The trip Schedule

• Thurs - 6pm (CT) - Leave home; 2hr drive to my parents for pitstop
• Fri - 4am (CT) - Awake
• Fri -10am (ET) - Winning Formula in Louisville, KY for alignment & corner balance
• Sat - 8am (ET) - Putnam Park, outside Indy for Track Testing!
• Sat - 8pm (CT) - back home.

With about 5 hours of sleep Thursday night, I was back on the road at 4:30am. Besides seeing a few deer, I took out a big Hawk with the truck on I-64. Horrid sound as it hit partly on the windshield and partly on the roof. A few inches lower and the windsheild would have taken the full force and probably cracked or shattered.



Made it to the shop about 8:40am my time - 9:40am ET local for my 10am appt. Unloaded...it was cold. We started mounting tires. Aaron was going to be setting up my car and I knew him from previous track events and from talking all winter about the suspenion setup. I had not met his boss - Mike. It's pretty much just them 2. They primarily setup SM's (Spec Miata's) along with various other street/track car alignments and maintenance I believe.

Got the car on the fancy alignment rack and on the scales just before lunch hit. It was showing 3266 with ballast in the the drivers seat. Perfect as my post-race minimum is 3263.

We encountered a few problems. Some of them caused by me not installing the spacers between the coilover spring and the tenders. Others caused by some rubbing we had to deal with. We also played around with the weight a bit.

When we finally got to the alignment we came across another big issue. The rear of the car no longer had the eccentric bolts for toe adjustment! Fortunately for me, I had stripped a front suspension bolt with my install earlier in the week and I dug through my spare box of crap downstairs can while I didn't have a spare front bolt I did find some interesting other bolts (including the rear toe eccentric adjusters) that I threw in for the trip just in case. Lucky us. So we replaced those as well; back to the correct bolts.

All-in-all it took a lot longer than we had planned. We had to redo a few things that had been done incorrectly by other shops over the years. We also had to deal with some rubbing caused by the longer springs from the new setup. We have a plan 'B' coming down the road for that one. But Aaron stuck with it and took his time. He talked me through everything and answered all my questions and we joked through it all.



We didn't leave the shop until about 9pm that night. We had to help some other guys pack up, install some Miata hard tops, pack extra tires, grab dinner, etc. 4 of us caravaned the ~2.5hr drive to Indianopolis to our 2 different hotels for the next days event.

2am...bedtime. 6:15am alarm for Saturday testday...

 

After about 4hrs of sleep, this (pic above) was the scene early Saturday morning - bundled up and unpacking the car! It was downright cold and windy in the morning and didn't change much throughout the day. The high I seen was 36; maybe 37 degrees. Temps under 40 definitely bring up a host of additional issues! I was probably going to be running street tires all day and definitely needed to turn the boost down!

I got everything unloaded and was out on track early. I wanted to check out the updated 100oct tune from AMS Performance, my new AST Coilovers, my new alignment and my new Aero. Lots of new stuff! I ran maybe 8 laps at about 6/10's and everything felt good and solid. Nothing broke, cracked, fell off and all the gauges looked good.

My 2nd time out I took Aaron who aligned the car the previous day for some feedback. I pushed the car a bit more but nothing more than 7/10's really. I ran my GPS data and even with the additional passenger weight I hit 130.45 mph on the main straight which was a personal best. I think the boost leaks have been remedied! Thank you so much AMS for the new gaskets and the updated tune!

After the 2nd session and about 20 laps in all the car was nearly out of fuel. We came in - I filled it up with 93 oct and switched the maps and cranked the boost even lower. Turns out it was low enough.
As I had this day and my next trackday for testing, I figure why run the expensive fuel. I should've stuck with the 100. Turns out when it's 36 degrees out, I can't turn down my MBC low enough to prevent boost cut! It took me 3 different occasions to verify this was infact the issue and nothing else was wrong with the suspension or the tune. I had the new A/F gauage and it was pegged straight to 10 during one of the boost cuts. What a pain... My remedy was to run at partial throttle the rest of the day - so I did so and worked on learning the suspension/aero more.

By the end of the day I dipped into the 1:19's. I got more daring with the car and tried to force some oversteer and understeer and it wouldn't do it! Meaning that not only is the car initially balanced, but I can definitely raise the cornering speed.

In all I put on 114 miles which equates to around 60-65 laps at Putnam Park. I'll be back here in May with NASA! Before then, hell before my next event we've got a ton of GPS data to wade through and a host of minor changes to make. Namely the rotor and brake setup. I was running front Girodisc 2-peice rotors and ST-43 pads and they wouldn't fully come in until about 8 laps. After that they were hard to modulate for me; just not a big fan. That's not going to work for me when I run TT and need to hit it early and hard. Plus after 4 days they look pretty damn spent which is not what I'd hoped for considering the intial price. So we'll see...

Video! Here's a few laps from around 3pm. Still on my 245 Dunlop Z1 StarSpec's and running about 3/4 throttle to prevent boost cut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQrdqVEZLMc

 

What boost are you running?

Why don't you get rid of the boost cut? It's super simple to change.

Whynot just run Hawk DTC pads, or those new fancy CL pads everyone has been praising.

And did you get a dogbox?!

If you don't mind, what is your points break down now with the aero?

 

Sounds like it was 4 very hard but fruitful days. Color me jealous.

 

On the 93oct map - literally as long as I could turn the MBC w/o the spring popping out! It was still in the 23psi range I think.

It's in the plans.

Because I was trying something new. Everyone raved about the ST43's and I think they're crap now.


lol... Nope, but it sounds like I'm slamming gears now doesn't it!

I'm still testing out a few different configs so I'm not sure where I'll end up with points. The setup to allow for the aero sacrifices HP if that's what you're wondering.

 

In the plans? Haha, just do it now. Do you have ECUflash on a laptop? It's very easy to change.

Hmm, I haven't really heard the raving. I know everyone's raving over the CL R6's or whatever. Those are just about the only pads I'd try out. Otherwise I'll never leave my Hawk DTC's. I've never had a single problem with them.

Haha at first I thought it was just normal tranny whine, but it definitely sounded clunky on shifts like a dogbox does.

How does your setup with aero sacrifice HP? You mean you're using points for aero instead of like a fmic or something? Lol just tell me your stupid points break down. It's not like you get to keep them secret anyways.

 

Just keep doing what youre doing Nate. As for why your brakes didnt fully come in until 8 laps, and being challenging to modulate...probably due to lack of heat? In case someone reading this doesnt know, ive been running Girodisc 2pc rotors and Raybestos ST43 pads on all 4 corners for almost 3yrs now. I have loved this setup from the beginning and cant be happier given my setup. My rotors/pads bite as soon as my races start, and i can modulate them however i want.

You said you started off driving around 6/10ths. And if im not mistaken, you said you didnt push it more than 7/10ths? On top of that it was a pretty cold day? I know youre aware of all this, but the first thing that comes to my mind is lack of heat. If youre not pushing it, youre not getting enough heat into your pads/rotors.

 

Ya he's gotten quicker with the gears, but I think he meant dog box from the "whine" inside the cockpit, that's your diff right?

On the pads, the temp outside was really the problem I think bro. I used to go with my Dad to race all the time back in the 80's and he's done/experienced the exact same issue, even at the same track . Rotors, regardless of make, if they cool down "too quickly" will crack a lot more. With the sheer temp outside, add the fact that even driving 10/10's if you were, they would still not be up to the temp your used to, or that they should be. Like most everything you test, 1 day in very NON optimal conditions doesn't prove or disprove much. I'm sure with more days you'll get better results/data.

Edit, ya what buel beat me to and said. We're in much...hotter climates which further suggests heat is a good thing. Try taking your ducts off and test then too.

 

we are trying to figure his points too... heres what we have come up with

TTB Base class
+5 forced induction
+10 hoosier R6
(unsure what size tire hes running)
+2 exhaust
+1 no cat
+1 intake
+4 MBC
+1 modified rear Diff
+3 AST 4100
+2 springs
+4 rear wing
+3 splitter

total: 36

max of 39 points allowed.

if he runs the A6 he will be maxxed out. or if he runs a narrower tire he will have a few more points.

weight is at minimum: max power allowed is 375whp on a dynojet, or 340 mustang.

