Ade

I currently have Project Mu HC+ 800 pads with Dot 5.1 fluid. Managed six 20 minute sessions at Snetterton and no sign of fade or soggy pedal. After they were bedded in, I found they had the pleasing cold bite too. I did get the brakes very hot. I wouldn't recommend any Caliper paint for track use. Even the foliatec 300C stiff burned. I'll have a look at the dust boots when I get a chance, but I suspect they will be knackered. Oddly my car didnt have any shims on the front. Just the ones permanently attached to the pads, but not the shiny ones.....

Out of curisosity, I just had a look at the Evo Review of the CS400. I quote: "So how did Cosworth go about getting 395bhp from the 2.5? ‘We started by running what we call a Finite Element Analysis,’ Woods explains, ‘and saw immediately that the piston and rod would not provide the durability we wanted." How many other companies have the knowledge and resources to do a finite element analysis (basically mathematically model the piston and rod to determine fatigue and failure rates). When Stage 3 internals come out, you can guarentee they will have done the R&D for the fa20 to be bullet proof. Tons of people run the Impreza with 400+ hp with standard rods and pistons, but Cosworth are able to mathematically model the system and determine how many cycles the rods/pistons can take before one or many of them starts to fatigue. You can bet your bottom dollar/pund/euro, they've done it for the fa20 and they their reasoning for 280hp - the highest they consider safe for long term reliability.

If thats the case they need to pull their finger out, as R&D is going very slowly. I'd bet good money that there are a couple Engineers working on the FA20 and they probably keep getting pulled to more important jobs which keep delaying things. If they put enough resources in place, it wouldn't take years, more a matter of months. I'd love to see a cosworth GT86 special like the Impreza they did.

Well GPRM dont think a brace is required, TMD do...... Both their cars are designs to use racing slicks and very firm spring rates. I would hazard a guess that with road legal tyres and soft suspension, its not going to make a noticable improvment to chassis rigidity.

Especially with grippy 235 tyres! Did I hear Cosworth might be working with a suspension company to bring out a suspension package?..... maybe the dreamt it.

That is true smudge, but rather than assume they are not bothered, I just want to make it clear sometihng is being compromised by messing with the wheel offsets. Tareim: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrub_radius

I work in Engineering Its just a little book but has alot of good information.

Just my two cents on rim choice: Moving away from the stock et48 will affect the relationship between scrub radius and tyre centre patch. Moving out (lower offset for more poke) will make the car understeer a bit more. Adding camber to the front pushes the scrub radius out slightly. Off the top of my head I think if you have 1.5 degree of camber you need to reduce wheel offset by 8mm to keep the same relationship between scrub raduis and tyre centre patch.

Attached are some notes from Toyota UK technical training given to UK technicians. Sorry for the poor handwriting but is says: "Brake squeal may be evident, these are a dual pad - road + track. Hence compromise, squeal is a side effect."

The GT86 standard pads are designed to work under hotter conditions than most road cars. The down side is that if they are not used in their indended heat range, they can glaze and squeek. If you bed the pads in well enough, squeeking shouldnt be a problem. Bedding in requires medium/heavy braking from about 70mph down to about 20mph, a few times repeatedly to the point were the breaks are very hot. When the pads are hot they hould have transferred a nice layer to the disc. Repeated use without getting hot enough (i.e driving around town) will glaze the pads and cause squeek. I rebed mine fairly often and never had issue with squeek. Most people using track pads spend the first session bedding in the pads as they need to get very hot (800C+) Anyone with a BBK and track pads will tell you they squeal like a dieing pig. Work lovely when they warm up on track though. There is no duel use braking system, only compromise between raod and track and the one toyobaru made was a more track orientated pad for a car that might be tracked. It is not a defect or design flaw. It was a design decision!

It all depends on driver skill. I would never suggest to anyone to turn off the driving aids completely on public roads, as its not my call as to weather one is good enough to catch whatever could potentially happen. Even the best drivers can be caught out. It is one thing invoking oversteer and controlling the car, it is another thing hitting some mud (that you cant see) at 50mph on a corner and responding quick enough to stop you hitting a tree/lamb post/other car. Personally I leave it all on but I drive on tight twisty country roads and tend to try to drive cleanly enough ti dones get in the way. It goes into sport mode or off on track where it is safe if I have a moment.

Keethos - that is what we are talking about; Cosworth doing a custom tune for your specific car/parts via datalogs captured by Fensport. Steve is basically staying the difference between setups is minimal and wont require a huge amount of effort on Cosworths part.

The standard Cosworth tune will work fine on any setup, it is just a matter of tweaking the tune slightly. If you have your car in at Fensport, Adrian will be able to do it as part of his mapping service. Chaps in the States are getting responses from Cosworth in a matter of minutes....

Nigel, another great thread. Thanks for sharing. I know it is a lot of effort to take all the pics and write a forum (along with answering all the questions that come), I applaud you for that If we ever meet I shall buy you a beer. Cheers

I dont think they have opened up the map for Fensprt to tweak. What I believe was said, was that fensport could do some logs and send the data to Cosworth to tweak the tune specifically for that car with a different exhaust.

Ah I did not know that. Would be great to get a Cosworth on the Abbey hub dyno for a better comparason.

Looks like the stage 2.1 tune has alot less torque in the sub 5k5 rev range. As per the official cosworth dyno, which is strage 2.3 (full exhaust), torque at 4k rpm is the same as torque at 7krpm....

Pitman the AVO turbo doesnt use the stock manifold which is what causes the dip. What Steve Said.

Also a quote from Element tuning regarding gear profile of the stock: I actually did see that early on and I had also researched the JDM Impreza 12mm oil pump gear. Just keep in mind the FA20 already has a 12mm gear but a different profile. The FA profile reduces pressure early in the RPM range and makes it more linear and I suspect that was for efficiency at low RPM.

Good to see someone is paying attention to oil pressures! On a stock car with an oil cooler, oil pressure at 7k rpms can drop below 40psi which is not really very good if you want big power and your bearings to last. Really great thread Nigel

Neil has it been fitted yet?

Lets take the most expensive GT86 with £5k extras that actually slow it down and compare it to other hot hatches with no or very little extras....

Toyokid - whats your reason for sale?

Thats my point. Regardless of how may hundreds of ££ you spent on the ultimate water cooled beast of a PC, its not always the "best" gaming experience.

Stu tried various different thichness rear roll bars but on a stock suspension setup. He settled on the 16mm roll bar (14mm is stock) to redcue understeer. Unfortunately his blog is closed, otherwise I could link the videos he did. Roll bars and spring rates both affect the balance of the car (sorry to state the obvious). I would suggest the 6kg front (+260% stiffer than stock) and 4kg rear (only 8% firmer than stock) of the HKS kit is the reason you have understeer. You need to balance the rates out before trying to stiffen the rear roll bar to decrease understeer.