Honey Badger's Completely Off-the-Rails Race Car Build and Track Adventure Thread

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I can't say I've seen anyone use a banana for scale before.....
 
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Got my SPC replacement camber arms today. Pretty nice piece of hardware with some really nice design elements. The adjustment approach is particularly nice. I like how it locks out the OEM slot on the rear subframe, so there’s no movement capable there. And then on the knuckle, instead of a bolt, it uses a sleeve, so it shouldn’t move when you tighten the bolt down. Nice strong hardware too.

They do seem a bit physically bigger than OEM (arm for scale since I didn’t have the internet's ultra-precise banana). Does anyone have any OEM pieces they can measure? Curious about size and weight.


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Thanks @JAJ for the recommendation.

I’ll post some more info when I go to install them
How's this for a comparo:

1619125918857.png


The SPC forged aluminum part weighs 3.76 pounds, almost exactly 1 pound lighter than the OEM cast iron part. For reference, a banana weighs 0.4 pounds. The banana wins the weight contest by a long ways, but the mounting and adjustment features look problematic.

By the way, you only use one locking plate on the inside bolt - the two provided are at different offsets. They're steel and the inner bolt's not going to move.
 
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How's this for a comparo:

1619125918857.png


The SPC forged aluminum part weighs 3.76 pounds, almost exactly 1 pound lighter than the OEM cast iron part. For reference, a banana weighs 0.4 pounds. The banana wins the weight contest by a long ways, but the mounting and adjustment features look problematic.

By the way, you only use one locking plate on the inside bolt - the two provided are at different offsets. They're steel and the inner bolt's not going to move.
Nice. Thanks for posting. I have a feeling they were markedly bigger. I got them installed this weekend. Big fan. Due to their design, they're very easy to be precise, which makes having to take the wheel off to adjust them a lot less painful. I actually expect they'll be quicker to adjust going forward once I get the hang of it.
 

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Nice. Thanks for posting. I have a feeling they were markedly bigger. I got them installed this weekend. Big fan. Due to their design, they're very easy to be precise, which makes having to take the wheel off to adjust them a lot less painful. I actually expect they'll be quicker to adjust going forward once I get the hang of it.
The biggest pain in setting up the rear camber/toe is that they interact A LOT. Get one set, adjust the other to match, and the first one's off again. It's a chase.

The second biggest pain is that the OEM bushings in the rear suspension actually "absorb" some of the adjustment. If you move the actual settings by 0.2 degrees, your gauges might only show 0.1 degree. The bit the suspension rubber absorbs only shows up after a test drive.

I found this out when I did my own rear alignment last year. It took two days of up and down before I figured out what was happening. I'd have the settings perfect after the adjustments, but they'd be a fair ways off after a test drive. I went through three or four rounds of getting it exactly where I wanted it, only to find it wasn't there after the test drive.

I switched to the "counting flats" approach to get it exactly where I wanted it. It's a bit tedious, but it works and once I started with that approach it was fairly quick to get it set up and settled.

Good news is that when it's actually dialed in, it's easier to drive fast. And it doesn't seem to tramline as much either.
 
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The biggest pain in setting up the rear camber/toe is that they interact A LOT. Get one set, adjust the other to match, and the first one's off again. It's a chase.

The second biggest pain is that the OEM bushings in the rear suspension actually "absorb" some of the adjustment. If you move the actual settings by 0.2 degrees, your gauges might only show 0.1 degree. The bit the suspension rubber absorbs only shows up after a test drive.

I found this out when I did my own rear alignment last year. It took two days of up and down before I figured out what was happening. I'd have the settings perfect after the adjustments, but they'd be a fair ways off after a test drive. I went through three or four rounds of getting it exactly where I wanted it, only to find it wasn't there after the test drive.

I switched to the "counting flats" approach to get it exactly where I wanted it. It's a bit tedious, but it works and once I started with that approach it was fairly quick to get it set up and settled.

Good news is that when it's actually dialed in, it's easier to drive fast. And it doesn't seem to tramline as much either.
Fortunately everything but the vertical links and these in my rear end are solid/spherical, so that should help with adjustments. I've found rear camber isn't too sensitive +/- .2 is fine, but toe is another story. My car is super sensitive toe and anything 1/16th of an inch or more out of whack and the car is nutty.

I'm looking forward to see how they feel.
 

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Fortunately everything but the vertical links and these in my rear end are solid/spherical, so that should help with adjustments. I've found rear camber isn't too sensitive +/- .2 is fine, but toe is another story. My car is super sensitive toe and anything 1/16th of an inch or more out of whack and the car is nutty.

I'm looking forward to see how they feel.
Glad to hear you've got the spherical bearing setup - it's got to be vastly easier to get it set correctly.

I've got the BMR adjustable upper links in my car at this point. They were handy for the original setup and they seem to work ok, although they also seem to need greasing fairly often. I was planning to switch to the SPC parts this spring, but with track days postponed here until June at the earliest, I haven't bothered yet.
 

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Glad to hear you've got the spherical bearing setup - it's got to be vastly easier to get it set correctly.

I've got the BMR adjustable upper links in my car at this point. They were handy for the original setup and they seem to work ok, although they also seem to need greasing fairly often. I was planning to switch to the SPC parts this spring, but with track days postponed here until June at the earliest, I haven't bothered yet.
Track days postponed until June!
 
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New SPC rear camber arms and a vacuum canister are installed. We'll find out tomorrow how well it all goes.



Big fan of the SPC arms so far. Adjustment is precise and easy, just a wee bit time consuming.

Hopefully the canister bumps up capacity enough to fix the hard brake pedal issues. If not, we'll go with a pump next....
 
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Well it looks like the canister worked well enough for me. No hard pedal all weekend, but admittedly I focused more on other areas than how deep could I get into the braking zone. But the car ran great and I'm pretty happy with a 2:29 flat on incredibly heat cycled Cup 2s and a track that saw a ton of rain. Fix the mistakes in T9, T11 and T20 and it would have been a banger lap for the tires.

Really, really happy with my T1 entry and T3-T8 momentum. Even T15 is getting cleaned up well.

 

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Well done! A brilliant demonstration of how "smooth = fast"!

Are you happy with the rear SPC UCA's now that you've had a chance to try it for real?
 

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Nice lap! I wonder if you need to downshift one more gear going into T11-you are at 2900 RPM, would a lower gear get you more into the ideal torque curve and give you a few more MPH on the back straight?
 
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Well done! A brilliant demonstration of how "smooth = fast"!

Are you happy with the rear SPC UCA's now that you've had a chance to try it for real?
Thanks, @JAJ. All those Miata hours are paying off. Can’t wait to try this thing with some proper tires. It’s going to be completely bonkers.

And loved them. Still have plenty of feedback from the rear, so bushings are nice and solid. No change in camber throughout the weekend and they made it super easy to dial in the exact camber I wanted. I’m a fan!

Nice lap! I wonder if you need to downshift one more gear going into T11-you are at 2900 RPM, would a lower gear get you more into the ideal torque curve and give you a few more MPH on the back straight?
2nd would be ideal for sure! I tested last event and it yielded a few more MPH down the back straight. Tires are just too shot and spin unless executed absolutely perfect. Decided to work more on lines this time. I plan to work on brake points and shifting more next event.
 
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One corner I did play around with brakes on was T1. We’re down to braking at the 100 marker. This lap had a slightly sloppy exit, but the braking and turn in was spot on. Really starting to get a feel for maximizing the use of the brakes. Now if I can just apply this efficiency everywhere.

 
 
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