The conclusion of my winter suspension maintenance: 2.44kg of sprung, and 1.01kg of unsprung weight saved. I wouldn't normally go in to such small detail, but when a maintenance job is required I will take the opportunity to optimise or improve whatever parts are involved.
Wheel uprights machined to Challenge spec
Challenge car uprights undergo two modifications:
1) Rear handbrake caliper/front vertical acceleration sensor mounting bosses are milled off;
2) Brake cooling vents machined out.
A road-going F430 requires both handbrake caliper/front vertical acceleration mounts, so I opted to machine the brake cooling vents to save a little bit of unsprung weight.
Standard (360/430) upright:
My uprights (16/Scuderia) after machining:
Refurbished and rebuilt front arms with Scuderia flanblocs
I have in stock each type of flanbloc to investigate their construction and weight. My findings are below:
I sent my arms via courier to AV Engineering to be built up. Great communication throughout - it's nice dealing with someone whom you can trust to do the job well. New HE ball joints, and Scuderia flanblocs.
New CCM discs
Thanks to my friend Gary I have a set of new front & rear CCMs to go on. These won't save any further weight - the fronts were quite worn but I'd put off changing them because the bite is really good, the downside being that they ate pads! Challenge discs are bed-in during manufacture, which is nice.
Hubs rebuilt with bespoke titanium spindles
I've covered these in a previous update, but these are fitted after being hard anodised.
Camber shims replaced with aluminium spacers
As a general guide, the following applies:
Front + 1 mm shim = -0.20 to -0.25 degrees of camber.
Rear + 1 mm shim = -0.30 to -0.40 degrees of camber.
Removing front UCA washers = -0.6 to -0.7 degrees of camber.
Removing rear UCA washers = -0.5 to -0.6 degrees of camber.
I've removed the upper RCA washers
(top right in photo) to gain some camber, and based on that I ran the calcs for my new ride height to determine the thickness of shims F&R, and used that to have a set of aluminium spacers machined
(top left in raw form, and bottom left with etch primer). The weight soon adds up with the steel shims
(bottom right) when chasing a more focused camber configuration - I've saved a shade under half a kg for very little outlay.
Vertical acceleration sensor hardware
Titanium and aluminium fasteners used to save a few grams.
Wheel upright rear cover plate
I remade these in carbon, used lightweight fastenings, and lightweight cable management clips. 338 grams of unsprung weight saved.
Calibration optimisation
AV Engineering have my ECUs:
360Trev has been undertaking some great work on the Bosch ECUs, and he has discovered many improvements. AV and Trev have teamed up to offer an electronics service, and I can't wait to get these back and in the car: even though my car in its current form is quicker than the 06 F430 I owned, it still lacks some of the punch that car had. I'm quietly confident that Trev can produce some magic.
Weight Saving Total
Unsprung weight saved: 21.59 kg
Sprung weight saved: 111.86 kg
Total weight saved: 133.45 kg
