Branka: Country Road Specialist

[Code Monkey]

Longhorn Racing Academy is having an HPDE at Harris Hill on October 27th, signed up, this will be my first time at this track.

[Tristor]

Originally Posted by Code Monkey

Longhorn Racing Academy is having an HPDE at Harris Hill on October 27th, signed up, this will be my first time at this track.

Cool. One of the LRA instructors is Steve, who works for them on the side and also works at Harris Hill. That's who I've been doing my mini-schools with, and he's a great person to have hop in your car with you for a bit. Given your experience I imagine you're a much better driver than I am, but if you want I can send you my full video (a little over an hour) of all my sessions yesterday once I get the overlay working. It'd at least let you pre-scout the track and see the turns. My line isn't terrible, I'm mostly failing on getting braking right and rotating to apex in the slower corners (turn 7, turn 10, somewhat turn 4, although I'm good on the turn 4 to turn 5 transition which is really tricky since turn 5 is a blind corner).



Since they've repaved, the track is much smoother and has eliminated the huge dip/bump that was previously there right at track out on turn 3 (more like 2b) leading into the straight going to turn 4. This is a great time to do it.


I'd sign up too, but I already promised a friend I'd be meeting up with him in Fredericksburg that morning/weekend for an Oktoberfest deal.

[Tristor]

Here's the video:

(not embedding for some reason)

[Code Monkey]

Looks like a fun layout! That may have been your first off, but not the last one!

[Tristor]

Originally Posted by Code Monkey

Looks like a fun layout! That may have been your first off, but not the last one!

Yep, I have a feeling I'm going to spin again at some point. Maybe I should get it out of the way and find a place with a skid pad so I can practice spin recovery, so I won't take a wall when it matters.

[Racecomp Engineering]

Originally Posted by Tristor

The tire pyrometer was very helpful, I found out I was overpressure for the optimal point on my tires by around 1-1.5 psi depending on the tire. I waited 3 hours after my last session to let the tires cool and took a cold pressure reading and noted it, so I can start from the same cold pressures next Sunday and then use the pyrometer to adjust. I'm hoping that'll get me closer to optimal to start off with.

This may seem like a small thing, but seriously good job using the pyrometer effectively. Not everyone bothers which is a shame.

- Andrew

[Tristor]

Just a quick update about this last weekend. I participated in a SASCA/SPOKES sponsored autocross event on Saturday. It was my first time ever doing an autocross and I found it really helpful, especially the things I started to learn and try during the course walk itself. I will say I felt more confident doing low speed rotations afterwards as well, which lent itself nicely on Sunday at the track. Additionally it rained on Saturday so I had two instances where I almost spun and was able to recover.


On Sunday I had an early start at the track and it started raining hard right as we finished our first warmup lap. I decided to stay out, despite some standing water, and it turned out to be an exceptional learning opportunity practicing spin recovery, counter-steer, and dealing with the effects of differing grip and how you can counter that by rebalancing the car. In particular, it was nice to go through Turn 5, which is a downhill entry into a slow left-hand corner, which at the apex had standing water. After things started to dry up and the track was semi-dry I did two more sessions, on the last session the track was effectively completely dry, any remaining water was off line.


My tires were really totally shot already this weekend, having hardened from heat cycling and were showing minor chunking. This weekend was a great send-off for them, I've got an appointment scheduled to put the AD08Rs on Thursday and my next track day will be November 18th after I return from a work trip. Best part of Sunday was I really found my rhythm, and I was able to utilize lift off oversteer to help me point the nose without spinning. My accelerator control has become MUCH more fine tuned compared to the previous few weeks, and I think some of that came out of the autocross... although it was difficult to really learn much in only 5x <1minute runs.



After this performance, my instructor told me my line had been near perfect in my last session and I managed a 1:39.95 as my fastest lap of the day while on shit tires w/ a semi-dry track. My instructor is pretty confident that on fresh tires of the same type on a dry day I'd get 1.5-2 seconds off my times if I run the same pace. I'm hoping I can set a 1:37 consistent in November on the fresh 200tw tires, and maybe push down to a 1:36. My long-term goal is to get to a 1:30 flat without doing any significant power adders. Next year will be suspension (good god do I need camber in the front) and full exhaust to get me to around 200whp.


Also I got Harry's Lap Timer to cooperate so I do have video both from the autocross and my track time on Sunday, but since all of it was in the wet I don't really want to share it. It felt more sloppy/less-smooth to me than my previous time on track, however I was still setting good consistent times.

[Tristor]

It's been a bit, so a quick written update. No photos because it's been rainy and cold here, so not the best conditions for keeping my car clean and pretty.


I have access to a lift and air near my house now to work on the car. I took advantage of this last night and changed my diff fluid over to AMSOil Severe Gear 75W90. While I was at it, I swapped in some Carbotech 1521 brake pads in the front and rear since I won't be going back on track until next year most likely. Last Thursday I had Yokohama AD08Rs installed as well. So, basically I'm on fresh tires, brakes, and fluids for street driving until the next time I get on track probably in February.


While I was at it on the lift I took the opportunity to do a visual inspection of all suspension, chassis, and underbody fasteners and permanently mark them all with torque seal. I also did a physical inspection of some of the components if possible, and I bled my brakes again after installing the new brake pads. I also visually leak checked all my custom work with the oil cooler and transmission cooler. Everything looks really good underneath and I didn't notice any seriously unusual wear. All the bolts were still in the same position on the suspension from when I originally checked and marked them with a sharpie.





In the process though I did get a little overzealous with my impact gun and broke some of the fasteners/captive nuts on the undertray for the transmission tunnel, so I'll need to buy a replacement undertray from Subaru and some replacement fasteners. I may end up just getting the Verus Engineering aero undertray, but I need to verify if it covers the same area or not. I'm pretty sure aluminum will not tear the same way the stupid cardboardesque material that comes from the factory did. I was also inexplicably missing the backing plate off one of the brake pads in the rear when I pulled the old pads out. I also saw that the driver's rear fender liner had been torn around one of the pop clips. I'm unsure how this happened, my guess is I hit a rock or something on the highway that got it, but it looks like the only fix is replacing the fender liner entirely.



At this juncture I don't believe I'll have any other noteworthy updates until some time next year.




Outstanding items to be resolved/parts bought:


* Replacement brake parts (backing plates + tabs) for rear OEM brakes
* Replacement transmission tunnel undertray
* Replacement transmission tunnel undertray fasteners (10mm hex w/ phillips head)
* Replacement fender liner on driver's rear (not sure how this got damaged).


I'm also considering other options for track brake pads for next year, since I intend to drive it even harder. I'm open to suggestions, I'll probably ping @CSG Mike when the time comes to order some. The Ferodo DS2500 did okay, but on inspection it looks like I had some glazing occurring, and the material at the edges was crumbling. I believe the crumbling is from the j-hooks in the rotors and edge bite, but the glazing indicates that I probably overdrove the temperature capabilities of these pads and I need something that's more of a dedicated track pad.

[Code Monkey]

DS2500 is essentially a street pad, DS3000 or DS1-11 seem like the next logical step if you want to stick with Ferodo. Have a look at the friction/temperature plot for different Ferodo compounds here.

I do not run backing plates on my brake pads.

Road racing, sooner or later you will lose random clips and fasteners from under the car and wheel wells. I keep a small contingency of replacement clips in my glovebox: 46064AE000, 909140065, and 909140007.

[Tristor]

Well, it's 2019. A few updates here about Branka, and some of my plans for the moment.


1. I had a road hazard damage my tire on the front passenger side of the car. Thanks to the Tire Rack road hazard protection, I'm getting reimbursed entirely for a replacement tire. The new tire got delivered yesterday and is being installed by my tire guy today.


2. I was able to patch the rear driver's side fender liner in a way that made it not need replacement. I've verified I need to purchase a new OEM transmission undertray, so that's going to be on the list for later this month.


3. I installed the PTuning windshield washer relocation kit, which unfortunately had a pinhole leak in one of the welds. I fixed it with some HondaBond HT and let PTuning know. Since the fix seems okay, I accepted a partial refund to make things right. With me out of the car and in track trim with a full tank of gas, the car weighed out to ~2700 pounds, or around 100 pounds less than factory. I've got a long way to go to cut more weight, but that'll have to be for a later point in time.




4. I've figured out my plans for 2019 for mods. I'm going to limit my budget for parts to spend more on consumables and track time this year. I am going to try to attend at least two HPDEs, and I want to swap to a better brake pad compound, otherwise I'm going to focus on suspension and tires. I'm not going to bother with any power adders yet until I get considerably more seat time unless I get some spare funds later in the year.

[Tristor]

Further updates for 2019 season prep:


1. I have a second set of wheels arriving on Monday (APEX ARC-8) from a group buy. These are 17x9 +42, and should be perfect for running Continental take-offs.


2. I've ordered the transmission undertray this morning. $150 from the dealership, nobody else could find the part or get it for me :/ In the process of ruining the original undertray I also broke the head off two of the bolts, so I have also purchased a full Irwin Hanson broken bolt extractor kit and a complete tap, die, and thread chaser set. This is going to be fun (not).



3. I have an order in for CSG C2 front / C1 rear brake pads for track this season, I am excited to see the new CSG brake pad compounds available to the public. I've also got CSG custom ordering me some Spoon rigid collars for the front and rear subframe and I'll be shortly getting in my order with RCE for some T2s and a rear LCA.


4. I have some minor cosmetic things to work on. I'm going to the shop this weekend to finally finish hardwiring my dashcam with a custom harness. I had trouble sourcing some of the things I needed to make the harness. I also have a custom made carbon-fiber insert which surrounds the heated seat switches and has "BRANKA" engraved in it

[Tristor]

Just a quick update. My wheels from Apex Racing arrived just awhile ago. Also a quick picture of the installed center console plaque. At some point I'll stop being lazy and do all the other things I've mentioned.















Yeah, I know I need to clean my interior. Side note, anyone need a stock battery?

[Tristor]

Another quick update. Everything for this year has been ordered pretty much. I'm now trying to figure out some of the suspension tuning stuff based on 86 Wheel-It-Fit and some calculations based on formula I have from a friend (which I hope are relatively accurate). My goal is to only do a 1" drop from stock height, I'm definitely not going to be slamming the car to the ground.



Given a 1" drop front and rear (keeping stock rake), I think -2.5 degrees camber in the front and -1.6 degrees camber in the rear will get me where I need to be with both sets of wheels without needing significant re-alignment.


Wheels:


18"x8.5" Volk ZE40 +44 offset w/ 225/40R18 tires
17"x9" Apex ARC-8 +42 offset w/ 225/45R18 slicks (roughly 245 actual width)


I think with the 18s I'll need a 15mm spacer and with the 17s I'll need a 5mm spacer to get the wheels flush with the fender and accomplish an appropriate track width.


Given all of the above. Now I need to figure out three more things to buy for this year and get them ordered:


1) Need extended wheel studs (probably getting ARP 3" extended studs)
2) Thinking H&R Trak+ 5mm DRS and 15mm DRS spacers


Anybody have thoughts on brands of wheel spacers? I want something that's hubcentric and decently made, I don't want eBay crap. I did find that US Wheel Adapters makes custom wheel spacers (https://www.uswheeladapters.com/shop...5-lug-slip-on/)




EDIT: I ordered 3" UHL ARP extended studs and 5mm, 10mm, and 15mm custom spacers from Motorsport Tech. I decided I want to try less camber (-1 degree) in the rear as well which would need a 10mm spacer rather than a 15mm for flushness.

[Tristor]

Yesterday and Today I received the shipments with quite a few of my new parts in them. Quick unboxing / receipt photos here. I won't be installing anything quite yet, I am still waiting on my Vorshlag top mounts and the CSG Spec brake pads before I go to my shop and put it up on a lift for a couple of days.


SPL Parts Titanium Series Rear LCAs + SPL Parts Titanium Series Toe Arms w/ Eccentric Lockout



@Racecomp Engineering Tarmac 2 coilovers (400/400)!!!






Whiteline WEK001 and WEK002 bushing kits for front and rear







Going over to the dealership to pick up some parts I ordered and then to my shop to BS with the guys and chill out. Waiting on the Vorshlag top mounts before I do any install.