aftermarket seats for motorsports

This thread has answers to all of the questions I was going to ask him but ran out of time. The weight of 3235 is incredible, because my E90 N52 325i was 3250 with full interior. I believe he would need that wing to keep some weight over the drive wheels. Fortunately quattro keeps things pretty planted in my car, and I do believe my trunk spoiler helps eliminate lift at triple digit speeds (even if everyone on Audizine thinks air has no weight and transitively the atmosphere is a vacuum). I do need to get around to ordering a front air splitter, to create a high pressure zone in front of the car to complement the low pressure zone I’ve enhanced behind the trunk.

http://www.modbargains.com/DTM-Style-Carbon-Fiber-Front-Lip-B8-S4-A4-S-Line.htm

http://www.modbargains.com/images/Products/MISC/ModBargains-Audi-B8-S4-Carbon-Fiber-Front-Lip-3.JPG

Looking at that E90, he pulled about 350 pounds out of the OEM car.

Anyone care to guess what my interior weighs? Let’s assume:

  • carpet
  • headliner
  • 4 interior door panels
  • speakers
  • amplifier
  • radio/climate control/AC compressor
  • curtain airbags
  • sunroof and motors (replace with Lexan plastic blank)
  • center console around shift boot

I’m in no rush to do this. If I could clear 180 pounds I’d consider it as this car sails past the point of no return like @drob23 before me.

The weight of that stripped E90 is impressive, no doubt. He also mentioned that removing his blower might take another 100 lbs off :o.

So research into the e9x m3 platform has really opened my eyes to aero also. Lots of track guys running big wings out back and swearing by them (sometimes a front splitter as well). Another approach folks have taken to add stability is to increase rear tire width and some have run as wide as 305 or 315 rear tires, monsters.

The set I just picked up is 275/275 though I may switch to 275/285 or 275/295 depending on tire availability. The wheels I bought are staggered, similar to OEM, but wider. I went with 10" fronts and 10.5" rears.

A front engined RWD car will have issues with throttle induced oversteer. So the need for aero makes more sense. Much more of a problem for the BMW guys than us. Only way I’ve had the tail out while on power was going full WOT with substantial steering input directly after some heavy braking.

I also don’t feel like trailing throttle oversteer is a problem with this car. I don’t feel the car oversteer much if I lift mid-corner, almost feels like it pushes more.

Thanks Drob, glad to hear the support! And I tend to agree that I would still enjoy the 6MT more for a spirited weekend run, just a bit more track focused at the moment.

So I am waffling on whether or not to squeeze a 380mm kit in but I think I would rather save the extra spend and put it towards a rear kit later. Also, no PFC '08’s in the ST60 pad shape. Yes, I like them that much!

Glad to see you thinking massive weight reduction again. And I figured you were already past that point, may as well keep going if so.

I got a photo of that blower

http://i57.tinypic.com/mcav6w.jpg

It’s your alignment that is preventing this :slight_smile:
This car can be setup to have a lot of trailing throttle oversteer. It can be pretty loose if you wanted.
I agree though, with a more conservative or street/track compromise alignment, you won’t run into this situation.

Boro - to be 100% clear, what is the setting that provides TTO? Is it setting a bias for more front camber than rear camber? Like -3.0 in front and -1.9 in back.

Camber yes, but even more important is toe. The amount of toe out up front and amount of toe in for the back (less is better for more TTO). Honestly it is the totality of the alignment settings… But if u are in quiring on what makes the most effect, it will be toe.

Toe out on the front is going to make the car change direction much quicker, but also give the front end more mid corner bite–less understeer. Less toe in for the rear will make the tail more ready to step out and rotate in a TTO situation. But u still want some toe in for the back to make the car stable on the power. IMO if u set a car up for TTO as I have, then u need to find a way to make the car stable to balance out the overseer. So I have elected to set my car up to be loose when off the gas but stable when on the gas. This setup makes the car rotate early on corner entry so u can hit the throttle sooner to exit the corner and carry more speed out of it. The heavy weight of the car kinda helps in this situation cause there is more inertia for the rotation, but u have awd to stabilize the rotation when u get back hard on the gas. U have to commit with every corner with such a setup though. Cause u need to be on the power to keep the car stable… Which for some folks is not intuitive. But it is the fastest style for an awd car imo.

You’re a treasure, boro. Since I’m not yet retired living on a condo on a racetrack, I’d never have enough time to trial-and-error my way to the results you help me achieve. I like to get it right the first time, which is why I overshare a bit on Internet forums.

My current setup is 1/16 total toe-out front and 1/16 total toe-in rear. If I zero out the rear toe I’ll get the TTO. Now, I’m not sure I want TTO but it’s good to know how I can get there. I might to 1/32 total toe-in rear next time to ease my way there. I presume this would also create a four wheel drift tendency with the throttle on?

