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

[Tor]

Xmas came early this year! I got the the Racer X Fabrication oil catch can as a very generous gift for some help with some engine ECU tuning.

I had been eyeballing this catch can for a very long time because it seems RacerX actually put in a lot of effort into making it as effective as possible.



So this was the perfect gift and I was really taken by surprise when opening the box!



The quality and finish are outstanding! I took some pictures from unboxing and installation:



The above artifacts in the glass are reflections from the lamp as you can see here. Also, you can see some of the internal bafflings through the glass:




What's in the box:




The bracket is mounted on the firewall behind an existing nut and by removing a rubber grommet and sticking a bolt with a metal plate in there instead.



Thereafter bolt the catch can to the bracket and install the provided hoses:



This is the factory hose you will take out:



The install is extremely easy and takes 20 mins done at leisurely pace. Draining it is done by opening the valve at the bottom and there is lots of space at the location where it's mounted to stick a container below it.

Looking forward to seeing how much oil it will pick up, especially when driven on track!

[elBarto]

Looking good, I have the same one. Already collected alot of gunk with it.
I think I know who has gifted it to you :p

[Tor]

2 updates:

1) I got these:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Last6wGhnbE&t"]Pedders SportsRyder Supercar for GT86/BRZ - YouTube[/ame]


They are Pedders SportRyder Supercar.

With the help of a friend I got them aligned the old-fashioned way. By incredible luck (and careful noticing when uninstalling the old coilovers) I managed to install them almost perfectly aligned. In total, we adjusted 3 mm toe and 1/2 a deg camber.

My new alignment is:
Front: 3 deg camber and 1 mm (0.4 inches) toe-out
Rear: 2 deg and 1 mm toe-in







First impression from driving them:

They are awesome!

They are very firm but don't "crash" like the ST XTA did when driving on a bumpy road. While hitting a small pothole with the XTA felt like there was no damping at all, these actually feel like they absorb the bump. I won't go as far as to call them comfortable (they are still fairly high spring rate with 7 kg/mm front/rear), but it's a more confidence inspiring feeling and doesn't feel as upsetting.

The handling is miles better than the ST XTA. With their front biased spring rates, they caused a lot of understeer which needed to be corrected with rear anti-swaybar and driving style. On the street, the car didn't feel as playful as with the stock suspension.

With the Pedders, the playfulness has to a certain extent returned and I can feel the back of the car moving more again. And it feels as well more confidence inspiring to bash the throttle a bit more than necessary, while cornering, for the fun of it. Looking forward to trying them out on track.

2)
I switched to Ecutek tuning software about 2 months ago and have been playing a lot around with it - 33 flashes so far. Most of it not related to the actual "tuning" of the engine, as I'm still running basically the same tune that I did with RomRaider.

But simply put, it's another level (more like programming) and really more about customization. Due to more control, I might make marginally more power, but my previous opinion about Ecutek vs. open source stands. I.e. open source is fully sufficient for street tuning or slightly compromised track tune.

At the moment I am messing with setting up ignition timing/drive by wire-based traction control. Of course, controllable via Bluetooth so the aggressiveness can be adjusted via the Ecutek app.

[nikitopo]

Nice that you came to the Ecutek world and that you like the new suspension.

[Tor]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBBgeyi0r8w"]Testing the Pedders Supercar GT86/BRZ suspension on the Nordschleife - YouTube[/ame]

Tested the Pedders Supercar GT86/BRZ suspension on the Nordschleife today.

And tested how much my simulator helped my get to know the track. I'm amazed how much it has helped. I felt quite at home on the track and had to really tell myself to slow down.

Also the Pedders Supercar felt really great and quite confidence inspiring, despite that I started out with too soft settings of 20/20 rebound/compression out of 32. So in the lap in the video it was set too soft and felt a bit bouncy. Especially over bumps (which there are enough of on the NOS) it felt underdamped and allowed a few occilations. Making the rebound a bit harder improved it much on the next lap. It will probably take a while before I find the best settings for me.

