TaylorGT's AutoX Progress Thread

[TaylorGT]

Figured I'd start a new thread for updates with the car's new direction. This was my old thread, now that I've been able to hang around the forums and ask questions, read through threads, and educate myself a bit more on suspension componants I feel like I have a much clearer direction of where I want to take this car.

For the short term, everything I do to this car will be directed towards Autocross. I may still try an HPDE but thats a slim chance right now for a number of reasons. My original plans were spoiled when I relocated out of state for work and found out my wife was pregnant at the same time. Between the healthcare bills and moving expenses our savings took a big hit and along with that so did my opportunity to start this year off at any track. Where I've relocated to, I found out just lost its Autocross venue due to a number of non SCCA/NASA car clubs coming out and allowing "anyone and everyone" on the track people started drifting and jumping curbs. Now the owners have removed automotive events all together and limited the track to only karting events. Any track days or autocross I attend are going to be 2.5-3 hours away minimum.

Anyways, time for the good stuff.

I'm registering for a NASA-X event down in St. Louis on July 19th with GatewayAutox.com. This will be a baseline event for the car since it hasn't been out on the new setup. If I understand the rules correctly, my car will be running in the NXB class. I was 1 point shy of needing to be classed up to NXA. I'm not sure how I'll like NASA vs SCCA but I can say my car fits better into classes in NASA atleast competitvely. Because of my FRPP World Challenge Splitter and a few other suspension mods I have a hard time understanding where I need to go in SCCA and I don't want to be in CAM-C.

The car will be undergoing suspension changes soon. I'm ripping out the H&R Supers Sports, Koni dampers, and Steeda HD strut mounts for a set of ST XTA Coilovers. Then hopefully before winter I can get some Brembo or StopTech brakes on the car (Front & Rear). I'm not sure what else to do with my suspension at this point. Between the C/O's, PHB, UCA, LCA w/ Relos, there's a few stiffening componants I could grab and maybe some upgraded sway bars. I don't think a-arms are with the dollar at this point. Thoughts welcome, or no one can post at all. Its whatever. I just plan to update this thread with pics and videos as things progress. I chose this forum to do it because it seems to have the best corner carving participation.

 

[Mark Aubele]

Ground Control sells a coilover conversion for those Konis. If you run their well built but hideously hard to adjust (seriously, you have to unbolt the plate from the strut tower and drop it down to get to the Allen screws) camber plates they add an inch of bump travel. They couldn't tell me that but switching from the MM plates to these I gained a full inch of bump travel.

 

[TaylorGT]

Ground Control sells a coilover conversion for those Konis. If you run their well built but hideously hard to adjust (seriously, you have to unbolt the plate from the strut tower and drop it down to get to the Allen screws) camber plates they add an inch of bump travel. They couldn't tell me that but switching from the MM plates to these I gained a full inch of bump travel.

I had the Koni STR.T's and they are junk. The ST Suspension XTAs will do the trick, they are essentially the KW V1s branded under ST Suspensions.

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I forgot to update as well some of the other plans. Since my first ever, and last, event the car has had a few changes. Primarily with the intake/tune and LCAs/relocation brackets. I also sold the Forgestars (huge regret) for some 20x9/10 Avant Garde M310s. The plan was to have these for daily driving and to get a set of 18x9.5 GT500s from my dad's 09 GT500 for AutoX use. He decided to keep his wheels, so my next option is to go with 18x10 SVE drifts. Right now, I cant decide if I want to do the drifts, or hold out out for hte Vorshlag spec 18x11 F14s. For now, I'm going to race on these DUBs (lol).

I also plan on getting a brake cooling setup and TrakSpec Motorsport vents for the hood when I can but I imagine I won't have funds left after my brakes for next season.

Last Race (Derkes Autoworks Autox Day @ TNT Kartways):



Install: Ford Racing World Challenge Splitter, LUND Tune, Steeda 101mm CAI:


Spring Cleaning 2 by Taylor Hockman, on Flickr

Current State:
Park Shoot by Taylor Hockman, on Flickr

 

[SlowJim]

I have the Steeda intake as well. I noticed it was getting heat soaked to the point where I could probably fry an egg on it after just normal city driving.

So I picked up some of this inexpensive adhesive heat wrap and it dropped my IATs quite a bit. The entire intake is cool to the touch even after 20min HPDE sessions.

Amazon.com: DEI 010462 Reflect-A-Cool 24" x 24" Radiant Heat Barrier: Automotive@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51qjeqNgDHL.@@AMEPARAM@@51qjeqNgDHL

 

[TaylorGT]

I have the Steeda intake as well. I noticed it was getting heat soaked to the point where I could probably fry an egg on it after just normal city driving.

So I picked up some of this inexpensive adhesive heat wrap and it dropped my IATs quite a bit. The entire intake is cool to the touch even after 20min HPDE sessions.

Amazon.com: DEI 010462 Reflect-A-Cool 24" x 24" Radiant Heat Barrier: Automotive

I've noticed the same, do you have photo of how it looks in the engine bay? Just curious.

 

[SlowJim]

Yep, you can barely tell it's there. But I wrapped the whole bottom of the airbox, that's what made the most difference because it is very close to the factory exhaust manifold.

