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High Downforce eclipse body kit, gauging interest

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Do you have a datalogger on the car? It would be fun to compare lat accel data at various different speeds to really see the aero working.
 
So I put up one video in another thread, but let me say:
1) my driving is terrible here in this clip. I'm way early on brakes into turns, way late on throttle out of turns, sometimes completely wrong on the apex, and not even going WOT a lot of times when I could (uphill esses and back straight are two cases of that). It wasn't that I didn't know how to drive the line (well, I'm rusty but I know how to drive this track generally) but that I was still learning the car and feeling it out. Brakes were the most questionable hence me going easy on them, especially when coming up on the yellow Mustang.
2 It's the first time out on the track with the car the way it is. I'm very much in testing mode hence my hesitation to push to the limit.
3) I had the car detuned probably around the 320-330whp range by dropping the boost. I'm trying to save the trans so I can test in two weeks for my time trial license, after which the new built trans will arrive from TMZ Performance in time for the UTCC where I'll go back to max power.

With all those excuses, here it is. I don't think the video shows too much, but you can see I pulled about a 2:20 second lap here, which is what I was turning without trying and the lazy/safe driving all weekend. I'm pretty sure I had 2:15 in there when I didn't have to slow down for someone but I didn't have my camera on. On this course anything 2:20 or faster is moving, and I had all the issues above (careful/sloppy driving), plus had to pass a guy. So the car's got potential for lots more speed. We'll see as I head back there next weekend.

SVT Superfest May 25-27 2012 - Eclipse GSX - YouTube

Sorry for the radar detector cable dangling. Feel free to laugh at my wipers :) Only time I did that all weekend...

I don't own a datalogger, so I have no data for anyone.
 
Sick video! Next in order, Outside of cockpit video of some of this beast while driving! When I hit the jackpot, I am going to order this kit in full CF if the boys are up for it! And try to convince someone to make a full 2GB CF shell! Okay the second part is more of a joke, but if I could find a place to do it, I'd be all over it!
 
Here's some exterior footage of my car from Hyperfest last weekend. Taken by WillRaceForBeer (thanks man!).

Hyperfest 2012 - HPDE 3 Eclipse GSX - YouTube

Car was de-tuned even more than at VIR as I was experiencing a miss that I now believe (or hoping) to be excessive oil in the intake system from blow-by that Greengoblin and Calan are helping with. You'll even see some smoke in some of the footage from the oil Also blew an exhaust mani to turbo gasket and even discovered my exhaust mani had a crack in the collector area. Yay for racing I'm still also really taking it easy in most of the footage as I haven't been on this track in a looooong time and was still re-learning the course. So I gave folks plenty of space and just eased through the track safely.
 
I have been thinking on this for a few months now, and figured I would just ask/make a suggestion to Drew.

As I understand the agreement, replacement body parts can be made for those who bought the kit originally, meaning the molds still exists. And the reason you didn't want to make more was because you didn't want to get into the "body kit" industry.

To get a full understanding of the situation, you wanted to make the molds to help the community (and at the risk of sounding.. belittling) and perhaps you wanted to be able to make molds for your own car without having to put up the thousands of dollars yourself. Its a smart idea, if that at all crossed your mind, 2 for 1! :p

However, I have a suggestion for you to consider. I have read you are on a "shoelace" budget, like most DSMers. If you are really out to help the DSM platform on the road course and your contribution was this body kit, what if at the end of a race seaon, and before the following year, you made 5 more body kits available for sale?

Applicants would need to provide a prevoius years track schedule so you know you are helping racing DSMers. The off season they are able to install the kit, and you are able to make few hundred for your own build the following season. Even if you race for only a few more years and provided the kit for 5 more years (25 more kits), you are still within a pretty small handful of DSMers who have it.

Both parties gain something for the following season, win win? :sneaky:







Its been bugging me how awsome the kit is and how I missed it in my down time, and perhaps this is just me being insanely jealous, but.. I needed to get it off my chest and know at least you considered it.

