Ade

Car Setup Northampton Motorsport Having had the Ohlins on the car for about 6 weeks, I was looking for somewhere to get the car setup properly. I heard about Northampton motorsport and noticed on their web they have a hunter laser alignment setup, so I called them and got the car booked in. Chris Robinson is the setup guy who deals with setup and alignment. He's a very approachable guy and answered me with a friendly tone when I was questioning his actions. They have helped setup anything from Renault Cilo's to Formula open wheel race cars. It was good to see they appreciate good suspension too I had a clear idea of what I wanted to try first but Chris was able to explain the pro's and cons of different suspension bushes and setups. It was really informal stuff, and I have a good idea what bits I might want to change in the future. We also talk a bit about the Cosworth SC kit too and it turns out its not the first time they've had a Cosworth GT86 in there as Cosworth is right around the corner First thing was to get the car corner weighted. Here's the car on the scales with half a tank of fuel. 1255kg is not too shabby. 58% over the front wheels. The aim is to get the cross LF/RR to have 50% of the car weight over them, with me in the car seat. We managed to get it within 0.2% Next we moved onto alignment. It appears the front struts have been setup to toe out slight as they compress as I had a lot of toe out, nearly half a degree. I decided to got with a slight toe out as it seems to give a bit more feel on turn-in. Front camber was set to 2.5 degrees and we'll see what the tyre temp spread looks like and adjust from there. The rears do the opposite, they toe in as they compress, so I had a bit of toe in but within spec. We reduced it slightly. Rear camber was, predictably, half a degree out from side to side, so I have 2 degrees negative camber one side and only 1.5 the other side. We discussed using the whiteline upper arm bushes to sort this out. We also discussed the pro and con of adding Castor to the front so I might go with the white caster bushes too. We'll see on that one. Here the Alignment Sheet: Car feels a bit more stable, steering's a bit lighter. I'll see how I feel with this setup after a few track days and take it from there. On the rig

Ohlins Install Obligatory pics Front strut. These have approx. 85mm free travel + ~12mm bumpstop giving approx. 26mm bump travel at the wheel under the cars weight. (I probably have +20kg from the SC install) Rear shock. These have approx. 60mm free travel and ~12mm bumpstop giving approx. 28mm bump travel + bumpstop travel. (note this is with 400lb/inch rear springs). Front strut mounted up I forgot to take pictures of the rear dampers mounted up before putting the wheel back on I didn't have any difficulty getting off the front drop links at all. They were a bit rusty but a good wire brush, soaking in WD40 and one turn anti, half a turn clockwise did the trick. It lives in a garage so perhaps hasn't seen as much salt as most cars. I can certainly see how they could be difficult, all other bolts were still shiny compared to the drop link threads. Pretty happy with these. They do have limited travel over large stuff but if you can stay within the available bump travel they are very nicely damped on any setting. 8 clicks is my preferred setting at the moment.

