Phoenix F1K.07 Flies!

[Matt Conrad]

The prototype test day has come and gone and we are all very tired....

The Phoenix F1K.07 came through its initial paces with flying colors and we are very encouraged with the results. I think after we review all the notes and data we will have logged well over 100 laps at Firebird Raceway's East Track and barely put a wrench on the car the entire day.

We'll post some more details in the next few days, but by the end of the day I got the car down to a 55 second flat lap....not bad considering the fastest time I ever did at FIR East in my FC was a 57.883, so I'm liking where we're at....particularly since we haven't even made any performance adjustments to the car yet.

George Dean flew in for the test and helped provide support and some short videos and some photos as well. Also, the in-car camera does seem to have created some good video, but the sound didn't come out too well.

Stay tuned.....

Matt Conrad
Phoenix Race Works, LLC

[Mike Devins]

Matt,

Congratulations to you and your team!

Can't wait to see the pictures and the video's

[RussMcB]

Congratulations, Matt. Rewards for you and your team's hard work.

[Mike B]

Also, the in-car camera does seem to have created some good video, but the sound didn't come out too well.

Stay tuned.....

Tease.

[Richard Dziak]

Great news Matt.......you and your team have worked very hard and deserve the great results.
It's been a long process to get to this point.

Can't wait to see the first photos of the F1K-07.

I am getting very excited.

[preform resources]

That's great news Matt,best of luck in the coming season!
Dave Craddock

[Lincspeed]

Matt - BRAVO!

Clark

[Matt Conrad]

Ahhhh...sleep.

A few more details from the test and then some images and links to a few video clips...

....for those that felt "teased" ....go straight to the bottom.....

We were initially scheduled to test at Buttonwillow Raceway this week, but a last minute opportunity to share the Firebird East Track presented itself and we jumped at it. As it turns out the other group testing brought out some cool toys....a 2002 G-Force Indy Car and a Porsche 962C IMSA car (pics below). The Firebird East circuit is a fairly tight 1.25 mile track that's very popular for testing for many teams, but is rarely used for racing due to the limited paddock space and no built in timing equipment. Good place to shake down the car as I've ran on the track before (1 day) and we have some data to make some comparison to.

Weather was perfect to start the day with temeperatures in the high 60's and not even a hint of a breeze. We started out very slowly to make sure everything was operating properly (including the babbling ballast....the driver). George wanted me to keep the revs down low but he said after the first session that I left the pits going too fast! I thought keeping the revs below 8,000 was doing good.....

I can't even remember how many sessions we did....it was MANY.... but I do know that the only mechanical issue we had was a mis-plumbed water pump (my fault...long story) which was fixed fairly easily and we were back out pretty quickly. Besides that....we only tightened the brand new chain a few times, as is normal, made some small sway bar adjustments, and experimented with some cooling duct sizes.

We used some "6-Session" Goodyear FC tires (7" Fronts, 9" Rears) off of Ted Guenther's car to start the day and ran them until about noon when I went out and scuffed in a new set (same tires....250 compound). We broke those back out for the last two sessions when we were starting to see the cords showing through on the old set.

After lunch the other group called it a day and we had the track to ourself....unfortunately mother nature showed up with some really strong winds which you can probably hear in the video clips. In fact....I believe from the in car video you may see a huge dust cloud in the distance. I'm not a weatherman but it had to be gusting well over 30mph. The temperature also climbed to the mid-eighties....just another April day in Phoenix.

The car felt great and performed flawlessly the whole day...handling was very predictable and it responded to changes as expected. We tested without the rear bodywork "kick-ups" (which will be removeable on the car) and no strakes in the diffuser. Dustin wanted to see if the airflow under the car did what he thought it would....and it did.

So....here's a few images....and remember that this car is not a show car and none of us are professional photographers. The pretty cars and pretty images will come later.

Getting Ready....



Leaving the pits for the first time....



On track......



And links to a couple of video clips......

http://s141.photobucket.com/albums/r...t=MVI_0145.flv

http://s141.photobucket.com/albums/r...nt=Cap0005.flv

And hopefully.....a lap around FIR East (again...with bad sound).....it may not play the first time so let it load and then hit play again.

http://s141.photobucket.com/albums/r...NE0002_000.flv

Now all we need is some real drivers to truly show what this car is capable of...

Matt Conrad
Phoenix Race Works, LLC

[Wren]

congratulations. That's awesome.

[Matt Conrad]

I forgot to post the images of the other cars that were out testing with us.....

2002 G-Force Indy Car



And the Porsche 962C...



Some pretty nice toys......

Matt Conrad
Phoenix Race Works, LLC

[preform resources]

Matt,the car looks super,nice and clean design.
Dave Craddock

[Mark H]

Looks and sounds like a little F1 car. It just looks fast....and fun too.

At the RA nat. last month the Stohr's stayed off the curbing and I noticed you did also. Are these cars just that low, less than 30mm? Will something brake off?

Your car really looks stuck, seems to turn in very quick and didn't spin the wheels driving off, How is it sprung, stiff?

What an exciting day testing a prototype formula car, it don't get much better than that. When are you going to race it, soon I hope? I don't think I could keep it just sitting there. Do you still have to get the SCCA to approve it?

I know lots of questions but its an interesting deal, someone other than Van Diemen building a new tube frame race car and an American to boot! Your doing what a lot of us tinkerers sit around and dream of when we do a frame up on an older car.

[Wright D]

Mark,

The ride height is higher then 30mm, in fact we were too high at testing, as we never bottomed. Our height was more like 42 mm (1 5/8 inches).

The wheel rates while testing were 350 and 550. We probably will go a bit softer and a bit lower, but more testing is needed to say for sure.

I think our car will love the curbs, just not the ones at firebird east, as they are quite aggressive.

Dustin.

[Matt Conrad]

Mark,

I don't mind answering questions.....and Dustin will probably chime in on the set-up, but from my end....

Fun....positively....and to think that I was actually at WORK all day yesterday!

Springs....we're sprung pretty soft and the car seemed pretty stuck to me as well. I was at 9/10's (of my ability) with the car and it was very neutral. I think alot of wing in the car may have helped too.

Curbs....those curbs at Firebird East are the "sharks teeth" kind and aren't as friendly as they may look. I think there were a few I was creeping onto as the speeds came up, but the farther onto those things you get, the rougher they are....so I just stayed off them for the most part.

SCCA....The homologation paperwork will be completed this week and forwarded to SCCA.

Racing....Plans are to have it out May 5-6. There are actually two local racing events that weekend (FIR Main & FIR East) and we're hoping to try to do one day at each.

Matt Conrad
Phoenix Race Works, LLC

[marshall9]

WOW! Congrats, Matt.

[S Lathrop]

Good effort Matt.

As a comparison I tested there with Tony Renna and Scott Dixon. We did just under 53.
At that time pro FA were about the same speed.

My bet is that F1000 will be very close to FA and it seems you will prove me right.

I hope you have less hassel with SCCA than I did. I seems that a car that has won 2 national championships and podium finishes every year for a decade is no longer good enough to run without spending a lot of money.

[Matt Conrad]

Steve,

Thanks for the perspective.....I'm obviously no Renna or Dixon, but I feel much better now as I've been watching the entire in-car video today and I think I left at least another second or two out there....I just didn't want to do something stupid on the first day out.

I can't wait to get some laps in over at the Firebird Main track as I have much more time on that track and that long drag strip should let this thing get up and scream.

Matt Conrad
Phoenix Race Works, LLC

[Matt Conrad]

I hope everyone has had a chance to see the in-car video....I think it came out pretty decent for our first effort...even though it shows off some of my rusty driving skills.

Obviously, I'm pretty disappointed that the sound didn't come out and wanted to see what others have done for good sound quality. Our idea is that the loudness of the engine and maybe exposure to some wind just made the system cut out the sound. My idea would be to wrap the mic in some foam and seal it in a plastic bag?

FYI....I'm using a Panasonic SV-AV100 on MPEG2 mode and an external camera with a built in mic in the harness from helmetcamera.com.

Thanks in advance,

Matt Conrad
Phoenix Race Works, LLC

[racer27]

My idea would be to wrap the mic in some foam and seal it in a plastic bag?

Yep, too much noise overloads the system and it stops recording sound. We use a helmetcam mic. What you are suggesting above is exactly what we did. I don't think you need to use the plastic bag. We ended up with a 2" X 2" piece of dense foam (Therma bed style memory foam). A small slit was made to slip the mic in. Was held tight with ALITTLE Tape and a tie wrap. Best location is up by your knee, out of the wind. Keep adding foam till it no longer cuts out....

Congrats on the car and the test... I' like others are watching this class closely, hoping it is sucessful.

[Wren]

so what did the prototype weigh wet?

[Matt Conrad]

I've recieved a half a dozen e-mails with the same question.....funny thing....
We remembered to bring the scales and the platform to the test and then forgot the "brain" unit...

I think we emptied all the fuel, but I'll see if we can throw it on the scales real quick later today.

EDIT...we went ahead and just did it now....we wanted to know too.

Complete car with no fuel....literally as it rolled off the trailer after testing weighs 789 pounds. I'm really happy with that because our prototype (temporary) bodywork is a bit heavier than the production pieces will be.

A little math puts a dry weight at around 765 pounds, and a little more math puts me in the car with all gear and 2 gallons of fuel at around 981 pounds. I guess I better go buy some lead.

