Merlin's 4G Time Attack Lude

vtectom · Post by **vtectom** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 10:56 pm

Great stuff! The only way you can find the limits is
by exceeding them

At least you now know that the gravel trap works

Post by **Merlin** » Wed Jul 29, 2015 9:17 am

The big off was a result of me going in at the same speed as I previously have done but the track grip was just not there. But yeah, finding the limit on the day

Round 5 official race report added as well as speed trap info.

Post by **Merlin** » Wed Jul 29, 2015 4:37 pm

Merlin wrote:
wurlycorner wrote: How much poo came out at the moment when you realised you weren't going to make that corner and straight on ws the only option?!

Any idea what caused the downpipe gasket to fail? Downpipe bolts coming loose first do you think?
A little, can you not see the skid marks?

No idea on the downpipe. It could be a few things, heat, me going off track a few times, some other way ?

I forgot to say, when we think the gasket failed and shifted we think that it covered up part of my exhaust. We also think this caused oil temps to sky rocket. I saw my oil hit 150c but oil pressure was still ok. After sorting the exhaust out oil temps did not spike again. I have never seen my oil temp so high, extremely worrying at the time

Post by **Drax** » Wed Jul 29, 2015 5:01 pm

another most excellent update and great read

gb-lude · Post by **gb-lude** » Wed Jul 29, 2015 6:19 pm

Wow Allister, Respect! your doing really well! car sounds and looks very strong!
Those trips into the gravel happen so damn fast . at least your driving on the limit!
I hope one day I will be doing the same (minus the gravel but sure I will see it more often than you)

Keep it up! love those vids!

Could you PM me the camera and realtime tracking setup if you have time? Would love to make similar vids to post!

vtectom · Post by **vtectom** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 10:43 am

How does the new suspension feel in the damp/wet?

It seems well balanced in the videos. Are you running
any rear toe?

Post by **Merlin** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 1:08 pm

gb-lude wrote:Wow Allister, Respect! your doing really well! car sounds and looks very strong!
Those trips into the gravel happen so damn fast . at least your driving on the limit!
I hope one day I will be doing the same (minus the gravel but sure I will see it more often than you)

Keep it up! love those vids!

Could you PM me the camera and realtime tracking setup if you have time? Would love to make similar vids to post!

Many thanks. Generally it has been a good season so far. I may tweak my setup for the last round and try and extract all the performance to get the best lap time possible. I am still learning my car and how to get the best out of it. This year was the aero and suspension, but has the aero actually helped?

At the weekend I was only 7th fastest in class through the speed traps, however I think that is pretty good indicator about the cars performance through the corners. Despite me feeling that I wasn't getting quite right, I must still be pretty much the fastest round the twisties in class, and probably most of the class above too.

vtectom wrote:How does the new suspension feel in the damp/wet?

It seems well balanced in the videos. Are you running
any rear toe?

In the wet I was running a dry setup due to it raining while we were in the pit lane. In the wet the cars balance generally feels good. I have not done a wet run on the correct tyres yet. Yes I have 0.08 degree toe in to give a total of 0.16 degrees. This might get tweaked for next year.

Post by **Merlin** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 10:15 am

I noticed at the last round of SLS that the surface of my front discs are starting to crack so these are not long for the bin. I seemed to get a bit of intermittent brake vibration depending on what temp the brakes were at. A replacement pair is ~£360 but I'll try and use these for the rest of the season, or until any judder gets unbearable.

I have analysed my lap data from the last rounds and I am now sure that the loss of the downpipe gasket has affected performance. Data showed I was 5 mph down on the main straight compared to my Round 3 lap. But I was faster through the chicane. Both laps were neck and neck into the final corner but I lost half a second from the final corner to the finish line from what I think is loss of torque

But it least it is an easy fix.

The aluminum gasket that was on the car was burnt through. Aluminum has a melting point of 660c. We are now looking at getting copper gaskets made, copper has a melting point of just over 1000c. Fingers crossed it will hold up.

The data from the last round was encouraging as it points to the fact that it was the car rather than my driving

Now that I have completed more laps I can see that my theoretical fastest lap is around the 60s mark, and potentially below if I remove my rear wing

Post by **newkid** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 12:37 pm

Are you sure the gasket burnt through? remember you had 2 nuts missing as well so there every chance when youve went into the gravel trap that its ripped the the nuts clean off and also ripped the gasket.

Post by **Merlin** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 12:43 pm

Deffo burnt through. That part of the exhaust is too high up for it to have made contact with the gravel. There was no evidence of any other damage on the underside of the car. This is backed up by the fact that my oil temp wiring escaped unscathed, it is on the bottom of the oil sump, if the gravel was to cause damage this is one of the first things to be damaged.

It is not the first time bolts have gone missing. The constant heating and cooling of the nuts and bolts on the exhaust causes them to eventually slacken. We now have to work-in checking the exhaust into our pre-race prep for the car.

Lude Generation

Merlin's 4G Time Attack Lude

Re: Merlin's 4G Time Attack Lude - Dat SLS!

Re: Merlin's 4G Time Attack Lude - Dat SLS!

Re: Merlin's 4G Time Attack Lude - Dat SLS!

Re: Merlin's 4G Time Attack Lude - Dat SLS!

Re: Merlin's 4G Time Attack Lude - Cracking Discs Grommit!