4350 replies to this topic

[Scuffers]

Jesus, that Elise looks like its had a blank cheque book thrown at it! As a matter of interest what has it had spent on it from being a basic Elise ?

that's pretty disingenuous...

 

Get real, how much do you think I car with significantly higher specification and performance to a current Ferrari 458GT3 or Porsche cup R GT3 is going to cost you? (consider that both of these are well over half a million Euro cars).

 

also, you really need to remember that the base Exige costs close to £40K when it was new some 13 years ago....

 

Obviously since then it's had extensive work done on it, but it;s by no means been a throw money at it job, we are running this car on almost zero budget, and compared to the Ex. WRC cars and the like we are competing against, we are probably less than a quarter of their respective spends.

 

to put hard numbers to this, I did a 1:23.094 at the weekend, compare this with British GT's last visit to Croft, where the fastest lap of the weekend was Alan Simonsen (probably THE top GT driver on the planet at the moment) in a Ferrari 430 GT3 was a 1:23.019 - and, I have not driven Croft for 9 years, got zero testing done in the car or at the cct before hand, with no setup work, and I am not in the same league as Alan Simonsen driving wise.

 

We have been very well looked after by our sponsors too, if we had to pay for the dampers they would have been some £5+K a set, same with all the other sponsors, from Eliseparts, Pro-Alloy, etc to Turbo Dynamics, Torque developments, etc. 

 

quite simply put, without their help, we just could not do this, in much the same way Mike has got his suspension and brakes upgraded with the generous  sponsorship of VX220parts.com.

 

I keep seeing posts about how this and that are better/faster/cheaper/etc. but the simple facts of the matter are, results is what counts, and you only have to look at Mike's weekend to understand this, he had gone up into the Pro-Classes from running in Club last year, and yet is now leading the class and looking down the barrel of two strikes for being so close to the Pro 4WD class ahead, and much as I am sure Mike deserves credit for a lot of this, quite simply without the parts/setup/help from VX220Parts.com, he would not be in this position.

[darronwall]

 

Jesus, that Elise looks like its had a blank cheque book thrown at it! As a matter of interest what has it had spent on it from being a basic Elise ?

that's pretty disingenuous...

 

Get real, how much do you think I car with significantly higher specification and performance to a current Ferrari 458GT3 or Porsche cup R GT3 is going to cost you? (consider that both of these are well over half a million Euro cars).

 

also, you really need to remember that the base Exige costs close to £40K when it was new some 13 years ago....

 

Obviously since then it's had extensive work done on it, but it;s by no means been a throw money at it job, we are running this car on almost zero budget, and compared to the Ex. WRC cars and the like we are competing against, we are probably less than a quarter of their respective spends.

 

to put hard numbers to this, I did a 1:23.094 at the weekend, compare this with British GT's last visit to Croft, where the fastest lap of the weekend was Alan Simonsen (probably THE top GT driver on the planet at the moment) in a Ferrari 430 GT3 was a 1:23.019 - and, I have not driven Croft for 9 years, got zero testing done in the car or at the cct before hand, with no setup work, and I am not in the same league as Alan Simonsen driving wise.

 

We have been very well looked after by our sponsors too, if we had to pay for the dampers they would have been some £5+K a set, same with all the other sponsors, from Eliseparts, Pro-Alloy, etc to Turbo Dynamics, Torque developments, etc. 

 

quite simply put, without their help, we just could not do this, in much the same way Mike has got his suspension and brakes upgraded with the generous  sponsorship of VX220parts.com.

 

I keep seeing posts about how this and that are better/faster/cheaper/etc. but the simple facts of the matter are, results is what counts, and you only have to look at Mike's weekend to understand this, he had gone up into the Pro-Classes from running in Club last year, and yet is now leading the class and looking down the barrel of two strikes for being so close to the Pro 4WD class ahead, and much as I am sure Mike deserves credit for a lot of this, quite simply without the parts/setup/help from VX220Parts.com, he would not be in this position.

 

on a lighter note,who the very fcuk wants wear "vx220" cufflinks???

[cnrandall]

With all due Scruffy, a 2007 F430 GT3 wouldn't be able to hold a candle to a current car, they would be 5+ secs a lap quicker around a track like Croft and they can carry on doing that for 24 hours on the trot.  

 

That said, can Jamie's car beat a current GT3 over a lap?  I recon it stands a pretty good chance and from a power/weight perspective it really ought to.  

 

What is hard to articulate is that the Lotus isn't actually a great car to start with and it takes some quite serious work to get the outright pace out of one.  They may be light but they have a pretty ugly weight distribution, very little surface area to create aero load from, tiny wheels/tyres, naff all room to put things like engines and gearboxes or radiators to deal with increased power and inadequate suspension.  The likes of Ferrari, Porsche, BMW etc have fantastic designers and a sh*t ton of money to invest in their products and it shows.  Lotus don't!

