Some Phillip Island pics

[Ross Nicol]

Here are a couple of pics from the weekend, I like the front shot all action and determination ah you had to be there.

[Ross Nicol]

another

[Chris_K]

Ross,

You should really post a few more pics of the car. Yours is one of the few I've seen where the fenderwells truely seem to hunch over the tires- really small gaps and looks great!

I notice you say self-built for racing. Is it completely of your own construction? Do you have a build site?

Car looks great, congrats!

Chris

[Ross Nicol]

Hi Chris
Thanks for the kind words, the fenderwell/ tyre fit is a combination of wheel width and offset. I did intentionally have these wheels made to fill the space. The front ride height is set quite low and the top of the front tyres are up inside the fenderwell.I reckon the front of the GT40 is so attractive, I could sit looking at it for hours.
I did purchase a rolling chassis and body from Roaring Forties but have made so many modifications and changes for racing that I prefer to call it self built.There are some build pics on my website www.abbeysound.com.au and select Ross' cars.
Ross

[Neal]

Now that is one bad a$$ shot!
I'm Ross
I'm pissed off
Move out of my way
It's the end of your day

Nice! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Chris_K]

Ross,

Great pics, just need to add more of the car in motion!

Looks great.

Chris

[Ross Nicol]

Yeah Neal you summed up the attitude I had in the last race very well.Thanks for enlarging the photo.That body roll made clear in the photo proves I still have work to do on the suspension though.Chris do you mean more shots amongst other cars? I'll see what I can do.
Ross

[Ross Nicol]

more pics

[Ross Nicol]

more

[Ross Nicol]

Bored yet?

[Ross Nicol]

last one

[Malcolm]

Lovely action pictures. I agree with your thoughts on the body roll. Do your wheels miss the inner linings of the wheelarches? I know on my car that in that position they would quite likely touch underneath. FWIW the way I solved my roll was to just increase spring rates. I do not think this the best solution in isolation as I should have increased roll bar stiffness too. I have increased it subsequently a bit (and made it adjustable on the front) but it is an area that could be further improved on in my car. A number of guys here are now using dual rate/rising rate springs and they all love the improvement this gives. Not a cheap upgrade but one that covers both road and race set up quite well. I think the range of spring rates is from 200 to 800 lbs. This is better than my single rate of 500/450 lbs. I did hear that Anders Hilderbrand used 1100 and 1000 lbs springs in his car in Sweden in the mid 90's with the chassis resulting as a torsional member in effect!

The picture below shows me going through the chicane at Goodwood on brand new slicks in 1997 (that is why the car looks more shiny than today!) at about 70 mph.

[ijvpet]

Ross,
Beautiful shots. That lowered front end is the kind of look I wanted as well. But the street and speed bumps up here in Canada make life difficult for front spoilers [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Chris_K]

Yeah Ross, those were exactly what I was talking about. Your car looks great and I think the way it sits soooo low is how I would want to set mine up. Looks really good.

I saw someone asked already, but do the tires rub on the fenderwells? Do you drive on the street much? Are the gaps so tight because your wheels are large or have they been closed by dropping the ride height?

It does look like you've got some tuning to do, but that should only help make things better than they are now...

Thanks,
Chris

[Ross Nicol]

Malcolm Yes I will be increasing the spring rates and installing cockpit adjustable bars front and rear. At the moment I have no rear bar or adjustable front bar.Thanks for the guide on rates.I certainly won't be going anywhere near 1100lb.I'd love to have a drive at Goodwood, seen that chicane on a few videos and some drivers not make it.The tyres have rubbed a little on the top of inner wells but as it's only at full bump it doesn't cause a problem.Chris I don't drive it on the street much although the club plate reistration you see on the front of the car allows me to drive to Lotus club meetings and local testing.Gaps are tight due to wheel size and low ride height combination. Actually when the car is stationary the fender/guard edge just hides the top of the tyre. What you see in most of the photos is the tyre further up due to body roll.
Ross

[Ron Earp]

Ross, how much camber do you run up front?

There is a decent sized faction of people that I race with that say a rear sway bar is a band aid for other problems that should be addressed first. In fact, I think Carrol Smith said something like this as well in one of his book and current paddock thinking for cars is to fool with springs/dampers/geometry before pulling out the bar. I have no idea on a 40 though but those progrssive springs that Malcolm suggested sounds like the thing to have and might be really good for you Ross.

1100lbs would be brutal but if you could get a spring that would go from around 300-400 to 800-1000 I think you'd be in business.

[Ross Nicol]

Ron front camber 3-4 degrees. Yes a car with more rear grip than front will understeer and the band aid approach is to stiffen the rear with a bar and promote oversteer to balance handling.Of course it would have been better to improve the front grip. I had progressive springs on the chassis when I bought it.For racing I don't like them as you need to know what spring rate you have so you can increase/decrease accordingly.I think you'd have to do a lot more testing to get progressive springs to work. my opinion only of course and shoot me down in flames by all means,anyone.I can see they could work well on a car doing track and street.I also found the soft part of the spring allowed the body to roll earlier too.So I'll stick to linear springs thanks.
Ross

[Russ Noble]

Car looks really nice in the pics Ross. What static ground clearance are you running front and rear? Out of interest too what height above ground level is the centreline of your crankshaft? Go slay those aussies!![img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

Regards

[Ross Nicol]

Hi Russ

100mm front and 115mm rear. Crank centreline to ground would be 1/2 flywheel dia approx 150mm plus ride height 115
which totals 165mm. Used to live in Boston Ave, Hornby and walked to the Wigram motor racing in the seventies.Ah the memories.
Regards Ross