Time for a break

I’m currently travelling out of country, so I’ll have to take a few month off go fast adventures !  Will be back at the end of the year =)

1st race of 2009, set fastest time in class then crashes the car

My little pit area next to a Viper trailer

Wow it’s been awhile since I updated the blog.  I’ve been busy with random stuff and preparing for a trip out of the country.  Some of you are probably wondering how my season is going.  Well, my 2009 racing season started and ended on the 1st race at willow springs.

Ready For Battle !

Ahh, it was quite an weekend…. On March 7, 2009 I competed in my 1^st NASA race of the year in the Time Trial D class..  Saturday I was on pace right away and kept getting faster every session, the car felt great with the RA1 tires, at the end of the day my time was 1.36.4, 1^st place in TTD, I’m a whole second faster than the 2^nd place car, a spec Porsche boxster.  Got a 1^st place trophy at the award ceremony, everyone was shocked a rookie won 1^st place, esp. since my time was only 1.5sec off the Scion factory backed car in a higher TTC class.  After looking over the datalog over night, I realized a 1.35 is definitely possible, maybe even lower !  So I went out Sunday determined to break the class record that was set in 2005.   Morning warm up session went great, I was already on pace at 1.37 flat 1^st session out.    Session 2 I started to push hard, on lap 3, going through turn 8 I pushed about 90% just barely lifting throttle, the rear end slid out alittle bit at 100mph at the apex, but it was an easy correction, I chuck it up to the track being cold and didn’t think too much of it, the day before the car sticks pretty well going through there flat out.  Actually I was thinking, damn I’m good, I can control any slide this car throws at me….. Yeah I’m an idiot ! I know…  The next lap, I went into turn 8 flat out with no lift.  At the apex, the car slid out again, oops, this time it was a much bigger slide, I caught the slide, but the car was still heading sideways towards the dirt at 120mph, I did all I could, and the car flew off track at 100mph.  I slide on the dirt in what seems like an eternity, and then finally impacted the plastic barrier, probably at about 40mph.

The redflagged the session, emergency crew came out, my door wouldn’t open, so I had to climb out the window.  They tow the car back into the pit, all 4 doors were dented, hood is damaged, front bumper is damaged beyond repair, driver side rocker panel is pushed in, both fenders are gone, quarter panels were dented.  The 3 was a tough little car though, I ziptied the bumper up, and drove all the way back to LA with no driverside mirror lol….  You shoulda seen the look on people’s face as they drove by me !   I’m okay surprisingly, I’m alittle sore this morning, but honestly I’ve had far worse crashes in karts…

So the lesson here is leave some margin for error in a highspeed turn like that, if the car goes in a slide in a place like that there’s only so much u can do.  This is quite an expensive lesson……………..

The Aftermath...

Unfortunately this means I have to say farewell to the car and my racing plans of 2009.  But fear not, the adventure will continue, stay tuned for more exciting projects !

Last but not least, the video of the incident

Mazdaspeed3 Willow Springs Crash

Mazdaspeed3 Mazdaspeed Coilover Impression

After driving my Mazdaspeed/K&W Variant 3 coilover in variety of conditions from LA freeways, downtown pot holes, mountain roads, and competing in NASA time trial.  Here’s my impression of the setup and some tips on optimizing the setup.

Installation:

Installation is pretty straight forward, just follow the supplied installation manual and Mazda shop manual.  One of the biggest handling improvement to Mazdaspeed3 is increasing the front negative camber.  However the coilovers do not come with camber plate, it was designed to fit the stock top hat.  I ordered the K-Mac adjustable top camber/caster plate from StreeUnit.com, and had Tri-Point make a custom adapter to fit the top hat onto coilover.

Jeff Wong at Tri-Point looked over the coilover, and proposed a cost effective solution.  It consist of a off the shelf Koni Upper Spring Perch (Part# 80.0000.0008), boring out the koni  perch center hole to clear the coilover shaft, then custom machine a spacer to fit the 60mm spring properly onto the 2.5” spring perch.  I also had them put in a Torrington bearing under each spring, this bearing allows the spring to rotate freely under compression, helping the suspension to work smoother.  This is a little trick that race car builders use on their McPherson strut suspensions.

Finished Coilover Assembly with KMac Camber/Caster Plate and torrington bearing

Once installed, I realized that the front lower control arm had very little clearance to the sway bar end.  I got a pair of adjustable end links from AWR Racing, and the problem was easily solved.

The last problem I encountered was that the KMac plates had tabs underneath to clear the shock tower on regular Mazda3, however since Mazdaspeed3 has a shock tower plate, the tab raises the camber plate too high.  Luckily the tabs were simply glued onto the plate, all I had to do was tap it with a flat screwdriver and it came right off.

Compare to other coilovers currently on the market for MS3, this setup gives you the best camber adjustment, since the top nut clears the shock tower, you can move it further underneath the shock tower for more negative camber.  In fact, if you were to go to the extreme, you can even cut off part of the bottom KMac clamping plate to get even more negative camber.

You can still install the stock strut tower plate by knocking off the 3 tabs underneath

Note that the orientation shown on the KMac manual is not the optimal position for negative camber.  Play around with the camber plate by rotating the bottom clamping plates, and you’ll be able to get the maximum negative camber plus a little bit more of caster as well.  This is a win-win situation.

Impression – Street:  Being a twintube shock made by K&W, it’s got the signature smoothness known for the products made by the German manufacture.  Despite the stiffer spring rate, the car was actually more pleasant to drive around town.  Even through rough patches of the road here in the city, the car was silky smooth.  Imo, this is an excellent shock for daily driving.

Impression – Track:  The spring rates are said to be 400lb/in front, and progressive in the rear up to 290lb/in.  Overall the on-track performance was average.  While a twintube shock has excellent characteristic over bumpy street roads, it also contribute to its downfall on track.  The shock was slower acting compare to a monotube shock, this gives the driver a vague feeling and more disconnected from the track.  The front grip felt good, the front spring rate is about right for a medium grip tire (Toyo RA1), however I didn’t like the rear, I felt it was too soft and could use a much higher spring rate.  Due to the ControlBlade rear suspension design, the rear spring is placed much further inboard, which reduces the motion ratio.  While the front wheel rate would be very close to the actual spring rate.  The rear motion ratio would’ve resulted in a wheel rate about 60% of the actual spring rate.  As you can see, the rear spring rate is very soft for a track setup.  Unfortunately the rear spring is not a standard diameter, finding a replacement spring will be difficult.  I used standard compression/rebound setting supplied by Mazdaspeed, and it was fine.  I didn’t feel an adjustment to damping could’ve improved the performance further.

Problems to watch out for:

Shock travel - our beloved MS3 weights nearly 1,000lb on each front corner.  This means we have to allow plenty of shock travel to prevent the shock from bottoming out (hitting the bump rubber).  Unfortunately due to the added height of the KMac clamping plate, and custom adapter, it took out abit of shock travel.  If I were to improve the setup further, the next step is to order a short and progressive bump rubber to allow for more shock travel.

Rideheight setting - I feel the Mazdaspeed manual reference rideheight setting was abit too low.  It placed the front control arm in a position where it lowers the roll center too much, thus causing a vauge steering feel in the corners.  I tested different front ride height settings in a local canyon road, and the best result was using a setting where the front lower control arm was about parallel to the ground, with the chassis side just abit higher than the hub side.  When the front was too high, the turn in was very positive, but the front end washes out afterwards.  When the front was too low, turn in was vague, and the steering feel changes through out the corner.

As you lower the chassis the roll center begin moving closer to the ground, and the distance between the roll center and center of gravity increases. This causes many bad handling effects, such as increased body roll, and migrating instaneous roll center.

