[Exyia]

(If you want a poster of this, pm me, I actually have a few)

2013 has started! This year will be much bigger than the last for me. I will keep this first post as the index, to make the thread better navigable for the information someone might be looking for (because digging through my old thread for a review was becoming a PITA)

I was never able to find someone willing to do some video editing for me, so I'm just doing it myself. This is still new to me and very time consuming, so PLEASE leave any comment/feedback/suggestions, as I will take them into account for future vids! Anything from video angles to editing choices/effects. Let's hope my video editing skills get better each time...and it's hard to emphasize how time consuming this is. Last thing I want to do after a hard day of auto-x is work on a video for the next few days; no time to relax!

And as always, your support gives motivation for more content! :drive::rock:

Index:
1.20.2013 - BMWCCA AutoX1
2.3.2013 - HouSCCA2

 

[Exyia]

BMW CCA AutoX1
1.20.2013

Man it feels like forever since I’ve driven the car. I passed on the 1st SCCA event of the season due to terrible weather. I was hoping the weather would look better for this BMW event...well, it wasn’t raining.

Some outrageous fog fell upon Houston. Seriously, it was near impossible to see!

This is at a Kroger gas station – you can’t even see the Kroger across the parking lot!

Parking lights weren’t visible until the last second, and tons of people on the road were braking late because of it. The drive to the event sure was…interesting. It was comforting finding SCCA buddy Ricardo in his bright yellow Cayman out on the highway. If I wasn’t following him, I might have missed the exit a few times since the signs were impossible to read!

As we pulled into the lot, I pulled in next to him and found Jim in his silver ASP Cayman – main competition/motivation from last year.

Not much time to look around; I have to swap R-compounds on every event now. I miss the old hassle free days already.

Alrighty, now they’re on! Time to take a glance at the track!

………

Uhhh, well at least we have a course map:

Pretty short track, and lots of left-hander turns. Didn’t seem like there were many obstacles, should have plenty of chances to stretch the legs and put the power down. I was mostly concerned with corners 2 and 3. Time to walk the track…if it was possible to see anything.

Off the start (corner 1)....uhhhh....ok, can't see anything...

Corner 2

Corner 3

and the infamous "dogleg" at Corner 4 - crazy on/off camber transitions. This part is always brutal, especially without proper placement on entry - something I will remind myself of today...

It was good to see a pretty good turn-out though!

Evo 9 buddy Edward. Always fun to compare times/driving lines/styles each event with a fellow Evo owner!

Saw these and thought of [email protected] right away! (Yes, the genius behind my setup drives a mini hehe)

This license plate made me laugh! Obviously a previous BMW club member and owner.

Still ONLY 2 BRZ/FRS. For all the hype, I simply don't see them out here enough. What a waste imo - more people need to come out and drive!

The fog was starting to thin as we started the driver's meeting and gathered on the grid.

Thankfully by the time we started, it cleared. You never would have known Houston was in Silent Hill mode a few hours earlier. That's Houston weather for you - if you don't like it, just wait a few hours and it will change.

My first run out, I find out the hard way that my fender liners still rub at high speeds - which spits me out on the grass! DOH!

I felt like an idiot and was annoyed all day how it slowed me and the AWD down. Definitely getting this fixed for good soon! The front tires would rub against the fender liners and slow their speed, causing the AWD to freak out at times and distribute power in awkward ways. After the massive spin-out on the first run, I kept my aggression lower in the turns/slalom. I'll just have to deal with it today!

But I have to say, this course was much slower than it looked, and this was one of the first times I ever thought the car made too much power. The throttle response and instant, constant torque delivery seriously swallowed the straights - enough to cause MASSIVELY late braking and turn-in on the following corners (2 and 3, the ones I was worried about on the walk-through).

I just find it a humbling moment. Never would I have thought that I had too much power, but for this event, I felt like I did. With the fender liners rubbing, I wasn't allowed to put the power down as early as an Evo's AWD should, and applying it later simply slingshot me to the next turns WAY too quickly. Already have plans to review the brakes and make adjustments for next time. Or maybe I simply have to accept the fact that the car is FAST now and I have to brake earlier (but that's no fun)

The first 3 runs also had problems with the rear end stepping out under such massive power loads. This isn't a new problem, but it did have a new solution this time - I have the JRZ RS1's. I instantly thought back to discussion/theorycrafting, and reduced the rebound all around 3 clicks. BAM! Instant difference! I was humble...in retrospect, 3 was too much as the JRZ's make a big difference every single turn, but I was amazed to only have started tapping into the potential of such a high quality coilover. Yes, JRZ's live up to the hype and are worth every single penny. Going budget with GTWorx springs to JRZ RS1's (also configured from GTWorx), I couldn't imagine going half-way with a budget coilover. These are the real deal, and I can't wait to start testing/adjusting more throughout the coming year!

