Commander Posted April 24, 2015 Author Share Posted April 24, 2015 Waahoooo! Wow, brilliant day at Abingdon today. New setup has improved things a lot, tyre wear is massively improved and understeer on long corners is reduced. front shocks are now on full hard and the rears need to come down a tad as running them on full hard makes the rear a little easier to upset than I'd like - a handful of clicks should do it. I'm going to drop te front camber a tiiiiny bit too, just to put the finishing touches to the tyre wear problem. The 595 RS-R bargain tyres continue to hold up well - they're not as outright grippy as others, but plenty grippy for me, hard wearing and nice and progressive. Had some good sessions, one of particular note with a Z4MC who was doing exactly the same lap times as me, and we only got to overtake each other when the one in front cocked something up. Brakes (Brembo 6-pots on CSL disks and RS29 pads) continue to be good - no fade, no boiling fluid. The SMG did play up at one point, but only because the previous owner has overfilled the system and I hadn't checked how full it was. Siphoned some out and all sorted. Cooling continues to be a problem for oil and water, so this will need some investment and more spanner time, but I don't have any specific plans yet. Car aside, most problems are really with me - the driver. I need to be a lot more consistent with my braking points and brake pressure if my style is to improve materially. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander Posted April 25, 2015 Author Share Posted April 25, 2015 Other musings from the day... People who drive 'fast' cars but drive them less slowly than I'm going and don't move out of the way annoy the hell out of me - various Lotus and Atom drivers I'm looking at you. I swear there was only one Marshall with a blue flag, and nobody took any notice of it... Disappointing. The Caterfield crew were a good bunch though, so credit to them. Car needs a remap - the e36 m3 evo I went with pulls much harder and I'm not convinced it's just the weight difference. Once I've finished removing weight, corner weighting is definitely on the agenda. Current to do list; Siphon out a bit of brake fluid - bit too full Check oil Check SMG fluid Rotate wheels Take a tiiiiny bit of camber off the front Check brake disks and pads Investigate air con removal Investigate cooling improvements - oil and water Stop spending money on it - drive more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjt Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 Did you get any videos from Abington? I bet it sounds great with that carbon airbox! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docwra Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 Been a while since I checked in here, but you took 8KG off the wiring loom but left the A/C and soundproofing in? Do you have too much time on your hands or something? Ive found the "fast" cars not moving over on trackdays a problem too, only thing I can suggest is making the car look meaner, more like a race car or more unique at the front, people tend to remember when they get mostered by something once and are much quicker to move over next time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander Posted April 25, 2015 Author Share Posted April 25, 2015 No vids I'm afraid - I've done them in the past but never really watch them, and making them more interesting with the telemetry overlays costs too much. It sounds brilliant on full attack mode Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander Posted April 26, 2015 Author Share Posted April 26, 2015 One other thing that's been annoying me about the car is the driver's seat. It's a bucket that has been mounted to some butchered rails and as a result, the seating position is quite high, and not centred to the steering wheel. I remembered the car came with some spare brackets that looked brand new, so thought I'd have a look at fitting them. Took about an hour, but everything's a lot better now - seat's now about 3cm lower and 3cm to the left. It feels a much better place to be now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander Posted April 26, 2015 Author Share Posted April 26, 2015 One other thing that's been annoying me about the car is the driver's seat. It's a bucket that has been mounted to some butchered rails and as a result, the seating position is quite high, and not centred to the steering wheel. I remembered the car came with some spare brackets that looked brand new, so thought I'd have a look at fitting them. Took about an hour, but everything's a lot better now - seat's now about 3cm lower and 3cm to the left. It feels a much better place to be now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander Posted April 26, 2015 Author Share Posted April 26, 2015 this is the bracket and rail that was on the driver's side. The brackets are each held to the rail by two big spot welds and little else. I wanted to use this rail on the passenger side, but I'm going to have to get my welder out first because I'm not happy with that. The new brackets, that came with the car but were seemingly never fitted, fit perfectly and fix the seat / wheel offset problem nicely. Getting the rear left bolts in was a little fiddly because there's not much room to work, but a ratchet spanner and a few brain cells did the job perfectly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMballistic Posted April 26, 2015 Share Posted April 26, 2015 Why on earth that wasn't fitted originally Commander is beyond me especially as it was as easy to do as you say. Look's like a proper job done. Well done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander Posted May 4, 2015 Author Share Posted May 4, 2015 Yesterday I ripped out the Secondary Air Pump and blanked it off on the block. It's not needed for a track car as its only really there to protect the cats a bit when doing short runs - helps them warm up a bit quicker. Anyway, I ripped it out, blanked it off and re-programmed the ECU (in hex, lol) to avoid any errors cropping up. Took about an hour and 1.8kg saved from the front-right, which is the heaviest loaded corner on the car. Here's the hole where the SAP used to be; And here's the weight saving; Next up is air con removal - it's more weight at the front and front-right of the car, and it's fairly heavy - reports suggest up to 30lbs if removed entirely. The theory is that lighter is better, but also the air con rad sits in front of the main radiator, so by removing this I hope to free up a bit more airflow which should help with cooling a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander Posted May 4, 2015 Author Share Posted May 4, 2015 PS - Don't tell the Mrs I've been using the kitchen scales! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander Posted May 4, 2015 Author Share Posted May 4, 2015 (edited) So - air con de-gassed by a man in a garage, but getting it out is proving tricky. So far I've removed / loosened the bumper, crash bar, slam panel, lights, washer water reservoir, radiator and more wires than I can count, but it's still in there. I was hoping I could do it without removing the radiator and draining the coolant, but I'm not sure it's possible :-/ Edited May 4, 2015 by Commander Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMballistic Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 Losing weight is never easy apparently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander Posted May 5, 2015 Author Share Posted May 5, 2015 Right then, I've got the radiator out and it's in surprisingly good nick. Air Con rad out, condenser out and compressor out. So far, the removed components weigh in at 11.3kg, plus whatever the fluid weighed? I still need to remove the compressor mounting bracket, pipes, wires, and all the stuff inside the cabin. I reckon I'll end up at around 14-16kg out by the time I'm done. Front end is still very disassembled so gonna put that back together a bit before I do the internal stuff... I've run out of Chinese trays :-/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 Are you worried about the increase in understeer at all? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander Posted May 5, 2015 Author Share Posted May 5, 2015 Nope. What makes you think it will increase? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 If you remove weight from either end, you'll increase understeer/oversteer. Less weight over the front wheels means a reduced amount of mass pushing down on the wheels, which in turn can lead to understeer. It's why I tended to run the 911 with a full tank, and why I leave the spare wheel in the frunk on the MR2 on a wet track day. Not saying it'll be a massive issue on yours, and in general removing any weight is usually a good thing, I just didn't know if you were going to increase your toe out settings to compensate, or move other stuff around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander Posted May 6, 2015 Author Share Posted May 6, 2015 Ah... No, the car's already very front heavy because all of the weight-savings so far have come from the rear 3/4s and next to nothing has come out of the engine bay - until now - so my hope is that this will balance things up a bit. There's still plenty of mass left to use for trail braking so the next big question really (after corner weighting and another alignment, both with 100kg of ballast in the driver's seat to allow for my slender figure, lol) is front aero... namely a big ol' splitter. I find flat-out / accelerating-hard corners scary. Some of that is undoubtedly based around my (lack of) experience, but some is the lack of steering feel (or at least, lack of steering feel compared to a corner I'm on neutral throttle for, or trail braking through). Strangely the worries in my head are understeer related, not oversteer related which I'm fine with! A decent front splitter (I'll DIY one) should give me a bit more front downforce which should lead to more front end grip and hopefully more feedback through the steering wheel. If I understand the aero physics properly, I think a splitter may also help a tiny smidge with my cooling problems as less air can escape under the car, forcing more of it to go over/around/through instead. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docwra Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 Straight up, Id try a bit of time at a drift day, you learn so much about how the car behaves when under/oversteering and it becomes much more comfortable to be past the limit. I remember a trackday we did at Blyton a few years back, after it had raised the 3 of us that drifted were literally seconds per lap faster than everything else despite not having the fastest cars, we were just a lot happier when the car was out of shape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbitstew Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 PS - Don't tell the Mrs I've been using the kitchen scales! Hahaha. Im doing something similar with my Ducati 996 atm, stripping off bits not needed and lightening it. Last weekend the wife was trying to do some baking and spent ages hunting high & low for her kitchen scales, until she found me with them in the garage. She wasnt happy with the greasy finger prints id left all over them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander Posted May 6, 2015 Author Share Posted May 6, 2015 Straight up, Id try a bit of time at a drift day, you learn so much about how the car behaves when under/oversteering and it becomes much more comfortable to be past the limit. I remember a trackday we did at Blyton a few years back, after it had raised the 3 of us that drifted were literally seconds per lap faster than everything else despite not having the fastest cars, we were just a lot happier when the car was out of shape. Drift days are definitely on my agenda! I just need to chew through some more tyres first so I've got some I can take with me and not mind turning in to smoke! I'm hoping 2 sets of rears plus another set to go home on will be enough - right? Once I've got some rubber sorted I plan on going to a DWYB day over at Santa Pod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docwra Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 If youre going to Santa Pod then theres usually a tyre man there anyway, he will supply and fit or just fit, its up to you Pod will teach you the basics but if you can get on a proper track I think it would do you more good, Gerards at Mallory Park taught me soooo much its ridiculous but 110mph in 4th is quite a long way removed from 45m,ph in 2nd as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander Posted May 16, 2015 Author Share Posted May 16, 2015 FML, working on a car with a busted knee is a pain. The front end is all back together now, minus the air con, and with new coolant. Aux belt needs doing too, but that'll have to wait cos I don't have a spare. Inside the cab I've yanked the dash out again but removing the remaining air con bits is a pain as they're buried under mountains of other crap. Ended up getting distracted and just pulled out some more noise insulation I found. The joys of a double garage though, mean I'm giving up for today and the cab can stay in pieces until tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander Posted June 10, 2015 Author Share Posted June 10, 2015 Car re-assembled and track day booked at Mallory for Friday. I bought some Cups on Team Dynamic Pro Race 1.2 18x9 wheels and got them fitted too. 'Just' went out for a quick test drive and found a problem :-( Engine Coolant was leaking in to the cab and turning in to smoke which promptly filled te cab! Scary stuff. Got the car back home, but not fixed the fault yet. I think I must have dislodged the hot water feed to the heat exchanger which is located in the cab. Getting access to fix it is going to be a pain in the ass! :-/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brillomaster Posted June 10, 2015 Share Posted June 10, 2015 Hmmm Mallory should be interesting if you're not a fan of fast corners! The first corner Gerrards is very fast, and goes on for ages - and they allow overtaking round the outside, which I imagine you'd be doing a fair bit! other than that its pretty straightforward. Devils elbow is a nice corner, downhill left hander leading onto the start finish straight. Post up how the car performs on the new tyres if they're on! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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