Croc

Dermot - PM sent with contact details. To respond on aero matters - In June at Silverstone I was having significant challenges with high speed understeer in a standard R300 SV race car anywhere above 120mph. At our mid-year escapades at NJMP when I was in my own car, I was getting wheelspin and squirelly in 4th gear on the back straight hump at Thunderbolt and front straight hump on Lightning. So I added the CSR chin spoiler and a Reverie rear diffuser. I was privileged enough to put my CSR into a university wind tunnel in August for 5 hours to see what the results were but am not allowed to publish or comment on the test results as some academics want that privilege to get their doctorates. I do not even have a copy just some notes on percentage improvement. Other cars that went into the wind tunnel as part of the same study included a Toyota Camry, Ferrari 430, Chevy Malibu, Prius, Dodge minivan, and a Tahoe. There were others but I was not privy to them. Simply put the test showed incremental downforce improvements provided by each unit (chin spoiler or diffuser) once you were over 100mph, steadily increasing as you got up to 155mph (theoretical top speed of CSR even though it would be reduced slightly with diffuser addition only). The two additions were below a 4% improvement in overall downforce (not sure how far below). The chin spoiler was a "appreciable" difference in its own right. I think Busa's front air dam design would work even better than my standard Caterham CSR unit. The diffuser was not a clear cut choice if you thought about the cost. There was no benefit to having a diffuser with or without the vertical strakes. There was zero benefit below 100mph for anything. On the track in November confirmed with seat of the pants - no wheel spin on the humps on Thunderbolt or Lightning and car felt a little more planted so I felt more confident on high speed corners. Feeling more confident is half of the issue sometimes. Busa - Everytime I see some more details on your car I am more impressed. I can see the development you have put into your car. I guess you just went back to plain old Busa power eventually and gave up on the turbo idea given the heat issues (wow!) you hit?

you can read the article if you print it out on to letter sized paper. At least that is what I did to read it. The same article is also on page 3 of the blatchat link I posted.

For those with a little more ooomph in the wallet looking for Christmas gift ideas, I stumbled over this store while wandering around Singapore this afternoon. http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/DSC00093.jpg Lots of goodies to buy. There was a replica F1 steering wheel at $3800. If you wanted one that was signed by Massa following an F1 race then you could smell the sweaty palms on that wheel if you put up $8000. There were a neat desk top set of 4 valves and a piston that had been given the Alonso at some race for $800 and $900 respectively. There was a nice F1 engine on a stand with a certificate of authenticity by Ferrari marked POA. And of course if you wanted to buy the 2007 F1 car in the window it was strictly marked price on request. Since I would have had to ask, I could not afford it and did not bother.

Sure it was not Maria Shriver wishing Arnie Schwarzenegger happy birthday?

way O/T so sorry in advance.... Hi Dermot :seeya: I am interested in hearing more about the Hayabusa turbo you are planning. From seeing one of these in the UK absolutely monster regular K series and zetec sevens around Brands Hatch circuit, I think you have a winner on your hands. Was this to be on a sevens chassis? If so then read the link here which discusses what happened at MIRA when they stuck a seven in a windtunnel http://www.blatchat.com/t.asp?id=192693&pn=1&ps=15 If not on a sevens chassis then we probably need to know what vehickle we are working with.

Betsy is a sweetie - tell her you will sell the orange one and upgrade. Also point out that sevens do not depreciate the same as regular cars so it is a good investment in money and lifestyle quality....err...is she believing me yet? :rofl: Thanks for the offer at the table however, this week I am in Singapore. Coming home on the Saturday flight.

When I was spec’ing the CSR late last year I explored the Hartley V8 and stopped being serious when I finished totaling up the price of engine, transmission, ancillaries, wiring harness, testing, tuning, fettling to make the thing actually go in a seven. I was $40k on an all in basis once I added everything up. It fits in a Caterham S3 chassis fairly well, an SV or CSR chassis was going to be really easy. John Hartley did his seven when he decided his Zetec just did not have enough poke! I did have residual concerns that it had not been in enough installations to prove to me that it was sufficiently reliable over the longer term. Also it was just a little bonkers for the road. Despite that the workmanship was just awesome – like a work of art. The other package I explored was Russell Savery’s RST V8 which first saw light in the Caterham Levante. I dropped in late last year when in the UK on business. Well since then they have developed a V6 version. Noticeably lighter than the V8, the V6 developed about 340 something HP in normal aspiration. Fits a seven much more easily than the V8. When you drop turbos on it you comfortably get to 500 something hp in what was described as an unstressed installation. Given the track record they have of putting the V8 and V6 in sevens or atoms in both normal aspiration or turbo’ed installation this would have been the way to go. Alas it was also too expensive – well over $40k with everything added up. With some hindsight, the smart package if you want a V8 and bulk grunt then go buy a Stalker and stick an LS into it. Probably the complete car would be the same as just the engine/transmission package of either the Hartley/RST. The other option is do Skip’s (Scannon) method of turboing a Miata – easily into 300hp land there for reasonable money. Flying Miata makes it fairly turnkey. Of course you could also supercharge a Duratec if you do not want to go a Miata or LS way. Despite all this, I discovered that a seven just does not need huge horsepower be very fast. With my relatively small Duratec (compared to a V8/V6), I can still spin wheels coming out of pretty much any corner on every racetrack I have tried so far and I have 10 inch rears and the best rear suspension that has come out on a seven in production. More horsepower and I need much more rubber to control it. The natural evolution in that development is to go to Stalker land where they are designed next level up heavier with bigger rubber to control it. The Stalker LS package is really a good bargain when viewed this way.