Overall, I feel this coilover is an excellent for street/occasional track purpose.  It is the best setup on the market thus far for Mazdaspeed3.  The fact that it clears the shock tower and allows maximum negative camber adjustment for Mazdaspeed3 is a crucial advantage.  However, if you are building a serious track car, you’ll be better off with a true custom built racing shock.  (No surprise here !)

Mazdaspeed3 Racing Seat/Harness Install Write Up

The stock seats are great for driving your girlfriend around town, but to maximize the performance on the track, a racing seat/harness is a must. I went through 3 seat rails before I finally found the right setup that allows me to sit in a low position. Hopefully this write-up will help other Mazdaspeed3 owners to do it right the first time.

Parts to buy:

1. Racing Seat: I chose the Sparco Corsa seat for it’s superior lateral holding capability. It’s very comfortable and supportive, I would highly recommended to anyone.
2. Side Mount: Order Sparco Aluminum Side Mount (Part# 00490W)
3. Sparco Hardware Kit: Needed to mount the side mount onto the seat (Part# 50001)
4. Seat Slider: Sparco Flat Slider (Part# 00493), this slider gives you the lowest mounting position.
5. Seat Rail: Call Wendell at Wedge Engineering and order a driver side seat rail for Mazda3, specify you’ll be using it with Sparco Flat Slider, and also tell him your seat width measurement (install side mount on the seat and measure across from the middle of the bottom mounting holes). Since their rails use threaded mounting holes, ask him to include the 4 mounting bolts, they are the perfect size and are very strong.
   

   The Wedge Engineering rail turned out to be a very study piece.

6. Racing Harness: I chose Schroth Profi-II ASM. You can leave it in 4 point configuration for ease of use driving around town, and the ASM technology will prevent you from sub-marining (common with traditional 4pt belts) in an event of crash. For more information see HMS Motorsport. I also highly recommend reading the Schroth Competition Manual to understand proper mounting of racing harnesses.
7. Schroth B24 Bracket and SG11 Bolt: The Profi-II harness came with snap-in ends for use with eye bolts. Unfortunately the right side lap belt mounting point on this rail will not work with an eye-bolt in this configuration. If the eye bolt is installed with the eye on the right side, it will hit the tranmission tunnel. If the eye is on the left side, it blocks the side mount. So it’s necessary to convert the right side lap belt end into a bolt on bracket. It’s important to get the SG11 bolt, so that in a bolt on configuration, the harness end can still rotately freely.
   

   Schroth B24 Bracket. Watch HMS Motorsport's youtube video on how to dissamble the flexi-belt end.

   
   

   SG11 Bolt has a machined shoulder that will allow the B24 bracket to rotate freely.

8. Spacer or washers with ID just big enough to slide over the SG11 bolt but not go over the machined shoulder. This is needed in step 8 to clear the harness of the sharp edge.
9. Sparco Harness Bar for 02+ Subaru WRX (Part# 300175): Thanks for the Cobb Tuning guys who measured the B Pillar distance, it turned out the WRX harness bar from Sparco is a direct fit to Mazdaspeed3 as well ! You’ll also need a longer bolt than the supplied one, take out the stock mounting bolt from B Pillar, go to the hardware store and get 2 Grade 8 or higher bolts that are 1″ longer.
10. Schroth Profi Single Sub Strap: This is optional, I have to use it because NASA requires atleast a 5 point harness. I tried to use a 6 point sub-belt as well, but with the shape of the floorboard, it’s difficult to mount a 2 point sub-strap correctly. Installing this will require driling a hole on the floor board, and cut away the plastic AC vent under the seat.

Install: Now that we have the proper that are tested to work, installation is a breeze.

