Ade

If you are getting judder, its likely the pads getting too hot and literally smearing compond on the disc surface. Not ideal but should wear off with a bit of street driving. I had juddering using the Project Mu HC+ after my first track day with them. Ultimately you need race pads for prolonged sessions as the thermal capacity of the stock system is not good enough to keep temps down. The stock pads will stop you just as fast and well as anything aftermarket...until they start fading... I was gutted as I caught up with Alec and had to slow down becasue the pads were beginning to fade

Mike - how did the stock pads fare for you at Oulton park? My experience of the stock pads is the like Lauren; they fade after about 10 mins (depending on the track) and smoke/fall apart. I have Project Mu HC+ 800 at the moment. They do lack bite when cold, but after a few stops, once they get warm, they work well enough and on track I was able to work them at Snetterton for 20+mins before any signs of fade. Ferodo DS2500 are a slightly more road compromised pad than the proejct mu HC+ 800. I think the DS2500s work up to about 500C whereas the Project Mu is 800C (I had signs of fade at Oulton). I should point out that all pads are able to lock the wheels up, even when cold, you just have to push the pedal harder, and lack feel. The HC+800 lack bite as you drive away (cold car), but after a few meduim stops at traffic lights you feel them come alive. For me this is not much of a compromise. For sprints as ling as there is some warm in the pad they will be great. EBC Yellow Stuff seem popular, but I have zero experience with those. I think Alec said he had those on his car? I do admit I am quite heavy on the brakes. When I got the car I painted the calipers with 300C caliper paint. Best of the best stuff. I burned them quite quickly. This is them now:

If the oil doesnt get hot enough, excess water in the oil will emulsify compromising its lubrication performance. In your case, its probably okay as long as you regularly get oil above 100C for a appreciable amount of time. It might be a problem if for a prolonged period of time, and many journeys, you dont get the oil above 100C. Oil pressure starts dropping after 100C. As I stated befroe I was seeing ~5Bar at 7k rpms at 100C with 0W20 (no cooler) Unfortunately at 130C this dropped to abot 3.5Bar and at 139C (max temp I reached on track) less than 3Bar. It is a bit concerning entering a fast, long corner at high revs and looking at your 10Bar guage and seeing 2.5Bar!

Well yes something like the KW3, you basically wind up the spring (add preload) to lower the ride height. Not ideal as you lose droop travel. If you want truely adjustable preload, without affecting ride hieght you need to be able to adjust the position of the mounting point like the HKS, ohlins or Tein to name a few.

You can definitly go faster with VSC in sport mode; a bit of rear end movement can be helpful. It all depends on confidence levels. 4 wheel drfiting can be scary and exciting. Jolyon was 4 wheel drfiting the TMG cup car yesterday, it was amazing. Some the guys/girls here are very good drivers and enjoy turning it all off, but if you are a novice and find the VSC is interfecting alot, when you least expect it, then perhaps you should work on that not happening first.

IMO those oil temps are too low. You really need to get as close as possible to 100C to boil off any water. Toyota did thousands of hours of R&D and they designed the engine to run close to 100C at crusing temps. The problem with thermostatic sandwich plates is that 1) they open at too low a temp and 2) they have leakage even when the thermostat is switched off. You dont need an oil cooler if you are sprinting or daily driving. Its 20min+ track sessions that you have the problem massive oil temperatures. The best oil cooler for daily driving and sprinting is the FA20 DIT conversion (as fitted to the subaru forester) which has an oil to water element. What that means is the oil heats up quicker (the water heats it up to approx 90C) then once it goes higher than the water, it is cooled. Do I ahve data? no? is it heresay? think what you want but thats what subaru engineers did to a turbocharged FA20.

ah right I was thinking of the cas cam plates anyway 0 whcih dont lower anything!. Those rear ones can fit aftermarket coilovers though. That's particularly useful to add stroke to coilovers that adjust height by adding preload. If you use tein, HKS, Ohlin ect.. where ride hight is adjustable independantly of pre load they arnt worth it.

Spec K is right. I'll just confirm the TMG car has the stock oil Sump (got a close look today) and then I wont share anymore But yes I do track (hence the 139C oil temp and 40PSI oil pressure!), yes I do have 5W40 in my car. No oil cooler yet though - need measurements of the cossy manifold first.

Square setup is safe. If you look at the higher end track orientated teins they are staggered: Monosport: 8kg front, 9kg rear Tein SRC: 10kg front, 12kg rear Ohlins are 6kg square and very safe. But they can accept 25% firmer springs on the back without needing to send them off to be shimmed. Many of the higher end coilovers have a much bigger usable range of adjustment which makes it easier to mess with spring rates.

Thats good to know, where did you find that info? They offer 5, 6.2 and 7.5kg fronts and 7.2, 7.9 and 8.7Kg/mm rear as options for their coilovers. http://www.trdparts.jp/english/86_performanceline/parts_suspension.html

20% stagger as in 20% firmer rates in the rear. As decon has pointed out, motion ration at he front is 1 but at the back it is 0.75. What this means is that to have equal wheel rate (as in the effective rate of the wheel rather than the spring) front and back, the rear spring rate have ot be 78% firmer than the front! Our car has a forward biased weight distritbution which is why the stock car only has 60% firmer rear rates.

