The common explanation for that odd aggressive weaving is that the driver is trying to warm up to operating temperature. But those of us who have studied tyre behavior know that isn't quite true. So here's an in-depth explanation as to why racecar drivers weave around, and why we club racers and track day drivers probably shouldn't copy them.

One aspect of owning an older car is that you end up having to restore of a lot of rusted and corroded parts, and that means breaking out the chemical rust dissolvers. While Evapo-Rust is very easy to get in most parts of the world, I couldn't help but notice that classic car restoration shops were using something I had never seen before on store shelves in the US. So through the magic of eBay and cheap international shipping, I bought a bottle and conducted a head-to-head comparison test between America's top rust remover and the favorite of Britain's best restoration specialists. Here are the results: Where to find: Evapo-Rust Deox-C Disclosure Section: StudioVRM is not affiliated with Evapo-Rust or Bilt Hamber. Which is good, because I don't think either of them would be terribly happy with me after watching this video.

Have you ever noticed how some high-dollar tools just feel better than some of their cheaper counterparts? They just seem to provide that tiny bit of extra resistance in their knobs, levers, and ratchets which makes it easier to make small, precise adjustments. It's a small, almost imperceptible difference, but it's enough to make you want to pick up your Snap-On ratchet over that cheap Sears Companion wrench every single time. As it turns out, that difference in feel doesn't come from the materials, the design, or even where it's made. The real reason for that difference comes from a sticky, little-known substance known as damping grease. And here's a quick video that explains what it is and how you can use it to give your cheap tools a big upgrade: Where to Buy: Nyogel 767A Damping Lubricant (high viscosity, very sticky) Rheolube 362HB Damping Lubricant (lower viscosity, smooth to the touch) Black Cotton Swabs Disclosure section: StudioVRM is now an Amazon Associate, which means that we get a tiny bit of income if you buy a product using the Amazon links above. We would be tremendously grateful if you did just that.

