Lauren's GT86 100K miles and onwards

[will300 812]

You should be thanking me and @Ade for those brakes. So much better than the stock ones.

[Lauren 2259]

1 hour ago, will300 said:

You should be thanking me and @Ade for those brakes. So much better than the stock ones.

Thank you Will and Ade. Love you long time. 

But in all seriousness thanks for the link to Reyland, it just made it that much more affordable.

[Lowe 191]

7 hours ago, GT86Jay said:

They look awesome! Will be mega on track.

 

As for Lowe point of the pins. Just copper grease the pins whenever they come out. Mine seem to have been fine after 3 years of abuse. 

 

Yeah but to be fair 3 years is nothing. Mine were 10+ years old

[Stutopia 158]

Nice upgrades, I’d be really interested to see what these shave off your lap times, then how they stack up pound for pound versus other mods you’ve done in the time shaving stakes.

If I was a betting man, I’d guess tyres > brakes > suspension > NA tuning maybe?

[Lauren 2259]

Well, we'll see at the TSS next year as I'm very consistent with time, so it will be easy to note any differences. I think it will help a bit at the TSS, though my primary reason was so I could enjoy the car more at track days and hopefully have more consistent and longer lasting brakes after a few laps. I would like to go back to Spa again where I think it will really pay dividends. It is nice to simply have better brakes on the road though. They feel absolutely lovely,  I must say.  

I would say tyres, suspension, brakes, NA Tuning. However, what is clear is that I have a very well sorted car indeed now. Years of thinking of what to do rather than just throwing mods at it are paying off. Richard says it's the best GT86 he's driven and he's driven a few.

[Ade 517]

Thank you Will and Ade. Love you long time.  But in all seriousness thanks for the link to Reyland, it just made it that much more affordable.

 

Will asked me about brakes before he got his and I suggested Reyland. At the time I think reyland only had the old cp5200 caliper kit. Will didnt like to look of the old cp5200 so I suggested the new cp9200 which was a direct replacement including mounting holes and hardware, so Reyland wOuldnt even need to redesign the mounting bracket ect. After will bought his kit I think it appeared on their website.  

I was in contact with guestmead (uk ap distributor) and Peter Collen of AP about a year before that new forged cp9200 caliper was released. The kit you have is the one I was going to go for, but with racing disc with more cooling vanes, but in the end I saw an old Impreza Ap kit come up on ebay for silly cheap and so bought that got it refurbished.

 

The standard ap 332x26mm offering is deigned to fit behind the stock wheels but both the caliper and discs are inferior. Price to pay to get it behind the skinny stock wheels.

 

That kit is very very tight too. They had to design a thinner version of their cp6600 and use a 26mm wide disc, so im 99.9% sure this kit wont fit the stock rims without spacers.

 

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[Lauren 2259]

I can't vouch for stock rims, but there is simply tons of room around the diameter and also from the spokes on my wheels which are 17x8. 

I didn't realise the involvement that you and Will had. Cool stuff.

Edited November 19, 2017 by Lauren

[Rich196 103]

You should love this kit Lauren, same as mine all be it I have got floating discs and harsher pads. My favourite things about the car now isnt the charger, its the way it stops. First track day with them on WOW. Braking points can be far more consistent and later.

[Lauren 2259]

I cant wait to try it out Rich. Only a a bit over two weeks to go before I'm next on track.

I've got a 1 litre Fabia to drive around in at the moment whilst my car has gone off to the bodyshop for some remedial repairs. Missing the brakes and of course the car already! 

[Lauren 2259]

Well, I finally got to do a track day after my December date was snowed off, without any actual snow. So I rebooked for the 27th January. It seemed a long way off at that point. The good news was that I could get my rear discs and pads refreshed as I knew that there wasn't a lot left of the Project Mu's on the rear. The discs looked pretty bad too. From the feedback I got the pads were in a bad way. 

