Most liked posts in thread: The Phoenix - The GP Roadster Project

I'm not very good with details :arf:

 

What Chris said. My favorite thing to do is insane twisties in the mountains. I'll also do lots of track days... But they're just training for the mountains. And up there, I want a really wide effective RPM band with linear torque delivery. Think third gear on the Dragon. That's what the TVS is all about.

 

I spent a few hours on it today, but most of that was "learning".

Now that I know what I'm doing, toe is quick and easy. And I won't mess with camber often. That's quick and easy in the rear. Front is a pain because I haven't cut my new strut towers, so I have to drop the struts to adjust camber, then put it back together and see what I got. But with the lift everything else is pretty easy. Lift, adjust, drop, roll, measure. Repeat as needed.

Since the front and rear track on the MINI is almost exactly the same, you can get toe very close by eyeballing it. Lock the steering wheel straight, eyeball down the side of the front wheel, line up the leading and trailing edges of the tire at the level of the hub... and zero toe would mean that this pretty much perfectly lines up with the rear tire. It's very obvious when it's toed in or out, when you look at it this way.

Use a long straightedge (like a straight board) to line up against a front or rear wheel, and extend it toward the other end of the car. Also makes toe apparent.

I also have a level with a laser built in. Put it on the rotor horizontally and shoot the laser toward the other end of the car. With zero toe, it should hit the tire the at a spot even with the same height off the rotor. On the front, I use this to visually the impact of tie rod adjustments. Get it even and close to zero on both sides, then use the toe plates and tape measures to fine tune it.

With the new suspension, there's minimal droop with the car lifted, so there's very little change in toe and camber between sitting on the ground and up on the lift.

Now that I have things in the right ballpark on the rear, by adjusting the trailing arm sliding pivot, I can do fine tuning of toe with the adjustable upper control arms. Shouldn't have to mess with the pivots again.

 

The GP wheels came with Michelin all seasons. Those are now my winter wheels.

I'll be ordering new summer wheels & tires soon.

 

Good idea. I'll start a thread for that.