Thanks for the tip on tyre pressures mike, I will give it a go on the next outing, I did start high and worked down to 28. With regards to the wheels, they look good but I am thinking about jumping to 17" wheels as it seems easier to find slicks for 17" wheel sizes (ex touring car tyres), for some reason I found that alot of the track tyres miss 16" wheel sizes.
in running 17" wheels on my vr6 track car ,looked at slicks ie ex bttc ones etc and they are all to high in the profile .im running 8x17 celica gt4 wheels and 215 40 17 tyres are the biggest i can go with standard ish rear arches . i may be wrong but all the ones i looked at were to big and would rub on the body
Thanks for the info, its hard trying to find the right balance, 15" are cheaper tyres and give a better final drive but they don't have the stance of a nice big rim, 16" look better but the tyre choice is limited and 17" look great but its getting them to fit. did you need to change the centre bore on you celica alloys? Are they et35 offset? I noticed your car on piston heads a while ago, did you sell it?
no not sold it decided to keep going just put a full set of eibach arb,s on it today lol. yes they are et35 came with spigot rings ,gives a nice stance but getting it to sit low is a task
Thanks for that marmite monster, I'm Seriously thinking about the wheels from pascals eBay link, didnt really want black but they look like a bargain. Or the other option is there are some 15" slicks available that would save me worrying about what wheel sizes would fit, I can just go and get some more vr6 alloys for them and I have two sets of wheels. The 15" alloys just don't look as good but it is only a track car!
17" wheels work well if you reduce the final drive in the gear box and cut away the arches to allow for slicks ,also you can run big brake kits . i found 280/288 mm standard brakes were fine for track day sessions lasting 15mins they only started to fade on the last 2 laps . for open pit lane sessions when you stay out a bit longer something like the lcr brembos etc work awesome .
I have decided I'm not going to take the gearbox out unless I have too, ie if the clutch gives out, then I would do the final drive while I had it out. I find my brakes work really well, they get hot but don't fade, I manage to out brake a lot of people into corners. I tend to only stay out for 15-20 mins anyway, better to still have a working car at the end of the day! I have seen to many people burn there car up in the morning to take an early trip home.
What annoying summer weather we are having! I have been itching to work on the car and today I seized the chance when it stopped raining and the sun came out. Managed to fit the new 6-point TRS harness, replacing the LUKE 3 point harness. I obviously needed 3 more fixing points and I also moved the inner anchor point to the middle exhaust tunnel while I had the seat out. New Middle anchor point inside And under the car Two points bolted through the floor under the seat And under the car One new point added in the rear, Bolted through wheel arch Seat Back in and straps in place Under the seat Side points Rear Points Feels alot more secure than the old LUKE harness, looking forward to the next track day.
Donington Track Day 10/08/2012 with Focused Events Booked my next track day today with Focused events, 139 for an open pitlane at Donington GP!! Its a special offer price for 48hrs, it was 189! Check it out if your interested. http://www.focusedevents.com/car_event_info.asp?ID=355
Foot plate installed today... And I also added some mesh to the air intakes on the headlights so that they no longer just look like missing lights. Also back on with the indicators and fogs.
An eventful last track day at donington, the abs light stayed on, me thinking it was only something minor and would sort its self after a good drive went thundering off into a corner only to find my rear brakes locking and blue smoke from my tyres behind me, luckily no offs just required a little less pace and being easier on the brakes! So me thinking it's a relay phoned the local vw dealer in leicester, yes we have one in stock they said... Urm no! An hour round trip to find out its the wrong relay they supplied! Any way, wasn't going to waiste another hour taking it back, added it to the spares box, god know what it does, it didn't match any relay in my car! Back home wheels off, I borrowed a mates computer that told me both my rear wheel sensors were not working. Vw dealer price 110 each, gsf price 21 each with free delivery! Taking out one of the sensors one of the retaining bolts broke, off with the stub axle! Joy! Removed the old bolt and got new ones for both sides and replaced the bolts for the stub axle I removed. While I have the brakes off I'm taking the oportunity to change the pads, got some black diamond predator fast track pads, they have a higher temperature range than the ebc pads. Next job is fitting them and turning off the abs light with the computer.
Track Day at Donington 15/10/2012 Haven't updated this in a while so thought i would post the latest video from Donington on the 15th October. I was pretty gutted as i got a Go Pro 2 camera, first time out with it and i left it on in the bag, nice flat battery by the time a realised...DOH! below is what i managed to record using a Flip Video camera, Had a bit of fun with a Focus RS, I seem to find them every time i go out. [video=youtube;bPgGUnSYXAw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPgGUnSYXAw[/video] I also have some slicks now! looking forward to trying them out.
Day out at Rockingham on Sunday, first outing on slicks. Now lots of people have told me 'make sure you get some heat in them for a few laps before gunning it' and I'd say 'yeh yeh i know'. Well, I did give them a few laps to warm but I now fully understand what people were saying, it was like driving on ice for the first lap!!! anyway no mishaps but when they are hot they are sticky! excellent grip and you can push harder for longer that track tyres. Managed to get a video uploaded too, using my new Go Pro, this was the first outing of the day on the Toyo R1R's not the slicks. Enjoy! [video=youtube;zp9o2cNKX1w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp9o2cNKX1w[/video]
