^^^ you should see some of the videos Tim posted....there were so many vibrations as the suspension is set to full hard.....just like a go-kart.....bleedy awesome !!!

 

Well..... it's not really a TL any more. I like to think of it as my personal amusement park ride.

Have you checkied out my thread -

Putting the TL on a diet (click here)

The TL Diet Videos (click here)

 

nice, im checking them out now. put having them full stiff on the front, dont you give up a lot of straight line and high speed stability? sounds scary. I say this because my car will. maybe just short wheel base and aggressive alignment. but it is very nervous this way. I have my rear full stiff and the front 60% stiff. my rates are 12K front, 10K rear. oem front sway bar, 22mm rear after market sway bar, full 8 point cage.

 

wow man! great stuff! im still reading but looks like you got a lot of crap like it did about safty lol f them lol. Man you seem super serious too about this. this is great! and you are in houston, why the fawk have you not met us in person or road race with us? I demand an audiance! haha

Fenda, you got a lot of catching up to do on the mods on this guy hahha. Go nuts man and do what he did!

excellent work here man, I really love what youve done to this thing!

 

As you are reading the Diet thread, please know that most of the real nasty replies and comments had been deleted by the forum moderators a few years ago to clean-up the thread. So, you don't really see the amount of grief that I had to endure. As a side note, I do have the original thread in PDF format before it got cleaned-up.

Thanks for the enthusiastic approval. I do appreciate it.

But, you are a biased reviewer

 

Fresh vids from last weekend's Driver's Edge track event at Motorsport Ranch in Cresson, TX...

Beating up some ZO6's and misc...


My slide-out when the Carbotechs gave up...(it's at the end)...


Some new changes to the TL: a 15lb. Deka battery, new compliance bushings, lowered the rearend .5", Carbotech XP10's in the front (instead of the XP12's I ran in March), ATE Superblue brake fluid instead of Motul...ran the same R-S3's...

I actually ran the front Carbotech's down the to backing plate (from brand new) and the piston actually bent the backing plate from the force of it! Needless to say, I'll be contacting Carbotech to at least let them know about their weak backing plates...I ran the XP12's in March and ran them to the rivets (which also destroyed my rotors), but at least those backing plates didn't bend...











I'm behind the blue ZO6...







In the upper left corner...if you can get your eyes off the Ferrari that is...



A couple more vids to follow...

 

looks like a good time, was that an instructor of sorts riding with you? If so I'd a told him to shut up lol
Holy damn on the pads man, so both the 10's and 12's only lasted you a day??? And really less than a day in the fact that they all but broke in half by the end haha. It's definitely time for better calipers dude, and probably would help to run shorter sessions with more time inbetween for cooling. Also, if you're doing 20+ min sessions, you really should only be pushing it the first 2-3 laps after warmup, the brakes and tires just aren't going to hold up as well if you push the whole time. After your hard laps, just drop it back 10% and focus more on your line refinement, passing techniques, etc, and you'll be able to last the full session without destroying car bits while doing it. Just a thought.

Going off track is something you have to accept is going to happen, so it looks like you handled it well and probably learned from it as well.

 

Yea bro it was definitely a good weekend, besides the destruction of my brakes that is! And lol the instructor is pretty cool, he was definitely a help for me, I didn't mind his input

But yes, you're definitely right about the calipers...I'm planning on getting a nice Stoptech BBK...this one looks very promising:

http://thmotorsports.com/stoptech/st.../i-210336.aspx

I can get it at a much cheaper price too...but yea, the XP10's only lasted like 6 good sessions, I guess the Base TL brakes are just simply not up to the task for extended racing events. And good advice on how to handle the laps...but it's hard to go easy "at all" when everyone's passing you! lol And going off is def something I've accepted, I would've been fine if the brakes were there! Like you said, it's definitely a great learning experience all around though...

 

@ them pads

 

^^^ I know bro...I'm calling Carbotech this week...

In the meantime, here's another vid...

 

kind of a close call there at about 4:10 or so. you saw you were pushing too wide and then over corrected even more which made the back end come unsettled a bit. If you had done that and still pushed even just a hair's amount into the dirt you would have mostly likely spun being the rear end was so loose.

Just a teaching point I've learned the hard way as well...If you see that you're mostly likely going to drop 2 or even 4 wheels off track, don't try anything you can do to keep the car on the track, prepare yourself and stabilize the car and if it does go off track, you'll be in control and can gently guide the car back on track and not lose it entirely. Luckily you rolled out right on the rumble strip and whipped her back on track but that could've turned out a lot different.

 

Good points there Villo! I think hitting the rumble strips made me lose control a little...but i forget....

 

Last video, 1st session on Sunday Yellow Group...passed a couple Mini Cooper S's and an E46 M3...

 

Looking great! Will be following your progress

 

Thanks! A few upgrades in the very near future: Stoptech 2-piece BBK with Carbotech XP10's (just ordered), Skunk2 upper control camber arms (should be arriving early-mid January), Hondata Flashpro (when it becomes available in early January), Nitto NT-01's, power steering cooler...

And another track weekend in April...

BTW, update with Carbotech, I called them yesterday and told them about the bending backplates. They said they have heard/seen it before, they just attributed it to the heat build-up of the stock brakes...this is why I pulled the trigger on the Stoptech 2-piece BBK...

 

Hey y'all! I'm puttin' the ole TL back to stock-ish...so I'm selling a few items in the Black Market...

Brand new Flashpro, EBC rotors, Skunk2 camber kit right now...used PDC, J-Pipe, intake, and stock wheels to follow...

 

What?!?! Say it ain't so! lol


Might call dibs on the J pipe. PM me when you get a chance.

 

I know bro! Sad to leave the TL crew, but no worries, I'll still be racing but just on a different platform! We'll definitely need to meet up when it's all ready...but yes, you def have dibs on the j-pipe!

 

What's the new platform?

 

Not mine...not yet anyway...

 

Oh weally? lol wouldn't have guessed that

 

lol yup, totally different from the TL! But, I've been rockin' only two seats in the TL for more than a year anyway...the FWD/auto/open diff is most def NOT the ideal platform for racing, as we all know (even though it did pretty darn well for me!) The Miata really is the best track car especially for the low initial cost and low consumables price. As much as I thoroughly enjoyed tracking the TL, it's just not ideal and I feel it was holding me back quite a bit. The Miata has soooo much more aftermarket/track support compared to the TL, again, as you know all too well.

Besides all that, it's getting up in miles and age and I might as well trade it in while I can still get something out of it! (and the Kraftwerks supercharger for the NC is coming out very soon....)