neema
forum member
Recently I did an HPDE at Laguna Seca and I have some observations to share and have some questions. Rather than making a thread for every mod, event I attend, or observation I make, I'll consolidate everything into one log to document the changes I've made to the car and their measured and unmeasured effects. Feel free to contribute with your comments or questions and laptimes (if you have them). I figured this belongs in the corner carver forum mostly because my aim is to improve handling characteristics of the car/driver. The rest of the mods are to support the bad habit.
Just to give some background, I still consider myself green at track events, but I've quickly outgrown the beginner/intermediate groups and look for intermediate/advanced point-by groups.
The car's current setup is seen below:
Suspension:
KW Clubsports (530/350 lb springs; 12.75"/13.5" fender to hub ride height)
ST sway bars (front: adjustable--set to soft; rear non-adjustable)
Maximum Motorsports rod-end aluminum panhard bar
Steeda ball joints
Wheels/Tires/Brakes:
Enkei PF01 18x10.5 et 38 with 1/4" spacers up front
Nitto NT01 305/35/18
Stoptech ST60 Trophy w/ 380mm rotors
Stoptech braided brake lines
Carbotech XP12/XP10 pads
ATE Superblue fluid
Engine/Exhaust:
Airaid intake
Magnaflow catted X-pipe
Magnaflow axlebacks
Cooltech Oil cooler
Fluidyne Radiator
Extras:
Cooltech tow hooks
GT500/Boss differential cover (taller breather)
CS Front valance with brake ducts
Tiger Racing hood
Cobra Jet grille (aka california special grille that's trimmed)
This was my first time trying out a proper "track" pad. The last event I had at Laguna seca resulted in gnarly pad deposits on the front rotors and serious steering shimmy everytime I was on the brakes. That combined with a soft brake pedal led me to alternate between "on" and "off" laps and kind of annoyed me (since the session was only 25 minutes long).
That said, I wanted to prepare the car to withstand a whole session of proper driving without having to soft pedal or back off. What I didn't like is that I changed most of these parts the day before the track event (all at once), so there was a lot that could go wrong. Knock on wood, everything was okay.
First things first, the brakes. I went with stoptechs for 4 reasons: I could get them at a good price, track pads are pretty cheap (XP12s are ~$225), they come with great floating 2 piece rotors, and they are mounted farther inboard than the OEM 4 and 6 piston brembos (they offer more axial clearance between the face of the wheel and caliper). I noticed immediately that the carbotechs have more bite than my stoptech street pads, even when cold. sure, they'll probably wear the rotors quicker and make noise, but that's just a side note. On track, they had a stronger initial bite than the stock brembo setup and for a longer period of time (aka it took them a while to go "soft"), almost all the way until the end of a session. I STILL managed to get a soft pedal and some steering shimmy under braking toward the end of the day, so maybe I need to drive around on the pads while cold and see if I can scrape off any pad deposits. I doubt I've warped the rotors. Maybe I'm braking too long/not hard enough???
Another side note: these calipers are pieces of art. They're machined compared to the standard ST60 caliper and are deceptively light. I should have weighed the setup, but I would feel confident in saying the 15" rotor and bigger 6 piston caliper are lighter or at least the same weight as the stock 14" brembo setup.
Next is the Cooltech oil cooler. I have no oil/coolant gauges in my car, so I'm completely in the dark regarding whether temperatures and pressures are good, but I like to use the whole powerband, so I assumed the worst. I've read claims that temperatures rise precipitously in the upper rpm band with this motor, so I wanted to slap a solution on and not worry about it working hard. I realized the Cooltech setup costs more than both the water-oil Boss cooler and the FRP oil cooler, but I wanted the low pressure-drop Setrab cooler, a thermostat, and greater efficacy than the OEM Boss setup. Installation was straight forward, but I took my time. The only time I felt in the dark during the install was when tightening the Moroso oil relocation adapter to the block. I figured that oil filters are installed hand-tight, so I didn't kill it when screwing it on. No leaks so far and it hasn't moved yet, so hopefully it's okay. I used the powerband all the way up to redline since there are a few spots I was figuring out that were "between shifts" on track.
I felt dumb for installing 5w-20 (Mobil 1) oil in the car again, but it's what I had at the time. Next time around, I'll go with at least a 5w-30, especially since it's near 100°+ almost all summer where I live. What's nice is being able to run an extra ~1.5 quarts of oil with the cooler. I ran even a little more oil to make sure there's something there for the sump to pick up on a hard corner, so the car had just under 10 quarts in it. Good for long oil change intervals!
To go with the oil cooler, I swooped on the old Fluidyne 2-core radiator blowout they were having ($250 for a big burly radiator!) and threw that in. Might as well, no? The stock radiator looks like a puny A/C condenser, so anything is an improvement. To tie things together, I installed a cobra jet grille (wide open) and Tiger Racing hood so the extra air has an outlet.
