GT350R on coil-overs

[Kenwood1113]

Guys, I've decided to turn my R into my dedicated track car for VIR and I wanted to ask if anyone has put their car on coil-overs? If so, which brand did you go with and how have they improved performance in a road course environment?

These cars are pretty well balanced from the factory and another user on the form (SVTDSM) has provided excellent input on his suspension mods but I have not heard from anyone regarding real world track experience with coil-overs on a R.

Thanks guys!

Sponsored

 

[Dominator]

Guys, I've decided to turn my R into my dedicated track car for VIR and I wanted to ask if anyone has put their car on coil-overs? If so, which brand did you go with and how have they improved performance in a road course environment?

These cars are pretty well balanced from the factory and another user on the form (SVTDSM) has provided excellent input on his suspension mods but I have not heard from anyone regarding real world track experience with coil-overs on a R.

Thanks guys!

I have a heavily modified 2016 GT350 Track pack.
By modified I mean the following.

Forgeline GA1R open lugs
Pilot sport cup 2

Front:
R splitter
Vorshlag camber plates
Cortex monoballs
Eibach sway bar
Delrin sway bar bushings
Cortex adjustable sway bar end links
Ford performance springs
Arp wheel studs

Rear:
Cortex monoballs
Eibach sway bar
Delrin sway bar bushings
Cortex adjustable sway bar end links
Ford performance springs
Arp wheel studs
Ford performance toe bearings
Ford performance IRS cradle bushings
Ford performance differential bushings
Self made vertical links
Voodoo13 toe links
Voodoo13 adjustable camber links

Engine:
ARH headers
ARH catless x pipe
Lund 100 octane tune
Sunoco 260gt 100 octane race gas

Drivetrain:
MGW shifter
QA1 driveshaft

Interior:
Watson roll bar
Srp pedals
R rear seat delete

I’m still waiting on recaro profi spa carbon race seats.
I’m trying to remove as much weight as possible without going to carbon fiber.

With that said, I have been seriously shopping for coil overs, cortex racing is your best bet. Since our cars have magneride, it’s not as simple as just removing the magneride dampers and adding coil overs. Once you unplug or remove the magneride it deactivates abs, steering etc.

Cortex has already done gt350s by overriding the magneride system and making it all work. They offer JRI and Ohlin. If I wanted to do the dial and knob coil over set up I’d go with Ohlin myself.

But what I really want and have been waiting for is the Tractive coil over dampers. They been working on it for about 2 years now and just had a booth setup at PRI this year. I contacted them last week and waiting for more info.
Tractive is the way to go, you keep all your controls but they are now coil overs and it’s the future of dampers. No knobs or dials. All can be adjusted with the DSC controller. Easy and trick.

 

[snaproll]

Just curious what the shortcomings of the stock technology would be for a track car? I’d use the magneride on a race car if it were legal.

 

[Tomster]

^^^ and didn't I read that folks were coming out with tunes for the magnaride suspensions? I found stock to be just fine.

 

[Action]

^^^ and didn't I read that folks were coming out with tunes for the magnaride suspensions? I found stock to be just fine.

Agreed.

 

[stanglife]

Racing is choosing a budget and a setup that doesn't limit your abilities, IMO. Of course, there are people who just build and build, just for the sake of throwing parts at a car but then never even go to a track. I still haven't had my R to the track but I'm certain that my abilities don't exceed the current car, so I'm not too worried about throwing parts at it.

 

[oldbmwfan]

Racing is choosing a budget and a setup that doesn't limit your abilities, IMO. Of course, there are people who just build and build, just for the sake of throwing parts at a car but then never even go to a track. I still haven't had my R to the track but I'm certain that my abilities don't exceed the current car, so I'm not too worried about throwing parts at it.

Certainly. To each his own. I've a fair bit of track experience, both HPDE and racing, but I'm pretty rusty because my work schedule has really limited my track time in recent years. I found the stock GT350R to be beyond my ability to fully exploit. I'd want to be able to consistently turn times on par with top-level amateur racers in the car before modifying it beyond alignment, weight reduction, and maybe some things like uprated bushings/ bearings. That said, I'll be eager to see what others can do with their cars. Every street-legal car is compromised for track use in some way. I'm sure the R can benefit from stiffer springs on track, but I'm not sure the loss of Magneride adaptive capabilities would be a worthwhile trade-off to make for more spring rate.