Come on Steve - place the order and join us next year! Happy Thanksgiving!

I would agree with you normally but seeing Tom actually there and how much speed he was giving up on the corners (30 session old slicks), with good fresh tires I think he has at least another 10mph to gain down the straights with a good run through and out of a corner. He also has still another 1500 revs to use before the red line. Even with this it would have been a little scary to go through the high speed corners with the lift from the clams.

I agree with you both that the video does show which lines work better than others. I found it a better learning experience than going out and lapping by trial and error. It is interesting to compare what I am doing with Kitcat in the front or rear cam. Turn 4 works as I am following what Enrique (the instructor in June) said. I think there is a lot more speed in all corners as I am only lapping at 70-80% - I do have to drive the seven home for 3 hours remember. I believe Turn 3 on the back straight and the last turn onto the straight are capable of being taken flat out. So there is another 10-20mph in those corners. On Turn 1 and 2 I am being too cautious....not a lot of run off room to recover on Turn 1 if you balls it up. On Turn 2 the blind sightlines require additional confidence to go for it there. You will also notice that I just hung around in mostly in 5 and 6 gears. I could get much more time by dropping to 3rd and 4th more in the slow sections but there was enough congestion that more speed did not really matter. When I did drop down the gears (e.g. fish tailing with the mustang) it was hard to get the power down without wheelspin. So the lesson here is that more power becomes a marginal improvement exercise. The speeds you see on the dial are accurate GPS data. I had readings 10 times a second from 9-10 satellites. The dial on the car shows 140mph at the end of the straight but the GPS data shows 128mph. I believe the GPS and not a Caterham dial. I also had average speed data, throttle/braking, lap time, lap number data but I did not show it. The other thing noticeable this time is that I was not getting wheelspin on the hump on the back straight and I am faster this time. The car unloads the suspension but does not lift up. The question I have is 1) is it the aero mods I did (chin spoiler, diffuser) or 2) is it the better weather? I bet it is the weather. The aero mods still look good though!

Video now posted at: http://www.usa7s.com/vb/showthread.php?p=59930#post59930 Dermot we missed having you around this last time and hope you can make it when we do this all again in 2012. I am looking forward to having a whole new bunch of faces in sevens (or other "add lightness" vehicles).

Following on from the thread at: http://www.usa7s.com/vb/showthread.php?t=7060 I finally got the video together of the USA7s track days on November 12 and 13, 2011 at New Jersey Motorsport Park. We ran Thunderbolt on the Saturday and Lightning circuit on the Sunday. To head off some questions, it was passing only by point by so you see some passes that should have happened but did not because there was no point by. Also we set up some video shooting runs of a few sevens together at times because it made for more interesting sevens video. Because this was edited on a flight to Singapore I had no music to mix in with the opening and slide sequences and just made do with good old engine noise. Any editing errors are blamed on the nice whiskeys I was having It is in HD high quality so big screen on your computer should work. Front facing cameras were the Go Pro 2 HD and VIO POV HD. Rear vision cam was an MD80 mini-cam. I was using external lapel mics clipped to the carpet in the boot of the seven under the tonneau. This is why you hear my diff whine/clank/rattle so clearly at times. Data was provided via RaceChrono GPS Touchscreen bluetoothed linked to a QStarz GPS unit mounted on the center tunnel. Data and front/rear videos were synced together using Race Render software before being edited in regular video editing software.

Congratulations! The CSR is a formidable package for road or track. I think you have made a wise decision. Which engine package did you decide to go for? Not sure if you are constructing the car or Caterham USA is? If you need the various manuals or CSR technical reference materials drop me a PM here and I can send you copies via regular email.

:nopity: I always wondered when I would get to use this smiley! :jester:

My vote goes for the 3M clear shield on the nosecone and front/rear wings. On my previous seven I had the Caterham rear win ali protectors which took a beating. For the current seven, I did not put the carbon rear protectors on the carbon rear wings....would have looked silly so I just clearshielded it. I also put clear helicopter tape over the lower front A arms to protect them. If it can protect helicopter blades from wind abrasion it will protect my A arms. I did not put the clearshield on the sides.....how could I chip that area....well.. one large dusty spin at New Jersey Motorsport Park proved that you can. Of course you can always put 10 coats of clear coat on the wings like Alaskossie!

Lockton Affinity has a good track day insurance program with a good team running it. Price really depends on your track background, car value, etc. The best prevention is not to drive 10/10ths, have a well maintained and prepped car, watch when you run with other cars (especially BIG ones) and not get too close, plus run on a circuit with a ton of run off. If you have space you can go off and slow down safely. The secret is not to do as both Kitcat and I did on the first track days with a brand new car.... There is another factor in how I prefer my track days - run with cars and drivers you trust. I trust the sevens group and generally Lotus drivers. They are late brakers, not too high top speed and can handle corners (except a purple Exige!). Sevens do not mix well with other cars on a track as our style of driving is very different.

Yes - a couple of auto insurers look at you tube videos either from a claim avoidance perspective or an underwriting risk perspective. Also in my case I am the Stig!

Excellent work by Glen! Although Tom, in session two you very nearly had me brown nosing you! Not sure why you stopped so radically on the neck/shoulder of the octopus but you can hear me lock up trying to avoid! :ack: For session 4 I have now worked out how to integrate the front and rear videos with the data. I can actually synchronize and overlay your footage into my videos which is pretty neat. Never done this video editing stuff before but I am enjoying it!

I have merged my videos with the GPS data for the second and third sessions of Thunderbolt. I will go the next step once I have received Tom's, Karl's, and Glenn's videos and merge them into sequence with mine. So as a short taster... Session 2 Thunderbolt Yes I know my diff sounds like a bucket of bolts...its a Caterham! Session 3 Thunderbolt Sorry - could not work out how to embed the image

Glenn Schostak who was driving the silvery Lotus Exige around at Thunderbolt and acting as official Sevens videographer has already come up with a short video from Saturday. :hurray: Well done at short notice! All we have to do is persuade him to buy a seven!! He is quicker at editing than me! :willy_nilly:

No awards given for funny captions but all contributions greatly appreciated for amusement of the forum! http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/CSR/Sevens%20track%20day%20Nov%202011/NJMPSE4.jpg

Last shot - me on the Lightning bowl. The banking gives a great angle. http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/CSR/Sevens%20track%20day%20Nov%202011/IMG_6241.jpg

My fat rear end: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/CSR/Sevens%20track%20day%20Nov%202011/IMG_6560.jpg Karl's fat rear end: :jester: I love that scaffolding/roll cage! http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/CSR/Sevens%20track%20day%20Nov%202011/IMG_6550.jpg Here is Mike and Ron (or maybe the instructor driving here?) http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/CSR/Sevens%20track%20day%20Nov%202011/IMG_6535.jpg

Karl keeping me company with Ron just behind him. We had just passed the GTR....just kidding. This thing has something like 800hp at the rear wheels (modified from standard) and passed us like we were parked. On the main straight at Thunderbolt, when these things go past you feel an air pressure bow wave and the ground rumbling - an awesome car. However, this GTR later went POOF on the main straight at Lightning and resulted in a black flag for all of us to go to the pits while they recovered the beast: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/CSR/Sevens%20track%20day%20Nov%202011/IMG_6472.jpg Ron and his instructor. Ron is going to be one very quick driver when he gets up to speed. He is already pretty fast after just 3 track days: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/CSR/Sevens%20track%20day%20Nov%202011/IMG_6498.jpg Me ahead of Tom and Karl http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/CSR/Sevens%20track%20day%20Nov%202011/IMG_6513.jpg

I love this shot - a freight train of sevens at Lightning! http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/CSR/Sevens%20track%20day%20Nov%202011/IMG_6300.jpg Mike leading us at Lightning before he took off at warp speed: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/CSR/Sevens%20track%20day%20Nov%202011/IMG_6470.jpg Mike's now gone so Tom takes Papa Seven duties: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/CSR/Sevens%20track%20day%20Nov%202011/IMG_6471.jpg Mike off on his own at his nemisis corner at Lightning - 2 spins here: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/CSR/Sevens%20track%20day%20Nov%202011/IMG_6481.jpg