The enkeis are nothing new on these cars.. Many people have ran them and that's why I went with them. If the car was slammed in the back, there may be some rubbing issues with vertical compression, but I don't have my car super low, so I didn't have any problems all weekend. I wish I had a scale, because they were noticeably lighter than any other wheel/tire combo I've had on my car, even with heavy 31lb 305/35 NT01s.
Tire pressures were at 33 psi cold and about 38-40 psi hot. They felt pretty good to me and the car finally showed some signs of neutral understeer. Didn't have time to heat cycle them and I didn't want to shave them, so we'll see how they last. Temps were relatively even across the width of the tire, but some pictures indicate I could use more camber (I ran 2.1°). The tire size is brand spankin new, and I think it works well for mustang fitment. Just trim the swaybar endlink stud about 5mm-7mm, buy some billet spacers, and you're good to go. The pic below is pre-spacer.
Behavior of the car was pretty good. I did a crappy job of bedding in the pads (I probably didn't slow down enough) and couldn't get them to "green" fade. Any advice on this? After speaking with a friend who is a BMW club racer, he said to ease into the pads on each corner, progressing from a moderate to a very hard pressure over a period of 2-3 laps, then bedding in is done. Maybe I should try this next time.
Still, I was braking too early in most parts of the track and couldn't get my braking points down. I've noticed that the car takes more pedal input than others (Miata, BMWs) to get the same level of braking, even with race pads. Anyone else have the same concern? This is both with Brembos and the stoptechs, although the stoptechs feel firmer in the pedal (both use braided lines)
The tires definitely slow the car better than my 285/35/20 R888s did, but that's probably due to the lighter wheels and more aggressive pads. The car was comfortable with corner entry, but would wag it's tail out a couple times on hard corner exit. I presume this can be cured with some relocating brackets and stiffer bushings on the rear axle? It felt almost as if compliance in stock bushings were making it step out and come back in. If I could solve this issue, corner exit would be awesome. Maybe I can dial out compression in the rear.
That said, I consistently got 3-4 seconds quicker per lap on average. My quickest lap with Brembos on 19's with 285 Kumho XS tires was a 1:45.4. This was an outlier--I must have nailed the line and braking points and had a no-traffic lap. With the new brakes/wheels/tires, the quickest was a sloppy 1:43.8. Most laps were 1:44-1:45 There's still a ton of room for improvement with braking.
Next outing will be August 25! I'll have pics up from the last event soon. GoPro died after the first session, so nothing to show from inside the car unfortunately
Just to give some background, I still consider myself green at track events, but I've quickly outgrown the beginner/intermediate groups and look for intermediate/advanced point-by groups.
The car's current setup is seen below:
Suspension:
KW Clubsports (530/350 lb springs; 12.75"/13.5" fender to hub ride height)
ST sway bars (front: adjustable--set to soft; rear non-adjustable)
Maximum Motorsports rod-end aluminum panhard bar
Steeda ball joints
Wheels/Tires/Brakes:
Enkei PF01 18x10.5 et 38 with 1/4" spacers up front
Nitto NT01 305/35/18
Stoptech ST60 Trophy w/ 380mm rotors
Stoptech braided brake lines
Carbotech XP12/XP10 pads
ATE Superblue fluid
Engine/Exhaust:
Airaid intake
Magnaflow catted X-pipe
Magnaflow axlebacks
Cooltech Oil cooler
Fluidyne Radiator
Extras:
Cooltech tow hooks
GT500/Boss differential cover (taller breather)
CS Front valance with brake ducts
Tiger Racing hood
Cobra Jet grille (aka california special grille that's trimmed)
This was my first time trying out a proper "track" pad. The last event I had at Laguna seca resulted in gnarly pad deposits on the front rotors and serious steering shimmy everytime I was on the brakes. That combined with a soft brake pedal led me to alternate between "on" and "off" laps and kind of annoyed me (since the session was only 25 minutes long).
That said, I wanted to prepare the car to withstand a whole session of proper driving without having to soft pedal or back off. What I didn't like is that I changed most of these parts the day before the track event (all at once), so there was a lot that could go wrong. Knock on wood, everything was okay.
First things first, the brakes. I went with stoptechs for 4 reasons: I could get them at a good price, track pads are pretty cheap (XP12s are ~$225), they come with great floating 2 piece rotors, and they are mounted farther inboard than the OEM 4 and 6 piston brembos (they offer more axial clearance between the face of the wheel and caliper). I noticed immediately that the carbotechs have more bite than my stoptech street pads, even when cold. sure, they'll probably wear the rotors quicker and make noise, but that's just a side note. On track, they had a stronger initial bite than the stock brembo setup and for a longer period of time (aka it took them a while to go "soft"), almost all the way until the end of a session. I STILL managed to get a soft pedal and some steering shimmy under braking toward the end of the day, so maybe I need to drive around on the pads while cold and see if I can scrape off any pad deposits. I doubt I've warped the rotors. Maybe I'm braking too long/not hard enough???
