T(h)or's GT86 hammer (Europe) - essential track setup

[Tor]

I only drove it a small peaceful test drive so far.

No weird noises, no VSC light and it drive straight like on rails. So I guess I got lucky and didn't mess up the alignment left/right that much (or equally much both sides if you will).

Compared to stock, of course you feel the bumps in the road more.

But as a test I drove over a cobblestone pawed road near where I live. It was previously a jawbreaking experience, where the whole car was bouncing about. With the XTA in the middle rebound setting (I have it at 9 of 16 clicks towards soft), it feels a lot more comfortable! You still feel the wheels hit every stone, but it feels like it's the wheels being bounced around and the car is steadier.

With the stock shocks absorbers it felt like the shocks couldn't keep up, and would get "out of sync" and each subsequent stone would make the suspension travel exponentially bigger, with the result of throwing the car around.

Best way to describe the XTA, is that it feels like the shocks are working faster than the stock ones and thus keeping up with each stone and making a uniform minimum required travel for each stone.

As for performance it has less body roll as expected. I didn't push it in anyway though. And the of course I need an alignment. I think I gained a lot of toe out in the front, the steering feels a lot lighter.

(The test road: )

[Tor]

I got the rear anti swaybar, together with Whiteline endlinks, installed today. It's a 2 way adjustable ST (exactly the same as KW, just grey instead of yellow). It's set at it's soft setting.



The install could be better as the endlinks shouldn't have been mounted centered in the lower control arm (it's adjustable). Next up is changing the control arm to camber adjustable SPC, however I need to take the car to a mandatory inspection and I'm not sure they will approve of the SPC arms. Hence they will be installed afterward and I'll correct the endlink position at the same time.

Since it held up to being babied yesterday, I took the car for a thrashing on a small back road. They swaybar install didn't make any noises despite the endlinks sitting at an angle. Despite my still lacking alignment, the car handles surprisingly well, definitely flatter in the curves and it felt there was reserves to levels where I didn't want to go.

I am satisfied so far... More to come.

[Tor]

Front anti swaybar installed. I forgot to take pictures, but I can chop one more thing off the todo list.

[Tor]

Brake cooling!

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEhu1Oae8To"]Brake cooling![/ame]

[Tor]

Schroth Rallye 3 ASM harness installed:



I've chosen the to use the isofix mounting for the rear strap. I know it might not have the same strength as the official seatbelt mounts. But I feel confident it is sufficient. I have from reliable source (seatbelt manufacturer, whose name I wont mention for legal reasons), that todays requirement for official mounts are way overkill. Or rather, the required strength of seatbelt mounts far surpasses anything the human body can withstand. In other words, if you crash hard enough to break the isofix mount, you are with all likelihood dead in any case.

P.s.
Original first post in the thread updated.

[Tor]

Trackday at Zolder in Belgium booked for the 4th of May.

[Tor]

Installed the Carbone Lorraine RC5+ pads. WOW what a difference!

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJHIADVz9yM"]Brake burnish attempt[/ame]

When overlaying the videos, I found the look of the audio interesting. You can visually see them getting more quiet (top audio outside camera).



I probably should have done a few more stops but I ran out of suitable road. Also it would probably be more effective to do the stops from a higher speed.

[Guillaume]

Originally Posted by Tor

Picked up some Porsche 964 brake spoilers:
(Part no: 96434108301 und 96434108401)

Where did you buy them ? The retailer I got the 997 spoilers from (for 7€ each) lists the 964 ones at 50€.

[Tor]

I paid 45€ for a used pair on ebay.

The are made from a semisoft rubberlike plastic and are quite thick in the material. The 997 spoiler looks like flimsy plastic compared as far as I can tell from pictures.

[Iceman]

Originally Posted by Tor

Installed the Carbone Lorraine RC5+ pads. WOW what a difference!


I probably should have done a few more stops but I ran out of suitable road. Also it would probably be more effective to do the stops from a higher speed.

CL says to do just a couple of stops and you're good to go, but i think they get better with a bit more time, i've done 3 trackdays with them so far, the first time i wasn't so impressed...but since the 2nd one they are working just as i expected, pretty happy with them.

