DSP to SM build

[DSPXR4ti]

Do you even need mirrors in SM? Make block off plates!

I not really sure but I would guess yes!, That said, thank you GPz11 for the input but I was thinking something like these http://aprperformance.com/index.php?opt ... &Itemid=51 but not these because you find them anywhere for half of what APR wants.

Ben

[DSPXR4ti]

Well after about 3 months of thinking about what I wanted to do with my XR, I started cleaning up the XR on it's wiring, cold air intake for the turbo, de-powered rack, setup changes, aero changes, putting back in my 2 speed T5, in general having fun again with a running car.

All in all took 30 lbs off the nose of the XR and added 65 lbs to rear (in gas) and yes that puts the XR 2375 lbs but the weight balance is better 53.3 front and 46.7 in the rear, it was 55.1 front and 44.9, it was a little hard to put down power consistently.

Today was a good day XR wise, the EVO guys have been saying where's the FORD, well the FORD came out today to play and my time was a 36.9xx and the best EVO was a 38.4xx all the best EVO driver could say is " I wasn't mentally there" I gave him a smirk.

I've been saying the courses have been to easy, I think someone on here said that EVO's are hard to drive on technical courses, so... guess what. I think it's funny how NASCAR they are when they actually have to drive their cars, LOL.

Assessment of the De-powered rack, to me I felt like I had better feel, like I knew what the front tires were doing, great feed back, a little extra work in the slaloms but doable.

Next will be some suspension mods, changing the rear rims, some timing/tuning changes and some little things to make it more drivable = more speed.

Ben

[catapultkid]

Ben, subject came up recently in a discussion. How do you feel about a more rear bias car vs front bias? I'm thinking about adding the seats back in, a roll bar (with harnesses), and more fuel to bring some rear bias back. Also see SCCA CAM series coming (3000lb minimum)

I know spring rates can affect the feel in similar ways, but I have a sneaky suspicion that power availability at corner exit, slalom "pendulum effect" and braking could be improved. (think delta wing/porsche)

Thoughts?

Glad to see your kicking EVO butt. Hope you are still around at Nationals this year.

[DSPXR4ti]

Ben, subject came up recently in a discussion. How do you feel about a more rear bias car vs front bias? I'm thinking about adding the seats back in, a roll bar (with harnesses), and more fuel to bring some rear bias back. Also see SCCA CAM series coming (3000lb minimum)

I know spring rates can affect the feel in similar ways, but I have a sneaky suspicion that power availability at corner exit, slalom "pendulum effect" and braking could be improved. (think delta wing/porsche)

Thoughts?

Glad to see your kicking EVO butt. Hope you are still around at Nationals this year.

Well it's funny you ask that because I was corner weighing my son Go Kart and had his kart about 50/50, over steer everywhere and lost confidence in the Kart. Well having a 55/45 didn't hurt me regionally but at the National on the East course, I just couldn't put the power down. The west course the XR worked great, I just under drove. Having now moved almost 2% of the weight to the back and plan for another 1% to the back, it feels better. Working on it?

The problem I have with the CAM rule is, IT! has to pass Smog, have Registration, Insured, 350 to 400 Hps and think about adding 700lbs to my car right now, holly cow Batman!? but maybe because it could be the only 4 wheel independent suspension car out there, SO....?

Work on the little things on the XR this year and hope to be back at the National's this year, I just like going now.

And oh yeah..! find a little more HP's !!!!

Ben

[catapultkid]

Cool, we may try adding some back as well, will report back.

I agree CAM series may be too distant for your car as it sits now, although weight you could add in all you want down low and to the rear.... For us however, it is perfect. Since we are less than 300lbs away and we are street legal and on street tires this season. Too bad it isn't a Nationally recognized PAX this year so it won't be at nationals but we are curious to how it unfolds.

[Ray]

Ben,

Can you elaborate a bit more on the 2 spd t5 transmission? What gear ratios are you running for drive, first, second, and final?

