Time Attack

The Oily Bits S2 Specific Topics
1

Bit of a long one - I suggest a cup of tea and maybe even a biccy before you start reading!

As some people on here might know, we are in the process of building an Ultima GTR with a view to entering the Britcar championship at some point during the summer. We were due to get the car ready for last season, however, the engine is being sourced from the US, and since the exchange rate has plummeted it has severely effected our budget. We put off buying the engine until the exchange rate improves, so we are planning to have the car ready by August time to compete in the last few rounds of the year with a bit of luck and a following wind, then develop the car over the winter and give the championship a damn good go next year.

In the mean time, I am wanting to get some kind of car action going so I can keep my driving sharp in the interim. I have raced karts at various levels for years, but due to the impending move to cars we have decided not to go to the expense and effort of pursuing this this season, besides which it has lost its appeal for a variety of factors.

I have heard many good things about the Time Attack championship, and am very keen to enter it with the Lotus in the mean time to give us a bit more exposure to car racing. The problem I have is, my car being a ‘standard’ S2 Exige NA (and my everyday driver), I am starting to think I am going to be left wanting on power slightly. In terms of the competition, there are a few Porsche 968’s, BMW E30’s which would be comparable power wise, and a rather hot (so I am told) Tuscan.

The aim of entering is to get a bit more experience of cars before taking such a major plunge, as well as test out things like radio and telemetry systems etc, but whilst achieving all that, any small but considerable changes I can make to the car to make it more competitive would be great! Another aim is to build up a decent relationship with some sponsors as well as scout out potential customer drives for the Britcar championship too.

What changes/upgrades should I make? My car spec is as follows: Exige S2 NA ('05), Goodrich braided hoses, Lotus Stage 2 exhaust, Pipercross VIS induction kit, Nitron one way’s…and a Lotus Sport sun visor strip :slight_smile:. I am looking to get the toe link kit fitted and do a full refresh of suspension bushes and ball joints before anything else. Clearly harnesses, bar, tow loops and a fire extinguisher are necessary too. Part of the appeal for me is to have a car which we can drive up to the events and drive home again. The budget is a tricky one, I have to consider anything spent here detracts from the Ultima budget, so whilst there is a little money in the pot, its best not to go nuts. Any help/advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

If anyone is interested in the Ultima build, see below:

http://www.macgracing.co.uk/ultima.html

Click on ‘The Build’ bottom right

Thanks,

Jonny

2

I’ve been looking at Time Attack as well. My car is also currently N/A. Bottom line is that at almost all tracks I’m about 4 seconds off last years (bottom step of the) podium pace, and thats in a car that is already modified beyond elise trophy spec and is a little quicker than ET poll.

Rough spec:
Suspension - Ohlins 2 way 46mm, running approx 105mm ride height
Weight - lightweight engine lid, exhaust, battery, seats, wheels etc, approx 860kg.
Power - Cams, exhaust and induction, remap 10 bhp and 20 lbft extra
Aero - 211 rear wing.


There is no way that I can find that sort of extra pace without adding forced induction, and out of the box solutions like the Katana kit aren’t going to be enough, so you’d have to consider something bespoke, and that will definitely eat into your Ultima budget.

If you want to do something competitive in the car then perhaps you could look at sprinting.

3

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I take it thath you have participated in the Elise Trophy from your post? It is something that appeals to me, but I know very little about the series and the classes that run in it etc, but it is my understanding (purely from talking to people that have been involved) that it is far from ‘non contact’, so that is what has pushed me away from that, otherwise the principle of it would be great.

As far as TA goes, we would be doing it purely as a learning process; in terms of learning all the tricks the tuners get up to, as well as the bits I suggested in my earlier post. Everyone involved with it I have spoken to about it says how friendly everyone else is and what a great atmosphere it is. Really we are looking to learn as much as possible, but whilst not looking to be front running, having some competition and not being miles off the pace would be nice!

