they only thing I’ll add here for my last few years of racing is that driver ability vs. tire compound and size a big factor in all of this.
I used to murder hawk HT10 pads while on 255 NT01 tires at the glen in my 300whp evo to run the exact same lap times that I can now run in a 135whp integra on 205 star specs with hawk blues and I’m not even killing them.
the best I can describe is that you figure out after enough time what is abusive for no gain and avoid it.
my team is constantly debating going from 205 to 225 tires and it always comes down to rotational mass vs maybe 10% more grip… I get the impression that our better drives wont improve from 225s but our slightly slower drives will catch up because the tire will cover driving mistakes.
at this point I’ll always prefer flogging a slower car at 10/10ths over a faster car at 6/10ths, it’s more rewarding.
There is 0 camber adjustment available on this car factory. I will be installing adjustable front upper arms in the spring and getting polly bushings for the front lowers. I also want ot install polly bushings in the rear as well to stiffen things up. The car is very squishy. There is nothing in the aftermarket for swaybars so I will have to figure something out because it is a issue. For laping days I like some body roll but this is a bit out of hand. The only way to get this thing to rotate is to brake really deep and throw it in way harder than what seems safe, but the car is so long it ends up being very controllable and is a absolute blast. I am very cautious of adding weight to the wheels because the brakes at mid ohio were almost fade free for the 2 sessions I was 10/10 racing chips S2000 but they were on the edge for sure. At road america I had to cap my top speed to top of 3rd gear or I would loose brakes coming down hill into turn 4. I tried running flat out down the front straight and ended up taking turn 1 at nearly 90mph completely sideways to scrub speed mid corner. From then on I didn’t use 4th gear. If I can sort out the suspension and get more grip on these 225’s (they are every bit of a 245 in reality) It will reduce some of my brake issues. On the other hand if I upgrade to something much larger I wonder if I could eliminate my brake issues without going to larger brakes. cost is a big factor though. These 225 race take offs were $100 each and still have another 2-3 days in them.
I don’t have any interest running 200 tread wear tires on this car. The brakes would burst into flames. I don’t find this car to be that entertaining on the street either because it is only fun at the limit when you can get it to rotate. I have no business trail braking it into a onramp and using slip angle to control speed on the street. I just downsized my street tires for winter racing duty. 225/60/18. I want to have my hand at ice racing this year if I can.
ugg I really need to get this pig to loose another 200-300 lbs It owuld help so much.
that suspension setup is very similar to my car. has 8 control arms. The angle on the uppers is a bit different but it does not really matter for your line of questioning. I am loving the double sway bar idea. I will likely do that for both the front and rear if I don’t come across anything else.
I would love to have this discussion with you if you want to but I carefully chose this car because the cheap, fun, reliable factor it brings. It will not be difficult to get this car down to 3200lbs. if that is what you mean. Just about any car is a blast at the limit and this car is no exception. It gets more attention on and off course than just about any other car on track which is always fun… especially when I get it right.
The 7 serise of that erra is junk. No part of that car is durable long term. The a8 has 2 potential trans failures both of whick can be addessed with a rebuild, this car has 1 of those upgrades. The suspension is not problematic, the engine has no issues other than comon oil leaks which is not abnormal on any 15 year old engine, the brakes are large enough to be used for track duty in stock form and fully interchange with all of audi/porsche, the rear ends on audi do not fail, the fuel system does not commonly fail… the car is aluminum ao i dont have to deal with rust!!! Everything that is not aluminum is coated with whatever audi uses so it does not fall apart in the winter.
D2 a8 can be picked up sub 2k all day. Strip one and it can still be used as a dd in a pinch comfortably. Hell i just bought 225/60/18 snows for mine so i can beat it around snowy streets and try my hand at ice racing this year. If that does not sound like a do it all track car then i dont get track day cars.
Stiffer springs will happen eventually, but they will be quite a way down the road because a set of legit coil overs are expensive. I have been looking ones with high end dampers and good damping does not come cheap. For now my new bilstein eibach will have to get the job done.
No i have a 2001 d2 body. The d3 is still a bit pricy but i was reading a article on the construction of the entire line of a8. The d3 chassis over 150% stiffer than the d2. When i roadcoursed my w12 the dynamics were fantastic but the 4600lbs was impossible to overcome and cornering speed was not high by any means. The brakes never did fade even with 25 min of mid ohio bashing.
The air ride on the d3 would be a issue i think. It is just not stiff. If you remove massive weight it will self adjust for hight which is nice.
