Questions for those who use their car as a multipurpose tool (Street & Track)

[Sky Render]

Smoking crack. The only way to adjust the pinion angle with the stock driveshaft is to raise/lower the chassis mount for the torque arm (obvious issues with clearance to the driveshaft and exhaust) or shim the differential mounting points. All adjusting the length of the LCA's would do is increase/decrease the wheelbase. Filip actually recommends shimming the transmission and going to a 1 piece driveshaft if you want to fine tune the pinion angle since it is significantly easier that way.

You actually can adjust pinion angle by using adjustable-length LCAs. I don't like doing that, though, as it screws with the wheelbase.

 

[Whiskey11]

You actually can adjust pinion angle by using adjustable-length LCAs. I don't like doing that, though, as it screws with the wheelbase.

Not with a torque arm you can't, which is what he was asking!

 

[Sky Render]

Not with a torque arm you can't, which is what he was asking!

Oh. OH. Yeah, I had to think about that for a minute.

 

[2008 V6]

Hello,

I'm curious to hear about the process used by those who drive their car on the street, often, and also hit the track (with turns) while maintaining their suspension settings for each occasion.

Please post your experiences...Thanks

The advantages of a S197 is the interior size. If you don’t have a trailer (Sold my setup years ago) and want to drive to the track, this is what I fit –

2- stock tires – incase of scenic tour causing flats
Arcan aluminum floor jack not the greatest but price was right
4 jack stands
20” x 9” x 9.5” steel tool box – Everything needed to disassemble the car + A LOT MORE weighs a ton
Torque wrench
50 cal ammo box W/12 volt electric tire pump & Long Acre air gauge & flat tire repair kit
SCT Tuner to read codes
Caster camber gauge

(2) 13” x 19” x 11” plastic boxes with –
Gorilla duct tape – the fix all + safety wire
My electrical kit
Good Infrared laser
3 cans of Brake cleaner
2 rolls of paper towels
Lota cotton towels
Hand cleaner
Box of 5mm Nitrel gloves
Spare front & rear brake pads
Spare oil
Spare brake fluid & recovery bottle
(2) 2” x 6” x 18” pieces of wood one side beveled – drive over tire blocks
Stethoscope for sound identification
Note book
Camera
Cable & pad lock to make sure things don’t walk away
Electric impact gun – walked away need new one

2 gallons of distilled water also drinking water

16’ x 16’ fold up canopy
(2) fold up comfortable chairs
(2) driver bags
(1) Over night bag
Hat
Passenger
Ice chest –
Beer - OHHHHHHHHH my god

Many other things I didn’t think of off the top of my head.

What I do –
Load car with crap, drive to track, unload crap, set up crap, adjust camber, install tow hooks, beat car, have beer, rotate tires, re-set camber, remove tow hooks, load crap, drive home, unload crap, give car to wife to drive to work for next morning. Next night night, swap brake pads, wash car.
If I had a trailer – Drive car onto trailer, drive car off of trailer, set up crap, beat car, have beer, load car onto trailer, put away crap, drive home, back trailer into garage, un-hook, go to bed. Just bought tow vehicle - Trailer next.

 

[2013DIBGT]

Now that's some dedication there

Would love to see a pic sometime of the thing all loaded up. A clown car if you will; but with "stuff" instead of clowns! I'll be sure to keep friendly with a man wielding a Stethoscope at the track cause chances are he's come prepared

 

[csamsh]

Before the fixed seats, all this would go in the car and leave the front seat open for a passenger, with no tetris-like packing skills required.

 

[2013DIBGT]

Impressive! Do the wheels go across the back seat or they jam into the truck also?

With that junk in the trunk do you tell everyone you hit the switch

 

[csamsh]

three went in the back seat, one in the spare well, leaving most of the trunk free for whatever else

 

[Bob]

Oh, putting the fourth tire in the spare well is a good idea, I'm glad you mentioned that.

I've got MM camber plates, and I adjust them trackside. I put a piece of masking tape on the top of each plate so that I could put markings for different camber settings. It seems to work well enough.

 

[2008 V6]

Now that's some dedication there

Would love to see a pic sometime of the thing all loaded up. A clown car if you will; but with "stuff" instead of clowns! I'll be sure to keep friendly with a man wielding a Stethoscope at the track cause chances are he's come prepared

Actually fits with no problem with room to spare. I left out one of the biggest items – 3.5’ x 5’ x 2.5” section of an old work out pad that I lay on while working on the vehicle. – Fold it in half and it slides over everything in the trunk - No back seat, roll bar or dedicated race seats and the things we carry in the back seat area should not hit us incase of a collision to or from the track. Our car now is just a training vehicle but still costly to operate. The total expenses including cost of in the vehicle today is approximately $21,500.00 not including consumables or my labor. That cost should drop when I sell off a few parts. Way too much and would have been cheaper to buy some one else’s vehicle already finished but I it was a learning curve for my wife / hopefully co-driver in the future + a daily drive so she can practice foot work.

1 track day costs me –
Entry fee only HPDE - $70.00 to $210.00 per driver
Brakes – prox $100.00
Tires – Prox $150 – Street tires 6 – 10 weekends + street time
Travel expense – varies
Weekend – Hotel room varies
Track entrance fee - $10.00 - $30.00
I’m not working - 1day loss -


My fun time maintenance – I’m not working $$$ and don’t trust many people to work on my car. A mishap at any speed is not desirable.

So when I am able to get to the track and something goes wrong, I will fix it to continue. Whether body damage or mechanical + I would prefer to drive it home.
With a dedicated tow rig I can carry, spare trans parts, rotors – the list is long. When I was dedicated – many years ago, we had enough to rebuild our entire car and then some. Too much of a loss to just go home.

