Santa Came early - R400 Roller Barrel Conversion!

[SK400]

I finally had the chance to try the car for the first time on a track this season last weekend. I joined my good friends at NJMP for a fun HPDE event and was able to compare and contrast this year's performance with that of last year, before installing the throttle bodies and bigger injectors. I did have a fresh set of tires which counts for a lot but with this in mind, I was able to shave about 1.5s per lap without any particularly refined / consistent driving and with some traffic on the track. The big noticeable differences were (a) top speed, where I used to max out at 127 - 128 mph and now reaching 134 - 135 mph at the end of the NJMP lightning straight, (b) gear change timing especially from 5 to 6 coming out of turn 5 and 8 (the bowl) and © the sound! I can finally hear my car over the exhaustless miatas and porsche caymans who can pierce your ear drums a mile away..

 

So overall - a good upgrade I would say and would encourage anyone not subject to track decibel limitations to consider this throttle body upgrade for their R300 - R400... the car comes alive.

[Kitcat]

That's a lot of time to shave off, considering you were already very close to the pointy end of the sword on that track. Jeez, 135 mph on the straight? I think that's about what the uber-Caterhams hit there. I am at about 118 mph in my Zetec, my X-flow hit 106 mph. Maybe your mph # is somewhat a function of carrying more speed thru the bowl and onto the straight (tires)?

Edited May 23, 2017 by Kitcat

[yellowss7]

New Tires, a another 10 hp and HUGE BALLS!!! That's the ticket. As you know, Seb is very motivated to excel. Just make sure you are looking in your mirrors and have your arm ready to point him by. :driving: Tom

[MichaelD]

Seb,

 

The car looks great. Are you running 20 or 23" tires?

[SK400]

Micheal

Avon states 22" diameter for my size of rear ZZR tires.. (if that's your question). I'm really revving, probably around 7600 to 7700 RPM to get those speeds. Which is a lot for this engine... Tail wind might have helped a bit that day.

[SK400]

I was supposed to join a few friends at NJMP last weekend for another fun day.. but the weather was uncooperative so we decided to postpone the event. Instead, I found out that EMRA was hosting an event at Limerock on Saturday. It was a very last minute decision but glad I went (a family friend of mine, long time member and instructor at the club had reached out). A good and fun club and we benefited from lots of track time and no track congestion. The weather held for the day so i was able to drive my car from home to the track and back. I had wanted to try Limerock with the new roller barrels .. and see if i would be black flagged because of sound. I prepped the car installing my catalytic converter and added back the R500 air filter carbon fiber cover to suppress sound as much as possible (which saps 6HP per earlier dyno test!). Long story short.., it worked. No black flag and no complaints from the club. In fact there were several other cars that were much louder than i was.. I even removed the carbon cover for sessions 3 and 4, with no issues. The car performed well and posted a 58:25 s but with still a bit more understeer than i'd like especially in turn 1 and still some sloppy driving. Something i'll play with and try to tune out next summer (both the understeer and the sloppy driving). Now that "sound" does not seem to be an issue after all, I think that with a new set of avon ZZR A24, the cat bypass installed, the chassis slightly retuned, and a lot better and consistent driving from me, this car can probably break into the 57 s range.. and why not in the upper 56s at Limerock. I think it is possible. These cars are quick! .. and yes, roller barrels are terrific.