A purpose built street car

[Shag55]

I placed an order for a new set Friday, and they shipped Monday. Pauter is always extremely quick to reply and help.
It will be less ratio and more spring. I am not worried about less valve lift - that is not the bottle neck for power in my motor.
Jyrki

agreed! But is there a bottle neck or is it just a mark on the boost knob that says ( danger, over power.  Dont go past here! ) LOL!

[A-C]

Rocker picture remind me an old saying tells

If it's not broken you not try hard enough

[thehanz DVK]

Beautiful and impressive car...

[fredy66]

looking good

[Shag55]

Good luck on your 1st runs!

[Jyrki]

I guess it is time for s ahort report from BRC in Tierp and SCC in Gardermoen. Well, first a few words about the preceding tests. After installing the new 1.4:1 rockers in place, I took the car to yet another test at the truck terminal. The valve train seemed to work, and taking it easy the gears shifted without drama. It was Friday evening and there was a race for Fords the following day in Alastaro. I tried to call someone in the club, but no luck, so we just took the car there in the morning and at the gate asked if we could join the event with an old VW. They said yes. So I took the car to a strip the first time. Leaving off at idle, running at 0.8bar, granny-shifting at 6000 rpm, the car ran 12.x at 190km/h. Felt pretty ok, just a slight pull to the right. I had changed the rear coil-over springs and could not do another corner-weight, so that was the most likely reason. Took a look at data at the pits, and everything seemed to be in order. So for the next ‘pass’ I put on wheelie bars, messed something and could not do a proper burnout, and staged. There was no traction, it just went right to the limiter. Short-shifted to second, then third and then I broke the gas pedal. Whaaatt!!! I have burned 50 liters of E85, but I guess with the helmet on you just push harder Anyway, fixing the pedal should be easy, so even though the car was not race ready, I still decided to take it to BRC and SCC for testing – I did not want to go without a car again. So I booked the ferries, corner-weighted and adjusted the car and fixed the pedal.
At Tierp I took the first pass really easy; same low boost, low rpm, granny-shifting, just like the very first pass in Alastaro. No slip in clutch, so it just spun the tires in 1st, but no issues in 2nd thru 4th. It did a 12.x / 203km/h, and went straight and easy. For the next pass I made some minor adjustments, but during the pass I broke the pedal again. What the %¤&%. In the evening I did a quick&dirty fix to the pedal using e.g. Richie’s old UK license plate as material. Saturday morning I went out again, but the pedal broke right away. That was it; the rest of the day I enjoyed watching others race in the really nice weather.
The next day we started to search for a new pedal so that I could take the car to SCC. I parked my trailer in Västerås for a few days before driving to Norway – thanks to the TurboTown folks for the safe parking place, hospitality, garage tours, cruise night etc! The Swedish Monday-night cruise had a thousand cars! Tuesday morning I picked up a new pedal from Stockholm (thanks Jukka & Tomi), and drove to Stian’s place where we modified and installed it, and did some minor work on Stian’s car – thanks to Stian and his family for hospitality!
Thursday I drove to Gardermoen, Friday we just took it easy and Saturday it was time for some drag racing. The track was a bit slippery, and even my low boost setup broke the tires loose in 1st, 2nd and 3rd as seen 04:32 on

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/jPtomzYSdhg" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/jPtomzYSdhg</a>

Sunday the track was better, but my pass was a disaster thanks to a charge pipe popping loose during the burnout – it did not build any boost at launch, nor during the run. It was an easy 10minute fix, but then came the rain. It was time to pack and drive to Stockholm and take the ferry back home.
In total it was a 2146km trip, a couple of aborted runs and only one run all the way down the strip. No good nor even decent time slips, but I was not even expecting that. Found and fixed a couple of teething issues and logged valuable data. Most importantly it was really, I mean really nice to see friends, hang out, watch and do some racing, meet new people, new friends. The hospitality was just overwhelming!!!
Jyrki

[Jyrki]

..and the story continues, including some more detailed technical shit.

For SCC my goal was 'to make a clean pass with 80% power'. Well, that didn't happen. It was not clean and there was no power.

