2015 WRX Project Northstar – Time Attack Car?

I wanted to make sure I got to this before some of the details escaped me. As some of you know this Sunday was the first round of the 2015 CSCS Time Attack Series and was held at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park Driver Development Track…wow that’s a mouthful. CTMP DDT is their smaller circuit that really focuses on driver skill and technique with speeds not getting too high compared to TMP or Grand Bend. With our other project not complete, the GD unlimited car, I decided to take out the 2015 WRX and compete in the Street AWD class. The street class is aimed at street driven vehicles with restrictions mainly on suspension (2-way dampening and no extrernal reservoirs), Tires (200 Treadwear and 245mm Tire Width). The majority of the class is running Stage 2 or greater power levels, coilovers, Hankook RS3 in 245 width, gutted rear interior, brembos or other solid BBK. To say the least I felt like I was bringing a knife to a gun fight with the WRX, but it was just to go out and have fun and competition brings out something that you just don’t get from open lapping days. At this point the car has an intake, TGV Delete, Downpipe and we replaced the stock pads with some StopTech Street front and rear since the fronts were completely down to the backing plates and the rears were getting there. This is likely due to overheating the pads and them just wearing away, ah well though they were no good anyways! The only other thing we did was dial in the most negative camber we could get on the front wheels with the stock camber bolts. I’m sure they are not the same left to right but we didn’t have time to align the car before the weekend.

Went out for the first session to get a feeling for the conditions, track temp etc. Immediately the car felt horrible! It would brake decently but as soon as i’d turn into the corner the front would push and I couldn’t run the lines I wanted to. After 3 laps of this I gave up and went back to the pits to see what was up. I had a feeling the pressures were going to be very high but didn’t expect to see them at 47PSI front and 45PSI rear after 3 very slow laps. I had bumped them up to 38PSI cold for the road which I normally drive on and wasn’t expecting such a big pressure jump. The ambient ranged form 27-30 Celcius throughout the day so it was pretty damn hot. I dropped all 4 corners to 38PSI hot and waited for the next session which was our first qualifying runs. In order to make the final time attack session be competitive CSCS has implemented a policy that in order to qualify you must be within 10% of the fastest time for your class that day. Went out for the qualifying session and the car felt much better then the first practice session. Side Note: I took out passengers for all of the practice and qualifying sessions just to give them an on track experience and show them how good the 2015 WRX was. This session went better but after 1 hot lap the car started pushing again so I knew the pressures needed to come down some more. Managed to put in a 1:44.7 which was surprising since we were running the DDT layout with 2 kinks. This put me into 3rd or 4th place out of 8 cars which was pleasing. Last year I believe the best Street AWD time was 1:41.6 running the 1 kink layout which I think is good for at least 2 seconds a lap. Checked the pressures again and they were up to 40 so I dropped them down to 38PSI hot and then waited for the next session. We ended up missing the second qualifying due to a car blowing up and dropping oil on the track. After lunch we had 2 more qualifying sessions to go so I was hopeful to knock down some more time. This session felt much better and the car seemed to be getting closer to what it felt like before, still pushing a bit but not nearly as bad. Did a good 4-5 laps and then a cool down lap and came in. Checked the pressures and they weren’t bad but I decided to drop the rear from 38PSI to 36PSI to try and get a little less sliding from the rear and better drive out of the corners. Checked the live lap times, livetiming.net/cscs, and saw I bettered my time to a 1:43.996 which I was super happy with. This put me in a solid 4th position with the 5th place runner about 3 seconds behind me. I knew I would qualify for the time attack session and it was just a matter of could I move up any more.

Last session out and the car felt awesome! It wasn’t sliding as much and I was hitting my points all through the course. I was really happy coming into the pits and wanted to see how much my time improved. Checked the timing and I hadn’t gone faster! I was a bit disheartened by this as I was sure I had gone faster but I guess not. I figured the tires were shot after 3 track days and now all these sessions. I dropped the front pressures 1PSI going into the time attack session to try and improve the front end grip and feel. I ended up being the final qualifier for the Street AWD group so I was going out last, this definitely has it’s advantages as you can control the gap between you and the person in front so that you don’t get held up if they should make a mistake and slow down. I didn’t have too much hope due to the lack of progress in the last session so I was just going to drive consistently and push a little harder each lap as the tires came up to temp. The format for the time attack session is 1 warm up lap, 3 hot laps and 1 cool down. They released us with I believe a 10 second gap between each car so I drove at a moderate pace making sure to keep the car in front close enough that I could see it, for that extra little motivation. First lap out felt good and according to my crew I did a 1:42.9 which is a full second faster then I qualified. I knew I could go faster as the tires were still not up to temp yet but I noticed the car in front of me seemed to be further ahead then before. He apparently had done a 1:41.902 on his first flying lap which would explain the gap opening up. The second lap felt even better and ended up being a 1:42.2…still leaving me in 4th position unbeknownst to me. Going into turn 1 the brake pedal started to go a little softer and I knew the brakes were a little past ideal but the tires were now likely at their best. I told myself to just brake a little bit less and rely on the grip of the tires to make up for it. On the third lap I could see the car in front getting closer which was good motivation. I made a couple small errors but also felt like I was faster in a few sections then the last lap. Crossed the finish line and now was the long cool down lap with no idea whether I had gone faster or not. Pulling into Pit in I saw a few of the crew there and they didn’t really seem to excited. My brother Mike came up and said I had gotten third place by .002 seconds! I was floored at how close it was and the fact I could even hussle the WRX around the track that faster. My final time was a 1:41.900 which is over 2 full seconds faster then I qualified. The other car competing for us this year is Project Blackout, which many of you know, and he ended up taking first place. Another friend, Brandon Gomes, came second so it was an awesome result for all of us to be in the “winners circle” together.

Hats off to Subaru for putting out such a capable car! I don’t think there’s a car you can get for $29,900 that will be anywhere close to what the 2015 WRX is capable of. In conclusion I want to urge all of you to get out to the track and enjoy your cars because they are more then capable! It doesn’t matter if it’s a 2002 or a 2015, get a motorcycle helmet and sign up for a school and have some fun!