Matt Conrad
Phoenix Race Works, LLC

[ccambern]

I've tried the foam thing with our mics and still had some overloading... we ended up just putting a daub of silicone on the end of the mic- this seems to capture the true sound of the engine really well without overloading. Our mic is also secured inside the padded recorder box to keep it from picking up any noise from rubbing or wind.

-Clark

[Matt Conrad]

In keeping with our "open" philosophy on the build of the car, I'd like to go into a bit more depth on the recent test day we had with the new F1K.07 car. Many have called or e-mailed with questions....and a few asked.....how did it really go?....and the answer is that it went exactly as we reported. I left out some interesting details, and I'd like to answer some of the questions and address some comments publicly here...

• First off is that I am not what I would consider a good "test driver" as my level of experience racing is pretty low compared to some that are putting in laps in some of the competition's cars. The last time I had even been in a race car was last April at the Double National at Buttonwillow....almost exactly 1 year....and the time before that was January of 2006 when I had a really bad crash at PIR. My experience on the Firebird East track was limited to one day back in 2003 in a Formula Continental...and my fast time was a 57.883. For this car to be in the low 55's says alot about the car.
• No....we did not have the anti-intrusion bars added for the test....some of you noticed. Those will be added prior to racing.
• We are working on the "horse-collar" to surround the driver in the cockpit. It was not ready for the test.
• The only major mechanical issue we had was that our new external water pump was plumbed backwards. We use a Davies-Craig booster pump with a custom billet inlet/outlet piece that is mounted in place of the stock one which is clearly marked with a flow arrow. The new part isn't marked and I made a wrong assumption on which was which. It didn't take but a few minutes of running on track that we figured something wasn't right...and we got it flipped within a few minutes.
• The front wing mount in the nose was not strong enough. We were just trying to make it as light as we could. You can see it if you watch the in-car camera as the wing is moving around a bit. We actually rubbed off a bit of the wing end plate. Dustin has already added a reinforcement layup and it already seems much stronger and it isn't fully cured yet. When we took our weights of the car the other day, we used the nose with the new layup so the weights include the update.
• The throttle pedal was too twitchy. I thought it might be, but we left it as it was. I only had about 1 inch between zero throttle and full throttle and I actually spun the car twice coming out of the carousel because I couldn't modulate the throttle as well as I needed to. We've moved the cable pick up lower on the pedal and I now have 1.5" of throttle travel. I think that will be much better.
• Even though Dustin did extensive calculations on cooling capacities, we experimented with changing the sizes of the cooling ducts and the size of the rear openings for air exit. The cooling was running around 210 (good) and the oil temps were 250-260 in the tank....at the upper range of our expectations. We are measuring oil temps at the oil tank and George wants us to also measure after the oil cooler. We'll add that prior to the next test day.
• Tire temps were perfect and Chris Harrison says that this car will be very easy on tires based on what he sees. Based on the tire wear, it looks like we have a hint of understeer, but I sure didn't notice it from my vantage point...the car was very balanced. We only ran the Goodyear 7" fronts and 9" rears for the test. As I stated before, we started on six session units off of a FC (thanks Ted G. & Goodyear) and we ran two sessions on a brand new set. The compound was the 250, which we think will be an ideal tire for the car. The 8" and 10" stickers will more than likely be tested when we go out in a few weeks.
• The wind was horrible for the entire afternoon. It almost took our canopies away....with shot bags and all of us holding them down! It was blowing across the track so I don't think it affected lap times much at all. It did get my attention a few times on the fastest left-hander as it moved me off the line a bit.
• A few asked about the helmet in the in-car camera....the image on the right side of my helmet is of the Arizona flag. The US flag is on the left....maybe I'll move the camera to the other side...but we wanted to view the shifting.

Enough for now. We're preparing the car for several days of racing in a few weeks and are debating whether we try to make the temporary bodywork look better for "public viewing"....I just don't want to spend a bunch of money on a paint job for a body that will be "tossed" at some point. Maybe we'll sand it all out and put a "guide coat" on it and make it truly look like the prototype it is.

Here's another pic as we were getting it ready to go on track....



Matt Conrad
Phoenix Race Works, LLC

[Matt Conrad]

I forgot the airbox....and the diffuser strakes

No....we did not have the Ram-Air airbox on the car. We were merely running the ITG foam filter that you probably saw in previous images. We're hoping to have our airbox, which utilizes a K & N filter for the GSX-R1000 airbox, for the next test....

and no, we did not have any strakes in the diffuser, but they will also be added prior to the next test.

No strakes, as evidenced here....



Matt Conrad
Phoenix Race Works, LLC

[Mark H]

Ahh the stakes get knocked off unloading the car anyway and if not then the first time you go mow the grass.

[Matt Conrad]

Dustin did put some oil drops under the car to see if the air was doing what he thought....and it did. It isn't too bad, but strakes will help to optimize the airflow.

