JhnRX7's Weekend Track Toy Build
 

Well I have only recently discovered the true value of this forum and have been growing tired of all the BS on the other forum so I have decided to migrate over here and I am going to bring my build thread with me.

The old thread was really long, so I will just let most of the pictures do the talking this time...


The car:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4117/...fbe39896_b.jpg


Oil cooler install and ducting:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4083/...6baf452c_b.jpg

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http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5084/...e9045744_z.jpg

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http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4131/...efeda131_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4124/...22180af4_b.jpg

Stance Coilovers:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5137/...1bb44393_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5095/...2f45459c_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5052/...df04c96c_b.jpg


Superpro + OEM Bushings:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5215/...45a43610_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5292/...0d861fba_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5054/...13f88c17_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5219/...6b6cd44a_b.jpg

Brake Caliper Rebuild:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5295/...2150dcf3_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5137/...ff8abf79_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5132/...b2bf31a7_b.jpg

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http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5095/...e98eae4f_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5175/...544cfbac_b.jpg



Endless Competition Brake Pads:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5182/...9153e4c2_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5301/...ab7575a8_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5069/...f5b452d8_b.jpg


Endless Street Pads in rear:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1389/...8ed37bb0_b.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1154/...846c19e1_b.jpg

New wheels with Advan AD08 tires 255's all 4 corners:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5051/...486efc04_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5097/...751c55b2_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5019/...d296e0d4_b.jpg

Weds all powdercoated getting shipped back to me right now :D:D:D:D

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5029/...bed6c61b_b.jpg

And finally some shots from my first time on track back in October before all these mods... the source of the addiction!


http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1363/...1266c5f7_b.jpg

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Photobomb complete! Thats all for now, I promise :lol:

NICE BUILD THREAD!! Car looks awesome in person too!

Welcome to the forum & great looking car BTW.

Looks good. just out of curiosity, what color code is that, aura blue mica? Seeing the brake rebuilt kit reminds me of how much of a pain in the ass it was to get the new seals to seat with the piston and caliper correctly lol

awesome build. I am hard and wet at the same time!

haha thanks guys. The color is Electron Blue Metallic from a Corvette. Im looking forward to getting it back on the track for the first time this year... especially after taking it through the Dragon and feeling the new setup.

Welcome John! Glad to see you over here

Yes it does, John was kind enough to lift her skirt for me, car is BEAUTIFUL and VERY well put together. All the little details are incredible, and there is definately a function over form but form is still VERY important theme. He beat me to the brake ducting though, exactely what I was thinking about doing.

Hey John as everyone said the car looks great in person. It was nice to meet you. Can't wait to see those Weds on there. It sucks that the powdercoater jerked you around. I loved the AD08's and stances on the dragon. Unbelievable grip. What settings were you running your dampers at on the dragon?

^this.

The AD08 and Stances were truly amazing. Exceeded my expectations by far.

I have 12k F and 10k R spring rates. I had the dampers set at 9F 8R clicks from full soft. I had initially started the weekend a little softer, but bumped them up a bit to counter-act some rubbing in the front.

It felt like the rear had a bit too much roll compared to the front, so I want to swap in a '93 sway bar (a bit stiffer than the 94's) to see how that helps.

Did you design your own twin oil cooler installation? I don't see any expensive SS lines and AN fittings--bling bling that gets covered up anyway.

I like what you have done - if you made it do you mind sharing the what you did?

The kit is a SakeBomb Garage oil cooler kit. Their 25 row track version. They have the option of using Aeroquip hose, braided nylon hose or SS braided hose. I went with the aeroquip to save a little bit of $$ and plus I absolutely HATE SS braided lines with a passion.

It comes with a Mocal thermostat, and all (bling bling) Mocal fittings to mate to a pair of fancy Setrab oil coolers. I really love the mocal fittings because they are black/grey unlike the ugly (IMO) red/blue fittings.

I used the same fittings and hose for my fuel system as well (but in -6).