Oil Cooler So decided that my oil-to-air cooler wasn’t the best solution for my car as I do some shorter journeys. Even though I had a 99C thermostatic plate there was still some flow though the radiator at lower temperatures. This led to the oil to take longer to warm up, which for my shorter journeys meant that I had to go for a hoon to warm the oil up to >80C An option I had previously considered was the use of the Forester DIT oil cooler, which his basically an oil-to-water cooler which sandwiches between the oil filter and engine block. You basically splice a couple coolant lines to pass the coolant though the cooler. As the coolant warms up quicker, this has the added benefit that it heats the oil up quicker and cools it once it starts getting hotter than the coolant. Our cars have a large coolant radiator and it is well controlled by the thermostat with plenty of headroom so the extra heat from the oil is compensated for by the thermostat allow more flow through the coolant radiator. After looking through the ft86club it appears that the forester cooler struggles on cars with force induction and very hot days. One of my work colleagues mentioned that his car has a Mocal Laminova which might give more thermal capacity than the forester cooler. So I had a look and found a post on the ft86club where someone has sliced one into the coolant pipe going from the block to the radiator. For anyone interested there is more info here: http://www.mocal.co.uk/FAQ.html Installation Here you can see the outlet on the engine and the inlet on the radiator: Here’s the original pipe and the Mocal Laminova next to it: and spliced into the pipe: Using the original Mocal sandwich plate was not desirable as it has the thermostat, but also with very little clearance it was difficult to route the oil pipes down to the cooler. It can be done though, but I wanted something tidy. I found that mocal do a sandwhich plate with M18 banjo fittings, but I was concerned about oil pressure loss through a small ports turning right angles. Then I found the Mishimoto sandwich plate with M22 fittings which looked more appealing. They also provided pressure drop data for the Subaru WRX cooler (similar to the GT86 one) which showed 5psi in 90psi drop through the two banjo fitting and the radiator. So here it is all fitted: I have to say the Mishimoto item is very nicely finished with nice smooth machining. While I was at it, I added a sandwich plate with a few 1/8npt sensor ports and moved the pressure gauge sensor. This will give me pressure reading after the cooler. All done: While it was at it I gave the bay a clean and #becausecosworth J Testing While at Bedford yesterday I had my tablet plugged in displaying/logging some temperature data. Here the first session. I was taking it easy learning the circuit. Unfortunately I left the tablet on and the charging cable didn't work very well so I only got data from the morning session. Here's the last session where I was up to pace: Quite impressed that oil stayed below 110C. I will have to see what temperatures look like in hotter conditions, but if the temps stay below 120C I may consider going back to 0W20 oil as my oil pressure was about 7Bar (100PSI) which might be unnecessarily high. Also note that Intake temps hovered around +15C over ambient for the whole 32 minutes. The dip in the middle is where I started short shifting to let the brakes cool down a bit. Air flow is my friend. I noticed intake temps went up a few deg C when following the Golf R32 down the back straight.

Even the box is lovely Bumper offIntake manifold removed, rerouted wiring looms, add fuel line banjo and removed breathersManifold ready to fit to car with injectors, thottle body and EVAP fitted. It took ages becuause I was cleaning all the green goo off which Subaru went to town with. And fitted in car: Finished On to the exhaust I bought this system for a few reasons:1) Sounds amazing 2) Very well made with V band bandclamps3) 3inch diameter means that if I want to go full stage 3 350+HP in the future the cat back supports this kind of power.4) I can use the Cosworth stage 2.1 calibration with the SC kit.Some sexy welds: and a short soud clip

Looking forward to this. Looks like there might be a bit of mist in the morning. 6deg temps. My primacies are going to need some warming up.

I cant believe there has been no mention of the Pilot Super Sports?

yeah 2-3 seconds in a 2minute lap is the same as changing from primacies to a performance tyre! In many ways they improve the ride as the damper and spring can react faster to the road. A heavier wheel/tyre helps when hitting bumps but over pot holes they are worse as the wheel doesn't react as fast. Generally you would adjust damping to match the wheel/tyre combo.

They do look good. Kinda remind me of a Ferrari

Its a bit of a compromise really. Some of the light wheels arnt to my teste. I used to really like the Enkie RSF5 until I found out how feckin heavy they are. And im not fond of the Enkie RPF1 which are very light and cheap

There are middle of the road flow formed wheels such as the OZ HLT, Weds Sport TC105, 720Form ect that are strong and light and not crazy money. I'd love to see/read that test on wheel weights. 2-3 seconds in a 2 min laps sounds far too extreme from my experience. As does 0.5second 0-60 improvement.

Guys having lightweight wheels and tyres isn't just about rotational mass. Its also about how much mass the spring and damper have to control over bumps. Imaging going over a pot hole, as the ground drops away the aim of the spring and damper is to keep weight on the wheel and thus grip. The weight of the control arms, brakes and wheels affect how fast that spring force is able to push the tyre down the ground. The high speed damping also has a huge affect on that.

Yep pretty much the same story for me. There is a thread somewhere, where he talks in detail about their testing procedure.

Not yet, waiting till March payday for that, but I've already sorted out access to a workshop, will be self-fitting with my Dad's assistance :-) Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk Cool. We'll chat on monday but if you have any questions or queries during the install you can pm me or message Matt Feasey. Cheers

Best to email them for a quote as like Dan, I got a good discount in Jan sales. It also depends if piston are okay or need replacing, and if the nipple come out easily or if they are seized and what kind of paint service you want. There are lots of options....

