Hi kind of new here, but been lurking and learning.

Just curious, I have this great car, but I was at Buttonwillow (Conf. #1 with star mazda and bus stop CW) last week and felt that the car (it's stock) leaned a lot on the transitions. At another track with a lot of left/right transitions, I felt the rear tires rubbing on the fender. I feel I'm waiting for the car to settle before getting on with it.

There were other GT3s at the track with suspension work (although I don't know what their spring rates were) that looked like they were HOOKED UP and flying.

Just as a reference point, I did a 2:14 on Buttonwillow Conf. 1 I mentioned above with Nitto NT01 tires. Is that a good time and how much time could be gained with stiffer springs and revalved shocks?

I don't want to get too far from stock as I truly enjoy driving this car on the streets, so I've ruled out Motons and such. I guess my other question is will this car still be comfortable to drive on the street with these 2 upgrades?

Thanks. I've learned so much and continue to do so from this forum!

 

you definitely have time on the table. with the stock suspension, you can do a 2:08 or better easily. Once you get there, then I would look for better suspension. My 2$

Now if you want to do it, drivability depends on your spring rate. You can't go too high with the stock dampers like 800 or so , which is still drivable on the street.

 

if your skill level can maximize the shock and spring combo you can easily pick up time. Depending though on what tires you are running you want to make sure you have the re-vavlving done to match the relative spring rate of the tire.

As far as the street, it would be better to run an adjustable setup like the Moton's so you can go full soft for street driving. Obviously you can't do that in a fixed setup.

 

Alignment settings maybe off? What are your settings? Mike

 

My experience is that unless you go overboard, stiff springs will not deteriorate the ride on the street as much as stiff shocks. I agree with Dell that Motons are much better on the street than a fixed shock and softer springs. Although a suspension upgrade may improve your track times, more seat time will be a better investment based on the above comments. I have not driven Buttonwillow, so I cannot reference.

 

Mooty would know. Where is he? I'm sure one of his 9 996 GT3s was run in that configuration with a totally stock set up, then with just revalved shocks and stiffer springs and with Motons.

 

with R888, 2:14 is decent, but i dont thinnk it's fast enough to warrant suspension changes yet. at 2:10, you might consider it.

if you want suspension, go with moton or jrz, penske or other top line stuff. otherwise, it just no worth it. the stock suspension is pretty incredible as is.

 

My car feels this way at a couple points at my local track and this really showed up when I put on the Hoosiers. Now there is so much stick with the tires that it shows that my OEM shocks are completely toast. It's almost like driving a boat over another boat's wake. I love the quote from my mechanic "Your shocks are a mere shadow of what they once were."

Motons are going on over the winter.

Cheers,

 

Pete you're faster then me, what did you run last time there? Irrc VJ was in the 2:06s stock with MPSCs

My point is that he's got time on the table with the stock suspension so why spend the money on suspension when he can spend the same $800-1000 on a pro coach

 

I agree with the great advise from Dell, Mooty, et.al. I believe this is the config that GGR-PCA generally runs and the faster times at the last event there (which I missed) are below 2:10 - these times with fairly well prepped 993 and CaymanS. I would imagine a very well driven stock GT3 on Nitto would be in this range.
Just curious about alignment and hot pressures with NT01 (I'm running 245/315 NT01, -2.7F/-2.5R camber, slight toe out up front). I struggled quite a bit recently (THill) with full tread NT01. Started getting it together on the second day of the event after the tires had been scrubbed in and started running higher pressures than what I was used to with MPSC. There was a Cayman driver in the paddock that swore a Toyo rep told him to run pressures at 40+. I didn't get them that high but they behaved much better around 37-39 psi for me, although there was still quite a bit of understeer that I need to dial out.

 

[QUOTE=va122;6956701]Pete you're faster then me, what did you run last time there? Irrc VJ was in the 2:06s stock with MPSCs
/QUOTE]

sh**T, tell VJ to slow down.

 

RA1, i run 40 hot
R888 i run 44 hot

 

9.5, It sounds like your shocks are nowhere near "as new", in which case you shouldn't be comparing your times. At about 33k of real driving it's time to replace, either with OEM of aftermarket coilovers.

 

Good point as well. If you are going to re-valve then no big deal but if you are going to keep as stock it wouldn't hurt to have them put on a shock dyno to verify.

 

What????!!!??? Vic, what are you drinking tonight???

If VJ is a pro driver and did a 2:06 stock on MPSC how can you tell his guy "You can do a 2:08 or better easily" and he's on a slower tire?