rceron

Regarding that camber issue: If you plan on driving on the street and you have -1.5 or greater up front with 17s/18s then be prepared to drive around with white knuckles. The tramlining effect is just HORRIBLE and scary at times. Matter a fact I have -1.7 on 235s (17 rims) in front and will be getting a re-alignment to about -1.2- 1.4. On certain roads in NJ where heavy trucks travel I continually amaze myself in how I avoid killing myself with the steering wheel tugging on me.

Tire wear is another issue but Fritz covered that.

MrZUMZUM

I have the 16 stock rims both on my race tires and on my street tires...........will it still be a problem.........??

And please elaborate on the "tramlining effect".....don't know what that is...........I'm assuming it means the car wants to track in a direction other than straight........especially on roads with "tracks" in them (you mentioned the heavy trucks)..........the roads in Florida are in pretty good shape.............

Thanks.

Fritz Flynn

iTrader: (263)

I watched the tail end of the Mercedes tournament and remember something about a car maybe he drove home or arrived in it or something to that effect. The driving thing was also mentioned at some point as well. Anyway your right about life throwing some wild cards and I count my blessings everyday. If that happened to my wife I would really be a wreck So whats your handicap? I used to play a lot and at one time was probably between a 5 and a 7.

Ramon is talking about the cars tendency to steer itself which happens when your on wide track tires no matter what the camber is. However increasing the camber will increase how fast it goes of line. If you drive on the street 50 50 I would go with the standard -1 in the front and 0 out back. If you don't care about tire wear the fastest way around the track is probably -2 -1. Unlike BMW's fd's don't need much camber because they stay pretty flat. I don't think I've ever seen an fd go through a corner with one tire off the ground.

MrZUMZUM

Yeah, I think you're talking about the Bay Hill tournament in Orlando about a month ago...........he lives within 2-3 miles of that course in a big buck community called Isleworth.......and he drove in in his new Gallardo, the same one he drove on Saturday/Sunday this past weekend..............they also showed some clips of him driving his beemers......Damn good driver by the way.......

Thanks again for the camber tips.........you're right about the beemers they love taking those turns on 3 wheels..........my car didn't really flatten out until I put on the heavy duty antisway up front.........I left the back stock...........any thoughts there?

My handicap is very similar to yours..........was as low as a 6, but now I'm more comfortable around 9. When I get up to run VIR maybe we can tee it up too. I know I can't beat you on the track so maybe on the links......

Fritz Flynn

iTrader: (263)

Yeah you'll have no problem giving me a beating in golf I have played two or 3 times this year. You know they have a course right at vir we could get 9 in during the lunch hour

Big front bars are great for the track. I've heard of people actually disconnecting the rear all together for track use. Personally I like as much turn in as possible so I prefer a big front and a big rear with big wide tires Seriously though having an upgraded front sway is a really good idea and much safer. It does suck for autocross though.

Re the other questions: the stock ecu is fine for any mods if you keep the boost at 10lbs. Its a really rich and safe ecu. But at 12lbs pounds if the engine gets hot or the air is dense then your getting closer to the edge. Anything beyond 12lbs its not a matter of if but when. The real tell tale sign of running close to the edge is a really strong running car that heats up quick so be careful

MrZUMZUM

Reminds me of a girl I used to date...........

Thanks for the ECU advice........My boost gauge is electronic, and you have to put in a bias, so I really don't know if it's set right or not............I think I'll get a home depot pressure gauge just to check it out........and to sort of calibrate mine............

My car does run strong (but compared to what? It's the only FD I've ever owned, etc.........) and I was running it pretty hard for 45 minute+ sessions, and never exceeded 213 degrees or so...............until the engine got heat soaked I actually had it in the mid 190's for a while................

Fritz Flynn

iTrader: (263)

Reminds me of a girl I used to date...........


Monday and Tuesday I went to the Audi event at VIR and will post some video asap. The car was running fine with the boost turned down, short shifting, and using race fuel. An ecsta v700 shredded (left front of course) so if you use these for track use have them shaved first. Don't run two different compounds and two different size wheels front and back. I ended up melting the 285 30 18 v700's that I put on the rear when running 275 40 17 victo racers up front that were about .75 inches taller. Things got interesting when those rear tires heated up it was like the rear of the car had a mind of its own

Today I met up with Demetrios from Reactive Racing to tune my car and let just say I'm very lucky I didn't blow it up during the last few events. The reason I was getting fuel cut below a half tank and umm detonating is because the fuel pump was not working correctly because it was leaking voltage (well my best guess) into the hose clamp that I put on it with no insulation which is why the original pump most likely fizzled as well. So if you install an after market pump or even a stock pump put some rubber between any metal part that could touch the pump. Anyway the car is running great and I'm sure I'll be back with some low lap times during my next event.

BTW If anyone wants a well tuned car I would highly recommend the above named tuner. Very professional with a great overall understanding of all things mechanical.

Fritz Flynn

iTrader: (263)

Again lap times are terrible the lowest I've found so far is a 2:19 so basically 6 seconds slower than the last time I was on the full course. Of course the car feels 20 seconds slower. I never went faster than 140 or took the rpms past 6.5k because of the detonating problem and had the boost turned as far down as it would go. When Demetrios was the tuning the air fuel was going into the 15s before we switched the pump out

See the vid she was still fast in the corners

I'll add more if I find anything worth while.

rceron

Fritz,

Was Demetrios familiar with the PFC? So the high AFRs were due to your fuel pump and not your maps right?

Did you tune on a dyno or on the street?

R

Fritz Flynn

iTrader: (263)

The fuel pump has been causing the detonation for sure although the map also sucked. Its been getting worse and worse since installing the 2nd pump.

