I have been an F owner for about 3 years. My wife and I were living in Africa and moved back to Canada and picked up a 2008. We were primarily landcruiser owners, all 70 series. We lived on our farm, rough roads and drove all throughout the southern half.

the F was a change. I have loved it and tweaked with small mods, mainly fbo. Wider rubber, coil overs etc.

anyways, cut to the chase. Took the car to the track. I have firehawk Indy 500, 245 front and 275 back. Staggered rims, 8.5 front 9.5 back. Psi set to 32 cold, hot they were about 37. Ambient temp about 23 degrees Celsius.

Car was great, lots to learn and digest but on a short track with needing to stay in only 3rd gear, hard to get into a lot of trouble. However, the better I did with my lines and the smoother I was, the faster I became. I would do 20 min sessions and cool off, refocus and take a break. It takes constant attention. Mind wonders and you make stupid mistakes. I found the car would squeal in corners as the tires got hot, and seemed like the tires would give you easy indication at the limit, but the car seemed under tired even at the sizes I was running. Never felt the back end would step out, trac was on, and damn that e lsd! Terrible. So fairly good overall, I think it is worth buying the best tire you can and size accordingly. The car is heavy and I think strains when pushed hard in corners .i went for a ride in my friends Sti and although slower, it really pivots the Front end and never feels as if the tires are slipping and he was on all seasons. My tires definelty did feel like they were skipping but granted I was faster.

For those experienced on track with this car, would welcome observations and guidance on setup, recommendations. I looked at the tires after the sessions, the outside edges seem to take some strain and have wear. Do I need more pressure with these tires? Is it tire dependent or psi has the same effect on any tire and hence one pressure will affect many tires the same way?

thanks all.

side story, the orientation lap was done for all new drivers in a gmc cube van driven by a 70 year old man that has raced for 50 years. He drove so well that he was reeling in modified cars and nearly had that thing on two wheels. Amazing what he could do with that pile of turd. I don’t need more power, I need more practice. And maybe pilot sports that are wider.

 

Could also be the suspension your running on and how it's configured? What coilover setup are you running?

I know some of the guys who opted to go with Penske have nothing but praises for those when tracking as stability and being able to put the power down effectively was greatly improved....

 

I wouldn t be able to tell at this stage to be honest but chose Rr racing road and track. Trust these guys to provide a good product.

 

245s are just to small for such a heavy car. 275 square and you will have a better experience.

 

Awesome man! So many more F drivers should make the leap and try a track day. A couple general comments but lots a good info sprinkled throughout the forum.
1. Seat time is most important than anything else. As you saw, even a turd car can do well with a great driver.
2. If your are on OEM wheels, you are pretty much at max width without getting creative. I ran those for a few years and finally switched to a 275/35-18 lighterweight square setup on RE-71Rs since I'm ready for the next level.
3. PS4S are a great street tire to start with. But hell, I ran on all seasons a few times since I was still new.
4. I have the RR road and track v1 coils. They are track oriented and wouldn't recommend them for daily driving comfort. V2 are more streetable but give up a little track performance and cheaper too. Lots of great info on various coilover setups on here too.
5. There is no exact tire pressure. You need to start with something and the check the tire wear on the sidewall to determine whether you should increase or decrease psi.
6. Yes, the e-LSD sucks! Lol

Just enjoy and keep learning!

 

Thoughtful feedback, thanks all. Aside from driving smoother, i will consider going wider up front but how wide can I go if I keep a 8.5 inch rim? I know the 255 was stock on the back but can I adequately go to 265? Should this make a nice difference for front grip and more neutral handling?

 

^^^^265/35/19 is too wide for an 8½" wheel. See chart below:




Lou

 

Thanks Lou. So the 255 is really the limit with 8.5 inch rims in the front. If I bumped these to 9.5. What is the widest that fits? 275? From a handling perspective, I would argue the difference is negligible to upgrade to 255 and stay at 8.5 vs. Move to 9.5 and go 275

 

^^^^When I had my ISF I ran 255/35 and 295/30 on RCF 9s and 10s. I found the handling quite good with that combo. A 9½" wheel can take a max of 285/. But then we are having trouble with the OD.




Lou

 

When the Bondurant School of Racing was at Sears Point, now Infineon, the hotlap in the bald tired Chevy van with Bob at the wheel was legendary. Bob was no spring chicken at the time too.

There's a whole lot you are not telling us about the setup on the car. Are you still running the OEM bushings? IMHO, that should be the very first thing you fix on this car before tracking, unless you plan to trail brake hard, then the squishy bushing on the LCA will add toe out and help the car turn. It will also kill the inside edges of your tires under braking. AMHIK.

