Hong Kong - Wheel Alignment, Corner Balance

F430 feels very floaty at speed, so need to get things checked. Who other than the dealer in HK is able to do wheel alignments and corner balancing on a F430?

Cheers

 

There are a few good outfits in Kowloon side for wheel balancing, but for corner weighting I would go to:

http://www.mtmotoring.com/

Small (more like TINY) shop, owned by a pair of brothers who are quite active in the car/racing scene. I know them quite well, and I will be taking my car there next week to get it corner balanced. PM me if you need any more info.

 

Many thanks for that, much appreciated. Next is trying to find racing fuel in HK. Any ideas? I think the engine would eat it up with the high IATs we're getting at the moment.

 

Racing fuel? Umm... Why? I can check for you what they have at the Zhuhai International Circuit. Apart from that, I don't think you'll be able to get it anywhere.

Have I been away too long? I don't understand what you're saying. What is an "IAT"?

 

Intake air temperatures. IATs are one of the many parameters the ECU monitors (in the case of Motronic ME7, through the MAF <Mass airflow sensor>). Higher IATs = more timing retardation = less power, torque, throttle response as the ECU will reference temperature compensation tables in order to protect the engine.

Whilst it's not exactly stinking hot in HK at the moment, it's certainly not a European winter! Racing fuel with higher octane will result in less knock sensor activity, which will keep the engine running completely on song.

I'm not talking 118 octane leaded gas here. Anything unleaded from 100 up would be perfect. The car certainly has the compression ratio to take advantage of it!

I just thought there must be some tuning shop in HK that would stock it, or be able to order it in.

Many thanks for the help

 

Isn't that a bit hardcore for road use? What about octane booster additive? I have used NOS that I buy in Mong Kok. Didn't seem to make much difference but the anticipation was fun when I poured it in the tank

 

Any HK members have or know of an unattached 355 factory exhaust for sale?

Thx and sorry for hjacking.

 

Race fuel will cost you over US$7.50 per liter and not street legal since road tax /duty not paid. With ELF102 you may notice at most 0.5 seconds on the track with a stop watch. Your Butt-O-Meter won't be able to tell any difference. Save your money for tires which will give you an immediate difference in feel.

We used SD2 to check 360 Challenge engines running on 98 octane dirty China fuel and there were no knock sensor errors.

 

Octane boosters are useless. When they say they raise octane by one point, they mean from 98 to 98.1, not 98 to 99!

Race fuel on the other hand is a completely different kettle of fish.

 

Hi, many thanks for the resposne.

I don't mind at all re: the cost and the not being street legal part. Where do you source the ELF from in HK? I have been in contact with the ELF distributor for HK and they claim that they are unable to source it.

The programming on the car has been changed, so it will be able to take advantage of the higher octane. Having said that, this isn't really about performance, it's about protecting the engine from detonation and timing retardation. Could have sworn it was pinging going up the Peak the other day.

Many thanks for the help.

 

We know a guy who knows a guy through various race teams etc..... Sources change constantly and availability is spotty at best. So far only bought in Zhuhai not HK, but I was told once before that HK delivery was possible. Unfortunately there is no supply at this moment. You are correct that ELF official distributor does not import the fuel. Supply is very limited and depends on which races are being held at ZIC. If anybody tries to sell you some ELF or any other brand for that matter, make sure you get them in factory sealed drums. We have bought some "race fuel" before not in factory fresh drums that actually ran worse than pump gas.

Modified ECUs on our race engines work fine without knock, so perhaps your chip is not optimally tuned for HK weather.

 

Many thanks for that.

Do you think there would be a market for the race fuel in HK if someone were able to get it in? I know of a way to get vast quantities in if necessary.

 

Personally I don't think there is a big market in HK since technically it's not road legal; storage is also a problem. Zhuhai might be a different story depending on how competitive people want to be and what is their racing budget. At US$7.50 per liter 360 Challenge will use US$300 per 30 minute session at ZIC. So running race fuel will end up costing on a par with using 1 set of slicks per 4 sessions.

I have a 550GTS that must run on race fuel so that's why I am interested in buying at ZIC.

 

Thanks for that info. I'll look into bringing some in just for myself then.

Cheers

 

I hope you do manage to bring some into HK, because I'd be interested to know how it can be done.

 

Will do...