Superlap 2010 Ramblings

[Beer Baron]

Adam, I don't know why you even bothered reposting that rubbish up here to be honest. It was a response to something that was never even said. Mark has never claimed to be the underdog or any type of dog for that matter. so responding that that clowns rubbish is a waste of time. let mark speak for himself if he wants to. but I doubt he could give 2 shits about what some anonymous bloke on the internet says about him or his car. We ALL have the highest respect for the Japanese, US, UK hell any countries top cars. There are very impressive efforts from all corners and the last thing we would ever do is look down at someone else's efforts. Competition will be absolutely fierce and there are no guarantees of success for ANYONE.

nismoman, yes at superlap that year mark was running mediums. we could not buy for love or money the supersofts needed for that track anywhere at the time as all the japanese players had bought them all up months before hand. didn't matter what brand either. with advan sponsorship comes better access to tyres for sure. it's not exactly unlimited supply but I'm sure they will give us the tyres needed for the job.

as for the problems with traction it's not a matter of just getting more track or bigger wheels the fact is there are just not suitable tyres available in the sizes needed. if we could run slicks on it then they'd be no problem ordering up a set of nice 315 wide soft compound slicks all round, but part of the challenge is making the car fast on ROAD tyres, so it has to run comparatively narrow radial semi slick tyres.

[Marlin]

On a lighter note. I just googled Tenga Eggs from a couple of pages back......... WTF?

Giddyup!!!!

For those whom cannot be bothered to Google the Tenga Eggs that I've ordered for the SAU crew to enjoy on the hill whilst we imagine drinking beers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i6kWbdTvjk...&playnext=1

[JAS-25T]

NO BEERS.

[giant]

tenga eggs are cool!

i can understand the negative comments about the cars performance, as the car is behaving terrible in the clip. i cant understand personal attacks at Mark or Australians in general but that just proves the authors maturity.

anyway on another note ... i can tell you right now 4wd is fixed, we now have full control over transfer case pressures and it can be adjusted and controlled anywhere mark sees fit from from full lock up to fully open. this can be controlled on the fly by a dash controller which we made ourselves , it also has seperate control for off throttle underbrakes etc. The car is obviously completey different now with 4wd functioning ( as in no wheel spin at all!! finally) and the coilovers have been back to murray coote to be revalved for the new spring rates. testing will be done in sydney again early april.

mark has also the been busy building a carbon fibre oven in the shed for prepreg carbon , which is where the original prototype front undertray (in the clip) that is on the car was built, plus the car is now completely flat floored in carbon sheet he has made also ( can you imagine the hours he has been spending, just crazy!!)

.

linton you are on the right track too! almost two inches of front wheel track have been added to the car since that video.

so lots going on at the moment including his wife due to give birth to twins!! the midnight finishes are not going down well....lol

I hope all the Australian guys can put on a good showing, if not we will get spanked.. simple as that, there are no illusions to just how fast some of these cars are and i personally cant wait to see them.

i know Costa's evo is going to be a monster and BSM guys will be superfast! i really hope they can all perform to the car and drivers potential, i can tell you there has been & will be plenty of support between the teams.

[NZM.031]

well then.... can i just say..

THIS IS GOING OT BE AN ABSOLUTE F@#KING WEAPON NOW.... WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[giant]

now if only i had a car to have a play in !!! damn it

[Sinful]

now if only i had a car to have a play in !!! damn it

Do you still need panels and stuff!!!

All the cars on display are going to be outstanding! Definately some hefty competition...going to be ACE!

[Sinful]

now if only i had a car to have a play in !!! damn it

Do you still need panels and stuff!!!

All the cars on display are going to be outstanding! Definately some hefty competition...going to be ACE!

[Sinful]

now if only i had a car to have a play in !!! damn it

Stupid triple post!!

[giant]

thanks Jess

Benny has come to the rescue there with panels and lights etc! body is almost repaired but needs some modifying to take the radiators etc.

front is now fully seem welded too, and whole car will be repainted to freshen it up.

[Marlin]

thanks Jess

Benny has come to the rescue there with panels and lights etc! body is almost repaired but needs some modifying to take the radiators etc.

front is now fully seem welded too, and whole car will be repainted to freshen it up.

We might even find some time to check the brakes

[Sinful]

thanks Jess

Benny has come to the rescue there with panels and lights etc! body is almost repaired but needs some modifying to take the radiators etc.

front is now fully seem welded too, and whole car will be repainted to freshen it up.

Oh so what you stressing for....Will have it in time! Practically done....

