The 2012 Modified Tuner Shootout is in the books! I wish I could say everything went as planned, but yet again my day was plagued with incredibly sensitive "Ice Mode." Good news is, after talking with one of the guys from Whiteline, I have a new theory that I have high hopes for being the cause of this level of sensitivity. Now before I get on with this new theory, realize that I am not saying that this is the case of "ice mode" and the level of severity of my particular case the last two track days is what is in question. The past two track days I have hit ice mode in every braking zone every time. It's sensitive to the point where to avoid it, I have to be so light on the brake pedal that the engine is actually slowing the car down more than the brakes. So long story short, I now think it has to do with tire size, overall diameter to be exact. Corvettes apparently have the same problem. Went online and calculated and sure enough my front tires are over 4% smaller overall diameter than stock and my rears a little over 2%. I am going to research it more but from what I have found so far, you want to be within 3% of stock overall diameter to avoid ABS issues. Currently I am on a 275/35/18 on the front for the track. Tire size in a taller sidewall gets a little limited but Hankook does make an RS-3 tire in 265/40/18 which should be well within "spec." I will have to sacarafice a bit of width, but thats way way way better than not being able to use my brakes. So thats going to be the next test, assuming that I can get a set of 265/40/18s in time for my next event in 3 weeks. I am also going to bring stock brake pads to try out in case the tire size thing doesn't fix it.
I admittedly don't know much about how ABS systems or car electronics work so if there's anyone out there that has some insight on this tire size theory, feel free to chime in. As mentioned, my current track setup is 275/35/18 front, 285/35/18 rear.
In other news, my home-made splitter worked really really well. Even though the track Ir an today was small, very small, like didn't even get into 4th gear small, it was very noticeable that the car had a ton more front aero grip, even at those speeds making the car very loose through the higher speed stuff. I can imagine it will be much worse at a larger track. So there are now two ways to go with this. Number one is to add more aero to the rear with a big 'ol wing. That would be best case, but its expensive and I only have 3 weeks to my next event. Next solution is to make a new splitter that is shorter to reduce front aero. Going to try really hard to get a wing as that's the more beneficial situation.
The OS Giken LSD was absolutely phenomenal. Nothing much more to say about it other than that it is a tremendous advantage over the stock viscous LSD.
Fast Intentions exhaust and UpRev tune by Specialty Z worked awesome as well. Everyone loved the sound and the powerband was super smooth and responsive.