Getting the 355 ready for track day use

I bet I can help you. What tracks have you been running? What laptimes? What is your track experience?

 

Sounds like you have good experience. Do you feel comfortable developing a car and providing feedback to speed development?

 

Unless you are going to run slicks, the factory suspension is perfectly set up for street tires, and only a tad soft for r-compounds, and complete mush with slicks.

With r-compounds and slicks you need to upgrade the airflow to the brake rotors (especially in the rear) and use significantly higher temperature pads with fresh fluid.

Slicks may also end up needing one step heavier weight oil in the tranny and xxW-50 oil in the motor. r-compounds would be right at the borderline, streets need nothing, here.

No particular reason to lower the car (it is ridiculously low for a street car anyway.) And if you did, you would want it corner weighted with the roll axis inclination set where the factory ride height would set it.

 

I personally think it would help a lot, but I'm no expert. Flex doesn't seem to be the problem, but squat and dive do.

 

Driver development is the best investment.

 

Q) What is the easiest way to slow a semi-novice driver down?
A) give him a car with 100 more HP!

Realistically, taking a pure novice driver who might be able to get around a track in 2:30, a driver on the verge of "getting it" is able to drive 2:15 while a driver who actually has gotten it can drive 2:06. All in the same car with the same tires and brakes.

Whereas the difference between a car set up for the street and a car with the suspension all tricked out for race track use might go 2:04 compared to the completely stock car at 2:06.

Thus, there is as much as 24 seconds to be gained by modifying the driver, and 2 seconds to be gained modifying the car. Which one should be modified first?

 

Adam Cox has lots of 355 Challenge experience. His shop Ace Motorsports is in Vista or find him at the track. He's at Willow Springs this weekend.

 

What tires do you plan to run? That really dictates a lot of the rest of the car.

For springs, you can go Fiorano springs from Ferrari or H&R springs. I think these would be the most agressive you'd want unless you're running full on slicks. I have the H&R on my car and it is well controlled. I would not go stiffer, it is nowhere near hitting the bump stops and sometimes is actually faster with the suspension in 'comfort' instead of sport (if it's a bumpy or wet surface). Stiffer might provide better feel but the car would slide around more and be slower.

You will need upgraded brake pads and good fluid. If you go slicks, you'll probably need bigger brakes. I'm running VIR Monday in my car and have Hawk HP Plus pads, will report back on how they hold up. Last time I ran stock pads and they faded badly after around 4 hard laps and I went straight off track (see video). The video also shows the body control on good street tires (Continental extreme DW's). I'm bringing Hoosier R6's with me and if the brakes hold up and it stays dry, will try them in the afternoon.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtfL9hLayIo[/ame]

 

Trackmaster, I really like it. It gives you gps based lap time and traces of your line. You really need an external BT module for it as phone GPS only update once a second and you need 5-10x per second updates for decent accuracy. I bought a Garmin external BT module that has 10hz recording that I'll be running monday and will post more video after that with more cameras and hopefullly some data overlay. I just need to figure out a way to record my engine rpms so I can mix that with the GPS and video data. I have an old GTECH I might try to get working if I have time that can record G forces, rpms etc. and then mash it all together.

I still have to put the Hawk pads on, bleed the brake fluid and change my gearbox oil, so who knows if I'll get to all that fun stuff.