Thanks.
 
Atuca,

Dont worry nothing you said offended me or anything. Well I tried to make it clear in the beginning that the purpose of the original deal was to break even on the molding process and make back the costs of having molds. I had heavy prototype pieces before and wanted to finish up the rear aero. Yah I had my motivations, they were like I said though I want to give a gift to the community to share what I developed and I wanted to break even on the huge cost of manufacturing a body. I only wanted to do that to the point that the project was done and my reasons for that are personal but I will try to explain

My current work schedule is beyond insanity. its equivalent to 2 and sometimes 3 full time jobs. When I sell a body, I dont just sell it and say here you go. This body is special and you need to install it right and have everything right or it wont work. My customers need to be special people and be supported specially it takes hours and hours of my time at unpredictable intervals that interrupts my other work. There is a personal cost for selling these bodies and frankly, its way more than the profit, so at this point in my life it doesnt make financial sense for me to sell more.

The other thing last but not least is that, the more of these are floating around the more likely it is to be copied and that would really piss me off. I like the way it is now, there are a handful of hardcore enthusiasts dedicated to these cars and I can support them. This design process was a labor of love for me. I would charge a customer some absurd amount of money to go through this process. There was so much development time, track testing, revising, rethinking. It means a lot more to me than money.

Really you have to build your car around this aero package and if people run around with it just slapped on it wont work well and that would be like a crime to me. Means way more than the money.

I run my business pretty touchy feely. I like my customers they like me. I consider my friends my customers and my customers my friends. When they have trouble I try to respond promptly unless Im at the track or in a wind tunnel somewhere, I know they are in a pinch. I just dont do things half assed so if I cant 100% do something right I prefer not to do it.

Atuca said:
I have been thinking on this for a few months now, and figured I would just ask/make a suggestion to Drew.

As I understand the agreement, replacement body parts can be made for those who bought the kit originally, meaning the molds still exists. And the reason you didn't want to make more was because you didn't want to get into the "body kit" industry.

To get a full understanding of the situation, you wanted to make the molds to help the community (and at the risk of sounding.. belittling) and perhaps you wanted to be able to make molds for your own car without having to put up the thousands of dollars yourself. Its a smart idea, if that at all crossed your mind, 2 for 1! :p

However, I have a suggestion for you to consider. I have read you are on a "shoelace" budget, like most DSMers. If you are really out to help the DSM platform on the road course and your contribution was this body kit, what if at the end of a race seaon, and before the following year, you made 5 more body kits available for sale?

Applicants would need to provide a prevoius years track schedule so you know you are helping racing DSMers. The off season they are able to install the kit, and you are able to make few hundred for your own build the following season. Even if you race for only a few more years and provided the kit for 5 more years (25 more kits), you are still within a pretty small handful of DSMers who have it.

Both parties gain something for the following season, win win? :sneaky:







Its been bugging me how awsome the kit is and how I missed it in my down time, and perhaps this is just me being insanely jealous, but.. I needed to get it off my chest and know at least you considered it.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Well here's my dilema then:

You've spent 100s or some other countless amount of hours. So your design has become a form to be copied, or at a minimum, a body form to be referenced for others (and I) who wants to design a bodykit to do the same thing as yours.

Since I don't have the time or understanding to create my own body design, I am left researching and designing a "one of" completely based off your kit. Then comes the fact while I am not creating a mold and physically copying your kit, I am still left with very little other option and end up with a "one of" that is based off yours.

So would that make me terrible for relying on your design and copying it from home, or smart for not relying on your kit and having to worry about taking your time ect if I bought one from you? Its a moral dilema for me because I want the kit for all it is good for (or any other kit if it could do the same thing), but I don't want to be reguraded as a "bad man". I am basicly willing/wanting to go about it either way (copying or buying) at some point in the future and there ARE NO other kits to copy/buy or base a one of off of. So I end up with wanting a kit that looks like yours basicly because I have no other choice (or again as stated, the ability to create another from scratch).

