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Thanks for the link to the articles. I did read most of these articles years ago and looking back at them now, they still offer a wealth of suspension tuning information. Before I commit to purchasing and installing adjustable camber arms, I'll first wait to see how my new 255F/275R tire set-up grips around corners at my next HPDE track day (since this will likely be the final tire size upgrade I'll pursue on my IS350) to see if there's still room for improvement with increasing/maintaining lateral g-force on street tires.
How much negative camber are you recommending I should go for while still maintaining the majority of my current tire wear for daily driving (since I only go to Autox/HPDE events 2 or 3 times a year)? I'm guessing -2 degrees of camber for the fronts and rears? My goal with this car has always been to build an OEM-ish street/track IS350 had Lexus decided to build an "F" car to directly rival the E46 M3 which is why I've yet to invest in a set of fully-adjustable track-dedicated coilovers or supplementary parts like adjustable camber arms. So far, this set-up feels brilliant for everyday driving and for non-competition HPDE events. If I ever start competing in SCCA seasonal events, these upgrades would definitely be a must (as well as competition tires).
I haven't experimented a-lot with camber, but I'm at ~2* in front and ~1* in the rear. I've never seen that this much camber affects the wear rate on my tires. I've gone with more in the front and less in the rear for a couple of reasons. First, most cars like more camber in the front than the back. Second the camber curve on the rear end of these cars is super aggressive, so when the car rolls over in a corner your dynamic camber changes and gives you more camber in the rear end anyway.
The "right" way to adjust camber is to choose a setting, get the tires up to temperature by doing a couple of laps, and then check the tire temperature across the carcass width. For a given toe setting, camber is "correct" when the temperature is even across the width of the tire. Obviously, that takes a-lot of testing and I don't think any of us are up for that.
A little update on a couple of things that have been happening with my IS350 since the last month or so...
About two months ago, I was dealing with a brake squeal issue which was coming from the front driver side wheelwell and became more pronounced the hotter the pads got. After several steps of troubleshooting (brake cleaning all components, looking for pebbles wedged on the dust shield, etc.), it turned out to be my EBC Yellowstuff pads that were the culprit. I'm guessing the brake pads had crystallized during my last track day which caused the pads to begin to chunk away and to squeal when warm. After I temporarily swapped back to OEM pads, the brake squeal completely vanished.
I submitted a warranty claim specifically for the EBC Yellowstuff pads since I was within the one-year warranty window for both my pads and slotted rotors. I honestly didn't expect to hear back from the warranty folks with any good news. To my surprise, not only did EBC mail me a replacement set of EBC Yellowstuff pads, they also mailed me a replacement set of slotted rotors that I didn't even request (which means I now have a spare set of rotors)! Talk about great customer service!
Fast forwarding to last weekend, I was in the garage getting ready to swap out the OEM pads with the new set of EBC Yellowstuff pads. Lo and behold, when I tried loosening the first lug nut, that lug nut would not budge. After finally breaking the lug nut loose, the lug nut would not freely spin for it to be removed. It turns out that the wheel stud was stripped! This put a complete halt on my plans for swapping out the brake pads....
It was two weeks prior that I had the new 255F/275R tires installed at Discount Tire so I suspected that the tire tech had overtorqued and stripped out the bolt. I drove to Discount Tire and spoke to the store manager about what had happened. After some deliberating and explaining the timeline on who worked on the car last, Discount Tire finally took full responsibility and reimbursed me for the cost of replacing the damaged wheel stud. Though resolving this issue and getting the wheel stud replaced took most of my available free time that day, I still managed to get back to work on swapping out the pads.
While the car was on jacks, I also used a heatgun to try and remold some of the plastic wheelwell liner up front as I was experiencing a little bit of tire rub when braking and turning at the same time. Hopefully this will resolve any further tire rubbing or else I may have to do the bumper tab relocation mod to make even more room in the wheelwell...
Other than that, I am currently waiting for my front and rear set of Project Mu Club Racer brake pads to arrive from Japan so I can use those pads specifically for track use (I plan on using the EBC Yellowstuff pad for daily driving and AutoX events).
Sucks about all the issues, but you must be doing something right for everyone to step up and take care of problems!
I've had similar experiences on more than one car at more than one Discount Tire, which is why I keep going back.
Yeah, I used to use Discount Tire and was their #1 customer...until the one time they pissed me off with their nonesense. Not company related...more like store mgr related.
Anyhow, I now use a mom and pop shop that has good equipment and a low-profile hydro lift to do all my tire/wheel business with. As long as I catch them BEFORE they use the 100ft lb setting air gun to re-install my lug nuts, I'm good.
Great to hear that EBC came through big time on your warranty claim! I'll keep that in the back of my head when looking at new rotors with in the next year.
It's been a while since I've last updated this thread but with a recent business trip to Japan and Hurricane Irma plowing through Florida, things have been a bit hectic lately.
After waiting a few months for my Project Mu Club Racer brake pads to be manufactured and shipped from Japan, they have finally arrived! With the Florida weather starting to slowly cool down, I plan on using these new pads at the Palm Beach International Raceway next month and I'll have plenty of opportunities to test its brake fade resistance on the high-speed straightaways.
During my business trip in Japan, I managed to pick up a JDM-centric item to mildly spruce up my IS350.
Regarding future mods, I'm still contemplating on purchasing a set of PPE headers and titanium wraps from RR-Racing in order to extract additional power at the mid-high RPM range. I think my biggest deterrent on getting this upgrade is the potential labor cost for installing the headers as well as if my 02 sensors would also need to be replaced (being that the car is already pushing 11 years).
