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

[brzest]

Glad to see the suspension set up is working nicely, might have to copy you for the next year.

I just installed the Forester XT oil cooler, will see how it does. First impressions of 'heavy street driving' is that it definitely keeps temps cooler (couldn't get over 116c driving on windy roads in 3rd at 6.5-7k) and when you ease off, the temps drop ALOT faster than before. I used to back off when temps hit like 127-128 at the track, hope I won't have to anymore. What engine oil are you using?

[Tor]

I considered the Forester oil cooler, but in the end I found it too expensive compared to the effect. From what I researched your 116 C sounds about right, I think they say 120 C on track. While it might be fine for the engine, the oil will deteriorate faster at that temperature, requiring it to be changed more often.

I already ordered a Setrab 13 row cooler, as a kit from HEL Performance for 340€ incl. shipping, from their ebay shop. I expect the temperature to stay below 110 C with that. Unfortunately they were too slow to deliver it in time for the track day. I spent a lot of laps cooling down (for brake fluid to cool too).

I am running Liqui Moly Special Tec AA 0W-20. And I will be sticking to 0W-20 as prescribed.

[Tor]

So I finally got around to playing with the dampers. Until now I've left them at the recommended 9/16 clicks towards soft like recommended by KW (including at the track day at Zolder). As I was to find out, I've been lapping there in Cadillac mode!

Anyway I started out changing them to 7, I didn't expect much of a change with only 2 clicks, but boy I was wrong!

Much firmer and better contact with the road! I then went down to 5, once again an equally surprisingly big change - that setting was really really hard for my taste and the backroads here. When I was done messing around I dialled them back to comfortable 9 clicks, that's plenty hard for spirited driving on the road. Especially where I live, though mostly good quality, it's a very hilly landscape and hence, uneven roads (think Nürburgring).

I am by far an expert, but from logical deduction seeing such big change on only a few clicks suggest to my that the valving is actually working well in the dampers. Which again logically must suggest that the valving is good quality.

Speaking of Nürburgring I will go to the Grand Prix circuit on Wednesday. I'll try the dampers in a harder setting of 7 or 6. Also at Zolder I was too busy driving to really think about tire pressure. I only set it before going on the track to 2.1 Bar (30 PSI) cold and only did one check after the first 3 rounds. At that point the pressure was 2.4-2.5 (34-36 PSI). But those were my first 3 rounds and I went a lot faster later on in the 3 sessions, so I suspect I ran far too high tire pressure, which would probably explain why the car was fairly loose.

So besides getting some more laps under the belt, the goal will be to try out the dampers at harder setting and watch out more for the tire pressures and temperatures.

To sum up Zolder: Too soft dampers, to high tire pressure, pretty lousy street tires and short shifting to keep the engine temps down, I still managed to do laps in approx 2:08 according to my video. Fast GT86/BRZ guys on UHP/Semis laps in just below 2 mins. So I definitely think I hit at good starting point to work from, especially when I change tires at some point. I can't really decide what to do with that - either new tires for my 18" wheels, or get some dedicated 17" wheels/tires? Of course thats a financial consideration too.

I am so thrilled with this overall setup! Not just the coilovers, but the combination with the swaybars, brakes etc.

[Tor]

It was a hectic day... Starting out with this:



Oil cooler installed:



I went with nylon hoses on purpose (stainless steel was the same price), for ease of install and more flexibility on routing:



Putting it all back together in a hurry and meeting up with GT86 friends at the Nürburg Grand Prix Circuit:



I didn't have time to connect the cooler to the engine yet. I wanna do that in peace and quiet to make sure it's leak free before putting load on it.

I only ran 4 laps and was struggling with figuring out lines, brake points and the right gears, all while constantly looking in the mirrors for Porsches, Lotus' etc. To top it off I had an electronic "beep-beep" sound every time I was breaking! I was wondering WTF it was! Only to find out afterwards it was my IR/Laser thermometer in the tool bag I had in the rear seat. It was pretty distracting as I was certain it was the car making the noise while I was driving, the beeps were similar those the car makes.

Another lesson: I really didn't study the track enough before going. At some point I wasn't sure if the next turn was left or right (so I'm not going to upload a boring video of me taking 3 mins to lap around leisurely not knowing when to brake or turn).

Not that any of the above matters, I enjoyed it anyway on a turn by turn basis. And it was enough that I could tell that running at 6 click in the front and 7 in the rear (vs. 9/9 on Zolder) seemed like a massive improvement. The car felt more stabile in high speed curves and I got it to slide over all 4 wheels while putting power down mid-turn, so I am guessing the oversteer was caused by the rear being under-damped set at 9.

