911

Too tempting!
Roy thought the car went really well, but seemed a bit too 'big' compared to his EVO 5, but he hasn't driven an EVO 8 either...cars just get a bigger with the years.

The hard edge to it was really nice, would love to drive a 2.5 (especially in the Spec C form) as I can't help feeling this is the way forward for next yesr in my Sti.

Thanks for the offer...I might just 'drop-in'

Graham.

911

The battle was long and hard with the EVO.
Came second in class but the car was great.
The sispension delivered the confidence to push very hard and gave me the best time for the track and start; 47.74 sec and a 2.03 sec start to cover the 64 feet from a standing start, as good as 1 G of accelleration.

The car ran flat and stable, so I am sure there is more to come.
The EVO ran a string of 46.2/46.3 runs so i have some work to do!

Some pics to amuse you:

Steady at 7500 rpm in 3rd:
#
Just getting out of a sweeping left bend, harder than it seems.
The EVO in the same spot, just 6 mph faster.


And at 80 mph thinking about the hairpin left that is j u s t out of frame to the right..


Just so nice..

And again..


The tyres are suffering now, just look at the fronts..


This little car ran a 48.98 sec run..


The paddock and the class:


finally, the one to take home..



Graham.

911

This might work:
http://media.putfile.com/26239

Never done that before!
This is the approach into the dreaded Esses at Prescott. Entry is flatout in third and hard on the brakes/changedown.

AST's doing the business
Told you those springs were better.

Thanks to Matt!

Graham

matttyevo

No prob ...did you see what tyres Roy in the Evo was using was it theYoko'sAVS or was he on class 1b tyres..?

ozzy

At last, some track footage

911

Yes, video sure changes things!
The car almost looks quick (big almost).
Roy is on the very latest Dunlop Formula 1B's.
His time was quicker than any car in the class above, inc the TVR/Audi/Morgan V8 (a special one) and they were on slicks and all that.

Graham.

matttyevo

As in Dunlop doj1..? or the new version thats just out...?

Matt

911

The very new one. He has had them on now for about 4 weeks.
That car/driver combi is a tough one to crack.
Roy has the resources for anything.
He says it is 400bhp now on a smaller turbo.

Not sure but I think he runs race fuel.

I'm a bad looser..

Graham

matttyevo

no thats the old 3037s 475/500bhp he has on, I have heard and seen the clip from the weekend and if he is using race fuel you should smell it ....

Matt

Dyney

After seeing that clip I'm not so sure I want a go

Mark A

iTrader: (1)

Nice line!!

I'm with Dyney, not much room for error

Think I'll stick to sprinting on tracks

911

Wimps.
Only 9 (that's 9) cars crashed in the esses yeaterday, never seen so much grief in one spot; bang crash and wollop (= $$$$$$$),one car (an A35!) ended up on its roof too.

The entry is a bitch to sort-out and if you just overdoit so to speak , splat, and into the bank/bounce/armco/to rest. Early bath time.

Get it right though (by going a little slower) and it is a great buzz, but the corner after the video finishes is another story...

Don't you just LOVE hillclimbing!

Graham

vulnax999

iTrader: (7)

You do, apparently!

In the video Graham, were you {near} locked up on brakes as you came on screen / out of last corner, as there was a squeel as if screeching tyres?

Very good around that 90 left though!!

911

ABS came on and stayed on!
Yes, I do love the game, the challenge and the 'danger' of clipping a tree/barrier/armco etc or just getting away with it.
Once I tried too hard in the 911 and a 200 year old tree jumped out into my path and hit me!
911 was 1.5 inches shorter one side than the other after impact.
It took 13.5 tonnes to pull it out on the jig.

Wish i knew how to do the video bit.
Makes the threads a bit more interesting.

Graham.

Matthew

Graham
You look well in control in that video, but those trees look awfully close.

Out of interest what did you do about the lack of bumpstops on the AVOs?

Matthew

911

I'm a bit embarassed to say I don't know what is in the units, but I expect them to be the conical ones supplied with the struts from AST.
Thus the units do have stops. The car is not lowered that much from stock, about 20mm down which leaves the driveshafts about right, not too angled.

The ride height is set purely at a level so I can get my trolley jack under the front and rear of the car to change wheels at the meetings! (just so technical!)

As to the track, those are the trees that are FAR AWAY....then sometimes the obsticles do actually move...my local track is in a deer forest, and I've had a spooked deer running along side me once..

Graham.

Carlos13

Hope you don't mind me posting this here Graham, seems a more pertinent place than starting a thread on the suspension forum.

I have recently had a number of mods done to the car, ASTs with track (50/40) springs, 22mm rear ARB (middle setting), front & rear droplinks, Noltec front topmounts, various ancillaries and the Whiteline "race" geometry settings dialled in.

My car, a MY99 UK classic saloon, is mainly a weekend/track car and I have been doing some testing with various settings on my favourite local B road. Other contributory factors to my findings are new Yoko Parada tyres (17") and new AP 6 pots. I also have just fitted a 6pt bolt in rollcage, Cobra bucket seats (whilst I'm not sure these will affect the handling too much, they certainly affect the feel of the car).

My most important point is that the car is still an under steerer at the limit. It is much more neutral to the limit, and a lift will cause the rear end to come round slightly, which is nice as it causes the front to turn in sharper. At a certain point though, it does have a tendency to go straight on. I do feel that this is at a much higher speed than previously though!

I have been playing with the damper settings a little and can see little difference in the available grip from hard to soft. These need further research on track (am at Cadwell this friday on the MLR day, will be running R888s if dry) but I am surprised at how comfortable the car is, even at max hardness (the dampers, not me ). I have settled at the moment for max at the front, 2 clicks from max at the rear. This is what I'll start with on friday.

