Springs next? I've always wondered if adjustable dampers were just a bit gimmicky since the rates should be matched to the springs?
Yea, springs should always be matched to the dampers, but there will always be a range of adjustment to fine tune the balance to suit an individual driver I guess.
Until i've got some more spare cash, and the car is at it's 'final' weight, I'll hold off on looking at spring rates.
I'm very confident in the car, so I can afford to have it a bit more unstable in places, but ultimately faster over a lap.
Dad doesn't get as much seat time in the car, so prefers the handling to be slightly more forgiving, which in turn gives him the confidence to press on a bit more
For now we're just making the most of what we have available, we actually started tweaking the rear dampers betweens for Dad and I to suit each others exact preferences.
We only adjusted rebound on monday, as we didn't want to get into a situation with TOO many variables where we wern't sure what changes were causing what outcome.
Speaking to a friend of mine who's very knowledgeable on suspension design, he reckons I can keep the front nice and soft on the rebound, and increase the compression damping at the front slightly to 'prop up' the front on initial weigh transfer, so I should be able to maintain the soft compliant turn in, without the feeling of too much body roll we experienced at full soft rebound.
Playing with the compression is going to be a whole new experiment. I may try something similar again, leaving the rebound where it is to see the effects of compression changes only.
Back to the track day!
With suspension experimenting done for the day, it was time to get the slicks fitted:
Andy got a few cool pics of us coming back in from a session:
We carried on on the slicks, and amazingly, once at temperature, they carried on gripping really well! it only ever reached 'damp', but we were still quite impressed
On my second session on the slicks, I stayed out for a long time, and started to really push on quite nicely.
Sadly, despite the epic level of cooling, the brakes were having other ideas, and after about 15 minutes on track, the pedal went long after a particularly hard stop, and whilst the brakes were still working, the long soft pedal took away all confidence in trying to stop the car, so I coasted round for a cool down and headed in.
after 10 minutes parked up, the pedal still didn't return, so there was no other option but to bleed the brakes:
I bled all 4 corners, and the pedal returned instantly. I didn't SEE any air escape from them, but I only bled a small amount through and it was enough to get them feeling as good as new again.
First session after lunch, Dad drove, it was spitting with rain, but we kept the slicks on, and Dad had a really good session, getting quicker each time he drove as he got more used to the car.
We headed back out for some more laps.
Andy went out for a lap in Gurds mk1 Golf turbo, and was hugely impressed with it.
We decided he'd jump in with me straight after, for a back to back comparison:
Looking at the video time stamps shows that lap at around 2:42, 2 seconds quicker than the previous visit. so I'm very happy with that!
then we headed out again, to try and share a few laps with Gurds, this was a HUGE amount of fun!
Sadly, 2 m3's whizzed past between us as we joined the track, so I had to spend a lap or so behind them whilst the tyres got up to temperature again, and they realised I was faster
Almost falling off the track at 02:40 right after passing the black E46 was perhaps not my proudest moment
I iket my foot in though, and all was good!
I was pretty amazed to see that the little red mk1 was actually faster than the A3 in a straight line! what a credit to Gurds that little car is, we had some really good fun close laps, and were planning to swap places so he could follow me, but sadly, I ran out of brakes again so had to retire!
we bled the brakes again, just a squirt through each front caliper this time, and again the pedal returned straight away, suggesting it's fluid in caliper related and localised.
Dad went out for another session, and was really flying along, passing loads of stuff. it was great to see the progression as he got more and more in tune with the car through the day. Softening the rear end 2 clicks for Dad seemed to help with his ability to push on too, as it wasn't as twitchy as how I have it setup.
To end the day, I jumped in for a few laps with Pierre in the volvo, and Daz jumped in for a few laps with Dad in the A3. much fun all round, and probably good for dad to have someone other than me as a passenger too.
the brake thing is odd, as even when coming in with minimal cool down, the discs and calipers APPEAR not to be running hot at all. pad wear was fantastic at bedford with less than 1mm of wear for 200 track miles, and the discs have stayed a good colour and don't show any of the extreme heat fatigue that the last ones did without the new ducting setup.
I can only assume that localised brake temps at the time of braking are still reaching crazy levels, and then being instantly cooled back down. We think it's the ATE fluid boilling inside the caliper.
next trackday, we'll be using Motul RBF660 fluid, and I'll be fitting some temperature indicator stickers to the calipers to see what the max temps they reach are like.
So in short - an hugely successful day. the car goes well, it's still proving to be ultra reliable, and the brakes only seem to expire when we really go for it for an extended period. If i can just get to the bottom of this long pedal issue, i think we'll be good to lap all day long none stop!