So I've been drag racing for the last four years but now the cloesest track has closed and I'm finally making the trip out to Heartland Park Topeka's road course.

I'm currently on Tein S-Tech springs wich has hleped me put down a 1.61 60' on street tires (Yoko ES100 tires) at the drag stip. After 60k miles with them on (80k total miles) my strus were shot and I just replaced the fronts with Bilstien's and the rears with stock replacements. This was before the drag stip closed, thinking I would still be drag racing.

I DON'T have money for coilovers right now but plan on going to them next year so I DON'T want to buy different springs. I may only make it to the HPT track twice this year so again I'm waiting till next year for coilovers.

My question is will sway bars be worth it to help with body roll. Obviously I get a lot of roll with my springs. I saw a good deal on a used Hotchkis Rear sway bar so I bought it. Would that be enough or if I'm doing a rear should I also do the front? I'm looking at the Tanabe front sway bar if I get one for being light weight but am open to other sugestions.

The rest of my suspension is all stock.
I have front and rear Ti strut bars.
My TC has been upgraded with a Wavetrac LSD.
Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec tires
Performance Friction Metallic Z Brake Pads
RotoPros Rotors
SS Lines and new fluid
400whp/400wtq

Watcha think?
Any other advice you want to throw out for a 1st time also would be apreciated.

 

you should be worrying about your brakes more, suspension less. you dont need coilovers, but i thhink you will quickly find that those tein springs suck.

there was nothing better on my first day out than beating on the brakes and having full confidence in them at every turn. get your alignment checked so you dont roast a tire like i did.

 

^Exactly. Even with stock suspension you'll still have fun, but for you and your car's sake, fix the brakes first. Several threads on what else to bring along if you look.

 

Sorry, I should have added that to the list. I've redone the brakes already. I've updated my list. I also recently had the alignment done when I replaced my struts.

I know the Tein springs will suck on the road course, that's why I was wondering if sway bars will help.

 

define "redoing" your brakes.

 

Redone, replace ...........what ever you want to call it. Sorry my choice of word was not clear.

Would this not be considered an upgrade?

Performance Friction Metallic Z Brake Pads
RotoPros Rotors
SS Lines

But again, I'm asking about sway bars.

 

For street yes, your pad selection will only work for the rears..maybe..and you didn't mention which fluid. Front pads deff need to be higher temp if you want to stop over and over. If you stick with PF's I'd get a front set of PF01's. Fluid wise your best off with Endless, best bang for the buck. Also if your handy, look at drilling small holes in your rear caliper pins and clipping them so they don't shake out. Esp. if you drive it to and from the track.

The rear sway you got is perfect, don't mess with the front cause it's a royal PITA and not needed until you have ALL the other full upgrades.

 

Get a CG Lock. Keeps your butt firmly planted, makes driving more enjoyable. Instead of bracing yourself with hands and knees. Toss a few gal on 100oct when on track if you are tuned on 91/93.

I would say just change your pads to Performance Friction 01/Hawk DTC-70/Raybestos ST43 on track days.

 

I picked these pads due to the review on AMS's web site - "With over 60 laps in 10-15 lap sessions of hard driving, these pads never showed signs of fading. Our test driver said the pedal feel and brake modulation where fantastic, and he preferred their performance and feel over the Hawk HPS pads we ran before."

I'll look into getting something else for the fronts. I will be driving to and from the track so I'll look into the caliper pin mod, thanks.

I've been reading about the install on the front sway bar and that's why I wanted to ask about them before I bought one. I just wasn't sure if it was recommend to do them both at the same time. I didn't want to make the front handling worse by only making the rear stiffer.


I never heard of the CG Lock. I just looked it up and def going to get one, thanks!

I'm tuned on E85 at 400/400 @ 30psi. From what I've read most people will lower the boost for the track so I'm going to talk to my tuner about that tomorrow. I'm using the ECU for boost right now so I'll prob just go back to my MBC to lower it. If I get more time I might try to adjust the ECU boost maps to lower it and then just reflash back and forth. I just read something the other day about "Hybrid boost control" or something like that with both the MBC and ECU. That may be a route I'd like to go as well some day.

 

a lot of people who upgraded the front said its a very good upgrade if you can do it. pita install.
cg lock is nice
i would upgrade the front brake pads and change the fluid.
eventually you should look at restacking the rear diff plates to get the power oversteer.

 

Oh ya fluid. When I did the new brakes we put higher temp fluid in but I forgot what brand.

 

If you did something like Motul brake fluid, you may want to check/bleed after each sesson. Heartland can be somewhat hard on brakes. AMS's review sounds like the one for PF01's not Z street metalic, but regardless the Z's are very very good street pads, but only have a max temp of hundred something. You'll be seeing 1000+.

 

Ya the review was for the Z's. They have good for me on dry days but imho they suck in the rain or snow. There was many times that I started to brake and nothing.... I would have to pump them to dry/heat them up so that they would start to grip and slow me down. Is this true form all street/track pads? I would Is there any street/track pads that would be decent for HPT or should I just go full track pads for my track days? Track pads are not cheap and I'm not sure worth it for the few times I might go. On the other hand I guess they should last me a couple years for the small amount of track days that I would do.

I read about the Raybestos ST43 on AWD's site and like the sound of them so that's probably what I will go with if I buy track pads.

 

im using the CL RC5+ pads. been very good on the street and have a max temp of like 1300 degrees. they were great on the track, and being sintered still stop you well when cold. little noisy...but im lazy and dont feel like swapping pads all the time.

 

Haha that's funny cause I've just been reading the review on the RC6 pads. Seems as some of the original vendors had dropped them though. Were did you buy yours?
I'm not sure if I could deal with the noise as a DD. How is the brake dust on the RC5's?