DSP National Champion in an Ultralite

[rnr]

I got Ben Martinez (reigning DSP National Champion) to take my Ultralite out for a couple of runs at the Lotus Club autocross yesterday. We spent a lot of time sideways in the first two runs before we were able to get the rear suspension soft enough for him to get drive out of the turns. The brakes were a little too far rear biased which meant that he had to brake very early or the rear end would step out. It was fascinating to see a really really really good driver drive the car and see what it can do - still have a long way to go with setup though. Click through to youtube to watch the video in HD.

 

[slngsht]

from the 41 second mark to 44 second mark... WORK OF ART. Nicely done!

[MHKflyer52]

Very COOL....Now you have something to shoot for when you drive your car in an Auto-x as you now know the ability of the car....Fast Smooth what more can one ask for from a teacher of the cone attack....Very Cool.

[rnr]

It was an amazing experience to ride with him - he makes cars do thing that I never even think of. He did say that while the Ultralite has potential it is a lot of work to drive and still has a long way to go in setup terms.

 

This is my attempt to follow his lap. Not as much corner speed but is a pretty decent line though I did unfortunately run over the penultimate cone before the finish. I did have a faster lap later on but my passenger knocked the camera out of allignment when he got out :-(

 

[slngsht]

Unfortunately the only instructor I've had drive Frankn7 kinda sucked. I KNOW my car has a long way to go, but on one of his runs, he accidentally started off in 3rd and ran in 4th. In the other, he pushed brakes and gas at the same time in the stop box, and damn near hit a curb. I stopped asking him to drive it. He wasn't even close to my time.

 

On the other hand, I've had Brian Garfield drive my vette a few times, and it's always a treat to ride shotgun and watch how it's supposed to be done. I tried all day long and the closest I got was .5 seconds away from him just jumping in my car and driving it (with me as a passenger, and talking to me the whole time :crazy: )

 

The thing is, these guys are most impressive in 2 or 3 spots in any given course, when they can just make the car dance in transition. I still have to learn a lot, but the biggest thing with me is putting the car through a left/right (or right/left) transition, while having to reduce speed in the middle.

 

Comparing to what Brian was able to do, my braking was MUCH less decisive, and when I tried to be more aggressive, it was spin city. He just has the touch - as does the driver in your vid.

[rnr]

I've gotten rides with about half a dozen Solo Champs over the years and there are 2 things that stand out for me

 

1) They can get into any car and on the very first lap they can get to within 0.5 second of its ultimate pace. Ben usually drives a FR car but he can jump into a strangers Elise (MR) and immediately go faster than the original owner.

 

2) How quickly they can recover from mistakes and continue on without losing much time. I can usually catch my car when it wants to spin around but that usually costs me a lot of pace. These guys can instantly catch a slide and immediately change their lines to take the new position into account.

 

The final thing is that it feels like they carry more speed and are firmer with their inputs in turns especially the slaloms. Though its possibly that this may be partly an illusion because when you are driving you anticipate the motion and brace appropriately which reduces the sensation of speed.

[Mondo]

I took my car out yesterday after raising the rear about 1/2 an inch because it felt too stiff and the springs were pretty low on the shock (hope to ride more toward the middle of the shock stroke). Of course this screws up my corner weight set up but I have it marked to put back.

Didn't get too far as a front fender bracket broke so I'll try again later.

 

RNR, I look forward to reviewing your set up when you get it dialed in.

 

In motocross I couldn't quite make the "expert" class and the main reason for me was I couldn't quickly recover from my mistakes. The good guys always make it look so easy...

[powderbrake]

The brakes were a little too far rear biased which meant that he had to brake very early or the rear end would step out.

 

If your Ultralite has the 12" diameter Wilwoods in the rear, you have way too much brake back there. later models went to the smaller Subaru rear disks. I have the 12" rears , and I added a Brake Bias valve in the cockpit, which helped enormously. An alternative is to replace the calipers (Wilwood Dynalites) with ones with a smaller size piston

[rnr]

Didn't get too far as a front fender bracket broke so I'll try again later.

