Best mods for corner speed?

[Tokay444]

Originally Posted by Apelsin

That was very interesting timurrr. Thanks for sharing! Seems like you came up with a great rule of thumb to translate mods into lap time improvements

There is no rule of thumb that translates mods to lap times.

[Apelsin]

Originally Posted by Tokay444

There is no rule of thumb that translates mods to lap times.

Call it whatever you want but I think timurrr’s post is brilliant. I didn’t expect such an objective and helpful answer to what I was looking for. So as far as my original question goes I got what I needed 100 percent.

But since this discussion veered towards coaching, I am curios to follow up with some questions. I am guessing most of you who are replying in this thread are experienced drivers. I am also guessing that most of you got to your levels without using a paid professional coach. Am I wrong? If you did, what did you get from the coach that you wouldn’t be able to figure out on your own? What bad habit did they fix for you? And btw, curt/dismissive answers are not helpful. Just saying.

[SCFD]

Here's some random numbers assuming an average lap time of around 1min 30s...

All-season to summer tire: -2s
Summer tire to "extreme summer": -2s
Extreme summer to r-comp/qualifying tire: -2s
No negative camber to proper camber: -1s to -1.5s
Coilovers: -0.5s to -1s
+100hp: -1s to -1.5s
-100lbs: -0.25s
Aero: -0.25s to -0.5s
Driver mod: -0.1s to -20s

Driver mod makes the biggest difference followed by tires. How effective each modification is depends on how good the driver is at taking advantage of those mods.

[RT-BRZ]

Originally Posted by Tokay444

There is no rule of thumb that translates mods to lap times.

I'm not sure I would understand why the size of the rod you use to beat your wife would come into play for lap times anyway.

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by Apelsin

But since this discussion veered towards coaching, I am curios to follow up with some questions. I am guessing most of you who are replying in this thread are experienced drivers. I am also guessing that most of you got to your levels without using a paid professional coach. Am I wrong? If you did, what did you get from the coach that you wouldn’t be able to figure out on your own? What bad habit did they fix for you? And btw, curt/dismissive answers are not helpful. Just saying.

When you are focused on driving it's nice to have someone else in the car that can gauge what you are doing. Sometimes you don't realize you are being jumpy on the throttle until someone is in your ear telling you to be smoother. I had pretty specific goals when I last had an instructor so my experience may not be the same as yours.

[gen3v8]

I`m a mod the car type.
Sticky rubber,good suspension parts and an alignment to suit you the track and the car will give you more corner speed. Simple as that!
Faster consistent lap times is a lot more involved. With out getting deep you need quality coaching and seat time plus more. All the go fast mods people have mentioned won`t help for long if you can`t slow yourself down either. Heat generated in the brakes needs attention.

[TommyW]

If you're going to mod to pull more lateral G's and have higher corner speeds at least learn to catch oversteer while the car is still on stock tires. Go to a skidpad. My first track weekend, the first day was almost all on a skidpad and that was a HUGE benefit. The nannies were turned off.

[Desertnate]

Originally Posted by NoHaveMSG

When you are focused on driving it's nice to have someone else in the car that can gauge what you are doing.

Those extra set of eyes and an impartial observer is very helpful.

I've had more experienced people ride with me on occasion either for fun (they want to see what my car is like) or at my request when looking for advice. On all of those occasions they've been able to identify something I could do better to make me faster. Without any external form of feedback you can be creating some really bad habbits and not know it becase it's all you know/were able to figure out.

The one time I had formal instruction, the instructor had way more experience and was far better driver than I am. He spent the entire day not only teaching me new things, but then also giving me tips on how to improve things I already knew.

I always take the attitude of assuming there is someone out there better and smarter than I am. Most people can teach me something, some more than others, but there is always something to learn.

[Tokay444]

If you already knew everything there was to know about driving and were above needing instruction, you'd be answering all your own ridiculous questions.

[Apelsin]

Originally Posted by TommyW

If you're going to mod to pull more lateral G's and have higher corner speeds at least learn to catch oversteer while the car is still on stock tires. Go to a skidpad. My first track weekend, the first day was almost all on a skidpad and that was a HUGE benefit. The nannies were turned off.

I agree with that, a skid pad is great for learning to recognize and catch oversteer

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by Tokay444

There is no rule of thumb that translates mods to lap times.

There is, when it comes to the 86CUP ruleset.

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by timurrrr

All other things being equal, coilovers/springs/dampers don't affect peak lap times as much as some people think.
I've seen a lot of examples when good drivers on stock suspension and 225 SX2s were on average just 0.5–1.0s per lap slower than similarly good drivers on coilovers and 245 SX2s.
That being said, a well set up suspension can be more predictable and can provide the driver with more confidence to drive fast lap after lap.
On the flip side, a well set up suspension might have such a balance that an inexperienced driver will spin in their first session.

Note that I said "all other things being equal", I want to stress that it includes camber.
There's a night-and-day difference in grip between factory and proper track alignment.

You may find https://86cup.us/calculator/ interesting.
Coilovers are 2pts there.
I don't know how much lap time differenced does 1 pt translate to, but eyeballing their records, and assuming Stock is -1pt and all Street records were set with 4pt builds, 1pt is ~0.5–1.0s per lap?

We've gone over the meta many times. The rules are an aggregate result, based on the "no budget limit" version of every modification within reason. Because many folks want to game the system, the assumption is that everyone is using a fully optimized part. If they're not, well, at the end of the day, this is a pay to play activity, and to a large degree, pay to win. Driver mod is still costly, albeit, the more difficult but ultimately more rewarding mod.

1pt = 1s at BRP 13CW. Obviously some tracks reward some mods more than others. Some mods synergize with other mods more. There's no perfect system, but that's why the rules are written the way they are. Some parts are intentionally undervalued in the interest of overall participant safety as well as driver development.


If you ignore 86cup records, and use all known times, you'll find correlation to be nearly 1:1, as 86cup records are just a subset of all the records out there.

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by Desertnate

Those extra set of eyes and an impartial observer is very helpful.

I've had more experienced people ride with me on occasion either for fun (they want to see what my car is like) or at my request when looking for advice. On all of those occasions they've been able to identify something I could do better to make me faster. Without any external form of feedback you can be creating some really bad habbits and not know it becase it's all you know/were able to figure out.

The one time I had formal instruction, the instructor had way more experience and was far better driver than I am. He spent the entire day not only teaching me new things, but then also giving me tips on how to improve things I already knew.

I always take the attitude of assuming there is someone out there better and smarter than I am. Most people can teach me something, some more than others, but there is always something to learn.

Even good self evaluation requires video and good data IE throttle/brake input overlay, but that takes time. With an instructor and a headset you can get it immediately and review the session after right after while it's fresh.

[Tokay444]

Originally Posted by CSG Mike

There is, when it comes to the 86CUP ruleset.

Now are they rules of thumb, or just the rules?