793 replies to this topic

[turbotoaster]

new side skirts made, will make longer vertical wear strips down to 40mm from the ground once i have the final chassis ride height sorted(which i think is going to be 85/115)

 

[CHILL Gone DUTCH]

Have you raided the kids large jigsaw pieces Lol Good to see you back on track

[turbotoaster]

my mate bought me 10 full sets for my birthday earlier in the year so that we could set up somewhere to work in the pits, they worked out cheaper buying multicolour than buying plain black ones, make life easier when working on the car, still lying on the floor under the car today when its cold and wet isnt fun

[turbotoaster]

painted and mounted both sides, rain stopped any further play



Pulled the carbon panel from the mould, was a little dry in some areas so added some extra resin and will leave overnight, tomorrow i will start on the second piece to make the splitter sandwich

[Graeme Lambert]

similar to that, but will be alot more effective though with what im doing with it.  

More effective? Didn't that car spend time in a proper wind tunnel?

[fiveoclock]

When do you plan to have the car finished and ready to go on a track as you need as much time as you can get in the driving seat before you drive it in anger. Dont take this the wrong way but unless you spend time in the drivers seat you are not going to get the maximum benefit from all this work you are doing.

I considered selling my VX and racing an Integra but I havent as I know my VX inside out, feel part of it when I drive it and I know exactly how it reacts. I didnt think there was enough time to feel as comfortable with a new car as I do the VX with the time available before the season starts. Irrespective of budget you need seat time and preferably on test days and not track days. 

[Zoobeef]

Mark talks mucho sense. Haven't you only now ever done 2 trackdays and half a time attack day? Just get in it and drive it! Each hour in the seat will take more off your time before next season than any carbon.

[turbotoaster]

 

similar to that, but will be alot more effective though with what im doing with it.  

More effective? Didn't that car spend time in a proper wind tunnel?

 

 

I have the info from the what happened in the wind tunnel and also speaking to the owner, so I know what works and what doesnt, hence some of the things are a direct copy of that and other parts are an improvement so should yield better results.

 

 

When do you plan to have the car finished and ready to go on a track as you need as much time as you can get in the driving seat before you drive it in anger. Dont take this the wrong way but unless you spend time in the drivers seat you are not going to get the maximum benefit from all this work you are doing.

I considered selling my VX and racing an Integra but I havent as I know my VX inside out, feel part of it when I drive it and I know exactly how it reacts. I didnt think there was enough time to feel as comfortable with a new car as I do the VX with the time available before the season starts. Irrespective of budget you need seat time and preferably on test days and not track days. 

 

Well im hoping to have the aero all done within the next couple of weeks, then just need to nip it over to phoenix motorsport to check over the everything at the front end to make sure nothings bent that ive missed and then its free to go on the circuit.

 

Ideally I want to ensure the weather is dry before I get back on circuit as I would like to test everything out without the issues of a damp track, especially as I plan to do it cadwell so i am at least dialed into the circuit a little before the first event. the car could go on circuit next week if i wanted it to, but again i dont want to be going to a track day with change able conditions.

 

I know i need to learn to drive the car fast in the rain as there isnt a chance that the entire season will be dry, but would prefer more time in the car before that happens.

 

I thought you couldnt do test days without having a full race licence and arnt they alot more expensive than a track day?

[fiveoclock]

Yes you need at least a National B for test days. On average test days are twice the price of track days. Your first event is at Cadwell? Have you driven there before? If your first event is at Cadwell then you need as much time there as possible beforehand and I dont mean one trackday setting the car up. You need to get lots of seat time with the car bang on in the wet and the dry so you are fully prepared for what the day may throw at you. Dont be put off by a wet track and therefore look upon a it as a negative, Get the mindset that its just a different experience. Oh and FFS be careful at Cadwell

[Mangham54]

I'd go so far as to suggest getting some tuition, particularly at Cadwell as it is a circuit where you get get some corners spectacularly wrong (either speed or wall). They will also be able to help you identify things that are unsettling the car and help you maintain progress. Both Jimmy and Cliffie can really pedal a car, but both benefitted enormously from tuition. I remember Jimmy having some tuition at Snetterton the day before competiting and coming back to say how he had to upset the car in one corner to get it setup for the following one, which meant he carried much more speed through the pair.

