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From YourSITE.com Technical Features Well it’s been over a year since we’ve posted a new segment on Project TT. Sometimes life simply gets in the way. That is not to say however, that things haven’t progressed on the car. We’ve been busy adding some creature comforts, but our main focus has shifted to improving the car for track use and that will be more apparent in future segments.
The DTM inspired valance is a direct replacement for the factory part and snaps into place using the factory clips. The look of the matte carbon fiber on the rear of the car really works well with the Brilliant Black paint color of Project TT. A big thank you once again to Eric at Supreme Power Parts for sourcing these OSIR parts for us. We have also made additions to the inside of the car as well. We were fortunate to source an aluminum Mantis Gauge Pod that fits in the stock ashtray location. It’s a beautifully made piece, but unfortunately is no longer available from the source. Every once in a while you’ll see one show up on EBay or the forum classifieds. While the Mantis was not the original gauge pod made to fit in the ashtray location, in our opinion it is the most complete package and the finish matches the existing interior aluminum bits the best. The Mantis was originally offered with either 52mm or 60mm gauge openings and there also was a Carbon Fiber version available. Luckily the one we found was a 52mm version which would match the Modshack vent ring we had installed for our 52mm Defi boost gauge. With two gauge holes to fill, we shouted out to Evan Dent at 42 Draft Designs and sourced a set of Stewart Warner gauges. We opted for the requisite 320F degree oil temperature gauge, and 100 psi oil pressure gauge. With the increased time on the track – we felt it was a good idea to monitor the life blood of our often abused 1.8T. We chose the SW gauges as we liked the style of the gauge, ability to change lighting color to either white or red using 42DD’s led kit, as well as their attractive pricing. While the gauges look great, we still haven’t made them functional, as our plans to install the sensors along with a oil cooler have been delayed. **image3:center*** Removing the ashtray for the Mantis install results in removal of the cigarette lighter which is integrated into the ashtray. This eliminates the only 12V power source in the car, which would leave us stranded when it comes to charging our phone or using our new Garmin Nuvi 650 GPS unit. Thanks to the many TT owners before us who have done this gauge pod modification, a simple addition of a new Audi 12V outlet on the passenger side trim panel on the center console rectifies this situation. We purchased the older style “closing” OEM 12v outlet directly from Audi. It’s part # 4B0 925 071a 6ps (black). We cut a hole in the passenger side trim panel and snapped in the new outlet. We then simply extended the factory wiring, plugged it in and it works perfectly. Since it’s an OEM part – the color matches perfectly and it looks like it has always been there. As I alluded to earlier, we also purchased a Garmin Nuvi 650 portable GPS to the car. Thanks to Steve at the Modshack, we added a black powder coated laser-cut GadgeTT V2 with a Garmin Nuvi “ball,” a direct mount for the Garmin unit. The V2 version mounts between the two center vents rings. There are numerous versions of the GadgeTT available offering a variety of mounts, everything from iPhones to gauges. You slide the vent rings out, slide them onto the V2 and then back in the dash. The GPS units mounts outward far enough to not black the view of the boost gauge of severely limit the flow of air out of the other vent. This mounting location is near perfect for both the driver and passenger to view the GPS unit, especially since it swivels easily. It also allows you to remove the unit quickly when not in use. As an added bonus, it also makes a great location to hang your sunglasses.
The Garmin Nuvi 650 could be considered a middle of the line product for Garmin. We chose this unit because it offered all the features we needed for a very reasonable price. The wide screen is nice and clear, it’s very easy to use and small enough to store in the tiny TT glove compartment. As with any consumer electronics, the newer units incorporate more features for the money, such as Bluetooth, but we are very happy with our purchase as it meets all our needs. With all the time we spent on track over the past couple years, we have done our fair share of running through the two most common consumables, tires and brake pads. We went through two sets of Stasis Engineering’s SBS ProTrack pads, seeing dual street and track use. While the ProTrack is ok for the street and occasional track use with street tires, SBS ProRace pads are really the compound to be using on the track, especially coupled with the sticky R-comp tires. We are currently on our second set of the Race pads and they are much better suited for high-speed track use. We swap them in the night before and out when we get home. By using the same pad manufacturer, we’re able to use the same set of rotors. Of course – they are showing signs of wear as well and will probably need to be replaced after the 2009 track season, which quite frankly is outstanding considering the amount of years on the street and days they have on the track. We are still using Ferodo DS 2500’s in the rear and in fact, finally replaced the first set we put in when we did the Stasis rear brake upgrade 3 years ago! We did get a fair amount of use out of our Hankook Z211 R-Comp tires, but they finally gave out and cords started showing on the outer edge on our 10th day of use. Since the Hankooks were no longer available, the search began for a replacement set of R-comps. We narrowed the search to the Toyo RA-1, Toyo R888, Nitto NT-01 and the BF Goodrich g-force R1’s. We had been running the stock 225/45/17 size on our track wheels. All but the Nitto’s were available in that size. All tires were available in 235/40/17 which is the size we wound up purchasing. After careful consideration, tons of research and