Quoted from Leh Keen:

Some things i would like to add about what made the car better.. As many of you know i drove a mostly stock GTR late last year to a 2:02.8.... With very similar straight line speed (within 1 mph on the back straight).. So the 3.8 seconds we gained was from better chassis setup. Aero. and braking capacity.. Basically all in the corners...

Here is what we did and why it worked..

Aero.. Doug did an amazing job on the Aero of this car... Aero is all about balance.. Alot of times people just stick a big wing on the rear of the car an call it a day.. That is why their times lack... A well balanced car with 10% less grip is faster then a pushy car with 10% more overall grip... Doug built from scratch a front lip that works with the factory undertray to keep with the factory efficiency... Stillen did a great job with the canards and we were able to just bolt them on... Doug then built from scratch uprights to work with the Lemans spec GT2 rear wing... Up rights is all about proportions... To far back and you get a leverage problem.. Too far forward and you lose efficiency... The aero 'ramp' should be similar to that of the front of the car.. again.. Balance..... Doug nailed it and made the uprights very strong... Right out of the box we were within 95% of the aero balance.. Which is really amazing considering it was built from scratch and in Dougs head.. But this type of stuff is easy to someone like Doug... I was very impressed and confident with the TopSpeed aero package.. as you can see with my entry into the esses... I would say most of our time gained is from the aero package...

tires... In May of 2010 i found out about the Michelin PSS... I really love the PS2 and we won on it last year.. But i knew the tire was dated.. Esp compared to the stock tires on the GTR... We were able to get the size charts late last year and knew the 315 square setup was the way to go... I prefer the 20 inch taller tire setup.. With the stock tires i already felt the diameter was on the limit with just some basic power upgrades... I was very impressed with the PSS.. Its sidewall held up just fine and the grip it produced was spectacular for 300 TW street tire...

Shocks/springs... The stock shock held its own on the course.... but the KW spring rates and stock shocks slightly lacked support... We chose to get STILLEN sways to make up for that and be able to fine tune spring rate on the go... IE adj sways..... I feel the sways will put us in the sweet spot for this street tire... And really looking forward to testing them...

Brakes.. I worked with Endless in 2010 and won the 12 hours of Sebring in GTC with them.... the feel and wear characteristics of the pad makes it great in not only an ALMS race but also a competition like the Onelap of America... I am confident the pads will easily last the entire week giving me great braking force in every braking zone... I liked the sharp initial hit and aggressive TQ... With less brake pressure there is less heat.... The AP J hooked mated well with the pads and the Endless fluid is the best out there imo.. We also did Stillen lines which gave me that extra bit of confidence.. I am very happy with our braking package... Brakes is the most important thing IMO.. It usually is the first part of each corner.. And usually results in the biggest crashes if fails!!.. Plus in a race situation its what you use to pass the competition 90% of the time... I want to thank Endless for working with me and sending a pad just right for the job...


We only did a couple of laps and were able to do a 59.0.... Rain was on its way and we wanted to stick to our plan of doing the JRZ swap.... I would have liked to tune the kw/stock shock setup a little more for a better lap time but there just wasn't time... The lap time is good but i am a little disappointed because i know there was more in it with some alignment/ ride height/ aero tweeks.... Its exciting to think how we still have many more things to do to the car which will result in free lap time (less weight, more HP)....



Last, i want to thank the TopSpeed team for doing a great job and providing me with a Safe, Fast car... That's the best thing a driver can have!!

 

I'm sorry I wasn't able to get this up lastnight, but I actually took my M3 to the track yesterday for some R&R while Leh was headed to Sebring.

I have some pictures that I will post later today, but I have to catch up on my Monday work first

While the testing at Road Atlanta wasn't perfect this weekend do to traffic on track I still feel like we made progress in learning what the car needs. Turn 12 gave us the extreme conditions we needed in order to test the support with the stock shocks, and the esses confirmed the fact that the car still has a bit of aero balance to worked out.

We knew going into the weekend that a NASA event wasn't the best place to turn a lap time, but there was progress made, and we had fun!

As you can see from the Traqmate data the second lap this session was a 1:30.6. It was actually his first hotlap on Saturday as well as the first time the car had been on Road Atlanta. In turn 6 Leh got hung up by a Mustang that threw his line off for 7 as well. Then coming over 11 there was also a car he had to work around making entry to 12 a little off. We were running the car in HPDE3 & 4 because they were the only groups open on late notice.