The balance of the car is a HUGE improvement over the ST XTA I ran before. I can now steer the car a bit with the throttle in the tighter corners (with enough rpm) and it's not plowing like the XTA did. I'm being a bit cautious still, as I'm not used to handling with this much more bias towards neutral.

All in all, a lot of things to get used to and a very successful day.

[Tor]

A couple of more Nordschleife laps.

First one behind my friend Bernd in his WRX STI. He is driving very slow so I can keep up and we could do a lap together. This is in no way representative of a performance comparison between the two cars. He could have driven away from me easily. Yes, he is holding me up a few times, but it's difficult to judge how slow to drive, so the one behind can keep up when you are the one in the front. And the mission was to drive a lap together, so it doesn't matter.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xphWRhiOojY"]“Follow you, will your path. Behind a blue one, drive you will...� :-D - YouTube[/ame]


The second lap, I was in front with Bernd "pushing me" from behind, until he had to back off in the middle of the lap due to running low on gas (WRX STI is a thirsty MF).

Last half of my lap was not so good either. Did a lot of strange gear shifts, due to "habit" from Assetto Corsa. I.e. I would expect to approach a corner in 5th and downshift to 4th. But "in real life" approaching the corner in 4th and by habit wanting to shift down and ending up braking too much and going into 3rd, hence, losing a lot of speed. I also got a Check Engine Light which was distracting me a bit (turned out to be for the ABS).

However, I ended up surprisingly with an 8:58. If I can fix those issues (mainly choosing the right gear, by NOT shifting and drive the curves at the "planned speed"), I think I could get 8:45 or maybe a bit less with relative ease.

To be faster than that, I would have to drive faster in general and not just fix mistakes. Which would be beyond my present comfort level.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5EKB__V9mE"]Nürburgring BTG 8:58 Toyota GT86 - YouTube[/ame]

[Tor]

Edited all my previous posts as Postimage made a change that the pictures didn't show up.

Also, I got a question in a private message about how I mount my cams some time ago. As I got the question again, I thought I might as well copy the answer over here:

I mount the main camera with a studio clamp to the headrest. The connecting arm is a Locking Arm from Joby from this set:
https://joby.com/action-tripods-grip...th-locking-arm

The pedal cam is a Joby Action Clamp with a GorillaPod arm.
https://joby.com/action-clamp-gorillapod-arm







The cameras in the pictures are cheap Chineese GoPro clones. I wouldn't recommend either of them. The batteries of both are dead and the only work with USB cables connected.

The last videos I uploaded, the main video is made with a Sony FDR-X3000 and a Röde microphone. While the quality is good, it sucks that the X3000 doesn't have center exposure metering. I'm still on the fence if I should keep it or not. Need to send it back in the next few days if I decide not to keep it.

[Mehrshad]

Originally Posted by Tor

Thanks! I really enjoy to edit video and it's nice when someone likes to watch it.


An update to the RC5+ pads ( @brzest , @Iceman): I am not so happy anymore.

After a 3 hour trackday (see video previous page) they now look like this:





And my brakediscs look like this:



So I lost 5 mm and parts of the pad has broken off in just 3 hours. To their defence they performed flawlessly as long as it lasted. I might try out the RC6 next or something Ferrodo. I will also change to Tarox F2000 discs.

Hi
i have EBC rotors on my car and it has a strange noise when driving about 50-60 Kph,and when i brake the sound stops,do you know whats the problem?
this is the sound

and this is the rotor
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/attac...1&d=1352695118

[Vin]

Originally Posted by Mehrshad

Hi
i have EBC rotors on my car and it has a strange noise when driving about 50-60 Kph,and when i brake the sound stops,do you know whats the problem?
this is the sound

and this is the rotor
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/attac...1&d=1352695118

I also have those rotors, mine sound like crickets, mostly noticeable if driving close to a wall with window open, it's hard to judge from your video if yours are the same. For me it's the sound of the cooling vanes, only fix is swap rotors for different make / model.

[Tor]

One more lap NBR. Had a small off at Adenauer forst... No, I didn't go straight over the grass, which is the common mistake here.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHBGQjWw7-I[/ame]


In general, not the best line, as I spend so much time looking in the mirrors and trying to avoid suicidal bikers. It was very busy with 150 cars on the track.

