Suzuki Alto Works – Trackday Round Two

Anyone who knows me knows that I’ve been hanging out all year for this day. It was trackday time!

The previous trackdays have been so much fun I have been eagerly awaiting the next one.

Of course, after the last trackday, my first in the recently purchased Alto, I left a little lukewarm on the car and had a large list of things that needed to be changed before the next one.

If you have been following this project since the start, you’ll know since its last trackday the Alto has basically had a full going over; all new suspension including lowering, an added rear swaybar (and functional front one), stiffened rear engine mount, replaced thrust bearings, lowered seat rails, an intercooler change, and bigger brakes, amongst other smaller things.

In the build up to trackday there was one project I have been quietly working on; the intercooler water sprayer.

As mentioned when I swapped the intercooler to the SWK one, I wanted to reinstate the water spray the previous owner had set up, using the stock shroud

My goal, since reading that the previous owner found the 1L bag of water under the bonnet too small for his use case, was to fit a 5L bottle in the boot, with a pump, and have it pump water to the front. This is similar to what he ended up with; a 3L bottle strapped to the rear panel.

Obviously since I spent great expense refitting the interior, including the foam insert in the boot, a bottle like that was of no use to me, so after lots of research I settled on a bottle from Aliexpress which fits in the foam insert, almost perfectly. The filler cap sits a little proud, so I squished the top of the bottle down a bit to make space

To run the setup I was going to use a cool little timer relay, which was adjustable and triggered by a momentary button. I set it to run for 30 seconds each time it was triggered

Unfortunately despite initial testing showing great promise, the damn thing decided to go pop when bench testing and never worked again. As did the button, which is a damn shame because it was a nice JDM button with blue illumination which I was going to use to show when the output of the relay was turned on (thus, showing when the pump was running).

With that disappointment I decided to run the hoses and wires and mount the bottle anyway. To feed the pump, I drilled a hole in the top of the bottle and fed the hose through a grommet into the bottle, using an alloy fitting that came with the bottle as a weight

I only had a Tee joint, so blocked one side off. This keeps it nice and low profile

Using some trim tape, I stuck the pump to the side of the bottle and ran hoses to and from it

Before wiring the whole thing in I gave it a quick test by feeding power to the pump

The pump primed fine, but instead of pushing water along the hose, it decided the path of least resistance was through the joints on the body. The pump leaked like a sieve. Useless.

At this point I was getting pretty pissed off with everything failing, so flipped to Plan B; the week before trackday, order a universal washer bag kit and hope it arrives in time. Yes, it’s the same setup the Japanese owner was running that was too small, but I don’t care if I have to top it up between each session (I did).

Thankfully the courier pulled through and the kit arrived in time. I quickly set about installing it into the engine bay

Before wiring it in, since everything else was failing, I jumped the two pump wires right to the battery and tested it

Great success. You can’t see it but both jets are working and creating a lovely mist in the shroud

The kit comes with this ugly generic button, which being momentary I would have to hold down to spray, no good when going full attack

Rummaging through my spares I uncovered the toggle switch that came with my clutch start canceller. A nice metal switch with a good click when toggled

I chose to power the pump right from the battery, using a fuse holder I pulled out of some other project

and ran another wire into the cabin to the switch, so all it was doing was grounding the pump. I was originally going to install the button on the right side of the steering wheel, where the other buttons are, but this seemed like a nice “temporary” place to put it, on the bracket that came with the kit. It’s just taped in place, so easy to remove later.

It’s easy to access, and visible from the drivers seat. The big long toggle is handy when wearing gloves

With the dash put back together, the wiring tidied up, and the bag filled with water, the IC water spray saga was complete, for now. The next owner can do the boot install if they care enough

That was that. Friday rolled around, I cleaned the car (check out those big brakes)

Packed my tools, checking things off my list as I went, so I didn’t forget something important like the camping chairs and chock last time…

I rolled the Alto into the garage to pack it, as the weather was being a bit less than great. I suddenly thought, “I should apply some old CarPro Reload sealant I have to the bonnet and bumper, just in case I get oiled again”.

This resulted in me spending an hour or so coating the car in Reload, top to bottom, front to back

I will say even though that stuff is well expired, it works really well. There’s more gloss, the paint feels smooth, and the water beads off. Impressive considering the paint really needs a machine detail.

And we were off. We had a two hour drive ahead of us, in the dark. The Alto did really well, and the new suspension was miles ahead of the last trip to Manfeild where the rear kept bottoming out (blown shocks and soft springs).

