I had a track day on Easter Sunday and I wanted to see how the car felt
with track settings. The track was Buttonwillow in Buttonwillow,
California. The configuration was #13 in a clockwise direction (first
time I drove this config). I set the coilovers to the track settings
recommended by Racecomp Engineering. The car felt loose at first but was
fixed by adjusting the rear tire pressures. I got the feel for the setup
in the first two sessions. In the third and fourth session I felt really
comfortable with the settings. I did not change any coilover settings
during the day. Tire wear seemed to wear more evenly. The outer edges of
the front tires usually suffered from excessive wear with my old setup.
Occasionally I would hit the berms in the esses and the car did not feel
it was upset a lot.
I managed a best lap time of 2:09 where average was about 2:14-ish that
day. A friend (Garry) who also had Tarmac 2 coilovers but with the
stiffest spring set (500/400)
accomplished a 2:07 lap time. This was also his first time in this track
layout. He liked the coilovers and felt the car was neutral.
May 23, 2007
My car seemed to get loose on corner exit under full throttle. It may have to do
with my rear sway bar being too stiff even though it is on the softest setting.
I have the Hotchkis Competition model. Chris advised me to try and make the rear
softer a bit. I adjusted the rear compression a half turn more softer than the
recommended Racecomp settings. This seemed to fix the oversteer. The car
feels more neutral and inspired more confidence in driving. Another
benefit was that the comfort has improved and road imperfections are smoothed
out more.