1. Begin by removing the 4 bolts that hold the factory seat rail down.
2. Reach down and disconnect the air bag sensor. (Push the ribbed tab in a downward direction to disengage the sensor)
3. Carefully remove the seat from the car
   

   Seat Removed

4. Mount side mount on to the seat first (this way the side mount won’t stress the fiberglass after bolted down)
5. Install Sparco flat slider on to the wedge rail
   

   Slider Installed

6. Install Sparco adjuster handle onto the 2 slider adjuster prong (you’ll have to bend the handle alittle bit to the right shape, and then use a rubber mallet to hammer it down, make sure it’s secure)
7. Install the seat onto the Sparco seat rail
   

   Seat Installed

8. At this time you should install the right side lap belt harness onto the rail. Convert the Schroth right side lap belt end into B24 bracket (follow instruction on here). Install the B24 bracket into the seat rail by using the SG11 bolt (the bolt will thread right into seat rail hole). Install the bracket on the outside, and point it away from the sharp edge to prevent damage to the belt when being used. I had to use a spacer to get enough clearance, I found the spacer in my partsbox, you can use washers or find a spacer in the hardware store, just make sure it slips over the the bolt thread, but doesn’t go over the machined shoulder, the shoulder allows the seat belt end to rotate freely.
   

   It should look like this after installed.

9. Go back to the car and install the Sparco Harness Bar, it’s pretty stright forward, follow the instruction here. I did not reinstall the driver side stock seat belt, because it no longer rotates freely. On the passenger side, I angled the upper seatbelt guide forward so that it doesn’t bind when being pulled, a better way to do it is to use the right spacer that’ll allow the seatbelt guide to rotate freely. **Take care to insure the harness bar is nearly horizontal with your shoulder, the harness should be installed at no more than a 20deg downward angle, for more information on this consult Schroth Competition Manual. Torque the top bolt to 57 ft. lbs.
10. Install an eye bolt in the left OEM lap belt bolt hole. This is also were you’ll be mounting the harness bar support. On the passenger side, the hole is there, you just have to cut the carpet to expose it. Torque the passenger side bottom bolt to 57 ft. lbs.
    

    Driver side installed

11. Install sub strap (optional): I had to install a 5th point sub-strap to fulfill NASA requirement. I had to cut enough carpet to expose the floor board, and cut off the plastic a/c vent piece. I then put the seat in position and marked approximately where the sub-strap should be mounted. On a 5 point harness, it’s recommend that the mounting point is inline with the upper body angle, or further forward. This is to prevent your family jewel from getting squashed in an event of crash. Consult Schroth Competition Manual for more information. I then removed the seat, took out the underbody plastic panel, and drilled a hole using 7/16 drill bit. Schroth sub-belt comes with an eye bolt and a reinforcement plate. Place the reinforcement plate under the car, and thread the eye bolt in from top. Use a screw driver to torque it down. Reinstall underbody plastic panel.
    

    Cut Off the A/C Vent

12. Now we can finally mount the seat into the car. Torque the 4 seat rail mounting bolts to 39 ft. lbs. Clip the left lap belt/sub-belt in place. Wrap the shoulder harness around the rear harness bar. Again refer to Schroth Competition Manual for proper wrapping instruction.
    

    Finished Install ! I'm not trying to make a fashion statement with the seat padding ! It's temporary until I shave off some height off the Sparco padding for a lower seating position.

    

    Note the shoulder harness adjuster are placed as rearward as possible to prevent getting caught in the event of a crash.

    Congratulations ! You’ve got your racing seat and harness installed in a safe maner. You are now ready to rock out on the track !