[DSPXR4ti]

Ben,

Can you elaborate a bit more on the 2 spd t5 transmission? What gear ratios are you running for drive, first, second, and final?

Elaborate Mmm........ well it's a regular T5 Case just with 3rd, 4th, & 5th taken out, because you know my obsession with weight the guy at the Trans shop (don't want to throw the Trans shop under the bus) said he could take out all those gears I thought I would be saving maybe 6 to 8 lbs, it was only 3 lbs . The gear ratio's I've chosen are 3.35 first and 1.99 second with a 3.64 stock rear diff ratio's, mainly because it gets me to 70 MPH at 6800 RPM's with my rims & tires set up, may go to the 275 35 17 but don't know what that will really get me, with the 18's being 24.8 and then the 17's being 24.7, plus the 17's weigh 1 lbs more each I may not go there.

The main reason I went to this T5 was to have less drag on the engine which it does, I mean if you take a stock T5 with all the gear in it, it may spin 1/2 a turn in gear, you take the T5 I have and do the same thing it will spin almost 2 turn and at the first event I try it I loop it, you really feel the difference I couldn't believe it. I didn't cost anymore then having a stock T5 rebuilt and I've had it in my XR for 2 years with no problems.

The coolest thing is having a ratio in the Trans that I don't have to shift at the National level, the year before I hit the rev limiter 3 times and last year once, so I'm right there. The T5's I would like to have are the SVO with the 2.14 2nd gear ratio but those are hard to find and unless you have a spare you could be screwed. The other one is the Nissan 280ZX T5 with the 2.08 2nd gear ratio but there again hard to find and have to be customized to fit (I have one, I know) but I'm not in the mood/money to work out the details right now.

All in all very happy with my choice.

Ben

[DSPXR4ti]

So very interesting Day, definitely going in the right direction with my XR when it come to the handling and one example of that was at yesterdays Oakland Event, because it's black top there's not a lot grip and I have to drive out of my skin to keep up with the EVO's, well on my second lap I hit a cone doing about 70 mph just right and it sheared off the valve stem, I've only seen this happen one other time 10 years ago so not a big deal, I did come in with a 36.8xx plus 1 how ever, very happy even though that happen "because!" one of the EVO drivers said "hey try my Car" His best time at that point was a 39.1xx and didn't think I would do must better. The EVO may have more power then my XR but you can feel the weight and his car had a little push coming out of high speed corners BUT! that all said I did a 37.1 on my first lap and then a 36.8xx with 3 cones on the next lap. Very satisfying that I was able to test the 2 different cars with the same driver. The weather was about 80 degree outside he on 11.5 wide BFG's and me on 9.7 avg wide Hoosier's (because of my weight of 2340 lbs), his EVO is 450 hps EST, mine at 325 hps and at Oakland no less, I need to find about 50 to 100 extra ponies, maybe E85.

The hope is to be really fast in the next 2 months and show Diane that this feels like my year, all I need is no set backs.

So now to fix the valve stem and rim, check the alignment and work at getting weight off the front of the XR, no new changes because I want to see if I can duplicate the performance with all 3 laps at the next event.

Ben

[catapultkid]

Good job Ben. Were you able to notice the responsiveness to the EVO's motor? (twin scroll factory, 4 valve head, nice modern turbo technology) When I drove the ASP unit here (admittedly, not as prepped as what you got to have a go in) the torque and rush coming right out of the corner was addictive/very impressive.

[DSPXR4ti]

Well a small assessment about the 2 different cars..

The EVO did have great power but lugging around 700 to 800 lbs more, it needs that power. Pulls out of the slow corners great but med and fast corners it has a problem, ABS brakes suck so had to brake early so it wouldn't upset the car and miss the turn, that said I think Issac (person that owns the EVO) is doing, relying on the ABS to stop and then trying to catch it.

