Oulton Park 16th April
Discussion
When the car was built, the brakes must have been set up with around 70% bias to the rear (not good). On the road this was not obvious as you never really push them hard.
I completed one session at Oulton park, not pushing too hard, just making sure everything felt ok. Had to harden up the damping on the AVO shocks but even on max settings they were still too soft (need to change these).
The second session I started to push harder and was coming to a corner and braked harder than previously and the next second I was spinning around, 180degrees on the tarmac and another 180degrees on the grass. The rear end did hit the tyre wall but it was square on and only about 10mph - scratched it a little and a few cracks in the gel coat - could have been a LOT worse!!
After (and changing my now brown trousers for a clean pair!) i adjusted the bias as far as it would allow to the front. This was still not enough as under very heavy braking, the rears still locked. I will have to adjust the length of the pushrods now to allow more adjustment to the front.
The AP brake are bril. it sometime feels like it was not physically possible to pull up so fast.
I have fitted front and side splitters and had no understeer at all.
The last session I really started pushing it and apart from needing more damping and/or stiffer springs, the car performed well.
Can't wait for the next track day when I have made all the mods.
My engine is a AP 535bhp and behaved well - loads of torque out the bends and pulls like a train over 4000rpm.
Only other mod. is to improve the oil cooling - after around 8 laps the oil temp rose above 130 degrees. Either a larger cooler or improve the air flow (it already has a Pacet fan fitted to it).
Cheers,
Martin.
I completed one session at Oulton park, not pushing too hard, just making sure everything felt ok. Had to harden up the damping on the AVO shocks but even on max settings they were still too soft (need to change these).
The second session I started to push harder and was coming to a corner and braked harder than previously and the next second I was spinning around, 180degrees on the tarmac and another 180degrees on the grass. The rear end did hit the tyre wall but it was square on and only about 10mph - scratched it a little and a few cracks in the gel coat - could have been a LOT worse!!
After (and changing my now brown trousers for a clean pair!) i adjusted the bias as far as it would allow to the front. This was still not enough as under very heavy braking, the rears still locked. I will have to adjust the length of the pushrods now to allow more adjustment to the front.
The AP brake are bril. it sometime feels like it was not physically possible to pull up so fast.
I have fitted front and side splitters and had no understeer at all.
The last session I really started pushing it and apart from needing more damping and/or stiffer springs, the car performed well.
Can't wait for the next track day when I have made all the mods.
My engine is a AP 535bhp and behaved well - loads of torque out the bends and pulls like a train over 4000rpm.
Only other mod. is to improve the oil cooling - after around 8 laps the oil temp rose above 130 degrees. Either a larger cooler or improve the air flow (it already has a Pacet fan fitted to it).
Cheers,
Martin.
LuckyP said:
Cool...I like posts like that.
Too much roll then? You going with the Factory 'Top Gear' springs? They seem to me the second best performance upgrade after the tyres.
Just spoke to Richard to see how these springs fair on the road, he said they are are more compromised for country road driving as you'd expect, but are stiffer and therefore cause less body roll on track.Too much roll then? You going with the Factory 'Top Gear' springs? They seem to me the second best performance upgrade after the tyres.
Interestingly, both sets were tries at the Top Gear Test track and there was only a 1/2 second benefit from the stiffer ones. So he says the std springs still offer the best level of allround performance and are the ones that they would recommend to 99% of road drivers and even occasional track attackers.
HTH
martinlaw said:
I agree, if the springs are too stiff, driving on the road will aweful.
I hope increasing the damping will sort the handling.
Richard also asked what damping setting I use - I normall use 5 clicks front and rear for road and 35 front and rear for track. He suggested moving much closer to the limit to get tighter ride.I hope increasing the damping will sort the handling.
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