[Baron Von Scubadaddy]

I fell off at cadwell !!!!!!!  BEWARE THE GOOSE NECK !!!!!!!!!!

[turbotoaster]

yes, cadwell is not really the perfect place to have my next TA day, but thats the way the championship is set out, I would have prefered somewhere like snetterton really.

 

Second skin of the splitter is coming along well, dont think im going to get any any dry patches on this one and ive also resin infused a piece of kevlar band aswell and will bond it to the front of my splitter to protect the leading edge if it bottoms out under braking, Also the excess carbon spare ive put on the leading edge as that will generally be the place that will be stressed the most, just need to layup some extra carbon onto my crash structure now to add some strength as i have noticed a little bit of flex in it when alot of stress is added one the centre section.

[CHILL Gone DUTCH]

What are the major changes you have made for time attack Good to see you making progress

[turbotoaster]

the major changes have been my splitter and my rear wing.

 

with regard to my splitter, i set the old one 200mm from the front edge of the clam but then kept it square to maximise surface area, so on the outer edges my splitter was in theory over 400mm from the chin, so ive lost around 50% of my surface area of the front exposed section, which has obviously hurt.

 

To try and counteract against that i have fitted a motorsport from splitter which is circa 25mm deeper than the standard exige one to try and pull at least some of the leading edge back, this means ive only lost about 25mm from the centre front edge of the splitter and obviously more as it wraps around the chin(i can only go 150mm from the chin)

 

The chin also sits lower than the exige one by 35mm, so infact below the chassis height, what im expecting from his is that I will gain some of that lost downforce by creating a larger pressure differential as the splitter will sit lower than the old one, the downside of it will i need to set the car up against grounding out the splitter under braking as it will starve the diffuser and loose rear downforce. Because the chassis height and the splitter are different heights ive also 'diffused' the sections together at 8 degrees to help the frontal section of the splitter to work more efficiently, this front diffuser is the full width of the car plus 150mm each side so should be fairly effective. I have also widened the sections between the front wheels as wide as I can to ensure as much low pressure air as possible will reach the diffuser, this centre section will also have vertical skirts to keep turbulent wheel air out of this.

 

The rear wing has hurt quite alot.

 

I have had to shorten the wing by 50mm, also lower the wing height by 200mm and move the wing forward by 150mm, as you can imagine that will have had a dramatic effect on the wings effectiveness as it will now mean the low pressure side of the wing will be sucking on the clam rather than doing its primary function, so to pull this downforce back I will need to run a more aggressive wing angle which will hurt overall drag, this also reduces any potential interaction between the wing and the diffuser. I have also had to shorten my diffuser by about 150mm.

 

I think thats about everything

[turbotoaster]

second piece came out of the mould, much better this time with no dry spots



also resin infused a piece of kevlar to stick on the leading edge of the splitter to handle some of the abuse of scrapping

[turbotoaster]

Decided to make a start on mounting my new rear wing, so to get my head around where it should be I started cutting up my old uprights to get it in the correct position

 

These are only rough but will work as a template for the holes, I will make the next set follow the contours of the bodywork better

 

I havent decided what to make my uprights from, I am thinking carbon or maybe 10mm ali with a few holes to lighten it.

 

You can see compared to my old pics how much lower it sits!

 

 

Also threw on a end plate on so i can work out what style of new end plate I will make for this wing

 

[Baron Von Scubadaddy]

I love the fence to keep the punters away !!!!

[chris_uk]

much better height, cant you move it rearwards any more?

[turbotoaster]

I love the fence to keep the punters away !!!!

 

Its for keeping my 2yr old from running off with my spanners

 

much better height, cant you move it rearwards any more?

 

Nope, not allowed more than 150mm from the bodywork, the picture without the end plate is 200mm, the endplate version is 150mm, ive basically maxed out every measurement I can.

[turbotoaster]

New wing endplates made, because......well when it comes to aero what did you expect of me.