Radical SR8

Additional`gear` to take with you too it appears, hope that the family - pit crew are `in training`

 

Have you had the car running yet ???

 

Yep - last weekend - started first time after system priming procedures necessary after complete fluids drain. REALLY like being able to get an engine up to temp before firing it up. Sounds awesome. Think I might fit the open pipes Need to start it again this time with laptop attached to make sure all sensors and alarms are working so will get some video then.

 

You were supposed to share your fist fire up

Meani lol

Can't wait hurry up

 

camera was flat. next time.

 

[video]http://vid32.photobucket.com/albums/d15/RobT1/SR8_zpsenzm7tcp.mp4[/video]

Brum brum

Warmed it all up this morning and checked final sensors on laptop - all seems to be fine.

Love it.

Checking out Bruntingthorpe for some high speed running first time out to get a feel for it with hopefully less chance of hitting anything - need to 'feel' what its like to load the car up with aero, and how far it will go before sliding - suspect its a LONG way

 

Short and sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!

 

Amazing

 

Ok - think I'm getting my head around the approximate setup of the car now - spent ages just looking at it, and in the last couple weeks measuring stuff. Looks like the underbody aero is a classic steady taper from front to back, with the 'rake' being 17mm presently.

This pic describes the point:



The idea here is that the whole underside of the car is a venturi - and given the large area that even a small -ve pressure has to act on, it results in a lot of downforce.

The car is really square also so the previous owner did a great job setting it up.

Radicals 'starting point' for setup is 15mm rake so its not far off that. My car rides about 10mm higher all round than the spec setup so again, that isnt that far off and is probably so due to it being a hillclimb car previously and having to negotiate bumpier circuits. I cannot think you would want it any lower but there we are....

VERY VERY interesting getting to understand all this.

 

Glad I read about your licence upgrade, thought it would be more difficult. As I'm intending racing in Europe I knew I needed to upgrade but on the back of your email called the MSA today and they have upgraded me (upon receipt of four proof of results). I don't need the National A open, just the std one so less proofs needed, happy days .

Car looks good Rob, you doing the Midlands champs or Nationals, any plans yet?

 

good stuff tony. dont you need an international licence for europe?

havent decided what to do next year yet really. now car is as i want it to begin with, need some seat time so will probably do a couple trackdays and see how it feels. been checking dates today actually.

hows your car going? fitted that nice gearbox yet?

 

Tony get an International licence, 9 /10 there is no issue....

But this year at Spa the Callum brothers were told their licence was no good, MSA got contacted and they got directly an upgrade provided, so back to the organiser, look its okay ! Hmmm, Dont think so, we need a medical attest aswell , No probs the Fia Docter here at the meeting will do....
Hmmm,No dont think so ... It needs to be a Britisch FIA authorised Doctor. FIA in Paris got contacted...
mais enfin ...this doctor is authorised for F1... we dont see a problem.. got something on paper from the FIA....
but the organiser still said NO !!!

 

maybe we need to work towards a cgti-does-eschdorf AND races plan......now that would be cool......

 

What do you think of the Life racing Ecu? Got that in the grp A Integrale here, seems a good system.

 

seems fine to me, nice to have datalogging in there, software easy to use.

needs a bluetooth connection that will auto download data to laptop

its got an aim data logger and video also.

having data is not an issue any more

 

The diagnostic functions are handy too.

 

Cool, lets us know when you decide, the car should be wicked. I was testing at Llandow in the Tatty Golf when one of old style radical racer (SR5?) with the 1500 hayabusa motor turned up, managed to sit up its exhaust pipe for about 3 laps until the Golfs tyres went off, good fun at the time . Different animal to what you have there though, yours looks like a serious bit of kit

I'll run the MK2 rally car next year, ran it this year and got second overall in the Welsh Hill climb and Sprint Champs so not too shabby Lol. I'm building a 200bhp 16v motor for it (just because I have the bits here really) on std plenum so I can still run in Road Rally class.

I've actually decided to build 'Tatty Golf II' from a new shell, I'll update my tread rather than go on about it here in yours, basically so many changes it seemed silly to chop the Tatty Golf up and change everything again, I'll stop development on that one and move on with the new shell.

As I'm not doing anything serious next year, racing wise, I thought I'd upgrade to Nat A and go to International next year, if needed. MAS told me the Nat A was OK but I'll have to have a serious look first. I'll see what Keith Murray used when he was over this year. The only things he told me he needed over and above the UK, of any significance, was HANS and an FIA cage.

 

Been cleaning wheels and just thought I would share a picture - I think they are a really good looking wheel



Thats a front, 15x8 ET19 (might fit a wide arch golf with centerlock adapters...), and looks to me to be a derivative of the Compomotive CXR:



Several tyre compunds worth a mention:

Avon A53, slick, medium, and designed for about 10 laps at race speeds in OSS sportscar Championships, supposed to be similar to Dunlop HC100 compound that is used for the longer European hillclimbs in warm temperatures
Avon A15, slick, supersoft, hillclimbs and couple lap sprints
Avon wets, cut pattern
Dunlop wets, moulded pattern, W22 written on side so are thinking this is same compound as X22 supersoft FIA spec rally tyres
Radical Championship Control Dunlop Slick is harder than all of these.

 

Couple of other things 'in thought' presently are lighter bodywork, and some kind of padding for the seat.

As soon as I got the car, I thought how heavy the fibreglass bodywork was and since then have been looking around to see what else might exist. There are companies that make lighter pattern bodywork for the older Radicals such as the Prosport, but as far as I know right now, nothing for the SR3/8. Then the other day I came across this car for sale - with what looks like carbon fibre bodywork....



Advert is here: http://dsrforum.yuku.com/topic/9286/2011-Radical-SR3RS-Carbon-Fiber#.VKmvzeBXtRw

Oh we like that

Then I also stumbled across an SR4 for sale in Italy where the owners had made some lightweight bodywork too:



Advert: http://racecarsdirect.com/listing/57327/radical_sr4_rhd.html

Bodywork made to help get car down towards minimum 450kg limit for FIA Hillclimb Regs

So maybe there are options out there.

So the padded seat thing - the twin seat for the Radical SR8 is a fibreglass moulding with next to no grip being a shiny gelcoat surface. Also I am a bit too narrow for the seat and can see a situation whereby I could slide around a bit. So...options are to make something cheap and cheerful out of foam matting/velcro etc, something intermediate like the padded seat inserts Radical themselves make (below), or go the whole hog and get a custom made F1-style moulded seat insert made - which is actually 2 options as there are kits to do it yourself for about 300, or specialists who will make one for you for around the 1-1.5K mark.



Still thinking about that one.....

 

Check out the post by ezakimak here

http://www.pistonheads.com/GASSING/topic.asp?h=0&t=1167844&mid=0&nmt=Expanding+foam+race+seats

Maybe a cheaper option to try first...