Hi Guys, I am thinking about fitting a dry sump setup to my race elise (Exige bodied) This would enable me to lower engine an inch or two, help protect engine massivly and also keep oil cooler by the fact that system will be carrying 3 extra litres. My idea would be to mount the oil tank in the front of the car to help balance out weight.
Thoughts and comments appreciated.
Which series are intending to race in, Tony?
Hi, was thinking about possibly entering Elise Trophy or possibly BARC North West Championship. I want to keep car with K series, I think it is a shame that so may cars are being fitted with other engines, the idea of a turbo charged engine in a nimble light chassis doesn’t float my boat.
Well if you’re thinking about the Elise Trophy, forget about a dry sump!
Suggest you get hold of a copy of the “proposed regulations” for next year, BEFORE you do any modifications
Thanks for advice, at least you have made my mind up about running in Trophy series. A race series that promotes conversion of original spec cars to be fitted with Audi turbo and supercharged Honda engines, sequential gearboxes and other expensive modifications but does not allow dry sumping of engines for reliability sakes is just stupid.
Thanks for advice, at least you have made my mind up about running in Trophy series. A race series that promotes conversion of original spec cars to be fitted with Audi turbo and supercharged Honda engines, sequential gearboxes and other expensive modifications but does not allow dry sumping of engines for reliability sakes is just stupid.
Errr…Tony, you’re jumping in at the deep end there mate!
I said check the “proposed rules” for next season, not think about what has been allowed in the past
Hi Tony,
The good points of the dry sump are what you’ve already mentioned but the downsides I can think of are:
Where does the exhaust manifold go if you lower the engine?
How far can you actually lower the engine? The bellhousing is one of the limiting factors aswell as the sump.
The driveshaft angles get awful when the engine is lowered.
and lastly you need to re-engineer all the engine mounts.
Must say I agree with the comment about engine swaps,though it’s not aimed at the LOT series. Not that I have any business saying what engine people want to put in their own car,that’s totally up to them and good luck to them too.
It’s just on the racing side of things I thinks it’s unreasonable that non homologated ‘specials’ stuff should be allowed to run against the homologated in any series/championship class. I think that’s the way the Trophy series could be heading if Lotus get directly involved as why would they want any Audi/Ford/Honda conversion beating their Toyota’s.
Cheers
Edited to add :-
Just spotted this in the Europe Cup webpage
‘…the 2009 Model Year Exige Cup 260 is fully homologated for road use in Europe and key markets in Asia - a must have for many race competition programmes where a road legal car has to be entered.’
Steve - seems you’re not aware of the proposed rules for next year either!
Nope you’re right about that! Are they available anywhere Rob?
Nope you’re right about that! Are they available anywhere Rob?
Steve
Series Registered drivers are already aware of the proposals, which I believe are due to be finalised pretty soon (possibly after this weekend’s races at Silverstone). But in a nutshell, in 2009 there will be only 2 classes - “Class A” (production as presently), & a “Modified Class”. Note: just 2 Classes (unlike the present structure).
“Modified”, in simple terms, having a power/weight ratio based upon that of the s/c 211, which should attract enough cars on the grid to make that race financially viable for the organisers, & competitors alike. If there are not enough entries, expect 2 full grids of Class A cars.
It appears that very few (if any) of the present Class A drivers aspire to “move up”, & there are now too few Class B & C chariots to make a second grid viable. An increasing number of folk are looking at running 211s, so something has to change, whilst giving everyone the chance to get on the podium!
I’m sure that all will be become clear (to me too!) in the not too distant future, after the lengthy consultation stage between the organisers & existing registered drivers is concluded.
You will have seen from other threads that Russ/Sean/Evosal are considering running cars in more than one series ie Class A in LOT, & beasties in LMA etc.
Looks like a busy 2009 season for some folk!
Sorry Rob, didn’t mean to go off on one, seems like there will be plenty of changes that might make Trophy series more attractive. Look forward to seeing 2009 regs.
Cheers Steve for your input, regarding exhaust I was looking at bringing it around and over the top, probably when I way it all up too much effort for the gains I may or may not see. How is your car going, you still doing BARC champs?
Sorry Rob, didn’t mean to go off on one…
No probs, Tony, I didn’t take it that way, just wanted to make sure you knew the score for 2009, before possibly incurring a lot of expense.
Thanks very much for that info Rob. erm… so pretty much going back to the Mid engined sportscar series rules! Where were all these people when we were running around with undersize grids in the MESC?!
Tony, I still think a dry sump is a good idea if the series allows, you don’t HAVE to lower the engine though, that way you could have the majority of the benefits with none of the drawbacks…
I’ve just finished for this season but will be doing the BARC Championship again next year and the car has run pretty great all year.