EVO Donington Trackday

[Rob_Fenn]

Hadn't been to Donington for at least a year so it was interesting to see how the car was. Inititally the car was terrible, both understeering and oversteering widly. We weren't quite sure why this was happening but the rear dampers had just been rebuilt...

The car had previously been running no rear arb so we put the Type R one on and it transformed it, it was awesome! Shame the day was badly organised with it being treated like a test day by people racing this weekend. Still had great fun though in glorious sunshine too :D

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y50/robfenn/DNG8.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y50/robfenn/DNG7.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y50/robfenn/DNG5.jpg

[Rob_Fenn]

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y50/robfenn/DNG6.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y50/robfenn/DNG3.jpg

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[Silver Surfer]

Nice!!!

The lowered look is cool and the black/gold goes well.

SS

[TheSebringOne]

I second that, your X looks great & cool!:thumbsup: Q. your front wheels/tyres seems to have a large negative camber or toe in? I'm talking out of my league!? How was your car compared to Jethro's Ring M3? Bet Mr Bailey's Carrera GT was nippy? :D Sorry if you don't read Evo, but there two of writer's cars!

[Rob_Fenn]

Thanks for the compliments. Yes, it as quite extreme geometry but when slicks are sorted it will be even more at the front. The only problem is you can't quite go to the optim levels of camber/castor for slicks. For a road car though, it's rare to be able to adjust EVERYTHING. For example the Noble M12 which is hailed as such a great car doesn't have the same range as the NSX... a car developed in the 80s lets remember!

I'm a subscriber of EVO so don't worry! I spoke to Paul Bailey who owns the Porsche as he was interested in buying the same datalogging system. He did barely any laps in it, perhaps he was apprehensive after his last outing! He brought another car though, another one of 17 in total he owns.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y50/robfenn/DNG17.jpg

It had full carbon bodywork and the biggest brakes i've seen!

[dan the man]

nice pics.

[TheSebringOne]

That F360 had full CF body work! wow :eek: He also owns a red Enzo too! 17 cars, a bit greedy that in my books! :(:drool:

[Silver Surfer]

Was he the one that crashed the Enzo at Silverstone recently?

SS

[Rob_Fenn]

I'm not sure about the Enzo, but he crashed the Porsche. It had only just been repaired i think.

[Senninha]

HI Rob,

Good to see it back on track and the suspension is working. Saw it at Plans a couple of weeks back after the 'Ring trip. Was chatting to John about the pounding the track had given the NSX. No such worries at Donnington I'm sure.

regards, Paul

[TheSebringOne]

The red Enzo did have a private reg P4AUL B!

[mutley]

It does look really good that low, and I love the CF front spoiler, but the amout of time I've scraped the wee plastic one on mine, I'll give it a miss, AND I'm still on original ride height.

Jim

[Rob_Fenn]

Yeah, everytime we went into the Karussel i felt for the car!

The rear suspension was rebuilt, which resulted in some dodgy handling initally at Donington. Are you going to do some mods Paul?

I've grounded the splitter a few times and it hasn't falled off... yet!

[Senninha]

Are you going to do some mods Paul?
Rob,

I'm undecided about suspension changes. As a Targa, mine has the slightly softer factory settings. Whilst this makes for a very comfortable car, especially for long runs, touring etc, when pushing on through the lanes it has a tendancy to allow the front to bottom out on the more aggressive road cambers/surfaces.

I shall speak to Plans about suggestions, I'm also thinking about the factory Type S option as I beleive from Mark (who has the S) that this still retains a good level of comfort whilst offering performance improvement.

As for your front splitter, I am surprised it has lasted this long

regards, Paul

[Rob_Fenn]

I can't really recommend Nitron as a company but i can't really dispute their products. Unless you can get Type S suspension for a very good price then entry level Nitrons would be better in terms of build and performance, especially as they still have bump/rebound.

The problem with both the Type S and Type R suspension is if you eventually want a softer ride, or a harder one for track use, you have to get buy something else anyway.

[markc]

Hi Paul,

You should probably discuss the Type S suspension with the other Paul (Vale) a.k.a CrazyMixedUpKid who has the other Magnum Grey(?) 3.2 Targa (which is also the other .. OLU car).

Paul V fitted Type S/Zanardi springs for a while, albeit in conjunction with Bilstein/Dali dampers rather than the matching factory items. He also has the Type S/Zanardi anti-roll (sway in Americanese) bars.