Not sure why you are commenting about the eLSD. Do the pedal dance to turn it off and tell me how that's better. I did it, and it was one of my worst sessions ever. It was the equivalent of driving with a burned out clutch on track out. Is it as good as my OS Giken LSD? No, not even in the same league, but it's a whole lot better than nothing.

Wider tires might help. Track time will help for sure. That's where I'd focus right now.

 

You re right, I didn’t give much other details to the car setup. I have changed the bushings, using the rr racing ursr. Sway bar bushing swapped for oem rubber, lower links in the front as well as it was time to change. Other than that, everything else is stock beyond the fbo and tune from rr racing.

as for the e lsd, I could find it noticeable coming out of the corner when the car would limit power when traction was compromised. So it did it’s intended purpose, but on a track, wouldn’t power applied more equally through an upgraded giken or equivalent be the way to go? I am not needing that yet as I need track time and other things to learn about myself as a driver and then slowly work on understanding what the car can do as is. Then I can migrate down the rabbit hole to address limitations that will be more evident as my skill changes.

 

Did you turn off the rest of the VDIM functions with a long press? If you didn't you can't blame the eLSD for cutting power, and that's not how it works anyway. It only grabs the brake on the spinning wheel to make the diff lock up, and it does this pretty well. VDIM will use the front brakes to modulate the car, and can cause pad fade even with heavy duty track pads. AMHIK. I was unable to get the line I wanted into turn 3 at CMP with VDIM on. Once I turned it off, I could place the car within fractions of an inch easily. I was either leaving a foot at entry, or on the gators with VDIM. Most of that is my fault as a driver having come from racing motorcycles and getting on the gas hard early. Cars don't like that at all. I am pretty sure now I could run with VDIM on in Sport mode and be OK, but initially I was flat pedal on the throttle in places where I could only use half throttle once I turned off VDIM. So, unless you had it off, I suspect VDIM is more your enemy than the eLSD. I never felt the throttle hesitate with VDIM off in Sport mode, ever.

 

hmm. Very helpful. I tried to turn it off and it wouldn’t stay off, later I learned I had to have it in park to do this.

I did a second track day yesterday and this time it was with a considerable number of others that were tuned and experience drivers. What a different experience. I also experienced brake fade in a hard corner that surprised me a bit, so I am swapping to fresh fluid and upgrading to motul 600 dot 4 that is here. I have normal pads and will replace come next spring. I am not doing high speed threshold breaking yet and can’t bare running track pads through the winter.

i learned even more through repetition on the same course, however, signed up for advanced drivers course this weekend. I believe my problem is trying to go too fast still and being too aggressive in corners, braking too late in a corner and unsettling the car with being too a abrupt in power and brake application.

I also witness how fast a light car can be - those civic type r’s are quick in the corners but easy to walk away from on straights. Then you have to slow and turn. So many variables with each driver and each car it would be unfair to compare. Anyways, thanks for the feedback above I will try turning everything off in a safe place and see how it works. I have about 50 laps or so down and starting to feel subtle changes, however a timing lap would be helpful. Seat of the pants means squat unless back up with a timer.

 

Okay update. I booked two more track days since and then did an advanced driver clinic for another day.

I learned so much on doing about another 80 laps of a track here in Toronto. I was injected into an aggressive tuner oriented free for all track day, cut my teeth there. Then in the clinic was spotted in ‘beginner’ due to disclosing having only a couple track days under my belt. End of the day I had been transferred across to two instructors and bumped up two classes to advanced.

I think part of the success is attributed to doing so many laps I figured out the car, the track and my confidence soared. I have a lot of time to myself at the skid pad and played with limits of traction controlling the car at the limits. That was helpful. I feel comfortable at the limit, although skid of control is different than traction control at 200 kph.

I struggled with tire pressure, started cold at 32 and ended up at 38 or 40. I had an instructor w an isf and he started at 28cold. I didn’t like that. Good Initial traction but gets terrible after a few laps. I found starting around 34 cold kept consistency longer when warmed up to about 40-42.

once my lines were figured out I felt comfortable pushing the car to the traction limits and really got in a groove lap after lap and spending a lot of time passing others. Passed my instructor in the isf as well and didn’t look back.

anyways, best investment was seat time and free reign to experiment on a track over and over and over. Car doesn’t matter as much as confidence and practice.

I notice the weight of the car now. Need to lose 300 pounds.

 

this past weekend I found that 38-40 hot was too much, there was much better grip at 32 -34 hot, this was on a 245/275 stagger on the oem '12 wheels, running Buttonwillow Raceway on a hot day