After the Scandinavian trip I started to prepare for the next test session in the Finnish Finals in Alastaro. Based on what we learnt in BRC and SCC, and some further testing in a parking lot, I moved the ladder bar links one step up, softened all shocks and took some ballast from the front (now 962kg with driver). A new test at a parking lot showed it was better - with a third gear burnout I could get enough load on the engine to get an idea if the suspension setup changed, and check boost control.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/UbLE2Pa1XxU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/UbLE2Pa1XxU</a>

Last Friday I took it to Alastaro. Tech inspection - OK. SFI 25.4 chassis certification - OK  

First pass: bogged the engine really bad, down to <1000rpm. Drove thru the gears, granny-shifting at 6500rpm, 1.2bar boost. 12.1@215km/h.
Next pass: found traction, but 60ft was only 1.50sec. Later found the reason for that - I was pulling the shifter for a long time in 1-2 gearshift, so that the Gear Shift Cut re-activated and killed power. It also killed the 1/8" as it was doing only 168 km/h half track. The good news is that it picked 55 km/h from 1/8 to 1/4 Drove thru the gears, still granny-shifting at 6500rpm, 1.2bar boost. 10.2@223km/h. Car went straight as an arrow. Of course there is not that much power yet, but with reasonable amount of power I was so comfortable driving it that it was almost boring. This is good news - with the the previous car it took years to make it run straight.
Then it started to rain 

http://youtu.be/qmUocsZy1hM

I would say this was '80% clean' and '80% power'. Still a lot to do with clutch, suspension, gearshifting, driver, power...

The time slips are not good, but I am reasonably happy with the progress. I have now 7 passes on the car, out of which one was aborted due to no traction in any gear, two due to breaking the gas pedal (?), and four passes driving thru all gears, taking baby-steps. 'At this age you don't have to rush things'.

Thanks to Alhomatic and Valtteri.

Jyrki

[Martin]

Great Report!

Is your shift cut on while you pull the shifter? as normally you set a time limit on the cut. So Pull shifter you get a shift cut for 0.2 of a second. then back to normal, even if your still pulling on the shifter.



Keep at it, its a stunning car!


Martin

[Jyrki]

Is your shift cut on while you pull the shifter? as normally you set a time limit on the cut. So Pull shifter you get a shift cut for 0.2 of a second. then back to normal, even if your still pulling on the shifter.
Martin

It activates for a limited time; I had it set for 0.10sec and then ramp power back in 0.02sec. There is also a setup for the minimum time between shifts for it to activate again. As I was pulling for a long time it re-activated. So my bad as a driver and as a tuner. I don't even need it now as I am using the clutch and lifting throttle..
Jyrki

[Martin]

you can teach the motec which gears your in, but using rpm against wheel speed. so it wont react.

have you seen the gear set on UAC? clutch less shifting? that system works the same a liberty box. you don't need a shift cut with it, just full power shifting.. only draw back I see is that you cant down shift.


Keep at it...

[JS]

I just have to say that reading this thread I thought I had an idea about what this car was about. I was fortunate to see it this summer, and make no mistake - it will blow your mind.
Perhaps the most well built "street" beetle in the world.

Will be looking forward to the rest of the story!

[Jyrki]

you can teach the motec which gears your in, but using rpm against wheel speed. so it wont react.

have you seen the gear set on UAC? clutch less shifting? that system works the same a liberty box. you don't need a shift cut with it, just full power shifting.. only draw back I see is that you cant down shift.

Yes, the ECU detects which gear is on. Can you please explain "using rpm against wheel speed. so it wont react".
In GSC I had the delay set at only 100msec, and no 'Next Gear Terminate', so I will address these.

Yes, I have seen the clutchless in UAC. What I have now is the Finnish Dog Ring stuff. With these you need Gear Shift Cut in a turbo car. Earlier this summer I fought with the shifting mechanism, and in order to get some passes this season I gave up and just started shifting with clutch & lifting throttle. I will continue the tests later - I really want to be able to do full power shifts.

Jyrki

[Shag55]

Nice report Jyrki! Keep at it.

[Jyrki]

Season is over – here is the last report.

