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Racing a supra


Guest TonyC

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Cheers all, very useful stuff there. Particularly in reference to it being prone to understeer. Although a lot of traits like that can be dialled out (or at least reduced) using the right suspension settings.

 

I relaly need to look over a car in more detail to be able to decide if it is worthwhile moving forward. IE: is the potential there.

I could do with knowing more about the cars techincal settings.

IE: what exactly is the front and rear suspension set up - it appears to have struts on the front? Do they run anti-roll bars front and rear?

 

I know the kind of lap times I will need to be getting for the series I'm interested in and I know how far I am away from those in my current race car. I'm pretty confident that a sorted, ligtened and mildy breathed on car will be sufficient.

I must keep emphasising this point - there is no need for this to be a 500bhp fire breathing monster, and it will be used for racers of 20 minute duration - very different to the issues the guys had with Brit car - or even you may have with a trackday car. A trackday car will often do as many circuit miles in a day as a race does in half a season.

 

You have given me lots of really good useful, insightful stuff, and you guys know the cars much better than me. What I intend to do is develop the car though - I usually build the car up to a decent spec to get out there and then plan mods as I go through a season - working and learning with the car. Rather than diving in with all th emods at once. So for example I'll start off with the standard diff - it's a torque biasing diff I understand (?) and I'm used to that on my own road car and understand the limitations it has on track. It can still be effective but it requires you to be quite brave and keep your foot in as once you start to lift it almost starts reverting back to the actions of an open diff.

Rad aperture is an interesting point - although there is scope in the regs for opening that up. In fact that presents another questions - what is behind the bumpers - often modern cars have foam filled bumpers and iron behind them - I suspect an amount of that is removable also.

 

I do know Howard, but only in passing - as I've seen him at 3 sisters circuit. I currently work around and about - doing work for easytrack, mgs on track, lotus on track, driveme.net and for caterham cars.

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2 wishbones with Coilover damper/spring units.

You can get replacement wishbones with more camber adjustment in them.

They do come with ARB's but TRD and Titan do much stiffer item.

The TRD's are 27% more stiff. The Titan's are adjustable and made of hollw Chromoly I think which means they are light but stiff.

There is a crash bar behind the bumper made of ali....it could easily be replaced with a less bulky item.

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I realy need to look over a car in more detail to be able to decide if it is worthwhile moving forward. IE: is the potential there.

 

Do it! :D

 

So for example I'll start off with the standard diff - it's a torque biasing diff I understand (?) and I'm used to that on my own road car and understand the limitations it has on track. It can still be effective but it requires you to be quite brave and keep your foot in as once you start to lift it almost starts reverting back to the actions of an open diff.

 

Oh yes! :D

 

The TRD LSD is relatively cheap I believe.

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Have you considered a RWD Skyline GTS-t? I hate to mention it in the Supra forum, but they have some advantages over a Supra if used for on track work, better geo, and MUCH MUCH lighter. I'll get my coat.... :) Not as well made though, by far, but maybe a viable alternative with tons of hard core tuning parts.

 

:spank:

 

 

:D

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Have you considered a RWD Skyline GTS-t? I hate to mention it in the Supra forum, but they have some advantages over a Supra if used for on track work, better geo, and MUCH MUCH lighter. I'll get my coat.... :) Not as well made though, by far, but maybe a viable alternative with tons of hard core tuning parts.

 

:ban:

 

:D

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Hey, Mike, would you do me a favour and let Tony have a poke around your car? :D You are in the same area as him :)

 

My take on some of the issues raised so far:

The suspension is very adjustable providing you can un-sieze the bolts lol, I think it's one of the more adjustable factory suspension setups seen.

 

A decent condition stock radiator is actually very good, and the facelift Supra saw a second additional electric fan being added which may be why my setup has never overheated even with the FMIC and single tubbie. It's ducted a bit as well though. Your suck-it-and-see approach should work well here, as long as everything is in good condition, it'll be interesting to see how it stands up to 20 minutes of circuit time. There is no oil temp as stock, I'm a feedback whore so I'd have AFRs, EGTs, and oil temps on gauges as a minimum, but that's immediately another £500 on your budget. It'll let you keep an eye on what's getting marginal before something actually goes pop though.

