Time Attack Build Blog

[Flash]

Drew, but don't you want to create some low pressure areas under the car to help create downforce?

Check out: Mulsanne's Corner, technical analysis of contemporary sports prototype racing cars

 

[gixxerdrew]

Drew, but don't you want to create some low pressure areas under the car to help create downforce?

Check out: Mulsanne's Corner, technical analysis of contemporary sports prototype racing cars

Absolutely, yah. theres a tradeoff there yes, the hard part isnt copying aero bits, it is knowing what you've gained why and what you lost, why and how to manage that loss. You have to measure, test and model. That's what separates the 'men from the boys' and thats where I'm trying to get to. This car is an extension of my learning experiences this is aero package rev 1.0, I expect many minor changes and major revisions in the future.

Also if you trade off to create a differential in pressure in a place that has more leverage on the tires you get more force for the same negative lift coefficient overall so you sometimes move round where you make the DF... Other ones are simpler to manage the flow. There are lots of ways to make low pressure.

When you see the underbody and finished products it will all make sense I promise

 

[gixxerdrew]

Heat insulation stuff came today. Using the cheap stuff as much as possible to cut down use of the more expensive satellite foil.

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closeup of the satellite foil

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[Big Doyle]

This is a Great read, I'm hooked on what your doing in the DSM world. You my friend are an inspiration. Keep up the good work man.


Doyle

 

[gixxerdrew]

Thank you!! I hope to see a lot more DSMs out there kicking ass. Hopefully this debut year will be a strong showing.

I wanted to write a little more about LSR and aero stuff. Show you guys a little bit of something I always felt so honored to be a part of.

First, one of the things which I am most proud of is to be a member of the San Diego Roadster Club (SDRC). SDRC is one of the oldest and most respected organizations

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Some of you may recognize this SDRC pass at bonneville by Don Vesco one of the greats in club history:
YouTube - Don Vesco

turn the speakers up for that one Worlds fastest wheel driven vehicle.


In LSR they organize you into clubs who compete for points in dry lakes race events. I joined the roadster club in 2005 and we were back to back points champions 05, 06, 07.

One of the guys in the club, Dan Hostetter has a couple of gorgeous deuce coupes.

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There are guys like him all over our club, people who spent literally decades building, refining rethinking, rebuilding their cars. These guys often times build the entire car themselves (chassis, body panels, all of it) on shoestring budgets and run stupid stupid fast. Persistence and camaraderie being their only allies. At the first race I went to Eyres and crew set a record at 223mph (this is like a 1 mile on DIRT) we're talking about in a modified roadster.
YouTube - russ eyres pass at el mirage

I asked them how long they were trying to set that record. "I dont know pop how long has it been ? 20, 25 years?"

Here are some photos of Dan's logbook. He has pages and pages like this where he studies the wake and airflow patterns

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Each of these shots are a different pass. Dan is trying to perfect a truncated rear that works as well as a teardrop. I dont know how long hes been working on it, my guess is quite some time.

Using throttle cables on the suspension to indicators on the dash hes measuring lift on the car so he knows if a dangerous situation is coming. You wanna talk about old school.

Check out this pressure plot on the underbody, Dan discovered interesting effects of the exhaust configuration on the downforce

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This is a photo of the Datsun that I'll be driving hopefully for bonneville this year. 2JZGTE engine. Chopped top and stretched. Crazy Bret's mocking up the roof location here

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I'm a little scared to drive it.

This is a turbo going on a "car" that I'm guessing I cant show a picture of but its about 30feet long

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That turbo in the background is something like 60mm so you can get a size reference.

It's not every day you step into someones "shed" theres a couple of 1000+hp motors an engine dyno and a 132mm turbo 5 purpose build missiles with wheels in the middle of an field in BFE. Thats not unusual in this company. Anyway a little bit of what I love about LSR, some of the best guys you'll meet in your life and the craziest cars.

 

[gixxerdrew]

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[Scrymerr]

Your car is looking like a beast! I love the sideskirts, they look awesome! Also, I hope you aren't holding back on any pictures... you know how much I like to look at pictures!!

 

[gixxerdrew]

Dan I'll hit me up on AIM

Front splitter/canard/bumper structure construction:

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[KBR]

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damn Drew... are we building a show car here??? is the widebody be able to support 2-3 petite asian chicks standing on top of the sideskirts??


aite, peace.