Although the 4th generation Honda Prelude is a few years shy of celebrating its 30th birthday, we are learning new things about the car every time it goes out on track. The StudioVRM Racing Team is spending this winter making some major setup changes based on some of the things we learned these past two seasons. So we thought we would share some of what we learned while the Prelude spends the cold winter months receiving upgrades in the shop. Extracting More Power from the H23A1 As many of you know, we are in the small minority of racers powered by the the non-VTEC H23A1. When we had our engine failure this summer, we contemplated switching to the higher revving H22 or following the majority of Honda club racers with a K24 swap. But after a number of discussions with our resident powertrain wizard, we decided to stick with the H23A1. Both of us felt that there was unfinished business, particularly around the head and intake, neither of which had been heavily modified since the car's transition to the SCCA Super Touring Under class. Plus, since we will be able to re-use any undamaged parts, the costs to rebuild the H23 would be around 40% less than what it would to build a new H22 to a similar spec. More Top-End Flow We learned early on that there is a lot of power to be unlocked in the H23A1's non-VTEC head. When the Prelude was racing in the Improved Touring class, powertrain wizard Robert Oliver was able to glean a solid 12hp across the entire powerband just by cleaning and gasket matching the port openings. Now that we are racing under the much more permissive Super Touring ruleset, we will be doing more extensive modifications than ever before. Robert is reshaping the intake and exhaust ports substantially and making some tweaks to the valve seats of our new head. In order to help get an even flow of fast-moving air into the ports, Bad Guys Worldwide is also working over our stock intake manifold on their high-tech CNC mill. Preliminary reports from our two engine experts revealed struggles with this unique challenge. Cole at Bad Guys Worldwide had to abandon his usual approach for porting H series manifolds due to the unique shape of the H23A1 manifold. Meanwhile, Robert found himself removing a surprising amount of material to get the port shapes that he wanted from the spare head. Thankfully, Cole and Robert are among the best in their respective trades. We remain confident that they will be able to overcome these challenges and the team will be able to reward them with a strong showing at the track. Better Bottom-End Oiling As it turns out, even the non-VTEC H23A1 isn't immune to oil starvation. We aren't about to let that happen again, so the focus this time will be on keeping the bottom end well oiled. This motor will be built on a gently used H23 block, which was cleaned and decked by a local machine shop prior to us acquiring it. The powertrain wizard will give the FRM bores a very light hone to ensure that the new OEM Honda rings seat evenly against the cylinder walls. We will be installing a Kaizenspeed balance shaft removal kit on a new OEM Honda oil pump to ensure consistent oil pressures through the engine's powerband. A baffled Moroso road race pan will raise the oil capacity to 5.5 quarts and provide some much needed protection from oil slosh from high-G cornering. And last but not least, all of this will be backed up by an Accusump in the event of a sudden loss of oil pressure. Worthwhile Transmission Work During the 2018 off-season, we replaced the OEM 4.266:1 final drive with an affordable 4.64:1 unit from MFactory. The difference was dramatic. Despite moving up to a larger diameter 17" wheel, the car felt more willing to accelerate out of every corner and down every straight. Closing up the gear ratios also eliminated those corners where we felt like we should be somewhere between 3rd and 4th gears. When we were building the car for Improved Touring S, we had assumed that the torquey 2.3L motor would have enough low-end grunt that it would eliminate the need for a taller final drive. Looking back, we now realize that it should have been the first modifications we made when we were getting into the