dex

Last weekend i ran my car at Toronto Motorsports Park's 3km (about 2 miles) road course. I ran a total of about 100 laps. i did about 20 laps (approx. 30 mins) for each segment. I just wanted to share my experience and give some hints at what works and what is recommended for a good track setup. I just want to make it clear though that these suggestions are based on my current setup. i dont know how other companies products will perform on a tC in track conditions.

First i just want to say that my car feels at home on the track. I am in awe at how well the overweight, top heavy, FWD pig performed on the track. the completely stock motor has enough torque to pull the car out of the apex with authority and even after almost 3 hours of hard acceleration and bouncing off the rev limiter it didnt even sputter or overheat. but once i got on the long straights you notice the need for more power up top.


my setup:

swaybars: I set my front bar to the softest setting and the rear to the stiffest. you may think this would induce too much oversteer but the car was very neutral.

camber: up front its at about 1.5 degrees and about 1 degree in the rear. up front i would have liked a bit more but the tC is handicapped by its suspension. the rear doesnt have much adjustability stock. less camber may have helped rotate the rear. this may have tamed the stiff rear bar. either way ive hit the balance and wouldnt want to upset it by changing the camber.

ride height: this is very important to a good handling setup. im not sure on the exact drop from stock but i can fit 2 fingers (about 1.5 inches) between the top of the tire and the wheel well with the stock wheels/tires mounted. you go much lower than this, you screw up the suspension geometry and handling goes right out the window. so eventhough it looks good to drop it really low, if your looking for a good handling ride dont do it.

brakes: ive learned alot about the stock brakes this past weekend and i hope i can educate some of you guys on common misconceptions some of you want to believe. im running the stock calipers and rotors but upgraded to stoptech SS lines, axxis ultimates pads, and dot 4 brake fluid. i experienced virtually no brake fade. i know the bling big brake upgrades are a tempting purchace. but unless your endurance racing, the big price tag isnt gunna justify the benefits of them. upgrade the stock lines, pads, and fluid and your set for any weekend sessions whether it be at the track, auto-x, or on the streets.

Differential: I just dropped in the new quaife atb differential about a month ago. this mod i believe is the glue that allows all the other pieces in the setup to work well together. i was able to get on the throttle very early in the apex and instead of loading up the front tire and pushing up the track like any FWD car should, it just grabbed the pavement like it had claws and took off. anyone who is serious about handling needs to fork up the cash for this LSD. in my mind its the most important part of my setup and its what allowed me to keep up with cars better suited for the track.

I hope some of this helps you suspension and handling nuts out there. unfortunatly i dont have any vids of my experience because i was having too much fun driving to care about recording it. after this whole experience there is only 2 things i would change. I need a racing seat. its tough holding yourself in the stock seat and not only did it wear me out quicker and shorten my runs but i have bruises on the sides of my knees from trying to hold myself in place. i also think the car needs more power. im not talking huge increases because its already at a disadvantage being a FWD platform and i dont want it to be undrivable. im thinking the TRD supercharger would be a great choice but at the price they want i may be better off just fabricating a turbo setup. either way, i had a great time and i would promote any of you to experience the track sometime, even if you dont have as extensive of a setup as me. it will be an experience you will never forget.

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EnderSavesTheDay

RollTide

Hey man great job getting the car out on a real track!! I bet that LSD did wonders for handling. Did you track it stock? I agree with you on the seat, it doesn't do much for holding your butt in there.

I also agree completely in terms of power. It seems like the engine really starts to pant up top, although a turbo is pretty risky for a track set up. I've seen a good many after market turbo cars get sent home on trailers. What psi were you running your tires at?

Nice job.

raamaudio

I am autocrossing and have been in some high speed turns for such events with my setup and it works very well, fairly similar to yours actually.

You are correct on ride height and geometry issues, I run just a bit lower than your setup and it works great but 1/2 lower than I am at now and it goes all to crap, huge difference.

I have the only LSD available at the time I installed mine months ago, the Phantom Grip and it has served me very well, I have used them for a few different cars, all with great success. I know yours is a superb unit, I may have gone that route if available when I needed one and if this one ever acts up, well!!!

For camber I am closer to neg 1/2 out back and the same as you have up front, my tires do not roll over even on pretty low air pressure(I set that by tire temps accross the tread). Normally I am used to running alot more negative up front but it reduces forward grip out of turns quite a bit so tested less camber and it is working great.

For the rear it helps rotate the car having less camber but having a stiff rear bar does the same so I am supprised you did not have some oversteer at higher corner speeds, cool though that you did not

I am running the mid setting in back and soft up front but I have a CF roof(46lbs off the top) and 14.3 lb seats, probably why I can run a softer rear bar setting.

I am running really low air but it is very design and size dependent, 31PSI all the way around and I have to keep letting it out for a few runs as the tires heat up but once stabilized that is where it stays. Most likely will use something else when ready for track days.

Since I am moving to UT and will be running on Miller Motor Sports Parks track I may not install the turbo I have worked so long on and go with the SC now instead I would not want to deal with turbo issues on long track sessions, to much to go wrong)

Here is something you may want to consider, moving the battery to the rear, I did, very nice improvement, not alot of money. You can run an Odyssey 680 on track days and save alot of weight! I cut a hole in the floor above the rear axle and have a 1200 for when competing in audio, a 925 for general use and will run the 680 on the track.

I agree, the stock brakes with a few upgrades can do just fine. I am building a semi show car as well out of ours so it does have a BBK but very carefully chosen and does weigh less than stock, out back just rotors, pads and lines though.

Recently I modded the mounts for the top of the struts and added in some positive caster hoping for more straight line stability with my other settings but I had alot more wheel spin out of corners so set it back to stock.

I see you have some very nice wheels and tires, I run 17's to save a few lbs but what you have sure looks sweet on the color of your car

I am using the Hankook RS-2 tires in 235/40/17 as I needed more open tread for rain days, etc, than the 615's but they do have exclent grip, just not as good feedback and transient response is all I have hear reported. But, that was on higher profile tires, the 235/40s are very similar in feel to the 615's, glad I chose them

I will try the 615's for track days when these wear down, problem is the car is 16 months old and only had 6k miles becuase it hardly ever runs, more mods being done, lol!

I have Kumho 710's in 245/45/17 for autocrossing as soon as my wheels get here I can have even more fun

Great report, sweet car, they can be very suprising with a few mods and driven properly, I know

Rick

dex

good call raam, i forgot tires. i ran about 38-40 PSI on the azenis. I didnt experiment much with it because i wasnt competing for times but rather just getting seat time on the track. i just ran the pressures that worked well for me in auto-x. but i imagine the pressures that work are very dependant on the particular tire you are running. the azenis have about the stiffest sidewall ive ever experienced, much more so than the kumho ecsta mx's i was running last year. i thought a tire designed for auto-x would overheat and get really greasy on the track so i was nervous about running the azenis but surprisingly they held their own. it took about 15 laps before they started to get slippery and even then they were still predictable. im hoping to run hoosier r-comps on the stock rims next trip i take but at $220 a tire it may not happen.

raamaudio

I would stick with the Azinis, the Hoosiers will be gone in a weekend most likely, they do not last very long is all I ever hear. A nice in between and less costly tire is the Kumho Ecsta V700, I used them all 2003, 5k miles, at least 150 autocross runs, canyon runs, drags, they were great. Not ulimate stick but really good and also very low weight.

I am supprised you needed that much air with such a stiff sidewall tire. Where you checking the temps across the tread after runs? I am sure you know but I would imagine a bit warm in the middle meaning you could of had less rubber on the ground than possible;)

Rick