Demetrios loaded the map in 5 minutes and had the air fuels at a rock steady 11.2 after about 5 miles of driving (maybe 5 or 6 hard pulls to 8k in 3rd gear). The guy is a frikken genius for real The original map was tuned in the 12.2 range with too much timing and some really weird splits up top. The blue car was sent with a stock map for sequential turbos (car has a single with 4 850s) and he had that thing purring like a kitten in 20 minutes. If you need some tuning done give the man a call you will be very happy

The best engine reliability mod for us track guys is probably a wide band. I'm trying to get one from Demetrios and have him show me how to do some basic tuning.

rceron

Perfect timing. I'm just about to buy a datalogit, but I can't figure out which wide band will be easiest to mate with the datalogit (for datalogging). Please keep me posted or send my a pm.

R

REAmemiya FD3S

awesome videos fritz...good stuff...i hope to track my car one day as well...

Fritz Flynn

iTrader: (263)

Glad you enjoyed the vids and I of course highly recommend taking the fd to any sort of track, autox, strip etc....

DamonB

Whenever I buy some editing software and start transfering my vids to mpeg and then find some web space to upload them to I'm going to start with all the "fun" ones first.

There's the time the ABS fuse blew and I went into the dirt at the end of the front straight when the tires suddenly locked, there's the time I was going 10/10ths and just ever so slightly dropped the right rear off the track exiting a left hander under full power and half looped it through the grass at about 70mph (swell drift and lots of grass in through the rolled down windows! ), there's the time the Evo in front of me got so scared he drove right of the track into the dirt, there's the time a Boxster was pissed because I was coming to lap him again and he bobbles, bobbles and loops it big time right in front of me in a 70mph corner, there's the time a Corvette begins spitting engine parts out the bottom of his car, there's the time it was raining so I practiced drifting a few corners and scared one group of corner workers so bad they took off running (even though I was under control and it was beautiful ), there's the time at an autox it was raining so hard I had the wipers on high, the defroster on, the headlights on and skipped like a stone at 70 mph through a huge set of offsets, there's the time I had a passenger in the car who thought this racing thing was no big deal but didn't realize it was just a warm up lap. Later she began screaming...

Those are just the ones with "bloopers". I got lots more of just driving around quickly

Section8

iTrader: (6)

Great videos, I finally got to watch them all last night at home. I've got a friend that was supposed to be at that Audi event, but their tranny broke the Friday before so he didn't go.

I didn't read all the posts so forgive me if this was answered, but in the 'AUDI VIR Full.."video, right after you come out of the Oak Tree turn some car just blows by you screaming, but I couldn't tell what kind of car it was.


I hope to get out there myself and get some seat time once I finally get my hands on an RX7.

Fritz Flynn

iTrader: (263)

I definitely want to see those vids they sound really entertaining. I especially like that last description I've had two instructors hurl.........they call me mr smooth

Fritz Flynn

iTrader: (263)

That was NASCAR stock car with a very loud exhaust. They can run between 2:05 to 2:10 with a good driver on the VIR full course.

I always have one or two for sale so when the time comes just let me know

Section8

iTrader: (6)

Thanks, I'll keep you in mind when I get the money in order.

Fritz Flynn

iTrader: (263)

Discovered the tape from the 2nd day at the Audi event with different wheels and tires on the front than the back. I shredded the v700 front left so I had to use some old victo racers that were hard as a rock. The rear tires heated up in no time because they were smaller and softer but the fronts took a while. Once the fronts were hot the backs were greasy so it makes for some entertaining video. The back tires had 50% tread left when I started the day and where melted flat in the center at days end. Again not a good idea to use two different setups front and rear but seat time is seat time

Fritz Flynn

iTrader: (263)

The engine blew at Summit last Thursday so my mechanic at RP performance was kind enough to let me sample one of his spec miatas for the weekend at VIR N.

It only took a couple of sessions to realize that you just floor it the whole way around the track and try to brake as little as possible. I could of used the brakes less on turns 3 (nascar) and 17 (hog pin) but it's not my car so I showed some discipline in those two spots. The brakes were sticking a bit in the rear under hard braking but other than that the car handled really well. The best lap I could squeeze out was between a 1:51 and 1:52. The other thing about this car is it will run the same lap time for 30 minutes. IOW no heat problems with the tires, brakes, engine etc...its like the eveready battery it just goes and goes and goes

I'll upload some video when I get a chance. They will be the perfect RX for your insomnia.

Fritz Flynn

iTrader: (263)

Oh yeah I forgot to mention that the max speed was 110 to 112 but I had to brake a little early (just before the 3) because the rears were locking up.

ptrhahn

iTrader: (9)

Fritz, I saw your montego blue single-turbo car out at RP (love that baby-blue nose!) getting the custom mitch piper duct-work, which looked awfully nice. Is that the car that blew the motor? Did it take out your IHI turbo as well?

Fritz Flynn

iTrader: (263)

This one has a really long history of engine trouble that began last Aug. My goal since then has been to make it as bullet proof as possible.

That baby blue is my favorite color I'm thinking of just painting the car to match Actually the bumper was just painted and they did a really good job. The fit on those replicas is terrible if I did it again I would just by the real one.

Hopefully it will be ready for VIR with Mazda in June. Can't wait and see you there

damian

iTrader: (2)

great vids Fritz!!!

shawnk

I agree with you on that one. I got a knockoff hood, nose and sideskirts and paid more in labor to get them right then I would have paid for the real things. Lesson learned for me.

Sorry to hear about the CYM, and I look forward to seeing the blue beast in action.

Shawn