Need to fix my refrigerator..., get it aligned for handling..... Options

[njccmd2002]

Yes, you read it right...

I took my convertible to the track this past weekend. Results were dismal.. lol. The engine cannot do everything. Of course the driver has to do a lot. But there are some things that help the driver.

The instructor took my car for a few laps. Scared the **** out me.. The power and torque are there, the handling and braking were not good, when he drove it...

His recommendations...

EBC yellow pads, need to go... they are good for a few laps, but they heat pretty quick..

Toyo R888 did ok job, he recommended slicks (not ready to go there yet), at first he did not know they were toyo, he thought tires were crap. When he gout out, and saw the r888, he recommended camber adjustments..


Facebook not the place to ask this.

What are the camber settings you have tried the most, and if any toe and any other recommendations...

the car felt like a refrigerator on wheels, hard to handle, and of course the added weight. not really going to buy a lotus, or a porsche..

but maybe adjusting the camber might improve..

front -1.5

rear -2.0

I Asked around, but are these good for the celica.......

other than fixing a few of my mistakes on the 2gr swap, the engine performed really good.... YAY

[slavie]

Ok, saying the car handles poorly is like saying "Doctor, everything hurts". Does it understeer, oversteer, dive under braking, is it unstable at speed or in corners? What kind of setup do you have at the moment? Springs, struts, sway bars, bushings? I mean, there's a million questions to ask before any decent recommendation can be made.

If your instructor is suggesting slicks before you have the suspension dialed in, I would take his other recommendations with a grain of salt as well. Not all instructors are suspension wizards, and being one is not a requirement to become an instructor. Slicks won't fix anything for you, they'll mask some problems and make other problems worse. R888's are incredible tires, way more than you can handle to be honest in your first handful of track days, and/or until you learn more about car control and weight transfer.

As for brakes, here's what I have to say:
- more tire means you'll need more brakes. The more grip, the more heat brakes can generate before locking tires in shorter period of time. Go with slicks, and you'll likely need full race pads which will be intolerable and dangerous on the street (if you don't have dedicated brakes for track)
- removing rotor dust shields will help heat dissipation. The only downside is that your rotors will get wet in the rain, and will reduce your initial braking under such conditions. This is only applicable to the street, when you're driving down the highway in the rain for 10 min, your brakes wet and cold, and somebody cuts you off - your brakes will respond worse than if you had your heat shields on.
- rather than more heat-tolerant pad, brake cooling is a far, far better solution. Your brakes are overheating because they cannot dissipate heat as fast as you're generating it - help 'em out a bit, will you? I'm not saying this will allow you to stay with EBC Yellows, but it just might.

I ran EBC Yellows on all-season tires on my LeMons 6GC in the race and the brakes were wonderful. I have no dust shields or inner fenders though. Minimal pad wear, and I could brake really late into the corner, and never experienced any brake issues. I have Tein springs, 1/16" front toe out (about 2 degrees on each side) w/ -.6 camber (bent susp components, couldn't do any more though would rather run at least -1.5), stock rear toe and camber, worn out stock shocks, stock sway bars. Car handled great - turn in was fantastic, car overall felt neutral and very controllable. Welded in roll cage probably helped quite a bit, too, but that comes with the territory. Again, cheap all season tires.
The only problem I had was suspension bottoming out in long sweepers - result of **** shocks and no bump stops. So I'll replace shocks and put in bump stops next.