VIR 2/18-19 with new mods

[Focusedintntions]

So I don't take another post OT thought i'd go ahead bring this one up. Vids to come after I get the uploaded from my laptop.

This session I went out with kw v2's installed along with my hawk dt70 in the fronts with dt60's in the rears. Up front i also installed the RB 2 piece rotors. Overall my impressions can be summed up to this: OMFG WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

New brakes: With the RB rotors, new pads, and 1mm titanium shims, I would strongly recommend filing down some material off the pads prior to installation. I put this all together at the track for the first time due to time constraints and it was very tight. Pads were slightly dragging at first as I went out to do a bed in procedure. By the end of bedding them in dragging was gone and things were great. I'm curious to inspect them once i get the setup off the car on Wednesday once it warms up.

First session i took it slow as I got used to the car, new brakes, and shake the rust off the past couple months of sitting. By the end of session I was beginning to feel comfortable with the setup. By the last session of I was flying out there and the only car faster than me was a highly modified mustang 5.0 that just left me sitting still on the straights. Hard to keep up with 500hp in a straight line with a stock powered 135 haha

Braking with the new setup is fantastic. I highly recommend this setup as I experience zero..absolutely zero fade. In fact i think as they got hotter i stopped better. Kori, stop fooling around with dual duty pads and swap over for the track days, you'll be amazed as I was. I had to to relearn to heal toe as where before my foot was near the floor, now I was barely using 1/2 pedal to reach threshold braking. As my instructor noted, I def have more brakes than tires right now (slicks next year). They have a strong bite and then very easy to modulate. Braking force seemed consistent with pedal pressure on every braking zone. Very very happy with the setup.

Turning with kw v2's and vorshlag camber plates. I have a semi agressive setup for the street. 2.5 degrees up front with 1.8 in the rear, no toe in or out on the front with a bit of toe in on the rear. WOW does the car finally rotate. Coming into corners the car felt completely nuetral and was easily rotated under throttle as long as I didn't get too aggressive. If i did the lack of the lsd rears its ugly head. The other fantastic thing is I was able to finally roll over the gators and new fia curb w/o unsettling the car. Previously, especially going through the uphill esses, if I rolled over the curbing agressive the car had a bad habit of almost feeling launched in the air. No more, now i could cut in on them with no more than a small shrug from the car. The car was just more comfortable everywhere. By the end of the 1st day I was entering the uphill esses around 120-125 and exiting around 105-110. Coming out of oak tree i also had more speed as I bounced off the rev limiter a couple times at the end of the back straight in 4th gear. It was one bounce then braking zone, didn't think it was worth shifting to 5th for the 1/2 second i'd be in the gear.

Over all I'm very happy with this setup for now. I was able to consistently drive the track w/o having to fight understeer or braking issues. Made things so much more fun. Got to spend time working on new lines. Other than needing a bit more practice with offline driving, my instructor said i'm ready for the next group up

Sunday was a terrible day b/c of the weather. Rain/sleet/snow randomly falling at times. Made the track very interesting as it would stop on one end and at the other would be pouring down. Not much was pushed as the conditions were so varied and grip levels were unpredictable corner to corner lap to lap. Nothing like feeling the back end break loose at 110 mph when you floor it in 4th gear on the back straight to pass somebody lol

[pixelblue]

Chris,
nice write up! glad you had a blast. you might be able to do without the shims for more rotor clearance if you run castrol srf fluid. wet boiling point is about 200 deg more than rbf 600. probably the same difference the shims provide. so far I have faired well with the brakes but I have a feeling with the extra juice this year I may be needing an upgrade. two events coming up in march. week of 11th with scca and the following week with pca. I should start a new thread and see who is coming. hopefully the weather will cooperate.

[Focusedintntions]

Kori,
I run the shims more so to help protect the seals and pistons from heat. Never have had a fluid fade issue since i switched to rbf. I'd highly recommend swapping to the new pads man, they're fantastic and a street pad can't even come close. I a friend here locally that can get you the pads at a good price and pretty quickly. I'm telling you, once you get on them you'll only be kicking yourself for not putting them earlier. BTW I'm considering doing the PCA event on the 10th at SP main too. Haven't decided yet though. Kinda waiting on weather.

[pixelblue]

I thought the pca event was on 17th. the weekend of the 10th is scca at main. I hear you on the race pads. after I go through these ferrodos I want to try pagids and maybe next year I can make up my mind regarding upgrading brakes. yeah I won't be registering until a week before the event. have to see the long forecast first. last year I got burned three times with bad weather. really not worth the extra risk plus not much fun on soft dsw's

[S54dan]

nice write-up!