Willow Springs International Raceway Feb. 7-8, 2009

One thing I’ve learned about building Mazdaspeed3 for racing, on an untried platform, racing parts are few and far and in between.  I ordered the Mazdaspeed coilover from Mazda Motorsport back in November of 2008, as of late January 2009, it was still on back order !  Wayne @ Phase2motortrend.com came through after hearing about my coilover dillema.  He had a source that had a sets in stock, and was able to get it for me in just a week !  Go Phase 2 !  The Mazdaspeed coilover is a very high quality set manufactured by K&W, the damping can be adjusting in both compression and rebound separately.  After looking over the coilover, I realized that my front K-Mac Adjustable Camber/Castor plate will not fit correctly, unless a custom top hat is machined.  I called Jeff @ Tri-Point to custom make an adapter, sure enough a week later, I had the front coilovers back in my hand with the K-Mac Camber plate correctly fitted.  Now with only a week left before the track day at Willow Springs, and a busy schedule at work.  I decided to let Ken @ Performance Autoexpress to handle the install.  They are the only shop in this area that I trust to work on my car.  It also helps that they have an inhouse Hunter laser alignment rack, and corner weight scales.  It makes setting up suspension an easy one stop shop !  Just when I thought this saga is over, Ken calls me to tell me that the stock sway bar end links are alittle too long, and there’s very little clerance between the lower controlarm and the sway bar end.  It’s now Thursday afternoon, crap !  I was determined to get this done before this weekend, I called Tony @ AWR Racing, he had all the components in stock and was able to piece together a set asap, I had him overnight me a set of the shortest off the shelf links he had, it ended up being the Protege link.  Thumbs up to Tony for coming through on such a short notice !

The finished assembly, Mazdaspeed Coilover/KMac Camber-Caster Plate

Friday night, I picked up the MS3 from Performance Auto Express, luckily the sway bar end links got there in time.  Ken maxed out the camber/caster and we set the toe to slight toe out.  I ended up with -2.5 camber and 3.9deg castor (3.0 deg stock), not as much camber as I was hoping for, but it’s not too bad, and the additional castor is a nice surprise.  Rear camber ended up being -2, too much !  A Mazdaspeed or SPC camber arm would fix that, unfortunately that’s not allowed in my NASA TTD class next year.  I get home and measure the ride height, turned out the front ride height was too high compared to Mazdaspeed manual’s reference height, darn it, the camber plate plus the new adapter is thicker than stock, so I lowered it as much as I can, and then I realized the abs sensor bracket is unusually huge and prevents the lower spring perch from going all the way down.  I got the front ride height to be 10mm of the reference setting.  Ohh wellz, close enough.  Next time I’ll have to cut the abs wire bracket and lower the spring perch all the way.  The front ride height will still probably be a few mm too high, I’ll just raise up the rear to compensate.  So with ride height out of the way, I put on the Enkei wheels to see if it clears the coilover, oops the lower spring perch is so low now, it rubs the tire sidewall, f me ! it’s Friday night, I have no place to get a spacer.  I decided to just use the stock Potenza re050 tires for the whole weekend.  Next time I’ll have to use a 5mm spacer.  Maybe the little voice in the back of my head was right, Mazda3 just wasn’t build for racing.

Saturday morning, I get to willow springs, and the track is cold and wet.  My favorite !  This is the only place where the 3 feels somewhat tail happy, haha….  So I set off to learn the track that they call “The Fastest Road in the West”.  Being in big willow feels like a step back in time, they still have the original paintings for the Indy car garages.  The track itself is fairly straight forward, until you get to turn 8,  it’s darn scary, it’s a right hander bend taking at close to 110mph, I take it in top of 5^th gear with a slight lift…  I can feel the load being forced into the outside Potenza RE50 tires in a manner that I’ve never experienced at any other track, needless to say, it kept me on my toes the whole day, one small mishap here can lead to disaster !   Turn 9 is even worse, you are slowing down in top gear, while turning into a highspeed decreasing radius corner while keeping up speed, it’s very tricky to get it right.  In fact, I went off in Session 2, because I used alittle too much track on the outside.  LoL, the images of the Mullerized EVO crash flashed through my eyes !  Turn 1 and 2 were abit problematic in MS3 compare to other cars, as the front end is too heavy, and the tire washes out quickly.  It was difficult to carry speed in those corners.  Hopefully the RA1 will have enough grip to offset the weight.  Later in the day I met Sheng the ex-Asia Formula Renault driver, he’s a instructor at Speed Venture and was driving around in his wifes stock E46 M3.  He hopped in my car for a few laps and gave me some excellent pointers on the track.  Fastest lap of the day was a 1 min. 40 seconds.  That’s pretty good on stock tires, as the TTD class record at NASA for this class is 1 min. 35 seconds.  This should be no problem with Toyo RA1s.