 

What you guys are doing is certainly very interesting, but debating the spend is really quite ridiculous.  If Jamie reaches his goals for his car within his budget then he is onto a winner and fair play to him.  In the same breath, there are plenty of people who have enough money to get value from investing in a £350K GT3 car because its a versatile tool to use across the globe in current GT racing, nationally and Internationally.

[Nev]

Jesus, that Elise looks like its had a blank cheque book thrown at it! As a matter of interest what has it had spent on it from being a basic Elise ?

that's pretty disingenuous...   Get real, how much do you think I car with significantly higher specification and performance to a current Ferrari 458GT3 or Porsche cup R GT3 is going to cost you? (consider that both of these are well over half a million Euro cars).

Disingenuous? I was asking a question based on the fact that it looks like (from the FaceBook pics I saw) a bespoke setup with lots of non OEM bits. As I know almost nothing about the car, the question was entirely genuine. I was wondering/curious how the spend on it compared to others in the VX community (such as my build).

Edited by Nev, 14 May 2013 - 04:58 PM.

[Scuffers]

would argue 5 seconds, looking at cct they have done both in 2007 and 2013 like oulton park, it's more like 4 secs over a longer lap.... realistically, i would suggest maybe 3 at croft for a current 458, that would mean an ultimate pace of maybe a 1:20 lap.. and given the two sessions i lost, i reckon that's doable in Jamie's car.

[chris_uk]

 

Jesus, that Elise looks like its had a blank cheque book thrown at it! As a matter of interest what has it had spent on it from being a basic Elise ?

 

Scuffs

 

 

 

in fairness tho scuffs, your (jamies) car cant seem to do a full day without something going wrong so comparing that to a GT3 car which can run a 24hr at where ever with practically zero problems shows the difference. 

[Scuffers]

 

 

in fairness tho scuffs, your (jamies) car cant seem to do a full day without something going wrong so comparing that to a GT3 car which can run a 24hr at where ever with practically zero problems shows the difference. 

 

what?

 

are you trying to be funny or something?

 

may I remind you that we got stopped by a battery cutout, something that had worked on the car for the few years without problem, and that 6 days before the car was dam near burned to the ground, frankly  I am amazed we got there and managed to run how we did.

 

I have also run Elise's in 24 hour races before (and finished them).

 

I guess your going to tell me you could do better?

[leevx2.2]

Here we go again come on boys lets not go down this road . I think personally the work that has gone into Jamie's car is epic great great car just a bad bit of luck lately.

Edited by leevx2.2, 14 May 2013 - 05:40 PM.

[Scuffers]

 

 

Jesus, that Elise looks like its had a blank cheque book thrown at it! As a matter of interest what has it had spent on it from being a basic Elise ?

that's pretty disingenuous...   Get real, how much do you think I car with significantly higher specification and performance to a current Ferrari 458GT3 or Porsche cup R GT3 is going to cost you? (consider that both of these are well over half a million Euro cars).

 

Disingenuous? I was asking a question based on the fact that it looks like (from the FaceBook pics I saw) a bespoke setup with lots of non OEM bits. As I know almost nothing about the car, the question was entirely genuine. I was wondering/curious how the spend on it compared to others in the VX community (such as my build).

 

yea, right...

 

so, just how much is a new Lotus Exige V6 Cup R then? (with only 350Hp and over 1,000Kg's)

 

Look, if your going to go on about how much, may I suggest you need a bit of a reality check of what stuff costs. 

[cnrandall]

would argue 5 seconds, looking at cct they have done both in 2007 and 2013 like oulton park, it's more like 4 secs over a longer lap....

realistically, i would suggest maybe 3 at croft for a current 458, that would mean an ultimate pace of maybe a 1:20 lap.. and given the two sessions i lost, i reckon that's doable in Jamie's car.

 

Oulton 2013 pole was 1:34.5 http://www.tsl-timin...t&tabletype=gif

Oulton 2007 pole 1:41.6 http://www.tsl-timin...07/71405bgt.pdf

 

Very hard to compare times though, different conditions, levels of rubber on the track etc.  I was at Brands at the weekend and pole was only a 1:29, last year it was a 1:26 for a similar car... the track was just slow.

 

If you can get your head around the aero and find a balance and a setup that works you'll get the lap times... you need testing time with the car.

[J4EY D]

Here we go again come on boys lets not go down this road . I think personally the work that has gone into Jamie's car is epic great great car just a bad bit of luck latterly .

We should be united against the Jap cars... Not arguing amongst ourselves.

[cnrandall]

 

Here we go again come on boys lets not go down this road . I think personally the work that has gone into Jamie's car is epic great great car just a bad bit of luck latterly .

We should be united against the Jap cars... Not arguing amongst ourselves.

 

 

The japs have made some great cars!  Remember Jamie's car is rice powered.

[J4EY D]

 

Here we go again come on boys lets not go down this road . I think personally the work that has gone into Jamie's car is epic great great car just a bad bit of luck latterly .

We should be united against the Jap cars... Not arguing amongst ourselves.  

  The japs have made some great cars!  Remember Jamie's car is rice powered.

