That’s your first problem. You shouldnt be trying to keep up with people. Drive within your skill level, learn the car, learn the line, learn visual markers for braking, bumps in the track, curbing, pavement discolorations everything you can to make yourself faster. Do NOT worry about how fast other people are, or what you are “running” in comparison to them. Track days are points for learning, if you wanna do a Time Attack do so, but at your first track day with your first car getting competitive is a good way to have an off, damage your car, or worse someone elses.
Would’ve liked to attend and had watched the thread but I didnt get back in town in time for it. Maybe next time.
yeah MPD47, these past days i’ve been constantly thinking about that track day, reflecting on my mistakes and thinking on improvements to my driving and also to the car, and i’ll try to not think about how fast other people are.
but for some reason after i went for a ride on that dark green or black 240sx and experiencing the sr20 power 1st hand (sorta…) i got this sense of defeat, i noticed the difference in power in both cars and im the type of person that dont like to admit my defeat but damn…the 4age sucks…and i’ve been all week frustrated and even now as i’m typping.
i tried to enter at the same speed and corner similar like the 240sx did but then later on the day i adjusted to the ae86 potentials.
the #1 thing i need to improve is the suspension, on the long corner before the long straight i was doing it at 100km/h, couldnt press the gas more because the rear outer tire already had to much weight on it, anymore and the rear would swing but the car just felt like it could do better, im just frustrated and pissed that the suspension was restricting the potential of the car and the 4age, i believe i could at least pull a 115km/h on the turn and increasing the top speed on the straight from 140km/h ->155-160km/h, i guess i just dont want to admit that my ae86 lost to this 240sx i had imagined on my head…guess its the pride i have on my car.
240_420 i saw you struggling since you were the only car i could actually keep up so i knew something was wrong with your car, 4agze drivetrain?? well i dont know…im thinking of giving up on the 4age and look for a stronger engine that is also high-reving, high-reving NA engines are so much fun!!
first of all, I’ve been watching the overall build of that “dark green” 240sx that you went in, and you should not be jealous of it - It might not be pretty on the outside but it’s probably one of the most maticulously configured motors on this board.
The owner is Hurricane by the way - he mentioned to me that he took you for a ridealong which is why I know who you are referring to.
Also, I wanted to apologize to you - I heard through the grapevine that you were waiting over an hour to go do a ridealong - I apologize for this, I wish I would have known you were waiting or else I would have had someone take you out right away.
Just FYI, I was the guy riding around on the mini-bike. ;]
As for your cornering speed on the big sweeper, I have two things to say to your comments there.
100km/h is better than the average car out there
For that particular corner you should worry more about your tires and bodyroll than your actual “suspension” (I assume you mean your shocks/springs when you say suspension). If you want to go faster there, get some better tires and some good anti-sway bars and you’ll be able to carry 110-120 through there easily and also keep in mind that the faster you come out of that corner - the faster you’ll make it during the following front straight.
BTW - if you thought the green s13 was quick, you should feel it now (we tuned until 4:30am this morning).
Fred, Hurricane’s car is insane. That isn’t what a stock SR feels like
You should definitely come out to more events and go for more ridealongs so that you learn the line better and possibly pick up on some tips and even techniques that people use while driving on that track.
I’ve only been to 6 events myself and I love it. I learn something new at each event. (Both about my abilities and my car’s limit)
Jammin thanks for the tips, i need to be doing more homework on the car, the anti-sway bars i have are whiteline so i think they are great, both rear and front are set to mid-stiff since it its 4 way adjustible, but i guess i should change the set-up, for less roll on the back i guess i should set up all the way to stiff?? about the front i’m not complaining much, the car handled great tho understeering 1 out of 3 times on the second corner after the long straight (the very slow one) doing about 45-50km/h there, guess make the front a bit softer??
im clueless on how to set those sway bars.
the tires are fine, althought the corner between the wall and the thread is melted where you can actually see layers LOL, but…since its 195/65-R14 the wall might just be to wide causing it to flex i guess?? these falken RT-615 are very nice but maybe i should get 15 inch rims for a smaller wall so it wont flex on the corners and lose grip so much??
what would you guys think?? opinions and advice would be greatly apreciated.
that explains why you’re doing 100 through the sweeper then, i didnt realize you were on rt615 and had sways done already
what are you running on strut/spring wise? Was bodyroll an issue for you? some is good, but you don’t want to roll too much
rt615’s have fantastic sidewalls so unless you are running an abnormally high profile I wouldn’t worry too much about that, maybe just try to shoot for something a little wider - i know your car is light but not light enough to justify only 195 wide ;]
other than that, i dont think anyone here really knows your car well enough to give you much more info than this without driving it or at least going for a ride
next track day come find me and i can try to give you some feedback. better yet, if Sasha is there again you have no excuse to NOT take him for a ride to get feedback on your driving and also let him drive your car to get feedback on the car.
He’s truly a professional and his advice is a goldmine to anyone out there.
this is untrue, springs and dampers should NEVER be used to fight/adjust bodyroll - that is the job of anti-sway mechanisms, one of them being [anti]-sway bars.
If you dont have the proper spring and shock valving setup for your car tweaked into the proper settings first, end tuning with sway bars is a completely pointless band aid for an entirely larger problem. Yes, everything works in conjunction with each other, but you need to start with the most important part first. Without a doubt, adjustable sways are a plus, and yes my first statement was entirely to broad for the subject, but that’s without getting into things like
OverSteer? Understeer? Corner entry, mid corner, corner exit?
Slow, Mid or High Speed turns?
Is it doing the above when loaded under braking? acceleration? Specific to a type of turn as alluded to above, etc, etc, etc.
What tires/wheel setup?
What shocks are you running? What Valving? What Sprin rates?
What are your options of changing the setup?
Weight modifications and cornerweight on car?
this is a lapping day, not professional competitive racing.
We are talking about how to get his car to handle better, not compete with sponsored race cars.
Although your last post is accurate for the most part, saying something to an amateur with a stock car like,
“Sway bars are only a supplement, you should be tuning with springs and valving. The end goal is to have the sways set as softly as possible.”
is not only incorrect, but confusing.
anti-sway mechanisms are never a “supplement” and there is never a requirement for them to be on their “softest setting”, most setups dont have the option of adjustability anyway - if anti-sway was merely a “band aid” for a poor valve and spring setup they would they use them in professional racing with million dollar budgets?
Please, for the love of amateur LAPPING DAYS (not race days) keep the highly technical things to a minimum because it’s only going to steer people in the wrong direction with their cars. Not a single person who visits this website has access to equipment to valve their own suspension so why suggest it?
I’m not even going to bother responding to the rest of your post, as we could debate about it till the sun rises next week.
However, never did I suggest there was competition involved. I’m well aware of what a lapping day consists of, done a few of them. Doesnt mean you cant prep your car to the limit. But alas, there is no point in getting into an argument about it as you and I clearly will not see eye to eye.
well talking about tires, the rims i have i think are 14x6 , tho a month ago i bought a set of supra rims 14x7, so i can try getting some 205 or 215, and keep my 14x6 for drifting days, the bad news is that falken only has 195/65-14 for the 14 inch rims…so i’ll have to look somehwere else for good tires, maybe yokohama , i dont know, have to do some more studying on tires, gonna check club4ag.com to see what they say about the subject.