[yandy]

nice! glad you finally got to use your Hawks, those things are amazing on the track.. shrinks your braking points too by about 100 to 150 feet.. lol

don't be lazy and put up those videos

[Focusedintntions]

Kori you're right...the event on the 10th is scca. Got it confused lol. Trying to find events to work with my schedule and I'm jumping around on like 10 different orgs trying to find events haha.

[Focusedintntions]

Sadly my vids this time are terrible. Got them with Harry's Laptimer but only recorded on the first session of each day. It killed my battery and didn't have enough charge for session 2, and then on the 3rd final session of the day I forgot to push start

[GaryS]

Originally Posted by pixelblue

I thought the pca event was on 17th. the weekend of the 10th is scca at main. I hear you on the race pads. after I go through these ferrodos I want to try pagids and maybe next year I can make up my mind regarding upgrading brakes. yeah I won't be registering until a week before the event. have to see the long forecast first. last year I got burned three times with bad weather. really not worth the extra risk plus not much fun on soft dsw's

I noticed you register late after the online registration is closed. Do you do that by email?

Focused, great write-up. I've got a set of DTC70/60s sitting on a shelf at home, but I'm going to try DTC30s with RB rotors in front first just to save a little time until I get used to the work. Congrats on your new suspension. It must feel like a whole new car.

[pixelblue]

Gary,
trackdaze people were very flexible. if they haven't sold out, they will let you register a day before. I did that with trackdaze a few times and I had to send them an email and they would send me a paypal invoice and that was it. scca wants you to register before their closing date which is the monday before the event and they are pretty strict about it.

[yandy]

Originally Posted by Focusedintntions

Sadly my vids this time are terrible. Got them with Harry's Laptimer but only recorded on the first session of each day. It killed my battery and didn't have enough charge for session 2, and then on the 3rd final session of the day I forgot to push start

Get a GoPro, overlay the info with Dashware. The iPhone uses much less battery this way, and by not mounting it to the windshield and mounting it to the vents, you can connect a charging cable.

[joeo]

Chris - nice write up! Sounds like you had a blast. Have you checked on the dust boots/calipers to see how they are with the new pads/rotors? How much pad material was left after?

-Joe

[Focusedintntions]

Yandyr - I have a go pro but didn't learn till yesterday that I could overlay data onto the vids. I also learned that the next version of HLT will record every lap which is supposed to be released soon.

Gary - the new suspension is awesome! So happy I bit the bullet and did it.

Joe - I haven't pulled things apart yet, but from what i can tell by how little the brake pedal moves I still have a lot of pad left. Normally after a weekend my foot would be close the floor, pedal feels just like it did at the begining of the weekend. Move it 1/2 an inch and the car slams to a stop lol

[yandy]

Originally Posted by Focusedintntions

Yandyr - I have a go pro but didn't learn till yesterday that I could overlay data onto the vids. I also learned that the next version of HLT will record every lap which is supposed to be released soon.

Oh that'll be cool, I don't use it to record video now cause of that every other lap thing. But if it were to record all the laps, that's different, can actually put my RAM suction cup to use.

[pixelblue]

^ yeah but you are stuck with one position to record the videos. I like the flexibility of mounting the camera where I want. just get dashware and export your lap data and sync up. honestly I wouldn't even worry about layering the data at this point. just use the data to analyze and find where you can make improvements. it would be great to compare your data with an experienced driver on the same track. this way you can see where you need to make improvements

[Focusedintntions]

Yeah Kori, but then we loose the cool video overlay factor to show off here on the forums :P

[pixelblue]

Chris, better be able to show respectable times otherwise it's just going to be window dressing :P

[Focusedintntions]

But I like a pretty window lol

[yandy]

what's wrong with pretty window dressing? I do it all the time, and I'm no good, just think it's really cool

[pixelblue]

I was very excited at first about doing this too. then I thought, unless you are connected to ODB you're only collecting speed and g forces. big deal... it would be cool if you could get rpm, gear, throttle and brake as well. the graphs inside the app are very informative. I was able to analyze braking points, turning points and throttle points. comparing the graphs between my runs and the pro who drove my car last year is very cool.

[yandy]

Originally Posted by pixelblue

I was very excited at first about doing this too. then I thought, unless you are connected to ODB you're only collecting speed and g forces. big deal... it would be cool if you could get rpm, gear, throttle and brake as well. the graphs inside the app are very informative. I was able to analyze braking points, turning points and throttle points. comparing the graphs between my runs and the pro who drove my car last year is very cool.

See I got the PLX Kiwi Wifi which captures all that data, but Harry's only does, RPM/Gear/Throttle/G forces, not braking yet. But I believe the PLX device captures it with Rev, so it's just an App deficiency. It is very useful being able to put all that together though..

On the other hand, enough OT.. sorry Focused, we took your thread beyond it's intention I guess.

[Focusedintntions]

Lol doesn't bother me at all Yandyr....run away with it