Drag racer headed to Sebring!

[one eyed willy]

Soooo....

My car has always been set up for drag racing, no front sway bar,extreme anti drag bar in the rear.koni yellow with ground control coil overs. I had to remove the front sway bar mounts on the Koni to install the coil over kit. Also had to hack off the rear sway bar mounts to clear the 15" drag wheels.

I've done a few auto-x and loved them, car had way too much oversteer, go figure!

I won a weekend trip to Sebring thru my local car club, all paid for. So I'm going to need to convert my car back to having sway bars! I think I still have the stock struts/springs and front sway bar. I put my stock rear sway bar on my wife's V6 so I think I'll need a new rear sway and some relocation brackets for it.

So here are the questions...

1) stock springs/struts and sway bars any good?

2) if I wanted to upgrade from these stock componants what should be the order of importance?

3) wheels and tires? Is there a best bang for the buck?

I'm excited to go, I know I need to convert the car over...I only have 2 months to do it!

 

[JEWC_Motorsports]

You can use the whiteline bar on the rear. It doesn't use the stock axle mount.

 

[Full_Tilt]

So are you going to put a sway bar back on the front? If not, lol

Do you know if you will be on the short course or long course?

Best general tip I can give for sebring is learn to LATE APEX. There are quite a few late apex turns on the long course (3, 5, 7, and 10 off the top of my head, maybe the last corner too)

 

[one eyed willy]

Depending on funds .... My plan is to put the stock sway bar back on in the front with stock struts if needed. I'm looking into getting another set of coil overs that I can use for both, just not sure if I would have them here in time. Course is a little under 3 miles long. I know I need the sway bars for this , just only having 2 months to prepare is my issue so I need to prioritize what I do. Worst case all the stock stuff goes on.

 

[lito]

Suggestion, take all the power you can, out, for two reasons, one is learn to drive the car and not to be too worried on losing traction and all so you can learn the line, do not try to be fast at the beginning, just hit your marks and speed will come.

At the other reason, is heat, it will absolutely get really hot and completely heat soaked with the boost you are used to, no matter what you have seen and tested in the street. So to make it last longer (the car and you enjoying it, learning the lines and how move all the weight it has), less power, less heat, more fun.

 

[one eyed willy]

Thanx, I've been debating dropping down to a 8# spring anyway. Heat has been a big concern!

 

[Premium08]

Watch Tokyo drift.. that will teach you all you need to know.........

 

[one eyed willy]

So I'm suppose to crash into the viper? Ok, sounds easy enough!

 

[frank s]

Watch Tokyo drift.. that will teach you all you need to know.........

Good advice. (Sarcasm symbol goes here).

Rent a Boss 302, Laguna Seca preferred. All that stuff you are going to take off and put on your own car is going to result in diminished monetary and personal resources, and at your experience level you won't be able to tell in a one-shot Sebring deal, if it's worthwhile or not.

After track-flogging someone else's car for a while you'll have a little perspective on what Mr Ford's engineers think a track-y car should behave like, and be able to decide if you really want a twisty-track car. Then you'll have a no-deadline project (or no project at all).

 

[Premium08]

So I'm suppose to crash into the viper? Ok, sounds easy enough!

 

[one eyed willy]

Good advice. (Sarcasm symbol goes here).

Rent a Boss 302, Laguna Seca preferred. All that stuff you are going to take off and put on your own car is going to result in diminished monetary and personal resources, and at your experience level you won't be able to tell in a one-shot Sebring deal, if it's worthwhile or not.

After track-flogging someone else's car for a while you'll have a little perspective on what Mr Ford's engineers think a track-y car should behave like, and be able to decide if you really want a twisty-track car. Then you'll have a no-deadline project (or no project at all).

This was another option i was thinking from day 1 when i found out about the trip. Im still thinking about it. Not sure if they rent Boss's or not, but im sure i could find a 5.0 atleast.

 

[Sky Render]

You can use the whiteline bar on the rear. It doesn't use the stock axle mount.