For the XR I really think that 375 to 425 Hps is all that car is going to put down (2 wheel drive) so I feel lucky because the XR weighs so much less because and it handles great and base on the course we drove the weekend the XR had the upper hand, that's why if I can build on a little more Hps it won't feel like the EVO but it also won't be course depended. The beauty of it all is I can build on power still very cheaply until I start getting wheel spin.

Very fun being able to drive the EVO, catapultkid Do you feel the same about the EVO?

Ben

[Grayson]

because you know my obsession with weight the guy at the Trans shop said he could take out all those gears I thought I would be saving maybe 6 to 8 lbs, it was only 3 lbs

I suspect that there is more weight to be removed, for I assume he did not grind off the unused gears from the cluster gear. He probably just yanked the free-spinning gears from the mainshaft.

Did you do anything to prevent the shifter from being able to move into the 3rd/4th/5th positions? I guess you still have to allow the shifter to move right in order to access reverse.

[DSPXR4ti]

because you know my obsession with weight the guy at the Trans shop said he could take out all those gears I thought I would be saving maybe 6 to 8 lbs, it was only 3 lbs

I suspect that there is more weight to be removed, for I assume he did not grind off the unused gears from the cluster gear. He probably just yanked the free-spinning gears from the mainshaft.

Did you do anything to prevent the shifter from being able to move into the 3rd/4th/5th positions? I guess you still have to allow the shifter to move right in order to access reverse.

Grayson,

I haven't open the T5 up to see but I would bet your right and I really wasn't looking for much there because it's so low and at the XR center line, You can really feel the difference though.

It will feel like its shifting in all gears because of the detents are still there but if you shift it in 3rd, nothing and does shift into reverse like any other T5.

Now you have me thinking about what Hanlon did and maybe I'll open up this T5 and see, if he did what you said then maybe take it apart and get those gears machined and save the weight but that's really last on the list.

Ben

[Grayson]

I guess part of the lack of weight savings is that there is no 4th gear to remove. Instead, the input shaft is just locked to the mainshaft for direct drive in "4th". However, you can ditch the 3-4 synchronizer, the 3rd driven gear, 5th driven gear, 5th gear synchronizer, 3-4 shift fork, and 5th gear shift fork in the theoretical perfect application. Spacers would have to be machined to replace a few of these items.

If you don't mind starting out in "2nd" gear, the real trick is to use a 1.99 x 3.64 = 7.24:1 rear axle ratio and just skip the whole transmission thing altogether.

[catapultkid]

Well a small assessment about the 2 different cars..

The EVO did have great power but lugging around 700 to 800 lbs more, it needs that power. Pulls out of the slow corners great but med and fast corners it has a problem, ABS brakes suck so had to brake early...

Very fun being able to drive the EVO, catapultkid Do you feel the same about the EVO?

Ben

I believe when I drove the asp car it mode was gravel or snow or something. Therefore no ABS so I can not comment here. It did have much better brakes than me... however, at the time, I think mine where about as good as a train's.

Also note the 33 second course I was on was very very tight. So in comparison you where always coming out of the a hole. On the single high speed corner it oversteered but that was due to a crest in the pavement. The med speed corners it had a hair of push but a slight left foot on brake brought the nose in nicely.

All in all I what one

[DSPXR4ti]

Well a small assessment about the 2 different cars..

The EVO did have great power but lugging around 700 to 800 lbs more, it needs that power. Pulls out of the slow corners great but med and fast corners it has a problem, ABS brakes suck so had to brake early...

Very fun being able to drive the EVO, catapultkid Do you feel the same about the EVO?

Ben

I believe when I drove the asp car it mode was gravel or snow or something. Therefore no ABS so I can not comment here. It did have much better brakes than me... however, at the time, I think mine where about as good as a train's.

Also note the 33 second course I was on was very very tight. So in comparison you where always coming out of the a hole. On the single high speed corner it oversteered but that was due to a crest in the pavement. The med speed corners it had a hair of push but a slight left foot on brake brought the nose in nicely.

All in all I what one

NOOOOoooooo........................! say it ain't so!!!!?????

Ben