Went to the tracks last night.

After a week at Makua Valley, working from 3am-10pm for about 5 days in some unrelenting heat, just walking, walking, walking....I was looking forward to getting there for at least a short time this weekend.

Had 92 octane and a map that wasn't exactly tuned for it, I decided to go. I finally got off work about 9pm and headed home, showered and took off. Got there about 10pm.

Made a couple of passes. A 13.1 and 13.3 knocking all the way down the track. (It was steamy as crap, too)

For my 3rd pass, after waiting in line for too long as usual, I had made my final tweaks (pulled a little timing and upped the boost), I was looking forward to duelling with a BSMer. After we staged, once again we got the pro-tree. Screwed me all up, so I lost my cool a little bit and just cruised at about 50mph to the half track turn-off and made my way towards the exit.

Believe it or not, out of the parking area at about 40mph, comes this black geo metro pointing directly at my front left corner panel. Fortunately, my ALB was working great because he missed me by about a foot. He never did slow down. I started to pursue, but he turned left and sped off. I figured, 'no harm no foul' but it did get my blood pressure up.

What a tool.

 

You should have chased him down and busted some kung fu airborne ranger on his ***

 

I think this is the first good thing I've heard about the ABS on a WRX. Usually people are *****ing about it kicking in during Auto-X. Glad you didn't slam into him, and yes, you should've caught him and given him a good beat down.

 

WRX's love octane, don't they?

Okay - Black Geo Metro on my hit list. Check.
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I hope so. Next weekend I may go as high as 30% Xylene (with a few capfuls of ATF thrown in for good measure).

 

Yes they do!

 

Ok, stupid question time. Not that you would want to with the price of the gas, but could you run with 100 octane all the time? Is there such thing as having TOO high an octane?

Just curious. I see those bottles of 110 octane booster and such and just wondering. Also do you guys ever dump any of the bottles of cleaner or octane booster in your cars? Any good or just a waste of cash?

Thanks...

 

IMHO over the counter "octane boosters" are a waste of cash.

You can run with 100 octane UNLEADED all the time, and with Subaru's active ignition advance system I believe it could only help. The repercussions are of course felt in the wallet, however...

I fully expect 100 octane unleaded from Gayle Au's station to be $4+ / gallon...
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There are of course different racing fuels which aren't for daily use in a street car, and will not benefit your vehicle unless tuned for (C16 comes to mind). Fuels with vastly different aromatic content and/or specific gravity will react very differently to a stock WRX ECU's ignition/boost curves...
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Ouch, cant hurt every now and then I guess... Definitely for track days...

 

How come they're springing the pro tree on us every once in a while now-a-days? That really irks me and blows my concentration...

What kinda of det. events were you logging during your passes? Were you trying your regular drag map with the 92 in the tank? I've had to pull 3 degrees of timing from the BASE map to run on 92...
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I'll be honest, I have no reservations in facing anybody but my first thought is whether or not they've got a pistol or something.

Bottom line is, I'm pretty sure I pissed someone off at the track last night, it's just I'd be surprised if someone rushed out to their car and tried to crash into me because of it. Hopefully, the chucklehead had me mistaken for someone else.

Dave,

From what I've looked up, there is no drawbacks to higher octane than what the manual tells you. It's just that there are considerations with each method you might choose.

Xylene/toluene = potential for drying out any rubber along your fuel system. Lower burn temps...it detonates slower but it apparently it isn't as hot as race gas. I could be wrong in that statement, but it's what Nathan from TurboXS told me, unless I misunderstood him. Xylene and toluene are paint thinners/solvents so caution must be used while putting it in your tank so you don't get any spillage on your paint, and in making sure that it's diluted somehow so it isn't as hard on the rubber components of your fuel line.

C16 = lead that would destroy o2 sensors (although, my thinking is starting to be towards saying screw my sensors. They're already shot in one case, and useless in both)

Additives = most only raise by tenths of an octane (3 points = .3 octane). Many have additives that might have harmful side effects.

103 unleaded race gas = no side effects that I know of.

All are expensive.

 

That protree made me lose my cool. Shocking, huh?

Yeah, I foolishly tried my fast map with the 92.

I was about to make a lower timing map pass when they screwed me up, so I left.

 

Before I dumped the Xylene into my tank, I did some reading, and one of the sites gave a "recipe" for making your own octane booster.

For Xylene it was something along the lines of

90% Xylene
8% Mineral Spirits
2% ATF

This apparently makes something along the lines of "Outlaw". Don't quote me on those numbers, I'll go hunting for the site again.

 

Your O2 sensors AREN'T worthless, Pat! You car won't run right without the front O2 sensor functioning properly...

With that being said, C16 won't kill 'em IMMEDIATELY...
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