Doughie

from what i've heard, the EGT probe needs to be as close as poss. to the combustion chamber in order to give an accurate reading. Even putting it in the downpipe will give a lower reading due to exhaust gases cooling slightly. but i'm no expert. Gav - i'll try to find a post by Chris Wilson and post the text up here.

I believe Phil Duley's jap-spec car got major moajor boost like yours too when he replaced both cats with CW pipe. luck of the draw ! He solved it be putting one cat back on to keep the boost level down to more sane levels. 1.5 bar is almost 22psi which is WAY to high. I hope you're using Super Unleaded AND a bottle of Millers octane booster to try to protect the engine. some sort of restriction in the exhaust should bring it down though like you said.

Matt I had the shocks and springs on my car replaced recently and it took close to 4 hours, and that was working fairly quickly in a garage and done by someone who's done it several times before so knows exactly what to do. If it's your first time i would think it could well take 5 hours + from start to finish.

Brian What downpipes have you got in the car ? Chris Wilson's are 2.5" diameter which is designed to prevent Jap-spec cars overboosting (and 1.4 bar really is overboosting to be honest). UK-specs have some sort of bypass system which means that they don't overboost like the Jap-specs do. If you have a 3" downpipe (think the ones Leon does are 3" but might be wrong). then this may allow the boost to get to the 1.4bar sort of levels. You'll get used to the power reasonably quickly. It's the shock of the change that makes it seem uncontrollable. you don't HAVE to use full throttle all the time..... and yes, in the wet (especially in an automatic) be VERY careful, otherwise you'll end up in a hedge somewhere (or worse)

yeah the Toyota Bilsteins were a factory option that the original purchaser of the car could specify. they're bright yellow. I have seen them off the car side by side with a standard shock and the Bilsteins are thicker bodied and also have a thicker main rod. they're pretty beefy units ! standard shocks are black and made by Tokico. (generally). I've got Eibachs and Toyota Bilsteins in my car now and it feels much more controlled. It lowers the car a bit too without being silly. 1 inch lower at the back and 1.5 inches lower at the front. I also have the Blitz NUR Spec exhaust and have not grounded it once, even with the lowered suspension ! so that's a relief. All i need now is some brake pads to replace my Porterfield R4S' that passed away last weekend. (R.I.P. ) no flowers please.

yeah why does that happen sometimes ? just posts it twice. very weird. sorry ! sorry !

As Churchill would have said : "Never, in the field of human conflict, has so much editing of posts been done by so few, so quickly" (or something like that...)

As Churchill would have said : "Never, in the field of human conflict, has so much editing of posts been done by so few, so quickly" (or something like that...)

From an earlier email, Chris Wilson's text on braking for the track : "I did LOTS of track days in my J-Spec MKIV TT on stock size and material discs and stock J-Spec calipers and if I say so myself i don't hold back on track :-) Never had one warp or crack... Secret is remove the backing plates front and rear, suitable pad compound and SRF fluid with Aeroquip type braided hoses. Correct cool down procedure and you will be fine. I think the Bentwaters track setup yesterday tested all brakes to the max., as there was about 3 HARD braking zones per lap required. Unless you're only going to do 4 or 5 laps of a circuit with that much heavy braking, i think you will need to use CW race pads / Porterfield race pads and a v.high boiling point fluid. like Castrol SRF or some similar DOT 5.1 spec fluid that is *fresh*. Supra is a heavy car and it's a brake-killer (as i have found out.....)

Just changed the oil this afternoon. Just reinforces what a pain in the ar*se it is to get that damn filter off, and a new one on. (from above). Because it's at an angle, all the old oil gushes everywhere, and makes the whole thing a slippery hot nightmare! To move the PAS fluid reservoir, you not only have to undo the 3 bolts, but unclip and faff around with other cables and connectors. Then i had to stop mid-way to go buy an oil filter remover cos it was on too tight to get off by hand. think next time i might just do the oil change and leave the filter for others..... Shame i ran out of daylight to do the brake fluid change !

you should probably weigh the car with *you* in it too, and half a tank of fuel.

isn't rooting in the boot while the ve-h-icle is in motion illegal ??!

I'd like to change my brake fluid before Bentwaters on Sunday. Anyone else done it ? how long did it take ? how hard / easy is it ? What tools required ? is one of those "Gunsons Eazi-bleed" kits a good buy ? Do you *need* 2 people (i to pump the brakes, one to do the other stuff) ? Which fluid ? Is any DOT 5.1 good enough ? Also I've found a useful site that compares leading "performance" fluids wet and dry boiling points ("wet" is when the fluid has absorbed some water, "dry" is when it's bottle-fresh and absorbed no water) : http://www.dougrippie.com/drm/brake_components.htm

265's = yes 18" wheels = no ! (spent too much money already !!) so there's no reason to think running 265's on the back will do any harm then on 17" rims ? may help reduce oversteer a bit in extremis

found out the size of my rear rims : 9.5" wide. (17"s) So reading some of the above posts, it looks like it'll be fine to go for slightly wider 265/17s on those rear rims next time.

So Brian you're only replacing the back-box and not the entire cat-back exhaust system ? Then yes Gavin has a good point in that you will still have in the system 1 of the stock silencers which will be a restriction. To get the full effect of the "de-cat / exhaust" thing, you really need to replace all the exhaust system as the stock system is very restrictive really.

Brian Worry not. This is purely because you still have the stock exhaust on it. I had the exact same experience. I had a totally stock car and fitted CW downpipes to it. felt a *little* more eager than before but it was just a subtle change. When you ditch the stock exhaust system for an aftermarket one, *then* you will see the big difference. Is yours J-spec ? You'll probably need to fit a FCD and a boost guage. J-specs can boost really quite high with downpipe and new exhaust.

