Tuesday, December 15, 2015 - 12:39 pm, by: Ben Lipman(Ben12a)
It has been a busy few days. The passenger side skirt has been completed, including a little work on the underside to tie it into the factory floor.
The car was turned around in the garage and the drivers side started. This side was much quicker as I already had all the measurements and technique sorted. The carbon/Kevlar/epoxy composite is currently curing.
Friday, December 18, 2015 - 02:57 pm, by: Ben Lipman(Ben12a)
There is a cover to join the guard to the skirt. I am reusing the same pieces from the previous set of skirts. I am waiting to make up some small carbon pieces to join them up, as the last set used blocks of MDF painted black at the top, and metal gutter mesh at the bottom.
The bits of metal I cut out were in the way of my skirt design. They weigh something, but not much. They al went in a tip run so I didn't get to weigh them. I can say the old skirts, inner guards, brackets, and metal and other junk I pulled out weighed in at 12kg(approx. 6kg per side). The new skirts weigh in at 3kg (1.4kg each) so the car is another 9kg lighter.
I was going to either cut out or swiss cheese the sill panels, but looking at the thickness of the steel it probably isn't worth it.
In that video, are you talking about the pan across the car at the start?
Friday, December 18, 2015 - 07:52 pm, by: Andrew McKellar(Toymax)
Yeah the pan across the car, which also shows Aaron wandering around taking pics, but also about halfway through they are interviewing folks in the crowd, and your car blats through in the background on one of your runs, then later (about 2/3 through) they are highlighting the run from another car and in the background yours is moving up to the start line.
3 shots in one 25-minute video makes you famous.
Ben Lipman Goo Roo SA Soarer TT manual, plus TT track car, plus a spare shell
Friday, December 18, 2015 - 09:30 pm, by: Ben Lipman(Ben12a)
I saw the first and third, but totally missed the one in the middle. Well spotted.
I want to go back next year with more power, more revs, and revised aero. I would love to see 250kph.
I am currently working on a new rear diffuser. I am building the mould out of MDF. The design exploits the rules as much as possible: beginning at the axle line and running just passed the factory bumper location. In order to run a 1200mm wide diffuser, I have had to neck it in at the front. I did this using a NACA duct design spreadsheet. I am also incorporating generous radii inside the diffuser walls, and have pre-planned fins or vanes in the design, so their mounting points will be recessed in the diffuser. This has the added benefit of increasing the cross section on the diffuser roof, increasing rigidity for no weight penalty.
Pics to follow when I recover the camera from the sawdust...
Ben Lipman Goo Roo SA Soarer TT manual, plus TT track car, plus a spare shell
Wednesday, December 23, 2015 - 09:59 pm, by: Ben Lipman(Ben12a)
After the side skirts were completed I turned my attention to the rear of the car. The original aluminium sheet metal diffuser has served me well, but it is well and truly time for an update. It was designed to fit between the old twin exhaust and as such was only half as large as it could have been. So it got ripped out.
Cardboard was used to sketch out the dimensions I had to work with.
Then MDF was used to start the mould.
The shape was roughed out using the MDF, and fine tuned using builders bog.
The whole thing was coated in polyurethane and polished and waxed.
Ben Lipman Goo Roo SA Soarer TT manual, plus TT track car, plus a spare shell
Wednesday, December 23, 2015 - 10:07 pm, by: Ben Lipman(Ben12a)
The diffuser came out of the mould today. I am in the process of making some fences (vanes?) to go inside the diffuser, as well as bonding mounts to it etc.
Thursday, December 24, 2015 - 09:08 am, by: Andrew McKellar(Toymax)
Very nice work mate. Did the MDF mould survive? Would be happy to discuss doing same operation with my diffuser, which is also aluminium and not optimum design.
And yep, I recognise that photo. It's my old house, isn't it?
