You are almost there. There is still one little detail what you could miss in the Stage 0 ECU remap. The devil is details, and this one can give you another +20% performance increase!
Mystery of worn tires
In my humble beginning, my tires screamed in every turn. It was partially my fault because every beginner comes too hot into a corner, and then desperately tries to stay on the road.
Don’t worry, we all do it…in the beginning we aren’t concerned with details, and we simply want just fun.
Of course, you start to worry when you pay every 2000 km for a set of tires. My latest suspension setup, and my favorite tires, is €500 fun for ~10,000 km.
There was a time when I swapped tires three times per year… Imagine you buy the usual cheap shit everybody buys – in my case it would be fifteen sets of tires per year, and €3300, gone.
Still think three sets of the best tires on the market (worth €1500) is expensive?
I had regularly worn tires in a shape of A…inside and outside shoulders worn to the base layer with little profile left in the middle. Tire pressure optimal, static geometry ok.
We did static geometry checks many times…nothing. Family cars, even so-called sport cars, were not designed for spirited driving but for deadly comfort and feeling of safety.
Always the last place you look
I didn’t know why till I started to use Powerflex bushes. Everything starts to make sense once you experience the racing-like suspension.
Normal car users wanna wide tires, high-performance engine, aerodynamics, but the most important parts are ignored…when accident happens, it is called “unlucky”. There are no accidents, just ignorance/arrogance 😉
Check out the image below, that is what you most likely have in your car as well. Are you ready to enter the Valhalla?
Cheapest 20% performance upgrade
With worn control arm bushes, your tire travels 10 mm in all directions and do not stick to the road as it suppose to. Combined with usually worn dampers. It is a deadly combination.
Seriously, check your bushes right now and replace them at least with PowerFlex Road Series purple bushes…if you are a spirited driver. I drove on dirt roads, rough tarmac, and used to wreck stock bushes every year (30,000 km).
Don’t fool yourself in believing the usual roads do not wear suspension bushes…it is just a cheap rubber for deadly comfort. Be honest, how many of you do annual thorough inspection of car, test dampers? None, fix it when it breaks is usual mentality.
I do not do it either because I swap every consumable for maintenance-free, high-quality parts that last at least one durability cycle of 200,000 km.
Stock replacement bushes for all wheels cost like €100 + labor costs (done by HR mechanics in about 12 hours and ~ €200). The Powerflex is ~ €300, and lasts at least 100k km – it means €100/year (so far because bushes are still like new after almost 5 years) without 2 days/year time loss in garage.
I have used purple ones on my previous car, Skoda Fabia HR II, and they are still there after 80k km of heavy abuse. No weird tire wear, tire sticks to the surface as suppose to.
Hilda, with rally suspension, enjoys PowerFlex Black Series bushes. Those bushes survived 105k km of racing-style abuse without any issues.
Seriously, it will save you money and your life in the long term because the quality is cheap.
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