Sorry, we couldn’t line up anyone for the alignment in a timely fashion to make yesterday’s OTD. I am kind of glad though in hind sight because at least in Austin it rained pretty much all day. I know College Station got some rain as well.

I am scheduled to have the “proto type III” arms installed this coming Tuesday, get all the measurements done, and get the car aligned. Hopefully I can take a few “bumpy” laps at Harris Hill afterword’s depending on time. We start at 10am. The good news is that I can keep them on and test them at the next PDS TWS HPD event weekend on June 15th – 16th. So baring any rain, I can get a good feel on how they respond. Truthfully, anything is better than stock. :driving: I am totally confident they will be everything I could hope for and have been praying for for the last 3 years. I will take pictures of the arms on Tuesday and post them.

That’s it for this second. We are almost at the finish line I believe. :happydance:

Cheers.

:happydance: Hope you get to just keep it, period.

:iagree:

Well I did get the new (what I call the ) Proto III arms installed. We took every measurement possible I believe. Everything went smoothly and the car has a new alignment as well. I will post those specs. I am hoping they work great. I am not going to post new pictures since they look just like the old arms but I will show you what it looks like installed on the Nismo.

I am headed to TWS next weekend for their DE so I will give them a full shakeout (baring any rain) and that should be it. Since I will be instructing, I will drive more sessions and push them hard. As far as I am concerned, SPL should be ready to sell them to one and all. I am stoked. :tiphat:

which tuesday?

I was gonna bump this thread last night but decided to stop stalking this for once, glad that there's progress.

I see you went from 5deg caster to 7deg caster. Why the big change?

I don't know enough about the exact numbers (or suspension in general, probably), but my general feeling has been that my car's going to need some more caster as well. Supposedly more caster = more dynamic camber, so that your static, straight-line camber can be a little less aggressive (= better accel/brake performance on straights) and dynamically increases by a greater percentage when you lay into a corner.

More positive caster gives you more hight speed stability. Less positive caster gives you more agility, quicker turn in. In a nut shell.

Even going by that rule of thumb, it still seems like more caster would be nice. The car turns in amazingly, but sometimes high-speed braking is slightly squirmy (very minor steering corrections to keep it straight).

Are these things done yet?????? Aaagghhhh!!!!!

Disregard the before measurements – we had been doing a lot of testing before we hooked up the alignment machine. We actually could only get 4.3 caster (which was the setup I tested) in the proto II’s. That is one reason SPL wanted to redesign/refine the arms one more time. Now I am up to 7.0 and can go higher if I want to. I am curious to find out if I have any snap over steer issues with this setup. We shall see.

We also could only get -3.5 of camber on the proto II’s (which was a major issue) and now we stopped measuring after -6.0 degrees. I mean, come on, who would run more than that amount of camber? I kept the camber setting at -3.0 since I still have a total stock Nismo suspension system. When I get around to upgrading, I am sure I will move to -3.5 degrees - and add more caster as well.

To answer Rusty’s question, wstar is spot on - I want more caster for turn in and with having more caster it will actually increase my camber on turn in (another reason to leave the initial setup at -3.0). As you know, the faster you get into and out of a corner the faster your lap times are. I just hope the car doesn’t turn into a snap over steer pig like it was with the OEM staggered Advant Sport tire setup. :shakes head:

To answer RN SHRRK – these bad boys are installed and ready to go. Read my earlier post above. I will be tracking them at TWS this weekend. We will be going CW so I should get a really good feel on how they respond. I want to try to get x10 30 minute sessions in but since I will be instructing, that might not be possible. The good news is the weather looks to be great so it should be a dry sticky track. I am stoked. :happydance:

I truly believe these arms are ready for prime time and I told Sean at SPL that 2 weeks ago but he is waiting on my report back after this weekend to decide if that is true or not. :tiphat:

Don’t kill the messenger here. It is not my decision. Remember, I have been pushing these folks for 3 years to produce these and I am just glad I am the guinea pig testing them. I am just the tester here!!!!! :yum: I would like to think I had a part in them finally making them. :hello:

Will let you all know next week how it went. I have my fingers crossed. :driving:

As far as I am concerned we are definitely in the home stretch. :happydance:

If you want to see pictures go to the first page of this thread. They are pictures of the proto II's but the proto III's look identical. :tiphat:

This guy would: Crazy Insane VIP car in Japan

:)