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Cheapo camber plates


cullen winter

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Thanks Ken, I'm just getting my engine back in the car, so I'm still a ways from budgeting suspension goodies. Starting to think about that next shopping spree, though. Were you able to get as much - camber as you need with those ? Does the pillowball still feel solid after the 25 ? Do they raise the ride height much ? Is that where you lost the spring travel, in lowering to compensate ? Cheers, Cullen

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Thanks Ken, I'm just getting my engine back in the car, so I'm still a ways from budgeting suspension goodies. Starting to think about that next shopping spree, though. Were you able to get as much - camber as you need with those ? Does the pillowball still feel solid after the 25 ? Do they raise the ride height much ? Is that where you lost the spring travel, in lowering to compensate ? Cheers, Cullen

 

Yes, we were able to get as much camber as we needed.

The pillowball still feels solid after the 25 Hours and looking at them from the top they look like new. My gut feeling is I'm not going to find much wear, if any on them.

Yes, they do raise the ride height (so will the first gen. GC plates) so you do have to compensate for them by adjusting the coil-over and lowering. After lowering, the yellow bump stop was almost touching the top of the Koni strut and the reason why we trimmed down the rubber bump stop.

The 25 hour car had 400 lb. coil-over front springs and non of the drivers remember the fronts bottoming out.

 

The 25 hour race was a proof of concept of parts for us.

We had access to Ground Control and Racers Edge camber plates but deliberately put on the cheaper camber plates to test.

 

We were also testing a $5 (yes, five dollars) A/C delete bracket. I'm writing a DIY page for the A/C delete bracket also.

 

All in the name of cheap racing research

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The alternator mounting is something I will anxiously await your how-to for. I have an idea for a cheap solution, but seeing something that has been "tested" will be most helpful. Where are you going to post your DIY ? Thanks

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Not too sure which GC plates you are referring to, but I have multiple sets installed of the "old style" flat plates and the upper spring seat is at least 1" higher than the plates in the photos. (The more expensive GC plates mount the damper upper point in the stock location by mounting on top of the strut area sheet metal.) The real advantage of the GC system is that the spring loads go into a torrington bearing, not the upper monoball. I have never replaced a GC monoball with this system. It also appears that these "cheapo plates" do not allow the plate to be slid back to maximize caster like the GC plates. More caster = Good on a 944! Greg F

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I'm either going to get the $300 ground control units or the Lindsey racing ones. I too have looked at the Mookeehs (made a post on Rennlist and there was one member who said they were terrible and had lots of problems - though it could have been installer error).

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Being that I just dropped $4.5k on goodies to finish my spec build, I picked up a set of the cheap ebay plates. The construction is a little better than I expected. We'll see how they hold up this season.

 

-bj

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I saw the cheap AC Delete plan. That is awesome. I'm all about the budget solutions! Unfortunately I had already got the Lindsey Racing bracket and short belt for Christmas....I'm glad Santa is tuned in to the 944 scene!

I'm going to just "happen" to have it in my car when I come up to Ken's warehouse next weekend....maybe.....ju-u-u-ust maybe there will be some NorCal folks interested in showing me how to install it. Heh heh...

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  • 2 months later...
I have run the flat paragon camber plates. These are the same as the Ground control flat plates. I have never seen one bend or break. This is not to mean they would never bend or break, but I have not seen it or heard of it on a 944 spec car with ANY camberplate.

 

I bent one

 

I dropped a wheel at my last trackday and hit the edge of the track hard. I thought I got away with just a bent wheel but I finally got the car up in the air for a closer look and I bent the camberplate as well. It is a flat Ground Control plate, the flat piece bent up pretty badly when the shock bottomed out. I doubt they will sell me just the passenger side or just the flat plate so I may end up getting the Racer's Edge plates. I think the extra travel from the Racer's Edge plates would have helped in my case but there are no guarantees it would have prevented the damage.

 

It looks like the new GC plates mount from the top from their pictures online. If this is the case I like the RE design better. I think a top mount design that isn't backed up by the strut mount sheetmetal would be less robust in incidents like mine (they'd probably fine though if you never drop a wheel ).

 

Do the RE plates use a torrington "thrust" bearing to support the weight of the car like the GC plates do?

 

Anyone got an extra passenger side GC plate laying around the garage?!

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I talked to Jay at Ground Control, he was very cool and is sending me out just the part I broke (the flat plate) for a very minimal cost. The part was on the shelf and they are shipping it to me today. It is really great that they offer this option, it is saving me a few hundred bucks . They race themselves so they know how to support other racers.

 

I asked about the new raised camberplates that they sell. He explained that they do attach from the bottom and that they offer some nice strut braces to go along with them. The braces attach directly to the camberplates so you don't need any extra brackets, this keeps the price of the strut brace cheap. This sounds like a really nice set-up.

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