Good point... Damn you

[leevx2.2]

 

Here we go again come on boys lets not go down this road . I think personally the work that has gone into Jamie's car is epic great great car just a bad bit of luck latterly .

We should be united against the Jap cars... Not arguing amongst ourselves.  

  The japs have made some great cars!  Remember Jamie's car is rice powered.

Personally I don't care what make of car it is I am no badge snob after all I own a Vauxhall lol

[cnrandall]

Prancing Griffin 

[Mike (Cliffie)]

Chill Simon, Nev meant no harm in his post. Jammies car is quick, there is no arguing that and compared to some of the spends in Time Attack, it is a very cheap car. Jamie is not one of those cheque book racers that can just throw money at something till he wins; he has worked hard over many years to get that car to where it is now. This ties in nicely with your point Randy, there is a nameless competitor in Time Attack that can do this and instead of developing a car, just buys one and he has a genuine GT3 race car which he runs on slicks. Both Simon and I stuffed him at Croft. Also consider the S2000 in my class, that build way outstrips Jamies and eclipses mine yet we both beat that as well. Suffers is right when he talks about my car this year, I would not be where I am without the ep tuning bits and vx220.com support an whilst I have never been to Croft before and based on Umar and Darrons times I reckon we are 6 seconds quicker than we would have been with last years set up.

Edited by Cliffie, 14 May 2013 - 05:57 PM.

[cnrandall]

You have made a huge jump Mike.  A year ago your times were comparable to LOTRDC class A and looking back you were basically on a par with my old Class C LOT car when I was last there and that wasn't hanging about.  Fair play mate!

[Nev]

Jesus, that Elise looks like its had a blank cheque book thrown at it! As a matter of interest what has it had spent on it from being a basic Elise ?

that's pretty disingenuous...   Get real, how much do you think I car with significantly higher specification and performance to a current Ferrari 458GT3 or Porsche cup R GT3 is going to cost you? (consider that both of these are well over half a million Euro cars).

Disingenuous? I was asking a question based on the fact that it looks like (from the FaceBook pics I saw) a bespoke setup with lots of non OEM bits. As I know almost nothing about the car, the question was entirely genuine. I was wondering/curious how the spend on it compared to others in the VX community (such as my build).

yea, right...   so, just how much is a new Lotus Exige V6 Cup R then? (with only 350Hp and over 1,000Kg's)   Look, if your going to go on about how much, may I suggest you need a bit of a reality check of what stuff costs.

I am asking a simple question, there is no need to show all this unnecessary paranoia. If you don't want to say because you think it's private then fair enough, just say so instead of making out I have some sort of hidden agenda or that I am clueless about the cost of modding a car.

Edited by Nev, 14 May 2013 - 06:10 PM.

[JimmyJamJerusalem]

Scuff's you're a punchy git mind, fair play  

 

Massive congrats getting the car sorted though and unlucky on the day with the cutoff, I was loving the prospect of our chassis taking the top spot once again but not meant to be this time, I was watching the live timing waiting for your lap times, thought you'd had your transponder nobbled. 

 

That TVR looks immense in your 'buggered' vid, loved it when it locked up though!

 

Personally I don't resent the teams with big budgets etc, I loved rocking up with my tatty VX on a little trailer and competing on a shoe string.  Makes it much more of a buzz when you win.  We need the budget boys in the series though to attract interest and build Time Attack.  It's gaining in notoriety every year now  

[chris_uk]

    in fairness tho scuffs, your (jamies) car cant seem to do a full day without something going wrong so comparing that to a GT3 car which can run a 24hr at where ever with practically zero problems shows the difference.   

what?   are you trying to be funny or something?   may I remind you that we got stopped by a battery cutout, something that had worked on the car for the few years without problem, and that 6 days before the car was dam near burned to the ground, frankly  I am amazed we got there and managed to run how we did.   I have also run Elise's in 24 hour races before (and finished them).   I guess your going to tell me you could do better?

No no no, i could never do better even if i wanted to, Im not denying the work gone into the car, i said that to your face and jamies on sat its amazing what you got done given the time scale. But look at the facts. You went home early at cadwell so didnt compete in the final, you also didnt finish crofts final. Aswell as that you had a fire so 3 times its being on track its failed due to whatever, fair enough the cut off is minor but what i was getting at is when you pay for a car like a gt3 ferrari you dont expect failures like the ones your experiencing. End of the day your car has been on track for what?... 10 hours maybe more, maybe less and already all this has gone wrong.. Now i wouldnt expect that from a ferrari id payed £200,000 for.. Now please dont take this the wrong way (but you probably have) im not saying that your car is rubbish or anything, and problems like you have experienced do happen when you create something unknown and new but just because its faster on 1 lap of a track does not mean the gt3 ferrari is over priced, sh*t, not worth the money etc, what you get is 1,000,000's of £'s in R&D and testing so problems like yours dont pop up. Its like saying my car can do 180mph (i know it cant) and a ferrari can only do 175mph, even tho my car is faster that day i know which car id rather be in.