 

[Dominator]

The problem is, there are no spring options except the FP Springs, and soon bmr Springs. The coil overs offer so many spring options and also corner balancing. Not to mention damper options. Of course I’m talking for a track car prospective.

 

[Dominator]

Agreed.

Dsc, Cortex and ridetech all use the same dsc controller the beauty of the dsc controller is you can tune your stock magneride dampers. Also the same dsc controller is used on Tractive coil over dampers. The days of crawling underneath the car to make adjustments is fading. I’m in line for the Tractive coil overs.

 

[snaproll]

The problem is, there are no spring options except the FP Springs, and soon bmr Springs. The coil overs offer so many spring options and also corner balancing. Not to mention damper options. Of course I’m talking for a track car prospective.

That was kinda my point. The car has no virtually body roll, huge grip, and is ludicrously fast - easily faster and with more mid corner grip than a non-streetable full coil over race setup on my old s197, for example. If I got to a point where I thought it would be faster to adjust the balance, I would think playing with a sway bar and tires would be cheap and effective. At that point, I’d feel like I was cheating death because of the lack of safety equipment and huge speeds if truly driven at the limit.

 

[oldbmwfan]

The problem is, there are no spring options except the FP Springs, and soon bmr Springs. The coil overs offer so many spring options and also corner balancing. Not to mention damper options. Of course I’m talking for a track car prospective.

Totally understand. And good dampers (Penske, Ohlins, maybe MCS) can do great things. What I don't know is, are those better but non-adaptive dampers better or worse than the less-aggressive, but adaptive, Magneride? Coilovers cannot, for example, stiffen the front compression under braking to reduce dive and improve rear grip. A coilover with Magneride would seem to be the best of both worlds, spring selection and adaptive damping.

 

[Dominator]

Totally understand. And good dampers (Penske, Ohlins, maybe MCS) can do great things. What I don't know is, are those better but non-adaptive dampers better or worse than the less-aggressive, but adaptive, Magneride? Coilovers cannot, for example, stiffen the front compression under braking to reduce dive and improve rear grip. A coilover with Magneride would seem to be the best of both worlds, spring selection and adaptive damping.

Tractive dampers are not filled with “magneride fluid” and they are still better than the old knob adjustable variations.
The Tractive dampers still allow motion control like a magneride but use gas/fluid valve control instead. Tractive still controls independently corner balance and improves grip.
It’s the future of dampers.
Nobody else compares.

 

[Dominator]

That was kinda my point. The car has no virtually body roll, huge grip, and is ludicrously fast - easily faster and with more mid corner grip than a non-streetable full coil over race setup on my old s197, for example. If I got to a point where I thought it would be faster to adjust the balance, I would think playing with a sway bar and tires would be cheap and effective. At that point, I’d feel like I was cheating death because of the lack of safety equipment and huge speeds if truly driven at the limit.

On the street perhaps.
The car does still have body roll. But the magneride slows the body roll motion. The Tractive system gives you road manners in a full coil over race set up, allows corner balance, reduced weight. I have adjustable sway bars and end links. I can drive on the street with sport cup 2 or lesser tires and full race slicks if I like on the track.
Any track event you should have at least a 4 point roll bar, 5-6 point harness, helmet and HANS device

 

[firestarter2]

Tractive dampers are not filled with “magneride fluid” and they are still better than the old knob adjustable variations.
The Tractive dampers still allow motion control like a magneride but use gas/fluid valve control instead. Tractive still controls independently corner balance and improves grip.
It’s the future of dampers.
Nobody else compares.

It's the vavle as fast react?

Nevermind I just saw the price

 

[oldbmwfan]

Tractive dampers are not filled with “magneride fluid” and they are still better than the old knob adjustable variations.
The Tractive dampers still allow motion control like a magneride but use gas/fluid valve control instead. Tractive still controls independently corner balance and improves grip.
It’s the future of dampers.
Nobody else compares.

Yes, it's clear the Tractive setup emulates and even exceeds the stock Magneride adaptability. My comments were regarding the relative benefits and demerits of conventional coil-overs vs. stock Magneride.

Side comment, it is interesting to me that the Tractive hardware very closely resembles AST hardware (same anodized orange collars and mount plates, similar seals and bearings). I know nothing about DSC Sport's origins, but I wonder if there is some relation.

Sponsored