All about the RCR LMP1...

[Mesa]

I have read enough information that indicates they are near the front wheels, with the exhaust vent behind the front wheels. I think the little scoops on top of the front body next to the wheel arches are the intakes. I also think the ducting near the rear is for the intercoolers or something as they are too small to cool engine radiators. But then the scoops I am talking about are small (although in very high pressure air) too.

All the more reason to see where the radiators really are!

 

[bob d]

As usual I am a little late to the thread, I saw the pictures of the Cadillac LMP and had to throw it in, a friend of mine was in charge of that car. He has shown me lots of pictures of him when they were at LeMans. He said they had around 6 million in that car. He told me about when they were at LeMans and had all the subs there working on the car. I did not know just how much these teams farmed out parts of the car to specialty suppliers. He told me that he was in charge of the body work and frame and suspension not the shocks that was a specialty contractor. It was really interesting to talk to him. He was also showing me pictures of a female driver of the car and them trying to mold a seat for her. His specialty was aerodynamics and carbon fiber. He is giving me a bill that fits on the rear wing that came off the car which he had. It is valued at 9000 for this bill that couldn't be more than 3" or so. We are going to fit it to the wing on mine which he says could add up to 3 seconds a lap. I will include pictures of it when we get it mounted.

 

[Fran Hall RCR]

The total budget for the Cadillac programme was in excess of 100 million usd back in the early 2000's....
Corporate funding and advertising at its best....

 

[Troy]

I have not run across any pictures of the first car in the above post (57) showing how the radiators are positioned. Very curious, anyone have a picture of that?

Surely these were sidepod mounted, given that the chassis I have has heat damage to the carbon / resin in that area. There is also a pipe that crosses the chassis just in front of the fuel cell that would link the two radiators.

 

[Fran Hall RCR]

Troy,
correct....

(damn I forgot to resend those pics...sorry will do it tomorrow)

 

[Ben Whittle]

Now if we could just Fran to make one of these for everyone. hehehe

Erik

Um, he did, it's called the SL-C

 

[Mesa]

This is the version I am talking about. Now that I have found better pictures of the side I can imagine that the radiators are probably in the same location as the first iteration of the car (that one clearly had side mounted radiators). I am just fascinated by the LITTLE ducts for radiator air intake (see front shot - intakes next to wheel arches) and the similarly small exit ducts in the side of the car (the ones that are half way down the side). Or is it that the lower ducting behind the wheels pull air from under the car and feed it to the radiators? If true what are the scoops by the wheel arches for?

Very interesting.

 

[KevinV]

Hi Fran... Kevin here from Canada. Just stumbled on this forum so I thought I would join since I have actually ordered an LMP. I'm hugely stoked to get mine which... coincidentally... should ship right around Xmas

Any updates on the transaxle by chance? Let me know and I can wire some funds as well as send you a crate motor and some slicks!

Thanx, take care and keep the updates comin


KevinV

 

[J. Miller]

Mesa here is what you are looking for in regard to the vents

Mulsanne's Corner: 2001 Cadillac Northstar LMP01

i think the snorkels on the hips of the car may be the rear brake cooling ducts (lots of holes on these cars, tough to say how it's plumbed without pulling off the bonnet and just looking)

 

[Fran Hall RCR]

Hey Kevin...

Transaxle ordered should be here in about a week....

Exciting stuff....

 

[KevinV]

Thanx Fran...

My plan is to have the LMP on the track (in Nevada... not in Canada) in March. Once delivered... it should go together pretty quick :thumbsup:

With it being a new project for RCR... I hope everything falls into place schedule wise... we all know quality & safety wont be an issue :2thumbsup:

Anyhoo... gotta run... gonna feed the sled dogs, club a few seals, build the wife a new igloo, shovel the driveway and lace up the skates. Just another day in Canada :laugh:

 

[John Ross]

Anyhoo... gotta run... gonna feed the sled dogs, club a few seals, build the wife a new igloo, shovel the driveway and lace up the skates. Just another day in Canada :laugh:

Don't forget to chow down some back bacon...

