L.M.P. track/race debut
- Thread starter gt40fran
- Start date
FYI....only mechanical parts shared between the LMP01 and the SLC 01 are the wheel bearings and the rear wing.
So cool
Well considering the SLC is a 10/10 on the fun-scale it is hard to beat! But, this car should theoretically (and will be) faster so I say faster = more fun! Car is extremely light and allows you to really point the car in the middle of the corner as well as brake later than in any heavier car.
We just started dialing basic setup of the car in... we made some really good progress in the laps that we got and it was awesome to get into the car and have such a great package already put together. A simple gear ratio change alone would give us anywhere from 4-8 seconds EASY. Once we get the basic setup done, I think we will find another 2-4 seconds after that. All with a very basic affordable package...very hard to beat. With this package and seeing how our last laptimes were 5 laps in, we really think this car will be 5-10 seconds quicker than the field at most tracks, breaking EVERY track record that sits in SU. It was really cool to be only two seconds off a Riley DP on our second lap... with only using 1st/2nd/3rd gear. Means there is a lot more to gain once we get it all sorted out for you guys! :burnout:
Thanks! I enjoy answering all the questions and whatnot whenever I'm not in class/work/at the track! Well, actually, I don't mind answering the questions while in class bored either!
LMP Test Day
This weekend Superlite Cars took the first LMP car to Mid Ohio Sports Car Course for its maiden voyage. The intent of the weekend was to get the car through tech, and to get some shakedown laps to validate the basic design, gather setup data, test our new tire setup, and prove the basic drivetrain model.
And have fun.
We were able to do all of that, and more!
The team arrived on Friday for a test day and enduro, but last-minute adjustments, and getting through tech took most of the day, and so we only had a few laps in the enduro to get some initial feedback. The first laps on track went without major incident, as Ryan worked up to speed.
Those laps were useful in pointing out a few new-car bugs. For example, we had what we thought might be the right gearing, but it turned out that we were going down the front straight in second gear, and only got into 3rd on a few places on track. Ryan adapted by using first gear coming out of a lot of corners to get speed, but that was a crutch. What was worse was the fact that the engine in the car really woke up in the higher ranges, but didn’t have much torque down low where we were forced to run it. So we were creeping off the turns, instead of leaping off them.
We really should have left our LeMans gearing at the shop. Next weekend at the track we will be sporting much shorter gears!
We also had chosen a brake pad that wasn’t suited to Ryan’s driving style. He wanted to see much more initial bite than the pads we had in the car, and so was pretty tentative on the brakes .
Unfortunately, we also didn’t have a tach in the car, as the new AIM dash we had wasn’t communicating with the regular GM ECU. So Ryan had to shift by ear, which was difficult since he couldn’t hear much with all the wind noise in an open car, coupled by the fact that the car was very quiet (as we were testing a new muffling system for a certain race where we were warned last year that we were too loud). He never hit the rev limiter, so there is no doubt he was short-shifting the car.
And finally, we learned just how much downforce the LMP cars really made. In technical terms, it was a whole lotta downforce. So much so that we deformed the splitter at speed and got a bit of aero porpoising at speed which really slowed us down. After qualifying, we went to work on that with added bracing to stiffen things up there.
But even with all that, and with only getting a few laps in during qualifying, we managed to qualify just two seconds behind an ex-GrandAM Riley Daytona Prototype, which was sort of a benchmark for us, as that car had run very competitively at the National Championships last year.
The team believes that with the gearing sorted, a more suitable pad compound, and some small revisions to the rear suspension (we have already run FEA analysis on the proposed changes there) we will have a track killer on our hands.
So how did the races go? Well, just an hour or so before the race on Saturday, we noticed that we had a cracked mount on the differential. We didn’t have a spare so that put an end to the weekend. Reluctantly, we packed up the new transporter, and headed home, disappointed that we didn’t get to actually race the car yet, but very happy with the raw speed right out of the box, and the relatively short list of the expected teething issues we need to address.
The gearing and brake issues are simple to fix, and we will have those addressed early next week. We’ll work on the differential mounting to reduce stress on the case, and already have an FEA-validated solution that lets it float free in the car, instead of treating it as a stressed member. And we think we’ve already addressed the small aero issue that was causing porpoising.
