Nug's Time Attack Car

[TBK]

I'm not going to get too focused on weight reduction, (although I have personally lost 14kgs in the last 6 months) it was just a nice surprise that the car was lighter than I expected.

Congrats on the weight loss

Having mainly tracked lighter cars, it's something i'm trying to prioritize, while keeping the car somewhat wink wink street legal. I just enjoy lighter cars a lot more.

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[maniac]

Bit to catch up on here, title is not really relevant as the car doesn't see the street much anymore.

Decided to go to World Time Attack challenge in Sydney, I initially didn't get accepted, then 3 months later got bumped off the waitlist so was a bit of a scramble to get everything ready.

We put in a half cage and bought some aero.

Got an exhaust and charge pipe made.
The charge pipe that came with the AMS turbo kit relied way too much on silicon joiners.
The new exhaust removes where it necks down to 3" and is proper 3.5" the whole way.

Then realised we couldn't exit the exhaust there under WTAC clubsprint rules so we quickly made a new rear section. Actually sounded heaps better with the little BMW resonator added.

After a lot of mucking around with the AMS kit wastegate actuator interface we made the exact same power. Not 100% happy as it was a bit lazier coming on boost than it should have been. This would rear it's head again later.

Our custom MCA gold coilovers did not get made in time so we chucked some stiffer springs on the M-Factory coilovers already on the car. Will show later why this did not turn out to be a good idea.

There were a bunch of other little things like new transpan on freshly built gearbox (third time lucky) with a Rod Supthin tune.

Verus oil cooler, bushings, engine mounts etc.

Then with zero testing due to non stop rain we loaded it up for the 4,000 km drive to Sydney.

Was a long boring drive but thought this detour through mount Panomara/Bathurst was cool.

Part 2 to follow.

Copied from my build thread on another forum.

WTAC lived up to the hype for me.


Took 4 days driving across the Australia, had a rest day in Sydney Tuesday.
Then hit the track a driving solutions track day Wednesday.

Lost the morning session as the wastegate actuator was playing up again.
Swapped it out for a new one and adjusted the arm so it should never move again.

Got my first laps of the track in the afternoon and slowly improved every session.
This was my first time driving Sydney Motorsport Park, so really just familiarisation time as I am a pretty slow starter.

Had official practice Thursday, all went well and car felt strong. Got a feel for how to manage traffic at the actual event.

Friday
Session 1: Didn't managed traffic well and didn't get a clear lap in.

Session 2: Was much better and starting to gain some confidence and managed a 1.38.9. Which would end up being my best lap.
[video=youtube;XG5WjNgEfZ0]

Session 3: track felt horrible with the heat and left over rubber from the drifting at lunch.

Session 4: started pushing harder and did better in every corner, just not on the same lap. Also my splitter started hitting the ground braking from 265kmh for Turn 1. We didn't expect it to actually work so well and it had pulled down and started to crack the aluminium crash bar it was mounted to. So a quick bunnings trip was made for some extra reinforcements.

Funnily we were clearing out a bunch of my junk from the workshop yesterday and found the actual Verus reinforcement kit we never installed. Ours feels stronger anyway

Saturday:
Session 1: I was ready to send it, but red flags meant we got one lap and three more cars broke down on the side of the track during that lap. Also the front end of the car felt completely different to Friday and wouldn't turn in or brake the same.

Session 2: tried adjusting suspension and dialling out all the wing but front felt no better.

Session 3: tried driving around the understeer and ended up running wide through turn 1 and taking a ride over the curbs through the dirt at 180kmh.

Went around to send it for another lap and braking for turn 6 felt something break and the car jumped sideways across the track. Limped it back into the pits to find the front left shock had actually come apart. Pretty happy it happened there and not Turn 1.

We were asking a lot of pretty budget orientated shocks and running spring rates 50% higher than they were valved for as the higher end shocks we had ordered never arrived.

So I didn't get my "One Perfect Lap" in but that is Time Attack.


The rest of the car was solid and ran hard every session, could do three hot laps in row if traffic let me, and only thing stopping me from doing more was the tyres.

Overall the event was awesome.
Really well run, met heaps of cool people and heaps to see.
The parts I had time to watch as a a spectator were excellent. Some epic moments in the shoot outs.

The GMW boys went above and beyond, getting the car ready, driving across the country and excellent track side support so I could focus on driving.
Good fun to hang out with as well. We were going slightly stir crazy after 15 hours in the car on the last day but I have not laughed that hard in a long time.

and some pics

looks awesome and i bet it's fun as hell.

SMP turn 1 commitment takes some getting used to. You have big kahunas going in there raw.

There is an open day at Bathurst a couple of times a year. (The hill climbs only do half the track ) Fancy taking it to the mountain?

 

[Nugs]

It's funny you use that term, I had a friend who is a much better driver than me there on the Wednesday helping with coaching and set up.
He asked if there was an issue with the car in turn 1, when I said there wasn't his exact phrase was "time to strap on the balls mate"

Would love to do Bathurst, logistics are always an issue being in Perth but might try and make it happen.

 

[lucky phil]

looks awesome and i bet it's fun as hell.

SMP turn 1 commitment takes some getting used to. You have big kahunas going in there raw.

There is an open day at Bathurst a couple of times a year. (The hill climbs only do half the track ) Fancy taking it to the mountain?

Don't try it on a Superbike then.
Phil

 

[maniac]

Don't try it on a Superbike then.
Phil

You guys have the biggest balls of all. I like a bit of metal between me and the walls/trees.

I tell you what else is scary there.......a poorly sorted high powered FWD with epic lift -off oversteer characteristic. Code browns.