hounding numerous people at the track, we opted for the Nitto NT-01’s. While the tread design is different, they are manufactured with the same compound as the R888’s while being almost $60 less a tire. We sourced them through our local America’s Tire (www.americastire.com) since they would match any price we found online and they could mount and balance them for us. While the Hankooks were a bit narrow for their size, the Nitto’s are a tad wide. They definitely fill up every inch of the 8” wide wheels. We ran them for 7 track days before the cords peaked through on the right front tire. These tires were considerably stickier than the Hankooks and also a bit noisier. In fact we had so much more rear grip due to the tires (and a bit more negative rear camber), we had to move the rear sway bar to a stiffer setting to eliminate the additional understeer we were getting on track. They also worked better with lower air pressure – about 38psi hot compared to the 40-42psi of the Hankooks. In looking at the remaining three tires, there was considerably tread left on the middle and inside of the tire and as luck would have it we were able to source a slightly used NT-01 so we can squeak out another day or two with this set. The edge wear concerned us though and it was not unexpected, as Nitto recommends camber settings of -2 degrees or more for these tires and we were running -1.3 degrees of camber and we are pretty much at the maximum limit of negative camber that we can get by adjusting the ball joints on the lower control arm of the car. In order to remedy this situation, we have ordered a set of Ground Control Camber plates. The camber plates replace the upper strut bush and bearing with an adjustable plate to move the shock to increase camber. We also had a bit of cupping associated with the outer edge wear and after further examination we noted that the rear bush in the lower control arms had failed to the point of needing replacement. This would be the third OEM MKII bush that we have gone through. We tried a couple solutions including Powerflex Poly bushes and H2sports Spherical Bearing conversion and opted for the latter. We’ll cover both the GC Camber plates and H2Sports Bearing conversion in a future Project TT segment along with some other track oriented modifications we’re in the process of installing. Rounding out our track based modifications was the purchase of a Stable Energies Harness Bar and a couple sets of Schroth harnesses. While the leather seats in Project TT look great – they don’t do a great job keeping you from sliding around in them on the track. Stable Energies (www.stablenergies.com) produces a bolt in harness bar that attaches to the frame of the TT at the rear upper seat pin locations. This provides the correct angle for the harnesses. It is designed to be left in all the time and allows the rear seat backs to be moved back and locked into place. We opt to install and remove the bar for each event – as we couldn’t load all our tires and equipment in the car with it in place. The bar is reasonably priced, and in fact we sponsored a group buy on Fourtitude.com with this item and ten lucky forum members took advantage of the 20% savings.
Now that we had the harness bar, we went shopping for harnesses. While there are a number of reputable harness makers out there, after looking at all our options – we chose the Schroth Profi II ASM 4 pt. harnesses with a rotary cam locking mechanism and snap in latch attachments for the belts. HMS Motorsport (www.hmsmotorsport.com) ) is the NA importer for Schroth so we went directly to the source for our purchase. The Profi II ASM’s are FIA approved, part of their Competition series and are designed as a four point system to use with your stock seats. However, it is also nice in that we can add a single or dual sub strap to make this belt into a 5 point or 6 point at any time or use this harness with a HANS device, if we choose to add a seat designed to accommodate these features. The Profi II ASM incorporates Schroth's ASM (Anti-SubMarining) technology. ASM is an extra fold of material sewn into the inboard shoulder belt that elongates at a different rate than the outboard belt. This allows your upper torso to twist slightly. On the rebound phase, your torso is planted firmly back in the seat rather than allowed to slide under the lap belt. Another feature unique to the Profi II Series lap belts is the "Flexi Belt". The end fittings and cam latches are wrapped into the harness, allowing you to change from a Pull Up configuration to a Pull Down for for your specific situation. It also allows for Bolt In brackets to be wrapped in for the lap belts if needed, as snap in brackets are standard. We purchased two sets of black harnesses, as Audi Club North America rules (as well as some of the other groups we run with) require that the driver and passenger use the same type of restraint systems. One of the benefits of purchasing through HMS was that they stock all the small mounting hardware pieces as well. We needed two eye bolts that mount on the outside of the seat and two mounting brackets for the inside. The eye bolts replace the bolts that attach the factory seatbelt to the floor. For the inside attachment, we selected the Schroth B23B bolt in brackets that can be bent to shape. One end bolts under the rearmost bolt that bolts the seat bracket to the floor and you snap the belt into a hole in the top of the other end. We also opted for a set of matching black Schroth harness pads. We were able to use all this equipment about midway thorough last years track season and into the first part of 2009. IMO, the harness bar and harnesses are a must. They keep you securely in place and definitely reduce fatigue. In future segments, we’ll comment on the modifications we’ve made to the front suspension, the addition of H2Sports spherical bearing kit for the front lower control arms and the addition of the Ground Control Camber plates. We will also report on our experiences with some other modifications that will help Project TT cope better with the track environment.
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