I went with the same 2.1 bar cold tire pressure as on Zolder to only change one thing at a time. I managed to get some tire temperature readings afterward. On all 4 wheels the inner and middle section is 10 C degs hotter than the outside. As far as I can conclude that would indicate the pressure is too high (as already presumed). Next time I'm going to go directly to 1.9 cold and see if I can get more heat on the outside and less in the middle.

"Great success".



Afterward eating some grilled food with even more GT86 friends. Finishing off the great day by going through the pitch black woods working my way out of the forrest of Eiffel back to civilisation.

#FantasticDay

[brzest]

How are your pads holding up? I bought a set of RC6's for track only. I had Carbotech XP8's last year and after the second trackday they were totally worn out (should last 6+ trackdays from what I read), mainly because I engaged ABS way too much (with stock Michelins). Hoping it won't be a problem with the Advan AD08's.

[Whooosah]

Great build! Excellent list of track mods. Really digging the 964 brake ducts. Ive been googling around and having a hard time finding them. 993 ducts seem much more plentiful and cheaper. Im thinking maybe modding the 993 for better flow along the middle but the 964 looks to move more volume of air. Definitely going to do something similar to my car.

[Tor]

Originally Posted by brzest

How are your pads holding up? I bought a set of RC6's for track only. I had Carbotech XP8's last year and after the second trackday they were totally worn out (should last 6+ trackdays from what I read), mainly because I engaged ABS way too much (with stock Michelins). Hoping it won't be a problem with the Advan AD08's.

I didn't look at the pads yet.

Yesterday wasn't a real trackday. They open the track for the public and anyone can drive there for a fee and you get 15 mins time on the track. I only drove once - with getting in and out it's 5 laps. I mainly just wanted to feel the difference the damper setting made and I think that was enough.

I bought tickets for 9 stints but I didn't want to use more of them, until I have studied the track better at home. I watched so much video from Zolder, that from the first lap each corner felt like I'd driven it before. Next time at Nürburgring GP circuit I would like to focus more on the driving and I felt I needed to be better prepared. Driving that one stint will definitely help, because I can watch my own video.

At Zolder I drove 40 laps, and that's a very brake intensive track. It has lot of braking from 170 kmh down 80 kmh, with no cooling in between. I didn't check what they looked like afterwards.

Originally Posted by Whooosah

Great build! Excellent list of track mods. Really digging the 964 brake ducts. Ive been googling around and having a hard time finding them. 993 ducts seem much more plentiful and cheaper. Im thinking maybe modding the 993 for better flow along the middle but the 964 looks to move more volume of air. Definitely going to do something similar to my car.

Thanks Whooosah. I got lucky and found a used pair on eBay. I think (guess) they are better that 993, because they have a smooth surface and the really scoop the air onto the brakes. At Zolder I had excellent braking capability with the RC5+ pads, and even when the brakes heated up und the pedal go mushy they kept braking just as well. I hope the mushiness will go away once I get changed to Castrol SRF fluid. It will be done next week when I get stainless steel brake lines installed.

[Guillaume]

For the brake spoilers, there is also the 996 GT2 route. I am not sure it will fit and it's quite pricier ($150 per side)... But damn it looks effective:



Parts:
996-341-117-90
996-341-118-90

[Tor]

I finished the oil cooler installation. Damn what a PITA!

I wish I had ordered a kit from a reputable dealer (Perrin and RacerX are my favourites). But they are not options here in Europe. To the European readers, I want to warn against HEL Performance. They advertised a Setrab cooler and delivered a cheap Chinese copy. Granted the kit was cheap, but that no excuse for delivering something different than what you claim to sell. I would expect that if I bought from some China-ebay-store, but not from a UK based company.

Also I ordered AN10 hose and fittings, but the cooler itself is AN8 and they just sent two AN8 to AN10 adapters along. That kind of takes the point of the rest being AN10 away.

I should have returned it all, but I need an oil cooler NOW. The AN10 fittings and sandwich plate didn't fit behind the air box without interfering with the oil cap. So I had to do grind some material off of the sandwich plate and the stock plastic oil cap. My pretty Grimmspeed red anodised oil cap doesn't fit anymore (it was the only "bling" I had on the car ). Maybe I will change out some of the components down the line...







The oil cooler is doing it's job though. It's pretty cold here at the moment (10 degs C / 50 F), and the oil got 75-80 (167-176 F) after normal warmup. After wringing it out I only got up to 93 deg C (200 F).

I booked an hour on Zolder again next wednesday, can't wait to see what temps I will see there.

[Tor]

Back at Zolder for a very short 40 min session of the last 1 hour stint. I was too late due to previous appointment that had taken longer than expected and having to take a huge detour after missing an off ramp. To top it off it was raining the whole drive going there. I was just about to give up and turn back home.

At Zolder it hadn't been raining all day, but of course stated as I arrived. I silenced the voices in my head saying, "it's a sign, don't drive today etc." and went out and had a great time.

