Resurrection: 1998 Belgian Procar - Thierry Tassin ELR/Honda/Foss-Tech #7 race car

[Dave7CDMTYPER]

Your two race caRs are probably the coolest R's in my opinion.

[Rboosted717]

Will you be running both at Thunderhill? Would be cool to see lap times and your debrief on how both cars handle and how they compare with each other.

Yes, that's the plan. Getting both cars up will be challenging because my trailer only holds one car, however, I'm seeing if I can fit one car inside a friend rig. I'm about 3hrs south of Thunderhill so it's just a matter of logistics.

I did bring both cars out to Laguna Seca last summer and was able to do a decent comparison. While it was the initial shake down and first time driving this car and the yellow car is more or less fully dialed in (although I had passengers), the difference between the two was quite surprising.

The yellow car feels like a hovercraft, meaning it swallows up almost anything throw at the suspension and has zero body roll. The tires stick pretty good (225 Toyo RR's) and the braking is relatively predictable (no-ABS, can take a session or two to get use to the lockup thresholds). The aero is also quite noticeable. The transmission gear feels great, although I think the gear spacing could be tighter. The power (210whp) is pretty good although it could use more (especially when having a passenger in the car). The water/oil temps are rock solid and rover between 175-185 no matter how hard or long you drive. The weight is 2471 (with driver & fuel), and around 2650 with a passenger.

This car feels like a nimble featherweight. You can feel everything though the suspension, although it's not overly stiff or unsettled. Zero body roll and without extra aero, the chassis doesn't have over overly planted feel. I think that's what makes it so nimble feeling. The grip from the tires is unreal. Seriously UNREAL. At just 205 wide, the Michelin race slicks feel like a 255. And they love shedding rubber down the straight, at high speeds. So much clagg comes off the tires that the noise under the car sounds like driving through gravel. The brakes were not good and very unbalanced. This was due to leaky front pistons, front pads that were worn VERY unevenly (huge taper), a rear caliper that was more or less seized with a brake pad that wasn't installed incorrectly (caused major pad wear issues). The transmission gear was amazing. So tight, so responsive and so direct/immediate. However, the shifter had way too much slop/numbness for my liking so miss-shifts were very easy. Also the clutch was like an on/off switch with less then a quarter inch of travel. The power (195whp) felt good, especially coupled with the weight. The water/oil temps were much higher then the yellow car but were very stable. I did notice the oil temp starting to climb but that's mostly a result of using a air to air cooler. The weight is 2375 (with driver and fuel). No passenger seat so the weight difference between the two cars is 100lbs or 275lbs if I have a passenger in the yellow car. And the power difference between the two was about 10whp (the yellow car had slightly more).

The lap timing was fairly close but that was mostly attributed to me giving the yellow car around 7-8/10 in effort and the new car around 4-5/10. Also I had to use partial throttle uphill between turns 5-6 becaus the new car was too loud (got blacked flagged for a 98db reading). Overall I believe the difference was 3.1 seconds with the yellow car being about 2% faster, however, I'm sure had I used full throttle going up hill that I could have made up the 3 second difference.

That being said, the yellow car (in Speedvision/SPEED World Challenge trim) feels like it could go off road. It's clearly setup to handle a majority of poor surface race tracks in the US and it's as reliable and stable as you can be.

I'm hoping to get the new car back on track in early May to see how it feels with all the updates I've made. I'm pretty sure it will almost be immediately faster then the yellow car and within a few sessions it should be around 4-5 seconds faster. At Laguna I predict it could run a consistent 1:43 with 210whp and 2350lbs.
At Thunderhill the yellow car (before I finished the resurrection) was running in the 2:10 range. I'd imagine it should be closer to 2:00-2:05 now. The new car should be the same if not faster, although it's going to take some time.

Your two race caRs are probably the coolest R's in my opinion.

Thank you!
While the new race car build are cool, I love this history behind these cars. So much engineering and so much innovation. Zero JDM and/or Japanese tuner nonsense. Just pure European Touring car R&D.

[Rboosted717]

Also I updated the first post with some progress updates. Unfortunately I hit a 60,000 character limit so I'll need to add future progress updates to a new post in this thread.

[Rboosted717]

Did a test drive of the B-series sequential gearbox under acceleration. Enjoy!
(the pneumatic paddle shifters are not installed yet... coming soon)

https://youtu.be/8zhmBmg3oZs

[white rocket]

That gearbox is the business

[coolhandluke]

Wicked. :muhahaha:

[Rboosted717]

Some new updates: (w/ video below)

Track Day at Laguna Seca – Sunday, May 27th

I finally got the car back on the track (the last event was July 30th). Since the last track day the power has been bumped up by about 10-15whp (from 7k rpm and onward), the partial throttle maps were retuned, the original WTI dog box transmission was replaced with a sequential unit (has the exact same ratios), the clutch/flywheel assembly was replaced, the entire power steering system was overhauled, the Penske suspension was fully rebuilt, the front/rear upper suspension arms were replaced, the steering outer tie rods were replaced, the front AP Racing calipers were fully rebuilt, new front/rear brake pads were installed, the driver seat was replaced and mounted to my preference, the radiator was replaced with a slightly thicker aluminum unit, a new fan shroud was installed and the carbon bumper ducting was repaired for better cooling performance. Also I did a quick corner weight and alignment.

And wow did the car drive great! The transmission is simply awesome. Actually breathtaking is a better word to describe it. After many sessions dialing-in the transmission software on the dyno (with and without load) the full throttle/clutchless upshifts are effortless and razor-sharp. I could have shifted using my pinky finger if I wanted. The down-shifts required a quick tap of the clutch and were about as effortless.

Unfortunately I couldn’t get any true lap timing because of the 90db limit that was imposed. This car measures a 98db reading crossing the sound booth so I had cruise up the hill between turns 4 and 5 in top gear to avoid getting a meatball for the session.

I did have some odd tire wear in the rear that likely caused the nervousness and tendency to lock-up under braking, and looseness on corner exit. It wasn’t a handful to drive but it definitely would have been had I been pushing it.
All-in-all the event was a success and definitely gave me the greenlight to proceed with the installation of the pneumatic paddle shifters. I still have a few minor bugs to workout in addition to a little more power and restoring the original livery.
Below is a Youtube link to the in-car footage. Not all the AiM sensors were installed so you’ll only be able to see throttle, rpm, gear and speed (not brake or steering). Enjoy and turn the volume UP!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5KBwwKfvOI

[coolhandluke]

Those shifts are marvelous.

[aklackner]

Vote to save these historic rebuilds from falling further down the forum as some of are more modest rebuilds post updates.

[Superlemon-R]

Incredible insight and documentation. Wow!