Some Encouragement

At the end of last year I became lax about analyzing my results. I was somewhat down on myself for my results, failing to clinch the championship 4 races straight and not looking forward to seeing it in black and white. In prep for the coming season I finally went back and forced myself to enter the data. Then I took a brief look at the graph....

Events 7 8 and 9 are the final 3 data points. Events 5 and 6 omitted because Match tours and NHMS events are not comparable to regular events at Ft. Devens.

Event 7 was just as bad as I thought. It sucked. I got DSQ after 6 for sound, drove like crap and ran around looking for tail pipe muffling materials rather than thinking about the course... not helpful. My final time was worse than any time since early 2011. That day I just plain sucked.

Then I looked at Event 8. Wow.  MY FASTEST TIME INCLUDED A CONE (a 2 second penalty) on event 8, and it was, my 5th best pax result ever (69th percentile of 140 competitors). My result on the final event was my second best ever... Looking at the results in event 8 of the 29 people who were class champions (ignoring junior Karts) in 2013, I out paxed 8 of them carrying a cone. So it seems that at least on that day, I was a much faster driver than ~1/3 of the NER class champions for 2013.

This tells me 2 things... One, SSM was quite competitive on that day, and two, I really did drive like a screaming banshee on that final run. That run was only dirty by a single cone, and the clean line was very likely faster. If I can be that fast and stay clean, I'll have taken it to a whole new level... Very encouraging.

Also, the final event is my 2nd best time ever. A few folks may have been slower than usual trying to compete in the Moss (where the 2nd half is scored by consistency not outright speed). But most of those folks would normally either be ahead or behind me. Nobody in the moss came in slightly slower than me, so the result is still pretty believable and that's encouraging too.

Splitting Airs

Last winter I shifted my splitter forward 2 inches to try to get more front down force, but it seemed to have a very limited effect. This is probably because the main protrusion of that splitter is just in front of the radiator grille. The air flow in the radiator and up over the car is not very significantly restricted, and less so with the AC condenser removed. Thus, the increase in pressure over the splitter vs under is probably minimal there. The sides gained extension too, but the sloped, drag reducing front of the car is probably also fighting the build up of pressure as well.

Since I improved the wing over the winter, I expect to generate more downforce in the back. To make use of that added downforce I will need more front down force. Otherwise I will simply go back to the car plowing on the fast sweepers. To that end, I've ditched the CF splitter and cut myself a much larger plywood one, similar to that used by the other street modified cars in my area. Here are some pictures of the construction process....

Jack it up, prop the board underneath

Scribe a 5.75" offset from the fender (viewed from above). The rule is 6", but leave a bit for safety and interpretation etc.

Painting with Rustoleum to give it a little water resistance...

Initial attachment.  The sides still need trimming, they stick out a little bit too far.

View of bottom attachments. As always I am attaching to hard points, not the fiberglass clam

If air passes above and below an added aero dynamic aid it is considered a wing. Front mounted wings are disallowed in the super street modified class, so trim the ends and put a back plate in to turn it back into a splitter

Another view. It's hard to see because of the paint, but Aluminum angle is used to attach the backplate

The final result from the front

The edges ere a bit floppy and I didn't want to attach to the fiberglass, so I rigged a turnbuckle system attached to the oil-cooler mounting point which is steel.

A slit in the fender liner is required. Re-installation is quite a trick since the top part of the fender liner is actually supposed to slip in first, but that is no longer possible. Really glad that i was conservative on the size of the back plates.

Ever so conveniently the vent for the oil cooler accommodates the turnbuckle! 

