The Roadster NA Journey Begins

[Magpie]

I decided to do the corner weights again as well as set the preload on the coilovers. Excluding scalew setup it took about 5 hours. However 100mm at the pinch welds on the from was way too low so I raised the car all round by 15mm and this took about 1 hour.

WARNINGS:
The ER's have an external resivior and these need to be loosened before doing any height adjustments.
Also make sure the sway bars are disconnected.
Also make sure your tyres are at their hot temp

Preload (front)
1. Leaving the lower locking collar alone, unwind the spring by turning the top 2 collars so that the spring is no longer touching the top perch.


2. HAND wind the spring back up until you can turn no more (with the top ring).


3. Wind the other (smaller) collar spring up (not the one at the bottom) until it touches the upper collar.


4. Wind the upper spring up (with a C Spanner) until it is 3mm above the smaller collar. It just so happens that the BC Racing C spanners are 3mm.


5. Wind the smaller collar up and lock the 2 rings together and then measure the distance for future reference.


Preload Rear, same as for the front


Rinse and repeat for the other side.

Make sure you mark the 2 upper rings (I used liquid paper) so that you can use this later and see if things have moved.

Corner Weighting.
The plan this time was to set the front ride height at the pinch welds of 100mm F and then adjust the rear height when corner weighting.

Because I do not have drive on ramps for the scales it takes a few hours to set the scales up. But once I mark the ground it is easy to put them back.



I use a laser to know the height from the scale pads (these are old photos). Once I know the height off the pads I can just read off the laser mark on the tape.


As is written make small adjustments and note the changes. With driver, 1/4 tank etc it was LF 115mm, RF 119mm, LR 109, RR 108. (without driver LF 116mm, RF 127mm, LR 111mm, RR 127mm)

After the first change I noted that i full turn raised/lowered the car at the front 2mm. After 2 adjustments (front only) I got LF 101mm, RF 104mm, LR 106, RR 113mm. the LR/RF was 51.33%.

Now to corner weight. The target was 50.2% so I needed to drop the RF 7kg so this equated to 2 full turns (which would also lower the RF. After this adjustment I got 50.44% LF 100mm, RF 100mm, LR 108mm, RR 113mm.

Final numbers:
Target


Actual


Compare


The file I used to track adjustments etc is attached. Don't forget to do the sway bars back up as well as tighten everything that you loosened back up as wellas torque the wheel nuts and let the tyres down. Take it for a test run and then (as I had to do) make adjustments. Provided you make the same adjustments to each side the corner weight will stay the same and all you do is raise the car.

High res photos are here https://plus.google.com/photos/115769813738304087848/albums/5904127951028007025

[Magpie]

[I've run the tape measure over mine, It's going to be tight, good luck in for photos.

I've gone with a foam box, If I'm paying for ITBs I want to hear them

Here is the Pipercross it should fit and has its own foam air filter.







This should still allow the tings to make some noise.

[koop21]

I'm surprised its taking this long for you to get your airbox mag. I've had mine sitting in my garage for awhile. I still haven't put it on yet as the air box is pretty long and routing any piping to it seems impossible and useless (90 deg bends from the opening), so i've left my panel filter on them instead.

Also wanna corner balance my car?

[Magpie]

I would love to corner balance your car, if you travel to the Gold Coast

I'm not sure why it took so long but it was not urgent, but it almost became urgent. There is a good chance that the brake cylinder will need to be relocated and we still need to work out where the air will be ducted from.

[plohl]

Will you be getting your alignment done again now that you have played with the heights?

[Magpie]

Yep. Dropped off to Plus this morning for rear adjustable arms and eccentric front bushes. Going for -2.5 f and -2.0 r with zero toe and max caster.

[mazmad]

Have you run it with those settings before Magpie? You don't want more neg camber? (Not familiar with the na's but the nb's like more).

[Magpie]

I have run -2.0 on the front before with no issues. The tyres will appreciate more camber especially when cornering alot. Not sure how it will go as a daily but I will just throw another set of tyres on.

[mazmad]

For street and track makes sense. I have been running (on nb) 3.2 / 2.8 f to r. Much better, eliminated the understeer. But would chew the tyres on the street ;)

Your car is looking amazing btw !

[Magpie]

Your car is looking amazing btw !

Thanks, externally it is finished. Engine and suspension to go!

[mmx005]

magpie, i had great trouble fitting my air box to my itbs in my NB daily. The dimentions of the box say yes it will fit because its smaller than the mesh log filter, but it actually doesnt fit because you cannot squeez it around the trumpets. also note the space issue with the clutch res.

i had to remove the hose clamp and rubber thing with the filter (ordered mine without filter) then gently heat the box numerous times in the oven to soften the glue around the edge and slowly seperate into two halves. you will see what i mean. a sharp stanley knife and the plastic pry bars from a jaycar dash removal kit were very helpful. Then i had to fit it in two pieces.

Here is a photo of my plans, but i havent done anything with it due to other issues including a dying tps and its replacement. when i get around to it, im thinking some form of rubber seal from clark rubber, (preliminary visits to clark rubber look promising) and maybe some latchs or maybe shock cord from the boating store.

ahhhhhh, the joys of modifying

[Magpie]

mmx005 thanks for the feedback. I understand that there maybe fitment issues, however it will not be me doing it . However I'm going to pass your info on. The plan is to relocate the brake master during the engine change as well as any other engine bay mods before the engine goes in. Please keep me updated as to how it goes and sounds.

I understand on the NB's you can duct air from near the lights, however this can not be done on the NA.

[Magpie]

Well ran the MX5 at Morgan Park on a SDT Track day (WRX's in the morning session) and mixed in the afternoon (inc 3 x E86's). Morning was for me to sort out the suspension and the afternoon was for my co-driver for next season to get some seat time.

Eccentric bushes on the front and adjustable arms on the back allowed -2.5 camber and -2.0 on the rear, zero toe and 3.5 and 4.0 caster. So pretty happy with the settings, tyre temps saying that a bit of excessive camber but other than that very happy with how it handled. With the 888's I started then 28 cold and they went 32 hot and after some discussions they were dropped to around 30.5 hot and wow what a difference! This works out to 24.5 cold, however 888's are probably not road legal anymore. The tyres at the start of the day were 11.6 deg and were not much fun to begin with. At the end of my session the inside of the tyres were 55 deg so they were nice and sticky.

A SDT instructors (Chris) took me out for a few laps (late in the afternoon) to see what the NA6 could do. He also drove it a few times during the day with my friend. His feedback was that it was dying for some more power (in the video it looks like he is trying to put a cigarette butt out in places), it had only a hint of understeer and was very well balanced. I was pretty happy with that feedback. This is a side by side of our best laps. Chris also shows what sort of foot work he uses (inc left foot braking). He was using 2nd gear out of corners (then 3rd, 4th) whereas I was only using 3rd then 4th a big difference! My previous at Morgan Park was 1:24.09 so I'm also happy with my improvement. However last time at Morgan Park the car did not have all the aero it did this time. Also attached is a pdf of the difference.



Only problem I found that was when you corner balance for just the driver and you throw 2 people in the car the passenger side rubs I still also need to pull of the drivers side tyre and see if there is any rubbing there, but when I was driving I did not hear any. Accordingly the passenger sides drops in height so this is the next issue I need to look at. Suspension is so complex...


Also my friend managed a spin that was caught on camera Yes she was barefoot because of arthritis however she is looking for a pair of suitable boots as I type because of the fun she had (also a credit to the SDT people as well).



Interesting facts from the trip was the MX5 used 41 ltrs of fuel for 230 kms (it only went from home to servo and back under its own power) rest of the time was on the track or on the trailer. The Amarok averaged 10.1 km going from Upper Coomera to MX5 Plus (no trailer) then to Warwick, Victoria Point and finally Upper Coomera towing the MX5. It hauled 4th gear up Cunningham's Gap and never missed a beat. Very happy with the VW and the trailer. Didn't get home until 2100 on Sat night, I'm happy that we went out on Friday and stayed in Warwick overnight. It was 2.2 deg when I woke the other half to take me out to the track

[charlie_91]

in that last video sounds like ur spooling up a big arse turbo ;D i think its telling u something haha

[Magpie]

in that last video sounds like ur spooling up a big arse turbo ;D i think its telling u something haha

Maybe Danny and I have been talking about a small turbo, but not for at least 12 months after my engine goes in. Jason is not a fan of this discussion plus it puts me out of 2B so Jason's common sense will win out.

Good to see you are still around Charlie.