drivetrain. Suspension and Alignment While our race-valved Tein dampers and Swift springs continue to provide a good compromise of response and compliance, we did make a few tweaks during the 2018 and 2019 seasons to help our cornering performance. One of these tweaks was to raise the front spring rate from 12kg-f/mm to 14kg-f/mm in order to get faster transient response through fast S-turns and sudden left-right transitions. This seemed to help through the back sections of NJ Motorsports Park and Summit Point Raceway, albeit at the expense of the razor-sharp corner entries that we had enjoyed in past years. To compensate for this, we changed our approach to the alignment as well. Our 2019 alignment eliminated the front toe-out in favor of a small amount of rear toe-out, and increases the amount of camber on the car. In 2019, the StudioVRM Prelude raced with the following alignment settings: Toe Front: 0 degrees Rear: 0.2 degrees total toe out Camber Front Left: -3.1 degrees Front Right: -3.2 degrees Rear Left: -2.0 degrees Rear Right: -2.2 degrees We also realized that adding a spacer between the upper control arms and the chassis would give us an additional 0.25 to 0.5 degrees of negative camber when the rear suspension was compressed. So we ordered a set of M18 fender washers from McMaster-Carr and installed them on the rear control arm anchors to gain some much-needed dynamic camber in the rear. The result is a car that would take left-right transitions much more quickly than in the past, so we were no longer losing dogfights in the tighter infield at NJMP. While the car doesn't feel as willing to steer into the apex as it had in previous seasons, it still rotates willingly thanks to the small amount of rear toe-out. Despite these improvements, we do see room for improvement. During our last race, the car felt suspiciously like it was riding on the outside edges of the rear tyres through slow corners. This suspicion was later confirmed by some alarmingly uneven tread temperatures from the tyre pyrometer. We plan to address this by replacing the rear camber adjusters with these Moog adjustable ball joints so we can the rear camber to -3 degrees on both rear wheels. This should give the Prelude better tread utilization while retaining the crisp, forgiving handling that we have enjoyed in these past few seasons. Big Wheels and Wide Tyres It didn't take long for the Prelude's newfound power and agility to completely overwhelm its 225mm wide Hoosier R7s. It was time to move up to 245mm front tyres, and as a consequence, time to move up to 17" wheels. As expected, the 1" increase in tyre diameter did hurt acceleration a bit compared to our old 15" setup. But the benefits far outweighed that little drawback. Thanks to the stigma of running large wheels on an older 4x114.3 Hondas, 17" wheels are readily available and for cheap. We acquired a set of brand new 17x8 race wheels for half the cost of our custom-drilled 15" Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2s. We also noticed that our brakes were consistently running 30 degrees cooler than they had been previously. It seems that increasing the clearance between the brake rotor and wheel rim made a measurable difference in brake temperature. After experimenting with sizes and compounds (and receiving some much-appreciated advice from our friends at Maximum Attack Motorsports) we decided to run Hoosier R7s in 245/40R17 at the front and 225/45R17 at the rear. The narrow rear tyres work surprisingly well, warming quickly and staying grippy through the duration of a 40 minute sprint race. Although this does mean that we now have to carry two different sizes of tyre to each race, the difference in lap times convinced us that this was the right way to go. What's Next? The long winter has just begun for us. In all likelihood, the snow will have started to melt before the 2020 model StudioVRM Prelude is ready for its track debut. If all goes well, our bright green machine will be out testing by early April and will have its race debut shortly after. Schedules and details to come within the coming weeks and months. All we know is that we can't wait for spring to come. See you at the track.

