Fun Bank Holiday with the Supra so Far

Thought I'd report back my findings thus far this weekend with the Supra. Sorry about the long post (will try and add some picks and or bids over the next few days if I can get hold of them)...

Been a good one so far!!

Yesterday I took it to the track (Curborough Sprint Track to be precise) - didn't think it would be particularly well suited but I wanted to 1) learn how it handles and 2) give it a good test to see just how well built it has been so far.

I am very glad to report back the car did extremely well, didn't miss a beat all day, ran perfectly all the way back and certainly impressed me.

I always expected it would be one of the most capable cars there, and so it was with only a tuned Eve VI able to match it (unfortunately an Elise dropped it early on in the day).

By the end of the day, the Evo was less than a second in front, and in fact the Supra had been top all day until that point, but at the times we ran towards the end, the front tyres were at their limit for me, so I conceded...

To summarise the differences in cars:

J spec 2 pots with unknown discs and Endless pads / AP 6 pots with EBC pads and discs

RWD / AWD (obvious but a key difference...)

No chassis bracing or strut bracing / front and rear strut bracing

0.9bar boost maximum (BPU minus the boost controller) / 1.3 - 1.4bar boost on the Evo

Full Supra 1500kgs / 1300kgs for the EVO (again obvious but I think worth noting)

Federal 595 RSR (rear wheels only) - Nexen N6000 (front wheels) on the Supra / Yokohama AD08R (front and rear) on the Eve

The rest of the mods were fairly similar between the two.

The Evo was running somewhere between 350 and 370bhp at its 1.3bar and I imagine the Supra was running similar at 0.9bar.

The main issue I had all day was the front tyres. They were much better than I expected, but I had issues with braking late and understeer all day. By the time both I and the Evo had the feel for it, and were pushing at the end of the day, I had reached the limit of late braking and corner speed. So much so I had started accelerating earlier to make up for it, resulting in a few fun drift laps and one not so fun fishtailing exit from one corner!

I am positive with sticky tyres on the front, the Supra had another second or more to give.

I also have to say I was very pleased with the brakes. Again a pleasant surprise, only fading once we got to the afternoon runs and I started really pushing, even then, only after the lap itself was finished (having to slam on the brakes after the final straight from over 100mph).

I did burn them out slightly, but nothing too bad.

And the Endless pads I am very happy with, never used anything by Endless before, don't know their reputation, all I know is they are very popular in Japan from when I was living over there, so for the current setup, definitely worthy in my opinion.

So with the front tyres identified as the primary upgrade, I thought why not get what I thought to be the primary upgrade installed today????

So today, I spent the day installing my shiny new HKS EVC6, one little hiccup being the car wouldn't start initially after the install.... turned out I wired the throttle signal to entirely the wrong ECU pinout... oops

But now is running fine again.

Only issue is I have some setup and tuning to complete... it peaked boost at around 1.5bar on the short run out! And I was watching the boost gauge and try to change up or let off before it went over 1.2...

A job for tomorrow I guess...

Cheers

Dave

well done on getting it on (and back off!) the track. j specs are good provided you have the pads and fluid to handle the heat as it appears you did and I agree those front tyres would have been your limiting factor.

well done on getting it on (and back off!) the track. j specs are good provided you have the pads and fluid to handle the heat as it appears you did and I agree those front tyres would have been your limiting factor.

Cheers, yep the brakes did very well.

Its only a short sprint circuit, but it was constant hammering the track with only just enough time to let the engine idle to cool off between double runs, so was impressed!

I have some UK spec brakes sat here ready to go on, but with the front tyres, I am glad I chose not to install as I imagine I would have been locking up all day!

Have been to the same place. Had it very sideways on the exit of that last corner . Definitely not the best track for a supra but sounds like you did very well.