Clint's Turbo Focus, possibly the Fastest Focus in the country !

This Ford GT looks incredible ! However the axle bolt somehow backed out... They had a near catastrophe !

A Noble M12 on slick tires with upgraded suspension. There's always some tuner out there to make your car go faster, if you can swing the price tag !

Insane Bimmer with slicks and force induction !

Mazda owner's hang out spot

Sunday morning I get to the track and it’s dry !  Hooray if only I brought r-compound tires.  By now my stock front tires were gone.  The outside front was severely chunked all the way to the cord, probably from the load it took in turn 2 and turn 8.  I decided to swap it to the inside rear, it will see the least load there.  By 2^nd session, I did a 1min 39sec !  yay !  My joy didn’t last long as the car developed a clunk on the right front corner.  This track is no place to risk mechanic problems, I jacked up the right front and looked around.  Turned out the top nut on the strut was loose, WTF !  the shock coulda came off on track !  I borrowed a impact wrench from Tony the crazy mazda6 showroom stock racer, and tightened it back up.  Good to go again !  My right front tire continues to chunk at an alarming rate now that the track is dry, I swap my last good tire on the outside front.  Over the weekend, I eventually chunked all 4 stock tires, lol……  As I tightend up the lugnut, I stripped yet another wheel stud !  WTF…  This time I’m 100% sure it’s not my fault, Mazda just uses seriously cheap material on the studs (or is it FORD?)  I jam the lug nut in, and hoped it will hold for the last few sessions.  I’ll use less torque on the lugnut next time, and if it happens again, I’ll replace them with ARP studs !

Tony the crazy racer drives a mazda6 at the SCCA showroom stock C class, his car has a full cage, it’s his daily driver, and he drives it to the track to race wheel to wheel ! Nuts ! Humm, what if I put in a cage, and ….

Brian showed up in a stock MS3 with Neova AD08 tires. He's building a MS3 for time attack and had camera crew documenting their progress.

I also met Ricardo, who used to work with Mazda rally/road race programs in the 70s/80s, he brought out his friend’s 1st gen RX7 with a Corvette LS1 motors ! the car is a total sleeper, it looks like a completely stock 1st gen rx7, until you start the engine !

It was interesting to talk to him about the rotary engine, he prefers NA rotarys with bridge/peripheral ports rather than turbocharging them. He says rotaries are simply not reliable when turbocharged at high boost level. I told him about my FD at home, and it was good to know that even Mazda gurus hates the FD sequential turbo vacuumlines, haha…

After Speed Venture, I headed over the to streets of willow to meet up with Sam and his Subaru crew.  Race flias got them pretty good, as everyone was having mechanical problems.  Sam somehow hits a cone on the track and it destroyed his undertray !  I met the tuners at Yami sport, who were respected ecu tuners in the Subaru community, they were interested in developing ecu tunes for Mazdaspeed3.  They explained to me that the newer cars are very complicated to tune due to the ecus having additional compensation fuel/igniton maps.  And it turns out the Mazdaspeed ecu has 16 ignition maps?  Wtf????  No wonder people were having so much problem with ecu flashes on the Mazdaspeed3.

Overall the weekend was very positive, I was able to get to grip with Willow Springs quickly and the new coilover is performing well.  Once I optimized the suspension setting, the car should be even closer to neutral.  Stuff to do before 1^st race March 7^th: cut abs sensor bracket and lower front ride height, loctite upper strut nut, dyno the car and submit to NASA for class approval.  Mount new RA1 tires in the front.  Order H&R 5mm spacers.  Replace wheel stud.  Corner balance the car.