Yep, you can easily run 10" wide tires with the Whiteline rear bar. You can see how far in the sway bar sits:

 

[Norm Peterson]

Depending on funds .... My plan is to put the stock sway bar back on in the front with stock struts if needed. I'm looking into getting another set of coil overs that I can use for both, just not sure if I would have them here in time. Course is a little under 3 miles long. I know I need the sway bars for this , just only having 2 months to prepare is my issue so I need to prioritize what I do. Worst case all the stock stuff goes on.

Especially if your stock stuff doesn't have very many miles on them, that's likely to be your best bet under the time constraints and given that this will be your first track day. The Whiteline rear bar set full soft would be a reasonable mod back there, though it'd probably be a better match to Whiteline's front bar than to the OE. Stay on true street tires, even your OE's if you still have them. You get better warning than you do with R-compounds or even the better "Street Touring" or "Road Tire" autocross rubber.

Give yourself a little seat time with the car in more of a road course configuration than it's been in, so you'll better know how it's going to behave. As you can expect from your autocross experience, it's going to drive differently and it's worth getting used to.

Having those autocrosses under your belt is a good thing.

Ditto on the "learn to late apex" thinking. Running out of pavement because you early-apex'ed badly enough is an excitement highlight you might rather pass on experiencing.

And agreed on dialing back the power as far as you possibly can. Learn how to drive the line correctly before you try to drive it fast. Having an "OMG AM I GOING TO GET THIS THING SLOWED DOWN ENOUGH" moment won't be conducive to getting through the upcoming corner(s) somewhere near right.


Above all, when you do go don't forget to have fun. Don't let yourself get distracted with fine tuning tasks (other than perhaps monitoring tire pressures) while the early "driver mod" stage is in progress.


Norm

 

[Norm Peterson]

Maybe take the time to watch a few videos lapping the course. Turn the sound off on any that insist on playing music instead of letting you listen to the car.

Here's one out of a race (and no, your track time should NOT get anywhere near as, umm, exciting as this does in a few places).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX3abLv3C8Q


Norm

 

[dennisafrompa]

Your biggist shortcoming on the track is going to be the brakes. Make sure you change brake fluid(so accumalated moisture is minimal) and try to direct some cooling to the front pads. Make sure pads are harder style for track use. Also run with traction control off, if you dare. If you don't do this you'll have very little braking after a lap or two if you drive and brake agressivley.

A good set of shocks (KONI ST) and larger sway bars help but the sway bars are not as important as dampers.

 

[Norm Peterson]

Dennis - Most times the bars would be further down the list, but in this specific case he needs to convert from a strictly drag-race no-front-bar/huge-rear-bar setup to something that's balanced at least halfway sane for cornering. Apparently it is not possible to re-fit the OE rear bar very conveniently due to the details of the dragstrip modification program, and even refitting the OE front bar requires that the OE struts and springs be returned to duty.


Norm

 

[DRock]

Your biggist shortcoming on the track is going to be the brakes. Make sure you change brake fluid(so accumalated moisture is minimal) and try to direct some cooling to the front pads. Make sure pads are harder style for track use. Also run with traction control off, if you dare. If you don't do this you'll have very little braking after a lap or two if you drive and brake agressivley.

A good set of shocks (KONI ST) and larger sway bars help but the sway bars are not as important as dampers.

This. Your going to light those brakes up on probably the 2nd lap. good luck and have fun.

 

[one eyed willy]

I know part of the day is spent with a instructor. My stock suspension has about 15k miles on it. I just changes all the fluids to the blue stuff. Ill probably buy a new radiator mount that has the provisions for the sway bar.

Thanx for the advise, it's been helpful.

 

[DRock]

ahh and keep an eye on your catch cans you wont believe how fast they will fill up on the road course verses everything else. Ahh and good brake fluid dont forget that.

 

[speedfreak1000]

Maybe take the time to watch a few videos lapping the course. Turn the sound off on any that insist on playing music instead of letting you listen to the car.

Here's one out of a race (and no, your track time should NOT get anywhere near as, umm, exciting as this does in a few places).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX3abLv3C8Q


Norm

this is off topic but after watching the video Forza 4 really nailed that track. on the game you even have the bumps in the last turn like you can see in the video.