The roadracegeek DIY, One-day Paint Job

EF Paint Job

My community college Econ instructor once explained the term “specialization of labor”. Something about people being most efficient when doing the thing that they were best at. There were test questions about it, as I recall. The idea is that a contractor has no business doing his own yard-work. In order to maximize his efficiency, the contractor should hire a gardener. An hour working as a contractor paid him more than the gardener charged. Plus the gardener could cut and edge the lawn twice as fast as the contractor could. Using specialization of labor, the gardener gets work, the contractor saves time, and there are no lawn tools eating into valuable garage space where the contractor keeps his racing stuff. Everybody wins.

I did not do well in Econ, though, and every time I talk to a painter I forget all about it. My cheap-bastard genetics take over. I forget all the bad shit about body work, paint prep and the astronomical cost of automotive finishing materials. I figure I’m a pretty handy guy. I could save some real money and just do it myself.

I am an idiot.

Thawley Invents Scented Tires – Sort of

Kumho announced their new lavender scented “Arroma Tire” a few weeks ago.

The press release got posted on one of the roadrace forums I frequent where everyone subsequently began making fun of it. (That’s mostly what goes on there anyway, but the idea of lavender scented tires was more worthy of ridicule than most…)

It was more than I could bare to watch this topic go on without claiming some connection to the whole concept. Here’s what happened:

A couple of years ago, I was invited to BeaveRun Raceway in PA for a Kumho tire intro. It was a big dog & pony show for all the enthusiast magazine journos to check out Kumho's new ECSTA SPT. They had all kinds of demonstrations and entertainment for us. Auto-x, road course, 4x4 trips, rally VW rides, etc. They also had rides in the 240SX drift cars that Kumho was sponsoring. This was right after they had come out with the drift tire that made colored smoke...

I do my best to avoid the marketing wags at these events and prefer instead to spend my time with the engineers. They not only know the answers to my questions, but will often candidly offer them, too.

So I had gotten to be pals with the race tire engineer and pestered him mercilessly about tire compounds, heat cycles and shit. And we were really hitting it off. So I'm fresh out of the plane-crash, drifting demo and start bullshitting with my engineer pal again. He's excited. He wants to know how I like the drift car and mostly, what I think of his colored smoke. I make all of the appropriate noises and jokingly praise him for this miraculous feat of molecular engineering and all of its benefits to mankind. I am kind of being a smart-ass because I'm done with the whle drift thing and want to learn more about race tires. But he really wants more feedback. "So", he says, "is there anything else you think we could do for this market?"

"Yeah", I say, "can you make the smoke smell like something besides burnt rubber?" He took me serious as a heart attack and spent the rest of the afternoon looking sort of like the absent minded professor on the brink of a new discovery.

True story.

As forum regular and super genius, Scott Rinde put it, “So in this case then the answer to "Who is the fucking genius who thought this up?" is Thawley?”

I guess so. Sorry.

2007 Race Schedule

With the recent posting of NASA NorCal’s final event schedule, we are pleased to announce the following race dates for the 2007 season.

The Western Endurance Racing Championship (WERC) E1 class will be our primary focus for the new season. This series offers the greatest number and variety of racetracks of any series that NASA sanctions. There are six events held at four of California’s best, most challenging racing circuits.

In addition, owner/driver E. John Thawley III will enter selected, high profile Honda Challenge sprint races in under HC’s new “H2/limited-prep rules” at many of the same tracks. The new rules have been a long time coming. Prior to 2007, any Honda with an engine swap was required to run in NASA’s H1 class regardless of the level of engine prep or out-put. “Limited-prep” allows engine swaps with nearly stock engines the chance to compete in H2 with other cars of the same prep level.

