The previous log left front ARB blade testing open with a positive first read. The longer runs reversed it, and the rear got its first test ever. A9 remains the keeper: 1:12.018 best, 1:11.848 theoretical.
Front Blades Softer: Rejected
The hypothesis came from the seat: a slight-understeer signature at the hairpin, the 75 percent corner, and the chicane exit. Softer front blades are the manual's less-understeer step.
Garage note for the record: the blade pairs are one ordered softness ladder (2-3 to 2-2 to 2-1 to 1-5, softest), not per-side values.
Measured result, three steps softer (2-3 to 1-5), 8 valid laps:
- Best lap: 1:12.380.
- Theoretical: 1:12.263.
- S2 minima 19.41 and up, against 19.30-19.34 on the keeper.
Decision:
- Rejected. Lazier and slower by the seat, slower by the stopwatch.
- The understeer signature is not front-roll-stiffness-limited. Blades
returned to 2-3.
Rear ARB Stiffer: Rejected
The rear ARB had been on full soft (arm Position 1; positions run 1 longest/softest to 7 shortest/stiffest) since the fixed baseline, the one end of the car never tested. One step stiffer targets rotation and total roll stiffness at once.
Measured result, two sessions, 17 valid laps:
- Theoreticals: 1:12.027 and 1:12.243, against 1:11.902-1:11.978 on the
keeper references.
- The hairpin rotation gain was real: +5 km/h of apex speed, with the
zone faster than the keeper lap itself.
- Every loaded corner after the hairpin paid it back: 0.15-0.30 per lap
lost from hairpin exit to the line. S1 never came within 0.18 of its same-platform best across 11 laps.
Decision:
- Rejected. Rear arm returns to Position 1.
Method Note
The first short rear-ARB session read as promising on best-of-each-zone stitching across different laps. That method flatters a setup that is good somewhere and bad elsewhere; the integrated laps never arrived. Session aggregates and full laps decide verdicts. Zone bests only diagnose where to look.
Current State
- Nine controlled tests have now tried to beat A9 and lost, every verdict
with seat and telemetry agreeing.
- The keeper's full-soft ARBs at both ends are measured, not assumed.
- Sector bests on the keeper platform stitch to 1:11.795.
- Garage61 leaderboard position: P3.
- Open, in order: coast ramp (never varied), dampers (never varied),
clutch friction faces, toe.