I’ve been wondering why my AW11 feels so heavy. I don’t mean that the clutch is heavier/lighter or the steering needs some muscle when standing still. The car just doesn’t feel agile.
I’ve driven Maladar’s K11, which feels really nimble, I’ve driven my own corolla which does roll a lot but still is happy to turn around the corners and lately thoron’s Nissan P11-144, which is both heavy and big car and it still has this nice feeling.
(Thoron broke his accelerator leg couple of weeks ago, so I’ve been driving his Nissan and working parttime as his personal driver) 😀
I’ve considered the possibility of too much unsprung weight affecting the feeling. I have to check how much heavier the SSR’s are, compared to my BBS’s and Widrics ultralight TE37’s.
When driving around, I can feel how the SSR’s do make the car more stable if going over 80km/h. I suspect this has something to do with the rotational mass and the gyroscopic effect, like how the rotating object doesn’t want to change the direction.
If the heavy feeling doesn’t change with the wheels, I have examine the the suspension setting. I’m pretty certain that my modest toe-in and camber settings have nothing to do with this, so I’m suspecting the caster angle.
If I remember correctly, the rear caster angle was left as it was. Front caster was added about one degree from 6 to 7. I read from somewhere that the AW11 could benefit from more caster, but now I think I have to dig deeper into this.
Other things I can think about the feeling are the sway bars. Front swaybar has one damaged bushing (the clamp is bit bent) which needs some attention. Maybe stiffer swaybars later?
Then the Roll Center Adjusters. Do I need these? How will these affect the overall feeling? TechnoToyTuning has a nice set just for AW11. At least, they should help a bit with the bump steering.
Other things I haven’t done yet:
Rear brakes need to be rebuilt and new discs and pads installed. Already have these. From Dixcel.
Then the AEM EMS 30-1110 for supra. I cheked the pinout and as far as I can tell, there shouldn’t be much twiddling with the wires. Injectors are in different place and the ISCV (Idle Speed Control Valve) has four wires on supra.
Larger crank pulley.
Such demands!
I demand updates from Malta! 😀
Last time I drove a german car… I think it was that S350 Merc. It had so much electronics affecting the driving that it nearly drove itself, but still it didn’t have this kind of feeling. I still have to say, the heavy feeling I get is like driving a huge car. Something way bigger than AW11. I have to test this faster driving. I have to think about the whole Kemora thing.
From your description of heavy, I got a feeling some people call this phenomena as stable (compare to European cars, especially Germans). Like I told you, drive faster and you start to get the same responsivenes as you get from my K11. take it for a spin around Kemora next time we go out to race 🙂
It isn’t just the steering feeling, it is the overall feeling, like driving a 5m long grand tourer car. it’s funny, I can’t describe the problem well enough. I’ll try to find out what it is 🙂 Hmm, the gearknob should be here just anyday now… I think Maladar ordered it couple of days ago. 🙂 I’ll try to keep the car on the road for while, so only minor changes and updates as irregularly as usual 😀 I’ll ask Widric if he could borrow his TE37’s for a experiment (he has R888’s on ’em) and then I’ll post some… Read more »