Ignore the brown crud on the strut towers, it's some kind of rust protection the original owner had put on.

 

[Boaisy]

Was your Steeda MAF housing the polished one, or the cast one? Mine is the cast version, and it kinda saddens me cause the polished one would look soooo much better.

Polished:

Cast:

 

[SlowJim]

Polished. It wasn't as shiny as in the pic though. I guess 3-4 years of road grime dulled the finish

 

[TaylorGT]

I have the polished one as well. So you didn't waste any time wrapping the plastic tube which is what I was curious about

 

[SlowJim]

Nah it doesn't get very hot at all.

 

[Boaisy]

I wonder if at some point there was some benefit with Steeda choosing one finish over the other. It isn't something Steeda had as an option, it just came that way. All of a sudden, you see more of them with a polished look over the cast. I bought mine around 2012, so not sure when the polished ones started coming out.

 

[SlowJim]

I think they changed the diameter as well somewhere along the line

 

[Boaisy]

I know they had two different sizes when I bought it, and I bought the bigger of the two, the 101mm. I think the other was same as stock (92mm?).

 

[TaylorGT]

The ST Suspension XTA Coil Overs came in last night. Looked over them and red the set-up/instructions. Really impressed with the build quality on these. I was planning on going with cheaper BC Racing CO's but I've heard so many great things about the BC XTAs as they are comparable to Ground Controls. Hopefully they will be going on the car tonight. I have reached out to the local track thats stopped allowing events and asked for a private tresting session to dial in the suspension, so we will see how that goes.

STXTA_1 by Taylor Hockman, on Flickr

 

[TaylorGT]

6.28.15 Update

Got the ST Suspensions XTA coilovers installed today. Man what a difference. I can't believe I ever lived with the horrible ride I had with the H&R Super Sports with Koni STR.T front struts and stock rears. This is night and day. This was also the first time I've done a suspension install myself. The build quality of these coilovers is fantastic.

The install went great. We had an issue with a cross threaded bolt where the caliper, a-arm, and strut meet. Luckily my brother had a spare sitting at his house so we were able to move forward.

The rears are adjusted all they way down and still sits higher than my H&Rs which as me scratching my head a bit. I figured it would be entirely too low, but I have a bout a full two finger gap.

The front on the other hand really has me wondering whats going on. I figured seeing the coilovers perfectly matching wouldn't get me an event drop but what I ended up having was what I consider completely different adjustments to get a level drop. The passenger side is nearly all the way down with a single visible coil on the adjustment sleeve. The driver side is half way up the adjustment sleeve with 6 remaining coils. That sits both fenders 26.4" off the ground. Pics below.

Any input welcome.

Function > Form. Alignment comes tomorrow and then I plan to dial in the stiffness. Currently I'm two clicks off full soft all around, and it rides great on the street. Some junk photos from my phone:

 

[Norm Peterson]

Did you happen to have the sta-bars fully connected while you were trying to make your adjustments? Particularly the front one.

How close to level was the area you were setting up on?


Norm

 

[TaylorGT]

Did you happen to have the sta-bars fully connected while you were trying to make your adjustments? Particularly the front one.

How close to level was the area you were setting up on?

Norm

The garage was level, tthe sta-bars were connected at the time of adjustment. I will say my H&R Super Sports set higher on the passenger side as well. I was thinking last night when I installed my Roush side skirts I noticed the passenger side had a 2013-14 skirt installed (there's a difference beetween 11-12 and 13/14 in the rear mount/mud flap). I'm wondering between that and this issue if the car had been in a wreck. The carfax was clear....

 

[Boaisy]

Your rocker panels both look 11-12 from the looks of the pictures. The 11-12's had an indent starting at the doors going towards the back of the car.

The 13-14's were painted and didn't have that indent.

 

[TaylorGT]

Your rocker panels both look 11-12 from the looks of the pictures. The 11-12's had an indent starting at the doors going towards the back of the car.

The 13-14's were painted and didn't have that indent.

Huh I didn't know that.

When I was installing mine, the roush instructions said there would be an additional piece to trim off the 13/14 side skirts in the rear. My driver side install went as planned, but the passenger side had the weird mud flap thing near the rear that the roush instructions said were a 13/14 trim peice. I suppose its possible their instructions were misleading.

So I guess I don't have anything to blame it on.

 

[Norm Peterson]

The garage was level, tthe sta-bars were connected at the time of adjustment. I will say my H&R Super Sports set higher on the passenger side as well. I was thinking last night when I installed my Roush side skirts I noticed the passenger side had a 2013-14 skirt installed (there's a difference beetween 11-12 and 13/14 in the rear mount/mud flap). I'm wondering between that and this issue if the car had been in a wreck. The carfax was clear....

You can't accurately set C/O's with the bars connected - you'll nearly always end up with the bar stiffnesses fighting your spring adjustments without a lot of chassis height changes occurring (and you may keep turning things until they're way out of symmetry). Disconnect the bars, reset the spring heights, and re-connect the bars. You'll want adjustable endlinks so that they can be fitted with zero preload (and won't change corner weights or ride heights).

Ideally, you do the spring adjusting with cornerweighting scales and balance the corner weights as good as possible rather than match suspension heights.

Not sure what you'd shoot for if the chassis is 'tweaked' a bit.


Norm