The one thing that did suck was some a-hole following me in a late model BMW SUV hunk of junk, with his LEDLAZERBEAM headlights, shining right into my eyes through all three mirrors. The dipping mirror I fitted was a godsend, but I still ended up having to fold the wing mirrors in to stop us being blinded. I pulled over at the next town and let him pass, only for him to turn off anyway. Dick.

The next morning we were bright and early to the track, having stayed only metres away, and picked out our pit to camp in for the day. Considering it had been heavily raining the day before, the weather was mint all day.

Shortly after, the rest of the crew rolled up.

Yes, even blue Alto friends were back, rebuilt engine and all! Huge respect for the work they put into that car, and they were still keen to bring it back to where it all went wrong last time and try it again.

Thankfully it was all good this time, and they had a blast punting it around the track. I loved seeing it out there

We did a couple of sessions together

We had a couple of nice little battles. I was surprised, even on my high boost, their Alto wasn’t easy to catch. It seems it may not be quite as stock as they expected

That pass was caught from both inside and outside, thanks to me remembering my action camera and external mic

The Alto managed to surprise a lot of cars on the track, and got thoroughly thrashed by others (that 206 GTI just danced in the corners, was a treat to watch)

It’s an angry looking wee thing

A casual flyby of both Altos

And a flyby of my Alto, being driven in anger

So, how did the Alto do?

Very good.

The first big improvement was the seat lowering, which meant my helmet was no longer pressed into the head lining, and I felt like I was sitting in the car, not on it.

The big brakes, using Chery rotors, worked an absolute treat. Heaps of stopping power, and didn’t set a foot wrong all day. I brought the stock brakes with me just in case, but weren’t needed.

Finally being able to run most of the day on high boost was excellent. Intake temps were a lot lower than in Jan, which would’ve been helped by the low teens ambient temps, but the intercooler water spray did a great job too. Generally when running, it knocked 10-15c off the intake temps, and when turned off the residual effect worked well to help the IC shed heat once off boost.

The most surprising thing was how cold the intercooler was once I returned to the pits. The Greddy IC last time was hot to the touch, but with the water spray, the end tanks on the SWK intercooler were cold. Not left overnight cold, but almost colder to the touch than ambient. Very impressive.

On high boost the LSD works a lot better too, especially if you’re brave enough to power on early in the corner. The amount of cornering traction was incredible. You brake hard into the corner and get straight back onto the power and let the LSD pull you around it.

The suspension upgrade was well worth the money. Last time I had issues with the car wandering, not really wanting to go around corners and bumps really upset the stability, but now the suspension just settles into the corner and holds on. The rear follows the front, as it should. It really boosted my confidence in the car compared to last time.

So, times. Last time, on high boost, my best time was 1:42

This time, in my first session, running standard boost, 9 laps into it, I ticked off a 1:39. I was already faster than last time, and I wasn’t even on high boost yet!

That pretty well set the tone for the day, unless there was heavy traffic, I hardly did slower than a 1:40.

The real surprise was one particular lap in my third session, where I went full send and dropped into a 1:36!

I was skedaddling for sure

There is heaps of room for improvement in the corners. Although I picked up some speed, it was mostly through the middle and on the straights, where the power and braking came into effect. I believe at this point I’m limited by the road tyres, which although good tyres (Yokohama ES32), just don’t have the grip to hold on and get that cornering speed up.

I have done some digging around to see what is available in 165/55R15, and the options in NZ are almost nil. Zestino has an option, but at $300 per tyre, that ain’t happening. Yokohama can order in some AD09 from Japan, but there is a 3-4 MONTH lead time on those, subject to production. Bridgestone won’t even consider the idea of bringing in RE004 in that size.

The day was an absolute hoot. I love being on the track, and will be looking to do more trackdays next year and maybe even get into autocrosses and the likes too.

The best thing was that everyone drove home, in their car, under their own power this time. No one really had any mishaps, except for my friend in his recently acquired Swift Sport who decided the tarmac was boring and he’d rather do rallycross. My wife unintentionally caught this on the very end of the clip she was taking, and none of us even saw it happen (as a side note, how good does that K20 powered EK9 sound…)

No harm done, just some mud up the side to wash off

So that’s another trackday done and dusted. The Alto was excellent, all the mods worked perfectly and the car was a cohesive machine of awesomeness.

In saying that though, the Altos days are numbered. It’ll go up for sale at some point soon, when I can be bothered, as although I love the little dingus, I have other stupid ideas for other stupid projects that I need to liquidate the funds invested into the Alto for. I’m hoping to move to something that I can use in basic motorsport events that is worth a lot less than the Alto and has ample parts availability in NZ just in case I send it too hard. I have a car/project in mind already, so we’ll see how that goes.

Until then, if I still have the Alto in Jan 2025, it’ll be out on track again at the next trackday.