Our strakes won't extend all the way down to the same level as the floor so they should be out of harms way for the most part. A tall curb may still cause some grief....not much we can do about that though.

Matt Conrad
Phoenix Race Works, LLC

[GoPro]

Obviously, I'm pretty disappointed that the sound didn't come out and wanted to see what others have done for good sound quality.....

FYI....I'm using a Panasonic SV-AV100 on MPEG2 mode and an external camera with a built in mic in the harness from helmetcamera.com.

Matt Conrad
Phoenix Race Works, LLC

Dude...Matt. Let me hook you up with a couple of our Digital HERO 3 cameras. Since you are a pioneer in F1000 my company, GoPro, will hook you up with a couple of cameras for front and rear view filming. It is wireless and in a mini shockproof, wateproof case that is about 2.5" x 1.75" x 1.25" weighing 4oz. We haven't released our motorsports mounts yet (coming in SEPT) but for now we can EASILY make it work on your car(s) with dual lock.

We have great sound and video that is way way way way better than the camera you are using. On a 2GB SD card you can shoot 54 minutes of video. 2hrs runtime on 2 AAA NiMH rechargable batteries. Indeed

Here's a photo of it mounted on my Lotus Exige:




And here is a link to a video we shot with the camera in that position. Note the camera is up front and this is a mid-engine car...that's why the engine noise is not loud in this video. AND this is using our new video/sound patch that will be available for the camera in a couple weeks, updating all existing Digital HERO 3 cameras already sold:

http://gopro.vsocial.com/#84582

Our web address if you want to see the camera is http://www.goprocamera.com

Matt, I will see if we can get you a couple of updated patched cameras as soon as possible to help with your filming.

From one inventor to another...nice work on the car. Can't wait to see the footage :-)

-- Nick Woodman at GoPro

[Daryl DeArman]

Nick,

Nice video quality and sound is just about right!

<soapbox> Hope I am never on my motorcycle coming the other way when you are driving like that!! Spirited drives/rides are great, but PLEASE stay on your side of the road, and I'll stay on mine. A head-on I lose and you go to prison for vehicular manslaughter...who wins? Keep it on the track or keep it on your side of the road. <off soapbox>

[Joefisherff]

Nick does it have any type of provision for turning it on or off from the cockpit?

[GoPro]

Nick does it have any type of provision for turning it on or off from the cockpit?

No...it's got a manual on/off button and mode select but with 54 minutes of video recording you can turn it on, jump in, buckle up, run your laps, come in, shoot the breeze, turn it off, then go do the whole thing again before you fill up a 2GB SD card.

As for the driving, no worries. Half of that drive is my driveway :-) and the rest looks like I am going WAY faster than I am thanks to the low camera angle. Always best to mount low for best effect (clearly it worked :-)

[iamuwere]

Nick-is there a way to decrease case size or reorient the device to make it more formula car friendly?
This records 640x480 at 30fps?
Ideas for mounting on a formula car without being too un-aerodynamic?

[formulasuper]

"Ahh the stakes get knocked off unloading the car anyway and if not then the first time you go mow the grass."

SuperTech Engineering
Mark Hatheway
Van Diemen RF-95
Wife, Kids, Dog & Cat

Mark, He won't be doing any damage loading or unloading using his handy dandy paddock wheels.

[GoPro]

Nick-is there a way to decrease case size or reorient the device to make it more formula car friendly?
This records 640x480 at 30fps?
Ideas for mounting on a formula car without being too un-aerodynamic?

It's actually really small and weighs 4oz. Look at your side mirrors. It's smaller than a side mirror (and probably lighter :-).

If you drive a car with a roll bar it will strap to the roll bar and will fit within the wind window of the roll bar.

Mounting behind your helmet off to the side would be another good spot as your helmet is already breaking most of the wind and the camera would pass through that wind window.

I'm starting to experiment with a cowling cover for it to give it a more aero shape, but I honestly don't know how much difference it will make as it is likely smaller than you think. The cowling might just make it bigger.

Next time at the track I am going to compare it to the camera fins on Pro Mazdas to see the comarison. I think those might be bigger, not sure.

It's 2.5 wide by 1.75" tall, so you are probably getting just a bit more windage than you would with a bullet lens and clamp mount, etc.

This thing is tiny.

For the video, our new patch is going to deliver 30FPS at 513x384 as the quality is insanely good but with almost no dropped frames. At 640X480 it was dropping too many frames and the size reduction to 513X384 is barely noticeable with the smoothness. And it scales to 640X480 just fine since the original image is so tight with minimal compression.

It scales well to 640X480 because we chose quality over quanitity on the image compression (57 minutes with the new video/sound upgrade patch that's coming this month).

Thanks...I have a race this weekend and I will post some race footage next week.

Hi5 - GoPro