TopSpeed Motorsports - OneLap GT-R Project Begins!!!

So I received clearance to announce some exciting news about next weeks test day for the TopSpeed Motorsports GT-R.

Next week we will be going up to VIR with some friends that are renting out the track for the entire day. There should be
no more than ten or so people on track at a time which makes for perfect testing conditions.

That being said we will be testing product from our newest sponsor JRZ Suspension. Now....while I am sure you guys have
seen many tests of the JRZ shocks, what you have not seen is a back to back comparison. We will be running the first half
of the day on stock shock to totally dial the car in. With Leh behind the wheel its safe to say he will maximize the potential
of the factory setup and then some. Mid day however we will pull the car in a garage and install the JRZs. We will not only
have a report as to if the JRZ actually went faster, but a full writeup from a pro driver as to how they made the car feel vs.
the stock shocks. We will be reporting to you guys all the advantages and ,if there are any, all the disadvantages of the
aftermarket shock.

We started this build out tell you guys we were in this to help the community and truly determine what makes the car Go Faster....
and thats precisely what we intend to do.

I want to thank JRZ Corporate and Bryan Hise from JRZ USA for this opportunity, and the sponsorship. He will be trackside with
us helping our guys in any way he can. TopSpeed and JRZ have joined forces many times in the past, winning lots of races
together, including last years OneLap of America. We are excited to be working with them again, as well as bringing valuable
data to the community.

I am doing my best to get as much in car data for you guys as I can.

 

How are you guys going to align the car at the track?

 

We shouldn't need to align it but if we do we will do it on hubstands.

 

this Buds for you, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utGsPnTMD9Q

 

Well its a late night here at the shop getting ready to leave for the test day tomorrow afternoon. I figured I would share some pictures with you guys while the fab team is working on welding the wing uprights.

Front end is pretty much ready to go, Dodson tranny fluid is in and HKS cooler is full...ARP extended wheel studs are in, new brakes are on curtsy of Endless & Stillen! (more on that later)

Tomorrow a couple more packages come, then we button the car up ready for the 400ish mile drive to VIR....Yes thats right...we are driving the car to the track. This girl is no trailer queen!

Well here are some pictures, I will write a little more official update tomorrow.

Oh and P.S. ......Evidently Leh and his girlfriends dog Turbo really like canards!! **See Last Pictures for Proof

~Cicio

 

can't wait to see this painted all nice an purty

 

Wowww. That looks really, really good.
Do you guys plan on painting over the CF too?

 

Yes it will be painted.

 

Leh's dog says NARDS!

 

Well the car is on the scales getting a final setup for the track tomorrow. The day has gone pretty well, but was not without its trials. I would have to say the biggest one being the front tire/wheel combo that doesn't fit :0

We are going to be testing on the brand new Michelin PSS. If all of the testing is accurate these tires are going to be awesome. They tested 2 full seconds faster than a PS2 yet hold a higher treadware rating. They were just released, but only in very limited sizes. One of the available sizes however is a 315/35/20. That tire seemed to meet our criteria so it was the weapon of choice. However we had no way of knowing that the PSS 315 measures more like a 335 with a 12.8inch tread width!!! :doh:

With the Password:JDM fenders we were planning on running the +15mm offset Volk G2s with the PSS 315s square. When we went to set the car on the ground however, the tires hit the fenders.

That being said we had to do some mad scrambling to figure out a solution....turns out the rear wheels being 10.5inches wide with a +25 offset fit the front fenders just right.

While its not the perfect solution, or the prettiest one, it works! Which is all that really matters. We will come up with a more permanent fix after the test.

I will make a more complete post when I have some time, but here are some pictures of the car for now....

multi colored, different wheels, and the car still looks MEAN!

~Cicio

 

Thanks for the kind words guys!!! The team is doing a very good job on the GT-R. I'm very proud to be a part of it.

Just figured I would put up a few pictures from the track.

I'm also working on a "One Lap" video that just shows the fastest lap with a little better quality right now.

I will have that up by the end of the evening.

~Cicio

 

After doing some testing on the car this weekend at Road Atlanta we are getting really close to dialing the car in.

While the testing at Road Atlanta wasn't perfect this weekend do to traffic on track I still feel like we made progress in learning what the car needs. Turn 12 gave us the extreme conditions we needed in order to test the support with the stock shocks, and the esses confirmed the fact that the car still has a bit of aero balance to worked out.

We knew going into the weekend that a NASA event wasn't the best place to turn a lap time, but there was progress made, and we had fun!