 

[gixxerdrew]

quick update mostly pics because no time

we had grounding problems on the engine. Nick is building a grounding kit using some very nice 4 gauge high flexibility wire. There were some surprising places that really needed grounds from his testing. We are launching at least half dozen totally kick ass projects as we speak. He has an absolutely invaluable skill set.

putting the lugs on the ends

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man make fire, fire good

heat shrink

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another stock bumper sacraficed to the gods of speed. It took parts of 3 bumpers to make this one

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David hard at work finishing the side skirts. That thing is really strong, wow. You can almost stand on it but I'll still put a no step sticker on it

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BTW the scoote2 hood fits pretty bad and is way too weak for serious duty. A lot of work to fit it because its way off on the gaps. It also as flexible as bubble gum. it needs serious reinforcement I can bend the vents around 1cm with a light effort from my pinky. On the bright side it looks nice and gives you a lot more exhaust manifold clearance. Which is good for me I was having problems with that.

I gotta take a moment to say thank you to the guys at the body shop. These guys are literally working 12+ hour days every day to make this car happen for the race. I cannot say thank you enough. They are working way harder than they are being paid for. It means a lot to me.

 

[gixxerdrew]

Off season input/output expansion mapped out for planning out sensors which needs to be done sooner than later

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took me a long time to make that!

 

[snowborder714]

If you get a chance, could you possibly post up some pictures of sensor locations? That is an incredible list of sensors!

 

[gixxerdrew]

I'll try to remember to shoot some pics next time I see the car although I might not be back to the body shop until the car is finished or almost finished. You should see the thermostat housing it looks like some kind of science project.

 

[snowborder714]

No rush. I won't argue with almost finished/finished body shots

 

[gixxerdrew]

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[twicks69]

Looking awesome Andrew! Keep it coming!

 

[vanilla gorilla]

Awesome. Are those wheels Advans?

 

[gixxerdrew]

The wheels are Rota Boost from wheeldude.com. Thanks for the compliments guys. The body shop has been going beyond my expectations on this stuff. I cant stop looking at that pic

 

[Flash]

Drew, one thing that is constantly on my mind is ease of accessing parts of the car. The body work looks fair permanent and if you had to access some part you couldn't easily remove it. Is this true?

 

[gixxerdrew]

Not at all in fact just the opposite. The body will come off in almost every case easier than stock. Decreasing maintenance time is "job 1" races are won and lost on that.

Right now we're working on wiggins clamps for the intake and cooling systems to make those jobs much faster and testing some inexpensive alternatives to wiggins.

The intake pipes for example have to be removed for quite a few jobs I would say taking off that UIC pipe has been the single most common maintenance task on the car T bolt clamps are a common failure point. I track the work we do on the car fairly extensively and tasks that are repeating frequently, I design a part or system I constantly think about that list. I try to do nice things to my mechanics Mechanic complaint was one of the major reasons for the rewire. Especially when your getting sponsored on work you want to make it as painless as possible. DSMs are a PITA to work on sometimes so I try to make it easy as much as I can.

 

[05gt Guru]

looks great

When do i get to take it for a ride? Pm me with location when its done

 

[gixxerdrew]

haha nice try though.

 

[Twistaye]

You know, when I read threads like this it makes me think of just how much more I need to learn and how advanced we really are and how much information our brain can hold if you put forth the effort to learn. I really applaud you and your team for doing all of this, I really want to be at the point one day where I will be able to do something like this. You're really an inspiration for all of us and I'm excited to see how this all works out. The car is looking awesome and the MoTeC is just plain sick!

Hopefully I'll be at the point one day where I'll be able to undertake a project of this magnitude and be able to use all the information as you are. I do plan on putting my head in a book and learning.

The only complaint I had about this is I ran out of stuff to read too quick! I'm currently deployed to Iraq and I was having a good night until I got to page 5!! !! Keep up the good work Andrew, thanks for all the pics and the build progress! As soon as I can afford it I'll donate some money to you (just gatta convince the wife! haha!).

Keep up the good work, but remember to stay safe on the track while I stay safe in Iraq.

 

[gixxerdrew]

Wow I'm really honored!! But honestly I'd rather see you spend it on some gear to protect yourself better or make your day to day life over there better. This is just a racing car and your over there doing a service for us with your life on the line.

I will keep updating the content because I know from my buddies who were deployed how its either your bored or your knee deep in $%@. So I'll try to keep the content coming in!

 

[mavisky]

Not at all in fact just the opposite. The body will come off in almost every case easier than stock. Decreasing maintenance time is "job 1" races are won and lost on that.

Right now we're working on wiggins clamps for the intake and cooling systems to make those jobs much faster and testing some inexpensive alternatives to wiggins.

The intake pipes for example have to be removed for quite a few jobs I would say taking off that UIC pipe has been the single most common maintenance task on the car T bolt clamps are a common failure point. I track the work we do on the car fairly extensively and tasks that are repeating frequently, I design a part or system I constantly think about that list. I try to do nice things to my mechanics Mechanic complaint was one of the major reasons for the rewire. Especially when your getting sponsored on work you want to make it as painless as possible. DSMs are a PITA to work on sometimes so I try to make it easy as much as I can.

Have you considered dry break connections for the fuel and cooling system?