All weekend we had a constant stream of people looking at the car, all with very positive feedback on every aspect of the car. Ryan thought it was very composed, and easy to drive, and can only get much faster with the coming updates.
We are pretty happy with the first test. Being just 2 seconds off a well-developed Daytona Prototype car on the first day with less than 15 total laps on the car is pretty good. We think we have massive amounts of untapped speed, including adding a bit more power from our currently detuned engine now in the car (we wanted a relatively safe tune on this one so we didn’t have to worry about the engine on the first day). Ryan thinks we left more than 5 seconds a lap on the table just on gearing, and almost as much in braking.
In the end, we were all very pleased with the speed and reliability that the car showed on track. The LMP was exceptionally quick considering the typical new-car issues, and everyone on the team felt that we had only scratched the surface in terms of development. The new Continental tires worked well, the adaptation of the Corvette transmission worked perfectly, we got great input on the overall package, proved the basic design of the chassis and body, had no leaks, and nothing fell off the car. For a first test outing of a car we’d never built before, and never raced before, it was a great success, and the speed it showed in spite of the issues we faced was really quite remarkable.
And we had a lot of fun!
(Special thanks need to go out to the entire crew at the shop who worked incredible hours to get the car finished in time to run at the track, all while still building customer cars as well!)
This weekend Superlite Cars took the first LMP car to Mid Ohio Sports Car Course for its maiden voyage. The intent of the weekend was to get the car through tech, and to get some shakedown laps to validate the basic design, gather setup data, test our new tire setup, and prove the basic drivetrain model.
And have fun.
We were able to do all of that, and more!
The team arrived on Friday for a test day and enduro, but last-minute adjustments, and getting through tech took most of the day, and so we only had a few laps in the enduro to get some initial feedback. The first laps on track went without major incident, as Ryan worked up to speed.
Those laps were useful in pointing out a few new-car bugs. For example, we had what we thought might be the right gearing, but it turned out that we were going down the front straight in second gear, and only got into 3rd on a few places on track. Ryan adapted by using first gear coming out of a lot of corners to get speed, but that was a crutch. What was worse was the fact that the engine in the car really woke up in the higher ranges, but didn’t have much torque down low where we were forced to run it. So we were creeping off the turns, instead of leaping off them.
We really should have left our LeMans gearing at the shop. Next weekend at the track we will be sporting much shorter gears!
We also had chosen a brake pad that wasn’t suited to Ryan’s driving style. He wanted to see much more initial bite than the pads we had in the car, and so was pretty tentative on the brakes .
Unfortunately, we also didn’t have a tach in the car, as the new AIM dash we had wasn’t communicating with the regular GM ECU. So Ryan had to shift by ear, which was difficult since he couldn’t hear much with all the wind noise in an open car, coupled by the fact that the car was very quiet (as we were testing a new muffling system for a certain race where we were warned last year that we were too loud). He never hit the rev limiter, so there is no doubt he was short-shifting the car.
And finally, we learned just how much downforce the LMP cars really made. In technical terms, it was a whole lotta downforce. So much so that we deformed the splitter at speed and got a bit of aero porpoising at speed which really slowed us down. After qualifying, we went to work on that with added bracing to stiffen things up there.
But even with all that, and with only getting a few laps in during qualifying, we managed to qualify just two seconds behind an ex-GrandAM Riley Daytona Prototype, which was sort of a benchmark for us, as that car had run very competitively at the National Championships last year.
The team believes that with the gearing sorted, a more suitable pad compound, and some small revisions to the rear suspension (we have already run FEA analysis on the proposed changes there) we will have a track killer on our hands.
So how did the races go? Well, just an hour or so before the race on Saturday, we noticed that we had a cracked mount on the differential. We didn’t have a spare so that put an end to the weekend. Reluctantly, we packed up the new transporter, and headed home, disappointed that we didn’t get to actually race the car yet, but very happy with the raw speed right out of the box, and the relatively short list of the expected teething issues we need to address.
