Elise Testing - Brands

[Englebert]

Back early from our first test of the season due to a crank seal going... bloody Lotus! Car is now at 250bhp with lower revs and 697kg despite gaining air jacks and a few other gizmos... pushed Rob Collard's BTCC car along!

The car also has new uprights developed in-house, lowering the car by an inch. This means we have reverted to a modified road splitter as the motorsport item was too low. The good news was despite only having half an hour in the car, we were already a second quicker than last season so looking forward to the weekend where we have another day booked!

Some piccies... note neater loom (emptier engine bay), ECU inside, major controls moved.

 

[philthy]

Looking good mate, great result with the power. Loving the gold plated firewall and centre seat.

We are in the middle of exigifi-ing the Honda right now, car is back from being painted.

Still has the motorsport splitter fitted in those pics?

 

[powey]

can I have a go?

 

[Englebert]

My bad, must have chopped the MSport splitter!

Sure you can have a go... but if you break it you pay for it. Considering it always breaks its probably going to cost you something

 

[Ian_182]

What a great looking toy

 

[Seedy172]

omg.. thats awesome! plus, a second a lap is pretty impressive. great work

 

[Gareth]

air jacks, yummy!

 

[Justin]

Thats just awesome!

how do you get in it? a normal elise is bad enough with the seat right there when you fall in!

 

[Englebert]

I crawl out on all fours! Getting in is ok, being so narrow its not much different from a normal Elise.

 

[jon_r]

Was off today as well! Dear oh dear.

 

[Ian_182]

We need pics of the blonde aswell.

 

[Munson]

Elise??

 

[tom_dot_COM]

Is that just a track car? or do you race in a series with it as well?
If so which one?

Looks like amazing fun
Wonder how much faster than a clio cup race car it would be - similar weight but extra 50hp

 

[Naith]

brilliant. love it

airjacks, i remember when one jammed on a seat at the 24hr race, mini hiroshima

 

[Englebert]

Yeah the noise they make scares me...

Roy it's a Motorsport Elise, being released as a race car (it's not road legal) before the S1 Exige came out.

It is raced in Britcar and Lotus Trophy.

 

[Munson]

Ah ok. I thought I was obviously missing something

Awesome machine :approve:

 

[Christopher]

Proper job!

 

[Ali]

AWESOME! Are you racing it this season?

 

[Jon.L]

looks the part

 

[maynard]

sweet really like that. air jacks are pretty cool too.

 

[Pep]

Mint!

No cage?

 

[Icarus]

It looked to be going well when I saw it today mate. Was very impressed with some of the corner entry speeds you were managing!

I was with Motorbase for most of the day but had a walk around to see who else was out and about ;-)

What data acq are you running on the car?

Cheers
M

 

[Ollie82.]

Liking the central driving position. Is it running a standard shift or is it a sequential box?

 

[Rich]

I want it !

All the best for the coming season.

 

[Andy.]

One sexy beast of a car!

 

[jamie.91]

i wish i had that car, sooooo jealous lol

seriously tho, mint motor

jamie

 

[Englebert]

Thanks guys... its nice to be driving it again but despite all the work we've done to try and make it reliable i can't see the engine and/or gearbox holding for some of the longer races in Britcar this season!

It is a Quaife sequential, well known for being a bit pants when it comes to reliability. Had endless issues with it...

Should have said hello Icarus, are you there on Saturday? Remind me what colour scheme your Clio is...? Not sure on the data acquisition...something i've not heard of.

 

[jonnyboy]

Nice. Whats your connection with the team M8? Can I be your freind?

 

[Englebert]

It's my dad's car fella, we pay the team for support and development. The owner was one of the original engineers for the Motorsport Elise project so it's quite handy!

 

[Icarus]

Thanks guys... its nice to be driving it again but despite all the work we've done to try and make it reliable i can't see the engine and/or gearbox holding for some of the longer races in Britcar this season!

It is a Quaife sequential, well known for being a bit pants when it comes to reliability. Had endless issues with it...

Should have said hello Icarus, are you there on Saturday? Remind me what colour scheme your Clio is...? Not sure on the data acquisition...something i've not heard of.

I would have come and said hello but was absolutely snowed under for the most part mate. Those BTCC lads get their moneys worth!

The Clio is black, with a few stickers. No fancy colour schemes!

Do you run any sort of data logging on the car? If not then you need some! Not only because it'll help with going faster but you'l be able to log important stuff such as gear box oil temps, shift times, gear cut speed/length, RPM immediately post downshift etc. etc. and work out how to increase engine/gearbox life and reliability.

A lot of my experience is very much biased towards whole car development with a focus on race reliability and component lifing so if you want a chat about how to make it go the distance you know where I am ;-)

Cheers
M

 

[Englebert]

Were you with Rob Collard then?

Oh yeah, don't worry, we do have datalogging but i'm not sure what it is... its just been 5 months since i've seen the car! We have an inboard camera too although my first thing to mention on Saturday is we should make more use of it

My dad and i are a bit depressed by the lack of reliability with the car as it was only meant to be a stop gap... not a bottomless cash pit. Luckily there was no engine damage by the looks of things but the gear linkage on the Quaife is buggered so the team is going to have to re-engineer that ready for Saturday. I think we've made everything else reliable, but of course the engine/gearbox are the fundamentals that have to work!

Frankly i wish we could wind the clock back 6 months and drop a Honda engine in now.

 

[Icarus]

Yes I was supporting various bits of electronics package.

Make use of that data logging! As a minimum get some K-Types onto the sump, block, head, gearbox casing and idealy some temp sensing for fluids as well. This way you can see what temps are going where and what may be causing the failures.

Stuff like gear linkages etc. are easy to make reliable with correct engineering in the first place - especialy as you can overspec them massively with minimal impact on weight.

It sounds like you need to take a step back and do a stock take to assess exactly what your major weak points are, if this is percieved or actual and how you can address the most urgent/most damaging ones with the budget available. However in order to do that you're going to need proper data on the engine and gearbox packages to make an informed decision.

PM me what data logging kit you have and what its logging/where. I'll send you a list of sensors and where to put them so you can build up a model of what is happening where, how things are warming up, if the are running at ideal temps etc. etc. . It could be something as simple as you're getting on it hard before the box oil is at ideal temps for example.

If you want to get really trick you can straingauge a few bits (like engine block, sump, gearbox casing) to measure actual loads through components.

Cheers
M

 

[MarkCup]

LOL at the air-jacks and gold plating...I so wish I was you.

 

[Aluco]

That is actually f**king jaw dropping buddy.

 

[Icarus]

Just spotted you've got a DL1 - whilst they're very much a club level logger and very limited in what they and the software can do it's still enough for you to get a few inputs into for temp logging etc. They logging rate (only 100hz) isn't really high enough for some engine and gearbox measurements but it'll be fine for temps.

For the sake of 250 quid of sensors definately look into it - it will at least give you an idea of where some reliability issues are coming from ;-)

Would be well worth seeing if you could get an old Delta Pro from somewhere - that'll give you 500hz logging and allow you to use Pi Toolbox for analysis..... which is the same kit as the Brawn GP boys are using!

Cheers
M