Wickedrx7's build, L99-Magnum F, Ronin 8.8 - Finally enjoying the car!

[largeorangefont]

Those wheels look great!

[paul_3rdgen]

Looks really good!  Perfect fitment[emoji106]

[frijolee]

Nicely done Jon, those are classy.

[1point3liter]

those wheels look nice

[wickedrx7]

Thanks guys! I need to rent a fender roller locally and get them rolled before I drive it.

[wickedrx7]

So I am terrible at updating my thread but I did got to the track!  Car ran great but cracked both my rear rotors.  Here is my best lap I've found so far.  As a reference, A GTR with a very competent driver was running in the mid 1:19's. 

https://youtu.be/GFBzNoBg9YE

[paul_3rdgen]

Looks like fun..... What was your best lap time?


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[wickedrx7]

Looks like fun..... What was your best lap time?


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1:20.83 is what I have found as my fastest so far but have some more video to go through.  I was consistently in the high 1:21's and 22's. The car was unbelievably balanced and felt great.  I am very impressed with the Ohlin's shocks and the Dunlop Star specs. I don't need to change anything, just need to work on my consistency. 

Need to address the rear brake rotor issue, pretty sure I am going to pull the trigger on the SakeBomb rear brake kit. Here are a couple pics.

[paul_3rdgen]

Car looks good!  what front brakes are you using?

[largeorangefont]

Hell yes nice work.

You need to remove the dust shields. That probably cracked because the outside cooled faster than the inside.

A small cooling duct would likely eliminate the problem.

[wickedrx7]

Hell yes nice work.

You need to remove the dust shields. That probably cracked because the outside cooled faster than the inside.

A small cooling duct would likely eliminate the problem.

Thanks. I was really impressed with the car.

I do still have the dust shield on and yes, only the outside cracked. So you think just a cooling duct and removing the shield would do the trick? Would be a lot cheaper than buying sakebombs rear kit. http://www.sakebombgarage.com/sbg-competition-rear-brake-system-fd3s-rx-7/

The concern with that rear kit is that I might need a proportion valve.

Paul- I am running Pettit racings old kit with outlaw calipers. It actually works really well. I am running dtc-6O front pads and dtc-10 rear pads. The brakes where working great, no fade or issues.

One more question, I am getting pretty good wear on the inside of the tires and there were considerably hotter than the outside. I am assuming less camber? I can't find my current settings but I thought they were pretty conservative. Maybe 2.0 front and 1.5 rear.

[largeorangefont]

Yea first off get a good set of blank rotors. Centric Premium, or High Carbon if they make them.

You might be able to use the dust shield to make a cooling duct. If so, leave it on, but in lieu of that pull off the dust shield. Rotors typically crack because of temp change from side to side. The outside will typically cool faster than the inside, and a crack will result. A small cooling duct will even out temps across the rotor. Pulling the dust shield will allow the inside to cool a bit faster, hopefully keeping them from cracking. My rears brakes run hot but I've only cracked 1 rear rotor and that was because I was having another braking problem and over used the rear brakes.

If you did get the SBG kit I would try to balance the brakes with the pads before going with a prop valve.

Yes it sounds like you have a bit too much camber if you are getting more inner wear. The car is not understeering and scrubbing the tires is it?

[wickedrx7]

Not a ton of options for the rear rotors, thinking of going with StopTech: http://www.tirerack.com/brakes/brakes.jsp?make=StopTech&model=Sport+Slotted+Rotor&group=Sport+Slotted+Rotor&partNum=126.45051PSL&autoMake=Mazda&autoModel=RX-7&autoYear=1993&autoModClar=

I am going to trim down the backing plate but leave the center section to use as part of the cooling duct.  I think some small ducts will help a lot...

As for handling, it does understeer if I don't unload the front suspension in the corner.  The rear feels great from the standpoint of putting the power down. I saw higher inside temps on the rear tires as well.  I am thinking of pulling .5 degree out of the front and rear.

As a side note, do you do your own alignments? Of pay a shop?

[largeorangefont]

Good news is that Stoptech is Centric so the rotors themselves are quality.

Hit aircraft spruce for some cheap and lightweight flanges to make your backing plates into cooling ducts. They offer ducting too. 1.5 to 2 inch will probably work. 3 inch will get tough to package.

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/pages/ep/ducting/ductflanges.php
https://www.aircraftspruce.com/categories/aircraft_parts/ap/menus/ep/ducting.html

What are your toe settings? From that short description and what I can see in your video it sounds like the car is on the tight side,which will scrub the tires and get them hot. I like to get the car to be ideally neutral off power or just a *slight* hint of understeering off power. You want to be able to let off the gas and point the car right where you want it to go. Then after the car takes a set in the corner continue to add rotation with throttle... Too much throttle will jump to oversteer. That cushion between on power rotation and oversteer (or loss of grip from all 4 tires) is my safety net and gives me something to lean on in a corner. Obviously the quicker you can get back to the gas on exit he faster your times will be.

I would adjust your toe settings too, probably even more than your camber. When you reduce toe in it will free up the car it will rotate more with less wheel input and that is what you want. If you are going through corners and turning the wheel more and more to get the car to turn, or if you turn the wheel more and the car does nothing you are just putting extra heat and wear into the tires. What bushings do you have in the car? I'd run nearly no toe up front, or slight toe out if you have harder bushings. Rear toe is really critical. These cars have so much power you need toe in for stability, but with too much the car will be too tight and won't want to change directions or turn well.

Next time you go out mark your tires with a paint pen or shoe polish and see how much of the outer sidewall you are using. This will help tell you if you need to adjust camber and/or toe.

For alignments I actually pay a shop $40 and they let me use their alignment rack.
I have done them myself as well. I made a camber gauge with a digital angle finder and bought a set of toe plates on eBay. It's about $60 worth of stuff.

For next season I'll be taking out a slight amount of front camber and corner balancing the car a bit better.

[wickedrx7]

So my current setup is:
-2.0 front camber
1/16" toe, total of 1/8"
-1.5 rear camber
1/32 rear toe, 1/16" total

I just went through Howard Colmans suspension thread and he recommends -1.2 camber front and rear.  I am not sure what to do with Toe..  Thoughts?