The OTHER Stranoparts STX FR-S - build thread

[Simmons]

Originally Posted by apexaddict

More work done to the car yesterday.



Mostly, it was maintenance - fresh oil, new RS3s, a fluid change for the gearbox and diff, and corner-weighting the car. But I also threw in the Whiteline rear diff inserts and the positive shift bushing, which so far has been a huge mistake.

Not sure who else is running this combination (Simmons? Bill? George?), but I'm really irritated at all the noise and clunks created by these. I expected some noise, but not nearly as much as I got. The "shift feel" wasn't substantially improved, and definitely not enough to warrant all the noise and clunks.

The weirdest thing is that Sam put the same bushings in his car, and his car isn't anywhere near as annoying as mine is. The ONLY difference between our cars is that I have a muffler delete and he has a Perrin exhaust. Thinking that because the front pipe bolts to the trans mount, and I likely have more resonance in my exhaust in comparison to Sam, I put a little 1/4" rubber spacer where the trans mount bolts to the exhaust to try to dampen some of the resonance. This didn't help, so it's back to square one.

Has anyone else experienced this? I can't believe how much noise there is - there is enough that it has made the car very un-fun to drive around town. I was hoping that these bushings would help curb some of the wheelhop I was getting at the NJ Pro, but at this point, I'm not sure it's worth the awful drivability penalty. I'm probably going to pull the shifter bushing at the least, as soon as I have the time to.

I have the same noise, I thought it was the trans mount insert. I removed it the other day and the noise is still there.

Simmons

[blkwrxwag]

Are you guys talking about this thing?

http://www.rallysportdirect.com/Whit...rce=GoogleBase

[blkwrxwag]

Or this?

http://www2.kartboy.com/x4/product.p...6&bestseller=Y

[Simmons]

Originally Posted by blkwrxwag

Are you guys talking about this thing?

http://www.rallysportdirect.com/Whit...rce=GoogleBase

I was talking about that, but like I said the noise is still there without it.



Simmons

[GTB/ZR-1]

Originally Posted by apexaddict

But I also threw in the Whiteline rear diff inserts and the positive shift bushing, which so far has been a huge mistake.

Not sure who else is running this combination (Simmons? Bill? George?)

I've not changed any of those pieces--so no noises here.

[apexaddict]

Originally Posted by Simmons

I was talking about that, but like I said the noise is still there without it.



Simmons

So it seems like the majority of the sound seems to be coming from the diff inserts, then. gah.

[apexaddict]

Originally Posted by dwx

That's the first I've heard of excessive noise with them, but I'm not running them myself.

You guys do not have any clearance issues running the +45 RPF1s with 245/255? I thought Simmons was using a small spacer with his.

I'm debating on STX for next year right now and trying to figure out whether to do +35 or +45. In the end I'm not sure it matters a huge amount.

I missed this earlier. It doesn't really matter a huge amount, it depends on what you want. Scrub radius and tire fitment are better with the +45s, but they will rub the front sway bar slightly at absolute full lock with 245/40/17s and almost surely with 255s. +45s probably also won't clear the stock struts with any sort of camber at the knuckle.

+35s should fix all of those things but 255s are going to be a tight squeeze unless you run a lot of camber. They should clear big brakes, too. But they aren't as readily available as the +45s.

Personally, I think the answer is somewhere in the middle: +45s with some sort of spacer.

[Sam Strano]

I had the trans bushing and it wasn't an issue. I put my diff bushings in last week, before we did Andrew's car and it helped a lot with wheelhop, but it is much louder.

In fact I might play around with removing some of the diff bushings, maybe the top inserts on the rear to see how things change.

[Sam Strano]

Andrew Pallotta and I got together yesterday at a Steel Cities SCCA Event to do a little tire testing and such. For now here are two runs from my car on Dunlop Z2's:

Me, 41.1:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6p5ZHKeqdz8"]2013 SCR #2 Strano - YouTube[/ame]

Andrew, 41.5 (though it was his first run in my car did run a non-recorded 41.0 later:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=d--w48LlmvQ"]Andrew 20130519 - YouTube[/ame]

Andrew has other video from his car on the Hankooks, he ran a bunch of 40.9's and I ran a 40.89 something in his car.

[GTB/ZR-1]

You jokers are fast!

Nicely done...

Andrew is obviously more loose--did he get that squared away for his quickest?

My car seems to now have that under control w/o increasing push. VERY nice balance.

[Scooby South]

No noises here..and I have everything but control arm done..congrats on you and Sams developement..

Bill

[Simmons]

Originally Posted by Sam Strano

I had the trans bushing and it wasn't an issue. I put my diff bushings in last week, before we did Andrew's car and it helped a lot with wheelhop, but it is much louder.

In fact I might play around with removing some of the diff bushings, maybe the top inserts on the rear to see how things change.

I was thinking about doing the same thing, the noise just drives me crazy.

The Z2's get a lot better after the first event, I know Andrew didn't like them over the RS3's.

I am curios how they work in Lincoln, I know the RS3's work good out there.

Good luck to both of you in Lincoln.

Simmons

[jdrxb9]

Originally Posted by Sam Strano

Andrew Pallotta and I got together yesterday at a Steel Cities SCCA Event to do a little tire testing and such. <snip>

Since I appear in these videos, I feel the need to reply and post slightly OT

For additional video posts (two more 86's and others), results link, etc from this event, see this thread: http://www.racepa.com/content/index.php?topic=9891.40

[apexaddict]

Originally Posted by GTB/ZR-1

You jokers are fast!

Nicely done...

Andrew is obviously more loose--did he get that squared away for his quickest?

My car seems to now have that under control w/o increasing push. VERY nice balance.

That being my first run in Sam's car, I drove it the same way I drive my own, and the difference in power-down was immediately obvious. After some pressure tweaks and just getting more used to the balance of the car, I was able to do the 41.0. But that still couldn't match my own car on the Hankooks, which I know had more time in it.

My video from driving my own car:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG7s-MAut04"]SCR 5/19/13 - STX FR-S - Andrew - YouTube[/ame]

I have Sam's video and will post it up later once I edit it down.