[khcoaching]

Update -

After consulting with a few contacts in the suspension industry, we concluded that the front sway bar might be binding, giving me the stiff feeling I had been feeling. The mounting between the DSSV and Mag Ride is pretty close, so this just maybe a function of the SS and ZLE bars being a bit different. So, I ordered some BMR adjustable links and yes, the stock links are about 15mm longer, which would have preloaded the bar somewhat. Enough to care a bind? Not sure....I installed these with zero preload and I won't know if they worked until we get back on track.

This will also make it much easier to corner balance when I get around to it.



I also ordered a new set of 3Rs for a day coming up later next week...

[khcoaching]

Amazing deal and quick shipping from member @kiknbak on the car cover!

[khcoaching]

#9 Ridge Motorsport Park July 13th 2022

Without Chicane 1:45.93 -

This is the first time in all the days with the car I didn't go faster....kind of. I had multiple optimal laps quite a bit quicker than my PB (45.61) but I never could quite out it all together. Part of it was - me. I was focused more on the car than my driving and when trying to extract the last tenth, you have to have your shit together and I wasn't as focused on my driving to make that happen. It was also pretty warm. 30degree hotter than lat timer and much hotter track surface. Many of the other driver complained of a greasy slow track.

The goal of the day was to see if the new sway bar settings made any difference, along with having a fresh set f 3Rs. Quick notes and video below -

- New 3Rs are sketch. Not so much in grip, but how much the car move around the first 3-4 laps on acceleration and on the brakes....Yikes. 2nd session was the best and hot pressure 32psi. I did experiment with a lower rear pressure for more grip and that didn't work.

- Turn in was less crisp

- The car moved around a lot less in the middle of the corner and overall, even ever to drive. This led to me having more confidence on the brakes.

- Mid corner speed was down, but data shows substantially more mid corner Lat G...weird.
I hate being passed. There were 4 Porsche GT cars practicing for the race weekend and it is insane how good they are.

-This is my second set of 3Rs and I think the is about as good as I will go on them. Time to try something new.

- I'll dig into the data a bit more and post something up that is relevant.

[cdb95z28]

What are your cold pressures on the 3Rs? Edit: Because you have such great feedback, I re-read your previous posts and saw why you ran 23psi cold. The GM spec of 26 psi is too low, IMO. For one, there are drivers who go out and run super hard on laps 1 & 2. This doesn't help the shoulder wear. I usually started mine higher at 30 and don't run 7/10s or more right off the bat. GM targets a 32psi min/max 35 psi hot so you're at least on the bottom of the target. Of course all this varies with track and session length, ambients, driving style, etc.

When I ran 26 psi early in my 3R use, I hated the squishy sidewall feel of the early laps. Sure, for some guys, they are comfortable with that. But why should I stay uncomfortable? I thought, why not bump it up to get away from the soft sidewall feel? It should stress the tire less in the long run anyway. It's not like the heat won't come to them for max grip. I still had time within a session to run full tilt with max grip and improve my lap times.

Just some random thoughts form someone with a lot less track experience that yourself. Thanks for the great thread!

[khcoaching]

Originally Posted by cdb95z28

What are your cold pressures on the 3Rs? Edit: Because you have such great feedback, I re-read your previous posts and saw why you ran 23psi cold. The GM spec of 26 psi is too low, IMO. For one, there are drivers who go out and run super hard on laps 1 & 2. This doesn't help the shoulder wear. I usually started mine higher at 30 and don't run 7/10s or more right off the bat. GM targets a 32psi min/max 35 psi hot so you're at least on the bottom of the target. Of course all this varies with track and session length, ambients, driving style, etc.

When I ran 26 psi early in my 3R use, I hated the squishy sidewall feel of the early laps. Sure, for some guys, they are comfortable with that. But why should I stay uncomfortable? I thought, why not bump it up to get away from the soft sidewall feel? It should stress the tire less in the long run anyway. It's not like the heat won't come to them for max grip. I still had time within a session to run full tilt with max grip and improve my lap times.

Just some random thoughts form someone with a lot less track experience that yourself. Thanks for the great thread!

I target 32H and if I start at 25cold, I am easily in the 35-36 range after 5-6 hot laps. Typically at 22-23cold, I'm 32-33Hot.

I did try some experimenting with pressures at the end of the day yesterday when grip was low to try something. I went 31H in the rear and it wan't good, much less side grip. I bumped it up to 33H and it was better, but times were slower. Yeah, I don't know many people that run a high pace with the 3Rs that I can talk to that are local. My gut feeling is that there isn't a lot more with them. That said, I think I will continue with them on my 19" wheels to use as test reference since I have so much data on them.

Edit - tire wear is actually quite even. I need a little more camber in the front and less in the rear, but very close.

Ken

[khcoaching]

A few shots from last weeks session!

[khcoaching]

#10 Ridge Motorsport Park July 22nd 2022

Without Chicane 1:45.13 -


OK, NOW we are getting somewhere. My complaint last time out the car losing grip mid corner and me thinking the 3Rs were at the limit. Since the current set of 3Rs still had another half a day left in them, I wanted to make a change, while using the same set of tires....I felt the next step was swaybars, the question was softer or stiffer? I ended up going stiffer, installing the Hotchkis front and BMR rear bar as suggested many times here on the forum.

Installation wasn't horrible. The front was actually pretty easy and the hardest part was snaking the rear bar out because of changing them on the ground....no lift sucks. I ended up installing both in the #2 hole.

My plan was to try them at a track day where my son was going to do his first day, but I had a last min notice for a day where the weather was cool and hopefully minimum signups. The day was lightly attended, but the speed disparity was pretty high and I only drove 3 sessions, as I met my goal and the chance of getting a clean lap was low because the A/B run groups were combined. First lap I immediately noticed a difference with the car sharper mid corner. As the tires warmed up, the second thing I noticed was a big increase in rear side grip, especially when driving off a corner. Awesome so far! First session I matched my PB and I needed to think about how to drive the car a bit differently to take advantage of new setup.

The new setup offered much more mid corner and exit grip, so I needed to be very deliberate with my braking, as not to carry too much brake pressure, too deeply. Once I figured that out, times dropped and I was able to consistently run under my PB and then hit a 45.13, getting slightly held up. (I saw multiple 44.8s and 44.9s, but never got a clean lap.)
I ended after 2 30 minute sessions (3 runs) as I was cording one tire, brakes were getting low and I wanted to save them for tomorrow.

Overall, This was the change I have been looking for and no doubt with fresh tires we are in the mid 44s. (For reference, at the Global Time Attack last weekend, the Street class was won with a 44.69 in a very prepped Supra with a great driver)

Last time difference. (Blue is swaybars) Note - I changed may line in T3-T5 as what I was doing was adding risk)




Lateral G difference - (Blue is swaybars)



Edit -

I think the biggest difference is being able to run at near PB pace on worn tires, on demand, instead of having my hair on fire the entire time.

[cdb95z28]

Nice!!!

[khcoaching]

#11 Ridge Motorsport Park July 23rd 2022

With Chicane 1:52.01 -

So......I wasn't planning on any hard lapping today, as this day was about taking my son to his first ever trackday and he was going to driving the Camaro. He did great and and he now needs to work a lot of overtime to be able to afford a track car!

When I was driving home from the track on the 22nd, I though the car lagged a little bit of crispness on turn-in, like there was a delay. When I got home, I added 2 turns of front swaybar preload and left the car as is. The tires were pretty worn, but with my son driving most of the day, I didn't worry about it. We also were running the chicane, so I wan't too jacked up about running any laps.

I did a few laps at pace, and the difference in the swaybar preload was spot on, eliminating the dead spot as I turned in and also helped the car steer down to the slow point. Feel wise, this was a major improvement. I booted my son and did 2 short sessions at pace and the data is pretty clear on how much the sway bars have helped, I was .7 faster on smoked tires compared to new tires, tire wear looks better and the car is a joy to drive.

Here is a data graph from my last Chicane session on new 3Rs....The ability to run T1 flat was gobsmacking, I'm on the rev limiter in 3rd and the car just flat hooks. (Blue is today's run)




When looking for my last chicane session, I ran across a graph with the car all stock using the chicane.....holy crap, what a difference. (Blue is today's run)



I'm not sure when I'll be driving next, as I'm on the east coast for a couple of months and the car needs a full service...

Ken

[khcoaching]

More updates while cleaning up from the last couple of days.....

Consumables - (full size pics)

1- Front Girodisc rotors have 4 outings on them. I say outings as I rarely do a full day. These are also the same pads I originally put on these rotors so overall I am happy with the wear, considering most of the pace has been hard.



2- Since adding the sway bars, the tire wear is quite a bit more even, which is a nice surprise. These tires now have 2.5 days on them and wore better than the last set which corded at the same mileage.

[khcoaching]

A few shots from the weekend.....

[eimarshall]

WOW!! Cool tire lift shot at the top of the ridge!!

What line are you running in T3-T5 now? I've always gone cone to cone on 3-4 and then only drifted to mid track or maybe 2/3rds between 4-5. I lift throttle going into 4 but then squeeze it back after the drop and let it push me outside after 5. Your previous videos show a similar line(I think)

[khcoaching]

The line 3-5 hasn’t changed much, instead I changed how I use the throttle. I roll of earlier down to 4, but not all the way, then have a much more gradual throttle build out of 4-5, instead of being more aggressive on-off-on from what I was doing.

Ken

[Briland_1LE]

Originally Posted by khcoaching

Minor update -

My wife is needing our truck this week and I have work for the next 5 day so.....on went the stock wheels and tires for my short commute...I'm pretty surprised that the ride quality with the DSSV, pretty darn good and IMO, not really that much different the than MagRide in track mode.

I stopped and took a couple of shots while in the road today.....

Can you send the link for that lip deflector you have on the front wheel well. I really like that.