Has to be at superlap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Beer Baron]

We might even find some time to check the brakes

lol. should be right....

[Roy]

I don't understand the fascination with how much the R34 cost to build, as if spending money is somehow cheating. None of the Pro Class cars were built using parts from the local scrapheap! Serious race cars need some serious parts in them, like those Linton listed, and they don't come free. That's motorsport.

Like every car in pro isnt worth a bucket because the basic building blocks of suitable shell and cage, gearbox, brakes and engine are simply not cheap hardware! Its no sin, its amazing that they are that committed

Anyway, people have different flags to fly or whatever, i know i am the worlds greatest driver when i dont have to put anything on the line, be it time, money, the car i have just spend 3 years building etc. Or knowing i will never be proven wrong, "I would be so much quicker if i was driving that/their car".... you hear it all the time and its very rarely true.

Except if i was given the keys to Snowies R34, i would be so much faster at binning that car then him. Fancy a track car that hasnt enjoyed the simple pleasure that is eating armco after 7 years of track work

[nismoman]

Go the GTR! So glad you got the 4WD sorted!

and Beer-Baron, with the Japan trip, I had no idea that the super soft semi's were so hard to get! Those sneaky japanese - was probably a strategy to ensure no one else could run on them.

Maybe we should do the same here. Ring around to every motorsport tyre outlet and tell them "do not sell to any super soft semi's to anyone except the aussies!!!" HAHAHA...

Edited March 30, 2010 by nismoman

[phunky_monkey]

I'm pretty sure they'd be coming well equipped!

[NZM.031]

roy is spot on... build cars for you... not for others... the car is the trophy... and everyone gets to take their trophy home.. dont build cars to win stuff.. because very few people care who actually wins.. its all about the fun and comradery of being around really fast, purpose built cars.

no expectations... no disapointments.

the other nation.. you know the one.. if (id like to say when) the R34 does tromp them.. they will blame it on OUR track not suiting THEIR cars... hahaha. they will go back to their 52 states and start flogging that our tracks are crap.. and our cars are crap as to suit our crappy tracks.. mwhahaha

its not slander if its true. (about them i mean.. not about our tracks or cars)

[nismoman]

I'm pretty sure they'd be coming well equipped!

So perhaps the R32 wasn't properly equipped when they went to Japan? i.e. should've taken supersoft semi's with them?

[giant]

the r32 definately was not properly equipped, we completely under estimated getting tyres there. but that was only one issue correct tyres possibly could have seen a second and a half to two seconds off the lap time, as the temperature was near zero and we had no tyre temp at all ( other main teams were using gas fired tyre heaters, we live and learn)

but of course that still would not be enough time to get near those amazing front runners, things we were running standard ride height and suspension points and no areo whatsoever, basically we went over

there to see how we'd go and we found out .. lol , it was a fantastic experience

we are looking at shipping the r34 to the states maybe next year and running it their for some events, but that will depend on timing (and mark and his new babies)

we would dearly love to do some wind tunnel testing, but i dont know of any here in Aus, if someone knows of one we could use please let me know.

its a shame you not going to make it phunky, whats the problem? what do you need?

[Roy]

If you are looking for a wind tunnel why not ask the frustrated engineer that wishes he got to live out his automotive dreams rather then sit in a clean room making drugs in Singapore

There is a reason why the clever young punks at Monash University have been doing pretty well at Formula SAE http://www.monashmotorsport.com/ Its because they have access to the same place that Holden and Ford use ... http://www.eng.monash.edu.au/research/stateofart.html

Of course you are in the wrong state, but long term i would be sure something could be arranged since Monash and their Formula SAE guys seem to enjoy great support from the engineering faculty and could sell the exercise to the faculty as a final year project for some of the students.

Other then that you may just have to go and throw a smoke machine over the car while doing some straight line testing at Willowbank to observe the airflow and get some potentiometers and, strain gauges/load cells onto the car to start measuring downforce. Rip the stuff off to save weight and complexity when racing, if you can live with the few kgs of cable and instrumentation then you can do that too

You are probably all over it, but anyway, for those that dont have access to CFD software, wind tunnels etc etc then there is plenty of good rule of thumb reading

- Competition Car Aerodynamics: A Practical Handbook

- Competition Car Downforce: A Practical Guide

There is also the fact that Spectrum starting building Formula Fords in the 90s (maybe very early 00s??? ) I dont know how many FF championships they have won but its the only real chassis that springs to mind as being locally manufactured. http://www.borlandracing.com/ Dont know if they do any aero development, but????