I want to thank the people from NASA Jim and Julie for getting us on track last min. They were very helpful even though we may have disrupted their DE just a tad since we were running 15 seconds faster than 99% of the field. :shiftdrive:

~Cicio

Session#1 Saturday | Lap#2


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXpCXlhVtbY

 

it looked slower than his faster time a while ago...also it looked like the tires were almost folding over(or something like that) I think a lot of suspension needs to be worked(ur going to put on the jrz's anyway so f the stock bilsteins with the sleeve kit as i'm sure you can't get the desired camber, it was weird when the car would step out at the very last second

 

Leh actually says he is very happy with the suspension, and honestly this is a guy thats not easily pleased.

The car for sure looks more controlled in this video, which makes it look slower.

Thanks so much for the reply.

~Cicio

 

very true, it is more composed...and that is faster(the newb in me liked the old crazy video :lol

hope you are doing well cicio, I remember how clean your STi was...always one of my fav's. You guys have some AWESOME sponsors on board!

 

Thanks man! Which STI did you like? The black 05?

~Cicio

 

I want to congratulate our driver and good friend Leh Keen for setting pole at the 12 hour of Sebring today. If any of you want to watch, he is running the Alex Job Racing Porsche tomorrow in the GTC class.

The race is going to be great so tune in! Awesome cars this year, and some really competitive racing.


Check out either:

http://www.americanlemans.com/

OR

www.lehkeen.com

~Cicio

 

There is actually no tire fold over at all.. I respected a little due to weight.. and was suprised when we had none...

More grip = less sliding.. think F1 and rally....

slip angle > lateral grip in low grip situations...

Control > slip angle in high grip situations...


Different shock wouldn't necessarily fix a tire folding over either....

 

Ok Gents and Ladies....very sorry I have not had the time to update this thread. We have been just slammed in the shop. Trying to finish Two Alpha builds right now with deadlines, so our personal play time has been limited on the OneLap GT-R.

However with the test day coming up next week we figured we better drop the motor....

Time for TURBOS!!!!

Just snapped a few pictures...Lots more info to come through the weekend. All the body work is painted and looking awesome...she will be 100% track ready by Monday night.

Enjoy the pictures...

P.S. Leh is running Long Beach this weekend...tune in if you have time.

~Cicio

 

We were at Roebling Road Raceway yesterday in Savanna, GA testing the car. Changes from the last test include, sways, turbos, and supporting mods.

We wanted to start out the day strong as the track falls off toward the middle to end of the day. I have traqmate data and video that I will put up for you guys when I get home, but for now just info.

After adjusting tire pressures, playing with sway bars, and working more with the aero balance, the car set a fast lap so far of 1:14.7

Leh, Doug and I are very happy with how the car is running. The AMS Alpha turbos gives it just what it needs up top while keeping the torque at a manageable level.

Just to give everyone a frame of reference as to just how fast a high 14 is at Roebling...

The previous GT-R record was a 1:18.7... A full 4 seconds slower! While beating the record by that larger of a gap is a great accomplishment its still not an apples to apples compairison. The previous record was set on R888 "street tires" while we were on a full NON r-comp 300 treadwear Michelin PSSs.

here are the pictures from Roebling Raceway yesterday. We didn't have alot of hands with us, so the on track pictures are limited, but I will have fastlap video up for you guys shortly!

Enjoy...


-Cicio

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNByrnEkDho

 

Good luck with the buil guys. Nice talking to ya BTW when I was at Road Atlanta NASA event.

-Troy

 

Well Doug and Leh are off to South Bend Indiana for sticker day tomorrow.

I wanted to share a little update because I haven't had time to get on here for a few days...

I will be launching a pretty fun interactive live feed page tomorrow during the sticker session that I think you guys will enjoy. We are all pretty excited about it.

All the little details I will save for tomorrow...

Below are some pictures of the graphics scheme as it sits. Of course there are lots more stickers to go on the car, for all of you familiar with OneLap you know all about that.

I look forward to bringing you guys not only live updates, but also lots of good video and media along the trip. One of the best things about OneLap is following it for the entire week...if anyone is in the area for any of the events please come out and say hello to the team.

Again thanks so much for all the support and kind words...this build has been tons of fun, and will continue to be developed

OneLap here we come.... Go Team TopSpeed!!

~Cicio

 

Damn... I have a feeling this year's OLOA is not even going to be close. I hope the car stays together for you all season.

 

yah, your car was an 05 iirc? I had the 04 with the ewg/lots of bolt ons on the vf39


thank's for the explanation man(i'm a suspension noob, to the bone) you are one amazing driver!

ps, love the livery guys