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Thomas getting ready to head out for a shake-down run
The initial christening of the car occurred at Buttonwillow Raceway Park in California’s southern Central Valley. I absolutely love this track, as I personally find it to be extremely challenging to find speed. There is very little time to rest over the course of a lap. You are constantly going from left to right, very quickly, and all the while at very high speed. It’s thrilling and oh so rewarding to go fast here.
By this time, one of my pals had purchased a GT4 Clubsport and was also there to christen his car. We had hired a professional coach, Thomas Merrilll (thomasmerrillms.com) , and his first task was to drive them both for a shake-down, request any set-up changes and then, once the cars were dialed-in to his satisfaction, set a base-line in the MoTeC data for each of us. To my surprise, he was able to set a time in my car that was within a second or two of the Clubsport’s time. He explained that while the PDK of the Clubsport meant the car was quicker over a lap, my car had much better dampers, so he could be more aggressive over the curbs.
The one item I personally designed and installed was (not surprisingly) the one that didn’t live up to my expectations. The carbon fibre center panel with the C125 display simply wasn’t functional, as it was well out of your field of view when driving the car. After seeing and driving a few of my friend’s Clubsports, I quickly decided I needed to replicate the PCA Trophy East cars that had the C125 up high on a bracket.
Original MoTeC C125 location on custom carbon fibre panel
Screen shot from the MoTeC V2 camera video showing the C125 Clubsport mounting kit with my own design of a clone of carbon fibre panel
Last edited by 24Chromium; 02-11-2018 at 09:02 PM.
Installing and learning the MoTeC data and video system was a season long adventure. Despite having MoTeC in my Cup car and spending quite a lot of time learning it over 3 seasons, I still had plenty of track days when I wasn't able to get a lap time. Honestly, I spent more time working on the car all season than I did on my driving. I installed the MoTeC system in 3 phases. The initial phase was the C125 dash. Then came the video camera. I quickly learned that MoTeC abandoned the V2 camera product, as there have yet to be any software/firmware updates. I discovered that the date stamp is in Australian time. The units are metric (which I actually prefer!). Neither of which you can change. And worst of all, the default settings for the image are horrible. The final phase was to add the shift light module (SLM) at the top of the instrument cluster. These are great additions, as you can program the lights to do just about anything you can think of. I've got mine showing RPMs as well as brake pressure. It was this last step, installing the SLM that sent me on a downwards spiral. The camera and SLM no longer worked. It took ages to sort this, but it turned out it was a simple setting in software. With both the camera and the SLM attached, the baud rate was suddenly critical. Many thanks to Simon at MoTeC for helping me.
At the end of the season, during the PCA Duel in the Desert Club Race at Buttonwillow, I finally got the pleasure of meeting Chris Brown in person. Chris formerly worked at MoTeC and is the author of the book 'Making Sense of Squiggly Lines'. He helped me to fine tune my camera settings and now I'm finally happy with my videos. I even attended the seminar Chris taught at the PRI show in Indianapolis. Chris is one of those rare gems in life; brilliant and yet down-to-earth.
Last edited by 24Chromium; 02-24-2018 at 12:28 PM.
Tini and I hit some new tracks last summer: Circuit of the Americas in Austin, TX; Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA; and my new favorite in the USA, Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI.
Tini takes a brief rest in the warm rays of summer in Wisconsin
Putting on on my game face
Ready to head out into America's National Park of Speed - Road America!
I was so very fortunate to be tapped to co-drive in the November PCA Club Race enduro at Buttonwillow with my teammate in her GT4 Clubsport. I have driven a few Clubsports, so I felt comfortable in doing so, but I still felt it was wise to run her car one session during the weekend prior to the race just to reacclimatize. As things turned out, I never got the opportunity. I drove the second half of the race, and I had to jump in cold during the mandatory pit stop. At that point, we were 1st in class and chasing the lead at 3rd overall. I took a deep breath and decided to warm up to things slowly. After a few laps, I was on pace with my teammate. The laps ticked off all too fast and before I knew it, the checked flag appeared and I had kept us at the front. We finished 1st in class and on the podium with a 3rd overall. I can’t tell you how happy I was to be driving a car in anger and competing for the overall win.
Laura is one of the most fiercely competitive people I've ever met
Lär takes the checked flag and a podium for the Black Sheep Racing team!
It takes a village - our crew is fantastic
Last edited by 24Chromium; 02-19-2018 at 02:26 PM.
Ever since I bought the car I’ve been planning to race it. This winter was finally the time to make that dream a reality. My goal all along was to build a clone of the Clubsport. I wanted to replicate the factory cage as closely as possible. I wanted to use all the same factory components for the fire suppression and electrical system, right down to the kill switch. I wanted to relocate the battery to the passenger footwell. And most of all, I wanted air jacks, using the same Krontec components used on the factory built cars. My teammate has the Porsche parts manual for her car, so I began researching components and their part numbers, collecting a long list of items to purchase. I shipped the car to Bilt Racing Service for the fabrication of the cage and air jack brackets.
CAGE
I’ve got 3 Clubsports here to look at, so I took a ton of detailed photos documenting the cage fabrication details. To add to that, my teammate has the certification document for her cage, and that consists of pages of drawings and photos of the cage, tubing specifications and its attachment to the chassis. All the factory built cars use OMP FIA rated bar padding, which I found is available as a complete kit from PMNA in the parts catalog.
Progress on main hoop
Progress on main hoop and rear strut tower bracing
Dash removed in preparation for the front section of the cage
AIR JACKS
Since none of the support brackets are already built into the car, adding these pieces during the cage fabrication was an obvious choice. The Clubsport has 3 pneumatic cylinders, one in the center of the frunk, then 2 at the rear, just in front of the rear wheels. These 2 are tied into the main roll hoop. I was thrilled to learn that the system purchased for my car came with the wand (the spigot at the end of the nitrogen hose that actually connects to the car) as well as a set of safety stands. I know these Krontec parts are very expensive, so that was a relief to my wallet. When I raced a 997 Cup car, I had a nitrogen bottle, regulator and hose with all the correct fittings. However, I included them when I sold that car. Now I’ll have to purchase those bits again.
Preping for the air jack brackets at the rear
Custom design and fabrication of the air jack bracket in the frunk with Krontec pneumatic cylinder in place
FIRE SUPPRESSION
The factory car uses a system from FEV from the UK. I contacted them and with the photos and model numbers I collected, they were able to provide me the same system. It turns out that some of the small brackets used to hold the nozzles and tuning are not found in the parts catalog. However, I was able to find them via Manthey in Germany and PMNA was able to procure them that way. By the way, Manthey were the ones who actually developed the car, and they do the final steps of the build once the cars roll off the assembly line. Just like the Cups, the Clubsports are built on the same assembly line as the street cars.
Fire extinguisher system as supplied by FEV
ELECTRICAL
Race cars typically have a main switch in the cockpit that turns on power to the car. When I built the carbon fibre center console, I sourced the same main switch and flip cover that the factory uses in the Cups and Clubsports. Up till now, that switch has been decorative. I was able to ID most of the components needed for the kill switch circuitry. Once the car gets back from the cage fabricator, our master technician will begin the task of rerouting and rewiring the car to match the Clubsport.
I don't recommend buying a Clubsport at the parts counter
BATTERY BOX
The Clubsports use the same battery as the street car, however, it is located in the passenger footwell to optimize the center of gravity of the car. The battery is contained in a ‘box’ with a plastic cover hiding all the components and wiring underneath. While the electrical components and the cover are listed in the parts catalog, the ‘box’ itself is part of the ‘body-in-white’ or chassis, and therefore is not a part you can source from PMNA. However, our master technician was able to work his rolodex of contacts and ultimately found a team that had a binned Clubsport tub which they were happy to salvage the box from.
Battery box with cover removed
Battery box with battery removed
PCA CLUB RACING
My goal is to have the car on the grid at the first club race of the 2018 West Coast series. I read the club rules and found that the car’s logical class is GTB3. I skimmed the Club Racing news magazines and race results to see if there were others in my class. Sadly, there are not many, and none that I know of in my region. I’m hoping that over the next few seasons there will be more competition.
I don't recommend buying a Clubsport at the parts counter
Hahahaha
Such an awesome thread, keep the pics coming! Always loved the martini livery on your car and it's great seeing the progress of the development and how you're approaching things - the air jack installation is very cool.
The team at BRS are doing an amazing job of replicating every detail of the Clubsport cage design. Can't wait to see it once it's all painted, put back together and ready to RACE!
02-06-2018, 12:05 AM
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