The track was only damp, but enough that the difference in traction was noticeable. So I left ESP on and it didn't bother me too much, probably because I was way slow.

For the first time I felt the understeer under power, especially in the chicanes. So I switched to trail braking instead and it seemed to put more grip on the front wheels to make it go away. ...or it could be me just going being slower.

In any case it was fun to try out some different techniques. I also experimented with left foot braking in the short stretch between turn 1 and 2 where I don't have to change gears. That worked out great too.

So I got a lot of take-aways from the short session, and was happy that I hadn't turned back home. And I even kind of look forward to a proper wet session now.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cONPG8-yUbw[/ame]

I have 3 coats of Rain X on the windscreen, so that's why I only use the wipers in the pit lane.

The oil cooler worked great too, highest temperature was 112 deg C (233 F).

[Wayno]

HEL had a recall on their brake lines too, so their customers can have an oil fire and brake failure all at once just to make their brief lives extra interesting before securely planting the fiery inferno in the wall.

Originally Posted by Tor

To the European readers, I want to warn against HEL Performance. They advertised a Setrab cooler and delivered a cheap Chinese copy.

[Tor]

Originally Posted by Wayno

HEL had a recall on their brake lines too, so their customers can have an oil fire and brake failure all at once just to make their brief lives extra interesting before securely planting the fiery inferno in the wall.

lol

I forgot to update on that... After leaving negative feedback on their ebay-store they owned up and sent me a genuine Setrab cooler.



So I'll revise my warning to a caution. Keep an eye out on what is actually delivered!

With the Setrab cooler the kit is actually a great deal. 340€$ is unbeatable. The sandwich plate is mocal and the fittings and hose is good quality. So I have no complaints now.

The china-cooler is actually the one that's installed at the moment and it's working too. I'll switch it out later on, probably at next oil change.

[Tor]

A few more updates. I was at a dyno day this weekend and my car was used as reference base line (as I am 100% stock engine). The results where shocking! I have a huge dip in torque between 3500 and 4500 rpm.

On a serious note, the engine performed well and output and all values looked like everything is running as it's supposed to. I was told the engine runs slightly rich from factory and an high flow air filter would lean the mixture slightly. Other interesting lesson from the day is how ridiculously little typical NA mods bring, and even in some cases how contra productive they can be - but that's a discussion beyond my showroom thread.

Anyway I went home and ordered a K&N filter. As expected it didn't make any noticeable difference at all what so ever. It has slightly more intake sound, which is nice, since I just deleted the sound-generator (had it plugged in the cabin before as well). My air filter was up for replacement anyway, so why not make the engine run at a better mixture for a few bucks more?

It was a pain to get it in due to my engine cooler sandwich plate and hoses. I tried to take the intake box out, but it was impossible to get it back in without taking the oil filter off and loosening the sandwich plate.



Having the intake box out gave me space to clean the engine. It was pretty dirty and the cam solenoid guards are prone to rust if not cleaned:




Then to the fun part!! Before anyone lectures me: I find the 86 pretty easy to heal & toe. But for me it's rather rolling the foot over as many other. To use the heal I find the pedal too short to be consistent and without spraining an ankle. To use the ball of the foot on the brake and toe on the gas, the pedal is too short too, in the upwards direction. For "roll over" I have to keep my foot quite far right on the brake and it works well, 99% of the time. The 1% where it doesn't work, can be quite harrowing because usually it means my foot slips off the brake. An example of that is actually in my first Zolder video (in post 28) at 1 min 55 secs into the video.

Solution?



Install was an absolute breeze, I just followed the advice to take the pedal out of the car. It's 2x 10 mm bolt and disconnect a plug, and you can work on it with out breaking you back:



Side by side comparison. Actually the Cusco overlay is centred on the pedal, so it will increase the heigh equally top and below - not like they are lying side by side on the pic:



Installed compared to stock:




I went out for a half an hour drive and couldn't help braking and shifting for no good reason all the time.
You can effortlessly roll over, heal and toe, toe and heal how ever you like with this thing. It is simply awesome!!!

[Iceman]

Originally Posted by Tor

Thanks Whooosah. I got lucky and found a used pair on eBay. I think (guess) they are better that 993, because they have a smooth surface and the really scoop the air onto the brakes. At Zolder I had excellent braking capability with the RC5+ pads, and even when the brakes heated up und the pedal go mushy they kept braking just as well. I hope the mushiness will go away once I get changed to Castrol SRF fluid. It will be done next week when I get stainless steel brake lines installed.

In my experience, RBF600 was a great improvement with everything else stock. Now with RC5+ in the front, RBF600 and GT3 spoilers y don't think i need anything else. I think you'll find the same once you change the fluid, you won't be disappointed.

BTW, i just ordered some rear pads and if you ever consider going RC5+ on the rear, forget about it. They're ridiculously expensive! Over 300€