As you can see from the Traqmate data the fast lap this session was a 1:30.6. It was actually his first hotlap on Saturday as well as the first time the car had been on Road Atlanta. In turn 6 Leh got hung up by a Mustang that threw his line off for 7 as well. Then coming over 11 there was also a car he had to work around making entry to 12 a little off. We were running the car in HPDE3 & 4 because they were the only groups open on late notice.

I want to thank the people from NASA Jim and Julie for getting us on track last min. They were very helpful even though we may have disrupted their DE just a tad since we were running 15 seconds faster than 99% of the field. :shiftdrive:

~Cicio

Session#1 Saturday | Lap#1
[youtube]XZFCXOfQzl0[/youtube]

 

Keeping the stock Bilsteins over the JRZs?

Edit: nevermind, saw that you were missing a spacer. Hope next test day allows for a solid comparison.

Awesome in the aero. Nice to see someone not just slapping a wing on the rear and calling it done. TopSpeed innovation ftw!

 

Its doubtful we will be running he JRZ's for onelap. The car is so well balanced right now and really close.

 

Little late but Here is a video of the first test day @ VIR

This lap is on stock shocks with KW sleeve kit and a VERY conservative tune.

Its hard to capture on video just how fast Leh is driving the car, but the on screen speedometer helps

Enjoy.....

~Cicio


[youtube]3EC28njJD5M[/youtube]

 

Nevermind... Fixed. Lol

 

Anything new other than having the 'SAME WING'?

 

posting for back to back funny!

 

Anything new or is the car pretty much done?

 

http://www.nagtroc.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=46876&st=200

 

Ok Gents and Ladies....very sorry I have not had the time to update this thread. We have been just slammed in the shop. Trying to finish Two Alpha builds right now with deadlines, so our personal play time has been limited on the OneLap GT-R.

However with the test day coming up next week we figured we better drop the motor....

Time for TURBOS!!!!

Just snapped a few pictures...Lots more info to come through the weekend. All the body work is painted and looking awesome...she will be 100% track ready by Monday night.

Enjoy the pictures...

P.S. Leh is running Long Beach this weekend...tune in if you have time.

~Cicio

 

This has to be a photoshop...Doug wrenches?

:bowdown:

 

I saw him flip the ball on his hitch one morning


you guys need a PR man?

 

What about some video coverage of this build all the way to One Lap?

 

I was gonna say photoshopped due to Brandon's mohawk, but that was b/c i was w/ Nicad when I saw Doug flip the hitch...

 

Doug, B Reel, and I did wrenching on the front fenders. But Doug did 99.99999% of it and B Reel and I just looked for stuff.....lol

 

Ok guys...little update trackside.

We are at Roebling Road Raceway today in Savanna, GA testing the car. Changes from the last test include, sways, turbos, and supporting mods.

We wanted to start out the day strong as the track falls off toward the middle to end of the day. I have traqmate data and video that I will put up for you guys when I get home, but for now just info.

After adjusting tire pressures, playing with sway bars, and working more with the aero balance, the car set a fast lap so far of 1:14.7

Leh, Doug and I are very happy with how the car is running. The AMS Alpha turbos gives it just what it needs up top while keeping the torque at a manageable level.

We have a few more 3 lap sessions to run for testing, but as of now are quite satisfied. We will be making a few more small adjustments on the chassis just for testing purposes, but don't expect to pull anymore time out of the car today. Doug is also playing with different road race tunes for AMS's turbo setup just to ensure we know the car and its limits as good as possible before OLOA.

Thats all for now...more updates tonight

~Cicio

 

Excellent going Cicio. Can you compare this with Pepper? What was Pepper's best hot lap at Roebling?

 

1:16.7 :naughty:

 

Oh heck yeah!

 

Previous GTR Track record was held by Sharif at 1:18.7

 

Pwned.

 

Beating Sharifs time was just a bonus, we knew we wanted to go 14s that was the goal for the test.

TopSpeed and Leh Keen an unbeatable combination.

 

nice work guys :bigthumb:

 

Little scatter brained from the craziness of the last few weeks, between my international travels, the work load here and trying to get the TopSpeed GTR finished at night. So bare with me if I jump around a bit here.


Just got back to the shop so I now have time to put together my thoughts on our last and final test day before One Lap. I have spent the last few nights installing the AMS Alpha9 turbo's, mafs, fuel system, and then developing a few different maps for the car on the dyno. Like all of the AMS parts we have installed in the past, it went smoothly and everything we needed was included. The turbo's installed just like factory and I was very impressed with the attention to detail that AMS has with all the protected (ie: heat wrapped) lines. Had they not came already wrapped I would have done it myself, but it seems great minds think alike and they were saving me the head ache.

