LS7 - first drives

[ultimacz]

Nice sunny and hot day, so I took her out for the first longer trip, after all the testing and fixing the usual small start-up problems.

Difference to the SBC is quite amazing. Very smooth, less noisy (some might actually like that less but ideal for garage parking etc.), no visible smoke at all, does not smell (except the cats), much less heat in the engine bay. All temps stay perfectly stable, water between 90 and 95 deg.C, oil between 75 and 85 deg.C.

Exhausts and back of the car stay absolutely clean, that is amazing! Oil and water consumption so far (several hundred km done) absolutely zero.
The engine runs very smooth, like a turbine. Incredible torque in the mid-range, feels very strong. But probably less of a kick at WOT compared to the old double pumper, it is more linear. Still more than enough punch to throw you off the road if you are not cautious. Fuel consumption ridiculous - still running on the first tank filling!!!! First thought the gauges read wrong...

Incredible comfort: no stalling under hard breaking or when A/C is on. Idling at 650 whatever you do...
But: on a hot day you still get roasted in the GTR, it still is noisy compared to any other car on the road and the clutch on the new GT2 box is so heavy that you cant walk next day - so it absolutely remains a true Ultima, just less trouble making, at least I hope.

Will try to post videos, maybe later this month.

[Boosted Ls1]

Sounds really good fun. As for the clutch a Mc Loed twin plate has a very light pedal and plenty of grip if you decide you need something very street friendly.

Boosted.

[San Diego GTR]

Sounds great! I'm curious about a few details. Did you use the exhaust system/mufflers provided by Ultima? What did you do in the rear roll bar (if anything) to help quiet it down? Was the power managable by someone without any track experience or can you see getting into trouble really easily? I'm thinking of when my wife drives it. How is the drive by wire?
Thanks,
Paul

[ultimacz]

San Diego GTR said:

Sounds great! I'm curious about a few details. Did you use the exhaust system/mufflers provided by Ultima? What did you do in the rear roll bar (if anything) to help quiet it down? Was the power managable by someone without any track experience or can you see getting into trouble really easily? I'm thinking of when my wife drives it. How is the drive by wire?
Thanks,
Paul

We used the exhaust supplied by Jeff Schwartz (manufactured by Spectrum 5). Dont know what you mean by rear roll bar? The chassis is mostly original Ultima, we only had to change the rear support of the transaxle, first to make it fit to the GT2 gearbox and then to reduce the noise (used damping elements). The GT2/3 boxes are very noise in idle, if they are mounted directly on the chassis.
The drive by wire is great, a lot of feel. You can drive the LS7 without any problem around town and cruise at about 2000 rpm. So your wife wont have any problem to handle that, I think. Only the clutch needs a real man. I once tried the 997 Porsche Turbo and the clutch was very similar to mine on the Ultima. Maybe you let her try the Turbo first...

[Number9]

What sort of fuel 'economy' are you talking about Ultimacz? 15-20 mpg??

[ultimacz]

Number9 said:

What sort of fuel 'economy' are you talking about Ultimacz? 15-20 mpg??

Dont know how to convert into mpg, but I talk about 12-15 litres/100km. Could not get with the SBC below 25 l/100km.

[GTRene]

ultimacz said:

Number9 said:

What sort of fuel 'economy' are you talking about Ultimacz? 15-20 mpg??

Don't know how to convert into mpg, but I talk about 12-15 litres/100km. Could not get with the SBC below 25 l/100km.

Sounds very good, so I guess your finally get your trust back in the engine after all your problems and oilconsumating old blocks..
good luck you lucky man
GTRene

[Number9]

That works out at 18.8 - 23.5 mpg compared with 11.3mpg for your sbc. Pretty sweet! It is almost 'green'!!!! Almost...

[builder]

ultimacz said:

...Dont know what you mean by rear roll bar?

I think he's referring to insulation you may have put between the cabin and engine compartment (between the bars).

[ultimaCZ]

Cut some video of the first drive. Cant get it smaller than 7MB, though. Hope you like it.

Still have to get used to the LS7. Doesnt come across like that on the video, but it is pretty scary especially at max. torque around 5000rpm. Not easy to keep it on narrow roads...



http://www.electronicfiles.net/files/6888/LS7%20te...

[LuckyP]

ultimaCZ said:

Cut some video of the first drive. Cant get it smaller than 7MB, though. Hope you like it.

Still have to get used to the LS7. Doesnt come across like that on the video, but it is pretty scary especially at max. torque around 5000rpm. Not easy to keep it on narrow roads...



http://www.electronicfiles.net/files/6888/LS7%20te...

Isn't it against the law to even own a Ricky Martin album, let alone play it in an Ultima??



Certainly revs OK! Nice.

[crafty]

Bloody excellent!!

[GTRene]

yummie...very good first impressions, smooth power delivery's how is traction?

[San Diego GTR]

That was a great collection of clips. Do you always cut blind corners like that? I was only looking on the computer screen and was afraid I was going to get a 8000 lb SUV in my lap. The engine and car look really we sorted. I can't read your tac, when the needle is straight up is that 3K RPM?

Thanks for posting!

Paul

[ultimaCZ]

GTRene said:

yummie...very good first impressions, smooth power delivery's how is traction?

traction is very good, only problems in 2nd gear if you rev too fast. But you need to be cautious on narrow roads. At WOT you need quite a bit of the road...

My tires are brand new and the weather was good = optimal road conditions. If the road is cold, this makes a huge difference.



The fly-by-wire (electronic gas pedal) is really excellent. At first it looked like an ultra-short pedal way, but in reality it is so much better than the cable operated carb I had before. Lot of feel to correct traction problems in an instant.

Edited by ultimaCZ on Wednesday 23 May 19:54

[ultimaCZ]

San Diego GTR said:

That was a great collection of clips. Do you always cut blind corners like that? I was only looking on the computer screen and was afraid I was going to get a 8000 lb SUV in my lap. The engine and car look really we sorted. I can't read your tac, when the needle is straight up is that 3K RPM?

Thanks for posting!

Paul

The tach reads 3.500 when it is traight up (north).

Blind corners: looking at the video, I know it does not look good. But I know the road very well and actually on the video it looks worse than it was... Will try to do better, though.



Dont know whether you noticed, but my new sequential gear shift is working perfectly. Gear shift times are extremely short. If anybody is interested, I can try to make a video clip next time where you can see how the gearshift works.

Edited by ultimaCZ on Wednesday 23 May 19:55

[GTRene]

ultimaCZ said:

The fly-by-wire (electronic gas pedal) is really excellent. At first it looked like an ultra-short pedal way, but in reality it is so much better than the cable operated carb I had before. Lot of feel to correct traction problems in an instant.

Yeah those fly-by-wire can be very good, I had that in my BMW Z3 M coupe S54 it worked perfect, and no more problems with kabels that stick or brake...your our Ultima testcase now hope everything works out very well.

GTRene

[LuckyP]

And what about Ricky Martin?

[ultimaCZ]

LuckyP said:

And what about Ricky Martin?

thought you forgot on that. Ok, my apologies. Can only say that my radio can play mp3 files and I have there a mix of several hundred songs - unfortunately there was a "wife-song" playing when I took the video, and I was too busy staying on the road to operate the radio. Wont happen again, I promise...

[Builder]

Holly crap! I can't wait to get rolling. What a blast. More video please!!!



Who will do the first track day with an LS7-powered Ultima?