SCCA STU build

[Frampton]

ok so i found out i'm at 1/16" toe out up front. i chalk that up to inexperience with setting up suspension and alignments, learning something new everyday... rears look like they have a slight toe in.

had the car corner balanced on saturday, cars sitting at 3315 without me in the car and 3471 with me in the car. Perfect 50/50 left to right. 52.x% Front as well cant remember the actual fraction on that percentage with me in the car.

i get my new star specs to replace the kumho's for my stock wheels on wednesday and will be doing an on track alignment. We're going to spend about 4 hours messing with the camber caster and toe to dial the car in for the track i usually run. may or may not be a good setup for autox but i put a whole lot more miles down at the race track and hope it transfers over.

i cant wait to get some track time in this week on the new suspension, ive only been able to play around with it on the street...

my next auto x is on the 26th, should ahve some time to dial it in for that.

[pixelblue]

your toe specs are spot on. who told you they are not good?

[Frampton]

i had originally thought it was toe in and got questioned numerous times asking why it wasn't toe out. i verified the alignment specs as toe out up front and toe in in the rear.

Just apologizing for my inexperience on alignment specs misrepresenting what i thought my setup was earlier in the posts.

[Frampton]

Ran my second autox yesterday in STU. This time i came with the suspension setup and was finally somewhat competitive! Placed 4 out of 5 in STU and 3 out of 5 in Double (Pax). I ran 1.699 seconds off the leading STI driven by Rob from COBB, 1.49 seconds behind Jon from COBB also driving the same STI as a double driver, .403 seconds behind another STI. I did beat 1 other STI by .569! All of these guys have waaaaay more seat time then me so I was really excited to get this close. I was almost 6 seconds behind them all in my first event. And i shed time all day long yesterday. Slowly but surely!

Few things i learned... I need bigger front tires. 225 dunlop star specs are not enough tire to turn this car. Dunlop star specs get worse as it gets hotter. 36psi front was ideal for the tire wear indicators and 33psi rear. I need a touch more negative camber up front. Going to look into making offset bushings for the LCA's up front though. Running about a half turn off full stiff in the rear made the car absolutely planted.

Question of the day... Where will the LSD help me make up time? I'm not having any traction issues in the rear end as of yet?

Oh and don't let the car wash place use tire wet the day before a race...

[Focusedintntions]

Adding a few more psi to the rear tires will help the rear end rotate a bit more. I run lower front psi and higher rear. 35 Front with 38 rears when hot and it really helps with understeer.

[Frampton]

Cool, I'll give that a shot next month! Thanks

[gotcone.com]

Did you ever find anything out on the Sparco seat mounts? I'm signed up for Nationals in 2 weeks and want to drop some weight and have a Sparco seat sitting around, so might as well throw it in if I can.

[fourtailpipes]

whats the seat question? i've done a bunch of racing seat installs in various cars. i've never once had a good experience using sparco floor mounts. they've always been flimsy. VAC and macht schnell make nice robust CNC floormounts for bimmers. leave out the sliders if you can and bolt the sidemounts straight to the floormounts if you dont need the seat to slide.

the accessory brackets that claim to allow you to bolt up your oem seatbelt often cause clearance issues against the tranny tunnel (meaning you may have to choose between using the oem seatbelt receptacle and having your seat centered to the steering wheel.

[gotcone.com]

Was looking for a Sparco mount, but Sparco doesn't list anything for BMW newer then 2004... so didn't know which mount to use.

[fourtailpipes]

i don't think sparco makes a floormount for us anyway, but rest assured if they did, you wouldn't want it. the sparco floormounts are very flexy (the applications i've seen). you're much better off with one of the nice CNC milled pieces. (i don't know if VAC offers them, but Macht schnell definitely does).

if you must use sliders, try out the recaro double-locking sliders. they're the best i've seen. the sparco sliders have a lot of play in them and may result in a shaky and/or rattling seat.

[gotcone.com]

I've used sparco floor mounts and sliders in our STi and never had an issue. Thanks for the input, will take a look at the Matt Schnell mounts.

[fourtailpipes]

Originally Posted by gotcone.com

I've used sparco floor mounts and sliders in our STi and never had an issue. Thanks for the input, will take a look at the Matt Schnell mounts.

i'm very particular about removing flex/play from racing seats. some people may not notice as much as i do.