I starting out slowly as I saw the IAT was 60 deg c. Don't like to push the engine with that high IAT. Also forgot to turn off the traction control/ESP in the first corners. Virtually undriveable with that stuff on, you can hear ESP cutting in with the brakes several times per corner until I had a free hand to switch it off at 2:10.

The car felt very loose. Another small slide at 2:40 and again at 9:29 with 150 km/h. Maybe time for new tires?

Also new editing software (RaceRender 3), that is much faster to use and matches my logs with 100% accuracy. Back on the old camera for now. As I wasn't completely satisfied with the Sony I sent it back.

Ah yes, and P352. So between that and that the track was closed 2x for accidents, I decided to cut the day short with just that one lap.

[Tor]

Did another 4 laps at the NBR this weekend. First two laps (driven consecutively) my main camera wasn't recording. The second lap was a lot of fun though because I did a lot of overtaking, so that was kind of a shame. Maybe I will end up re-ordering the Sony camera because I'm tired of that troublesome Chinese crap. And the Sony did look a lot better, compared side by side.

Otherwise, the day was filled with a lot of accidents and yellow flags. So the remaining two laps are not worth showing in there entirety.

Instead, I made this small video comparing driving the turns around T13 in 2nd vs. 3 gear. And "Flugplatz" in 4th vs. 5th.

I drove these turns in 2nd because it was faster in Assetto Corsa, but have had a few comments that I should drive a higher gear. So I tried and this is the result:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLJYFahf7Nc[/ame]

As I wrote in the video description as well:

The result is, of course, applicable only to me: My (lack of) ability/driving style, my car, tires etc. I still produce power beyond 7000 rpm and rev to 7700, so that speaks for keeping it in the high revs. My tires are not that great anymore.

If someone else can drive it faster in 3rd, good for them. With a tad higher corner speed, perhaps the advantage goes away or is minimized.

Also, regarding the speeds. There is 5 kph difference between the speedo and the wheel sensor speed at 100 kph, 7 kph at 130 and 10 kph at 170 (225x40R18 tires). So a logged speed of 160 is 170 on the speedo. I didn't test at 200, but I once had 246 kph during some other tests, and it shoved something in the 230ies it the logs.

So assuming it's at least 10 kph as well, I have at least 216 kph before Schwedenkreuz... Not bad for a naturally aspirated FA20. I need to have it dynoed soon.

[AFRichZC6]

I think T13 in 3rd gear would possibly be as fast or faster only if you had more power at such low engine speeds (you were as low as 3000 rpm) or if you were already at the limiter in 2nd before completing the exit (you still had ~1500 rpms before rev limit on exit).

When I had my 1.8T GTI there, leaving it in third for that corner worked best because of those two reasons - I had a lower top speed in 2nd gear, and I had a wide spread of torque regardless of engine speed in 3rd gear.

[Tor]

Originally Posted by AFRichZC6

I think T13 in 3rd gear would possibly be as fast or faster only if you had more power at such low engine speeds (you were as low as 3000 rpm) or if you were already at the limiter in 2nd before completing the exit (you still had ~1500 rpms before rev limit on exit).

When I had my 1.8T GTI there, leaving it in third for that corner worked best because of those two reasons - I had a lower top speed in 2nd gear, and I had a wide spread of torque regardless of engine speed in 3rd gear.

Yes, I think 2nd is better as well. But pretty much everyone tells me to take those turns in 3rd.

And comparing, it does indeed seems that I loose some speed in the entry (atleast the first corner due to the downshift) and I might have a slighly lower apex speed in 2nd (which may also just be variation between the laps)... In any case I think it's clear I gain it all back (and more) on the corner exits and the acceleration between the corners.

Of course it helps to have a power curve that doesn't drop noticeably off above 6600 rpm (like stock) and that I rev to 7700.

[nikitopo]

Originally Posted by Tor

I didn't test at 200, but I once had 246 kph during some other tests, and it shoved something in the 230ies it the logs.

I noticed this too. A big difference in speed between the speedometer and the Ecutek log file. Do you have any idea why is this happening?