The shocks were an easy part of the build, no drama or anything overly complex.


I just got home from my first outing at England Park Raceway, car in kit build form was a mix of good and bad, nothing I did not expect though from a new model.

Our track is bumpy these days, so really everything was just too stiff, so really I need thinner shock oil and maybe some purples on the front, and maybe on the rear.

What was frustrating, was severe lack of turn in, maybe from lack of front end grip or other, actually softened the front bar by moving out the links (though you can't go out more than 2mm from flush), and stiffened the back by pushing in 2mm (though moved that back to flush for the final).
But, neither fully worked, and in the end my pit man to the stars (thanks Trev) did a quick wind of the steering links before a heat and about 5mm total toe out made the car driveable.

But I was fighting the car most the day, so I'll have to find ways to give the car that turn in and front grip I want, I'm looking at the Rob and Fuk setups right now, and I see raised front roll centres (on Robs), inward shock mounting (on both), and larger piston hole options on both, also softer shock oils in each and softer springs, a lot of which makes sense to me now.


On the up side, considering the overdriving I had to do to get it round the track, it was forgiving in a sense, and the driveline efficiency is there in droves, the car was surprisingly fast with my N12T1 engine, it has good roll and seems to put every ounce of power to the track with a lot less loss than I felt on my 4.
It also took a relative beating (it's only my second outing in open/pro touring), so some taps and tumbles, yet nothing broke, got to look a little closer into the two speed as it drifted a bit during the day, but 4x 5min heats, and a 20min final and all gears look almost as good as new, no signs of stripping etc.