So I suppose I found the limits of the tC yesterday.

Coming out of a turn, it felt like my tires had just gone bald. I had no traction whatsoever, and I couldn't steer away from those poor three cones that outlined the end of the corner. Foompfoompfoomp was all I could hear over my swearing.

One person told me that one of my wheels was at least four inches off the ground, and one of the corner workers said I was doing a "one wheel burnout" 3/4 of the way through the corner.

Tokico shocks are ordered.

 

What are you sway bars set on?

 

awesome!! LOL well at least it was cones and not a wall and your car is alright and your are too.

 

Nothing's installed yet; my friend and I are figuring out the logistics of the install. My rear bar that I have now (Progress) is set all the way down.

 

Pretty impressive, I've gotten close to lifting one of my rears, but no one officially saw daylight under it.

I'm on stock struts with Hotchkis springs and a TRD rear sway and a Stiffy up front. Nice setup you got going in, I did everythinn but the alignment in my buddy's garage lying on cardboard, it's not too bad as long as your impact gun doesn't die halfway through the install. I don't look forward to doing a front sway anytime soon tho.

 

I wonder...

As it stands now, I've got 17x7.0" wheels and 225/45/17 KDW-2's. While I'm sure my mostly-stock suspension isn't helping much, I have wonderful grip going -into- corners, but I just can't put down any power going -through- them. In the list of things I'm blaming, it's:
* the body roll
* my contact patches
* the tires


So, in the case of the second one, things that would help?

* 17x7.5" wheels with 225/45 (or 35?)/17's
or
* 18x7.5" wheels with 225/45/18's

 

If you're staying with the same width tire, I wouldn't think that would change much for you. I have a lot of the same trouble depending on the surface though. I like my Azenis better than the KDWs I had last year. So that could be another option when you come to it - but the KDWs aren't horrible or anything. I would wait to see how it does when your parts get put on.

 

I run Cooper Zeons on my 18s, I get less wheel spin on takeoff but that's about the only advantage. Had the tires not come witht he wheels I'd be on Falkens right now. Everyone seems to recommend the Falkens as the cure-all for traction problems. Until then I've just resigned myself to learning throttle control, right now it's binary for me on or off ;)

-Sean

 

So it turns out I've got a horrible camber problem on my front wheels, and that's where all my grip is going. The outsides of the tires are all cooked and melted, and the insides look normal. I had three different class-mates look at the tires, and the estimate is that I'm losing about 25% of my total traction to bad camber angle.

Too bad it took me three weeks to figure it out, but at least I figured it out before the Midwest Divisional.

I wonder: what's the curb weight of the Spec edition tC? How much weight does the moonroof swap save?

 

On the roof: I don't remember the number, but Ptunning posted some numbers on their time attack build.

-Sean

 

Okay, I'm in a bind.

I was supposed to get help with putting on the shocks/springs/swaybars... but the guy I was going to get it done with ended up getting too busy.

The first race of the divisional is Saturday.

Is it safe/worth it to try and put them all on tomorrow with a friend's dad in Kansas City on the way to Topeka? Should I try and get the rest of the St. Louis guys that are going to help me put them on during the test and tune Friday? Should I just abandon the notion of having any of this on for the divisional?

 

The rear sway bar takes 15 minutes tops. Keep the front for later when you have another reason to drop the cradle (engine mounts, clutch etc..), the rear make a huge difference on it's own.

Took me ten hours to do my springs, with a broken impact gun (leaking wouldn't hold air) and crappy spring compressors. If you've got the right tools it should only take a couple of hours.

If you already have the springs and struts (I don't remember)you can take em to a parts shop to be put together, it's a much easier install that way, one of the local parts places in Detroit does it for $25 a strut.

I think it's definitely worth it to have the suspension done, and you'll appreciate the racing that much more after the thrash IMO.

-Sean

 

Yeah, my Progress rear bar was cake (and pretty sufficient). I can't be bothered to just replace the rear one, so I'll probably just do them both when I have the time.

Thanks, I might just have a shop put the springs on the struts to save me some time. My main concern, though, was if there was any any "break-in period" that I'd be violating by racing a day after replacing suspension components that "settle". I don't want to put this stuff on and then have it all wonky because I went out and thrashed my car right afterwards.

And my cordless impact wrench is my best friend; you should look into getting one.

 

Good point, and one I hadn't considered. I don't think there is much risk for breaking anything, but it may help things settle faster ;) I think the main concern woudl be the wonky suspension geometry you would be faced with for the settleing in period tho. May make for an interesting ride. From memory mine immediately handled better and settled within a few hundred miles. If I read this whole thing correctly you are driving a decet distance to the event right? I would think getting the springs on before the drive, or with as much driving as possible would be ideal.

I've heard both good and bad thing about them, have you used it on any 150FtPd bolts yet? I'd love to ahve one.

-Sean

 

Well, I would have had it all put on yesterday, but the person helping me had to bail. Now I'm frantically looking for another set of hands that can follow simple directions.

I do have a 330mi drive ahead of me tonight, and then about 150mi more tomorrow morning; all highway. I didn't realize the break in period was just a few hundred miles, but that makes me want to get these on even more before the trip. I kind of have vested interest in having as little jacked up of suspension geometery as possible.

As far as my cordless, I haven't tried it on 150lb/ft bolts. http://www.soloperformance.com/Longa...p_10-1355.html looks like it might do the trick; I'd email SPS about that and see what they say.

 

I've heard as many as 1000 miles in for break-in, but mine were fully settled within 2 weeks I got my alignment done at 3, and my tire wear since has been even and the car ride straight.


Neat! Thanks!

-Sean

 

Do the front swaybar endlink bolts need anything special to take them out? I'm sitting there ratcheting away at them and they just seem like they're spinning.

Or are they rusted already... on my year old car.

EDIT: Just ordered the Dezod endlinks. I didn't even know there was a rusting problem on the endlinks until after I was elbow deep in my wheel well.

 

yea if they spin you need a 17mm wrench and a 6mm allen key

 

^^^word. Just got mine done today.

 

CDogbert
You got me worried with autox'n with a tweaked suspension and fresh springs. My Teins had a break-in period but I'm not sure how mandatory it was. Springs aside though, I would be concerned with each component getting torqued properly before the event, if you are installed in time. How long are you going to be in the KC area?