The gearing and brake issues are simple to fix, and we will have those addressed early next week. We’ll work on the differential mounting to reduce stress on the case, and already have an FEA-validated solution that lets it float free in the car, instead of treating it as a stressed member. And we think we’ve already addressed the small aero issue that was causing porpoising.
All weekend we had a constant stream of people looking at the car, all with very positive feedback on every aspect of the car. Ryan thought it was very composed, and easy to drive, and can only get much faster with the coming updates.
We are pretty happy with the first test. Being just 2 seconds off a well-developed Daytona Prototype car on the first day with less than 15 total laps on the car is pretty good. We think we have massive amounts of untapped speed, including adding a bit more power from our currently detuned engine now in the car (we wanted a relatively safe tune on this one so we didn’t have to worry about the engine on the first day). Ryan thinks we left more than 5 seconds a lap on the table just on gearing, and almost as much in braking.
In the end, we were all very pleased with the speed and reliability that the car showed on track. The LMP was exceptionally quick considering the typical new-car issues, and everyone on the team felt that we had only scratched the surface in terms of development. The new Continental tires worked well, the adaptation of the Corvette transmission worked perfectly, we got great input on the overall package, proved the basic design of the chassis and body, had no leaks, and nothing fell off the car. For a first test outing of a car we’d never built before, and never raced before, it was a great success, and the speed it showed in spite of the issues we faced was really quite remarkable.
And we had a lot of fun!
(Special thanks need to go out to the entire crew at the shop who worked incredible hours to get the car finished in time to run at the track, all while still building customer cars as well!)
Re: LMP Test Day
Great write-up Will.
Really can't stress how happy I am with how close this car is right out of the box. HUGE thanks to our crew (every single person) who put in endless hours to get the car ready in such great form. To have a car this close so quickly means that we will be incredibly fast once we get some time with the LMP package.
Great write-up Will.
Really can't stress how happy I am with how close this car is right out of the box. HUGE thanks to our crew (every single person) who put in endless hours to get the car ready in such great form. To have a car this close so quickly means that we will be incredibly fast once we get some time with the LMP package.
Michael Fling
Supporter
Glad it went well for all of you. Beautiful car! I can look into the crystal ball and see what is coming. What class would the car run in SCCA?
I'm trying to get my head around how the LMP spend most of its time in 2nd gear AND was likely being short shifted. How short is the Mid Ohio track that you couldn't get into 4th gear let alone spend a reasonable amount of time in 3rd gear? What speeds did you guys hit at the top of 2nd gear?
I'm not sure if you guys have ever been on the 1.5mile track (shortest configuration) at Spring Mountain... but even on that VERY short track... I redline in 3rd gear at the end of the back straight and I'm running the same ratios and very similar if not the exact same tire size.
What tracks would be better suited to the ratios you guys ran with over the weekend?
KV
Excellent write up as always Will. I cannot get over how good that car looks, I was drooling over a Ferrari 333SP a few weeks ago and this car instills the same reaction (both cars from the same era and series).
Anybody want to buy a partially finished SLC? :clown:
Ryan, you have the dream job. And you don't have to buy it or build it to get to drive. We are all jealous, well, at least I am. The car obviously has tons of potential, what a cool place to be for you.
Anybody want to buy a partially finished SLC? :clown:
Ryan, you have the dream job. And you don't have to buy it or build it to get to drive. We are all jealous, well, at least I am. The car obviously has tons of potential, what a cool place to be for you.
Hello to Will
Seems you got from Fran a nice new toy !!
Some questions
Are Continental tyres Radial ones ?
Is there on the car any black box to download info when coming to pits ?
Did you set up the car (aéro speaking) as the Cadillac ?
Wish you to keep the good work to improve all details you writed on the JOB list and then play again with the toy !!
( Have played with similar ones during 15 years in Sarthe! and can imagine how big is your fun LOL)
Seems you got from Fran a nice new toy !!
Some questions
Are Continental tyres Radial ones ?
Is there on the car any black box to download info when coming to pits ?
Did you set up the car (aéro speaking) as the Cadillac ?
Wish you to keep the good work to improve all details you writed on the JOB list and then play again with the toy !!
( Have played with similar ones during 15 years in Sarthe! and can imagine how big is your fun LOL)