I love watching people race as much as I love racing myself. And in all my hours of watching top level racers do what they do best, I've noticed something interesting. It seems that there are some things that club level racing does better than its top flight pro counterparts. Yes, it sounds a bit crazy. But take a look and tell me if I'm wrong: In any case, I'll see you at the track.

A few weeks ago, the StudioVRM Racing Team outfitted its Prelude Si racecar with a garage-built aero kit and raced it at the SCCA's 2019 Summer Thunder at NJMP event. So we took the opportunity to show everyone exactly how fast these add-on aero bits made the car by comparing the data from this race to testing data from earlier this year. TL;DR: Yes, aftermarket aero does make a big difference, especially through high speed corners. It also has some serious drawbacks. Be prepared to lose some straight line speed and make sure your car's engine oil system can handle the extra cornering G's. Where to find these parts: 57" Universal ABS Rear Wing US Composites Two-part Polyurethane Foam Honda Prelude Splitters by BEM Colored Plastic Air Dam Material Air Dam Support / Landscape Edging Quick Release Splitter Brackets See you at the track. Disclosure section: StudioVRM is now an Amazon Associate, which means that we get a tiny bit of income if you buy a product using the Amazon links above. We would be tremendously grateful if you did just that.

While the Rich Energy saga rages on like a dumpster fire outside your local comedy club, yours truly was busy looking for an expert to taste test their elusive drink instead of installing some much-need upgrades on his racecar. Fortunately, this was one of those rare cases where procrastination paid off. We found a professional flavor chemist certified by the Society of Flavor Chemists, and convinced him to use his trained senses to answer two all-important questions: What does Rich Energy really taste like? And how is it as a mixer with alcohol? Who is The Drunk Chemist? Our expert today is what is known as a Flavor Chemist, or Flavorist in the food and fragrances industry. He spends most of his day analyzing, engineering, and formulating all of the natural and artificial flavors that make your favorite food products taste as good as they do. After years of study, nearly a decade of apprenticeship, and passing the Society of Flavor Chemists' stringent tests, our expert managed to work his way up to his current role, designing flavors for one of the top names in the Flavor and Fragrance business. If you bought a packaged product off the shelf at a supermarket in the last 5 years, there is a very good chance that you have tasted one of the flavors he helped create. Because of this, he has asked that we not identify him or his employer, and simply refer to him as "a Drunk Chemist." What we can tell you about the Drunk Chemist is that he is an avid athlete and an enthusiast of extreme sports. He is therefore no stranger to energy drinks in his personal or professional life. Taste Testing & Analysis The test procedure was simple. Deliver several cans of Rich Energy to our expert chemist with instructions to analyze its flavors, first as a chilled drink and then as a mixer with a shot of vodka. Then wait until he had become sufficiently familiar with the taste, and ask him for his findings. Here's what he had to say: It's got an oxidized lemon, slightly pineapple, tropical sulfurous, slightly guava acidity, very guarana forward, and finishes slightly fusel / gaseous like. It tastes like Rockstar energy drink with more tropical forward. Mixed with vodka, it tastes like jet fuel in the tropics. Like I'm on a raging island full of fist pumping Jersey Shore guidos. That's quite a lot of information condensed into a few short sentences. Let's break this down line by line and talk about what this actually means. Breaking Down the Results First, let's talk about the main components of the drink's flavor: It's got an oxidized lemon, slightly pineapple, tropical sulfurous, slightly guava acidity, very guarana forward, and finishes slightly fusel / gaseous like. The Drunk Chemist identified the main fruit flavors as: A dull sourness similar to a lemon that has been cut and left out in open air A hint of the sweet and tart of pineapple A pungent odor of tropical fruits (e.g. passion fruit, mango, coconut) An acidic component that tasted primarily like guava He also described the taste that you get when you first start taking a sip as guarana, and the taste that it leaves when you finish drinking as fusel alcohol. Here is our best shot at explaining them in layman's terms: Guarana is a plant native to the Amazon basin in South America. Its seeds are often crushed and mixed into a drink, purported to have health benefits. Despite the sweet flavor of most of these drinks, guarana itself has a bitter, woody, and earthy taste. Try to imagine what root beer would taste like without the sweetness. That's kind of what guarana tastes like. The Drunk Chemist reports that he tasted a powerful guarana flavor at the beginning of each sip. Fusel alcohols are a blend of alcohols that are produced when sugars ferment into alcohol. Fusel alcohols are associated with a strong taste and a very distinctive mouthfeel when you finish sipping it. The Drunk Chemist felt that the carbonation evaporating on his tongue gave a similar sensation to when you exhale after a sip of something alcoholic. All in all, it's an incredibly detailed description, far exceeding anything I've ever seen anywhere. It's also a much better way of breaking down the flavors than the lazy generalization that I gave ("it tastes like jackfruit"). It tastes like Rockstar energy drink with more tropical forward. While many people (including myself) have described Rich Energy Drink as being "similar to Red Bull," the Drunk Chemist said that he would describe it as a Rockstar energy drink with a stronger tropical fruit flavor that hits your tongue at the beginning of your sip. I tried this myself by taking a teaspoon of pineapple-orange juice before taking a swig of Rockstar. While it isn't exactly the same due to the differences in carbonation and the syrupy aftertaste of Rockstar, the flavors are uncannily close to that of Rich Energy. Mixed with vodka, it tastes like jet fuel in the tropics. Like I'm on a raging island full of fist pumping Jersey Shore guidos. As for the Chemist's description of Rich Energy mixed with vodka, you'll have to use your imagination. All I'm going to say is that I suspect he had a few Rich Energy Vodkas before he wrote that bit. Conclusion Afterwards, we tested the accuracy of the Drunk Chemist's descriptions. I grabbed an unsuspecting third party, had him read the Chemist's description of Rich Energy drink, then had him check the taste for himself. Our unsuspecting volunteer confirmed the accuracy of this description, saying "yep, that's exactly what I expected." For those of us here at StudioVRM, this exercise gave us a tremendous appreciation for the analytical ability of an experienced flavor chemist. It's amazing to see how someone can break down something as subjective as taste into a set of adjectives that almost everyone can understand and agree on. We would like to thank the Drunk Chemist for donating his time and skills to this very important cause, especially as we still hear that it is almost impossible to get Rich Energy Drink in some regions. Hopefully his findings will give people an idea of what they might be missing. Until next time. We'll see you at the track. Disclosure Section: Neither StudioVRM, Roger Maeda, nor the Drunk Chemist are affiliated with Rich Energy or any of its suppliers. The Rich Energy Drink used in this test was purchased at full price from Walmart.com in regular retail packaging. To say thanks for taking the time to do this test, Roger spent a few hours of his weekend helping the Drunk Chemist move into his new home.