My fastest run ended up being run number 5, but I'm not sure how as it felt extremely sloppy before I even read my time. Oh well, I'll blame it on being rusty at the start of a new year (along with the damn fender liners)! Time to get back in the groove of things! :drive:

and I'm sure I'm forgetting moments in the story, it feels like it's been a while since writing one of these!

And again, feel free to comment/question away!

 

[SDCHAMP619]

What screen set up is that?

Edit: Nevermind read your old thread.

 

[noypi13]

Subbed! TY for sharing.

 

[AndreNeves]

Very nice.

Btw, just curious. How do you pronounce your name? Nationality?
Never heard it before. Quite unique.

 

[mindovaanything]

AWESOME EXYIA! Looking forward to following you throughout your season. Hope you get the fender liner rub issue sorted out quickly (I'm sure you will).

Well written and overly thorough writeup, that's a lot to take on, most people have enough difficulty and time consumption just prepping their car and making it out to events you manage to do that, take photos/video, get it all written up and edited etc. So well done, I and many others I'm sure applaud and appreciate your efforts. It inspires me to attempt to record my modding/racing etc in such an proper way. Which BTW great idea of using the first post as an index and linking to other posts instead of attempting to reserve several posts etc.

eepwall: Since you asked for feedback on the video here are my thoughts, please take this as constructive criticism I am by no means hating, I have made a few very feeble attempts at video editing myself. What software are you using?

A)Intro music starts a little late, or my hearing is going bad.
B)Titles and text stay up for too long, should be able to read it quickly and move on, if the viewer didn't have enough time they can always pause or replay it but this along with C make it pretty slow/boring up until the 2:26 mark when the action starts.
C)Pictures stay up too long and/or shouldn't be there at all maybe? If it's video then it should be video, not stills put into a slideshow with music especially when the photos are duplicated in the thread or elsewhere.
D)The Doh facepalm caption is funny/cool but in parenthesis perhaps explain what caused the spin.
E) I'm sure you and your sponsors :hitit: :idhitit: but blocking suck a large portion of the screen :theeye: If you must keep them up there throughout the video instead of just at the beginning and/or end with a thank you or sponsored by, try putting them on a transparent background and/or using their logos in the corners instead of the blocky text.
F) Course map is cool but also only needs to be seen once, unless it somehow hod a magical red dot that coordinated with the 1st person view to show your position on the course.
G)Where are the results? Nowhere in the thread or video did I see any times, your best run of the day, what place you ended up in within you class, overall ranks, or mention of comparison to how others ran. Ashamed to tell us how you did? :jk:

All of this is obviously easier said than done, but hope my feedback helps.

Sidenote: this forum needs a much greater variety of smilies.

 

[betty2]

How does rubbing inner fender lining screw up the AWD?

 

[Exyia]

How does rubbing inner fender lining screw up the AWD?

it was slowing down the front wheels from rubbing enough that the AWD sent more power to the back. by the end of the slalom, it sent too much power to the rear wheels and helped me embarras myself

...

A)Intro music starts a little late, or my hearing is going bad.
B)Titles and text stay up for too long, should be able to read it quickly and move on, if the viewer didn't have enough time they can always pause or replay it but this along with C make it pretty slow/boring up until the 2:26 mark when the action starts.
C)Pictures stay up too long and/or shouldn't be there at all maybe? If it's video then it should be video, not stills put into a slideshow with music especially when the photos are duplicated in the thread or elsewhere.
D)The Doh facepalm caption is funny/cool but in parenthesis perhaps explain what caused the spin.
E) I'm sure you and your sponsors :hitit: :idhitit: but blocking suck a large portion of the screen :theeye: If you must keep them up there throughout the video instead of just at the beginning and/or end with a thank you or sponsored by, try putting them on a transparent background and/or using their logos in the corners instead of the blocky text.
F) Course map is cool but also only needs to be seen once, unless it somehow hod a magical red dot that coordinated with the 1st person view to show your position on the course.
G)Where are the results? Nowhere in the thread or video did I see any times, your best run of the day, what place you ended up in within you class, overall ranks, or mention of comparison to how others ran. Ashamed to tell us how you did? :jk:

