The guys at DT are still developing my tune. They were actually surprised I dyno'd it and suggested I wait until they're finished tweaking it. So consider that plot a preliminary.

Yeah they did 7 revisions to get my tune right. That's why I say its worth the money. And their turn around time is super fast

Looks like a fun time with this car! I’m very happy with my Ace header. I wish I had had the chance to do a before/after dyno. Seems like the best dyno graphs show a much higher peak hp increase. Others have shown something closer to yours. I’ll be interested to see if it improves a lot after more revisions.

It sounds like they're also autocrossing? And I'd guess it's track dependent.

While it wouldn't surprise me if both of those things made a difference, it would surprise me if the difference was significant.

I typically wind the car out no more than 3 times on the typical 60 second course out here... so the majority of time is spent lower in the power band. It's a very clear difference digging out of tighter 180s. And if I have to grab third, it helps too.

I am not much of an autocrosser. I have trouble understanding why you would not want the car to be in the highest rev range throughout the run. is it an issue with overcoming traction? If so isn't that an issue with control of your right foot more than an issue with the car? I would expect one would want as much power as possible available at any given time throughout the run. Which would make me think I would want the engine turning as fast as possible at any given time.

86 Cup round 1- Buttonwillow
 

Sonny was able to manage Blub to a new overall N/A 86 and also Mod class lap record for Buttonwillow 13CW, 1:58.901

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zgIvxVT4ok[/ame]


I say manage because we did this on stock shocks. The valving on them works for low grip tires and more neutral setup. On higher grip tires and a bit more free setup, it was not happy over the lumpy, kerb laden Buttonwillow. Rear end constantly trying to step out. We didn't have time to test before round 1 so we took our best guess based on the previous setup. That was a 20mm Whiteline front bar, stock rear and front roll center adjuster kit. We were close, but not quite enough front bar. The key is the heavy low speed damping of the stock shocks and virtually no digression. This means they're actually too stiff even for the RCE springs, making the car too sensitive to pitch changes from pedal inputs. Yet the shocks don't adequately blow off on the kerbs so they upset the car way to much. Worst of both worlds. Very much a knife edge to drive at the limit. The car actually would have been better with softer shock valving overall.

This all gives us a lot of useful information in where to position the damping sweep and curve shapes for our Xidas. We'll definitely be able to improve the ride quality with spring rates 2-3x higher than stock and also get it to soak up the kerb hits without upsetting the car. We are really eager to get the first set of protos on Blub!

Is the car still on the stock '13 dampers, with 86k+ on them, or did you go with new OEM dampers? If the latter, '13-'16 or '17+?

Same set it left the factory with.

Wow, that's awesome. Excellent driving!

- Andrew

Is there any particular reason factory sets the damper curve that way? It surprises me factory shock is that bad with high grip tires and Toyota didn't consider people would put sticker tires on twins.

Low grip and low rolling resistance tires help vendor up fuel mileage numbers, fit under strict EU emission standards, add playfulness for drift wannabies even with low stock power. Recall even many reviewers on launch in reviews speaking positively on tire choice being well balanced with car/chassis. As majority drive car stock, why should toyobaru ignore all reasons listed above for 1/10 (but possibly less then that) and fit tires and dampers for that way smaller niche of customers? If you are in that niche, nothing keeps you from fitting tires and coilovers that fit your particular use better, but i see no business rationale to change stock shocks with dampening for tires "normal owners/drivers" won't use in all of them by default and compromise handling with stock primacies or make car more expensive. If there is flushness fitment fans, should toyobaru strike out several markets that require for new cars sold to be able to fit snow chains? If there are few hellacamber and insane drop fans, should toyobaru do such changes to default stock suspension too? If some want to fit big wide barrel of wheels, should that also make into 'default'? If some few will rally it, should toybaru lift it by default by few inches? To each his own, and one should understand that manufacturer goal is to make car that would fit most so as to sell bigger numbers. And frankly imho they succeeded, bringing reasonable rwd driving fun for cheap.

Most autocross courses have at least 1 spot on course where pretty much all cars dip below 30mph, usually 2-3 spots, it doesn't matter what car you have, a <1,000 lb racecar on slicks, actual go-kart, or a 911 GT3, it's a <30mph corner. Cars with torque don't suffer much (A point and shoot course is typically accused as favoring Corvettes), adding mid-range torque to the torqueless car is easily worth a measurable amount of time. Downshifting to 1st gear is always a risky manuever, most just keep it in 2nd and wait.

But anyway back to bitching about stock dampers.
:burnrubber: