[s-cars] Your TT posting

[LL - NY]

FWIW, YEARS ago, when I was running more competitively (not sure if it's the
car, or the driver) I did run staggered tires in a couple of events in the
A2 GTi. One of those events was a figure 8 on tarmac at somewhere around 100
degrees F, and the competition in class was weak and this was an out of
region non-points event, so I experimented. Talk about tail out driving, it
tail hung from initial turn in to the apex and straightened out on track
out. Since it was a figure eight, it felt a little like I was dirt tracking.
Can't say it was the fastest way around (speed was limited to the amount of
rear grip, if I had more rear grip, I could've gone faster) 'cuz I think the
difference in mu from the street tires of the time (Nitto NT255's or
something like that) and the BFG Comp T/A R1 206's was too huge. Of course I
didn't adjust the rear camber for that set-up, I was simply playing.

FWIW, I tried my Saabaru's street rubber (GY Eagle F1 GSD3) in the heavy wet
vs. my DOT-R's at NEDiv's thinking that in the standing water on course that
hydroplaning was going to be the greatest grip issue. Car drove like it was
on greased teflon. By comparison (there was some drying by my 2nd run) the
Avon's drove pretty well, even though there was still standing water. As R&T
said in one tire comparo, DOT-R's seem to be a triumph of compounding over
tread design. Anyway, from that experience, I suspect the gap in grip from
street max performance rubber and DOT-R's has either remained the same, or
increased. Means there is definitely more set-up issues if you decide to run
split mu tires on your car, probably neccesitating a different rear
alignment.

LL - NY

On 4/24/07, QSHIPQ at aol.com <QSHIPQ at aol.com> wrote:
>
>  As I suggested to LL, you might try running different rubber front and
> rear, that's legal.  The race stuff up front and something less sticky
> rear.  Did this on the GLH turbo with great success.  I'd also seriously
> consider a rear bar delete and give it a try.  When I do chassis tuning, I
> use a ganalyst or a gtech pro meter and a IR temp guage.  Also, make ALL the
> air going to the intercooler and radiator go thru it.  I have an SAE paper
> that shows something like 30% improvement doing nothing else to the radiator
> but sealing leaks.
>
> I actually enjoy the stock rules myself, it really makes you pay attention
> to things you'd otherwise just dial the boost up to overcome.
>
> Have you tried getting the haldex to just lock?  Remember that a locked
> center has ideal brake force distribution and torque follows weight
> distribution and turning radius both.
>
> I think you have room to play, and be within the rules without resorting
> to 50psi tire pressure.
>
> SJ
> In a message dated 4/24/2007 11:51:18 A.M. Central Standard Time,
> ccohen5 at compuserve.com writes:
>
> You are right of course, running these types of pressures is obscene but
> the T3 rules allow no changes in suspension whatsoever other than shocks and
> this car was designed to be a pig on the track.  So it puts a premium on
> driving skill and I feel that tire pressures like this are so unusual
> because just because no one races pigs deliberately so putting a premium on
> the ability to tweak.  The RX8 guys are enjoying the spin off technologies
> from the Mazda pro drivers in the Grand Am and their cars keep getting
> faster.  AFAIK there is almost no one outside the UK that is racing the TT
> in 1.8 form under rules that allow for a downflow of useful data like
> this.  I consider DTM irrelevant to what I am doing.  There is one guy in
> the UK who races a modified 1.8T TT but he can do a lot more than we can
> including aerodynamics such as diffusers, coil overs, FMIC etc.  So these
> cars are pigs and all the issues that all you S-Car guys have with too much
> weight cannot easily be offset as
>   you can by more HP.  We have tweaked the Haldex to give us a little more
> rear split and we run 17X7.5 in the rears and 18X8 wheels upfront.  Our
> spec weight is 3340 which we struggled to get to with the cage, cooling gear
> and the very heavy passenger seat.  We are allowed free rein with the chip
> software but there are limits as to what you can get from the stock turbo
> -I/C and though we often see 22 lbs or more when cold, it quickly falls to
> 18 lbs (nominal boost) mid race.
>
> We also had cooling problems in all events last year. I asked about this
> on the Audiworld site and had no response nor was there anything significant
> in the archives.  So I either had to conclude that TT owners just do not
> drive their cars very hard being too cool for that - or there was something
> wrong coincidentally with both our 2003 cars.  We applied and got approval
> from SCCA to change to the 3.2 radiator as it has a larger capacity and so
> far this year, no sign of overheating.  And I am talking about real hot, one
> needle width from the H peg with the ECL flashing.
>
> As others have noticed, if a turbo goes as happened last year, you have to
> remove the front RH suspension to take it out.  Not much you can do about
> that but having done it twice, once for real and once to look, we have
> discovered some short cuts that are not in the Bentley...and then there is
> the Bentley, which is vague and also contradictory.  Their standard has
> definitely gone down since the days of our large paper tomes.  It offers 2
> different torque specs for the t/c mounting nuts and differs from the ETKA
> on whether the t/c has washers on its mounting bolts.
>
> But its fun and the cool chicks dig the TT much more than any of the other
> cars...but then again there is only usually one cool chick at any SCCA race
> and she is married to me!!
>
> Colin
>
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: QSHIPQ at aol.com
>   To: larrycleung at gmail.com ; ccohen5 at compuserve.com
>   Cc: wenoland at pacbell.net ; s-car-list at audifans.com
>   Sent: Monday, April 23, 2007 8:45 PM
>   Subject: Re: [s-cars] Your TT posting
>
>
>   IME with autox, if you need to run more than 42 in the front or rear,
> time to change something else.  On the TT I'd look at camber settings before
> I'd exceed 42.  The biggest problem IMO, is you lose a lot of the tire shape
> when you exceed 42psi.  50psi is a lot of pressure for any DOT or non DOT
> rubber.
>
>   My .02
>
>   SJ
>
>
>
>
>
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