When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Last year I hit the track again and sorta kept track with a blog type thing in a thread on another forum. figured I copy paste it here and then keep it up to date.
After about a 10 year hiatus, I decided I wanted to go racing again(with corners this time around), and spent the winter getting the car back road worthy, and fixing a lot of issues. Had my first Autocross today
never been a fan of cone dodging, but for $20 bucks and 10 minutes from my house to Hoonigan around right in front of the cops it was worth it. Defiantly a good shake down.
I was really pleased with how the car did. Especially the front end. Braking and cornering were great. The back end not so much. Cornering was fine, but I just couldn't get any power down, with the power im putting out, the 4.10s, first gear, and a track that was a puddle of water that morning I just couldn't give any skinny pedal. Due to the venue they also had a "no breaking traction" rule that made it even tougher.
I felt like all my iRacing actually hurt me in turn-in and braking, I could have been way more aggressive there in real life, than iRacing allows. Old habits die hard.
For some reason the outside footage looks like slow mo. My dad rode with me and after watching from the outside he thought the same, going way faster inside the car, than it looks like watching.
took it easy the first run, then the last 3 starting trying to push more. ran 30.5, 30.4, and 30.7. The 1LE Camaros and SRT8s with there several event experience were running high 29s. the pros were running 27s in there Miatas and Sti's.
But I didn't hit any cones, the car survived, and I had a blast! Im hooked
suspension right now is eibach sportline springs, stock front struts (120k on them), and rear summit drag shocks. essentially if you hand picked the parts to to make a fbody handle as terrible as possible that's what im running
yeah strano/konis are still the setup for a track/street car.
ironically it will actually raise my car, these are only a 1.25" drop and my current Eibach Sportlines are a 2" drop. but the added roll/pitch support/response will by far overcome the CG change. Eibach rates were 360lb/137lb
well this weekend I had my first PDS at TWS. 2.9 mile road course. What a blast!
First day went decent, car did pretty good. but the second day I kept boiling the brake fluid so I had to take it easy on entrys with only about 50% brakeing power available. pedal never would come back even after cooling. on the final set I lost the brakes completely. still a blast though. time to do work. cant wait until the next one!
Last edited by STANG KILLA SS 2; 03-18-2016 at 02:41 PM.
Final Day. had already boiled brake fluid twice on earlier sessions. braking power and pedal were down to about 50%, so I just went easy on entries so I could still finish the day. Ignore the early lifting and blown apexes. 4th and final session of the day coming into #10 (1:40 in video) the pedal went all the way to the floor with zero braking. I turned in as hard as I could to try to keep on track and to try to get the rear to kick out to bleed off speed. droped the drivers rear off. still had zero brakes even after cooling.
pulled an all nighter and got the suspension in. about 3 hours.
moved the C clip in the front that holds the lower spring cup to give an extra 1/4" drop
out back i pulled out the rubber spring isolator at the top and did the heater hose mod to get a extra 1/2" drop in the rear.
sits a little higher than my old springs still as i expected. front is livable but the rear is still a little higher than id like. may end up cutting 1/2 to 1 coil off the rears.
also did a full flush on the brake fluid using an air bleeder. fully flushed with cheap brake fluid first, then again with the Motul 600. the stock fluid was filthy, the cheap fluid was clear, and the Motul was amber, so it made it real easy to see when it was completely flushed at each corner. followed each corner with a couple manual pump bleeds to check for air.
brakes feel good now. harder and higher than i ever remember the pedal.
got an alignment as well. i went with -1.0 camber (factory specs are +.4!) and 5.0 degrees of caster. had some toe out in it at first to make turn in more responsive, but ended up going back to 0 so i didnt have to worry about scrub or crack walking on the highway.
pretty cool $60K alignment machine only used cameras. no electronics in the wheel attachment.
Last edited by STANG KILLA SS 2; 03-18-2016 at 02:44 PM.
I don't know if im getting better, or everyone else got slower, but on 3 of my sessions I started 1 minute behind everyone and by the end of the session I had passed the entire field (about 12 cars id guess) I felt like I was actually pushing less as I was on $20 autozone pads.
lunch time got to drive up and check out the old skyboxes atop the bleachers. cool perspective from up there.
few clips I threw together trying to use GoPro Studio, not my best driving, just trying to get a hang of the program
on my final session of the weekend, I actually got my blue group "solo" approval!
first time out on the track without an instructor. good way to end the weekend.
unfortunately on my 3rd lap I blew it. came into 4 too hot and trailed the brakes waaay too long and spun at the top of the hill.
well I think I finally reached the end of my braking ordeal.
14" 5th Gen Stoptech Cryogenic frozen rotors, with center bore machined out to 70.6mm for 4th gen hub
Gen 1 CTS-V Brembo 4 Piston Calipers
Hawk HP+ Pads
Kore3 Stainless and coated lines
Huge difference over stock
well after fitting the brakes and after all my research the new brakes wouldn't clear my wheels. diameter had about .1" which I was fine with, but the fat lip and the +25 offset, the spokes wouldn't clear the new huge calipers. enough spacer to clear the calipers made the tires stick out 2".
So I had no choice but new wheels. cheapest wheels with the specs I needed were these Black Chrome C6 Spyder wheels. 18x9.5 +40 offset.
after getting the wheels in and test fitting them, I took them in to get my old tires transferred to these wheels. well they were so dry rotted the beads were just ripping as they tried to get them off the old wheels. (date stamp on tires was 200 so I had no choice but to order tires. this "cheap" big brake upgrade was adding up now.
figured I may as well go with something sticky, but wanted to still keep street stock legal (200 min tread wear) so I went with the Hankook Ventus R-S3 V2 tires. 285/35/18 Lots of great track reviews especially for there price. there as wide as my old BFG 295s
finished up
bedding in test drive showed a lot of promise. I think I may need harness's now...
Last edited by STANG KILLA SS 2; 03-18-2016 at 02:51 PM.
Hankooks and brakes did amazing. Only had to use probly 25% brake power/pedal and ran all weekend long strong zero fad. Also really helped the Braking bias, no more oversteer when braking, and ABS really left me alone. Big improvment. Tires were awesome, covered me on a few bad lines keeping me straight and on track. Lots more grip and turn in and got rid of under steer. Car did great! for the first time nothing broke, failed, or let me down (well broke seat braket) If i had to find a flaw i would say that using so little of the massive braking power, it gave back very little "feel" threw the pedal since i was just breathing of them. but still insane performance.
the square tire setup really livened up the car too, lots more turn in and neutral steering, vs the old staggered setups understeer. also the lots softer compound was really working and making a difference. big jump in grip.
Had one of my best sessions ever Saturday i think it was. Decided to go out with the leaders. Following #1 full race C5Z. Gave me something to push for and overcome my comfort zone. Was flying out there and really wheelin the car finally. Tires were screamin for mercy. I kept pushing and the car kept taking it. awesome run. Also finally figured out a better line for me into 8, turning in early. What a blast!!!!
Had an awesome event at the last autocross. Car and myself did very well. It was a really open course which suited my bigger car well. Was super stoked with my times. I did so well I ended up winning the RWD class! and even better I also beat the entire AWD class too other than 1st place.
Vids of the a few runs. better runs start at the 3:09 mark
forged internals and ARPs, but im assuming a rod or rod bolt let go.
video here, about the :29 second mark I started hearing a double exhaust note/echo, i figured i had just blown a header gasket or broke an exhaust weld or something. I backed off but kepts going. coming back into the crossover the rear tires locked up and the motor let out the smoke. no real noises, booms, or scrapnel sounds. just died.
Damage was worse than we thought. #5 and 6 completely disintegrated. Forged rods, forged pistons, cylinder walls/block, crank, bearings, valves, everything. Shrapnel got 3 and 4 too
whats left of #5
top and right you can see the valve strikes. bottom left you can see where the piston hit the bowl of the head. and the piston spun nearly 180*
you can see the hole in the block at the top. and all the carnage below. unbelievable.
Last edited by STANG KILLA SS 2; 03-18-2016 at 02:54 PM.
head work is now done,
4 new 2.02/1.6 Ferrea valves
new Dual .650 PRC springs
New Ti retainers
new Steel seats
new PRC Viton seals
valve job
well ive got this thing back together
went with a Texas Speed short block. Aluminum 5.3L bored back to 5.7. forged goodies and overall nearly identical to what I had before other than block.
heads are my old ported 862s that I had completely refreshed. replaced the 4 bent valves, new double PRC .650 springs, new Ti retainers, new seats and seals, decked and valve job.
the cam was a big one for me. I spent 3 weeks talking with a bunch of the industry's biggest getting specs, opinions, and learning a lot about valve events. ended up having Tick Performance Custom grind me this cam. Went with lower duration, and a reverse split lift to try to give up some big end peak HP to gain some mid range power band. 227/235 .619/.600 112.6 LSA
long block assembled
accessorized and wired
I just liked this pic was about to steam clean the engine bay, firewall, and K-member
Motor back on the K-member! intake, headers, clutch, etc etc on.
all finished. I now have about 450 break in miles on the motor, and next week will do the final oil change to remove the break in oil. Ordered a case of Joe Gibbs LS30 oil to run from now on.
I did lots of other updating along the way as opportunity presented itself. basically restoring everything under the hood to brand new parts and making all little issues "right"
Last edited by STANG KILLA SS 2; 03-18-2016 at 02:55 PM.
well i had my first time back at AutoX last weekend. motor had about 400 miles on it, and still had the break in oil in it, hasnt even been on the dyno yet
The course was longer and much tighter than previous courses. not big car freindly. two 150* hairpins and two loops. the good news for me, only 2 of the Miatas showed up to compete for this event.
id been battling with a couple S2000's all day for top honors. we'd worked our times down to a 49.1(him) and a 49.2 (me). well on my 4th run(3:30 in the video) the sun was setting and i knew the track was going to cool off and this would be my last chance to get a good time in and i went out knowing i had to push harder. ended up stomping a good run and put down the quickest time of the event by a large margin
had a blast and the car did great! also got to do some night time fun runs. times were about 2 seconds slower in the dark (5:30 in the video)
STANG KILLA SS goes "racin" 
03-18-2016, 11:07 AM