[DrawingWaves]

Huh, that Porsche Brake Cooling is neat!

[Tor]

Originally Posted by Iceman

CL says to do just a couple of stops and you're good to go, but i think they get better with a bit more time, i've done 3 trackdays with them so far, the first time i wasn't so impressed...but since the 2nd one they are working just as i expected, pretty happy with them.

I didn't find any instructions but I didn't look either. With a few stops only, I guess they barely get seated to the worn discs?

I looked at the discs in daylight yesterday and they have a nice greyish surface from pad material transfer. So I think I will leave it as it is for now.


Next up is alignment tomorrow. The car drives terrible after I installed LCAs, it must have messed up the toe in the rear badly. I'm taking it to a regular alignment shop. I went there yesterday and talked with the guy who will be doing the job. To everything I said he said "no problem", "we only do it accurately here", "we will adjust anything that can be adjusted" and "it takes an hour tops".

I hope I won't regret not taking it to a performance (race oriented) alignment shop. My thinking though, is that I won't spend too much money on an alignment before I know what I want dialled in. Also, since I already know what I want set I don't need expertise advice on the setup (yet), just someone who is proficient in swinging the wrenches.

My goal is -2.5 front and -1.8 rear with 0 toe all round. With this I will do the trackday on the 4th of May and there after see if I want something changed (maybe try to get some tire temperature data and base it on that). There after I can see what problems I may have, and then seek (and pay) for expert advice.

[Tor]

So I got my alignment done this morning. It took the guy 38 mins, including getting it on and off the rack, that really surprised me. And he did indeed keep his word to do it accurately.

Cost 59 eurodollars compared to taking it to a race shop here where they charge 300-500€. Granted, it will including corner balance and damper setup. I'll live without the corner balance and my dampers are 1-way, so I'll mess with that myself.

Alignments reports are not that colourful in Germany:



Translated to English and converted from deg/min to decimal and mm to inch:

		Left	Right		Left	Right

Front:		After			Before

Caster (deg)	 6.06	 6.05		 6.06	 6.05
Camber (deg)	-2.48	-2.43		-2.33	-2.41
Toe (inch)   	 0.02	 0.02	    	-0.02	-0.05

Rear:

Camber (deg)	-1.83	-1.83		-1.88	-2.00
Toe-in (inch)	 0.04	 0.04		-0.10	-0.24

The before values I find quite interesting, because they confirm what I assumed from the beginning:

1) The car gained toe out in the front from being lowered. It was also pretty even in the front as I assumed. In the rear I assume the toe remained relatively unchanged (regret not having it measured) on stock control arms - the car drove great before installing the SPC arms!

2) After I installed the SPC LCAs (and I think reducing the camber), the car drove absolutely terrible. Again as I assumed, it had gained a lot of toe out from standing the wheels back up. Most was almost a 1/4" toe out on the rear righthand side!

Another interesting fact:
The top mount slipped to max negative camber during adjustment. It maxed out at -3.5 deg (-3 30').
Also it had a negligible effect on toe, so it I want I can play around with that when taking it to the track.

I will drive it for a while with the new alignment, but I think I already miss the toe out in the front.

[Tor]

I had my first track day:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9qqv2lZb-o"]ST XTA coilovers for the GT86/FR-S/BRZ - track day[/ame]


I can now say for sure the 6 kg/mm front, 5 kg/mm rear springs are not an issue. I this the 2 axles should be viewed more independently.

The front is very planted and is very roll resistant with the higher spring rate. It has a firm grip in the corners and I didn't remember having understeer at any point at all! The stock understeer at speed is completely gone as well. As an example, I come into the first 3rd gear lefthand curve (Earste) slight fast at approx. 10:55 into the video and have to counter steer a bit.

The softer rear has very good traction and but is still slightly tail happy. It actually caught me by surprise on the very first lap, that it was possible to get the tail to step out in 2nd gear by applying power.

With this setup I would say the car is neutral biased towards oversteer.

Next up:
- I really need an oil cooler. Oil temperature was around 130 C degs / 265 F.
- I really need to change to Castrol SRF brake fluid, the brakes got mushy after 4-5 laps.
- I really need proper track tires.