High Downforce eclipse body kit, gauging interest

[knochgoon24]

The thought of 315 tires all around makes me drool. But alas, I have no money or reason for a kit like that.

 

[LandoAWD]

Objectively:

Blitz kits (whatever rice-shit name can be interchanged) cost what...500 bones? So now you've spent 500 on a kit you'll have to trim, fit, paint....all for ZERO benefit.

4k gets you an ENGINEERED product.

 

[Achelea]

I do have a serious question about body kits and the like. Do you know if developing a flat bottom for these cars would provide any additional downforce? Or at least make them slip through the air better? The underside of these cars hardly look very helpful for top speed.

 

[ZiggysDSM]

Lucky 2g owners!

I agree id drop 4k on a functional 1g kit to have a one of 5 car.

 

[LandoAWD]

Yep. I've been waiting for a lip since 1997 and here goes Andrew with a limited edition, full blown aero kit.

 

[black_gst]

Objectively:

Blitz kits (whatever rice-shit name can be interchanged) cost what...500 bones? So now you've spent 500 on a kit you'll have to trim, fit, paint....all for ZERO benefit.

4k gets you an ENGINEERED product.

Its worth the price nothing to argue about there but you can buy a 2g gst for under 4k

 

[LandoAWD]

You sure can. It'll look like a 2g, too. It'll fit the same size tires...etc.



Priorities of the man with the money...

 

[greengoblin]

What material is the going to be made out of Drew? I also do you think the front clip will still be designed for easy removal?

Its worth the price nothing to argue about there but you can buy a 2g gst for under 4k

You can spend half that or more on a turbo set? I really don't see your point?

 

[360glitch]

This is awesome. Almost a reason to buy a 2G.

 

[black_gst]

What material is the going to be made out of Drew? I also do you think the front clip will still be designed for easy removal?



You can spend half that or more on a turbo set? I really don't see your point?

no point just stating facts. i know, i know pointless

 

[gixxerdrew]

This is officially going to happen! I want to do this real proper.

Anouncing:

AMB Aero Design :: 95-99 Eclipse GT300 Aero kit

Here's what we are going to do, finish the rear quarter panels. They will be a complete over fender so the AWD guys can fit monster rubber as well. We have to work out the details of the front splitter/front diffuser side skirts everything. We will check the weight against the prototype parts on my car now. We will also test fit it on a stock body 2g GSX that is being developed as a time attack car . We will gather baseline aero data, stock car vs this body kit. You will be able to see back to back test data on aero loading so you know what to expect from this kit. Not fake made up numbers like you see quoted by some japanese aero manufacturers, because their stuff doesn't test out to anywhere near what they claim. We'll post the actual logs and data.

 

[gixxerdrew]

What material is the going to be made out of Drew? I also do you think the front clip will still be designed for easy removal?



You can spend half that or more on a turbo set? I really don't see your point?

Its really depending on how you install it that will make it easy or hard to take off. Your body shop has to decide whether they attach things with quick releases or not. I can recommend parts to people but everyone has different needs. For example a show car guy using this kit will want to bolt it all together so the connections are unseen where as a race car guy wants quick releases on the outside so it comes apart in seconds. It all depends on how you want to assemble the kit and how your body shop puts things together. Some people even like to mold it on the car for looks but it can never be removed... but if you want this to come off fast you can definitely install it that way.

On my car the side skirts dont come off easily right now but this finished product will be able to come off easily and quickly. It will also leave a hole for a jack point if you go to air jacks you will have to cover that hole with your air jack plate.

 

[matthewdesigns]

This is absolutely badass. Nothing I would probably ever buy, but fantastic nonetheless. Thanks for investing the time and energy into this, and potentially furthering the cause of racing DSMs.

 

[eclipsegsx1736]

Andrew,

It's Beau, I introduced myself to you at Laguna Seca last year while you were working on the GT1 team. I sent you a PM, hopefully you got it. I'm extremely excited about this project and about having my own kit.

What you are doing for the DSM community has never been done before and will never be done again. This is the kinda stuff reserved for much higher levels of racing. I'm sure few people will appreciate this to it's fullest extent, but maybe that's the whole point. This is a very exclusive item for those who really understand the concept, application and performance of this kit and this car.

Thank you.

Beau

 

[97gst_spyder]

Drew, my Spyder is going to be awd in a year or so. Do you think it will work with the extra drivetrain out back?

 

[greengoblin]

Awsome.

Kevin

 

[knochgoon24]

So where did "GT300" come from?

 

[logic]

If I had $4k to spend on aero right now, I'd be an easy sale just for the time it'd save me later. But right now, other priorities beckon (like just getting my car back in running, race-worthy condition).

So, how many extra copies of at least the front bodywork will you be keeping in your "whoops, missed that apex" bin?

 

[gixxerdrew]

Beau,
Thank you, yes I definitely remember you! Thank you for the encouragement. I got your PM as well.

GT teams spend HUGE amounts of dollars to develop a body like this. They would also never share their body shape and especially never sell someone else a copy of it. This is a very exclusive aero package. If a GT team had the option to buy a pre-made AND exclusive body for $4k with no R&D required, fully tested, CFD designed, and high downforce… any team I ever worked for would be all over that. It would save them tens of thousands to use elsewhere on the car. This is not a body kit, it’s a full aero package designed at the level of pro racing.

Man the stuff on the market these days is the good the bad and the ugly.

The good: The ‘latest rage’ of street parts. Nice stuff, high quality (mostly), some of it is 'tunnel tested' (I think you know what I mean, its like an ‘almost’ wind tunnel) but its still street stuff at the end of the day. They tried to copy GT car designs and turn the volume down a bit for street, which I can appreciate. They did a good job though, I can’t say anything really bad about the kits, the stuff does work and there’s nothing wrong with it. However, for someone like me, I can tell guys who copy race stuff.. they are not the guys who designed the real race stuff and it shows in how the parts function. Aero is really just a dance of tiny details and you miss one small thing the whole thing is different. I wanted something way above that level. I could work with those and mold them into something more functional probably but I want to do something better. This stuff is REALLY REALLY expensive too, shipping from JP is really pricey but still its serious coin.

The bad: The GT car replica body kits, not very functional anymore. These kits are built by putting a picture of the real car on the wall and trying to copy it, its like a copy of a copy of a copy, by the time its in your hands all the details that matter are gone. Those were also not available for eclipse.

The ugly: This is just about every Eclipse body kit on the market, I never liked the looks of any of them. Lots of options, none of them looked good to me.

I needed something much crazier, much faster around the track and I knew I was going to have to spend all the R&D time to do it on my own. I kept hoping I could simply modify something to get it functional and save myself the next year of my life but that wasn't in the cards because I couldn’t settle.

I started with a 3d model and started drawing on top of it. Then I started building conceptual scale models in a homemade wind tunnel. I got the car and the parts into CFD and tested different candidate designs in full scale at high speed.

I speced out cooling system inlet dimensions for horsepower requirements, heat exchanger arrangements, aero load maximums, airflow to tires and brakes, space for underbody components, shapes to optimize airflow to underbody, designs for with and without mirrors on the body and its effect on aero targets, compromises for frontal down vs rear wing flow, so many things were in consideration I cant remember it all now.

After that and the body was made, we refined the car over the course of the year to decrease pitch sensitivity, design speeds for different tracks. After I had those I used simulation to determine the fastest specifications, I did so many things through the development of this body. Your just not going to get that kind of work in an aftermarket body kit. I'd charge $50k+ to do that job again. Its just because I did it for free on my own car that the community can get this for free and because I’m too poor to produce the body for myself without sharing it with a few people to spread the cost of making the molds.

When I say I busted my ars on this, you guys have no idea. Sleepless weeks and months. To toot my horn a bit: we improved the car 2.5 seconds per lap at EACH event we went to and there have been refinements to the body, little by little (some of you who followed the car closely might have noticed). We ran at a total of 3 tracks to date. Willow Springs, Buttonwillow and Spring Mountain. We hold either official or unofficial track records at all 3 of them... all on the first year of the car ever seeing a road course.

To top it all off after we rebuild this body from molds we're going to put it on a stock car and collect all the data again. We will use sonic ride height sensors and motec data logging along with a bunch of math on the backend to give you aero data like you've never seen before.

People who know what I'm talking about and know what all that means know that $4k is a freaking deal and a half for this.

Drew, my Spyder is going to be awd in a year or so. Do you think it will work with the extra drivetrain out back?

It will definitely work with both AWD and FWD. There is no difference in the body shape.

 

[gixxerdrew]

So where did "GT300" come from?

The body is built to some of the specifications of 2008 SuperGT GT300 class. It's a class of GT racing in Japan. It also breaks a few of the rules

 

[Carter_95RS]

i'm pretty sure this is some of the most exciting news i've heard. I'd be down to spend half of what i make per year on this aero kit... come to think of it...the kit's just slightly less than what i have in my car thus far. But, it's just money...

 

[TSiAWD666]

So where did "GT300" come from?

For further edification:
Super GT - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Flash]

Will you sell individual parts? Like if I wanted the front fenders and bumper and nothing on the rear at the moment?

 

[knochgoon24]

$4k is a killer deal for this package.

-Aero design, testing, redesign, and retesting
-Thermodynamics calculations for the cooling
-Load analysis
-Material analysis

The math can be downright atrocious at times (actually most of the time).

It's actually what I hope to get into once I'm out of school The classes aren't the most entertaining.

And average starting salary for an aerospace engineer right out of college is about $65k per year. You'd be looking at an upper tier engineer to do that kind of work he did. I'd put your work a good bit more that the $50k you quoted.

Good luck with the sales. I'm sure you'll find a few people to jump all over that deal.

 

[VETTE_50_TH]

I would buy the front bumper. But just to keep the the stock size. I love the front bumper on your original car but this one is just so much better. I really have no need for the rest of it. But, again, i would love a front bumper.