The result is that the turnbuckle system is not 100% rigid, so I may need to re-work this if the edges wind up flapping, but it should also work to dissipate and absorb some of the energy from cone impacts. The great thing about this is it was really really easy to install and provides a bit of adjustability if the corners turn out to be pulled upward by the tension (which is not legal if it's more than 3 degrees from level)

Antigravity Mounting

Yeah, I wish I had an anti-gravity system. (I'd mount it upside down for downforce!). But all I actually have is an Antigravity Batteries XPS-SC1 battery. Though it can't provide assistance with gravity, it can assist with my inertia. It weighs just 1pound which is a savings of over 21 pounds vs the stock part. However I mentioned all of this in my last post so enough with that.

The great thing about saving weight, is reducing weight allows you to reduce weight elsewhere. The 7lb battery had been held in place with an aluminum bracket I fabbed up out of 1/8" 1x1 aluminum angle and steel brackets. Here's the new bracket for the XPS-SC1:

That bracket is 50g vs the 250g for the previous bracket, a savings of about 9 oz. So weight savings for this mod now go up to ~6.5 lb. To mount it in the car I bolted it to the old air box mounting points. Below you ca see it looking up through the wheel well, tire fender liner and Fujita F5 filter removed. 

I put everything back together and lowered the car. Then I wired it up reaching in from the top where I could be sure I could see the + and - markings on the terminals. According to several folks I've heard it from, getting the leads backwards pops about a dozen fuses some in VERY hard to reach places such as inside the dash, so it's extremely extremely important not to do that. Given the small size of this battery and the resulting proximity of the terminals, I will probably add a cover to the negative side as well so it doesn't get shocked if the car has to be jump started. 

So then came the moment of truth. Would it start... I opened the garage door. I turned the battery cut off switch... the usual whir-click of some misc electronics or relay powering up responded. Good. I opened the door and the cabin light came on. Good. I sat in the seat and turned the key the dash lit up. Good. I stepped on the clutch made sure it was out of gear, and pressed the start button...

Whirr Whirr Whirr...

Hmm, try it with some gas

Whirr Whirr Whir... Whirr Whirr Hic Whir Whirr Whir...

Whirr Whirr Whir

Whirr Whirr Whirr

Ok, Deep breaths... ... So it didn't start. It was an experiment I told myself.... It Hic'd once, so it was close, it was worth a shot, better luck next time (etc... etc... etc.)

Later that night I got to thinking. The car hasn't moved for 4 months. The garage is 40-45 degrees. This is more or less the coldest hardest start possible for a car that doesn't get to play in the snow. I had never doubted that the video of this battery starting a v6 truck engine was a video of a "warm" start. So if I can get it to start when the engine is not almost freezing and not all the oil has drained away from it, I may be ok. But if it never cold starts at all after sitting for a while that may not be good enough. So...

I warmed up the garage to about 60 degrees and let the car bask in that warmth for about a day. I figure if it starts after being still for 4 months at 60 degrees maybe it starts at a spring or fall 45-50 degrees after being still for a few days to a week, and either one of those is good enough. Both at the same time is a once a year affair. For what it's worth, the 7lb Braile battery sometimes required several tries for the first spring start. So with a somewhat warmer engine I tried again...

Whirr Whirr Whirr...

(gas) Whirr Whirr Whirr....

Uh oh...

Whirr Whirr Whirr...

Whir Whir Hic Whir, Hic, Hic *COUGH* HarrROOOOOOMM!!!

SUCCESS!

Whew it does start!! So I shut it off again, and gave it 30 seconds... and tried again...

Hic, HarrRROOOOMM!!

So it starts easy once it's been turned over, which is a really good sign. Good enough that I don't need to de-install the battery just yet, but I've pretty clearly found the bleeding edge. I also suspect it's time to find a suitable case charge the old Braille battery and throw it in my trailer so that I can jump the vehicle if necessary. It will also become more critical to not forget to turn off the battery cut-out switch when the vehicle is parked. Now it's up to the test of time to see if this becomes too annoying. It appears to at least remain theoretically feasible.