Paul stated in another thread that he found that setup too firm for his likeing and has since switched to softer Eibach springs. The Bilstein/Dali setup has adjustable lower cups (perches in Americanese) allowing you to lower the car a little more which I'm sure you could also do with Nitrons.

Paul V's car looks great, see here... http://nsxcb.co.uk/testvb/showthread.php?t=1931

The Type S setup is certainly a LOT firmer (70+%) than the standard car but IMHO the damping is soo good that it's rarely uncomfortable.

The stiffer platform of the coupe may well be a factor in the Type S suspension working at it's best?

Whether you'd want to put up with it in a daily driver I'm not sure but as mine is a sunny day and special occassion car it's terrific :)

Where are you based, you're welcome to sit alongside me for a run in my Type S if you want?

Cheers

Mark

[forumadmin]

Hopefully I'll get to try your Type S at Silverstone soon Mark.

Paul, you know what my suspension is like. Nitrons come with springs half the rate of mine, but then no-one who has Nitrons seem to know what springs they have.:rolleyes:

I have read on other forums, about Nitrons leaking and needing lots of rebuilds/repair. I have been in touch with them as I am looking to replace mine, but I am going to wait for Detlef and the Bilstein dampers. At least I know that system will be tested and developed on the track properly.

There's a guy in the for sale section selling a Zanardi set of suspension. It's cheap enough to get it just to try it out.

[dan the man]

Rob here is a good pic of the karussell for reference. Standard splitter on standard suspension, so if your car is lowered and an aftermarket splitter id would be interesting :)

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b99/DTMDC5K20/NSXkarussell.jpg

[Senninha]

Hopefully I'll get to try your Type S at Silverstone soon Mark.

There's a guy in the for sale section selling a Zanardi set of suspension. It's cheap enough to get it just to try it out.

Thanx Kevin. Would there be a benefit in only swapping to the Zinardi springs? Would this retain general compliance whilst adding resistence that should reduce the bounce effect?

If I go this way or full swap, would there be availability at KevSpeed to complete the work?

regards, Paul

[forumadmin]

Always space at KevSpeed.

Don't know about the springs/dampers. If the springs are stiff and dampers soft then thoery would say the springs would be under-controlled. Stiff dampers on soft springs would not allow the springs to work as they want.

There's no harm in trying out various combinations, apart from the time it takes to change things over. What theoretically should or shouldn't work doesn't always pan out in real life.

Maybe its just case your dampers are a bit worn?

[Rob_Fenn]

Rob here is a good pic of the karussell for reference. Standard splitter on standard suspension, so if your car is lowered and an aftermarket splitter id would be interesting :)

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b99/DTMDC5K20/NSXkarussell.jpg

Cool pic! I guess you would get less compression on stiffer suspension so that would help. Neverthless i'm sure our splitter would scrape, whether it would break is another matter!

Kevin, can't say i've heard of anything about poor build quality with Nitron. They are very popular with Elise owners as you probably know and they have stood up to a lot of abuse with the NSX (but we've also looked after them). Being all aluminum they are light and actually last unlike pretty much all steel bodied dampers i've had in the past. I think the rebuilding point is over exaggerated, you should rebuild any damper over time... Nitron just seem to push the case a lot more.

Soon we'll be developing an Ohlins kit. There isn't much in between them and Nitron but ulimately the response rates are faster. The new TTX damper has 14 million combinations!

http://www.ohlins.com/Automotive/InsideTTXContainerPage/TTXIntroduction/tabid/131/Default.aspx

[Blow]

Hi Rob, I saw you at Donny in the afternoon. I was in the Red Dc2 Integra. I also wondered what all the fettling was about with your NSX, how ever it seemed to work as your later laps showed. It was a bit of a gamble with all them Mini's about. I was hoping to have a chat with the owner of the NSX as it's the only Honda I now aspire to having worked my way through most.
Regards Tim

[Rob_Fenn]

Hi Tim,

You should of said hi, normally speak to a few Teg boys on trackdays!

Basically the car was lethal for some reason at the start... but it was down to having no rear ARB. We spent the next 40 mins fitting the Type R bar and the car was completely different... in fact better than it's ever been!

I had good fun in the afternoon but was disappointed with Evo's organisation as i said. There were about 4 other trackday people (opposed to racers) and i imagine if there were any newbies out there it would have been quite intimidating!

[Blow]

Rob, sorry I didn't say hello. I noticed your car was very good through the S bend when I was following, very little movement. Agree it was an awful day, I also noticed the two in the blue Porsche turbo did one lap, and then left very quickly.
Hope to catch you some other time cheers Tim