The Hothatch Diaries

Admittedly, it was almost a year ago when Mika Häkkinen won the DTM race at the Eurospeedway Lausitz. The rubber he and his competitors layed down there in May 2007 has probably long been washed away by the heavy rain that often frequents the region of Lausitz. But you never know, there just might be a few ounces of Häkkinen’s slicks left somewhere in the pores of the tarmac. If so, I had them underneath my Toyos last weekend – and, frankly, I didn’t give a toss. I was more concerned with other things.

The Lausitzring is a full-blown FIA approved race track with several different configurations. At certain dates throughout the year there are Speeddays and it is open for the public in the evenings. And a couple of times per year the Speeddays run from morning till evening, as was the case last saturday and sunday. Anybody with a drivers licence and a street-legal car (or motorbike) can just show up there and take fifteen-minute turns around the 4.5 kilometer Grand Prix circuit.

I went there on saturday and sunday, which was not what I had planned, as it’s a one and a half hour drive from home. I was initially only going to go there on saturday, but when I arrived, the weather had turned grim and it was about to start raining. No big deal, usually, but I was on semi slicks and felt it was not such a great idea to have my first outing on unknown suspension and unknown tyres on an unknown track in the wet. Still, I got in line for one turn before the rain would pick up and made it back to the paddock safely, if not exactly fast. The rain had just started when I was waiting in the pit lane and the track was still dry when the light turned green. By the end of the turn, the track was damp and slowly got wetter. The uniform greyness of the sky left no doubt that it was only going to get worse. So that was pretty much it for the day. I hung out there a little longer with some Honda drivers one of which and his Integra Type R I knew from the Spreewaldring forum but had never met in real life. It was a nice bunch but after a while the cold and the rain got to us and I went home rather dissatisfied.

I returned on sunday to make up for it. This time it stayed dry and apart from the ITR driver there were also a couple of other guys from the STC, namely the driver of the green Celica previously mentioned and the driver of a black Opel Speedster. It was a fun day and although I only took two turns driving and one as a passenger in the Celica, I had a good chance to evaluate my new setup.

It’s a little hard to draw a comparison to the standard setup, because I had never been to this track on it, but first impressions are good overall. Body roll seems indeed reduced by a fair bit and the Toyos certainly do seem to give a lot more grip under power on track-out. How much more grip there really is, especially on turn-in and through the turns, I can’t say just yet. The Lausitzring is just so different to the Spreewaldring. Most corners are much faster (which is great, of course) and the track is a lot wider overall with large run-off zones and thus gives a totally different feel. What I can say for sure, though, is that the sidewalls of the Toyo R888 is much, much stiffer than the one of the Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 I was using previously. I didn’t fully explore the limits of the Toyo, but considering that I have virtually no negative camber on the front, I see it as a good sign that the sidewall remained unscathed. Still, I will need camber bolts or dampers that give some negative camber by design to evenly wear the Toyos and to maximize grip in the turns.

I feel there’s no need for any analysis of my driving this weekend, as I see all three turns basically as shake-down laps to get to know the track and the new setup a little. I still had a blast – despite the fact that there were some numb nuts around who were obviously suffering from impulse control disorder. Here’s a video with a couple of laps from saturday and sunday:

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Only on the last run did I start to push a little harder (there’s no video footage available as I again screwed up when trying to turn on the camera). But my attempts were hampered by a disconcerting hopping and juddering under hard left cornering. I’ve always had this and attributed it first to the tyres. When it didn’t change with different tyres, I figured it might be due to the soft suspension. But now, with the Eibach springs and the stiffer Toyos it’s still there, so it must be something else. What exactly, I have no idea, I just know that it keeps me from cornering hard. I basically can’t get any kind of slip angle in left turns. As soon as I exceed a certain speed and a certain steering angle, the car starts to judder and I have to let off. It doesn’t feel healthy at all.

Next Speeddays on the Lausitzring are scheduled for May 20th, and from the 3rd of June on the track will be open to the public almost every tuesday evening. Which means I’ll have several chances to run over Ralf Schumacher’s DTM-rubber this year. I’m really looking forward to that.

As mentioned before, I had gotten the Eibach Pro System for my Clio. And it’s not that I didn’t have doubts when I ordered the Eibach Pro System if it would really fit. In fact, I knew the system consisting of dampers and springs was not listed for the Clio 172 on the Eibach website. Unlike at the shop I bought them from. Being the pessimist that I am, I tried to make sure beforehand which information was correct by asking the supplier. They were quick to answer and promised to ask Eibach directly about it. Sure enough Eibach supposedly informed them that the pro system would fit my car no problem. So I went ahead and ordered. Big mistake.

The dampers do not fit. They’re obviously fine for all Clios except the Sport version. The lower spring cup is somehow shaped differently on the Eibach and is missing the stop lug for the spring. We ignored this minor problem at first and tried to fit it anyway. Only to find out that the bolt holes in the damper bracket are only 12 mm while the bolts are 14 mm. That was a slightly unpleasent hit. Bummer.

I called my supplier, and after discussing the option of widening the holes with a drill, I decided that it would be best to just fit the springs for now and send back the dampers. The idea of losing material on the brackets and the risk of not drilling precise enough didn’t really appeal to me. So it’s only pro springs for now and the promise of getting a good deal on different dampers later on.

After that was sorted, getting the springs on the car was a quick job. We also put the track wheels on and although it was getting rather late, headed off to the TÜV (sort of like the German equivalent to the british MOT but with way tighter regulations) to get the springs, the rims and the new tyre size registered (yes, all those things have to be TÜV-approved to be road legal). It was too late however, and there were four cars waiting in front of us. So no luck there. On the way back from the TÜV, we already noticed, that the tyres were rubbing slightly on the rear arches. No big deal, really, but an assidious TÜV-Inspector – which most are – would probably not have passed us. I drove home with the new wheels on the car anyway. And got everything TÜVed on tuesday thanks to a not so assidious inspector.

I can’t really say how the changes affect the handling, yet. But the ride does seem firmer while not being harsh at all. So that is a good sign. Especially considering that the Toyo R888 is a semi slick and thus should be less forgiving due to the stiffer sidewall. There also seems to be less body roll and the steering is more responsive around the middle. The latter will be mostly due to the semis, while the former can be attributed in large part to the springs and a little to the wider track provided by the offset of 37 on the OZ F1s as opposed to 48.5 on stock rims. So that’s plus 23 mm front and rear. A final verdict will have to wait till after the next outing on the track, but things are looking promising. Except for the rubbing. But that will hopefully mostly sort itself out once the tyre has shaved off the plastic bits it catches. If not, it shouldn’t be hard to rectify.

Did I mention that I was going to get a proper set of track wheels for the Clio? I think I did. Well, here they are! OZ Racing F1’s with Toyo Proxes R888. Dimensions are 7Jx15 for the OZ’s and 205/50 R15 for the Toyos. Rims are not exactly mint, but they’re round. And it’s still a handsome wheel, if you ask me. Can’t wait to see them on the car and trying them out on the track. They’ll probably come on next monday along with the Eibach Pro-kit. And first chance coming, I’ll be heading to the Spreewaldring: