- Keeping the stock wheels and tires?! This is the NUMBER ONE big giant huge track time upgrade and was TOTALLY missed! I won't even try to sell a swaybar to an S197 track customer without getting them off the boat anchor stock wheels and craptastic and skinny Pirelli tires.
- Removing 14" Brembo calipers and rotors for... 14" Wilwood calipers and rotors? WTF? That is a huge expense for a minimal (or non-existent) "upgrade". It might be "ones of pounds" lighter, but they left the 30+ pound stock wheels in place, so losing weight couldn't have been a goal.
- Did they do any front brake cooling? What brake pads? Fluid?
- A big honking Torque Arm added to a S197 with proper 3-link rear suspensions, for track use ...???
- What spring rates did they use? What were those camber plates that took 2 people to install? What alignment settings did they get to? Swaybar sizes?
There was just about a total lack of data. It seemed more like a commerical for things one shop likes to sell to people, and not necessarily the best parts they could offer for big track upgrades. It was by no means a technical review of anything. Hugely wasted opportunity, and if I was Cortex I'd be pissed...
I'm with you on the "lack of data" being nuts but at the end of the day this video isn't for us, it's for folks who don't really care about that. If I were Filip, I'd be pretty irked about that as ultimately he makes parts for racecars and lap times matter A LOT.
That said, it's positive media which helps advertise the company. As for the driving one handed, a lot of that looks to me like it was done on cooldown/warmup laps at like 1/3rd the pace.
1.) Agreed on the wheels/tires... maybe they didn't want the impressions to be impacted by anything but the suspension components.
2.) Unsprung weight and braking torque is probably different than the Brembo setup. No idea if they did the rears too or just the front. Seems like that money could have spent elsewhere for better performance, like, you know, the wheels/tires.
3.) Probably not, no idea and no idea. I'm sure they used the Wilwood mixed track/street pads with some decent fluids though.
4.) Yup, welcome to Cortex Racing. Filip has explained it to me multiple times the reason why he prefers the Torque Arm to the 3 link setup and it boils down to getting on the throttle earlier because of the higher %AS without the added effects of roll steer associated with LCA relocation brackets and steep LCA angles. Not sure I fully understand how adding a torque arm puts more stress on the rear brakes considering what a torque arm does on braking but I think they spliced that soundbyte together during editing. At any rate, I've driven an S197 with a torque arm and it's quite different from the 3 link setup. It's easier for me to comprehend how to drive the car (point and shoot, basically) whereas someone with about as many years on track and in autocross as I've been alive, I can understand how the simpler torque arm setup isn't needed to extract 10/10ths out of the car. Frankly, I quite enjoy the car with the TA more than I did with the 3 link, but I'm confined to some wonky rules.
The other thing to consider is that he has obviously done the suspension analysis to determine what effects he wants in his car setups. I know he has the CAD files for the S197 suspension so the next step is a full on analysis and fine tuning the setups through the computer. There is obviously something in a TA setup that he likes better than a 3 link setup. There are obviously things you like about a 3 link setup and hate about a TA setup.
5.) Can't tell on the spring rates, I've never discussed them with Filip because I knew what I wanted from my car and where to go with my own rates. Judging by the body roll up front and out back I'd be shocked if it was more than 450lbs/in in the front and 225lbs/in the rear. On the final turn you can see how much more negative camber that car needed though... still plenty of body roll. That said, it doesn't matter if the driver says it doesn't matter!
Camber plates look like the MM camber plates with the Cortex logo instead of the MM logo. Looks like they pulled them apart to do the install. Generally MM's rubber band method works pretty well from what I've seen. Get them in, start tightening screws, cut the band, finish tightening and be done. They chose to do it the harder way. By the same token, there are shots where it looks distinctly like a set of modified GC plates. The ears that hold the bolts in place are VERY Ground Control but GC's race plates don't look like that for the S197 so I have no idea.
Bars look like Eibach's bars.
Anyway, Filip is a pretty laid back guy. He relies a lot on customers to spread the word about his product and that is working for him right now.