A) Funny, I actually rendered 4 different versions getting the audio right. sounded ok on my speakers and headset, but oh well. It starts when the video starts, just has a semi-long fade-in. Guess I made it a bit too long
B) Well I added the parts list at the start to give some content/reading material for the intro. otherwise you just stared at me driving through fog on the highway
C) I felt the same. I plan to have the video camera out on the next walk-through and use those instead. This time, those stills were all I had
D) The video felt like a conclusion to the actual write-up to me, so I guess that's why I didn't explain in video
E) Are you talking about the bottom border? I realized when I was looking through the footage that my camera angle had a lot of "dead space" (mainly the bottom dash, which you're not going to look at anyway through the run). I thought it was a better way to use the space
F) I tried for this one, but gave up hours later. I plan to do it for the next video because it's something I want to do as well, but I just ran out of time/motivation this time haha

using Sony Vegas. I tried some other free-ware editors and they were all garbage (imo).

G) oh yeah. Well BMWCCA classes all non-BMW's in X1 if you're a turbo4 or v6+, so Terry's beast-mode because-racecar Miata (black one from the old thread) got the fastest time. Then David Hedderick in the silver Cayman mentioned above (co-drives with his father, Jim), then me. I'll list what classes they would have been in SCCA
Terry - SM Miata - 34.4xx
David - ASP Cayman - 36.7xx
Me - ASP Evo - 37.8xx

and yes, not enough smileys!

 

[Exyia]

Very nice.

Btw, just curious. How do you pronounce your name? Nationality?
Never heard it before. Quite unique.

Ex-e-ah

 

[Exyia]

Post event update

Had alignment checked. How do you know you're in Houston? when this sight isn't unfamiliar to you

Anyway, front right camber was off a tiny bit (0.15). Zero'd out toe again. I normally have my alignment checked frequently, but got lazy from the winter and lack of events over the holidays. It's good to get back in the groove of things.

We couldn't get more than -2.5 camber up front. I think the car could use a bit more, then I realized the caster was still at stock 4.1.

Front Passenger tire

But the rear camber seems pretty spot on

So I setup an appointment next Monday to add caster. I forgot to mention to Kozmic when they installed the JRZ's to max out caster on install, and getting to the bolts will require disconnecting/dropping the strut. They (Sals Auto Sport) will also dabble with the fender liner while it's in.

 

[Exyia]

Houston ESCM (Eat Sleep Car Meet)

Local Houston car meet I got invited to. I got a VIP spot and got some cool shots taken. I took a few pic's, but then the staff came, and I think you'll like their pictures better!

Just thought I'd share!

Model's name is Melanie Mitchell :thumbup:

The meet was fun. I'm sure the other photostudios will post their photos soon (including Houston Streets!)

 

[WootIHaveAnX]

Those last couple photos are borderline scary man. Lol. Cars looking good however. You guys have a cool group down there as far as the types of cars and people that come to the meets?

 

[edIT]

So are you planning on changing your build at all, or are you still happy with it? What hood scoop is that?

Car looks good!

 

[Exyia]

Those last couple photos are borderline scary man. Lol. Cars looking good however. You guys have a cool group down there as far as the types of cars and people that come to the meets?

how are they scary lol

Houston's car culture is huge though. Our Cars and Coffee have to be one of the biggest in the nation. Next week's Cars and Coffee we'll get to see the new Viper

 

[Exyia]

So are you planning on changing your build at all, or are you still happy with it? What hood scoop is that?

Car looks good!

Rexpeed CW-Style Hood Scoop (their very first one actually )
I have a fund put to the side that's steadily growing for more power, but I'm probably going to focus more of the budget on actually competing. I'm pretty happy with how the car is now in both handling and power - if I were to up the power, it would have to be big.

 

[trak_str]

how are they scary lol

The paint, and having people sit on it. The bravery.

 

[Exyia]

The paint, and having people sit on it. The bravery.

riceless:

 

[peteyfresh12]

Exyia if you're looking for some video editing, try fiverr.com they have all sorts of stuff there for 5$. Not sure if you want to pay or not, it's only 5 bucks lol, but people will definitely get your stuff done. Try searching like video editing, you can probably find someone to do what you need done.

 

[Exyia]

Exyia if you're looking for some video editing, try fiverr.com they have all sorts of stuff there for 5$. Not sure if you want to pay or not, it's only 5 bucks lol, but people will definitely get your stuff done. Try searching like video editing, you can probably find someone to do what you need done.

noted and thanks!

 

[darksyde69]

Rexpeed CW-Style Hood Scoop (their very first one actually

I really like the look of the raised style hood scoops, I'm wanting one for my PB GSR for this summer. Was the install of the scoop quick and easy?




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