Wether or not I am actually able to pull it off is a whole nother issue, but these are the things that have gone through my mind for the last few months.

Your response above was just about exactly what I expected you to say, so no feelings where hurt on this side; I understand what you are, a racer :)
 
Perhaps what you should be asking Andrew is:
Can I copy your kit?
or
Would you sell me a kit with the understanding that you will provide no support for it?

If it helps, I will gladly take the time to answer Atuca's questions about assembly of the kit (should Andrew sell one to him) to the best of my ability.
 
Putting it bluntly, that is more or less the only question I can ask. If he is not selling aymore kits because he cannot support them, copying Andrew's is the only way left to achieve the same results of the kit, as there is nothing else out there to buy or copy.

As he doesn't want it copied, I am left with little option. Out of respect for Andrew and the DSM community, I wouldn't copy the kit simpily because at the end of the day, anytime anyone saw my kit they would know it is a knock off, and likely not as functional as a kit designed by Andrew originally anyways. Thats what I meant by moral delima: I want the kit and would do just about anything to have one. Which copying would be moraly wrong, although in my mind I have considered it (albeit I have never even touched fiberglass so doing it would be impossible for me)

In the end, I am left to pout. As stated earlier, I only asked out of an insane amount of jealousy. There is no denying that. And maybe that is a good thing.

Something can't be special and rare if everyone has it.
 
I think it would be a dick move to copy it. If someone were to blatantly copy it and start selling body kits I would think Andrew would have good justification for a lawsuit. In an ideal world I would love to fab up a body kit for my GSX but at the same time it would look nothing like Andrew's kit and since I do not have the aerodynamicst experience he does it sure as hell wouldn't function like his.
 
Andrew Brilliant pushing the Nemo Racing Evo with the aero he designed at the World Time Attack Challenge in Sydney, Australia:

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Last I heard they have a dominating lead with a 1:25 which is two seconds faster than the next competitor but the Cyber Evo has yet to run. I'd say that's quite a body you've designed! When can us Eclipse owners get some of those new tweaks? :)
 
twicks69 said:
Andrew still owns the car, it just arrived in Australia to compete in 2013 WTAC race in October.
Click to expand...

Ok, this is awesome, i never thought he was gonna compete this year at WTAC!!!, I think somewhere i heard he got rid of her, i don't know i could be wrong i think it was at Mitsu-media.

Looking forward to see him kick ass once again with the "Eclipse" "Spyder" "FWD" that people though it was impossible to set any track records. :thumb:
 
Hats off to Andrew for doing R&D to see what works and what doesn't. So Awesome...maybe once you sell the car,and don't need to keep the secret's, you can help us other owners on things you found with your R&D that is specific to DSM world. Here's hoping...

Did he ever make the hoods for the stock 2G? or sell the molds to someone? I'd still like to get that hood...
 
kidtsi said:
Ok, this is awesome, i never thought he was gonna compete this year at WTAC!!!, I think somewhere i heard he got rid of her, i don't know i could be wrong i think it was at Mitsu-media.

Looking forward to see him kick ass once again with the "Eclipse" "Spyder" "FWD" that people though it was impossible to set any track records. :thumb:
Click to expand...

I almost bought his car last year April when he was having a string of problems. His wife said he couldn't sell it to me for as cheap as he wanted, and he ended keeping the car. It still needs a few more details to be ready for WTAC, but we have 7 months to get the car ready for it. We are hoping for domination, and I think it will be very interesting with Nemo Evo at full power levels even with its new restrictions. Under Suzuki S15 will also be there, so there alone is 3 Andrew Brilliant aero packages in one race. I wouldn't be shocked if there are a couple others too!

I will take lots of pictures when I am down there for the race!
 
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