It was a fun packed weekend. I left St. Louis Friday night after work and headed to northern Illinois to go race at BlackHawk Farms. Saturday was a fantastic day racing. This was my first time on this track dry and ended up 3rd out of 4 in my class (Least i beat a c5 ;) That night i relaxed with friends at the track with some adult beverages (we decided to stay since we were camping there) Sunday i packed up and headed to Gingerman (western Michigan) made a couple hour stop in Chicago (portillo's hotdog) I also found some new spark plugs and debated on changing my oil but since it was in the 90's i figured that could wait. I finally left and fought my way through Indiana's parking lot of a highway. I finally got to South Haven found a place to camp (camping is so much cheaper) at the track and made myself at home (i was the only one there) i almost decided to change the oil again but again i talked my lazy self out of it.
The next morning i woke up with the sounds of Honda's pulling in. ClubSi had the track for the day and since i have a 90 Honda civic i thought i could join. 90 percent of the participates were Honda's there were also two 427 cobra's (no idea if they were legit or if they were replica's), and a viper.
They tried to put everyone in groups so there wouldn't be any big holdup's, well that never happens. The cobra's and viper were in my group with a couple other assorted honda's. As we lined up in the false grid, a honda took first position followed by the viper and then both cobra's then myself ( no clue who was behind me). we were finally released and we were warming up our tires and getting up to temp. By the time we made it to the first long straight away i was lined up to pass the first cobra. i took it and passed him. One the second lap i was closing in on the second cobra and passed him on the same straight away. I then caught up to that lead Honda and passed him. I then had one good fully open lap and cranked out some corners. i could feel the car beginning to drift and pushed it and let em go (Love the fact there is almost nothing to hit at gingerman) This was the first time i felt in control of a drift. and gingerman leads up to some awesome sweepers to drift on. Well i caught up to the viper and was looking to pass. we came up to the first straight and i noticed he was behind a car and not passing him and wasn't giving me room to get between them. so i held up and waited for the next straight and the same thing happened. so i let off knowing i wasn't going to have any fun riding his bumper. so i eased up to about 1/4 - 1/2 throttle. After awhile i thought the viper got far enough in front of me but close enough to still catch by the straight i hammered it. I was on in turn 4 at the time and the car didn't really respond like i thought it should of. I had no power and then noticed huge amounts of smoke out the exhaust. My first thought is i blew an Intercooler pipe. then i noticed as i pressed the throttle i heard a howl. I've heard of people talking about turbo death whine. this was no whine it was a howl.
So with 147K miles on the clock, BPU since 60K (no idea about previous owners, car was stock when i purchased it), my turbo's finally kicked the bucket. I've been waiting for this since '98. And i am pleased to say they died giving me their all on gingerman raceway Monday morning (although it was on my first session, they could have waited till that afternoon)
After tearing apart the engine it was determined that Turbo #1 shaft was twisted.
Pics of engine and turbo
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