Buttonwillow Raceway Jan. 2009

Buttonwillow Raceway Configuration 13 Clockwise

Nestled amongst fields of in Kern County California is Buttonwillow Raceway.  Many moons ago, Yokut Indians used this area as a meeting place identified by a lone button bush that resembled a willow tree.  Now-a-days Buttonwillow Raceway has become the Mecca of Californian go-fast enthusiast.  The track can be run in many configuration, configuration 13 has become especially popular with which several time attack records have been set.  It is therefore easy to evaluate a car’s performance level using this configuration.  Just for reference purpose, the HKS time attack monster EVO set a Super Lap Battle record of 1 min 43.523 seconds in 2007.  The NASA Time Trial D class, which I’m competing in this year, has a class record of 2min 5.96 seconds.  Having used Toyo RA1 r-compound tire for 2 previous track days, I was anxious to see how my Mazdaspeed3 will stack up to the rest.

Saturday

When I arrived at the track, it was enveloped in a thick cloud of fog, yes fog !  I can hardly see 10 feet in front of me.  I met up with go-fast buddies, Sam/Amy/Jon.  Sam just got hooked on the go-fast crack recently, he’s determined, and is upping the pace rapidly with every track day.  Amy drives the EVO X, she’s one of the few girls that actually takes her car out at the track, more props to her !  Jon has been modifying Subarus and coming to track days for years.  His latest project is a 2009 STi.

My MS3, Jon and Sam's STi

Around lunch time the fog finally cleared.  I hit the track immediately to maximize the track time.  The car is still on soft stock suspension at this point, it rolls around quite a bit.  The max camber without camber plate is at -1.3, which is too little for both the car and the tire.  Never the less, the car felt very planted.  I finally figured out a good line through the “Sweeper” corner, I found a patch of square black asphalt right at the turn in point, it’s a very solid reference point, I just have to move the steering once at the right place (right before the black square), fight the urge to unwind steering mid-corner as the radius change deceivingly, hold the line, and it will take me to apex point perfectly.  Saturday ended without much incident, some car got stuck in the mud due to the semi-wet condition, remember to install your tow-hooks for situations like this!  Afterwards, we went to a local Indian food restaurant and had some delicious curry, and washed it down with Kingfisher “go fast” beer.

Drink go-fast beer to help out the F1 slumdog !

Sunday

Ken's S14

More go-fast buddies arrive at the track.  Ken show up in his drifter turned road racer Nissan S14.  His car has been extensively modified,  it’s powered by a SR20DET engine, and every single suspension arm has been replaced with aftermarket pieces with heim joints.  Eddie shows up in his ubber-$$$ NSX, it has been modified with JRZ suspension, Voltex wing, Toyo R888 tire, Comptech header, Tai-Tec Exhaust, and slew of other exotic go fast brands.  Sam ran into a hiccup with his ECU, and had to call it a day early.

Got Wings?

Continuing with the progress I made the previous day, my times kept getting faster throughout the day.  The new G2X data acquisition w/ lap timer is a great help, I can now cycle through the lap times as soon as I get off track.  The display dash can be configured to display a variety of real-time parameters such as (speed, lap time, diff. to best lap, rpm etc.).  Using the MPH display, it was easy to gauge my exit speed coming out of corners.  I’ve found a peculiar way to drive fast with the stock suspension.  On fast corners, the small steering movements made the car difficult to turn in at the right line.  I found that I could turn in early with just a tiny bit of steering movement which presets the stock suspension, and follows that with my normal steering input, this made the car felt much more  responsive, and I was able to hit the correct line while carrying more speed through the fast corners.  My fastest lap time of the day was a 2 min 6.5 seconds.  I was pleasantly surprised, I expected to be in the 2min 7-8 second range on the stock suspension.  Now that I’m already in the 6 second range, I should be able beat the class record easily come race day with coilover suspension installed and more front neg. camber.

The aftermath..

The front brake pads are completely worn down to the metal, I have to use ebrake to get around town right now, lol…..   Need to get a set of rotors asap, already have a new set of carbotechs on order.  I noticed even with the Motul RBF600, my brake pedal still gets soft toward the end of the day, infact at the end of Sunday it was to the floor.   I think it might be the OEM lines, I’m going to replace those with stainless steel lines.