Another side note: these calipers are pieces of art. They're machined compared to the standard ST60 caliper and are deceptively light. I should have weighed the setup, but I would feel confident in saying the 15" rotor and bigger 6 piston caliper are lighter or at least the same weight as the stock 14" brembo setup.
Next is the Cooltech oil cooler. I have no oil/coolant gauges in my car, so I'm completely in the dark regarding whether temperatures and pressures are good, but I like to use the whole powerband, so I assumed the worst. I've read claims that temperatures rise precipitously in the upper rpm band with this motor, so I wanted to slap a solution on and not worry about it working hard. I realized the Cooltech setup costs more than both the water-oil Boss cooler and the FRP oil cooler, but I wanted the low pressure-drop Setrab cooler, a thermostat, and greater efficacy than the OEM Boss setup. Installation was straight forward, but I took my time. The only time I felt in the dark during the install was when tightening the Moroso oil relocation adapter to the block. I figured that oil filters are installed hand-tight, so I didn't kill it when screwing it on. No leaks so far and it hasn't moved yet, so hopefully it's okay. I used the powerband all the way up to redline since there are a few spots I was figuring out that were "between shifts" on track.
I felt dumb for installing 5w-20 (Mobil 1) oil in the car again, but it's what I had at the time. Next time around, I'll go with at least a 5w-30, especially since it's near 100°+ almost all summer where I live. What's nice is being able to run an extra ~1.5 quarts of oil with the cooler. I ran even a little more oil to make sure there's something there for the sump to pick up on a hard corner, so the car had just under 10 quarts in it. Good for long oil change intervals!
To go with the oil cooler, I swooped on the old Fluidyne 2-core radiator blowout they were having ($250 for a big burly radiator!) and threw that in. Might as well, no? The stock radiator looks like a puny A/C condenser, so anything is an improvement. To tie things together, I installed a cobra jet grille (wide open) and Tiger Racing hood so the extra air has an outlet.
The enkeis are nothing new on these cars.. Many people have ran them and that's why I went with them. If the car was slammed in the back, there may be some rubbing issues with vertical compression, but I don't have my car super low, so I didn't have any problems all weekend. I wish I had a scale, because they were noticeably lighter than any other wheel/tire combo I've had on my car, even with heavy 31lb 305/35 NT01s.
Tire pressures were at 33 psi cold and about 38-40 psi hot. They felt pretty good to me and the car finally showed some signs of neutral understeer. Didn't have time to heat cycle them and I didn't want to shave them, so we'll see how they last. Temps were relatively even across the width of the tire, but some pictures indicate I could use more camber (I ran 2.1°). The tire size is brand spankin new, and I think it works well for mustang fitment. Just trim the swaybar endlink stud about 5mm-7mm, buy some billet spacers, and you're good to go. The pic below is pre-spacer.
Behavior of the car was pretty good. I did a crappy job of bedding in the pads (I probably didn't slow down enough) and couldn't get them to "green" fade. Any advice on this? After speaking with a friend who is a BMW club racer, he said to ease into the pads on each corner, progressing from a moderate to a very hard pressure over a period of 2-3 laps, then bedding in is done. Maybe I should try this next time.
Still, I was braking too early in most parts of the track and couldn't get my braking points down. I've noticed that the car takes more pedal input than others (Miata, BMWs) to get the same level of braking, even with race pads. Anyone else have the same concern? This is both with Brembos and the stoptechs, although the stoptechs feel firmer in the pedal (both use braided lines)
The tires definitely slow the car better than my 285/35/20 R888s did, but that's probably due to the lighter wheels and more aggressive pads. The car was comfortable with corner entry, but would wag it's tail out a couple times on hard corner exit. I presume this can be cured with some relocating brackets and stiffer bushings on the rear axle? It felt almost as if compliance in stock bushings were making it step out and come back in. If I could solve this issue, corner exit would be awesome. Maybe I can dial out compression in the rear.
That said, I consistently got 3-4 seconds quicker per lap on average. My quickest lap with Brembos on 19's with 285 Kumho XS tires was a 1:45.4. This was an outlier--I must have nailed the line and braking points and had a no-traffic lap. With the new brakes/wheels/tires, the quickest was a sloppy 1:43.8. Most laps were 1:44-1:45 There's still a ton of room for improvement with braking.
Next outing will be August 25! I'll have pics up from the last event soon. GoPro died after the first session, so nothing to show from inside the car unfortunately
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