JR

 

[Michel]

Hello Fran
And to all happy customers of an RCR LMP ; one question

Due to the fact most of these cahssis will be track used so with a very tight ground clearance how have you plan to lift the car for maintance or set up or what else stuff to do on in the car ?
Fran have you plan to add to your kit an air cylinders option with brackets welded on the chassis ?

We use sometime ago ( in order not to add weight on similar cars) to built 4 external alu forks lifted by same AP cylinders fitted on the chassis and were applied to the car once had to be lift ; this can be a cheap solution for 3 similar cars running same day on same track !:idea:

In an other team I did drawings for big external front and rear fork lifters with a much more capacity to lift the car at 80 cm for easy working.( may be can find out some old drawings or pics of those)
I remember an Italian company copying those and selling them to every LMP teams!!:laugh:

 

[Mesa]

Kevin which track in Nevada? Fernley? Or Pahrump (or however one spells that). May 'have' to come out and have a look. Lace up the wife, seal the igloo, come on down

 

[Justin]

My fingers are crossed for Spring Mountain (Pahrump)...

 

[J. Miller]

(Ref post #73) The GM-LMS cars are outfitted with air jacks. Since the RCR chassis will be the same (just in aluminum instead of carbon) I assume the pickup points/locations for the on-board jack system will remain or can be placed. Our plans are to have air jacks on our cars and standard casters to move them around. Fran always says it just takes $/time, we intend on putting that rule to the test. :sneaky:

Speaking of, Fran do you have access to the original BBS wheels from Riley and Scott with center lock hubs? We intend on having "as close to original" as possible and noticed the 01s had forged 18' BBS pin drive with 13' front and 14.5' rears. Forgestar doesn't seem to make them that wide. Options?

 

[Mark Hamstra]

i think the snorkels on the hips of the car may be the rear brake cooling ducts

Where are the turbocharger air intakes? Snorkels positioned in high-pressure air would make good sense for those.

 

[Mesa]

The 01 with Centerlock are Youngbloed wheels. But you could probably have anything you want made with enough money.

 

[Fran Hall RCR]

J. Miller.
I did not say that the chassis will be the same shape as the carbon one...I did say that the suspension geometry will be as close as we can make it ...

I also said that the cockpit will only be a single seat package and there is no provision for a passenger seat of any kind as our chassis design will not allow it.

I have original wheels but they were close to $20k per set back in 2000/2003 I dont think you really want those and that is minus all the hubs etc ...do you really think you will want to buy 13/14.5 inch wide tyres regularly too...??...and you will need multiple sets of wheels....Jongbloed, Formula43, Fikse , BBS, Forgeline all have the ability to make big wheels....expect custom ones to run 5-6k per set...and then add approx 2-3k for lightweight knock off adapters and centerlock nuts...
The you will need the large airgun and a Nitrogen/air supply to tighten and loosen the nuts...not a small task....Oh and be careful not to damage a thread when installing as you only have the one hut to hold the wheel on....

I am supplying the car with 5 lug wheels as shown in the earlier spec list as stock...K.I.S.S. principal springs to mind......Mesa is right...its only time and money that stops play....

Air jacks are easy, but rolling cars around on casters once up on lifts is not recommended for longevity of the rams.... but a simple external lift system would be pretty easy to fabricate or purchase....a "table" with large casters would be easy to make and also the car could be transported on it too, if its not too tall and is strong enough

With such low ground clearance the transport /trailer must be set up accordingly or loading and unloading will be a serious chore...or just keep the car at the track ....

 

[KevinV]

No back bacon... wifes got me on a diet :laugh:

The LMP will call Spring Mountain in Pahrump, Nevada home. Now that I think of it... I need to let the Z06 know that its getting a room mate:idea:

Funny you bring up air jacks... I was wathcing a Youtube clip the other day and saw the air jacks in action. Even though it will likely never leave to go to another track...I think they would be well worth the extra weight on a hobby racer. Might slow me down a bit too :2thumbsup: