Yeah Blake and I message a bit back and forth on Instagram (find him
@blaketjones ). We have VERY similar tastes and goals so I really respect what he's done with his car.
Some co-workers setup a private streets of willow track day and I was able to make it last minute. It was just over 30deg in the morning and RT660s needed like 4 laps before they even got close to warmed up! The sun came out and it warmed up to almost 70deg. Well as things were starting to warm up, I got real loose coming into the Left hander after the kink (running Clockwise). I was able to catch it and hold it, but at some point the car is going quite slow and I'm still in a slide... I was confused why the car hadn't recovered. Anyways slide the through the skidpad, which also felt more loose than normal and get meatball flagged for mechanical (look in the rear view and I see a lot of smoke!). Oh no.. I drove to the track, am I going to need to tow this home? I also felt so bad as I really slick down a critical area of the track, I was worried people were going to careen off the back end of the braking zone!
Once in the pit everyone there swarmed it and we collectively tried to diagnose the issue. It turns out it was just a main coolant hose engine out to radiator. It had a 4in burst! Luckily I brought my coveralls and got to work, was able to remove it and bum a ride in a Lotus Exige (badass!) to Autozone, and played the game 'Is this hose close enough in shape/size'. Well won that game and got one SUPER close just 1" longer on one side. Replaced it, refilled with purified water and got a few more laps in before driving it home. Crisis averted, no engine damage and back on the road so all in all not bad!
While I was waiting for my car to cool down a buddy let me lap his e46 m3 and I realized, wow my car's chassis balance IS messed up. The M3 was delightful in balance, composed, but easy to coax into a slide with brakes, steering, or throttle application. In my car I was constantly just balancing and tip toeing on the rear axle waiting for it to catch grip. Especially in the skid pad area, I'd just be constantly counter-steering just trying to be patient for corner exit. It felt painfully slow. I decided I need to find a way to get the front tires engaged before the next day, or at least come ready with 3-4 things to try.
Current setup
- OEM bars
- KW V3 (stock spring rates which I believe at 6.6kg/mm front and rear)
- Front dampers: 3/15 clicks comp, 12/20 clicks rebound
- Rear dampers: 7/15 clicks comp, 12/20 clicks rebound
- 215/40/17 and 255/35/18 RT660
Current plan of attack there is
- Disconnect rear bar
- Rear dampers: 3/15 clicks comp, 4/20 clicks rebound
- non compliance toe links
hopefully I can overshoot my target and just get TOO MUCH stability and then work backwards... we'll see what happens next
Well I ended up modifying the Angus AP-X to suit the sound I want again and came away happy. I need to do some fly by sound clips etc! The best part of the whole day was someone came over from another track and was looking around my car while I'm replacing a hose, we got chatting a bit. He wanted to know how my car sounded like that, he complained his Ferrari F12 didn't sound as good. That was the best compliment I've ever gotten.
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