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Basic suspension mods for the track.

ChrisAttebery

ChrisAttebery

Drag Racing Champion
Hi guys,

My car is 99% DD. I put about 18k miles a year on it. It has an IE stage 1 ECU tune and a DSG tune. I'm pretty happy with the way it drives on the street. It could use a little more front traction and it would be nice if it rotated a bit more.

I don't plan to do a ton of track days, but I when I ran it at Laguna Seca a few weeks ago and saw that it could really use more camber. Other than that I thought it drove pretty well.

I'm thinking about adding a set of camber plates and the SuperPro anti lift kit and then getting a more performance oriented alignment done. I'd have the front camber set for the street and add more in for track days.

I know that the brakes are the weak spot on the car. I'm planning to remove the dust shields, add air deflectors and better pads to the brakes. I've already added Castrol SRF brake fluid.

Does this sounds reasonable?
 
jay745

jay745

What Would Glenn Danzig Do
Keep in mind if you're changing the camber you'll have to adjust the toe each time as well. Not all that difficult if you have a set of toe plates and a camber gauge.

What kind of tires are you running? I'd start with a GOOD set of tires, Hankook Ventus RS4 are great and you can use them both on street and track.

As far as rotation, try upgrading the rear sway bar.. and if you get more into the track do the front.
 
ChrisAttebery

ChrisAttebery

Drag Racing Champion
That's good to know about the toe. I'm sure I can handle it. I thought I could have the alignment guy mark the plates for street vs track (or use the scale on the plates). Toe would be a little more involved. Maybe written instructions (shorten X turn for track).

I'm running Pilot Sport A/S 3+. I know that they are not the best tires for the track, but they have plenty of grip on the street. Before I go out and buy a set of track tires I'd like to get the most out of these. I was only using the outer half of the tires. Next summer I'll need new tires and can pick something a little more aggressive.



jay745 said:
Keep in mind if you're changing the camber you'll have to adjust the toe each time as well. Not all that difficult if you have a set of toe plates and a camber gauge.

What kind of tires are you running? I'd start with a GOOD set of tires, Hankook Ventus RS4 are great and you can use them both on street and track.

As far as rotation, try upgrading the rear sway bar.. and if you get more into the track do the front.
Click to expand...
 
jay745

jay745

What Would Glenn Danzig Do
ChrisAttebery said:
That's good to know about the toe. I'm sure I can handle it. I thought I could have the alignment guy mark the plates for street vs track (or use the scale on the plates). Toe would be a little more involved. Maybe written instructions (shorten X turn for track).

I'm running Pilot Sport A/S 3+. I know that they are not the best tires for the track, but they have plenty of grip on the street. Before I go out and buy a set of track tires I'd like to get the most out of these. I was only using the outer half of the tires. Next summer I'll need new tires and can pick something a little more aggressive.
Click to expand...

Yeah just keep an eye on those tires. Really inspect them after each session. I've seen someone completely melt a set of all seasons after one session. Especially once you get more comfortable with the brakes.
 
ChrisAttebery

ChrisAttebery

Drag Racing Champion
Yes. That was my biggest fear. When I got home I noticed that the tires sounded like they were cupped. A couple weeks later I got around to working on the car and the rears looked like this:



I thought I had roasted the tires. Turns out it was just rubber that was picked up off the track. I rotated them to the front and a little bit of hot doggin later the tires looked like new again. :D
 
kthor7031

kthor7031

Go Kart Champion
I'd definitely say do camber plates. They will help preserve the tires and give you much needed front end grip.

When I was tracking my GTI, I had bilstein pss and I definitely had some rotation with stock bars and no front camber. The rear wheel rate was a higher frequency (read: stiffer) than the front. I would say if you are going to touch springs and dampers anyway, start with that and add bars to tune the balance. Easier to tune with bars.

When beginning, I wouldnt want to much rear rotation as it could be skittish in high speed turns. I ran RS4s and they had good wear and grip, but were fairly noisy at low speed particularly.
 
G

GIACUser

Master Wallet Mechanic
ChrisAttebery said:
That's good to know about the toe. I'm sure I can handle it. I thought I could have the alignment guy mark the plates for street vs track (or use the scale on the plates). Toe would be a little more involved. Maybe written instructions (shorten X turn for track).

I'm running Pilot Sport A/S 3+. I know that they are not the best tires for the track, but they have plenty of grip on the street. Before I go out and buy a set of track tires I'd like to get the most out of these. I was only using the outer half of the tires. Next summer I'll need new tires and can pick something a little more aggressive.
Click to expand...

If you are daily driving 18K miles a year you are definately going to need a seperate set of track wheels/tires. Streetable track tire is soft and wears quickly, not something you would want to drive on daily (unless cost is no object). With some track time plus 18K miles of daily driving you might go through 2 sets of them in a year.
 
jay745

jay745

What Would Glenn Danzig Do
K

kyoo

Go Kart Newbie
went with vorshlags. new wheels and tires, and rsb are also coming for me!
 
R

R^2

Ready to race!
I’m starting to push my DD R more towards the spirited weekend at the track. I don’t do half the miles you do in a year. I’ve been running the new PS4S tires after I destroyed my last set of PSS. I just had the SupAloy aluminum lower control arm kit installed along with a few other mods (pendulum mount / unibrace ub) and the can feels more rigid, and connected to the road. Much less flex, better turn in. Something to look at.
 
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