Offseason update time!
So, the 3DTuning app is a pretty sweet way to pass the time..anyway.
After a pretty unsuccessful trip to finish the year due to some (hopefully since resolved) steering issues, we went into winter with a few goals.
- Rolling flat - getting adjustability in the front sway bar, whether that meant buying a Speedway setup or modifying our current conventional bar
- Rolling fat - get the new wheels and tires sorted out
- Stopping reliably - new Wilwood 6-piston binders up front will take the heat of track work much better than the current 4-pistons, which will move to the back in place of the uber-budget stock metric front calipers
Swaybar Mod
So, swaybar adjustability. In the interest of cost, modifying the existing bar was the best option. One of the more interesting setups I've seen was on an IROC race car that Legendary Motorcar restored several years ago, which used a sleeve that slid back and forth at the end of the bar, and we set about replicating this in our own way.
Using some chrome round stock that was leftover from our hydraulic business, a sleeve was machined to the proper inside diameter, split, and drilled for a crossbolt. A heim attaches to tabs at the bottom, which attaches to the lower control arm.
5 positions are available, and even the first one should be substantially stiffer than the original. This will hopefully bring the rear bar back into play, as we disconnected it early on to help rear grip.
Rolling Fat
On to the rolling stock situation. Our original plan, thinking that space was limited more than it ended up being in front, was for 10/275 up front, and 12/315 or 335 out back. After some test fitting and measuring, a much, much cheaper set of 18x11s were sourced from XXR. We'll be rocking 315s all the way around, and there's room in the budget for brake upgrades.
Since we initially got it on the road, the wheels we've had have never been what I had in mind, but what we could work with at the time. I'm..in love with these already.
The plan for the year is hitting several autocrosses before late March, when we'll head to TMS for the Ultimate Street Car Association event. New brakes will be worked out before then (I'd feel much better with more caliper all the way around for the road course and speed stop).
Our season is supposed to start this weekend, and the plan was to test out new datalogging equipment in my daily driver Z. It's not looking like the weather is going to cooperate despite the fact it was 80 degrees here today, though (sorry, Northerners
). Ready to get going..