Seems like you have managed a good weight savings there, I take it yours is an S2 too? Some reasonable power hikes too given the minimal mods. For some reason, sprinting just does not interest me, I had a go at curborough and it just did not appeal at all, don’ treally know why but there we go! I suppose the lack of time on track etc is part of that. In terms of something bespoke, it would have to be sub 3l and not forced induction to stay within class rules, otherwise you are up again with the ‘big boys’ in their crazy supras, evos etc. with 100’s more horses at their disposal. Spent the majority of looking on ebay last night for audi engines, plenty about, but I have no conept of how much work is involved or how reliable the car can realisitically be made. Again, as you state this is a hefty wallop on the budget sadly.

4

Jon

Have you spoken with Steve Guglielmi? He’s a super bloke, & of course a TA frontrunner. Not a million miles from you either. http://www.guglielmimotorsport.co.uk/

5

Indeed I spoke to him yesterday thanks! He also gave the view that we would be underpowered, but I think really it is more of a development process than anything else. I will look to redesign a fair few components to reduce weight and improve performance (I am a mechanical engineer with an automotive engineering degree, so time will be the main constraint), which will give us experience in developing the car so that we can apply the same knowledge to the Ultima, whilst also building up a relationship with a local machine shop.

My view is that given a decent budget it is relatively ‘straight forward’ to go to a reputable supplier to bolt in some enormous power unit and get speed that way, I am hoping we can be a bit more crafty than that and try to learn as much as possible without going down that route. I don’t think for one second we will be ultra competitive, but getting close to cars that are a similar weight with double the power (and more in some cases) will be quite an achievement. Kind of goes with the Colin Chapman’s original philosophy I suppose!

I think I have talked myself into it, it will be a challenge thats for sure, I am just trying to give us the best possible chance by getting info on here from those with more knowledge than I have of the car and its weaknesses.

6

Good luck - I’m sure that all of us here will be interested to follow your progress, so keep us informed! :slight_smile:

7

In my opinion, if your aim is to do Britcar and you want to use this year to gain more experiance, then Time Attack would be no use at all. I think you should try getting out on track with other cars and do some racing. You should do the Elise Trophy. A standard S2 Exige fits nicely into the series. There is now only one class.

I raced my Exige in the Elise trophy for the last three years and I did the Mid-engined Sports car series for a year before that.

There is contact in Elise Trophy, but it is mainly at the back of the grid.It is very competitive though with some really good drivers and would be an excellent place to gain some race craft. In my three years I only ever had one bit of contact and that was a pure accident by both parties.

Britcar is far from no contact, the budgets there are far bigger and a lot of the drivers can afford to have a bit of pushing and shoveing.

Good luck in what ever you end up doing. As I said I have done Elise Trophy since day 1 and we (JSRacing) are preparing and managing a couple of cars in it for next year. We also prepare and run a car in the GT Cup, which is another place you would be elidgable with your Lotus and your Ultima!

Sean…

8

I’m doing Time Attack this year because it’s relatively good value, covers a good range of circuits, has a good tyre deal and will be lots of fun without the challenge of full-on racing.

I’ll be in Club class and will probably struggle at some circuits with my 380ish bhp and 750kg’s. A few of the cars with their 800bhp plus, just drive past on the straights.

Looking forward to it very much.

9

Did you finally resolve the knocking issues with your new Nitrons…! :slight_smile:

10

One of my friends tried to convince me into to doing TA after going out with me at Snetterton. He thought the car (after removing some weight) would do quite well in the club class, I did however point out I drove like a girl etc which did not convince him in the slightest, as the minimum requirements are quite low it is easy to change a road car to meet the scrutineers needs. I am now hoping to try my hand in the Toyota sprint series this year as it is cheap and I only need to fit an extingusher (i think) to be able to enter.

11

Nope - went to the factory and spent a day there, conclusion is it must be ball joints, so they are on the agenda.