Naturally all this coincided with my 110K service just to make it a bit more expensive. I went for OEM disc and matching Ferodo DS2500 pads for the rear. I got them for £125 online.  Still good to get it done and I was now absolutely ready for a day at Oulton Park. I was only joined by one other GT86, which was Neal's and he was having a whole day of tuition, so it almost felt lonely there for a time. The day started off wet, got a lot wetter then dried but unfortunately for me, it never completely dried so I couldn't give the brakes a real full test that I wanted to. 

Obligatory pic after a bit of lapping in the paddock at Oulton:

Oulton Park Jan 2018 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

And what the wheels look like after a 160 mile work out round Oulton! 

Oulton Park Jan 2018 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

It was a really good day and was just so quiet out on track, particularly in the afternoon. I took advantage of this and what I noticed about the brakes in comparison to how they were before on stock calipers is that the brakes were strong and simply consistent. It didn't matter how many laps I did they worked the same on lap five as they did on lap one. And it was just brilliant to have the confidence, well reassurance to brake as hard as you liked, lap after lap and there was just no change. Neal was out on stock brakes apart from PFC pads and his were smoking. He had to come in to let the brakes cool as he was getting fade. This was an issue I knew well till I fitted the AP four pots. I've come to the conclusion that going for a decent front caliper/disc setup is the only real way to cure this issue. 

I think this was why I ended up doing 160 miles on track. Think it's about the most I've ever done, but the car took it well and I had a great time. A fair few friends to turned up to come for hot laps and well, I did a few!

I did notice though that the car was whining at the rear a bit, well I thought it was the diff, which was worrying, but a trip down to RRG and after taking Gary out for a spin, he was not happy that I slid the car on a roundabout, accidentally on purpose of course! But he and Richard correctly diagnosed a rear wheel bearing. So the car was back a couple of weeks later and my bank account was relieved of £450 as I needed a new rear set of tyres as well. After having to shell out insurance for the year as well, it's been a rather expensive four weeks costing me around £1750 what with insurance, service, wheel bearing, discs and pads and a pair of tyres. 

On both occasions my car was in, Richard lent me his GT86 CS demonstrator. It's nice not to have to drive a Yaris courtesy car as it makes getting back into my own car rather less of a shock. The demonstrator has only 5K mile on the clock and it is quieter and more refined than my car, a nice place to be really. It doesn't feel as sharp and the engine whilst eager enough obviously feels like it doesn't have quite the power and definitely not the torque of my car. Whenever I borrow it, I just drive it ten miles home then back to RRG after they've got my car ready and I always forget how loud that cold start is. So glad I've got mine mapped out now. 

Dealer demo and my car by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

And finally my car ready for collection from last week when the wheel bearing was done:

Dealer demo and my car by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

I'm hoping for a cheaper March! 

 

[Lauren 2259]

Oh yes, forgot to add, had the geo done again in January. This was because it was set with 15 seconds of toe out on the rear. Whilst it made the car a lot of fun, I think it was losing me time on the sprints and I must admit, it was a tad lairy at times on the roads. 

So, opted for a little bit of toe in on the rear. 

Geo January 2018 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

[Neal 111]

Don't know why it's taken me so long to read your thread.  Great info.  You honestly think the only way to truly cure the over heating brakes is a BBK I have another 4 days with Jack booked plus the sprints and hopefully a couple of club track days so will be giving the brakes some real punishment.

Found some DBA discs which should be a big help as they have been designed for the Australian 86 race series and have already uprated the fluids after a chat with Gary.

[Lauren 2259]

27 minutes ago, Neal said:

Don't know why it's taken me so long to read your thread.  Great info.  You honestly think the only way to truly cure the over heating brakes is a BBK I have another 4 days with Jack booked plus the sprints and hopefully a couple of club track days so will be giving the brakes some real punishment.

Found some DBA discs which should be a big help as they have been designed for the Australian 86 race series and have already uprated the fluids after a chat with Gary.