 

[maniac]

It's funny you use that term, I had a friend who is a much better driver than me there on the Wednesday helping with coaching and set up.
He asked if there was an issue with the car in turn 1, when I said there wasn't his exact phrase was "time to strap on the balls mate"

Would love to do Bathurst, logistics are always an issue being in Perth but might try and make it happen.

I had lessons there 15 years or so ago in a RWD and the best advice I was given was latest apex as possible at turn 1 and commit to some throttle to get it to turn. I have slid off a couple of times but kept it away from barriers. It's a pretty technical track and it's not in a sim that i know off so you cant get a head start.

 

[Nugs]

I had lessons there 15 years or so ago in a RWD and the best advice I was given was latest apex as possible at turn 1 and commit to some throttle to get it to turn. I have slid off a couple of times but kept it away from barriers. It's a pretty technical track and it's not in a sim that i know off so you cant get a head start.

I never nailed turn 1.
When I got the confidence to send it my shocks were blown and the front end felt awful.
Min speeds of 180kmh are about 20kmh off what I've seen comparable cars do.

Would also never attempt it on a bike

I did do a ton of laps in Asseto Corsa, so I knew where to try and place the car. But it's obviously pretty different in real life.

 

[maniac]

I never nailed turn 1.
When I got the confidence to send it my shocks were blown and the front end felt awful.
Min speeds of 180kmh are about 20kmh off what I've seen comparable cars do.

Would also never attempt it on a bike

I did do a ton of laps in Asseto Corsa, so I knew where to try and place the car. But it's obviously pretty different in real life.

I didn't realise assetto corsa had the track. One thing tho, i dont find it translates as well to real compared to iracing. Hopefully they scan the track so we can have it on the service.

I think people that ride bikes on australia publics roads are nuts. DOesnt matter how good a rider you are.....it's the idiots driving cars that are the problem. It's probably safer for them with everyone going the same direction on a race track i think!

 

[Nugs]

First thing is fixing the suspension.
These just arrived.

Nitrons R3s, they look beautifully made.

Spring rates were supposed to be
16kg front (895lb/in)
17kg rear with true coilovers. (951lb/in)

But they sent me a divorced rear spring set up so asking them what's up before I install.

I currently have 24kg (1343lb/in) rear springs in the car so could just use those.

Also have all the Verkline parts to go into the rear suspension.

Also have a custom front splitter getting made.
WTAC Clubprint spllitter rules are a bit weird. Can only go forward 50mm but can go as wide as the car so everyone ends up with hammerhead looking things.
like this one

The brief is to max out the envelope available, with the biggest diffusers possible without moving coolers, and the plan is it will bolt onto the Verus mounts and use the Verus air dam.

The Verus high DF splitter actually worked better than expected, but isn't really enough to match the rear DF and it isn't technically legal.
If I was more competitive, rather than mid pack, I probably would have got a complaint and would have had to cut at least 30mm off it.

It appears that Nitron has no idea how to pair springs with their shocks.

Firstly they sent divorced springs in a rate that seems more appropriate for a coilover set up.
The rear shocks went back to the retailer who converted them to coilovers but just put the same springs on them, which are the wrong diameter for a coilover set up.

The the front springs also appear too wide for the set up as well. With it as low as it goes the splitter is still 95mm off the ground (we want it at 80mm which is the class minimum ride height).
If we remove the helper springs then the spring will hit the external reservoir.

So while we wait for nitron to sort their shit out we are running the eibach divorced rear springs we had in the car, and ordering some smaller diameter eibachs for the front shocks.

On more exciting news the splitter is coming along nicely.
The renders are comparing to the Verus high DF splitter
This will bolt on using the same mounts and air dam.

 

[razorlab]

It still amazed me how these people that are supposed to have one job fail so much at it. This is why I have been so vocal about setups because I really want to help people *NOT* go through what I went through getting a decently setup suspension.

I do have to say that I am amazed that Nitron themselves F'd up.

 

[Traxion]

It still amazed me how these people that are supposed to have one job fail so much at it. This is why I have been so vocal about setups because I really want to help people *NOT* go through what I went through getting a decently setup suspension.

I do have to say that I am amazed that Nitron themselves F'd up.

@TBK This is what we hope you avoid when we saw the weird spring setup you mentioned from the retailer you bought your nitrons from.

 

[noogie]

I don’t think any of these high end suspension companies do their own R and D for a specific application and they rely on their dealers to do it for them. And it’s unreasonable for them to do that with the number of applications they need to support.

This is why it’s important to buy from a dealer that have done their own homework on the specific application, otherwise you’ll be doing all the trial and error to find which components fit.

 

[Nugs]

It still amazed me how these people that are supposed to have one job fail so much at it. This is why I have been so vocal about setups because I really want to help people *NOT* go through what I went through getting a decently setup suspension.

I do have to say that I am amazed that Nitron themselves F'd up.

It's pretty frustrating. I thought I was doing the right thing asking the dealer and Nitron to spec the springs rather than telling them what I thought it should have.

It is crazy that if you buy $2k coilovers they bolt on and work but you buy $13k coilovers and you have to fuck around with springs for a month.

 

[TBK]

How does the front-to-rear aero balance feel? We're pretty much on par on the front (i have a 5" stickout racebred splitter with tunnels/endplates, canards, GT4 louvers, and top fender vents).

The reason i'm asking is because when i approached Zebulon and AJ Hartman, both told me to not even consider running any of their dual element wings because my front aero would not be able to balance them. And also because i'd have to chassis mount them.

Zebulon pushed me towards their ZWG-330 (13" chord, 72" span) and AJ Hartman towards their Fulcrum 14 (14" chord, 72" span)

You're running a giant dual element SC wing, that doesn't seem to be chassis mounted either.

 

[Nugs]

I haven't had a chance to dial in the car and set up the new suspension.
Need to book some private track time.
New splitter is now on so guess I'll find out soon.

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