 

After having the fenders fall off 3 separate times I'm looking into the practicality of having someone machine a billet support. Do you know if anyone has tried that before?

 

If your Ultralite has the 12" diameter Wilwoods in the rear, you have way too much brake back there. later models went to the smaller Subaru rear disks. I have the 12" rears , and I added a Brake Bias valve in the cockpit, which helped enormously. An alternative is to replace the calipers (Wilwood Dynalites) with ones with a smaller size piston

 

I do have the 12" Willwoods in the rear though the bigger problem was the bias was actually turned all the way to the rear as well. I ended up readjusting it to even front to rear and it became a lot better. A remote valve setup is definitely on the shopping list.

[Mondo]

It's kind of funny as I just reinforced them like Powderbrakes (added a strip of metal to make a T out of the bottom brackets) but it broke right over the mounting bolt to the spindle. I'll have to reinforce that area.

 

I have my bias bar all the way forward right now and plan on a remote valve too.

[powderbrake]

You have to reinforce the fender brace bend area as well .

 

Here's some pics of the pieces I made, sorry , cant find the finally welded pics.

 

Weld the pieces all around at the bend, the long tee piece, just weld 1" alternate side for full length.

This fix has worked perfectly for the last 5000 miles

[rnr]

Jerry, was your fender support basically made of a single sheet of flat metal and bent at right angles to form the upright mount? Mine is completely different and is made of hollow square tube that is welded onto a flat metal support which is bolted to the upright. Yours looks like a much more practical and beefy design especially with your additional T-brackets.

[Mondo]

Thanks for the pics Jerry... it was those small pieces near the bolt hole that I didn't have

[powderbrake]

Jerry, was your fender support basically made of a single sheet of flat metal and bent at right angles to form the upright mount? Mine is completely different and is made of hollow square tube that is welded onto a flat metal support which is bolted to the upright. Yours looks like a much more practical and beefy design especially with your additional T-brackets.

 

Mine is the flat metal.

 

Another solution which I had seen was a about a 10 " piece of metal welded between the top of the flat part that fits on the spindle, and the other end is welded about where the curve is that goes around the tire. This provides a triangular structure which should not vibrate. I cannot vouch for this, just something I have seen.

[WestTexasS2K]

1/4 flat metal strap welded on like Jerry has shown works really well. I have over 10k miles with that same bracket with no issues. They break pretty quick without them.

 

Next suggestion is a bias valve in the cockpit is nice to have, but I still had to much rear bias even with it adjusted all the way down. I ended up putting the 1.38 4 piston calipers on the rear and they worked great in conjunction with the bias valve. I liked having the bias valve in reach for tuning while you are on the track. You can waste alot of session time tuning it if you put it under the hood. You have to adjust, go back out, test come in adjust ect.

[rnr]

Thanks guys

[joshesh]

I got Ben Martinez (reigning DSP National Champion) to take my Ultralite out for a couple of runs at the Lotus Club autocross yesterday. We spent a lot of time sideways in the first two runs before we were able to get the rear suspension soft enough for him to get drive out of the turns. The brakes were a little too far rear biased which meant that he had to brake very early or the rear end would step out. It was fascinating to see a really really really good driver drive the car and see what it can do - still have a long way to go with setup though. Click through to youtube to watch the video in HD.

 

 

Funny timing, the one lotus club autox I missed in the past 4 years was the one you were at. Go figure.

 

Ben is a good friend of mine, and he is a very good driver as the video shows... I like to race against him at the local events, but my evo usually ends up a bit faster even after the pax index evens things out.

 

Here is the results from last lotus club season: http://gglotus.org/ggautox/2011Rd6-Pts.pdf

 

Ben still comes out with his merkur xrati