NOPSTNS
04-16-2008, 11:12 PM
before i went to race at lime rock in Ct i had pat at Rt tuning do an alignment and corner balance of my car after he mounted my r comps on my track wheels and put them on the car.
i know vince and pat both asked me to report back to them after the runs to see how it handled and what we needed to change, if anything.
heres my basic setup...(all things handling wise...)
06 rx8 MT
tein coilovers with EDFC, brembo BBK, 245/40 nitto nt01 r comps, rear 2 piece slotted rotors with perf pads, dot 4 ate brake fluid, front strut bar, rear sway bar
to sum it up we had -2 camber on all 4 corners last yr and i had a mild amount of understeer at slower corners at pocono raceway. this year pat stepped it to -2.2 front and kept it 2.0 rear and corner balanced it and sent me on my way. he told me to watch the tire temps thru the day and report back, well pat, it was very even temps thru the tires from inside wall to outside. it seems -2.2 is ideal. if the camber was too neg i know the outside temp would be lower than the inside, it was very even so id assume no change is needed. imo anything over -2.5 would be useless and only make things worse so i like 2.2 but maybe before the next race we can try 2.4 or 2.5 and see if thats too negative and go from there?
here is my details.
with the r comp/ track wheel combo mounted to car...
running at lime rock was an effort in trust. trusting the tires to grip and trusting in anti understeer measures that were taken. the course is on the slower side with few straights and a few connecting S turns and uhills and down hills, so i had perfect chance to test if understeer was taken out from before, i had many low speed corners (60-90 mph) where i could punch the gas and see how the front end would react.
much to my surprise the car was very neutral, as i expected a tad bit of understeer bc of the way the car is designed, pat seemed to dial it out completely. running with the DSC off enabled me to exit out of corners faster and turn the wheel harder thru turns. it handled great.
on a road course is where u will find small inadequacies in ur car, i think the suspension might be a tad too soft for the track, the spring rates arent crazy high ( 9 front and 7 rear) so i would get a tad amount of dive and squat but on the street its great and thats where i do 90% of my driving so i dont plan on upping spring rates or anything drastic. for now im concentrating my money on classes to help the nut behind the wheel, practice is more important than parts.
only small issue i had was resolved quickly but it dealt with the damper settings i was running. i had the coilovers set to mid level stiffness ( 8 front and 12 rear, on EDFC ) and i had some issues in one part of the track.
there was a quick "right then left" combo on the back of the course and if taken properly, u could go straight thru the turns without moving the wheel. the instructor referred to it as "threading the needle". on my first run out i ran this mid level stiffness and the car got very light and loose thru this section, the suspension would unload thru the area bc of the undulations and would give me a "light" feeling in the steering, almost as if the front end lifted off the ground an inch or two, not enuff to remove the tires from the ground, but enuff to take weight off the front, giving me this not so confident feeling while accelerating from 80 mph.
i set the front to a stiffer setting hoping to slow down the suspension travel over the bumps and it worked. i ran 0 front and 4 rear for stiffness and strangely this worked.
common sense would tell u to soften it so the suspension can travel more and keep the tires loaded onto the ground, in my head stiffeneing it would make it worse and the suspension wouldnt be able to react fast enuff and move the tires down onto the ground over the bump....
dont ask me why, but stiffening the coilovers removed the light feeling...i dont understand. maybe someone can read this and fill me in as to why it helped?
all in all it was a fantastic day and the setup was just perfect for my car, i ghave no complaints and no where would i change anything from pats actions.
hopefully vince and pat will read this and know how much i appreciate their help. maybe even get some feedback from their side of the story too
i know vince and pat both asked me to report back to them after the runs to see how it handled and what we needed to change, if anything.
heres my basic setup...(all things handling wise...)
06 rx8 MT
tein coilovers with EDFC, brembo BBK, 245/40 nitto nt01 r comps, rear 2 piece slotted rotors with perf pads, dot 4 ate brake fluid, front strut bar, rear sway bar
to sum it up we had -2 camber on all 4 corners last yr and i had a mild amount of understeer at slower corners at pocono raceway. this year pat stepped it to -2.2 front and kept it 2.0 rear and corner balanced it and sent me on my way. he told me to watch the tire temps thru the day and report back, well pat, it was very even temps thru the tires from inside wall to outside. it seems -2.2 is ideal. if the camber was too neg i know the outside temp would be lower than the inside, it was very even so id assume no change is needed. imo anything over -2.5 would be useless and only make things worse so i like 2.2 but maybe before the next race we can try 2.4 or 2.5 and see if thats too negative and go from there?
here is my details.
with the r comp/ track wheel combo mounted to car...
running at lime rock was an effort in trust. trusting the tires to grip and trusting in anti understeer measures that were taken. the course is on the slower side with few straights and a few connecting S turns and uhills and down hills, so i had perfect chance to test if understeer was taken out from before, i had many low speed corners (60-90 mph) where i could punch the gas and see how the front end would react.
much to my surprise the car was very neutral, as i expected a tad bit of understeer bc of the way the car is designed, pat seemed to dial it out completely. running with the DSC off enabled me to exit out of corners faster and turn the wheel harder thru turns. it handled great.
on a road course is where u will find small inadequacies in ur car, i think the suspension might be a tad too soft for the track, the spring rates arent crazy high ( 9 front and 7 rear) so i would get a tad amount of dive and squat but on the street its great and thats where i do 90% of my driving so i dont plan on upping spring rates or anything drastic. for now im concentrating my money on classes to help the nut behind the wheel, practice is more important than parts.
only small issue i had was resolved quickly but it dealt with the damper settings i was running. i had the coilovers set to mid level stiffness ( 8 front and 12 rear, on EDFC ) and i had some issues in one part of the track.
there was a quick "right then left" combo on the back of the course and if taken properly, u could go straight thru the turns without moving the wheel. the instructor referred to it as "threading the needle". on my first run out i ran this mid level stiffness and the car got very light and loose thru this section, the suspension would unload thru the area bc of the undulations and would give me a "light" feeling in the steering, almost as if the front end lifted off the ground an inch or two, not enuff to remove the tires from the ground, but enuff to take weight off the front, giving me this not so confident feeling while accelerating from 80 mph.
i set the front to a stiffer setting hoping to slow down the suspension travel over the bumps and it worked. i ran 0 front and 4 rear for stiffness and strangely this worked.
common sense would tell u to soften it so the suspension can travel more and keep the tires loaded onto the ground, in my head stiffeneing it would make it worse and the suspension wouldnt be able to react fast enuff and move the tires down onto the ground over the bump....
dont ask me why, but stiffening the coilovers removed the light feeling...i dont understand. maybe someone can read this and fill me in as to why it helped?
all in all it was a fantastic day and the setup was just perfect for my car, i ghave no complaints and no where would i change anything from pats actions.
hopefully vince and pat will read this and know how much i appreciate their help. maybe even get some feedback from their side of the story too