The 034 guys are nuts and run 1/16 toe-out in the rear! I’ve had a few oh shit moments driving behind their 600 HP TT-RS.

Have ya’ll seen the recent Smoking Tire 034 TT-RS one take? Pretty cool. I think Lazlo was riding shotgun. I’m totally addicted to watching the “one takes” BTW, lot of learning about car culture and different platforms in a short window. The recent $10k e36 m3 track car was a good one too.

Hoping to see West do a one take soon, would be epic!

I don’t think Matt Pharoh would fit in a Recaro Spa seat :slight_smile:

Thanks west. I would advise against 0 toe if you are running factory rubber components in the back. There is too much slop in the rubber bushings, and you need some amount of toe to tension the bushings under load so that the car tracks predictably. Go 0 if you are all spherical with solid subframe mounts to the chassis, yes. Otherwise, I would suggest not to–especially with your rear spring. Gotta look at the whole picture. Small changes first. Try more toe out up front and yes, 1/32 toe in rear would be fine. Iirc I am 5/8 toe out in the front.

There may be some truth to that statement. :slight_smile:

BTW, I somehow missed it but there is an S4 One Take, and the guy was even running the APR E85 tune for it!

Modified B8 Audi S4 - (Angeles Forest Hwy) One Take:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSIqhOVpdNg

Does anyone sell replacement components for the rear links on a B8? I’m sure 034 can hack something up. I’ve ridden in a few of their A3 5 door models with the solid rears on track.

I mounted a GoPro Hero4 Silver to the rollbar. Surprisingly, the video doesn’t shake and stutter even though I have a stiff suspension. I credit the B8 chassis for smoothness.

I later drilled the GoPro case on the side so I could plug the mini USB from the center console box. It runs out of battery in a couple of sessions. I also ran the wire for the magnetic trunk top GPS around the seat cushion, since it’s a 7’ wire. That connects into a Racelogic Vbox sport. Then I have a bluetooth OBDII reader. All of this crap is supposed to work with Harry’s Lap Timer but it requires about 10 minutes of fiddling each session. I think I’m going to mount the iPhone with a suction cup to the MMI screen. I don’t want anything up on the wind screen. I also bought an arm to move the GoPro a little farther forward in the cabin.

http://i62.tinypic.com/2ah5y7a.jpg

http://i61.tinypic.com/20p1snq.jpg

http://i57.tinypic.com/97tjmc.jpg

http://i62.tinypic.com/339jev9.jpg

I’ve been thinking of getting a VBOX Pro Sport for a while now. That should work with the phone via bluetooth correct?

But you need to set it up for each session?

Sort of. I haven’t quite gotten it perfect yet. I also need to source a Windows machine, I think, to analyze all of the data it collected. I may try CMS lap timer next time.

I haven’t figured out the overlay part of an external GoPro recording and the engine/location data on top. If I can slice these into iMovie I’ll put out another video.

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/20/9d0ae0f09716b7aee1c0990e9e9c818f.jpg

http://racerender.com/Products/index.html Don’t bother with iMovie

I use Trackaddict, got tired of Harry’s, maybe it’s improved, I don’t know.

Use the gopro for video, the iPhone app for data.

I haven’t used the OBDII dongle for data or an external GPS, but using Racerender makes adding and synchronizing that data easy. My NSX isn’t OBDII, but I use the PLX dongle for the Audi through trackaddict all the time. Making overlay videos takes minutes once you synchronize.

I mount the iPhone where I can glance to see if I’m over/under on that lap - makes real-time learning easier. Also makes overlaying/synchronizing your data easy if you can see the lap times on the iPhone in the Gopro video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKrWJRFcmf4

I’ve used Harry’s and to me it’s the simplest setup for capturing lap times and your driving line. Processing it is extremely easy, and the overlays are good. Battery gets killed though, so I need to recharge the phone in between sessions with a battery pack. Android with external SD storage FTW in this case.

Gopro is better if you want to watch yourself to see inputs, but that thing dies all the time and I always end up with 2 hours of parking footage lol Even hard wiring it into the cars cig lighters doesn’t seem to do shit, always dead. I have adobe premiere for fusing video, and it SUCKS to use haha

I’ve tried dropping some cash on a external GPS to sync with harry’s, but it sucked. Something didn’t work right and it wasn’t worth the hassle trying to figure it out http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E65TNYE/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687442&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B006M49G80&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1TJQMFWNJWA43RSYW3NF. Just returned it to amazon.

If I keep doing this I’ll probably drop cash on an AIM solo setup. Vbox is also an option I suppose. I’m like west in that I don’t want to be hassling with electronics as I’m getting ready to go out. Want to check tire pressures, oil temp, torque bolts, find instructor, get helmet on and gloves, mentally prepare for run. Trying to figure out why the goddamn gps won’t connect to the phone is not what I want to be solving in the cold pits.