Ben Lipman Goo Roo SA Soarer TT manual, plus TT track car, plus a spare shell
Thursday, December 24, 2015 - 12:19 pm, by: Ben Lipman(Ben12a)
MDF moulds work perfectly. I did scratch the clear coat because I used screwdrivers to extract the part. It states very clearly in every text I own, NOT to use metal tools for this very reason. I used wooden wedges on the fin/vane mould and didn't damage it at all.
Overnight I straightened the old fences from behind the rear wheels with the gentle application of heat and clamping. These were reused to form the outer vanes in the diffuser.
The central vanes were formed from a simple 'U' channel mould made from MDF. The composite part was then cut on a diagonal to form two vanes or fins. These were then bonded to the diffuser in the recesses by use of sikaflex and wide flanged rivets with cup washers on the underside to try and prevent pull through of the rivets.
I am about to go back out to the garage and work out how I want to mount it and what I am doing with the 'diff guard' at the front of the diffuser. I am also keen to provide some sort of fence to keep the airflow going around the topside of the diffuser.
Saturday, December 26, 2015 - 10:16 pm, by: Ben Lipman(Ben12a)
Feel free to come down. I am home for the next two weeks. Got lots of work in the garage to do.
Essentially finished the body work today. The diffuser put up a tough fight. Mounting it was a challenge. The rear tow hook had to be removed, cut and welded and then remounted.
I decided to make up some fences for the topside of the diffuser.
I also had to modify my diff guard/shield to act as the mounting point for the leading edge of the diffuser.
Pretty happy over all though.
Still need to remount the side fences on the guards. I have made up some neat carbon right angle, and a wedge shaped 'U' channel mount for the top edge.
Sunday, December 27, 2015 - 06:49 am, by: Ben Lipman(Ben12a)
G'day mate, glad you like it. The car is actually a factory manual, and this is the original box. It is a factory LSD too.
When I fitted the Munro Racing high flow CT12a turbos I also started running a Haltech PS2000, which saw the power jump to 254rwkw on pump with the factory injectors maxxed out. 1000cc injectors and a swich to e85 saw 303rwkw.
Wednesday, January 06, 2016 - 09:48 pm, by: Ben Lipman(Ben12a)
Been another busy week so far. This week I removed the factory ignition loom, ignitor, and superspark coils. In went the 1NZ coils and loom made by Matt for me a few years ago.
Initially the car would not start, backfiring and carrying on. It was suggested it might be a firing order issue, but after checking the loom twice I was convinced I had it connected to the Haltech correctly.
I jumped feet first into the PS2000 setup page to have a look. The ignition page looked OK, but the main setup page had the firing order 1-2-3-4-5-6. Knowing the firing order is actually 1-5-3-6-2-4, I tentatively changed it in the Setup. With no small amount of trepidation I fired the car up. It started fine, but idled quite rough. By this stage I was out of ideas.
Facebook came to the rescue, with Jamie, a tuner from QLD, messaging me and helping me diagnose the issue. It seems when the Haltech was wired in the coils and injectors were wired in firing order, not cylinder order.
After pulling the loom plug apart and changing the pins to the firing order, and changing the firing order back to 1-2-3-4-5-6 in the setup menu the car started and ran fine. This was a great relief to me, but some annoyance to everyone else at 9:30pm last night.
The other thing that has kept me occupied the last few days is the installation of the new Munro Racing CT20 stage 4 highflow turbos and Kurt's custom CT20 to 1JZ manifold and piping kit. The turbos look great, and the piping kit came with everything needed to put it together apart from time.
I decide to port match the Compressor housing to Kurt's hot pipes before putting them in.
I was unable to find anyone to ceramic coat the pipes for me, so I did it myself. Not sure how good the stuff from a can will be, but it is better than nothing.
I also made up a new front pipe as my old one was just not quite perfectly lined up. I figured I had a bunch of 3 inch exhaust tubing taking up space in the corner anyway.
It is all in and running, but I have two small leaks with the oil feed lines I am using, and the OEM rubber oil return hose will not seal. Toyota are getting me a new oil return hose for $35. I am trying to sort the oil feed leaks at the moment. I cant send it to the tuners until I find a solution to that little problem.