 

Funny how you pretty much said what i said but you were like a minute later. That means we were probably typing at the same time. Matt, are you my long lost brother? I think its important to note a few more things. Keep in mind this is what ive experienced thus far. Nate, sorry if this derails your thread. Let us know if its cluttering your thread.

Just the other day a friend was asking me some questions about different tires, heat cycles and so forth. What i told him is that you have to consider the big picture. Someone might say that they got 50 heat cycles out of a certain tire, or rotors, or pads, or whatever. Question is how they did that. I can use myself as an example. I got my 1st set of Girodisc 2pc rotors and Raybestos ST43 pads around May/June of 2008. I posted my first review about them a year later in Aug of 2009:

- Review: Girodisc Rotors & Raybestos brake pads

As you can see, i got 16 days out of that combination. But only 4 of them were races, and that happened at the end. Because when i got my 1st set in 2008, i was doing TT at the time. I didnt start racing until 2009. The 4 races i put on this set, that happened at the end of its life, were my first 4 races of my rookie season. I then got my 2nd set:

- Girodisc Rotors: Results of 2nd set

But with my 2nd set i got 10 days out of them. Why less with my 2nd set? Because these rotors only had races and test days on them. Unless youre driving 9-10/10ths for over 20min straight during every HPDE/TT event (4 sessions a day), when you start racing, your rotors/pads are going to wear out more rapidly. So if i just posted how many days i got out of my rotors, the numbers by themselves wouldnt paint an accurate picture. Someone reading my thread might think...well, i got 20 days out of my rotors and a bunch of DD miles, but this guy only got 10 days out of his. Mine must be better.

There are many factors involved that will determine how long your rotors/pads will last. In no special order, and rather loosely speaking...type of usage, the driver, your overall setup, the track, and the weather.

 

As I said, I don't have a dogbox. The awesome sound is from several factors:

• I have a Shep upgraded rear diff. It's freakin awesome.
• I have the AMS Mustache bar delete
• My interior is gutted of all sound deadening
• My camera is positioned nearly right above the rear diff basically.

As for my NASA pts setup....all in due time. There's also serveral people here on the forums that have already noted they'll be at Mid-Ohio this year for Nationals and in my planned class so let's not dump out all the information at once!
I haven't ran an event yet this year, I've only had 1 testday. I have several configs in mind with and without the aero is the big decision for me. Tire size and compound is another. I'll be testing these setups at my events and if you stay tuned I'll tell you which ones I LIKE better as I go. Yep, I'll tell you exactly what's good and what's bad relative to MY opinion.

That includes brakes and rotors; something I've experimenting with as well currently.

KevinD proposed a good idea though. That's a pretty solid TTA setup. Only his max whp allowed was off. According to my calcs, you could run:

• 408 with 245's
• 388 with 275's
• 375 with 285+ tires.

 

we have a number of different setups we are considering as well i can't imagine the car your testing today is the configuration you'll be running at nationals.

 

Right-on! That's how it goes!

I don't plan on running StarSpecs all summer...

 

What spring rates are you running on the AST's for now? What are your impressions of them so far?

 

The AST's with the Vorschlag camber plates seem to be a good combo. I've only had the 1 day of testing so far, and only on the street tires but my initial feedback is nothing but positive. Keep in mind I'm coming from a suspension that had about 35-40 trackdays on it between myself and the previous owner (thx again Bueller). And I gotta think the turn-in was getting a bit sloppy; but I've really no way to prove that.

The weirdest thing about these; they are 2" longer than my JIC's were. They definitely have more suspension travel because of that, and more droop meaning I have to jack the car up higher to switch tires; lol! The car seems more stable than before, but they might be the aero; hard to say. I'd need to test independently to prove that out and if I have time I plan to.
Here's some comparison shots:




Here's the JIC rear, the 06 stock rear and AST rear: