Sagaris V8 GT - first test
Discussion
This is copied from elsewhere, so sorry for the repeat of stuff you knew already:
___________________________________
A quick update on the first test of the new car on the National circuit at Silverstone yesterday. So much has changed on the car since it raced at Spa last October that I think we can call it a new car! This was the first time out with the 5.7 litre LS2, clutch/bellhousing/ Holinger gearbox / prop/ diff / ECU / wiring etc etc...
Fortunately the weather was kind to us and we had sunshine all day - ideal conditions.
The intention was to run the car very gently to flush out the inevitable issues. We were very fortunate to have engineers Chris Gregory and Steve Rouse with us for the day - both have huge GT race experience.
After spending almost a year on the (re)build I was very apprehensive as I took the car out for its first lap. Straight in for checks…… no problems so back out for 3 laps….. and building up for the rest of the session until I was doing 8-10 laps at a time. All temperatures stayed constant - which was great as heat had been a concern.
A comprehensive check at the end of the session showed no issues whatsoever. Nothing broke, bent, cracked, burned, melted, overheated, leaked or did anything other than function as intended. Which was something of a surprise!
Darren took the wheel for session 2 and followed a pattern of 5 lap stints. After each 5 lap stint we put the car up on the air jacks and checked it over - each time we could find no issues and sent him back out.
We did another comprehensive check of the whole car over lunch - still no problems - so we switched from shakedown mode to working on set up. The car was corner weighted and geometry checked, ride heights re-set and dampers adjusted.
After lunch we started pushing the car harder - interestingly it doesn't feel mind blowingly fast - it just gets on with the job without drama. The Holinger gearbox is a delight to use - although the flat shift is not yet configured, upshifts require a tiny lift of the throttle and it snicks into gear - no need to use the clutch. On downshifts the briefest prod of the clutch and it pops down through the ratios with incredible speed.
The engine is beautifully torquey and has superb drive regardless of the gear. Like most race engines it sounds grumpy at idle, but as the revs rise the big V8 soundtrack is fabulous. At the front of the car a loud hissing noise dominates - the engine sucks air in through the huge K&N airfilter at such a rate that it sounds like an air hose!
We ended the day with Darren back in the seat, pushing hard and lapping consistently in 58.3 seconds. The tyres are a year old (having been used at Spa) and had been run all day. The brake pedal travel was a little long which doesn't inspire confidence, and the flat shift is not configured. Tyres are worth ~0.5 seconds a lap and the brakes/flatshift a further half second. That puts the car comfortably into 57 second laps, which I understand is exactly the pace of the Racesport car. Straight out of the box that is pretty good!!
Overall then, a huge success. I can't quite believe that we had zero issues and that the car is so good already. We have further testing to do and quite a bit of work to configure the electronics and datalogging, but nothing dramatic.
Big thanks to Steve and Chris for all their help yesterday.
I've even managed to work out how to use You Tube - there are now three very short clips of the car:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1g5DEUtn9pE&feat...
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf2SG5rlFFs
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mywEoTMMwNo
Apologies for the quality - fortunately I am better at building cars than I am shooting video!!
___________________________________
A quick update on the first test of the new car on the National circuit at Silverstone yesterday. So much has changed on the car since it raced at Spa last October that I think we can call it a new car! This was the first time out with the 5.7 litre LS2, clutch/bellhousing/ Holinger gearbox / prop/ diff / ECU / wiring etc etc...
Fortunately the weather was kind to us and we had sunshine all day - ideal conditions.
The intention was to run the car very gently to flush out the inevitable issues. We were very fortunate to have engineers Chris Gregory and Steve Rouse with us for the day - both have huge GT race experience.
After spending almost a year on the (re)build I was very apprehensive as I took the car out for its first lap. Straight in for checks…… no problems so back out for 3 laps….. and building up for the rest of the session until I was doing 8-10 laps at a time. All temperatures stayed constant - which was great as heat had been a concern.
A comprehensive check at the end of the session showed no issues whatsoever. Nothing broke, bent, cracked, burned, melted, overheated, leaked or did anything other than function as intended. Which was something of a surprise!
Darren took the wheel for session 2 and followed a pattern of 5 lap stints. After each 5 lap stint we put the car up on the air jacks and checked it over - each time we could find no issues and sent him back out.
We did another comprehensive check of the whole car over lunch - still no problems - so we switched from shakedown mode to working on set up. The car was corner weighted and geometry checked, ride heights re-set and dampers adjusted.
After lunch we started pushing the car harder - interestingly it doesn't feel mind blowingly fast - it just gets on with the job without drama. The Holinger gearbox is a delight to use - although the flat shift is not yet configured, upshifts require a tiny lift of the throttle and it snicks into gear - no need to use the clutch. On downshifts the briefest prod of the clutch and it pops down through the ratios with incredible speed.
The engine is beautifully torquey and has superb drive regardless of the gear. Like most race engines it sounds grumpy at idle, but as the revs rise the big V8 soundtrack is fabulous. At the front of the car a loud hissing noise dominates - the engine sucks air in through the huge K&N airfilter at such a rate that it sounds like an air hose!
We ended the day with Darren back in the seat, pushing hard and lapping consistently in 58.3 seconds. The tyres are a year old (having been used at Spa) and had been run all day. The brake pedal travel was a little long which doesn't inspire confidence, and the flat shift is not configured. Tyres are worth ~0.5 seconds a lap and the brakes/flatshift a further half second. That puts the car comfortably into 57 second laps, which I understand is exactly the pace of the Racesport car. Straight out of the box that is pretty good!!
Overall then, a huge success. I can't quite believe that we had zero issues and that the car is so good already. We have further testing to do and quite a bit of work to configure the electronics and datalogging, but nothing dramatic.
Big thanks to Steve and Chris for all their help yesterday.
I've even managed to work out how to use You Tube - there are now three very short clips of the car:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1g5DEUtn9pE&feat...
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf2SG5rlFFs
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mywEoTMMwNo
Apologies for the quality - fortunately I am better at building cars than I am shooting video!!
A quick note from me to say thanks for inviting me along, Andy. It was a pleasure to be involved and good working with both you and Darren.
The car is very well put together and beautifully finished - and ran without a hitch all day.
Speed wise we're only scratching the surface, so to be in the low 58s on very old tyres, after only a few set-up tweaks, was very impressive on such a cold day.
The car is very well put together and beautifully finished - and ran without a hitch all day.
Speed wise we're only scratching the surface, so to be in the low 58s on very old tyres, after only a few set-up tweaks, was very impressive on such a cold day.
Ahonen said:
A quick note from me to say thanks for inviting me along, Andy. It was a pleasure to be involved and good working with both you and Darren.
The car is very well put together and beautifully finished - and ran without a hitch all day.
Speed wise we're only scratching the surface, so to be in the low 58s on very old tyres, after only a few set-up tweaks, was very impressive on such a cold day.
Steve, that's very kind of you, but its me that should be thanking you.The car is very well put together and beautifully finished - and ran without a hitch all day.
Speed wise we're only scratching the surface, so to be in the low 58s on very old tyres, after only a few set-up tweaks, was very impressive on such a cold day.
I'll try to set up another test with some new tyres, would be great if we could get you and Chris there again. I suspect dates might be a problem though, from what Chris was saying about the next few weeks....
By the way, if you boys want to borrow my propane space heater you only have to ask
hoc said:
well done andy, looking good and positive,how about a runout at oulton saturday?
tony
Tony - believe it or not I pulled my back putting my race booties on on Friday. Managed to drive ok then but I wouldn't have managed it 24 hours later or since.tony
The car needs to come off the transporter and be thoroughly checked over - I can't do that in this state.
Finally the race timetable for Saturday is so compressed that I wouldn't have time to check the car properly between sessions. With any new car you need to know which bolts undo themselves and we haven't learnt that with this car yet. I'm not happy racing the car until I am satisfied it is fully safe to do so
So all in all it won't be happening I'm afraid.
Forums | General Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff