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First HPDE with new suspension went....

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39
52
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Clarksville, TN
So it went rather well last weekend. It's a completely different car. Night and day. A couple of notes off the top off the top of my head...

1. A LOT of over-steer. Now, when I say "A LOT", it's completely relative. The stock suspension on this car was loose and shitty with no adjustments allowed. So it had that classic muscle car plow in the front that suffered from understeer. I also come from 5 different VW's (GTI, GTI, Golf R, GTI, GLI) where over steer doesn't exist. So yea, for me, it was "A LOT". I adjusted well with the proper counter steer when needed and only had 2 "incidents". Video to follow.

2. These cars are heavy, fat, pigs. But.... TONS of fun. My VW's drove better and a couple of them were faster, but none of them were nearly as fun and dynamic. This car, especially with the suspension set up, really requires the driver to put in proper input. It's unforgiving when not respected. I just got the SF connectors and Torque Arm installed this week, so interested to see what impact that has.

3. These pedals are awful for heel-toe shifting. The throttle pedal is just too far forward in relationship to the brake pedal. It makes it impossible to heel-toe. I really need to figure something out. I'm probably losing a second on track if not more due to not being able to downshift in a more seemless manner.

4. I gained a measly 2 seconds. That's right, after a COMPLETE suspension install, stage 2 cams and a tune (net gain of about 40 HP), I saw a measly 2 second improvement. There is a caveat to that though. Two things stick out to me. 1. I was on a staggered set up same time last year, with a 200 TW tire (Nitto 05R's) that felt quite sticky and were 275/315. This time around I was on 275 square set up, using Conti's extreme contact sport with a 340 TW. Which are incredible tires, but I'm thinking the staggered set up plus the gripper tires helped a bit more. Only time will tell.

Any comments, suggestions, insights are welcome. Specs for the track specific items are listed below.

Cobra brakes
Hawk HT-10 front brakes
EBC blue stuff rear brakes
Cobra R wheels with Conti Extreme Contact Sport (274/45R17)
Toe: 0
Caster: +8
Camber: -3.5

Just a couple oopsies from that weekend posed below.


 

Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
8,420
8,346
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Blair, Nebraska
Heh, what the heck , you likely did not have the Contact Sports warm enough anyway as I believe they have over a 300 treadwear rating. The Contact Force are much better for HPDEs or Endurance racing, but overall just a few boo- boos as you noted and it may just mean applying the throttle a bit later or getting the tires heated up more. Of course you may want to fiddle with the suspension some more, but overall I would not beat yourself up too much.
 
39
52
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Clarksville, TN
Heh, what the heck , you likely did not have the Contact Sports warm enough anyway as I believe they have over a 300 treadwear rating. The Contact Force are much better for HPDEs or Endurance racing, but overall just a few boo- boos as you noted and it may just mean applying the throttle a bit later or getting the tires heated up more. Of course you may want to fiddle with the suspension some more, but overall I would not beat yourself up too much.
Thanks for the words of encouragement! They were definitely cold, so valuable lesson learned on that.

I didn't mean to sound so self deprecating. This is essentially a brand new car I'm dealing with, so I know in time I'll get more use to it.

Thanks!
 
6,360
8,180
The torque arm will transform that car and get you away from the crappy 4 link.
You can't overdrive these cars, they just don't work that way. Another thing guys do is add too much front bar and/ or spring.
If you haven't done it yet get a set of steeda 2X ball joints, since I had to run stock chassis pickup points in NASA, the 2x ball joints, and steeda competition springs made a huge difference.
 
39
52
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Clarksville, TN
What is the new suspension? Spring rates? Sway bars?
I’ve attached everything below. The max grip box is what I ordered. Mike (at MM) did not recommend sway bars. Im
Just using stock sway bars.

The only things that were not installed for this event were subframe connectors, torque arm and chassis brace (not MM, from Stifflers)

Spring rates were 400# F, 275# R.


The torque arm will transform that car and get you away from the crappy 4 link.
You can't overdrive these cars, they just don't work that way. Another thing guys do is add too much front bar and/ or spring.
If you haven't done it yet get a set of steeda 2X ball joints, since I had to run stock chassis pickup points in NASA, the 2x ball joints, and steeda competition springs made a huge difference.
Torque arm was just installed this week!
When you say “You can’t overdrive these cars”. What do you mean exactly?

IMG_3726.jpeg

IMG_3727.jpeg
 

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