Vehicular Anorexia

I am always obsessing about weight savings. Maybe it's a side effect of owning a Lotus. Perhaps I am haunted by the ghost of Lotus founder Collin Chapman who said "Power makes you faster on the straights, lightness makes you faster everhwhere." (I wish he would haunt my driving skills a little more and my wallet a little less!). I seem to find inordinate joy any time I can save weight on my Lotus and revulsion deep in my gut any time I have to add weight.

So I'm sure you know where this post is going... :)

This winter I'm looking to shave another dozen or so lbs off of my already featherweight car bringing it close to 1850lbs with 1/3 tank of gas. That 1/3 tank probably weighs 15 lbs or so, which means even if I'm out of gas I will be 30lbs over the minimum weight for my racing class, but here's what my mania has produced to achieve the latest reduction.

The Battery

Batteries are heavy. They often contain lead and lead is heavy. Long ago I switched away from the stock battery which is a 29 lb. monster. That size is mostly needed to support the drain on the system caused by the vehicle alarm system. The little 4 cylinder 2ZZ motor in the elise definitely does not need that kind of capacity to turn over. So 3 years ago I installed a cut-off switch and a 7lb Braille battery. Great! 22lbs saved! Seems good... but not good enough! (I did mention that I might be possessed didn't I?). Enter the Antigravity Battery brand  XPS SC-1.

I've known for some time that lithium batteries are much lighter, but the products available have generally been too expensive. The SC-1 advertises as 12 oz, but my scale says just under 16 oz. If it works I'm not going to complain. The question is... will it start? Too cold to take the car out so I haven't installed it yet. But if it does the job, I get to save 85% of the weight vs the Braile B106 I'm using now, and it's cheaper too! All I need to do now is figure out how to mount it... I'll make that a separate post.

Lightness Added: 6lbs

The Wing

Ever since I built it I knew that I had added a tragic amount of weight when I added the wing. It adds and estimated 25lbs, much of it at the very top of the car, raising the center of gravity. about half that weight is in the supports and attachments to the deck lid. The wing itself weighed 13 lbs. (excluding mounting bolts) when I weighed it a few weeks ago. The construction was entirely 1/8" 1x1 Aluminum Angle, 090 plate aluminum, a 1-1/4" wood dowel for the front edge, steel angle brackets and aluminum rivets with a contact paper skin. I'm actually quite pleased with the contact paper, and the aluminum rivets are probably as light as i can get without a tig welder and a lot of practice time.

After observing the wing in action I believe the 090 aluminum end plates, the wood dowel and the aluminum angle are all over built, or just poor material choice. These are being replaced by much lighter components. The angle is being replaced by 3/64" 1x1 angle (available at Home Depot).

The front rod and end plates are being changed out for carbon fiber. Carbon fiber is not cheap, but I found a discontinued size I can use directly at a steep discount. The end plates won't be as big as I would like, but they will be a little bigger, and the cost is about 1/3 the cost of buying a larger piece in a standard size and cutting it down.

There's a bit of a problem in that I need to have good supports for this CF tube at the front and I need to butt join it to the end plate efficiently. Luckily, I have a friend who just bought himself a Maker Bot 3d printer, and he pointed me to the free OpenSCAD program which renders 3D objects defined in it's own programming language. Since I've got my own software consulting business, this programmatic style is perfect for me. Here are the supports rendered in OpenSCAD

And here are the inserts for the end of the tube (view from inside tube)

So what sort of weight savings does this buy me? Well here's how it works out (orange values are estimates):

	Before	After	qty
endplates	398	240	2
front rod	784	155	1
fastners (all)	450	450	1
center supports	130	130	2
spars	606	275	6
total (g)	5,926	2,995
total (lbs)	13.04	6.59
lbs/sqft	1.65	0.83
saved (lbs)	6.4482	50.54%

I haven't accounted for the printed parts yet, but they are very light and will probably be offset by a few of the steel angles that I was able to trim down. About 5 oz. was also removed by trimming corners and overhangs from the bracket that mounts the wing to my deck lid.

Lightness added: 6.75 lbs.