Normally I wouldn't post three videos in a row, but this time I'm making an exception. Because by some bizarre coincidence, I found out that you can buy Rich Energy Drink from Walmart.com. And my case of 24 cans just arrived. For those of you who may not understand why I'm so excited, Rich Energy Drink is a near-mythical energy drink produced by the London-based Rich Energy Ltd. The company popped up seemingly from nowhere and made a name for itself by offering high-dollar motorsport sponsorships while offering no apparent product. A judgement from a recent lawsuit revealed that many of the 9 million cans produced from the company were never actually filled with drink. Almost everyone who knew anything about it doubted that the actual drink actually existed. So you can imagine my excitement when I, a hardcore enthusiast of both motorsport and energy drinks, got my greasy mitts on a whole case of this mystery drink. There was only one thing to do. Do a taste test and capture my rambling first impressions on video: Where I got it: Rich Energy Drink - Case of 12 at Walmart.com See you at the track. Disclaimer Section: StudioVRM is not affiliated or sponsored by Walmart or Rich Energy Ltd. Roger paid for this case of Rich Energy Drink fully expecting the taste to be awful and that he would have to beg his friends to take it off his hands. Fortunately he was wrong and will likely be drinking it all.

I'm often asked if Honda Preludes can be fast, competitive racecars. After all, you can build a race car out of anything. But building a race car that is competitive enough to run at the front is a whole different story. At last week's SCCA Lightning Challenge races, we got  the answer to that oft-asked question. Rather than talk about the details, I thought I'd show you instead. Enjoy the view from the driver's seat: Onboard the StudioVRM Prelude through a chaotic Qualifying Race Onboard the StudioVRM Prelude - 2019 Lightning Challenge Race For those of you who are wondering, this is what the car looks like today. I'll take some time to talk about the new aero kit in a future article. Until then, I'll see you at the track.

Like most good automotive enthusiasts, I use plastic zip ties on everything. Everything from the wiring in the garage to the roll bar padding on our racecars are held tightly in place by our trusty friend, the zip tie. Like all good things though, zip ties come with one very annoying feature - When you cut the tail off with a regular pair of cutters, they leave a sharp, jabby nub that will snag clothing and cut you if you ever brush past them. Well, it turns out that there are multiple ways to get around that problem. One is to use a specialty tool, one is to use a tool that you already have in your house, and the last is to skip the tools altogether: Products used: Revlon Concave Toenail Clippers Gardner Bender Self-Cutting Zip Ties KAHIOE 5 pack Flush Cut Pliers See you at the track. Disclosure section: StudioVRM is now an Amazon Associate, which means that we get a tiny bit of income if you buy a product using the Amazon links above. We would be tremendously grateful if you did just that.