Sean B - I don’t think learning race craft is an issue, in fact far from it. After doing many years in kart’s at various levels, I am confident that this will not be the case. Its the logistics of what equipment we will need, issues we will face, and learning about all the useful tips and tricks that are specific to cars.

Who knows, we may have got it very wrong, but I guess that’s half of the fun! Entry is not too expensive, so it will not be the end of the world should it turn out to be not as fruitful as we thought.

12

I also had a look at Time Attack as something to try in my S2 N/A. It is ‘potentially’ less damaging than a race series. I’m also using the car for tarmac rallying (that’s the plan) where any incidents are usually the responsibility of the muppet behind the wheel :smiley:

When I looked at the TA regs I was a bit disappointed that there’s only too classes 1)anything goes and 2)anything goes with number plates on. Considering that in class 2 I would be up against my mate running a 400bhp 6R4 I decided it probably wasn’t worth competing. If I did then it would be just for fun, but on that basis then I think I would be better doing a trackday.

I guess it could be competitive if a few of us entered in similar spec cars. That doesn’t mean you nasty S1 boys in your skinny overpowered force fed machines :smiley:

13

Fair comment, I like the whole Time Attcak concept and Glen who runs it has been a mate for a fair few years. It is very much cheque book racing though, the top cars are worth 100’s of thousands of pounds. Steve G in his Lotus does very very well in what is really a budget entry compared to the rest of the field.

On the race craft front, I will say though, in my opinion as I did several years in a TKM100 kart, proper cars are totaly different.

I agree there are a lot of things to learn as far as logistics of ‘running’ yourself and the car through the event. You will end up with a list as long as your arm of things to remember for the next time.

Good luck!!

14

I’ll second Sean… If your a kart racer then you will be taking a step backwards with TA.

Pick up where you left off and get straight back into the action with Elise Trophy. Your car only needs cage, cut- outs, firex and suspension. Its a great series to run in both on and off the track :slight_smile:

15

[quote=evo_ufo]I’ve been looking at Time Attack as well. My car is also currently N/A. Bottom line is that at almost all tracks I’m about 4 seconds off last years (bottom step of the) podium pace, and thats in a car that is already modified beyond elise trophy spec and is a little quicker than ET poll.

Rough spec:
Suspension - Ohlins 2 way 46mm, running approx 105mm ride height
Weight - lightweight engine lid, exhaust, battery, seats, wheels etc, approx 860kg.
Power - Cams, exhaust and induction, remap 10 bhp and 20 lbft extra
Aero - 211 rear wing.
[/quote]

I can see Im going to have to beat you a with a big stick…

Get you 46mm converted to single way (there is not a better damper on the grid in class A)
your weight is fine and so are you seats, battery and a back box (std maniflod and cat needed)
Sell your cams and swap your ecu with someone for a std one and get some cash back with it.

Come and race against Gav - prove your worth boy!!


:slight_smile:

16

Hi Jamie, I see you got entry too. You making many more mods to your car before the first round? I am going to do some basic stuff, then see where the weak points of the setup are (with only 190bhp I think I have a fair idea!). Hugely looking forward to it - am I right in thinking the European Drift Championship is present on the days too?

17

Hi there,
Yes, looks like we’re both in, which means 4 lotus’s now. Superb!!

Regarding mods, my car will be going through some fairly serious changes in about a weeks time, once some parts turn up. Then as funds allow, a few more. The only thing is, that I won’t really have time to test it much before the first round and I’ve never done most of the circuits.

All I know is, that the weekest link by far is going to be me. Make sure you keep in touch and let me know how things are going.

Jamie

18

Yes I am going down the ‘reduce weight and optimise handling’ route. As I said at the start of this thread the car is my daily driver which makes things a bit more interesting, plus I don’t want to go changing engines etc as I need the budget for the Ultima.

Sounds like your car should be fairly well equipped by the end of it, should be good. Might even sneak the odd ‘exiges.com’ decal on if there are such things?!

As far as the tracks go, there would be worse places to start than this…