If you look on the *inside* of the black plastic cover that clips onto the fuse&relay box, there's a diagram showing which fuse is which. I think the relay's are marked too.

Ohlins gear is the "McLaren" of the suspension world. very very expensive but very high quality (as you would hope...)

might have bent a wishbone or damaged the steering rack in some way. you do not want dodgy steering on any car so i would get it very thoroughly check out by someone who knows their stuff.

i'm a bit concerned about pad wear on track days too, so can anyone else give us the benefit of their experience with regards to pad wear on track days ? I'm running Porterfield R4S pads (which are the equivalent of the CW Intermediates i believe). I did a 17minute track session at Silverstone and haven't checked the pads since, so i've no idea how much they've worn. They're not cheap at all (like the CW ones) so i'd hope they wouldn't get trashed in 1 day. I've got UK brakes so they should wear the pads a bit less on the basis that the pads have a greater surface area than the J-spec pads and therefore, for a given retardation, the pads should wear less than the same compound used on a J-spec brake set-up. JB ? Phil Duley ? Gavin ? Paul Whiffin ? can you comment here ?

I too would be interested to know what this new Motul fluid is like. Chris said in mid-Sept. that he was going to be trying it out over the next few weeks to see what it was like.

Looking at the two anti-roll bar options from TRD : One +27% all round, one +50% at the back. I would not advise personally going for the "+50% rear only" option as increasing rear anti-roll stiffness has the effect, (certainly in race cars), of *increasing* oversteer (or conversely, decreasing understeer). It sounds counter-intuitive, but if the Supra responds in the same way racing cars react by stiffening the rear only then you may get more oversteer, and this is not what you want on a powerful car like the Supra !

Paul / Ash I'm well aware that a vehicle's handling is a result of many items and their interaction. I cannot affect the Supras roll stiffness, as this is in effect defined at the factory. (empirical evidence tend to sugggest that strut braces do not appear to have much measurable material effect as the Supra was designed as a coupe and therefore has good torsional rigidity). Vehicles (land & aeronautical) essentially rotate around 3 axes denoted as : roll, pitch, yaw. I have an issue with pitch as well as roll currently. The anti-roll bars primarily affect only roll and will not affect the pitch instability that my car currently suffers from, albeit in a mild form. This is not a "stiffer is better" thing, this is a "matching the vehicles charactersitics so that they better suit my personal tastes thing" ! thicker anti-roll bar will not provide the changes that i am looking for as they will not affect pitch stability. One of the prime characteristic of Eibach springs is that they will lower the ride-height and this will, correspondingly, lower the roll-centre of the vehicle which is a very desirable characteristic as any chassis engineer/designer will tell you. and, yes, i am getting tramp, too ! (still not sure why though .... no-one's been able to supply plausible reasons for its occurrence). this is not to say that i am discounting anti-roll bars in ayn way as an element for the solution. Pls can you supply me with a suppliers details and i will follow it up. Seems there is a lack of info on supply of these items genereally. (I mena anti-roll bars on their own and not the full kit meaning springs/shocks/bushes/anti-roll bars like Whiteline kit). Surely someone in Europe supplies anti-roll bars tailored for the mkiv ? has anyone fitted them ? interested in feedback as always. Ash - Have you done any testing with these various suspension components and the results of their sole use or combination ? would be interested in results.

I've found the email from Chris Wilson that Adam's referring to. It is a good post. here's the text written by Chris : **** > Has anyone done any comparisons between the braking ability of UK spec discs and pads fitted to a MkIV TT Import and after market brakes like AP, Brembo etc. The stock brakes will stop the car as fast as AP or Brembo, don't think big brake kits will decrease stopping distances, they won't. If a braking system is powerful enough to be able to lock the wheels, and has the correct front to rear balance and can be modulated then bigger brakes WON'T make the car stop faster. What they will do is allow the car to stop ultra hard time after time with short recovery periods needed between stops. Ask yourself these questions, reply honestly, and see if you NEED big brakes. Have the brakes ever suffered pad fade? That's when the brake pedal stays high and hard, but the brake pads get so hot the coefficient of friction drops to nearly zero and the car doesn't stop. If you get this it's probably on a track. Uprated pads and fluid will fix this for about 90% of track day usage. Have you suffered fluid fade? This is where the fluid boils and the pedal literally flops to the floor, zero brakes. Quite frightening! This can be fixed with decent performance brake fluid in most instances. Do you repeatedly use the car ultra hard on race tracks, have tried harder pads and race fluid, yet still find the stock brakes suffer fade, pad wear is ludicrous, and the heat generated is melting things and killing wheel bearings? Then you NEED bigger brakes. Otherwise a big brake kit will look nice, possibly convince you that the car stops in a shorter distance, but most of the time you will not get much advantage from it. I REALLY believe that even J-Spec brakes will work very adequately for most users, even on track. UK brakes will work fine on track for all but budding serious race drivers, and even then you'll need road legal race tyres to get them to wilt. AP brake kits for the Supra are superior to Brembo. Bigger disc diameter, bigger pad area. Can be a PITA to get under the wheel, make sure you CAN get either Brembo or AP under the rims before you buy none stock wheels. Safest bet with AP is use the wheels the kit was designed for, Gewalt Mackins. Here are pics of AP and Brembo kits side by side. I can supply either kit, or even Wilwood caliper kits for the MKIV. The Wilwoods work fine and are a worthwhile amount cheaper than AP or Brembo. http://www.formula3.freeserve.co.uk/ap-brembo.jpg AP kit is on the left. Brembo kit comes with drilled discs which will crack given serious hard usage. If you aren't going to give them serious hard usage why buy them :-) -- Best regards, Chris Wilson ****