Originally posted by owequitit
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Wheel lock is generally not an issue on track unless the surface is compromised from moisture, dirt/debris that someone has brought on track or automotive fluids. Wheel lock is very dependent on tire friction; sticky 200TW tires require a lot of force to lock once they are heated up, pedal modulation is key and having wider range of braking torque available allows for more precision in the amount of braking being applied.
I have found during the pad bedding process that the rear brakes do tend to lock up before the front brakes, this is likely a common occurrence as people tend to refer to that kind of scenario as an indication of brake proportioning. It actually is due to weight transfer; when the car is in "daily driving" mode I turn the dampers adjustment to full soft front and rear which allows for very abrupt weight transfer to the front in panic/brake bedding levels of brake engagement which causes the rear brakes to lock up because the rear wheels are suddenly carrying less weight. This would also be very likely to happen on a stock or worn suspension setup. On track the dampers are set to be much more firm to slow the weight transfer to the front of the car which allows the rear to maintain traction and avoid locking the rear brakes.
The car feels ok on track, I have not fully dialed in the alignment yet. I intentionally have it set up to be "safer" and rely on understeer at the limit instead of trying to coax the rear to rotate. Once I get a better alignment setup, I will probably try to dial in more rear rotation. It is very clear that the car is quite heavy compared to EK hatches, newer Civic Si's and Miatas and the longish wheelbase keeps the car from being overly nimble with the benefit being that it is more stable.
To that end, one of the last backordered parts, Hard Race roll center adjusters finally arrived. These would have had an effect on the demeanor of the front end and how the weight transfers laterally. I had a machine shop replace the wheel bearings and I installed the RCAs with balljoint kit. Hopefully most of the suspension setup is ok for a while. The old wheel bearings were allowing a bit of play as I noticed when disassembling the front end, the previous overheating must have really caused them to start to fail prematurely. The old bearings were also not OEM parts which might also be a factor.
Wheel Bearings

Roll Center Adjusters

Roll Center Adjusters Installed

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