Testing The New K Swapped FR-S
Hoping for a low-key Sunday at Laguna Seca. Shaking down our new ride and dialing in the tune and suspension. So far on all street drives it has been a gem. All OEM functions working great. Even grabbed a AFR/RPM log while jumping on freeway and confirmed fuel ratios are nice and happy for a stock naturally aspirated engine.
More details to be posted as the day progresses, for now its just a jumping point for my own navigation.
Notes for the Day
First, this is an excellent well built car. The swap installation and drivability as a daily is highly impressive. While headed to Seaside the car rode and drove like nothing special i.e. just a typical car. Meaning it was all well sorted. Only minor grip was the terrible fuel mileage, averaging around 17-18 mph for a stock Honda engine. Tune seems a bit rich for street driving.
Second, I swapped on AP Racing big brake kit and carbon fiber ducting from the last FR-S and it doesn’t seem to have quite enough clearance between rotor and lip of the duct. Leading to a mildly annoying sweak while driving. To be solved after the track day with a small shim. Very small, fractions of millimeters.
Thoughts from first sessions
A - Overall well mannered with some understeer on corner entry through mid-corner. Might want to think about some tweaks to reduce this.
B - Suspension was on the softer side in terms of roll control and over burms, ended up adjusting a few clicks into all corners.
Starting Settings - Front 16 of 24 from full left & Rear 15 of 26 from full left
Adjusted Settings - Front 20 of 24 from full left & Rear 18 of 26 from full left
C - Tires are very linear and have good control mid slide, but definitely low on grip. To be expected out of Michelin PilotSport 4S which are 300 treadwear. Good to learn and feel the car, not great for ultimate lap times.
D - Brakes are completely useless at stopping the car. This is likely because of their street focus, they are Hawk HPS. Fine for the likes of Thunderhill West, but not Laguna Seca. These will need to be replaced along with finishing the duct installation for better cooling. One great learning experience on the HPS; they never faded to 0% there was always some level of friction there and they came back pretty quickly. Definitely a solid street pad and still let us manage to play the rest of day.
E - Far too much camber on left front, unsure if this was from my brush with edge of T6 burm or always there. I have no pictures of the car from correct angle and never measured before the track day. The pyrometer temperatures were roughly 10°F from inside to outside…warmer on left front inside (dragging inside edge) and opposite on right front (rolling over).
F - With the 5mm spacers on front to clear bigger calipers the front tires very slightly rub edge of fenders. Not causing any damage, but ultimately should be rectified with either slight ride height raise or wheel change towards better offset.
Fun Notes
Excellent catching up with Tony and Youmna, it has been so many years since we raced together in Lemons. Fun seeing the evolution of their S2K and following Youmna around the track, I think I heard she managed a new PB lap after I got out of her hair that session.
Meeting some fellow track enthusiats, enjoying tasty BBQ and generally having a relaxing day. Oh and scarying Colleen, which is always fun. Don’t mind us entering turn 2 with fading brakes… its fine!
From the above lap there is definitely more time left in this car with proper brake pads and no other changes. I feel like I could get down into 1:46 with just different pads for more confidence and deeper braking.
Next up is a comparison between the two of us, illustrates two key points for speed:
Higher apex speed usually translates to faster exit speed and thus less time traveling between corners
Using the entire track
Both items take time to build confidence in the car and awareness of how far it is likely to slip/slide through the corner.
Sad Notes
Aside from the frustrating brake issues, Fred was out enjoying the car and ended up meeting the T6 burm on the wrong side. Leading to a bent wheel and not insignificant suspension alignment issues. At this time no damage can be identified, but will be inspected with more detail later. Able to limp the car home at a cautious rate of speed, it felt like massive toe-out as the car would wiggle at the slightest steering input. No rattles or clunks so that was positive.
I’m sure Fred is sorry Laguna Seca for clearly taking some of your new track with him…
Hard to tell, but the wheel is maybe 5-10° left to go straight. Also the headlights were no longer aligned (fixed while at dinner on way home).
Notes for Future Self / Fred
A - Not going to worry about the understeer for now. Let’s get other things sorted and work through one by one on improving the handling.
B - I’m happy enough with stiffer shock settings. If really desired we could step up the front and rear spring rates by maybe 50 lbs.
C - With needed new wheels I’d like to slap on some Hankook RS4 in the correct size for new wheels
The following sizes are available: 235/45ZR17 245/40ZR17** 245/40ZR18` 255/35ZR18**
**quite a bit smaller overall diameter
`current size is 245/40ZR18
D - Open to suggestions on pad compound, but need a mild track or very aggressive street
E - Reducing camber on left front by a little, perhaps 0.5° and increasing on right front by 0.5° to mitigate tire temperatures inside to outside.
F - Don’t have any recommended changes here until wheels and other things have been decided upon. If springs are not adjusted then raising ride height by 1/8” is a good suggestion.
Order of recommendations:
New wheels and tires, raise ride height 1/8”, reset alignment to last setup, test again as new tires compound is going to make a big different on roll and other handling characteristics.
Very low priority looking at fuel map to lean out for better mileage to and from the track.
Until next outing with the fursss!
