SLC at Run and Gun 2008

[Dan]

Run and Gun was awesome!

Thanks again to Fran and the whole RCR crew, they were very friendly and accommodating. I'm must have been standing around the car for the majority of the event! Sure there was a lot of other stuff to see, but every time I wandered about, I kept drifting back to the SLC.......in my opinion the best car at the event, hands down.

First time I'd seen one all put together in the flesh, and there are no disappointments here. Top quality throughout.

One the second day they were turning some very fast lap times, and it looked to be working great out on the track, very nice sound too, you could tell when it was about to come around the corner for sure!

The side exit exhaust gives it a perfect race car look, that is a feature I will be considering.

Fran seemed quite happy with the performance of the car "out of the box", and very committed to making it better and better as they continue to test. This thing has serious potential!

Here is some video I took, more to come......

Customer car on display
http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m31/foryorent/?action=view&current=Jan042007-VID00002.flv

Fran's SLC on the Road Course
Video of SLC at Run and Gun - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting


I have lots of pictures too......



Good showing Fran, thanks for the ride, and the beer!

 

[Jack]

Great post, thanks from all who are waiting...

 

[Doc Kaler]

Nice Job! It's great to see the SL-C on the track and running strong. Thanks again for the post!

 

[Dan]

 

[Dan]

Some action shots

 

[Mesa]

Dan,
From your fellow SLC owners - thanks for the effort! I had planned to get out there but things conspired to prevent that. Your posts are the next best thing.

PS I like that little shot of the fresh air intake on the back of the deck lid.

 

[Jac Mac]

Looks like there is plenty of helmet clearance . Maybe short wheelbase drivers could have a lower roofline version to take full advantage of their stature!

 

[Brian Hamilton]

Very nice pictures!! I visited your Photobucket page and copied all of them to my computer to flash by as the screensaver if you don't mind. Thanks so much for snapping so many!!

 

[Dan]

I have A LOT more..... hahaha

Couldn't stop taking pictures, the SLC is beautiful!, especially under power.

 

[Brian Hamilton]

I have A LOT more..... hahaha

Couldn't stop taking pictures, the SLC is beautiful!, especially under power.

Are you still adding them to your Photobucket page?

 

[John]

The green accents make me think of the Acura LMP2 car...

 

[JackW]

As pretty to look at as this SL-C is (and by god it is pretty to look at), and as much as you guys want to know how it performed, I can't help but think how disappointed I am that the cup holders weren't on this car. I for one would love to know how well they hold a large coke from a McDonalds in place as you rip through a chicane at speed.

I mean what use is a car that goes so fast if the first corner you come to you spill drink all over your lap. Disaster. That aside - this car looks serioulsy freaking sweeeeeet.

JW

 

[Craig Gillingham]

jack.....the cupholders are on this car...... the panel on the consol lifts off and viola!! 2 cup holders.
You just need a holder for the cupholder panel.... hehehehehehe

 

[Fran Hall RCR]

I will post my candid response with all the good , bad and indifferent thoughts about the SL-C at Run and Gun ...as soon as I get a little more caught up from last week.

 

[Fran Hall RCR]

Run and Gun 2008 Superlite Coupe Report

The premise of running the SL-C at this years Run and Gun was to showcase what our customer driven STREET car is capable of.
An RCR customer that had never seen the track and moreover even driven a LHD car with LH shift was the driver for the weekend.
He races in the amateur ranks in Australia in a Cobra…so next to no mid engine car experience either..

Off the shelf parts in a deluxe package SL-C.
The only upgrade parts were the sway bars, wheel package with DOT track tyres and brake pads.
It would have been easy to buy Ohlins shocks and have a Pro.driver etc etc …but what would that prove to the everyman customer…..?

Car specs…
Stock LS7 Chevrolet engine
Stock engine calibration
Ricardo transaxle
Ford GT clutch assembly
QA1 shocks as provided in the SL-C kit
Sway bars (available option)
18 x 11 and 18 x 13 forged wheels(available option)
Hoosier A6/R6 tyres front and rear
DTC70 brake pads.