Ben Lipman Goo Roo SA Soarer TT manual, plus TT track car, plus a spare shell
Friday, January 08, 2016 - 09:00 pm, by: Ben Lipman(Ben12a)
All the oil leaks are fixed. New hose fixed the front oil drain leak, and reusing the old OEM oil feeds fixed the other leaks. Not sure why the AN style fittings on the ebay oil feeds leaked so badly - might just have to put that down to poorly/cheaply made. The OEM feeds needed a fair bit of manipulation to get to line up with the oil ports on the side of the block, but they managed.
It is all back together and has been fired up and warmed up. It sounds very tough when you give it a rev. I am very keen to dyno this thing and then get in and drive it.
Made up a heat shield for the intake filters but first making a paper template, then making it in 0.5mm ally before finally cutting the shape out of 1.6mm aluminium scrap.
I still need to make a lid to turn this shield into an air box of sorts. Due to the nature of the location, the intercooler pipe, and the position of the intakes being offset the lid will be a complex three dimensional shape. I am thinking I might tape a bit of cardboard or rubber over the top of everything and then do a wet layup of glass or carbon to create a lid for the box that seals perfectly.
Monday, March 14, 2016 - 09:06 pm, by: Ben Lipman(Ben12a)
I had been thinking about the front splitter failure at the Snowy Mountains 1000. I don't know if it was caused by the splitter drooping and dragging on the track and subsequently failing, or if it failed and then hit the runway.
It failed at 230kph. It is possible I will hit speeds of 250kph at Phillip Island. Whilst I did a pretty good job at wrapping the leftovers in carbon and Kevlar into one single piece again, I decided maybe it was time to add some supports.
I also decided to make some front canards (dive planes in some circles) for a little bit of additional front downforce. I haven't run the car with the new skirts and massive rear diffuser so I am shooting in the dark at what the balance will be like.
The canards were made by first shaping a curved section from aluminium sheet, and then taping this to the front bar in position. Fibreglass was laid over the back of the aluminium to make it stiff enough to mould from. Carbon was laid over the aluminium and allowed to go off. The aluminium was removed and the canard trimmed to shape. It was then bonded and riveted to the front bar.
Friday, March 18, 2016 - 06:27 am, by: Ben Lipman(Ben12a)
They effectively extend the air dam out to the side of the car, and combined with the side fences increase front downforce for a small increase in frontal area (hence drag).
They work by the vertical rear fence impeding air flow down the side of the splitter. The side fence stops air 'spilling' off the side of the splitter a bit like end plates on a wing. This causes an increase in air pressure, which combined with the lower air pressure beneath the splitter creates a pressure differential creating downforce.
Friday, March 18, 2016 - 10:25 am, by: Andrew McKellar(Toymax)
Kind of what I figured.
Would they not be better with a "ramp" up the front face of the vertical rear fence, similar in profile to the canard, which should reduce drag by tipping the airflow up and over the fence?
Or
Is it acting like a Gurney flap, in which case should it not be as high as you have it?
Friday, March 18, 2016 - 10:39 am, by: Andrew McKellar(Toymax)
The 2015/16 Mustang has air ducts running from outside the lower fog lights and out through the guards to spill air around the outside of the car in the same way I think you are trying to achieve. Might be something for you to consider too.
Ben Lipman Goo Roo SA Soarer TT manual, plus TT track car, plus a spare shell
Friday, March 18, 2016 - 06:03 pm, by: Ben Lipman(Ben12a)
Andrew McKellar wrote on Friday, March 18, 2016 - 10:25 am:
Would they not be better with a "ramp" up the front face of the vertical rear fence, similar in profile to the canard, which should reduce drag by tipping the airflow up and over the fence?
That is another way of doing it- make winglets. Then you could add a guerney flap to the winglet to make it more efficient.
Regardless of its shape frontal area is still frontal area and punches the same size hole in the air.
What I am doing is using the principle of an air dam and splitter, combined with end fences. I have some doctrine on it somewhere in either a Joseph Katz or Simon McBeath book somewhere.