Well, the BBK thing certainly really sorts it out once and for all. I think you can make improvements to the stock setup with better pads and discs or maybe running much harder pads for the track, but then it may be too much for the road with stuff like Carbotechs. They'll squeal like a bastard. If you do shorter sessions and go a bit easier on the brakes that will help but ultimately a decent BBK is the solution really I think. 

[TTR 509]

Just now, Lauren said:

Well, the BBK thing certainly really sorts it out once and for all. I think you can make improvements to the stock setup with better pads and discs or maybe running much harder pads for the track, but then it may be too much for the road with stuff like Carbotechs. They'll squeal like a bastard. If you do shorter sessions and go a bit easier on the brakes that will help but ultimately a decent BBK is the solution really I think. 

Not to mention with the more aggressive pad setups, you'll eventually completely kill your stock calipers. 

[Test Drives Unlimited 278]

I just read your whole Blog Lauren and was very interesting reading but now gives me to many ideas

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[Kodename47 446]

4 hours ago, TTR said:

Not to mention with the more aggressive pad setups, you'll eventually completely kill your stock calipers. 

Unless you sort out proper ventilation. The issue is that a decent solution for brake cooling is expensive and not easy to route.

[Lauren 2259]

With my recent back problems, I tried a sprint at Cadwell last week and whilst I really enjoyed it, I had to retire early as it was aggravating my back. The problem is that you simply move around too much in the seat and use your back muscles to keep you in place. So I thought I'd invest in a harness. I don't want a harness bar, so I've bought this one which attaches the shoulder strap to the rear seat belt mounting below the C-Pillar: 

https://www.schrothracing.com/products/rallye-belts#1576

Hopefully this will do the trick. I just need to install it, but I will probably have to take it to RRG to do as I had a quick go, but I literally have no patience or skill or will anymore to do anything myself and I couldn't work out how to get the interior panels off over the C Pillar to get to it. Also it looks like the seat may need to come out to get access to bolt the lap belts on. But I've got till the 19th May to get it fitted so there is time yet! A huge thanks to Maurice for sending me a set of shoulder pads he had.  

[KevinA 695]

Can do it with seat in just a bit fiddly, Gary will breeze it.

[八六車 24]

It's surprising easy to access, fold the rear seat down and pull the side cover away from where the seat is. The rear seat belt bolt is accessed from below. I took the clip off which sits just under the original rear seat to make the gap bigger for the two belts then fed the harness over the top of the rear belt after bending the bracket up slightly to give clearance. Bolted the seat belt back into place and pushed the trim back into place. For the fixing at the side of the seat I just undone the bolts in the seat rails, tilted the seat forward and put a block of wood under the rail so I could access the seat belt bolts. All would have been done in about 20 mins if I didn't drop the rear seat belt bolt and have to left the rear seat up to get it back! Either way if you don't fancy it yourself it's not difficult so should cost a lot in labour.

[Lauren 2259]

Cheers for that, Si. Mark is going to have a go for me. Now I've realised you access the seat belt bolt from underneath I now know I had already done it right initially by pulling that side panel out of the way. I couldn't quite get a good enough view (trying to be kind to my back) of the bolt and went about trying to pull the C-pillar trim off to try and get access from the top which was a bit of a game and I got stuck with it. 

[Carver 16]

Lauren,

Was just looking at your 2018 geo set up to get some ideas. I know you’re using the ‘Lauren’ spring rates but can you tell me what front and rear ride you run?

Thanks

[Lauren 2259]

@Carver do you mean what spring rates I use? 5/6kg. Or something else?

[Carver 16]

Sorry. It’s the ride height I’m curious about. 

[Lauren 2259]

1 minute ago, Carver said:

Sorry. It’s the ride height I’m curious about. 

I can't remember. I'd have to measure it. 

[Carver 16]

No worries Lauren.