^^^ Stops heating the ball joints ect too much i guess.

 

\\
Rigidity. I have partially cut ones before but they kept bending.

 

Usually, they have flanges that add rigidity. Typically, ones for circle track cars are under $50.

 

It's been a really busy winter.


I started out the winter dumping the air pump system. It was oddly satisfying removing all the crap out of the engine bay. The issue kit is nice and easy and I love the cover!

Some goodies waiting to go under the tree. I replaced the rear hubs, knuckles, bearings, as well as installed new OEM rear heat shields so I can duct them for the rear Baero cooling ducts.

I started off the winter refresh installing Derlin Offset bushings and removing my roll center adjusters to get .2 back for the P/W per the TT5 rules that I was previously taking. I am running MCS 2 Way non remote coil overs this season as well. I wasn't happy at all with the stiction force when the offsets were torqued to factory spec. I decided to stop messing around and just go spherical.

All assembled rear setup

Glad I decided to change all my bushings to spherical. I found the compliance bushings were both torn. They looked fine in the car but when I took them out I realized they were cracked.

Rear setup with cooling



New MCS 2 Way Non-Remotes with Karcepts Spherical Top Hats. I wanted to go 2 way and MCS was the only company that I found that made 2 ways with no rear remotes which are extra points in my class. MCS is a NASA contingency sponsor and an American company that supports our community so it was a no brainer.

You need to double the factory torque on the alignment bolts if you run sticky tires. I had 2 seasons on my equipment so I installed all new OEM alignment equipment while I had stuff apart.

Karcepts is an excellent company to deal with! I got new Karcepts sways front and rear from Brian. He was super helpful all winter with my zillion questions. The setup he sells on his site is more oriented for autocross guys and his advertised rear goes from about Miata bar to OEM S2000 rear bar stiffness. He did a really thick rear bar at adjusts from slightly less then OEM to about double for me.

All together!

New Billman TCT went in. I did the Dremel fix on my worm gear before and it was ok for a year or so and started making noise. It wasn't holding pressure when I sent it to Billman so I lost my core charge. The new piece he sent me works great though.

I decided to refinish all the arms before the sphericals while I had them out. Two of them were bent very slightly so I replaced them.

Rebuilt OEM rears. One of mine were sticking so I just replaced both.


AC is nice in the pits but I decided to just declutter as much engine bay stuff as I could so I pulled it out.

Fatty Karcepts rear bar in.

I got a great deal from my NSX guy on a fully rebuilt AP2 trans that a customer didn't pay for. It was sitting around as a spare and even though my current one was working great, I decided to put the rebuilt one in just so I wouldn't possibly have any issues mid season and need to drop the trans.

While I was in there I replaced to the flywheel with a 8lbs ACT PROLITE, new OEM Throw Out Bearing, and new OEM clutch. My TOB and clutch were fine but seemed silly to not change while I was in there anyway.

Here is my cleaner version of the air dam I tested last season.


It came out nice better than my prototype version. Kinda ugly but it's effective.


I hate outsourcing tasks like alignments and wheel mounting on my car. It's a pain to drive or trailer the car to the shop for those things. I got some Paco alignment wheel stands and decided to just learn how to do my own alignment. These are handy to keep at the track incase you knock something out of alignment.



First drive after everything and it was great. Car felt awesome! I didn't go far because I didn't want to die on the street because of my roll cage.




Rear bumper cut and some corner balancing. It was way off with the new suspension so I'm glad I took the time to carefully do this.



I decided to add an oil pressure gauge and decided while I was in there I might as well just do water temp and oil temp. I mounted them out of sight on purpose but directly inline with my camera so I can review after. I installed an oil pressure warning light in my line of sight so I can immediately know if I have an issue. I didn't want my gauges right in front of my because I knew I would be distracted by them.



First day of testing at Summit went great! The car feels awesome.


Back home for the last week or so and thoroughly inspecting everything.


Also scored a set of Kosei for practice wheels on the forum for cheap.

There is so much more I did throughout the winter for maintenance that I didn't take pictures, Things like valve adjustment, new valve cover gaskets all around, rebuild the shifter, and a bunch of other small things were done. It was exhausting and I can honestly say I am burnt out from working on the car. I don't know how guys do massive custom builds and not get tired of wrenching. I do love to tinker but it was constant steady work which was 90% fun but at the end I was just over it. Hopefully it will all be worth it this season.

 

If anyone is following my thread for their own TT5 build, just know that you don't need to do all this extra stuff I did. The car come off the track as a winning car (1st place 12 out of 13 races). I won a ton contingency last season and had a blast doing so. I made the improvements because I like to tinker and make my car the best it can be. I also am preemptive on all my maintenance and take zero chances when it comes to safety. I don't like working on my car in the middle of the season so if I have something apart and I think it has the possibility of failing during the season, I just go ahead and change it in advance. You don't NEED the level of cooling I have for my brakes and engine. I go overkill on things because keeping stuff cool is the key to longevity. You don't need sphericals, high end shocks, crazy sway bars, etc. There are plenty of super fast guys winning on just Ohlins and the rest of that stuff stock.

I am going to the NASA Nationals this year and my goal is to not lose. I have some major life changes happening next year so I will either sell the car after that or just play in a little HPDE here and there in 2020 and beyond.

Oh and one last thing. The Nationals are at Mid-Ohio and I will only be able to go there twice at most before that event. I don't play video games, have no consoles, and have been an Apple guy since 2004. I built a cool little Windows PC to run iRacing in VR on max settings. I setup it up in a GT Omega Cockpit with all Fanatec CSL equipment. I've been trying to practice at least half hour a day and it's been fun. Our local NASA guys have a league and we practice on Monday nights and its been really helpful. I had to set this stuff up in the basement because my fiancé thinks I look like a total loser "playing my racing games in VR"!

 

Samed - met you briefly at VIR in October for the group S2000 photo. Thanks for this thread and all the great information. It's been a great resource as I move up the DE ladder and into TT soon.

I am curious - what made you go the MCS route away from AST? Was it simply the double adjustment functionality? Were there any reasons you didn't want to go with a custom Ohlins setup that everyone in the community seems to rave about?

Also - as you've been on this journey building the car, is there anything you wish you would've done differently? Anything you feel like you wish you would've known starting out?

Thanks,
Alec

 

Fantastic build thread! Lots of great ideas and lessons learned in here! Good luck on the upcoming season!

 

The valved Ohlins DFV are single adjustable. The higher end TTX have external reservoirs in the rear. The MCS 2 way non remotes were the only 2 way adjustable system for our cars without external reservoirs so I went with them.

I'm happy with the way I did things so no regrets. The jury is out if this latest round of major and expensive improvements will be worth it though. I'll report back after a few events.

 

I was wondering who scored the kosei wheels.

Do you happen to have a Dyno sheet of the MCS???

 

Yes but I won't be sharing that until the end of the season.