No - only when he is in front of another car

 

It’s a bird, it’s a plain…

Wow 180 @ 100mph. How long did it take you to wash off the smell?

 

Congrats on the success at the track, I cant wait to take my 240 out this summer for lapping days.

This picture struck me as particularly ironic.

 

which smell? the one from my pants or my tires?

 

I was not thinking about the tires.

It really takes some serious gumption to finish a season after a spin like that. You’re THE MAN

 

opm...well...i know why it happened. if i didn't / thought the car was unpredictable then yes i think anyone would have doubts.

here are some misc pix.

 

o yeah...just drove the gt3. nice ride.

2nd pix is my buddy's c55 outside mpsc...he's hard on tires plus i don't think the square shoulder works well w/o camber.

 

the long anticipated track day @ lime rock park on the 1st day of summer finally came around.

temps 70's i was running approx 97 octane...really needed straight 104. I was down on a significant amount of power. could not even get past a stock 350z on the straight http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztZSUY0zJNE
i was timed in 1:06 area nevertheless.....prob would have been 1:05 with 104 octane. could not get 03 on rear axles to fit the quife lsd so i was back with my stock open diff.

still that didn't dampen my "fun" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFmjVABtU_U left my braking a wee bit too late...almost saved it but lost it when i put the left wheels on the dirt. interior was covered in dust and dirt but i was able to clean it all up. ...don't like the balance i ordered front sways to dial in back some understeer. that should force the back end down and aide traction on exit as well.......

hankooks wearing very very well, amazing. heat cracks on rotors are worse.....

my bud with the blk c55 is very very fast. he's done about 20+ events at lime rock and he's a hot shoe...car is stock save pads (same raybestos compound as mine), motul 600, MPSC tires...and he turns 1:03s!!!! this was his last event in the c55 his gt3 in on it's way check him out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMd3f5BWugI

my other friend with the gt3 did 1:05+ on his 1st time to LRP.

folks say my c32 sounds like it wants to inhale all the air at lime rock...an older gent with a e60 m5 came up to me as was asking questions. i have to have someone take some hi q video. you can hear a bit of my engine and supersprint exhaust as i go by http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcwV87aeBgA also in the esses http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLqwS...e=user&search=

next up..........back to pocono north next thursday. painted my wheels orange on a whim....there are drying right now...hope to have to front sway bar installed and the left header snugged up as it leaking (hope it not a crack). hopefully the sway will allow me to get on the throttle a bit sooner.

 

That looks just awesome!

 

added the front h&r sway and made a big diff. car is planted and the oversteer went away. steering is quite a bit more alive and precise. i can can now trail brake deeper. down on power as the car cannot get rid of heat through the stock heat exchanger; 104 octane did not improve things much...may have to live with the shortcoming....not too many track days in the heat of summer anyway.

ran a 1:03.6 a bit slower than may when i did 1:02.9. real happy with cornering.

rotors are shot..cracks emanate from holes to edge of rotor. the incredible braking from hot hankooks, raybestos st43 and motul 600 creates intense heat. the plastic center caps of the frpnt wheels are melting. may try disk italia rotors next see how they hold up.

a cls 63 showed up as well as a m6, took a few pixs. check out my red wheels. also a pix of the porche spyder it was at porche of fairfield. alms is coming to lime rock this sat i'll be heading up on sat in the f355 weather permitting.

i have front kmac camber bushings ready to install but a bit worried about ride quality. need to find a set of 2003 axels so i can put in the diff.

next up is pocono east in aug but as i finally found a used lsd for my suzuki swift i may end up tracking that instead of the c32....it's 1900 lbs and goes to 9000 rpm that should be fun.

 

see pix of a 285/30-18 kd.......this was a test fit on a 9" 40 et wheel. fit was marginal may have worked but anyway found a 44mm et wheel should be just fine. quaife lsd, 285's...power to tarmac baby!

 

Those wheels look kinda goofy kinda intimidating. But I guess once you get on the track you show them who the goofball is!

Nice write-ups.

 

Which Hankooks were you on? I assume the R-compound. I'm going to need tires in the fall and may go with the street Hankooks (Z212). Seems like the thing that matters most is how they hold up when they get hot. Good Auto-x tires like the Falkens get greasy on tracks where they have time to get hot. If the Hankooks are like the Falkens, I may need to spend some bucks and get Pole Positions or Goodyear GSDs.

