boscotheduck
Senior Member
- First Name
- Sean
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2018
- Threads
- 6
- Messages
- 88
- Reaction score
- 53
- Location
- Chicago, IL
- Vehicle(s)
- 2017 Civic Si
- Thread starter
- #1
Hello all, I’m new to the forum and wanted to make a post sharing my experience tracking my 17 Si so far.
The car: 2017 Si sedan, all stock with the exception of 18x8 +48 Volk CE28SL with 245/40-18 RE71R, Porterfield R4 front pads and Motul RBF600 brake fluid. I also have the front strut pins pulled for more negative camber. Front toe is zeroed.
The track: Gingerman Raceway in South Haven, MI
Me: I’m an average to acceptable driver on my absolute best day.
Disclaimer: just my experience and opinions. I’m not an expert by any stretch.
I brought my Si to Gingerman Raceway this past weekend and ran in their novice group with my 17 Si. It was very cold with lows in the morning around 19° and highs in the upper 30°s on the second day. The best lap I could muster was 1:50:61, which is decent from the feed back I received. This was my first time at Gingerman and my first time on the RE71R and Porterfield pads. Here’s some thoughts/findings:
That’s all that immediately comes to mind. I’ll be doing my first Chicago region SCCA autocross this weekend. I anticipate doing poorly as I’m not a good autocrosser. I’ll be doing the SCCA Spring Training Time Trials, also at Gingerman, the following weekend which sounds like it should be a ton of fun. If I have any relevant info from either of those events I will make another post.
Thanks for reading. Here’s a couple pictures.
The car: 2017 Si sedan, all stock with the exception of 18x8 +48 Volk CE28SL with 245/40-18 RE71R, Porterfield R4 front pads and Motul RBF600 brake fluid. I also have the front strut pins pulled for more negative camber. Front toe is zeroed.
The track: Gingerman Raceway in South Haven, MI
Me: I’m an average to acceptable driver on my absolute best day.
Disclaimer: just my experience and opinions. I’m not an expert by any stretch.
I brought my Si to Gingerman Raceway this past weekend and ran in their novice group with my 17 Si. It was very cold with lows in the morning around 19° and highs in the upper 30°s on the second day. The best lap I could muster was 1:50:61, which is decent from the feed back I received. This was my first time at Gingerman and my first time on the RE71R and Porterfield pads. Here’s some thoughts/findings:
- RE71R wasn’t too bad in the cold. A little slippery for the first couple laps with full grip by the third. These tires absolutely live up to the hype. I found that running right around 33psi in the front and 30psi in the rear worked well.
- I encountered sputtering in turn 10b which is slightly off camber and brutalizes LF tires. I determined that with right around 3-4 gallons in the tank in the hard right hander I would encounter fuel starvation. This resulted in going into limp mode once. Keeping the tank always filled over half alleviated this issue.
- I found my front caliper piston boots are burnt, almost melted. I’d speculate if a lot of track time is in your Si’s future a higher temp boot kit may be needed.
- I’d be very hesitant to make any changes to the suspension on this car. I found that utilization of trail braking or inducing a little lift oversteer could get me as much rotation as I needed. Other wise the car is incredibly composed. I had to really do something dumb or erratic to get it out of shape.
- If you’ve tracked your Si at all you know the front pads won’t last more than an hour or so of track time. I contacted Porterfield and they made me pads in their R4 compound. I have no complaints with these pads, I even drove to/from the track on them which was about 120miles each way. They perform, that’s all. I’m still on stock rear pads but they’re almost done. I have a set of Porterfield R4S compound that will go on the rear soon.
That’s all that immediately comes to mind. I’ll be doing my first Chicago region SCCA autocross this weekend. I anticipate doing poorly as I’m not a good autocrosser. I’ll be doing the SCCA Spring Training Time Trials, also at Gingerman, the following weekend which sounds like it should be a ton of fun. If I have any relevant info from either of those events I will make another post.
Thanks for reading. Here’s a couple pictures.
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