Road Course thoughts?

[16Kobra]

Tire wear at the track is subjective also to the driver.

@Tomster and I have tracked Daytona multiple times for the same event. He is a better driver and more experienced than I. He has worn out more tires and brakes than I have because he is more aggressive and better at it.

I have rode with him and seen some of my times improve.

But, if you overdrive the car for your experience, yes you will premature wear tires and brakes.

Just my 0.02.

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[gfcobra04]

I just noticed I have something coming via UPS from the dealer. That box have your VIN anywhere on it?

I removed the ups sticker and the stickers from ford don’t have the vin# however the license plate bracket does have the vin#

 

[Epiphany]

Validation. I spoke with Nick numerous times, including just now, about the bracket and the plates. He kept conversation going between him and his rep. When the rep said we'd be getting both I was still skeptical. Seeing that we are indeed getting them...the Handling Package has suddenly become a much better value. Huge kudos to him for getting this done. And I hope that every Handling Package owner gets their plates soon too. Looks like we beat the "summer availability" label!

 

[gfcobra04]

Validation. I spoke with Nick numerous times, including just now, about the bracket and the plates. He kept conversation going between him and his rep. When the rep said we'd be getting both I was still skeptical. Seeing that we are indeed getting them...the Handling Package has suddenly become a much better value. Huge kudos to him for getting this done. And I hope that every Handling Package owner gets their plates soon too. Looks like we beat the "summer availability" label!

I hope you’re correct about others getting there plates. The last I had heard was it might be this summer, just a couple days ago I thought about buying a set.

 

[Epiphany]

The only thing Ford has shared regarding the Handling Package cars getting the plates was in some dealer sales support literature, released just over a week ago, that I posted in another thread. Like you, I was at the brink of buying them as well.

On a related note, there's more to this story. Other Handling Package owners may not be getting their plates yet. PM being sent to you.

 

[Weee500]

Anyone know the stock max adjustment for the rear on camber? Are aftermarket parts needed?

 

[GattmanLA]

Most excellent insight wow is all I can say and it sounds like with the right camber in it the tires will last a least a couple track days (thats about all we should ask for anyways). Did you set the camber for the track yourself and if you did was it very hard to do? seems like it's pretty straight forward but having someone that did it and tell us is always better then just reading......

Galpin Ford did the initial street alignment, then I had Upland Ford (I know the manager there and it was en route to the track) do the first oil change and track alignment. The front alignment was quite easy with the camber plates installed, but the rear was more tricky balancing all there elements to get the correct camber and toe. All in all it took about an hour to get right. So next time I'm basically going to leave the rear in a mid street/track alignment (where it is now), and just adjust the front camber to full track. It'll save a huge amount of time.

 

[Epiphany]

So where did your camber numbers end up for your track setting? Got a copy of the alignment sheet?

 

[GattmanLA]

I have a lot of respect for anyone that uses their GT500 as a daily driver, especially in LA!

The ONLY difficulty is watching those carbon wheels and trying to drive at reasonable speeds. This car does NOT want to stay under the speed limit!

 

[GattmanLA]

So where did your camber numbers end up for your track setting? Got a copy of the alignment sheet?

I can't find the alignment sheets as yet but...

For the PDI I had the car set up to factory street spec:
Camber F -1.1 (as per ford spec)
Camber R -1.7 (as per ford spec)

For track:
Camber F -2.3 (it could've gone further... probably to -3)
Camber R - 2.3 (pretty much maxed out)

Then when I went back to street:
F -1.7 (middle ground since I daily and canyon)
R -1.7 (gonna just leave this here for future track)

As I mentioned, adjusting the front with the camber plates was very quick. The rear was more of a PITA since you have to adjust and balance the camber and toe arms to get it just right. It took some time.

The tires had more wear than they should've because I was over cooking some of the slow corners due to lack of skills (especially the fronts), so the shoulders took a little more wear than optimal. But overall the wear was very even with about 130 miles of VERY aggressive driving over the day. Basically it was either WOT or full brake! And thermal is a either long straights or hard braking slow corners (mostly). I'm thinking this car has one more really full track day left in the tires. But remember I also daily this thing. If it wasn't your daily and you didn't drive balls to the wall I would think you could get 4 good track days out of a set of well aligned C2's. This is all theory based on my experienced and educated (but non-professional) experience. Also, the C2's which come as OEM on the Gt500 CFTP are not the same as regular C2's. These are a different compound, softer (180 TW).

 

[Epiphany]

Thanks for the details.

Of note. I know a couple of the guys that crew for Dean Martin's IMSA Mustang effort. One of them works for Roush. Not the weak assed aftermarket Roush Mustang group but rather the group that does all the dirty work for Ford. Anyway, he's been embedded with the GT500 development team and traveled with the car to tracks across the country for quite some time. I inquired about settings when Randy/MT visited VIR with a pair of GT500's not long ago. I learned that the team saw results when front camber was around -2.4* but that they found additional negative camber beyond that wasn't beneficial. I was intrigued as I watched the same guys setup one of Dean's GT4 Mustangs to near -4* up front (different tracks, different settings, I know, just a data point). So your setting at -2.3* definitely caught my eye.

 

[GattmanLA]

Thanks for the details.

Of note. I know a couple of the guys that crew for Dean Martin's IMSA Mustang effort. One of them works for Roush. Not the weak assed aftermarket Roush Mustang group but rather the group that does all the dirty work for Ford. Anyway, he's been embedded with the GT500 development team and traveled with the car to tracks across the country for quite some time. I inquired about settings when Randy/MT visited VIR with a pair of GT500's not long ago. I learned that the team saw results when front camber was around -2.4* but that they found additional negative camber beyond that wasn't beneficial. I was intrigued as I watched the same guys setup one of Dean's GT4 Mustangs to near -4* up front (different tracks, different settings, I know, just a data point). So your setting at -2.3* definitely caught my eye.

Factory settings are -2.25, I went a little further. Right there in the GT500 supplement.

The car wasn’t set up right for RP / MT. No wicker splitters, wing was in street setting (low), rain tray was still in. So I can’t imagine they set the camber alignment correctly and forgot all that other stuff. The wasn’t set up correctly for any of those tests.

 

[Epiphany]

Oh, I have all the data from the supplement and have studied it closely.

Trust me, it was like pulling teeth getting clear answers about all the setup details. Randy's article was nice to read but either lacking or ambiguous. That database will grow as more and more track these cars so your own settings and comments are indeed helpful.

 

[GattmanLA]

Oh, I have all the data from the supplement and have studied it closely.

Trust me, it was like pulling teeth getting clear answers about all the setup details. Randy's article was nice to read but either lacking or ambiguous. That database will grow as more and more track these cars so your own settings and comments are indeed helpful.

I was lucky in that the guy riding shotgun with me knows more about how to drive & set this car up properly than probably anyone else out there. He could certainly teach RP how to get real lap times out of it. Randy was basically driving the car at 8/10ths. I know what it feels like at 10!! If BJ was even driving at 10/10ths.... if not? Damned!!

 

[Epiphany]

Learn anything that we haven't heard before that is ok to share?

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