iLuveketchup

Awesome indeed! Awaiting impressions from the new brake set up.

odb812

Thanks guys. I'll be at Thunderhill Feb 8-9th and SCCA autocross at Oakland on the 10th, so I'll give you my impressions afterwards. I haven't really done much hard braking so far, I hear a slight scraping from the driver's side, think I didn't bend the heat shield enough.

Here's a shot with the new calipers:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/92573320@N08/8420432049/http://www.flickr.com/photos/92573320@N08/8420432049/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/92573320@N08/, on Flickr

odb812

Update: A few changes have come up and I've got my first SCCA event this Sunday.

First, the new J's S1/S2 are not STR-legal, so I had to go with Megan camber joints. I will not be able to get the camber joints in and on the car until next Monday, so I'll be going with my current alignment(which is probably all out of whack, it's been a while) for the first event.

My battery was just about toast so I picked up a braille. While I was ordering the battery, I decided to pull the trigger on a flashpro. Both came in the mail today. I'm going to try to tune the car before Sunday, which will be fun since I have track days Friday and Saturday.

devinfox

What benefit do you get from the camber joints?

odb812

I should be able to get at least -3.1 degrees camber in the front vs -1.9 without them.

devinfox

With my CR I am running 255 square star specs with -1.5 degrees camber at all corners. Is there a lot of benefit to be found with -3.1 degrees camber? The reason I ask is because I had my alignment done 2 months back, the shop (one of the most reputable alignment shops in Atlanta) told me that running tons of camber with a stiff sidewall will not benefit me any.

iLuveketchup

What are you plans with the car? Auto-x or track? If not, then you will probably not benefit from the added (-) camber.

odb812

I just got back from two days at Thunderhill and tomorrow morning is my first STR autocross. I set a PB for full course of 2:14.49. Since last time I've replaced the stock front brakes with the wilwood kit, replaced the TR C3s with nurburgrings with the same tires, tuned the car with the flashpro, and beat the hell out of the alignment on the SF potholes. I'm happy with the car and the improvements I made, but still see a lot more time to be had. Here are my impressions so far on the brakes and flashpro.

Wilwood Brakes:

I used XP12/XP10 with the new brakes and just put a fresh set of XP12s on the front before making the drive up Thursday. I drove 5 sessions Friday and 2 Sessions Saturday before they looked like this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/92573320@N08/8459736303/http://www.flickr.com/photos/92573320@N08/8459736303/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/92573320@N08/, on Flickr

I got the brakes to fade a touch in one session and I think they let us out there for at least an extra lap or two. I was trying to follow some fast guys that session. They gave me a lot of confidence and I was braking a bit harder than I did in the past. It was too cold and windy to get decent tire temps, so I didn't take the pyrometer out this weekend. Next time I'll get some brake temps. I'm a little disappointed in how quick I went through pads, but that's pretty similar to what I got out of XP12s on stock calipers and they're a little cheaper in this pad shape.

Flashpro:

I decided last minute to get a Flashpro mostly so I can widen the VTEC window and get a little more usable RPM range. The unit comes with some base calibrations based on any modifications you may have. My car is completely stock, so I tried both the "tuned" option for stock cars and then tried taking the stock calibration and lowering the VTEC engagement and raising the redline. For each I set the VTEC engagement lower limit to 5000 and redline to 8500 and did a few pulls on the street and datalogged with the Flashpro to make sure they were safe and to dial in the AF ratios. While I was at Thunderhill I went on the dyno to fine tune the AF for each and see which is the better starting point. The peak numbers were about the same stock vs. stock with lower VTEC/higher redline VS "tuned". The software is pretty straighforward and Hondata has some decent videos on youtube to get you familiar with it. Even though I didn't really gain much, it was nicer on the track having a few more mph in 4th and a little more on the lower end of the powerband for corners that aren't really worth the downshift.

Stock: 221.72/149.39
Stock w/ wider VTEC 219.51/149.01
tuned 220.02/151.54

7 is tuned
10 is stock w/ wider VTEC
12 is stock
http://www.flickr.com/photos/92573320@N08/8460906328/http://www.flickr.com/photos/92573320@N08/8460906328/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/92573320@N08/, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/92573320@N08/8459737013/http://www.flickr.com/photos/92573320@N08/8459737013/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/92573320@N08/, on Flickr

odb812

My first autocross with SCCA went fairly well. Since it was the first event of the year, there were over 250 drivers there, so a lot of standing around. I'm still getting used to the format with SCCA as I'm used to getting a lot more runs in a shorter period of time. It seems like for SCCA the thing to do is overdrive the car your first run or two to get some heat in the tires and to learn the limit, then just slow it down a little, get on the gas a little earlier, and put down some good times.

There was only one other guy in STR and I know I was slow--even for me--so even though I had the fastest time in STR it's nothing to brag about. There's a fast guy in a 986 boxter s in B stock that came to most of my PCA autocrosses last year and I've always used him as a reference. The second half of last year I would be within .5 sec of him on a 50-60 sec course. This weekend I was over a second slower than him on a mid-40 sec course. Maybe I'll post up some video later, I have too much to go through between that and Thunderhill(the org that set up the event Saturday is having a video contest where you could win free even signup for the year and $500, so I'm focused on editing that stuff first).

I'm excited for the rest of the season, our region of SCCA seems like a pretty cool bunch of guys. I just hope more STR guys show up in the future. I saw last year there were a decent amount of guys in STR and a lot of them PAXed pretty well, so I hope they show up for some more this year.

iLuveketchup

Which is your SCCA region? SF SCCA?