Ooooo so you have the SC kit?

I've been waiting for my wheel since December Specs: 18x9 et35 18.5lb (8.4kg) Paired with 245/45 Michelin Pilot Super Sports they should weigh a fraction less than stock rims with primacies. Not bad for a 18" rim that's 2 inches wider than stock! Going for 17" would have saved a bit more but I've got a set of AP racing 356mm brakes to fit them over (which are also lighter than stock). Will post pics once they arrive in the next few weeks

Just noticed they are at BCS. They've had a couple set my of calipers for a while now. Apartently very busy at the moment....

Hit the nail on the head there Lauren. Though there has been talk on the US forum about the flex Z and Flex A needing to be rebuilt (or new inserts for the Z) if you use them a lot on the higher damping settings. It's all talk though.... Would be interesting to see what the shock dyno looks like for yours compared to new after the mix of driving you've done on them. Also Ohlins recommend their Road and Track DFV to be rebuilt every 30,000km or 10 hours of racing for optimum performance! which is not exactly a long time! something about cake again.....

Wow Rob what a feckin Pelava! I can confirm on a number of occasions my battery has gone completely flat (at least 10 times I reckon - need to get my battery replaced really) and I've been able to get in with the key no problem. There is a mechanism to release the lock.

I like sponge

A 50mm bump is not that big. Plenty of crappy UK roads have bumps like that. I've bottem out front and back on mine during quick B road driving. I wasn't trying to rub In the fact I have the Ohlins and therefore my opinion is more valid, because its not. Sorry if it came across that way. Just trying to explain the fact that they are also compromised in terms of bump travel even at that price. Obviously valving plays a part too, but if its close to critical damping, the compression damping wont save the jolt from hitting a bumpstop hard. Thankfully the Ohlins are setup with more rear travel so the front bottoms out first which means you are less likely to lose the backend first. Cake is good when you can eat it though The Ohlins TTX stuff is stunning.

lol true. I now cant get that image out of my head....

This is simply not true. Find some bumps that are more than 50mm and hit them at speed. You'll find stock is much more comfortable due to not bouncing off the bumpstops. I'll put my hand up. I've spent 2.5k on coilovers that are supposed to be "Rolls Royce" of coilovers and I will tell you the same is true. They are great as long as you don't hit the bumpstops hard. However, in terms of handling, especially on a smooth track they shine. Its all a compromise. You simply cant have your cake and eat it. The cheaper you go the more compromise you make. Spending £500 on fixed purch dampers, without top mounts, without all the height adjustments will absolutely give better performance than a £500 coilover with all the bells and whistles.. The koni shocks are £130 per corner for the GT86. The new Teins have the same technology as the type flex, but the newer ones have the reworked valving. You can see from the dyno graph they are a more digressive shock = better.

Most of them don't like suction mounts. I tent to fix my phone tightly inside the middle storage tray plugged into the lighter for charging. Yes you can get GPS and acceleration data from it, but I never bother. The racechrono looks good though. I've only been asked once and I said its just to monitor temperatures after a session so I can see if anything is getting a bit hot/dangerous.

Just looking at the front: Tein Flex A's have 25mm bump + 12mm bumpstop and the HBS. Assume half the stop is compressible, you've got 31mm. Stock has 33mm travel and a large progressive 60mm bumpstop. If we assume half the bumpstop is active you have 63mm bump travel. There is a reason the car sits so high in stock form. Again you cant have your cake and eat it with suspension. Everything is a compromise. My Ohlins only have about 28mm free travel and 25mm bumpstop. Giving around 41mm bump travel. Of course bump travel isn't everything, but it does play a part on rough bumpy British B roads. The reason high end dampers have external oil reservoirs is because it allows the shock to have more travel. The ohlins TTX on the TMG Cup GT86 has about 30mm more bump travel than the ohlins Road and Track which means you can really take on the curbs aggressively without the car bouncing all over the place.