Another interesting point is that the APs completely overwhelm the Paradas. Full on and the tyres are locking, saved only by the ABS, but quite a bit of screeching. This didn't happen with the Scoob 4 pots! The Paradas do seem to be quite good, particularly at £65 per corner

Anyway that is all, no real point to the above, just a brain dump really.

911

Nice to hear other 'AST' owner's exploits!
Interesting you call the 50/40 rates track, as i now see 60/50 as track.
You have the same damping settings on 50/40 as I have on 60/50!
As to the understeer, I do not get any...fast/slow/driving like a pratt (normal) the car just gets on with it.
I cannot remember when I last had understeer!!!

Should add I now run 26 psi allround from the 31 I ran till mid this season.
You may (carefully) want to experiment with this?

Good luck on the track.
Graham.

911

I'm off on holiday for 2 weeks from tomorrow.
Off the Monte Carlo to
a Win a lot of dosh for the Xmas mods
b Win the heart of the Wife to find the dosh for the winter mods
c To think about something else than work and the Sti
d To give my 2 finger typing skills a rest

See you all soon.

Happy motoring.

Graham.

Carlos13

"Track" settings - this is (/was) powerstations definition - 50/40 for track, 40/30 for road, for classics at least. IIRC if you as for "Track" spec you get the 50/40s...well at least you used to.

My pressures are 34/32 I think - this is what TSL put into the tyres on saturday morning. I did wonder if the pressures might affect things, will do some more testing tonight if I can swing it with the steering committee.

R888s make all the difference, on the roads at least, since to get them to unstick in the dry takes rather more courage than I have.

911

Carlos:
Back from hols now so checking emails/ebay!

Going to the 60/50 is all part of the experimentation with PowerStation.
I have just 2 more hill climbs left before the season closes formally, so want to understand as much as i can about the feel of the car and the 60/50's.
The last race is at my Club's own track and i know the hill very well indeed and last raced there recently on the 50/40 combo, so will be interesting.

I think pressures can affect tyres markedly if the side walls are 'weak' or tall.
My Kumho's are 16 x 45 x 205 so are very narrow wll height, but for the short hill climbs, the lower pressures allow the tyre tread area to warm-up very quickly compared to 32/32 I used to run.

Graham.

DaveW

Well increasing the ride height on my car has helped a bit. Still bottoms out slightly and means I have to be drive on bumpy roads at a speed the suspension can cope with. Happy for the moment and I'll leave it as it is for the time being.

Dave.

Carlos13

Had mine set at max softness recently just to try it out. I was driving along a very bumpy but straight Fenland road and the damping was not well controlled at all - bottomed out a few times coming out of dips. Currently set to 7/5 from soft, seems a good combination.

At Cadwell the car was very good. Fiddled with the settings, didn't seem to make much noticeable difference from 8-12 front or rear, guess I am not pushing hard enough. One thing I did notice is that the R888s last much longer before overheating. Before I would get 4-5 fast laps then have to come in. At Cadwell I could do 7-8 which I put down to the suspension set up - I think the weight transfer is handled much better and the tyres are being stressed less and in a different way. I was disappointed though that I was still being pasted by Evos. More power needed! (or a decent driver)

One thing, I have a nasty-sounding clang coming from the offside front going over bumps at very low speed, disappears as you speed up. Also, only one of the dampers adjusters actually "clicks" when you change the setting. The others just go stiff at the "click point". This makes it a bit difficult to judge the exact setting.

911

I found 7/12 and 5/12 on the 50/40 springs a nice setting for all conditions, including road.
The 'click' definition is a bit woolly on 2 of my dampers and very well defined on the other two. This is not a problem, just needs a bit of feel to count the positions which i don't change much anyway.

As to catching EVO's: Keep at it, you can get close just keep trying!

Graham

Aztec Performance Ltd

iTrader: (234)

Graham: Did you ever get to the bottom of the idle problem? Am having the similar probs with mine.


Bob

DaveW

I running 7F/5R on 40/30 springs, and both my rear adjusters are a bit woolly.

You could almost do with in car adjustment (like Tein) for full soft in town and increased rates as the speeds increase. Wonder if the EDFC would fit the AST's?

Dave.

911

Dave:
Active damping! Would be interesting, but i think the Tein system has a simple turn adjustment rather than indexed like AST's, I can't see the stepper motors coping with click only radial indexing.

Bob:
The tickover is still strange but I live with it now. Can you pop over to my original Engine mod thread in projects for a description?

Graham.

DaveW

Graham,

I suppose it would depend on if you could configure the controller, to move the motor the correct amount for each click. Since I assume the distance between clicks is the same.

Only useful for road use though, doubt you'd see any benefit in competition, especially on hillclimbs

Dave.

Floyd

iTrader: (9)

Dave, I agree with the EDFC idea. I've been thinking about this too and I can't see why you can't calibrate the system to cope. Does anyone know how many turns you get on Teins?

I ran fully soft for a day out with the family and it was acceptably comfortable. Only a slight springyness marred the ride quality. Usual road spec for my 40/30's are 3/2 but I've used 9/8 to good effect on the Ring. I'll see how this goes before I try 60/40 springs ala Docjoc

I want to wind mine up 5mm to clear speed humps as they have fully settled now. What's the best way to do this accurately? I hope I don't need a realignment???

F

911

Change of ride height will technically change the toe more than camber, but I am not sure that you will really notice as taking that the car was set-up empty, then you could (race) run it with additional people or on hols with 4 up and baggage will probably do the same or worse to ride height!

You might feel the change on a track out there on your own.

Graham.