Sleeper_08

Argonaut

Right now I am running -3/4 camber and 1/8 toe in. I am seriously considering going to your setup next spring but was worried about how it would handle on the street with the 285/40/18s front and rear. Do you find your car 'darty' or bad for 'tramlining'. Some of the roads around here have some pretty heavy wear grooves so I am a little concerned.

houstonnw

THAT'S why I haven't called Sam! My recent track day was to try adjusting the Koni's to see how they affected the handling. I left them alone first session to get a baseline, had an instructor ride with me second session, and then played with left foot braking the final two sessions.

However there is one more thing that I realized after my original post. The car understeered the worst in the slower, flatter corners. On the two fastest corners, which have some banking, the car was neutral to me.

So now I need to figure out if I am driving closer to the limit in the slower corners or if the car really handles differently in the fast ones.

houstonnw

I was talking about TWS specifically. There is a lot of room and not much to hit unless you try to save it where you really really shouldn't.

Now regarding the bike/track/crazy comment, yes!

Argonaut

My street tires are 255/45/18 and there is absolutely no 'dartiness', it tracks nice and straight. The few times I've run the 275/40/17s on the street they do follow the road imperfections a bit - but nothing of concern. On the track at high speeds I don't notice anything, very stable. Toe is pretty easy to change - you can just mark the adjusters for a track setting and a street setting if you do find the tramlining to be a problem.

Argonaut

Man this is like a general Q&A thread, a little of everything here. Oh by the way, whats the best oil to use?

S197steve

Thanks for the info... I hope you don't mind if I continue the hijack for just one more post. :-)

Are there any particular trackday organizations you'd recommend? And if you're car is your daily driver do folks just drive up, drive around and then drive home at the end of the day? For motorbike that's a no-no... we pretty much always trailer our bikes (prepped for the track) and then trailer them home.

BTW... riding a bike on the track is WAY safer than riding a bike on a street. I crashed at T6 at full lean around 85-90mph (I believe) and got up and walked away.

Sleeper_08

I'm using Mobil 1 5W20. there was an earlier thread where some people suggested it is not the best but so far it has worked for me.

I'm considering changing it before my next track day, at the Mosport GP circuit, as it now has about 9,000 KM on it and 8 hours on the track.

Sleeper_08

My routine is top up the tank with Sunoco 94 as close to the track as possible and when at the track;
1) change the D Specs to the track setting which right now is 1 front and rear
2) pump the tires up to 35 lbs cold (corrected Sep 25)
3) remove all the loose stuff
4) remove the license plates
5) check all fluids
6) torque all wheels

Go have fun.

Between sessions I first make sure the tires are at 40 lb hot then torque all of the wheels and check the fluids, including my fluids.

Going home I just put the shocks to 4 and set the tires back down to 32 cold, and put the plates back on.

houstonnw

Most people drive to the track unless the car is not street legal. If they are using r-compounds they use a small trailer or fit the tires inside the car somehow.

Both the TWS Motorsports Club and The Driver's Edge have events there. The Driver's Edge events fill up pretty quickly, especially for the Green or beginner's group, however I think that the Motorsports Club has gotten pretty close in terms of professionalism.

I do mostly Motorsports Club events because they let me do Saturday only, which works for my schedule a little better.

I just got an email from The Driver's Edge that they still have openings in the Green group for October 4-5. My next event is the Motorsports Club on November 8th.

(And one of the posters on C-C.com, who was involved with Ford in mod motor testing, said that he would not use 5-20W on the track. That's why I use Mobil 1 5-30W now!)

Argonaut

Colin - are you happy with the car's handling and balance? The reason I ask is your setting the D-Specs to 1. Our cars are set up differently so of course we would have different D-Spec settings but 1 seems really firm. I run 2.5 front and 3.5 or 4 rear. Once I tried cranking the rear down to 2 and the car had too much rebound damping in quick transitions, like esses.

Also, we run different tires but 42lbs on the KDWs seems very hard. Have you played around with lower settings. As long as you are not rolling the tire over you could probably squeeze out some more grip by lowering the pressure.


I drive to the track with a set of R-Comps in the back (seat down), tool box, chair, jack, chock blocks, cloths bag, etc. Tight fit but it all goes in.