♦ ♦ ChargeR's DC5R Blog ♦ ♦

[ChargeR]

Another great piece of work and write up to your blog.
You are defiantly on a mission on getting the best handling DC5, hands-down.
These are the things so many of us overlook, Me included, It’s just in the too hard basket……..
Unless you get plenty of track time and understand how the car feels and make the adjustments to suit.
WELL DONE TOM

Thanks Mario! I am not sure about the best handling DC5, but at least if it doesn't handle well I know it is all my fault. I should get to do at least one day of testing at Symmons plains before my epic trip to Eastern Creek and Winton so hopefully I can iron out any glaring bugs in my setup then.

sek c

Nice write-up also

Thanks boss.

Wow. Awesome dude! So much thought gone into the control of the car!

i think some of those thrust bearings are in my future.

Also i am VERY interested in the new upper mounts. If it all works out like you hope, i may decide to follow suit (provided i can get my hands on some).

Pro.

Thanks mate, I hope it pays off. Todd on clubRSX is making another batch of the strut tops so you might want to get on it soon, the new version is cheaper and the caster is fixed, ie. it isn't adjustable but significant camber will be added.

nice read!

look forward to seeing all your work hard work payoff at superlap, well done

Thanks champ .

Your never going to do mods to the motor are you Tom? Sooner or later your going to run out of suspension mods. But from the looks of it your doing stuff where it's going to count. Loving your set up buddy can't wait till I see more stuff. I am about to drop my suspension on my 4 door do poly urethane bushings and do some other suspension mods.

I might do some power mods. One day . I still have lots of suspension work to do though. You mention that you are changing the bushings in your DB, I am thinking that will be among the next things I do. Either Mugen hard rubber or PCI sphericals in the LCA at the front, and something custom for the rear .

I like those strut tops. I did a similar mod to my evo 7 which uses the same front configuration as your DC5R. It had adjustment for camber, which i thought i had more then enough adjustment from the factory camber bolts so i switched them like what you pictured above. It did in fact gain 3' Castor.

Looking good for superlap Tom. You got the setup going i think you need the extra power now. kpro :P

Thank you sir. What were your impressions of the car on track after the added caster? Hope your Superlap prep is going well too .

I too think that a bit of power would really help me at EC. Kpro is often on my mind and should certainly be among my next purchases .

AHHHHHHHHHHHH

I'll be sure to try find you at superlap.
Mass coverage from a mate and myself.

Thanks. Be sure to seek me out, we can discuss how you guessed what my front wheels were just from a poor picture of the barrel . Be sure to take any pictures from the drivers side, it is the good side .

[TeMp]

Good to see all the bits and pieces you talked about and planned for such a long while coming together.

Thanks for taking the time to explaining such complicated concepts to us simpletons.

As you know us Melbourne Boys will be up there with you as your pit crew/cheerleaders.

Concerning the castor I also had a little discussion with Zac at Techsport and like you said the amount of turning you do you at track wouldn't gain you much negative camber. So my conclusion was if you trying to gain dynamic camber, either try to gain a shit load of castor or don't bother at all.

Zac mentioned that the castor will help with high speed stability as the castor helps the straighten up the car. You see most Euro cars come from factory with alot of castor with exactly this in mind (high speeds at Autobarn).

I haven't done the research into castor to actually see how it does it yet but the interesting thing would be to see how much castor you actually you need in order make an impact. EC would be a good testing place for this.

[vippy84]

Now I am tempted to watch the Superlap

[ChargeR]

Good to see all the bits and pieces you talked about and planned for such a long while coming together.

Thanks for taking the time to explaining such complicated concepts to us simpletons.

As you know us Melbourne Boys will be up there with you as your pit crew/cheerleaders.

Concerning the castor I also had a little discussion with Zac at Techsport and like you said the amount of turning you do you at track wouldn't gain you much negative camber. So my conclusion was if you trying to gain dynamic camber, either try to gain a shit load of castor or don't bother at all.

Zac mentioned that the castor will help with high speed stability as the castor helps the straighten up the car. You see most Euro cars come from factory with alot of castor with exactly this in mind (high speeds at Autobarn).

I haven't done the research into castor to actually see how it does it yet but the interesting thing would be to see how much castor you actually you need in order make an impact. EC would be a good testing place for this.

I think you can appreciate what it is like waiting for different aspects of the car to come together . Got your tyres fitted yet?

What Zac at Techsports says is exactly what my thoughts are. If one has 5 degrees of caster then the wheel must be turned 90 degrees, perpendicular to the direction of the cars travel, to gain 5 degrees of negative camber at the outside wheel. Silliness. There is interaction with the steering axis inclination as well so the amount of camber gained at the levels of steering angle found on the track just aren't enough to worry about.

I don't have a clear idea in my mind of how SAI and caster interact but I believe that less SAI is better in terms of camber gain when turning the wheel. The Mugen lower brackets I am using allow the mega camber without changing the stock SAI, which is good I believe, but at the expense of significantly changing the scrub radius. So that combined with the offset and girth of my wheels makes the car inclined to drive all over the road, but hopefully this effect will be lessened with more caster!

Are you tempted to try more caster sir? A relatively inexpensive solution is offset LCA bushes.

I should be able to get a good indication of the change in performance at Winton as well since I am fairly familiar with the track and my changes since last time there will be minimal.

Bringing your pom poms to Superlap?

Now I am tempted to watch the Superlap

Do it. More DC5s there the better!