With the turbo's, and motor reinstalled back into the GTR next thing on the list was the Alpha 9 fuel system. This too went in without a hitch, but was a bit more involved honestly then I had expected but provided plenty of fuel for now and upgrades to come. The AMS Mafs were pretty much a no brainer and swapped out just like the stock ones.

The dyno..... WOW is all I have to say at this time. The whole AMS Alpha9 package WORKS, and works very well. More on that later though as I can not disclose exact dyno numbers


With the car mapped and ready to rock in the power department thanks to the AMS Alpha 9 parts, it was time to install the much needed Stillen Sway bars.

The Stillen bars were a very easy install and came coated in a nice silver color with true Aurora bearing endlinks. Not some cheap china-bay bearings that wear and start clunking after a few hundred miles. I would expect nothing less coming from a company with such a huge background in motorsports. For base settings on the bars we started out with the front on full stiff and the rear full soft. This would give us a 38% increase in the front and 67% in the rear.

With everything buttoned up it was then time for us to head to the track, so in true street car fashion we packed up the GTR and drove it down.

Leh and I knew that if we wanted to cut a lap time that it would have to happen in the first few hours of the day. As the day heats up so does the track surface and the amount of grip it produces.

With that in mind right out of the Box the new sways bars were AMAZING.. those bars with the KW sleeves provides the perfect balance for a square setup GTR. Very neutral... yup neutral.. something that is apparently unheard of with the horrible roll center the front of the car has. One thing that we noticed about this combination of Stillen bars and kw's is that adjustments to the front bar made a noticeable change in the chassis. Full stiff on the front bar and the car had a bit more mid corner push... full soft and it transitioned to a looser mid corner condition. But the middle setting on the front bar with the full soft setting on the rear was just right. This gave the car a neutral balance while still allowing the car to power down on corner exit.

Throughout the day we logged oil, coolant, tranny temps, and even after beating on the car hard in the mid day heat we never saw over 105c temps on anything.

Like our previous 2 track tests the Endless Fluid and ME20 pads performed like a dream, never once indicating a hint of fade or change in pedal feel. Another thing is the wear on the Endless pads is amazing, even with 2k street miles and three track days the front pads remain at 80% pad depth.

I mapped the TopSpeed GTR with an ultra conservative boost level to ensure the reliability of everything for the duration of the week long event. Even still the Alpha9 parts made a huge increase in power all the while running less boost then previously on the stock turbo's. Its always a bonus when you can make more power on less boost as it puts less strain on the intecooler system and piping. Like the old saying goes sometimes less is more, which is truely the case with these turbo's. The Alpha9 turbo's are what this car should have come with from factory in my opinion, they offer no noticeable loss in spool time or low to mid range power but just don't stop pulling up top. Giving us an almost flat tq curve, with so much more power in the higher rpms that we were able to run 162mph down the short front straight.

With everything working in perfect harmony we cranked off a lap in the morning of a 1:14.7 This is a crazy fast for the track, over the last year the track surface has been quickly loosing grip as it gets polished down and wears in. To put this in perspective our winning GT2 of last year ran 1:16's in onelap trim, on a course that actually favors the GT2's platform over the GTR.

Right now Team TopSpeed is extremely happy with the car as it sits. After One Lap of America however we will continue testing on it with the addition's of some JRZ's and full racing slicks..

Both Leh and I will be updating our Facebook page along the way of onelap http://www.facebook.com/TopSpeedMotorsports so LIKE it to stay on top.


Take care,

 

Excellent Doug. Hopefully I'll see ya at CMP (if I can get off work) but I know you'll be busy as heck. So I'll simply swing by say hey and let ya be.

 

And on that note...here are the pictures from Roebling Raceway yesterday. We didn't have alot of hands with us, so the on track pictures are limited, but I will have fastlap video up for you guys shortly!

Enjoy...

 

Nice pictures - thanks for the update

Looks like somebody had fun w/ the TopSpeed banner

 

Paint job goods very good with the wider fenders. And I see ya'll got the wheels ironed out as well.

 

Yeah......took Doug about 5 minutes.....LOL

 

...facepalm...

 

que?

 

Here is the video of the record shattering 1:14.7....

Enjoy

[youtube]KNByrnEkDho[/youtube]

 

Looks more like the 1:22 lap to me

 

Smooth is fast....thats why looks can be deceiving...

Grab a stopwatch

 

I was watching the lap time provided in the video. It shows the previous lap at 1:14.7.. Just wanted to make you aware that you had the lap after the record lap.

 

I'm not 100% sure what you mean, but the previous lap to the 1:14.7 was a 1:23...that was his out lap