Sorry I meant stagger as in spring rates. so 20% stager would be, for example, 5kg front and 6kg rear. Stock car is 60% firmer in the rear. With a Mcpherson strut you have to firm up the front and bit more than the back when lowering to compensate for the changes in roll centre, front to back. So 20% is a good starting point.

20% staggar will get you a nice setup

Regarding oil cooler, we both mean the same thing. A 115mm cooler with lots of vains is better than 235 with half the number of vanes. The sump itself doesnt have baffling, but directly above where it is fitted there is a baffle. I cant seem to find any info on the TMG car sump, but I swear it doesnt have any modifications last time I looked. Putting 1/2 litre extra is okay (its not that easy to figure out the level from the dipstick anyway) especially is most of the time on track the sump is running a bit lower than normal. Adrian did mention he puts a bit more in. Not sure how much though.

A few comments: 1) The pressure relief value is there to stop oil pressure going astronomically high at low temp/higher revs (along with the tooth profile of the oil gear). It doesnt regulate very well. At low oil temps, the difference between idle/low revs and 7k rpms is not much. Even at 100C the oil pressure tops out at about 5krpms and stays there all the way to 7.5k. At very high oil temps I dont think the pressure release valve does much at all. 3) I think its rubbish. TMG would not recommend 10W60 if this was the case nor would toyota/subaru engineer something with tolerances so close that it would stop the AVSC working if you went above a W30. W60 isnt twice the thickness after all. I've heard about dealers sticking 5W40 in GT86s... (probably thinking it was the right oil) 4) In uk climate a 5W40 should be fine. You probably wont see an increase in pressure at startup (cold) because the release valve will be active, but I think the main compromise is the oil pressure around town when oil temps are 90-100C where pressure will be quite a bit higher than a W20. Probably not dangerously higher but it will affect fuel economy if you care! 5) All the data I have seen shows the coolant temp rock solid at 93C (as designed with the stock themostat) even with +40% power. Stateside I think guys running +400hp saw coolant temps going above 95C which indicates the thermostat is fully open and thus the cooling system is at full capacity. Cosworth fit a lower temp thermostat as part of stage 1. That may help oil temps a bit? 6) You want an oil cooler with a larger cross sectional area (relative to oil flow not the front face where the air passes through). So short and fat, rather than thin and long. The more oil vanes in the cooler, and the shorter they are, the less it will resist flow. 9) Unless you are running R compound tyres the stock sump has a decent enough baffle it seems. I havent heard of any oil starvation issues running road legal tyres? Again I refer to the TMG CS-V3 car. It runs slicks and they dont have any extra baffling. Not sure a better sump is required. Having said that, the extra surface area and capacity might be a worthwile investment. This is where a pressure guage is important. On long high G curves, keep an eye on the oil pressure guage. If you see oil pressure drop massively its likely because the oil pickup in the sum is not getting any oil. You might be okay if it happens a few times but repeatedly and the bareings will be donefore. 11) I "over fill" mine. I put in about 6 litres.

Great stuff. Good to see some Auto box development

Turbo charging will increae oil temps but not by a massive amount. The water sysyem should keep the block at a resonable temperature - assuming it has the capacity, which it seems to have. Its revs that really gets the oil hot (friction) and I can comfirm I use alot of revs all the time on track. I heart revs :-) I've had oil up to 130C on the road!! A particular bendy bit of road thay I know well it was.

Nig there are top mounts you can buy state side to lower the car a bit. They are not cheap though and given your engineering skills I will looks forward tp see the finished parts! :-) oh they are solid metal with pillow ball too so ride confort will be affected.

Well mine is na and I had the oil up to 139C. A turbo charged car will affect oil temps a bit and typically an oil cooler will drop 15-20C depending on the size of the radiator. So to me 135C would be resonable with the smallish coolers people are fitting. Keith what cooler do you have? Keith - were you using the stock oil temp sensor or your own one from the sandwich plate? (If so was it oil temp pre or post cooler?)

Is that 0W40 competition oil keith? I thought the miller cfs nt was 5W40.

Definitely a thicker oil. As I've said many times. TMG recommend 10W60 in the na cup car! My money is on 5W40 millers cfs nt

I think the pressure relief is firmer to keep pressures up a bit, but not 100% on that.

Smudge thermostatic plates still have leakage even when cold, so it still drops some pressure. If you not runnnig a cooler then it will be a bit higher. We'll see what Cosworth think is needed for stage 3 which is going to be 325HP. If its just rods and pistons and they dont even recommend a thicker oil, then perhaps lower than universally accepted oil pressure is okay for these barings.

Well, though I have managed to completely burn the 300C red caliper paint, the OEM dust boots are still okay, a bit firm but okay. I wondered weather it was safer to get the 350x32mm 6 pot kit for life of the dust boots and paint. I know its heavier but I like to run long 30min + sessions if I can.

Lee - have you done many track days withthe AP 4pot brake kit? How are dust boots and paint colour holding up to track temperatures?