After the Alastaro event I took the car to dyno to see if there was power to be gained with more timing. Last year the engine was only dynoed to 0.5bar / 5000rpm before the clogged fuel filter ended the session, and the test passes this season were made with very conservative ignition maps. Well, we found out that the engine wanted a lot more timing above 6000rpm. What I had in Alastaro was less than 400hp to the wheels @6200rpm, and with more timing it made 450@7000rpm with the same boost. The numbers are not big, but less than 400whp was enough to run 223km/h at 960kg…

I made a small adjustment to the rear shocks, an adjustment to the clutch and registered to NIGHT OF FIRE in Kjula, Sweden. Boy the Swedes know how to arrange a nice event, with excellent atmosphere and lots of crazy Swedish cars 

First pass Saturday: 3rd gear burnout, launch @5000rpm & 1bar (same as previous pass in Alastaro): rpm dropped way too low to 3300rpm, so 60ft not good at 1.45sec. 1/8 mile 6.20/183, ¼ mile 9.61/230km/h. I would say speed is OK for the power to weight ratio, but there is still room for improvement in the et. I put it in neutral after finish line, and I let it coast along the very long braking area in Kjula, and I could hear noise from transmission. At the pits we analyzed there is something wrong in r&p area. The Mendeola case and r&p are 12 years old, but only maybe 130 passes?
 
The et is not yet something to mention, but it is going to the right correction. I would say I am now within half a second of the potential of current boost, and the car feels good enough to turn up the boost to 1.5bar.

I am ok to end the season here - a month ago the gap from actual time slip to theoretical et was 3 seconds and ending the season with that would have tasted bad 

Thanks to my Swedish crew, Johan & Fredde, for their help in Kjula!!!

Looking forward to 2014!

Jyrki

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[Martin]

awesome car and another great report.

Interesting that the motor liked the increase in timing past 6000 rpm.

[Jyrki]

It's been a while...
During the winter I took the engine apart just to be sure everything is ok - it was - and Mr. Alhomatic checked the transmission. I also did a long list of smaller tasks on the car so that it would be ready for the first races. It was but I was busy at work, so I missed the May race in Motopark. Then there were no races on real tracks until now. So last weekend we took the car to Alastaro, and with the help of Kari, Tomi and Make, did a few more test passes. With the limited number of passes we could not get the car to hook, and it only ran 9.6/233 with a very bad 60ft time (1.55 spinning through 1st gear). Still on low boost 
This was the first time I launched a chute. Naturally I would prefer not to have a chute, nor the wheelie bars, but I must say I will not run these speeds without one anymore. A 950kg beetle running >230km/h and small brakes definately benefits having a chute. Feels a lot safer!
Sunday rained out, so we will go out again to continue tuning the suspension.

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[Jyrki]

Three more passes in the big race in Alastaro. 9.62, 9.52 and 9.41/234.9km/h. Still on low boost and still not 60-footing well (spins thru 1st - not hooking at all). I have now 9 'real' launches with the car in total. The car reacts in a logical way to adjustments, and runs real nice & feels good and safe. Just not hooking, and not much power. Need to do more work and tests with the clutch, suspension etc.
Jyrki

[Erlend / bug66]

What tires / pressure are you running?

[Jyrki]

M/T 28x9x15, 0.75bar tire pressure, also tried 0.80 and 0.85bar. Tires are fresh.
Jyrki

[MeXX]

M/T 28x9x15, 0.75bar tire pressure, also tried 0.80 and 0.85bar. Tires are fresh.
Jyrki

Dear

Jyrki

Hope U are doing well and car gets faster soon.
0.75 bar sounds much to me I'm usually runnin' 0,3 to 0,4. Yes I know my car is lighter than yours.
Try go get pix if your tire works at launch (wrinkles) and it will hook up.

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just 4 example. BTW to compensate my weight advantage I did this run with a passenger  

DoD MeXX

[Airspeed]

Three more passes in the big race in Alastaro. 9.62, 9.52 and 9.41/234.9km/h. Still on low boost ...
Jyrki

What do you call 'low boost'? 20 psi?

