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We used off-the-shelf Fortune Auto 500 series coilovers with custom spring rates, 8k front, 10k rear. We loved how compliant the dampers were, handling bumps like champions. Our only request would have been for more low-speed compression damping, which you’d get with the 510 and Dreadnought series dampers. Although, for a daily driver suspension, we couldn’t be more impressed.A stock suspension wouldn’t cut it and, with the help of friends at Fortune Auto, a set of 500 series coilovers was sent our way. Spring rates were tailored to our specs, 8K front, 10K rear and ride height was dialed in higher than most would set it. Final ride height was slightly less than monster-truckin’. The reasoning was to keep the otherwise unmodified suspension somewhat near factory geometry so we didn’t screw up camber curves, roll centers and Dave Points too bad. The other reasoning was that we could put a little rake into the chassis if we jacked up the rear and ran the front a little lower. According to a few books on aero I’ve perused, cars with rake actually make every so slightly more downforce (or probably in our case, just less lift) than cars without. I actually thought about this for our little Enthusiast Class car. Seriously. Any advantage is a good advantage. We also corner balanced the car to a near 50/50 cross weight to ensure no awkward handling bias and used the good ole string method to set alignment. A couple mm toe out front, zero toe rear, 2.5 degrees camber front, 1.75 degrees rear.
We were scratching our heads trying to decide what tires to use given the UTQG 220 and higher requirement in Enthusiast Class. We think we made the right choice with the Continental Extreme Contact DW’s. They wore like iron, were consistent lap over lap and showed no abnormal wear after beating them hard. Would they keep up with the cream of the sub 200 UTQG tires? Not exactly, but for a street/track day tire, it’s a good combo.
DBA 5000 Series brake rotors to the rescue! Having had years-upon-years of success with DBA, we were glad to be able to use their 2-Piece rotors on the Evo X. With fresh Amsoil DOT 4 fluid and Girodisc titanium shims, we had zero brake fluid boiling issues, which was a big concern considering the weight of the vehicle. The CL RC-8 brake pads were probably overkill, but were a good safety net with all the weight they’d have to slow. No bed-in and no pad deposits makes these pads some of my favorites.With the suspension set, the brakes, tires and tune were next on the agenda. We found an old set of CL Brakes RC-8 sintered iron pads from the previous race car and threw them on with a fresh set of DBA USA 5000 series front rotors. After using a sweet vacuum/air hose assisted brake fluid replacement system to flush out the unknown brake fluid with Amsoil DOT 4 fluid, the car was nearly ready. A quick flash tune from a COBB AccessPort to ensure boost was in check and we switched to class legal Continental ExtremeContact DW tires as the owners normal tires were below the required 220 UTQG rating.
Team mechanic Grant Davis laying down some embaressingly fast laps in iRacing. It’ll take me 4 hours of driving to catch up to his times and after 20 minutes, he’ll beat me again.Now last time I was at Road Atlanta, as some of you may recall, I destroyed our racecar. In between then and now I have had exactly zero track time. Luckily team mechanic, Grant Davis, has a sweet simulator with iRacing loaded up. Countless hours of practice were performed to ensure I didn’t destroy another car that wasn’t owned by me. I must say, iRacing is an excellent tool to simplify the learning curve of either a new track or getting back to the track after some serious down time.
It’s kind of amazing competing with awesome crowds cheering you on. Sure, they came for Formula D, but they showed a ton of love for Global Time Attack as well.