I've also been closely monitoring progress on the RR-Racing 3IS350 supercharger development which I heard is in the final development phase (durability testing) before its released to the public for purchase. If big power gains are realized via the supercharger w/ tune and if the project is cross-pollinated to the 2IS350 platform, it's a possibility that I might purchase a kit (if the 2IS350 A760E transmission can reliably handle the additional stress). Time will tell...
that TRD badge makes me want to take a business trip to japan
yeah, im in a similar boat, in the sense that i want to purchase PPE headers, but dont want to fork the cost of the labor install (as i dont really have time to install it myself as of now, so i might just wait til my '13 isf gets older before taking the plunge on headers and exhaust.)
I don't have to convince you on the benefit of the headers...you've seen my dyno pulls.
But I DIY'd the install; and honestly, with the right tools, it isn't not difficult. The only thing I'd recommend is an 18" 3/8ths extension bar and a matching swivel attachment. I had to combine three shorter extensions in order to accomplish my install. LOL! But honestly, the most difficult part of the install is just physically reaching those head/header nuts/bolts.
Also, when I did my header install I put in all new Denso O2s. It wasn't as much as you think. I purchased all of mine on Ebay and honestly maybe spent $120 shipped for all four.
Over the weekend, I was finally able to install my new set of Project Mu Club Racer brake pads in preparation for an upcoming HPDE event in December.
I haven’t had a chance to bed in the brakes but my first impression on the Club Racer pads are how strong the initial bite of the pads are as soon as you press on the brake pedal. The pads feel like they literally stick to the rotors and will get the car to a complete stop much earlier than anticipated. The initial bite is much stronger than what I was used to with the EBC Yellowstuff.
Another plus with these new track pads is how street friendly this compound is. I was anticipating lots of squeals and screeches from the pads when they were cold but I’ve yet to run into any noise issues.
I don’t know if I’ll be keeping the Club Racer pads on for my daily driving as I’m not certain of the pads’ longevity when compared to what I’m used to on the EBC Yellowstuff but I am enjoying the feel of these Project Mu pads more than what I’m accustomed to with my EBCs. It feels like the 4-piston front caliper was magically upgraded to a 6-piston caliper. LOL.
I'll report back on my impressions of these pads once I've had a chance to do multiple laps on the track this upcoming weekend.
Those front Yellowstuff pads are relatively new (approx. 2k-3k miles with no autox). The rear Yellowstuff pads were probably down to 2mm so I definitely changed them out at a good time!
Are those your original rear calipers? If so they are in excellent shape, especially considering all of us who have had to replace them due to the corroded/seized sliding pins.
Are those your original rear calipers? If so they are in excellent shape, especially considering all of us who have had to replace them due to the corroded/seized sliding pins.
I'm glad you took a look at my rear calipers and noted that they are in excellent shape. As a matter of fact, I intentionally wanted to swap out the brake pads on both the front and rear axles a week prior to going to the track as I specifically wanted to see if I did or did not have a seized rear caliper (in case Murphy's Law rears its ugly head). Thankfully, both rear calipers are still sliding back and forth with no signs of sluggishness. These calipers are over 11 years old and are still performing like they should.
I enjoyed my weekend participating at a track attack event at The FIRM in Starke, FL. The ECU tune really helps with keeping a strong powerband throughout the RPM range up to 7200 RPMs. It also lets you stay in a lower gear for a longer duration. The new 255F/275R tire setup that I tested out is perfect for the way my car is tuned. The wider PSS tires had loads of grip around the corners and I was able to smoothly engage with nailing the apexes without much drama from the available traction with these tires. Any lose of traction was very progressive so I was able to adjust accordingly to maintain my line through each part of the track. The most fun I had was going through the straight at triple digits and then slamming the brake to make a 90 degree right turn while all four tires were at their maximum slip angle. To my surprise, I started the event with 8-9mm of tread on all four tires and left the event with no noticeable wear to the tires. Not bad at all!
The Project Mu Club Racer pads were also a welcome addition to my setup. The pads were responsive and very good at bring the car to a crawl multiple times without any fade whatsoever. Even with multiple high speed braking zones at 100-110mph, I never lost confidence with the pads, rotors, fluids or tires when I was performing threshold braking.
With the wider tire setup, the OS Giken TCD was truly able to make the rear outer tire bite into a corner and maintain the momentum of the car around the corners. It literally feels like a Torque Vectoring Differential with how power is progressively and smoothly transferred to the outer rear wheel which greatly helps with stability and agility. You can easily goose the gas pedal while mid-corner if you want to steer-by-throttle around a tight corner or if you need to correct any understeer.
Here is some track footage of me chasing after a modified RX-7 on R-compounds and a tuned Focus ST. The driver of the RX-7 was a particular nuisance at the event as I had been on this driver's tail for several laps waiting for him to give me the proper 'point-by' for me to pass but he refused to do so. He instead chose to high-tail it to the pits than allow himself to be passed by a luxury family sedan.
05-01-17, 07:58 AM
I did read most of these articles years ago and looking back at them now, they still offer a wealth of suspension tuning information. Before I commit to purchasing and installing adjustable camber arms, I'll first wait to see how my new 255F/275R tire set-up grips around corners at my next HPDE track day (since this will likely be the final tire size upgrade I'll pursue on my IS350) to see if there's still room for improvement with increasing/maintaining lateral g-force on street tires.
With the Florida weather starting to slowly cool down, I plan on using these new pads at the Palm Beach International Raceway next month and I'll have plenty of opportunities to test its brake fade resistance on the high-speed straightaways.