[Jyrki]

I believe tire pressure is close to what it should be. Looking at the marks on asphalt it seems to use the whole contact width. The tires wrinkle too:



Yes, to me below 20psi is low boost. Last year I ran up to 1.2bar and now a little more (but not much). My friends from Västerås would say below 30psi is low boost  

Jyrki

[Airspeed]

My friends from Västerås would say below 30psi is low boost  

Jyrki

I'd say you're probably right! LOL!
Tnx, car is absolutely awesome!

[Berger]

If I remember correctly you have a better weight balance in your car than a typical vdub, meaning more weight on the front wheels and less on the rear. This should result in a different ideal angle to the ladder bar, I guess pointing "more down" in front.... I`m sure you have all this calculated and figured out, but wondering if you have tried a drastic change in the angle of the ladder bars just to see how it reacts?

[Jyrki]

If I remember correctly you have a better weight balance in your car than a typical vdub, meaning more weight on the front wheels and less on the rear. This should result in a different ideal angle to the ladder bar, I guess pointing "more down" in front.... I`m sure you have all this calculated and figured out, but wondering if you have tried a drastic change in the angle of the ladder bars just to see how it reacts?

Yes, different link points (Instant Center) have been in the agenda. We might even test going back to where we were (from 11" IC to 10" IC). At the moment I believe it is a combination of things; clutch, track, shocks, springs, suspension geometry, launch rpm and boost, power curve, wheelie bars, weight distribution, tire etc. Sometimes it's a bit tricky and the window is narrow. The data shows that the car reacts in a logical way to adjustments, and it is already a lot better than end of last season.
Jyrki

[MeXX]

Yes, different link points (Instant Center) have been in the agenda. We might even test going back to where we were (from 11" IC to 10" IC). At the moment I believe it is a combination of things; clutch, track, shocks, springs, suspension geometry, launch rpm and boost, power curve, wheelie bars, weight distribution, tire etc. Sometimes it's a bit tricky and the window is narrow. The data shows that the car reacts in a logical way to adjustments, and it is already a lot better than end of last season.
Jyrki

Dear Jyrki

I can feel what U mean! It's always a combination of everything. I had to realize that the clutch is even more important than I thought before, and it took nearly a season to get a clutch that lasts and is smooth enough to make every launch the same. Then the adjustments got more comprehensible and more logic. Then it took many many runs but the ET came down.

DoD
MeXX

[Jon]

If I remember correctly you have a better weight balance in your car than a typical vdub, meaning more weight on the front wheels and less on the rear. This should result in a different ideal angle to the ladder bar, I guess pointing "more down" in front.... I`m sure you have all this calculated and figured out, but wondering if you have tried a drastic change in the angle of the ladder bars just to see how it reacts?

Yes, different link points (Instant Center) have been in the agenda. We might even test going back to where we were (from 11" IC to 10" IC). At the moment I believe it is a combination of things; clutch, track, shocks, springs, suspension geometry, launch rpm and boost, power curve, wheelie bars, weight distribution, tire etc. Sometimes it's a bit tricky and the window is narrow. The data shows that the car reacts in a logical way to adjustments, and it is already a lot better than end of last season.
Jyrki

At what height is your center of gravity? You seem to push way below CG judging from the build images. How high does the link points let you go?

[Jyrki]

At what height is your center of gravity? You seem to push way below CG judging from the build images. How high does the link points let you go?

CG height is a little higher than crankshaft centerline & chute anchor point; probably typical to other similar cars. The car is most definately more nose heavy than the peers.
The highest link point is 11". If there was a higher point I would test it. I am not planning to go back to 10". Ladder bars are 34" long.

Last Saturday I took the car to Alastaro (Ford Nationals). The track was not prepped since the big race two weeks earlier. With some minor adjustments to the car (raise rear supension, 17kg ballast off from the nose, some fine tuning to fuel maps) it did 1.40 60ft, 6.01 1/8 mile and 9.36/231 (pulled chute early). Still spinning, still same boost. Next pass the engine did not run 100% clean (most likely Hall sensor fault) and it did 9.56/233. Again we learnt something, but not much  

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Next stop BRC Tierp  

Jyrki

[TiDi]

This is one of the best build lately!
LOVE this car!
Great work!

[reijo5]

If you get frustrated ... just step back 10 paces and just look at it !!
its beautiful 

great car and great work !