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dpcars
S2 licensed
thanks, Orion

very nice artwork by the way. i share most of your views on web design.
dpcars
S2 licensed
since i do my videos in widescreen format, youtube 'squishes' them when they upload to their site because their format is 4:3 only. the original videos are on my site - just go to http://www.dpcars.net/dp1 and click on 'media'
dpcars
S2 licensed
Reid, 6'3" is a real tight fit in a westie. the guy who bought mine is a hardcore enthusiast, he basically made himself fit somehow. we had to modify the seat and jam it all the way back against the bulkhead and the seatback is only 1/4" thick with all padding included. i think caterham makes a larger version of their chassis, i'm not sure. you'll just have to try it.
dpcars
S2 licensed
i'll be at the alfa day at PIR on march 24 (it's a saturday). don't know what i'll run yet, kind of depends on the weather and how much i get done on bikini and dp1 proto. if i run the mini i'll be happy to give rides - i usually bring a spare helmet

if anyone is going to be in portland at some point and wants to see the car just email me through the site and it can be arranged.

so far, from playing with the prototype i've found that the dp1 suspension doesn't need a whole lot of tweaking. there are no a/r bars (i was planning to add them but found that the car doesn't need them). the ultra-long wishbones keep camber in check so i basically set it at about 1/2 degree negative and it seems to work ok. i still need to mess with alignment a bit. of course ride height will affect downforce but that'll take a lot of experimenting to quantify. overall the car is very wide (72", same as a vette) and very low (CG is just 11" off the ground with driver and fuel) so the suspension has a pretty easy job
dpcars
S2 licensed
Quote from ev0 :This project looks incredible - similar to the early stages of the Britten Motorcycle. I hope it is just as successful, and yes, I would like to see this car in LFS as well.

thanks - i consider this a very high compliment. John Britten is probably my most important inspiration. sadly i never got to meet him and i often wonder what he could have achieved had he not died so young.

to answer another post - yes, i'm well aware of the LMP regulations and why they're there (mostly to try and prevent another flying mercedes). the floor is flat in the LONGITUDINAL direction, i.e. no elevation change for most of its length. this is to prevent the kinds of downforce that group C cars were getting which was about double what current LMP guys manage. the diffuser is now mandated to start a bit earlier than before, again to make cars less sensitive to pitch changes and crosswinds. since i'm not bound by any rules i'm getting most of the downforce from the shaped underfloor and the 'wings' are trim devices. the airflow over and under them is tricky but it's not nearly as bad as one would think and the proximity to the ground increases efficiency considerably. we'll just have to wait and see how well it all works

btw i just finished putting together an info site for the car that some here might find interesting - http://www.dpcars.net/dp1

and no, the car will never be road 'legal', although in some states it could be driven on the street on a limited basis. the only reason i could see to do that would be to get to and from the track if you live close enough to one (PIR is 15 minutes away for me). driving cars like this on the street is generally frustrating, tiresome and dangerous. even my megabusa i could only take for half hour at a time (although the guy who bought it drives it all over the place, so it takes all kinds - i'm just sharing my own perspective).

dennis
Last edited by dpcars, . Reason : addition
dpcars
S2 licensed
nope, not yet
dpcars
S2 licensed
you have to keep in mind that actual LMP cars (and pretty much every other racing class) are controlled by RULES. the rules specify a flat floor and a whole lot of other things, so they have to have wings both for downforce and tuning of front/rear aero balance. dp1 is intended to write the rules, not follow them for a great number of reasons the dp1 will never actually compete in LMP - it just isn't designed to. but i do intend to take it to some of the same tracks and see how the lap times stack up (of course if it doesn't work then nobody would care for the rules i write, but that's the risk in any new design). in the production version there are actually two wings, in addition to the main undetray - you just can't see them because they're under the bodywork. it's a different way to go about things. whether or not it's better, time will tell.
dpcars
S2 licensed
greetings! i'm glad to see there is interest in having the car in the sim. i think it would be a lot of fun if the devs decide to go for it. for my part, i'm willing to supply the necessary data to make the job as easy as possible.

to answer the question about braking - the prototype has one disc front and one rear, each acting on a torque-biasing quaife diff. that sounded good in theory (applying brake torque to the wheel with most traction) but in practice braking tends to lock the diffs and the car wants to go straight, until you release the brakes... so yeah, trailbraking is interesting in the production version there will be a separate brake rotor acting on each halfshaft, so pretty standard setup except all the rotors are inboard. halfshafts do have some flexibility to them though, my calcs show that at 1.5g braking the front shafts will have about 12 degrees of twist.

there is definitely downforce, all of it coming from the underbody. prototype has a pretty mild setup, the production car will be more aggressive and fully adjustable. im shooting for about 120-140 lbs at 80 mph, which will make it around 400-500 lbs at 160.

from driving the prototype so far, it's a fun a/x car but it is equally at home on big tracks. PIR is a 2-mile track and just putt-putting around a clear lap was 1:29 which makes the average speed 80mph (peak 122 so far), and that was only the 10th big-track lap for the car ever. prototype should be able to run sub 1:20 (that's my goal for spring). the production v8 should be able to qualify about mid-grid for LMP1 based on the calcs so far - given the right nut behind the wheel! i'm not saying that i'll be able to do that myself. but of course that's all just theory

i'd be very curious to see how the car behaves in the sim. the awd system is a proprietary setup which i hope can be modeled accurately, it will allow some degree of rear wheel slip. the prototype is very steerable on the throttle.

dennis
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