

So I'd prefer a CEL free dash on Sunday but then again if this is not a power event but a car control then I should be comfortable with competing.

My goal, be with twice the time of the fastest time! If the WRX can do the course in 24 seconds then hopefully I can do it in 48 seconds!

Cheers,

Garry