New alignment settings... take a look at how bad the front camber was :eek: The rear toe was not much better. However this was after i had dropped my front subframe and pulled all the suspension arms to replace the bushings and installed new toe links.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5308/...3017e71b_z.jpg



Also got the rear fenders rolled with help from Scrub.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5027/...18b55f20_z.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5270/...1e81b737_z.jpg

Should clear my 18x10 +20 rears.

really nice build and welcome!

Nice job with the fender roller. Did you have any problem with paint cracking? I might have to shoot Dan a message see about borrowing that, as you saw the horrible rubbing I was getting on the drivers side :lol:

your car looks immaculate. i like it a lot!
bad ass shot!

The driver side went great, but we had issues with the passenger side. That whole quarter panel had been replaced before and the spot welds would not cooperate... one of them actually split causing a noticeable crack on the outside. It is not too bad though. I plan to have them flared slightly by a body shop over the winter.


Anyway, my Wedssports finally arrived!!! :party:


I will be getting them mounted on Friday and you can be sure that there will be plenty of pics ;)


Until then, here are some shots I took after a fresh washing to get rid of all the dirt from DGRR:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2634/...b2fb85bd_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2225/...3505d32f_b.jpg

I used to like the SS lines, then I tried to re-use some of the re-useable fittings and was reminded harshly why use marine guys don't mix SS and AL.... I've since redone everything with the Nomex stuff. Much easier to use, more attractive in my opinion, and lighter, etc etc etc... I'm actually about to test their limits in a vacuum situation.

Where are you finding black/grey fittings? I might not want to know becuase I may have to re-redo them all :rofl:

FUCK YES!

I want to see yours and Toms shots from DGRRXI yesterday!

Oh by the way John, how would you feel about a trip to CT June 23rd? I'll split a local hotel room with ya the night before?

http://www.cartct.com/time_trial.shtml

I remember you showing me that line. I thought you might have done some more rolling after DGRR.
Can't wait to see them!

very nice indeed!

Any idea if this event has noise restrictions? I know Lime Rock does that, but sometimes they lift the restriction. My car should be fine, but Dan's car is probably too loud with the open wastegates.

Shoot Dan a PM about the fittings. They use them in the Sakebomb kits and he gets extras for me when I need them.

:biggthumpup:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3151/...1d2ce927_b.jpg

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There will be plenty more pics coming soon :)

Loving those wheels. Very nice build overall though. Wow.

I know CART follows the good neighbor policy so Dan's open wastegates probably wouldn't fly. Your car would be fine though. CART does bring their own sound monitoring shit, lemme shoot them a PM and see what thier noise limits are for LimeRock. Does Dan know how loud his car is in SPL?

Cool! THanks.... I'll shoot him a PM about the fittings

-Brian

moar pics


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Wheels look great man. Fitment is spot on. Are you getting any rubbing at all?

Thanks. It rubs on the passenger rear slightly when I hit bumps. Turns out it is because I did not roll enough of the lip. I need to extend the roll from the 1:00 position to the 2:00 position.

Are those AD08's? How do you like them?

yep. Advan AD08 255's on all four corners. I absolutely LOVE them! I mounted them (on a different set of wheels) for the first time just before DGRR and I got to test them out on the Dragon. I was thoroughly impressed. The grip was unbelievable, but the best part is they are easy to drive at the limit. They let you know when you are getting too close and dont just let go on you.



Also, to update the thread a little...

This year's DGRR was a trial run to shake down the car before any track days. It was the first time I had a chance to really push the car since the winter build. The motor performed flawlessly, however I had not done much as far as engine related modifications. Just some tweaking to my maps.

The drive down gave me alot of time to test out PFC boost control. I got rid of my Greddy Profec B Spec-II and used the solenoid along with the PowerFC to control boost. I have the OEM fog light switch wired up as a Hi / Low boost switch. I love this, because I dont want my interior filled with excess gauges and gadgets. Anyway, I found that the PFC does a better job at controlling creep than the Profec did, however I got slightly better response with the Profec. I am currently am getting creep in the taller gears because I am trying to limit the boost to 10 psi and with the amount of air that my ported engine flows even the ported wastegate cannot keep up. Its fine though as I have tuned for the creep and I will be upgrading to a three bar map sensor in a week or two and turning up the boost.

