NA Supra - Sprint/Track setup

This car is used for:

Sprint (Toyota Sprint Series)

Track days

DWYB (Drift What Ya Brung)

Current spec (Sept 2009):

2JZ-GE non-turbo (From a 1996 Facelift NA)

W58 5 speed

Locked diff (which came in the car)

Toyota-bilstein stock suspension

Small spec brakes, with braided lines and CW fast road pads

17" stock wheels with road tyres (currently Dunlop Sport Maxx)

Majority of interior trim removed (Sprint Series rules prohibit the removal of the dash/doorcards unless using a cage).

Stereo removed

The car was weighed at the Centre Gravity tech talk day. The results were 1394kg, with half a tank of fuel and 78kg in the driver's seat (I underestimated my own weight).

Current observations:

It's a little tail happy, and due to half of the sprint series courses being tight and twisty I'm struggling to put any power down in the corners. Unfortunately this means I'm getting left behind by the Celica's that I'm sharing the class with. I would imagine the main culprits are the locked diff and lack of weight in the rear...

Short term plans:

Large spec brakes (Arrived)

Torsen NA LSD (Wanted)

Road legal Track Tyres (Wanted)

Replace missing piece of undertray (Wanted)

Refurb plastic headlights

Remove remaining sound deadening from interior

Move battery to back seat/boot area

Adjustable coilovers will be on the list sometime after this, however there are a lot of choices, and I want to be able to see what difference each modification makes. Plus, I'll need to work out how to set them up! A Geometry setup will likely follow.

Minor changes planned for 2010

Move indicator function to headlamps and remove indicators (Small weight saving)

Remove motor mechanism from wingmirrors (Very small weight saving)

Double decat (Weight saving, but noise could be an issue)

Remove air-con (Weight saving, but requires a new aux belt)

Stiffer ARB (I need to investigate just how this will change the behaviour of the car first..)

The wish list:

Roll cage

Bucket seats (I don't wish to get squished without a cage) & Harnesses

Strip door shells, boot lid of as much weight as possible (as Ryan.G has done)

Perspex rear and side windows

Any input, observations, advice that anybody wishes to give, please do. Please also bear in mind that this is a 'toy' and I drive it for fun, I would like to try and keep the costs down..

I would chat to Chris Wilson about suspension, ARBs and LSD setups

I'm hoping he'll have a gander at the thread and reply on here, my emails seem to get lost in his huge amount of spam.

Im interested in what you do, since fitting the titan arb's and having the geo redone im not happy with how mine is handling at present, i need some advise from somebody that knows what they are doing.

Whats the perfect geo setup for a road supra that does the odd track day supra?

Relocate the battery to the trunk, and fit adjustible ride hight suspension and lift the front end about 10mm this will chang the car dynamics incredibly, you will get some mild to moderate on throttle understeer(good IMHO as it makes the car more predictible),but depending on the stiffness of the springs you will also get some lift throttle oversteer(bad on long fast sweepers if you over cook it going in and have to lift or brake but great on gymkahanas and autocross)

I have headers (1st decat)and a full tt exhaust(2nd decat) on my N/A (will post a link in a bit) and it worked wonders but was insanely loud, so I put the mid pipe with the second cat back in and elded a resonator into the catback part (still loud but more resonable) I will be putting in the second decat pipe with another resonator soon.

Im interested in what you do, since fitting the titan arb's and having the geo redone im not happy with how mine is handling at present, i need some advise from somebody that knows what they are doing.

 

Whats the perfect geo setup for a road supra that does the odd track day supra?

I`m sure i have the setup you`re talking about jamie, albeit a bit on the soft side, suspension wise.

Relocate the battery to the trunk, and fit adjustible ride hight suspension and lift the front end about 10mm this will chang the car dynamics incredibly, you will get some mild to moderate on throttle understeer(good IMHO as it makes the car more predictible),but depending on the stiffness of the springs you will also get some lift throttle oversteer(bad on long fast sweepers if you over cook it going in and have to lift or brake but great on gymkahanas and autocross)

I have headers (1st decat)and a full tt exhaust(2nd decat) on my N/A (will post a link in a bit) and it worked wonders but was insanely loud, so I put the mid pipe with the second cat back in and elded a resonator into the catback part (still loud but more resonable) I will be putting in the second decat pipe with another resonator soon.

Good info.

Looking forward to seeing what advice you're given Alex and following the project:)

I`m sure i have the setup you`re talking about jamie, albeit a bit on the soft side, suspension wise.

Do you have a copy of your geo settings mate? my steering seems to fight to go straight if you know what i mean.

...

Good one.

Would the battery not be better inside the wheelbase, say, where the back seats would have been?

When I went to the Center Gravity open day, Chris recommened putting shims under the springs at the front to raise it - moving some weight towards the rear for launching. I'm guessing that changing to adjustable suspension as you said would achieve the same thing, but give me more flexibility. The hard part there would firstly be, deciding which shocks and springs to go for, and then learning to set them up!

Have you had a db measurement done on your exhaust? I need to keep it 'safe' for track days, plus the TSS has reasonably strict limits too.

Since it is effectively a project, I've stuck some pictures in the first post.

Do you have a copy of your geo settings mate? my steering seems to fight to go straight if you know what i mean.

How wide are your wheels & what caster are you running?

(Sorry Alex! )

I'm guessing that changing to adjustable suspension as you said would achieve the same thing, but give me more flexibility. The hard part there would firstly be, deciding which shocks and springs to go for, and then learning to set them up!

Don't forget that any ride height adjustment will affect the caster, camber & toe settings. You can't alter any one of those four things in isolation.

How wide are your wheels & what caster are you running?

 

(Sorry Alex! )

10" rear 9" front (its nothing to do with the wheels as was fine before the arb's and geo setup) i dont have my current settings, no bullshit on the way home from the geo setup they flew out the window at speed.

Sorry Alex but i believe the settings will also benefit yourself:)

How wide are your wheels & what caster are you running?

 

(Sorry Alex! )

I believe there's a singles room for people like you.

Don't forget that any ride height adjustment will affect the caster, camber & toe settings. You can't alter any one of those four things in isolation.

I won't be pointing the front end in the air without finding out what it does elsewhere. If/when I go for adjustable suspension I will be off to see Chris at Center Gravity..

While I think of it, have you given any more thought of doing a follow up day there?

10" rear 9" front (its nothing to do with the wheels as was fine before the arb's and geo setup) i dont have my current settings, no bull$#@! on the way home from the geo setup they flew out the window at speed.

 

Sorry Alex but i believe the settings will also benefit yourself:)

Lol, the reason i havn`t gone for stiffer arb`s before now is because i did some reading up on the net and lots of people mentioned increased tramlining as you mention, great for a pure track car being trailored to donington/silverstone where the tarmac is super smooth but not good for trecking 500 miles across europe worst roads to drive around 13 miles of bumpy ring, ooh err

Lol, the reason i havn`t gone for stiffer arb`s before now is because i did some reading up on the net and lots of people mentioned increased tramlining as you mention, great for a pure track car being trailored to donington/silverstone where the tarmac is super smooth but not good for trecking 500 miles across europe worst roads to drive around 13 miles of bumpy ring, ooh err

Yeah it might be tramlining, it is very bumpy now, im gonna remove them, gutted i chucked the stock ones away:(

I can dig my geo settings out and scan them across if you want to compare them anyway, dont pull the arb`s off just yet, it may be you have too much negative camber on the front which will make it tramline anyway.It would be interesting to see other peoples views on there handling after fitting aftermarket arbs, ive been close to buying a set a few times now.

and when you do ill take yours

and when you do ill take yours

They`ve certainly been tested out me old matey:d

hence why i have every bit of confidence in them

Have we taken over alex`s thread yet, he,he, carry on...

i have tendancy to do such things sorry ROB!

Tyres would be my first port of call Alex. I've only done two track days yet and one was sopping wet but my NA was totally planted and predictable coming out of the twisty bits the first day when it was dry.

I am currently running toyo R888's, 235/45 & 255/40 on 8" & 9" rims respectively and while they tend to over heat and "go off" after a few hard laps they are perfectly adequate for me for the time being and they even worked a treat under braking in the wet.

Perhaps as a more experienced track driver than I you should look at some of the other track tyres available such as Dunlop Direzza or Pirelli P Zero Corsas.

I also have a full welded in roll cage, a whiteline rear arb and uk brakes, none of which I have tested to destruction yet and some of which I hope I never do!

Moved to Projects section

I'm trying to work out a way of sharing info, but I have a feeling the drift car and your requirements aren't exactly going to be compatible

I'm doing some camber mods on the front by either moving the turrets or at least elongating the mount holes, although I'm still trying to work out a way of extending the steering lock. (Lot of head scratching), at least I have an easy job tomorrow fitting a seat