[lil_foy]

Thanks. Be sure to seek me out, we can discuss how you guessed what my front wheels were just from a poor picture of the barrel . Be sure to take any pictures from the drivers side, it is the good side .

Hahaha my ultimate wheel skills.

I'll be sure to get plenty for you if I find you mate.

[ChargeR]

Hahaha my ultimate wheel skills.

I'll be sure to get plenty for you if I find you mate.

Don't worry too much about the pics mate, I would rather talk crap with a fellow wheel enthusiast rather than watch you take pics of my junky car.

After giving the car a rinse last night I put a little tyre dressing on it this afternoon and went for a quick drive to a local treeish area and took some pictures. After staring at the car for a while I have decided that I am not too unsatisfied with the ride height, it is only slightly higher than what it was, I tested this by jamming my low profile jack under the front lip. It only just scrapes now, whereas previously it would push the front lip up by a few mm.

On to the pictures:

[k20eg]

best looking MR dc5r i've ever seen

amazing what deliciously fitting wheels can do

[fatboyz39]

With added castor - safely say .5seconds @ wakie.

[Tiu]

nice work tom as always! this must be a fkn awesome handling dc5R on the track, hope to see some good result from you tom =)

[lil_foy]

Don't worry too much about the pics mate, I would rather talk crap with a fellow wheel enthusiast rather than watch you take pics of my junky car.

I'll be shooting for a mates website (http://downshiftezine.blogspot.com/) since he just joined with a very big american site

And i'll be doing a 4day superlap roadtrip feature/blog thread for myself anyways.

I'll be the guy in the skinnies with two bags, a tripod and a camera hanging off me haha.

Are the hoosiers allowed for open class? or would there be a better option (ao50,etc?)

[markR]

i <3 this blog!

[ChargeR]

best looking MR dc5r i've ever seen

amazing what deliciously fitting wheels can do

It's okay I guess .

With added castor - safely say .5seconds @ wakie.

If I could get .5 seconds around Winton from the suspension changes I have made I will be ecstatic!

nice work tom as always! this must be a fkn awesome handling dc5R on the track, hope to see some good result from you tom =)

Thanks. I hope to see good results from you too Leon!

I'll be shooting for a mates website (http://downshiftezine.blogspot.com/) since he just joined with a very big american site

And i'll be doing a 4day superlap roadtrip feature/blog thread for myself anyways.

I'll be the guy in the skinnies with two bags, a tripod and a camera hanging off me haha.

Are the hoosiers allowed for open class? or would there be a better option (ao50,etc?)

The Hoosier R6 isn't permitted in any of the classes at Superlap, the rules have a list of permitted tyres and the Hoosier isn't on it .

I'll be the guy in skinny jeans loitering around near a red DC5 . Have a safe drive on the way down, be sure to post up a link to your blog on the whole Superlap experience once it is done and dusted.

i <3 this blog!

Thanks .

[fatboyz39]

If you like a Performance box data of like a 1.50 EC lap shoot me a pm. Give you a rough guide of corner speed and straight line speed plus choosing the right gearing.

[lil_foy]

The Hoosier R6 isn't permitted in any of the classes at Superlap, the rules have a list of permitted tyres and the Hoosier isn't on it .

I'll be the guy in skinny jeans loitering around near a red DC5 . Have a safe drive on the way down, be sure to post up a link to your blog on the whole Superlap experience once it is done and dusted.

Ah I see, a050's seem the be the top choice I see going by some of the pro-class cars.

The drive down is going to be interesting haha, 4 people in a polo tdi + 3 or 4 other cars following.
Not looking forward to looking through a few thousand pictures though!

Best of luck, cya down there!

[ChargeR]

Random parts

Over the past week and a bit I have been sorting out the last few changes to the car before Superlap. I got a temporary alignment to get an impression of the changes the parts I had fitted would make. I will get a final touch up alignment next week sometime after I am sure nothing is broken or going to fall off. Interestingly I got around 4 degrees of positive caster from the upper plates, but only slightly less camber than I had previously. I think if I wish to run less camber in the future I will have to resort to camber bolts again, which isn't a huge deal for me, I just wish the Todd's plates had more adjustment range for positive camber. I guess there isn't much call for people who want to add positive camber to the DC5 front end.

Here is the alignment sheet. The particular parts that interest me are the significant added caster, which can really be felt on the road. There is more feel through the steering, and the kickback and tramlining that my large and low offset front wheels provide seems much reduced. My SAI is slightly uneven left to right, and I believe this points to my subframe being slightly off centre, which possibly also contributes to the uneven caster. Also of note is the uneven rear camber, which is mostly due to my ride heights being uneven. I will fix this. I really need to get rear adjustable upper control arms.



I also fitted a new boot to the front drivers side outer CV, since the one on there has been held together with builders silicon for over 2 years. When I took it apart there was heaps of grease left in it though, so the silicon fix worked pretty well. I did intend to write up a DIY for this but I got way too dirty to take pics after about 5 minutes working .

New boot.



Essential tool for changing DC5 front axles. A meter long 3/4" drive breaker bar and a 36mm socket. I had to bounce on the end of this to loosen the hub nut.



I also fitted this sweet shiny heat shield over my steering rack, thanks to Jonnie R . One can never have enough heat shields.



And also an EP3R front sway bar, thanks to Duy . Not sure what compelled me to fit these parts. Interestingly the EP3 front sway bar is thicker than the original one so unless the wall thickness is much thinner I have inadvertently given myself higher front roll stiffness, which was not a desired effect. I guess it will allow me to run the car a little lower though .