On the roads leading up to the Dragon and the Dragon itself I got a chance to really test out the tires suspension and brakes. As I mentioned earlier, I was very impressed with the tires. However, what was just as impressive were the brakes. The stopping power was incredible and the modulation night and day improvement over my old Hawk HP+. The Hawks felt like I only had two pressures, on or off. These Endless ME22 Competition Pads really responded well to pedal input and I could really feel the threshold approaching and control it well.

On my first run of the Dragon I was on the brakes VERY hard the entire time and on the second to last turn I felt the pedal stiffen up and I started to loose bite. I parked the car at the turnaround spot (without ebrake applied) and let the car cool down. It appears that I overheated the rotors. I removed the pads when I got home and took pictures to send to the Endless tech. They informed me that there was no sign of the pad being overheated so it must have been the rotor. The dragon is particularly hard on brakes because you are hard on the brakes non-stop turn after turn without much cooling time between braking zones. Also it is relatively low speeds so my brake ducts would not have been providing much cooling unlike in a track environment when the car sees 90-100MPH between braking zones. In addition to the rotors overheating the first turn on the run back i found that the fluid had boiled while sitting and I had to pump them to bring the brakes back. I have since installed Ti backing plates to reduce the heat transfer through the pads to the pistons while sitting in the paddock. I also have some plans to provide some additional airflow to the brake ducts which i will post once I start working on it.

and another shameless picture of the car, because I love my new wheels so much :drool5:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2603/...8ee29a97_b.jpg

All you need now is one of my CF splitters.:coolgleamA:

Nice, I'm running the older AD07's on my car and they have really surprised me. Got them on a whim for $500 brand new, in 255/40/17. I may give the 08's a try when I go through these!

+1 for the AD08's. I was also running them at DGRR and was very impressed.

With track days coming up in June I got a hold of some AP temp paint so I can see what is really going on with my rotors and ducts.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2581/...1c3f96f2_z.jpg

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and for more track data analysis, I split a Racelogic Performance Box with a couple friends. The performance box uses GPS signal and accelerometer to calculate lap times including split times and predictive lap times as well as cornering and lateral G's. It should be a good tool to help improve my driving. All the data can be uploaded with the included software and analyzed.

Sick dude, love the new rims.

Update:

I attended my first track event of the year this past weekend. It was at NJMP on the Lightning track. This was my second event and my first time on this track. After I learned the line, I really enjoyed this track.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2403/...cb5f1fb8_b.jpg

The car performed flawlessly, and inspires confidence... however I still need to get comfortable pushing the car to the limits. I was short shifting and partial throttling in areas where I could be flat out. With more seat time I should be pushing the car harder.

I triggered the green and orange temp paint, but not the pink so rotor temps were somewhere between 560C and 610C. I did not experience any fade or braking issues what-so-ever.

I used the Performance Box on the last session of the weekend and my best lap time was a 1:25.33. The performance box also displays split times and uses all your best splits to determine your "ideal lap" which was a 1:24.85. The data shown below displays speed, cornering G's and lap time difference of my fastest 4 laps.

Screenshot of Racelogic Performance Box Circuit Tools software:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3081/...62439c62_b.jpg


Video of one random clean lap. I will be uploading more videos this week. I am also going to try out the TrackVision software to overlay my Performance Box data onto the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vpuWi9aDOk&hd=1



I signed up for another event at NJMP (Thunderbolt track) on July 1st. The event is organized by “Track Daze”. If anyone else (Brian…) wants to join there is space left and it is on the cheaper side for a track day.

https://www.trackdaze.com/index.php?...hw_attendees=1

What front bumper is that?

Mazdaspeed GT-C