Quote:
Originally Posted by Sleeper519
Nice build. Would love to do that with my '08 someday. Kind of scared of the cost though considering I'd still have to buy a new DD. 
How many seconds faster is she now on same tracks? |
Thanks!
It's taken some time to dial the car in with it's new configuration, and that process is still not complete yet. It really is like driving a different vehicle. The weight, wing, weight distribution, weight transfer, suspension feel, height of the car, braking zones, acceleration, alignment------literally everything is different.
I take my time to build confidence when it comes to tracking. Anyway, at Buttonwillow this weekend, I was on 5 day-old tires in 85 degree heat. That usually does not make for great lap times. But I was able to get to within 4/100th of a second of my PB there. In my experience, in those conditions with my old setup, I would have been 2 seconds off that pace. My PB was set on newer tires when it was 56 degrees out. So, I have no doubt that over the next few months the times will continue to drop.
It's interesting that when I first got the car back, I had to take a couple steps back and re-learn some things. The first and biggest thing that was glaring was the braking zones. Because the car is lighter, the braking zones can be as much as 150 feet later than they were. An amateur like me who's driven hundreds of laps in one car for several years does not simply just re-learn that instantly. My brain has those old points really stuck in my head. It's been interesting to watch the AIM solo data showing me how my braking points are moving later and later. I'm adjusting but it's taking some time.
I've actually done a second/different alignment since I got the car back. That has stabilized the braking feel. At first I thought the brake pads were too powerful now that the car was lighter. But now I don't feel that way. They feel great now that the car is more stable under heavy braking.
I've been adjusting the wing---dialing the angle of attack to a mellower setting. I think i'll probably set the front sway bar to a mellower setting to see if that gives me a bit more front grip back. If not, I may consider pushing the agenda of the front splitter a bit sooner. I'm not too excited about that for reasons I've mentioned before.
I'm still experimenting with the JRZ settings. I think the car feels pretty good, but maybe I can get a bit more front grip from the suspension settings too. We kept the same springs, which I think was the right idea with the wing in the rear. The front didn't lose much weight, and you can see from the pix on the track that the rear is definitely being pushed down by the wing, so I don't think I want to lower spring rates.
Anyway, all this stuff is in transition, and the temps have been very hot, so as I keep driving and learning the car and trying to set it up properly, I have no doubt the car will be faster. The ft/sec acceleration is definitely faster when you look at it on the AIM.
I'm actually quite annoyed with my AIM Solo DL………on Sunday, at Buttonwillow, it actually told me I had run a new PB (1:53.85), but the track transponder did not agree (1:54.07)……..hehe ah well…..It was quite a joyous moment in the car-----only to have the bubble burst when looking at the transponder print-out……boohoo