Over the course of the 2018 season we took a in-depth look at PTH Racing Oil, thrashed it in our Honda Prelude Si racecar, and had Blackstone Laboratories analyze the oil to see how it stood up to high-rpm use on a racetrack. Once the season ended, powertrain wizard Robert Oliver tore the motor down so we could see what was happening inside. Now it's the moment of truth - Did PTH's Racing Oil live up to its claims of superior protection at a racer-friendly price? Test Platform and Conditions Once again, our test platform of choice is the StudioVRM Prelude, a 93 Honda Prelude Si powered by the non-VTEC H23A1 motor. In the first half of the 2018 season we installed a set of custom ground racing camshafts from Racer Brown Camshafts with Crower valve springs to match, added a pair of AEM adjustable cam gears, and gave it a new tune to push it to just shy of 180whp. In order to ensure that we got consistent test results, we ran the car in exactly the same way as we had earlier in the year. All of our four race weekends took place at one of the two tracks at NJ Motorsports Park, and the same driver piloted the car at every event. We did raise the rev limiter again, so the engine spent most of its time between 4200 rpm and 7500 rpm in 3rd, 4th, and 5th gear. As with before, there were no unexpected noises nor did the engine consume any oil. Oil pressure remained above 40 psi through even the hottest race sessions, and there was little to no oil in the PCV catch can after each session. So far, so good. How did the metal internals of the engine look after a full season of racing? Checking the Head and Valvetrain High-lift racing camshafts and stiff aftermarket valve springs exert a tremendous amount of pressure on the surfaces of the cylinder head. This can cause a lot of issues in modified Honda motors, which are usually built to run at high RPMs using extremely high lift cams. Any wear would be clearly visible in the tops of the rockers and the surrounding surfaces of the head. Would there be any scratching, bluing, and flattening on these critical surfaces? Fortunately, Robert found none of those characteristic wear marks when he disassembled the Prelude head. The top end of the motor looked just as shiny as it was before he had installed the new cams and valvetrain. The rockers showed no signs of flattening, while the head and cam caps had the same consistent color as the rest of the head. From what we could tell, the robust additives package and inherent film strength of PTH 5w30 has done a fine job of protecting the delicate valvetrain of our race motor. On to the bottom end. Cracking Open the Block While the head has been removed and inspected countless times, the bottom end of this motor has never been disassembled. We didn't expect to see much wear on the hardened FRM-sleeved bores of the Honda H motor. But at the same time, we expected that regularly running the car 1000 rpm above its factory redline would have taken a toll on the OEM crank bearings. To our surprise, the rod and main bearings showed no signs of scoring or accelerated wear. In fact, a close inspection of the old bearings showed that they were still within the factory spec of thicknesses and wear. Here's a close-up of the rod bearings. They're a bit dirty but are in great shape otherwise: And here are the crank main bearings. Keep in mind that these were the original, unmodified Honda bearings, manufactured and installed in the engine over 20 years ago. Take a look at the piston skirts on these original H23A1 pistons: After years of track use and the especially strenuous conditions we put the motor through last year, we would have expected the piston skirts to be worn totally smooth. Yet, the lathe marks from the factory process are still intact, all the way down to the bottom. Robert remarked that, with a bit of cleaning, these pistons look like they could go right back into the motor for another season of track use. The Blackstone oil analysis was accurate. PTH Racing Oil really does have what it takes to protect race motors in the toughest of conditions. Conclusions and Recommendations After a full year of real-life testing and lab analysis, I think it's safe to say that PTH Racing Oil lives up to its claims of best in class stability and protection for racing engines. And frankly, I couldn't be happier. As a privateer team with limited resources, we can't afford to do yearly rebuilds and replace internal engine parts on a regular basis. At the same time, we need to be able to run our engines 1000 rpm above the factory redline for hours at a time in order to be competitive in our class. PTH 5w30 proved that it could give us the protection and longevity we need to race a production based engine, regardless of its level of modification. The fact that it's cheaper than other well-known racing oils is just icing on the proverbial cake. So yes. If you own a dedicated track car or race car, I would wholeheartedly recommend PTH Racing Oil. It offers a level of protection that is simply impossible to find in street car oils at a price that the average club racer can easily afford. At the very least, StudioVRM Racing Team will be using it as our go-to racing oil in the seasons to come. See you at the track. Disclosure Section: StudioVRM, Roger Maeda, and Robert Oliver are not sponsored or supported by any oil companies, including PTH and Blackstone Laboratories. All of the products and services mentioned were purchased at full retail price out of Roger's own pocket. After seeing these results, this doesn't bother him at all. Paying a few hundred dollars for three cases of oil is nothing compared to the thousands of dollars it would cost to rebuild a race engine.

Those of you that have wrenched with me know that I hate mechanic's gloves. They give you no tactile feedback so you end up dropping all of your bolts. Then over the course of the job they get soaked through with grease. And finally when you take them off after a long day of hard work, one of them goes missing, never to be seen again. Unfortunately, even the most expensive tools in my toolbox have rather abrasive tool handles, and after a few hours of working on the car my hands are sore. Fortunately, someone taught me a neat trick to improve the grip on my tools using something I already had at home. All I had to do was to go through the trash can in my basement to get it. Here's how, illustrated in the latest installment of Racer Tech on my Youtube Channel: And here are a few upgraded tools from my tool chest: The elderly gentleman that taught me how to do this is a professional knife sharpener. For those of you who have never heard of such a thing, it's exactly what it sounds like. He drives around the towns surrounding Seki, Japan, hand-sharpening kitchen knives and gardening shears out of the back of his mini-truck. He uses this method to reduce wear on tear on his hands as he hones steel from dusk 'til dawn. He also taught me the ins and outs of hand-sharpening kitchen knives. But that will be a video for another time. Until then, see you at the track.