 

[2Fass240us]

Would love to see a pic sometime of the thing all loaded up. A clown car if you will; but with "stuff" instead of clowns!

I'm getting a tire trailer and adding a hitch this offseason, or maybe before I hit VIR in September. Cramming all this sh*t is a PITA, and won't work as well after a rollbar and fixed-backs.

 

[2008 V6]

++1 - A tire tailer is much easier to store.

I’m considering an open trailer even though I don’t want one. I can make a hydraulic tilt that will connect to the side of the trailer to stand the trailer on its side. The hydraulic tilt will be mounted to an H-beam bolted to the ground (I have to redo my driveway anyway so poring a thicker slab where necessary is no problem. I can push the trailer on the tract and store it next to my garage & not loose much space. Where I live might be a problem with codes - Kalifornia. More research necessary but anyone can steel my idea if they want

 

[sheizasosay]

I'm getting a tire trailer and adding a hitch this offseason, or maybe before I hit VIR in September. Cramming all this sh*t is a PITA, and won't work as well after a rollbar and fixed-backs.

Those look like Goodyear Eagle GS-D3's. That your track tires or daily? That was my last set of tires before the RE-11s.

 

[2Fass240us]

Those look like Goodyear Eagle GS-D3's. That your track tires or daily? That was my last set of tires before the RE-11s.

not sure, but I can look; they're in "cold storage" in my crawlspace.

They came on stock wheels when I bought the car. I take a pair as emergency spares, and normally run 18x10 CF-5 with Conti ExtremeContact DW 295/35-18 on all 4 corners. They do very well as a dual-duty setup.

 

[sheizasosay]

No need to crawl up there. They are GS-D3's.

 

[2Fass240us]

No need to crawl up there. They are GS-D3's.

It's walk-in yo.

gotcha

 

[mitch]

My old setup... A little off topic, more about trailers.... and hauling junk...
I didnt really do much "prep" as this was not my DD.
I kept tire pressure lower, like 25-28psi, aired up the tires, turned suspension to full stiff, checked fluids, thats about it.

But a small trailer really is the way to go. This was the Harbor Freight 4x8 folding trailer. It really has a small foot print when folded and stored.

 

[2008 V6]

My old setup... A little off topic, more about trailers.... and hauling junk...
I didnt really do much "prep" as this was not my DD.
I kept tire pressure lower, like 25-28psi, aired up the tires, turned suspension to full stiff, checked fluids, thats about it.

But a small trailer really is the way to go. This was the Harbor Freight 4x8 folding trailer. It really has a small foot print when folded and stored.

Looks good - pit bike & all -
Those little tires must be spinning -
How choppy is your drive when towing? -

 

[Vorshlag-Fair]

Good advice in this thread, as usual. Just to back up what others have said...

For a true dual purpose car (and that's what I've raced for the majority of the past 27 years) that is a daily driver + autocross and/or track car, you can and probably should adjust the following between street and race modes (once you have invested in the parts that allow these adjustments):

1. Tires and wheels. Even on 200 treadwear street tire classes, semi-serious competitors will have a separate set of wheels and tires for autocross or track use. Why? Heat cycles. Every time a tire gets warm then cools off that "ages" the tire rubber, so minimizing heat cycles is always a good idea. And nothing - no single other change - is as important to lowering your times than your TIRES.

Sure, some folks will drive to and from the race event on their 140-200 treadwear tires, and that's fine - just don't pound on them daily driving and not expect the tires to slow down with the hundreds of heat cycles you put on a street car every month. And once you are in "race mode" your tire pressures will likely need adjustment as well, compared to street mode (I typically run lower tire pressures on the street, to improve ride quality)

2. Shock settings. Again, even semi-serious track or autocross nuts will move quickly to adjustable dampers. Even single adjustables will ride better with a "street" setting vs a "race" setting. If you can't tell the difference your shocks are blown or they are cheap junk that aren't doing anything.

3. Front camber. At least with our camber plates a track-side camber adjustment is easy and fast. Since the S197 chassis is "front steer", as you add negative camber for racing it automatically adds toe out at the same time. If you plan ahead with your alignment shop and mark two settings, street and race, you can have the toe settings optimized for each as well. For street you want zero total front toe, to even a hair of toe in (1/16" total). For track you want a bit of toe out, say 1/8" or even 3/16" total. Then when you make the 2+ degree camber swing for race use it toes out the car by the amount you want, so you don't have to jack with resetting your toe each time (which is a PITA).

For most folks, that have adjustable shocks and camber plates (that you can actually adjust easily - which is a small number of models) that's enough. If you are trying to stave off the inevitable switch to a truck/trailer (and as we've said many times - true racers eventually end up daily driving in a tow vehicle/truck), do yourself the favor of these added steps. This minimal amount of work before and after your event will save tire wear on the street AND track as well as make for a more comfortable ride in your daily driver.

As for dragging your race tires to the track, you can stick them in the back seat and trunk but it gets cramped in a hurry. Personally I've had a close call in a panic stop (near accident) on the way to an even with 200+ pounds of loose wheels and tires in my backseat. Realize how much momentum there is in a 50+ pound wheel and tire just sitting in your back seat... add 20-30g deceleration to the car and where is that wheel going to go? Right through your seat and break your back. And let me tell you - that isn't fun.

For someone dedicated enough to drag a separate set of wheels, tires, jack and tools to a track/autocross event the extra cost of a tire trailer is not that much more. Sure, you have to add a trailer hitch (15 or so pounds) and then you have to store the tire trailer, but the added comfort inside the car and SAFETY during a crash while hauling your wheels/tires is immeasurable.

Think about your safety. I'm doing a lot more of that lately.

Cheers,

 

[2013DIBGT]

Thanks for all the info folks, its been very helpful