 

the c32 will heat up and destroy steet tires with degree of spirited driving. the hankooks z214 are at proper operating temp (almost as hot as boiling water!) when street rubber is melting. i'm getting 3x better wear that the yoke a048 and 1.5x grip. i dropped my times 2-3 secs each track (an estimate disregarding stage 2)....i had to flip the yokes after every event i only now have to do the z214s after 3 events on one pair and 4 events on the other. amazing. shoulder wear is acceptable.

i think it's false economy to try to run street tires. if the c32 was a lightweight yes maybe azenis or similar may work. the right tire setup for me is 2nd tier street rubber - avon 500s, khumos...and spend my $ on good DOT r compounds for track. hoosier r6, hankook z214, toyo r888, toyo ra1, avon tech ra, bfg r1.

even if you only track 2x a year i think it's worth it.

i will be test fitting the bfg r1 in 255/40-17 in the fronts soon. it's 0.1 " narrower than the yoke and may just be enough to clear the strut tube on the inside.

fifth- my tuner guy is a racer and has 4 new toyo ra1 235/40-17. he'll let them go cheap.

 

after a break over summer i was back on track this past monday at LRP with SCDA. i had a minor off and tweaked the left control arm and brushed the armco. picked up a new arm ($200) and it being installed today. taking opportunity to install the kmac camber bushings i bought 3 months ago........

car ran strong despite the temps. maybe i had air in the heat exchanger in june???

my buddy parked his c55, and is ripping up track in his gt3. he's bloody fast and the car looks the part. check out the pic.- pl excuse but there are cribbed from tracktime.

also a pic of another friends gt3 (plain white). also quick. can't stop these things they are made for the track!

hope to get my car back today. back at LRP this coming mon and the foll tues 9/4. fitting bfg r1s 255/40-17 tomorrow.

 

Why 255 and not 245? Are you running 8.5” rim? If so, 255 won’t put more rubber on the tarmac than 245. However, it will add unnecessary weight. The car may feel more consistent on 255, but it's because the tire is flexing more and the handling is less precise.

 

opm...sometime i type too quickly. i ruined 2 tires copule of weeks ago when i slid off before the uphill... i replaced with 2 255/40-17 bfg r1 rear and ran hankooks z214 245/40-17 in front. i was hoping to fit the 255 in front but they are too wide by just a hair. with the wheel bolted on you can turn it but the tire is rubbing. with the 255 infront i would have run 285/30-18 in back. (see post above)

the 255 r1 is speced for 8.5 to 10" rim. the section width is 10.2" on a 9" rim. the 245 /40 is 9.8" on a 8.5" rim. the compound is supposed to be the bomb so i can't wait to wear out the hankooks should be done in one more event.

kmac camber bushings are great. mine squeak and i need to have that addressed. the car is much more precise, i don't think my ride has suffered much but i'm very tolerant of a rough riding car. i need to have my fenders rolled with the 19x8.5 32et bremmas as there will be interference at some point. but you can see the added camber easily.

combined with the front sways this prompted my Tech to say, "this car does not turn like a mercedes".


this past monday i had another day at lime rock but i had lost a bit of my mojo. my braking before the uphill (where i slid off the week before) was more gradual. but...by end of the day i was back pushing. it was very hot 80+ degrees and the track was greasy. the car threw me a low coolant message and i wasted 1 hr for it to cool down before opening the rad cap. it turned out to be an erroneous message.......i was down on power due to the heat but still managed 1:07.4 for my timed laps. i can only attribute this to the added front end grip. ....next tues my buddy with the gt3 will give me some pointers (he's an instructor now) and i hope to shave some more time off....

more blogging in a week!

 

Yea I would avoid staggered setup. So if you already have a set of 255, I’d get 2 more. And yes R1 is generally narrower than others, but I still feel 245 would perform better on 8.5” rim. Everything I see suggests R1 is a great tire. October issue of Grassroots compared R1, R6, new Z214 and shaved NT-01. They did not run V710 because of sizing, but I sure wish they did. Of course I also wish Kumho had better size selection.

I got lots of old inventory I got to kill. Plus I am still tuning suspension. However, next season I’ll be in the market for new tires and I am planning to use R1 245/40/17 on my 17x8.5 SSR Comp. Yet, if I hit my target weight of 2,900lb I might instead buy Z214 in C51. With mid weight car on longer tracks like WG or MT they might prove to be slightly faster than R1.

At LR going sideway on the hill is probably the worse spot. It’s very tough to recover, even with AWD, and there is a real potential to go shiny side down. This guy is early every corner and he pays for it at the hill. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUv2iwFr-7A

 

opm...cool video. i have some of a novice in a bmw 325 from last mondays event. he dropped the right wheel over the kerb for uphill and did a tankslapper then a 360 but managed to keep it on the right side of the track.

bfg r1 are wide tires. 255 will not fit fronts on the stock 8.5 34mm et rim.

also the 245 /40 is 1/2 in smaller in diameter. 24.8" vs 24.2".....this may trigger faults i'll know later. the r1 will be quite a bit wider than the z214 but grip is more about compound than patch. i will be getting 3 used MPSCs and may try those next. i've heard great things about tire...needs heat to make it work but very good grip and can tolerate many heat cycles.

back on track on tues...LRP. plan on doing 2 more events after this then done for the year. will be tracking my suzuki swift at LRP in october.....over past months have been working on setting her up.....did LSD 6 weeks ago...did engine mounts yesterday. tirerack is closing out some dot r compunds plan is to get a set, commute in car until the get to shaved depth then dial in 3 deg -ve camber.

 

some pix from 9/4 scda advanced event. i had brake line failure(a leak at caliper termination ) towards end of my last session.....happened on braking into big bend- a minor moment but stayed on track. not sure if failure is heat related but anyway i replaced with goodrich stainless lines. brake pedal feels great, should have done this a long time ago.

lots of nice cars at event was running equal or a bit faster pace than an audi rs4 on MPSC in my last session. http://www.tracktimephotos.com/Galle...y=04&rungroup=

front hankooks are corded, lasted 8 events included some open track events. going to BFGs R1 all round. OPM I did read the grassroots article this seems to the better tire all round. 255s cannot fit front will get 245s. from what the feedback i get the v710 is great at first then becomes a early victim of heat cycling.

had a ride in the GT3 at full tilt boogie. crazy.

next up...LRP 10/26. c'mon down http://www.emraracing.org instructors provided.

 

[QUOTE=AWDman;2415254]some pix from 9/4 scda advanced event.

Hey AWDman: GREAT PICS

Just how much negative camber are you using on your front passenger side

Unless she was rolling hard, it looks like over 5 degrees

How do you get that much

Thanks in advance

See yeah

 

good eys mr amg. it looks like a lot when turned as the caster kicks in....but it should be -ve 2 deg straight ahead...

 

Give us a report on the BFG R1s. I wouldn't worry about the diameter, as long as all 4 tires are of the same diameter. If all tires are smaller, the only ambiguity is between actual speed and indicated speed; and there's nothing in the car that collects actual speed data, so no fault should occur.

 

The bushings will always squeak. You can lube the heck out of them but that only works for a few days. Thats just the nature of polly bushings.

Adding camber on a C32 actually moves the wheel outward some and that makes rubbing an issue. Most camber kits or camber plates tip the strut tube inward to create negative camber but these bushings just push the lower attachment point out. Just roll your fenders totally flush and be done with it. IF the cracked paint bothers you have it painted. It is worth it to just roll it all the way and get it over with. Those little fender lips are like razor blades to tires. Been there Done that.

Glad you like them and the car is a whole lot more precise with the bushings. Just watch out for the busings to allow for the control arm to shift fore aft on the bushing. I have had 3 sets do this but the last set seemed to be ok up until the car was sold.

 

cyncarver......too late i ruined my two front tires..sucks. one was a brand new ps2. ordered replacement kumho spt ($154 @ discount tire).

got the car back a few hrs ago with brandons heat exchanger installed. left the bumber off- drove straight to the body shop for fender rolling and paintwork. hopefully this takes care of the interference issue. rather than replace the mirror housing i got the chrome covers from formymercedes so now i'm blinging....

the car just feels awesome with the kmac bushings. i had my guy take them out and lube the inner sections. they don't squeek now hopefully the extra viscous lube holds and is a permanent fix. however the control arm bushing did have some play, will have to moniter.

my front 245/40 bfg r1s were mounted and just dropped off- they are wide but hopefully they will fit without hitting strut tube.

the car was not holding charge whilst at the shop for the HE install past week. may have a short somewhere.....will address that when i get it back.