Road course thoughts.
Initially we had the car set up with soft compression and rebound settings
Sway bars minimal preload.
This was our baseline set up.

Too soft…overheating the A6 (softer compound tyres) with too much push(understeer)
We increased the compression and the front was less loaded
We switched to the R6 compound….much better.

Pushing harder we found we had a misfire issue….or a couple actually.

First was fuel surge even though we had a ¾ full tank….(pump gas too)

The fix is to install a surge tank , even though the fuel tank is heavily baffled the cornering forces are higher than you can imagine…that’s a good thing.

The second misfire was traced to a spark knock sensor…but not until after I got the car home.
We were able to run almost three laps with a full tank and not experience the surge…bear in mind that the tank is 17 gallons and we are running a stock engine….

During the course of the weekend we damaged a set of shifter cables due to heat soak (new cable supplier for the Ricardo package and we were running the prototypes) ….we installed another set and continued on our way…I have speced a new sheath for the production cables with a -60 to +300 heat range.

I was exceptionally pleased with the cars performance , especially as we had a very public baptism of fire….as you can see I am not holding back with my report.

My target was to run with Dean Lampes RCR40 and Jeff Schwartz in his TT Ultima GTR…as both cars and driver have more HP and track knowledge…and similar lap times ..and both won their class in 2007….so a fair bench mark with all due respect.

We managed to reach that target and reduce our lap times by a further two seconds…to 1.06secs.
I clocked how much time we were losing on the final NASCAR turn and the run down the front straight as close to three seconds…vs the above cars mentioned.

So my best guess is that we could have run in the 1.03sec. range with our normally aspirated 505hp stock LS7….straight from the box…. With a street package.....

I had a pro driver, that has actually won the 24 hr of Daytona approach me
He loved the car, was sure that he could run the road course in under one minute flat….the current lap record is 1.01sec…..

So all in all a great weekend for the SL-C with minor teething issues that are easily sorted...and over 300 MILES of track miles over the weekend..
Running the full track package front splitter and lower ground effect will prove very effective and raise our game one more notch…

A big thank you to John, Kate and Craig White for traveling from Australia.
Dan Emmons for his help and bringing his sprint car engined SL-C to display.
Chuck and Ryan, Ray Maserang, Buzz Marr for bringing their RCR40’s

But most of all to Dean Lampe, Clois Harlan and the rest of the Run and Gun crew for making my first RCR pilgrimage to St Louis Run and Gun a very fun and memorable event.

 

[Allen English]

Great report Fran! I would really like to go to one of these events some day.

 

[Craig Gillingham]

great report fran... thanks for the honest insight...

The more the car gets out the better it will become.........

 

[J. Miller]

Fantastic news Fran! :rolleyes2: Exactly what we have been waiting on and hoping for. We will be contacting you in the next two months to set up our visit and discuss the "full race/track spec" (4) car order for the family. Keep up the great work and testing, we cant wait for January to get here.

Ps. our open house and board member track spec. approval for Bluegrass Motorsport Club (South of Cincinnati) is this weekend. The track will be ready at the start of spring 09 and we would be more than happy to accommodate any development needs (track time) you may have for the SL-C at our venue. We have much to discuss in the coming months. Talk to you soon.

 

[Rick S.]

did you run the quarter mile with the SLC at RNG? Not that it's designed as a quarter-miler, but just curious what it ran.

 

[Fran Hall RCR]

Having survived the 300 miles plus on the track , I was not too concerned about the drags...
Johns first pass showed promise until the poor track prep in the left lane was evident with a sideways hop of about 4 feet....
After that, I was not too concerned about trying to run hard...we lined up for more runs but a smoked clutch put paid to any further fun...and I erred on the side of caution and decided to park it...and use the data from the track weekend to better effect.
I am expecting a mid 10's at approx 130 mph to be a decent projection.