 

And Skylines are driven by tossers :nyah:

 

-Ian

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Hey, I won't judge, and if bits are falling off it's easier to look around the mechanics :D

 

RWD Skyline!? It hadn't occured to me and doesn;t really appeal to be fair. I've already got a constant suggestion from another friend that the Supra idea is daft and I should do an E36 M3 - whihc kinda makes more sense - but I just like proper closed sportscars. Always have.

 

And i do like to be different and enjoy a challenge. It would be pretty satisfying for me to take a car not often seen on the cirucit and not considered by many people to be suitable and make it succesful.

 

I do need to be very sure I want to go ahead as I will need to finace this by selling my current race car - and that is car I've owned for 14 years, and is somethign I quite attached to for all sorts of reasons.

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I do need to be very sure I want to go ahead as I will need to finace this by selling my current race car - and that is car I've owned for 14 years, and is somethign I quite attached to for all sorts of reasons.

 

Sell it...:clap: Sell it...:nana: Sell it...:more:

 

I was wrong when I said Chris Wilson was the Supra God, don't listen to the man... he keeps eagles for a living...:blink:

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Hey, I won't judge, and if bits are falling off it's easier to look around the mechanics :D

 

Well touch wood nothing is actually falling off... ;)

 

Perhaps you could come along to the next Squires meet and have a chat with a few of us Yorkshire supra folk?

 

 

P.S. Do it! :D

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1st Tuesday of each month? Could do - it's not too far for me although I'll park out of sight - I don't want to shame all your small capacity engine cars when I turn up in my road car :p.

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Might be worth trying to contact Nicolas Kiesa, to see if he can offer some advice.

 

Does anyone have a copy of the Psycho_supra.mpeg video? That was one impressive piece of Supra driving from what I remember.

 

See this thread: http://mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?t=16834

 

Tony if you are looking for a fully adjustable suspension set up, I can supply these after market components.

 

1. http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/2278/1bn8.jpg

 

2. http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/9831/2ut1.jpg

 

3. http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/7752/3dg5.jpg

 

4. http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/5337/4hr7.jpg

 

5. Missing

 

6. http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/8627/6zy1.jpg

 

7. http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/2518/7ub1.jpg

 

8. http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/562/8vk4.jpg

 

EPC Image of OEM Front Suspension

http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/7829/frontsuspension2vl2.jpg

 

EPC Image of OEM Rear Suspension

http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/7289/rearsuspensioneconvertemn8.jpg

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Now that's an interesting set of items and the kind of thing that gets my thought processes going... Lots of adjustment there - camber is going to be the most imoprtant thing - it always is when you start sticking a car on track with sticky tyres. You always need more camber. Lots of toe adjustment as well: always good.

 

This project really depends on two things - me being happy enough in the concept that I'm wiling to sell my established, succesfull race car, and I find a base car to build into the racer at the right sort of proce (which as I'm from Yorkshire is as cheap as possible).

 

Chris, I own and race a modified MG sports car which has collected a pot within the overal championship for the last two years and rarely doesn't finish on the podium in every race. Outside of that I've also tracked a variety of cars from basic Caterhams right up to M3 CSLs (a cracking motor).

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Tony, I'm also a racing driver and I take my Supra onto the Nuerburgring.....in my opinion a Supra would make a really good competition car with relatively few mods, compared to other cars that could be chosen.

I know what you mean when you say you want to be able to see how the car feels before you start chucking loads of things onto it. You should find that the Supra is an easy car to push hard.... and with this you should find that you will be able to drive it agressively (which is what you need when fighting for the lead :) ).

 

I have found mine to be very stable in the corners, aswell as under heavy braking. The only area which needs to have some attention initially is the power application, but this soon becomes 2nd nature. My Supra is not a race car by the way, so it may be a completely different story with the sticky tyres, camber adjusted etc. etc. but if its a good car to start off with then doing the right mods can only make it better.

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Interesting, thanks. You weren't at the ring on the 1st/2nd/3rd of this month were you? I saw a couple of Supra's whilst I was there - although they must have been new to the track as they were quite cautious (being dipomatic!).

 

This is the car I will have to sell. 160bhp, 800odd KG when race ready. Probably go from 100mph to 30mph in the wheelbase of a Supra!

http://www.leaderpics.co.uk/mallory270806/slides/IMG_6328.JPG

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