And now the moment you’ve been waiting for

2 Laps Around Buttonwillow Configuration 13

MS3 4 month 5 track days, my thoughts, and 2 laps around buttonwillow

So now that I’ve owned my 2009 Mazdaspeed3 for about 4 month, it’s got 6,000 miles on the clock, I’ve done 5 track days in preparation for NASA Time Trial Competition next year.  The car has exceeded all my expectations on the track, it has no problem keeping up pace with higher class cars.  In fact, it’s main strength is the incredible amount of torque to pull out of slow corners.

Here are a list of simple modification that’ll make the car much more track friendly

1. Brake Pads and Brake Fluid.  The stock brake pads are like endurance pads, they don’t have that much bite, but stays fairly consistent for normal track day usage.  The stock fluid however will boil within a few laps if you are trying to maximize your braking, which is to be expected with OE fluid.  The 1st thing you should do before going to track is flush out the brake fluid with high temperature brake fluids, I like ATE Superblue or Motul RBF600.  Remember that the racing fluid will absorb moisture quicker, so flush them often.  I flush them before every track day.

For brake pads, i’m a big fan of the Carbotech pads, they have very good bite and modulation, very consistent, and very little dust.  I’m using XP8 Front/AX6 Rear pads, these are race pads and are very noisy on the street (imagine a big bus with bad brakes, that’s what it sounds like on the street).  I recommend their Bobcat pads for the street, I’ve used them in the past in my Subaru Autox car, and they were excellent street pads.
http://www.ctbrakes.com

2. Brake pedal.  The stock pedal are spaced too far apart for easy heel/toe.  On track, it’s all about making the driver’s effort easier and more efficient.  I recommend installing SOK07’s custom replacement gas pedal.  It’s a very nicely machined piece that’s curved to match the OEM pedal.  In my opinion every MS3 track driver should have these, they make heel/toe 100 times easier !
http://www.mazda3forums.com/index.php?topic=99230.0

3. Tires.  The stock tires will hold you back big time on the track.  Get some proper high grip tire if you want to run with the fast pack.  Some of the popular streetable tires are “Dunlop Direzza Starspec”, “Falken Azenis RT615″, “Bridgestone RE01R”, “Advan NEOVA”, “Toyo R1R”.  Or if you can bring a separate set of wheels to the track, you can mount r-compound tires on those, “Toyo RA1, Toyo R888, Nitto NT01R” etc.
I’m using Toyo RA1s 235/40/17, mounted on 17×8 +48 Enkei RC-T4 Tarmac wheels.  This setup will in effect make the gearing shorter, requiring you to shift more around the track, however the car will accelerate quicker, and around buttonwillow this places the car in a better power band IMO.  I’m still testing this area of the car, some of the thing I plan to try are narrower width rear tire for better rotation, and 45 profile front tire.

4. Alignment.  Due to the car’s McPherson strut front suspension, it’s dying for more negative camber.  i was able to get -1.3 camber in the front by loosening the top strut bolts, and pushing it all the way.  Max out the front neg. camber to whatever you can, this will make a world of difference on this car.  I recommend 1/8th toe out front, and 0 toe rear, note due the soft front springs, the car dives quite a bit during braking, and having front toe out makes the front end wonder alittle under hard braking.  This should not be a problem if you have stiffer front springs.  If you prefer more stability under braking use 0 toe front instead.  I plan to test out rear toe out in the future, for more rotation.  The stock setting had quite bit of toe in all around, which makes the car safe (understeer), but not fast !

5. Turn off DSC/TC completely on dry track.  I’ve tested all 3 modes, with DSC/TC on, the car doesnt’ rotate well, not fun !  With just the DSC off (pressing DSC button when the car is on, DSC light illuminates in the cluster), the car felt much more neutral handling.  With DSC/TC completely off (holding DSC button with the engine off, then start engine while holding it down, both DSC and squirely car light illuminates), the car felt even better !
On the wet track, it is faster with DSC/TC on.

And now for the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPag1rq2Vgw

Happy motoring !

Randy