That looks super slick! And those tender springs are major eye candy.

For ST classes, coil overs are a no-go (have to stick with original suspension type) but looks like an amazing option for Street Prepared or full out race cars - or those of us not constrained by rules.

I did a string alignment last weekend and got the car in a total guess baseline setup. Took three tries on the LR and two on the RR, got pretty lucky. The front toe-in was a last second change of mind - I can undo it with 1/2 turn, easy enough.

That front camber is with the camber plates pushed all the way in. I'll leave it maxed out until I verify that the tires fit in there, then I'll equalize them.



So far I'm impressed with all of the products. The car actually rides quieter, and my wife thinks it's more comfortable than before. Go figure. My old bushings must have been in much worse shape than they looked. But really, even though spring rate more than doubled, it's not nearly as stiff as I expected. The shocks are inadequate - the car does "bounce" (at the higher frequency, it's between a bounce and a vibrate.) Can't wait to get them revalved.

Only shocks and tires are left to get on the car before the snow melts. Why does spring have to be so far away?

 

No massive update, but the car has been all back together for a while, going for a nice exercise a few times a week since the roads have been pretty dry here.



And some nice Dunlop Z2 tires showed up today:



These are the 225/45-17 for the front. I'm still undecided on the rears, but am leaning towards the 245/40-17 for better balance and improved gearing over the 255s. Comments?

Still have to pull the Bilsteins off and send them out. Looks like they'll be going to California instead of being done locally.

 

I possibly may have pulled the trigger too early on tires - looks like there is a ST class tire war heating up.

BFGoodrich G-Force Rival

 

Minor update -Avoiding the Porsche Tax

I'm not too keen on paying $200 for a strut tower brace when they are available on ebay for every other car for $20 or less. So I decided to adapt my own. I bought a Honda Accord brace for $8 including shipping. Took some scrap aluminum square tube, and made my own side brackets. Let's just say there is a reason I don't work in a machine shop:


Two issues I ran into:
The Honda Accord brace was about 6" shorter than what would be perfect, so my brackets had to extend the extra distance.
The strut tops aren't flat. What a pain. My solution was to chamfer the ends of the plates and let them bend to shape as I tightened them. Worked like a charm, but the brackets ended up pointing down slightly. Ah well.

End result:


Once I cut the carpet it'll hide my shoddy aluminum fabrication. Tensioned it nice and tight with preload. Not perfect, but certainly not $192 worse than the off the shelf option.

 

Well, I finally got the wheel and tire combo installed. Euromeister fake Fuchs, 225 / 255 Dunlop Z2. Fronts clear the front fenders without a roll, so 235s may be possible. Here's how the car will look in competition mode this year:

Oh, and blog is here: strcarrera.blogspot.com

 

Before:



After:

 

Looking good!!

 

Nice -- that's pretty light. Heavily prepped S2000s aren't much lighter (usually in the mid- to low 2600s) and make a bunch less torque than you will.

 

I was pleasantly surprised. That's with zero weight reduction, 1/2 tank, no spare, in a sunroof car, with the big wheels and solid torsion bars.

A "to the limit" 84 slicktop on 15s with hollow torsion bars would probably be very light - an SC even lighter, right?

I think I could drop 100lb in battery and exhaust alone, maybe 20lb in seats (my manual ones are supposedly only ~33lb) Was A/C optional on the car?

 

I just did my first not-in-the-rain event and boy are my arms tired. It's a lot of work wrestling the car around.

No results yet, but I believe I was about 1.5 seconds off the STR pace on a 40 second course. Not great, but not terrible considering the unique dynamics of the car are pretty new to this talent-less driver.

 

Jason Rhodes, who has done some research on 3.2 for STR, seems to think a/c was not an option per SCCA standards of an "option." I gather, perhaps incorrectly, that he seems to think only the Club Sport version, or a CS-clone, can legally remove it. Anyone else have any data to say that some 3.2's were delivered standard without a/c? (I don't think that special order a/c delete cars will count.)

 

Those numbers appear to be without driver. You should corner balance the car with your weight in the driver's seat. The corner balancing will probably not change much, but the ride heights may. You will probably need to crank up on the left side a bit to keep the ride heights even.

Good luck!

 

Co-driver at the Toledo Pro. 2nd time driving the car. He lifted.

 

Yesterday wrapped up the first full season with the car. Looking forward to a winter of maintenance and tweaking.







My favorite shot of the year:

 

Great pic!