We expect to compete in the following schedule barring any changes by the event organizers:



Feb 10-11 WERC Enduro at Infineon Raceway

March 17-18 Honda Challenge at California Speedway

April 14 WERC Enduro at Buttonwillow Raceway

April 15 Honda Challenge at Buttonwillow Raceway

June 2-3 WERC Enduro at Thunderhill Raceway

June 3 Honda Challenge at Thunderhill Raceway

July 7 WERC Enduro at Willow Springs Raceway

July 8 Honda Challenge at Willow Springs Raceway

Sept 13-16 Honda Challenge/NASA Nationals at Mid-Ohio

Oct 13 WERC Enduro at Buttonwillow Raceway

Oct 14 Honda Challenge at Buttonwillow Raceway

Nov 9-10 WERC Enduro at Infineon Raceway

2007 Driver Line-up

Paul Brown – Covina, CA
Born: July 8, 1969
Occupation: Race Shop Manager/Test Driver
Driver Highlights:
• 2006 First NASA National Race Winner in American Iron Extreme
• AIX Track Record: Mid Ohio Sports Car Course (09/17/06)
• 2005 Monterey Historics Winner in a 1961 Chaparral 1
• 2005 Monterey Historics Group 5 Fastest Lap and Track Record
• 2004 Le Mans Historic 24hrs, 11th in a 1971 Ferrari 512 M
• 44 SCCA Pro World Challenge Races, 24 top 10, 11 top 5 finishes
• Aero Racing USA (Morgan) factory test driver
• Ford Motor Co. Tier 4 test driver
• Track Records at Buttonwillow, Hallet, Mid America Motorplex, Heartland Park Topeka & St. Louis in American Sedan, ITE and Super Unlimited

Paul is a rear-drive, pushrod type. But we like him anyway. Paul and Thawley met years ago during a photo shoot for the cover of 5.0 magazine. Among the nicest guys you’ll ever meet, Paul is a stellar race car builder/fabricator and is wicked-fast in his AIX Mustang. 2007 is his first foray into the world of front-wheel-drive race cars.

Andrie Hartanto – San Francisco, CA
Born: May 22, 1974
Occupation: Civil Engineer
Driver Highlights:
• 2006 National Honda Challenge H1 Champion
• 2006 NorCal region Honda Challenge H1 Champion
• 2006 E2 Class Winner and 6th overall NASA 25 Hour of Thunderhill
• 2005 SoCal region Honda Challenge H1
• 2005 E2 Class Winner and 5th overall NASA 25 Hour of Thunderhill
• H1 Track Record: Mid Ohio Sports Car Course (09/17/06)
• H1 Track Record: Thunderhill Raceway (05/28/06)
• H1 Track Record: Infineon Raceway (02/04/06)
• H1 Track Record: Buttonwillow Raceway #13 (11/12/05)
• 2004 NorCal region Honda Challenge H1 Champion

Andrie has helped Thawley out as much as his busy schedule has permitted during the ’06 season. Andrie focused used his considerable race savvy as both driving coach and substitute crew chief for Thawley last year. He has helped add considerably more speed to the team’s car owner and weakest driver, Thawley.

The NASA spotlight shinned brightly on Hartanto in ’06 at the First Annual NASA Nationals. Andrie put on a near perfect performance and became Honda Challenge’s first ever National Champion in H1. He is so famous now it is amazing he still speaks to us. Just goes to show how much he still cares about the little people.

E. John Thawley III – Santa Ana, CA
Born: October 15, 1963
Occupation: Photographer/motor journalist
• 2006 Finished 2nd in season points SoCal region Honda Challenge H1
• 2006 Bonneville Salt flats G/BFALT record holder 203.009mph in ‘99 Civic
• 2006 Inducted as lifetime member of the Bonneville 200MPH Club
• 2005 Finished 3rd in season points SoCal region Honda Challenge H1

Thawley’s gifts behind the wheel pale in comparison to Paul & Andrie’s. He makes no bones about his lack of natural talent, but his desire become a better racer is never ending. Thawley’s goals in racing are to learn constantly and to develop his original-owner, 300,000 mile 91 Civic into the most successful EF hatch in history.

Turbo Magazine B20 Cam Story

Aaron Bonk stopped by yesterday. He brought a copy of new Turbo magazine. (February '07) We did a cam test/tuning story on my B20. Good stuff.

To summarize what you'll read in Turbo, Brian Crower is a stud. His cams rock. And the Blox Type-R style intake manifold is a must for any B18/B20 that sees sustained duty at 7000rpm and above.

Bottom line, every non-VTEC B-series on the planet should have a pair of BC stage-II cams. The stage threes are race only. That is to say I wouldn't want them on MY daily driver. But they are perfect with the Blox and some dyno work for my race car.

Buy the magazine. Read all about it.