Morpheus
#30
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Northridge, CA
Posts: 842
Total Cats: 412
The grip levels with that swan neck GT-1000 are simply unreal.
I ran it at 20 degrees at MRLS because, well, that's the angle we bolted it the first time at the shop and didn't bother touching it throughout the event...
At BRP I backed it down to 10 degrees to get the car to wiggle, which worked better for suspension setup purposes.
Friday afternoon rolled around and it dawned on me that I should run Buttonwillow in the 13CW config before I attempt to run it at Super Lap Battle to get some suspension tuning done.
I am also very rusty from not driving in the last couple of years.
Quick check on the calendar and I found out that the only weekend I can actually run 13CW is this weekend with SpeedVentures.
Not a great setup for a test and tune, especially since it was the S2K challenge and Sat was pretty much booked full (couldn't do Sunday)..
First three sessions were a total **** show, with the 1st and 2nd having cut by a full course Black flag and everyone and their mom running off track and then the 3rd session had a big crash on the second lap and got Red flagged.
I was ready to call the day a complete waste of time because I couldn't even find a groove to know if my suspension adjustments were working or not... Turns out that not driving for 2 years really took a toll on my driving, I was sloppy and slower than geology around places I should fly through.
It also didn't help that the tires I ran were heat cycled out two years ago and apparently storing them for 2 years didn't make them any grippier
Big Hoosiers were big, but had the grip levels of charcoal -
Took the passenger seat out before the last session.
This give you a good look at how far back we relocated the driver seat, it's about a 1/4" from the rear bulkhead.
The pedals have been extended by 3.5" and after using them for three days now I think we'll extend them by another 3/4" or so.
The steering wheel has a 2" spacer on it that seems to work well for my driving position.
The one thing that I haven't done yet is bend the shifter backwards which I really need to, as it is I barely get to 5th gear and with that 4.77 diff I play with 4-5-6 all the time so it's rather uncomfortable.. we'll get it done before the next outing.
Finally in the 4th session things clicked together a bit better and it seemed like everyone in the Red group calmed down after they've seen a big crash.
Traffic flow became more reasonable and I was able to click a bunch of laps in a row, finally get a feel for the car, finally get *some* feel for the track.
My absolutely horrific lap times from the morning started looking more along the lines of just regular slow lap times so there was some progress made :lol: ...
Managed a 2:04 flat with a one very costly mistake that was worth ~2 secs.. Predictive showed all bunch of 2:01.5-2:02 laps that I kept throwing away or hitting traffic in, and seeing that this was on ice skating tires (easily 3 secs slower than anything worth mentioning) I'm going to call this a reasonable start for the tuning and rust removal process.
....Aaand Buttonwillow claimed the first casualty on Morpheus.
The dark Blue stripe on the passenger side of the front bumper is no longer with us, please keep the stripe in your thoughts and prayers.
#wewillrebuild #standtogetherwithMorpheus #bluestripesmatter #makesmorpheusstripedagain #RIPstripe
I ran it at 20 degrees at MRLS because, well, that's the angle we bolted it the first time at the shop and didn't bother touching it throughout the event...
At BRP I backed it down to 10 degrees to get the car to wiggle, which worked better for suspension setup purposes.
Friday afternoon rolled around and it dawned on me that I should run Buttonwillow in the 13CW config before I attempt to run it at Super Lap Battle to get some suspension tuning done.
I am also very rusty from not driving in the last couple of years.
Quick check on the calendar and I found out that the only weekend I can actually run 13CW is this weekend with SpeedVentures.
Not a great setup for a test and tune, especially since it was the S2K challenge and Sat was pretty much booked full (couldn't do Sunday)..
First three sessions were a total **** show, with the 1st and 2nd having cut by a full course Black flag and everyone and their mom running off track and then the 3rd session had a big crash on the second lap and got Red flagged.
I was ready to call the day a complete waste of time because I couldn't even find a groove to know if my suspension adjustments were working or not... Turns out that not driving for 2 years really took a toll on my driving, I was sloppy and slower than geology around places I should fly through.
It also didn't help that the tires I ran were heat cycled out two years ago and apparently storing them for 2 years didn't make them any grippier
Big Hoosiers were big, but had the grip levels of charcoal -
Took the passenger seat out before the last session.
This give you a good look at how far back we relocated the driver seat, it's about a 1/4" from the rear bulkhead.
The pedals have been extended by 3.5" and after using them for three days now I think we'll extend them by another 3/4" or so.
The steering wheel has a 2" spacer on it that seems to work well for my driving position.
The one thing that I haven't done yet is bend the shifter backwards which I really need to, as it is I barely get to 5th gear and with that 4.77 diff I play with 4-5-6 all the time so it's rather uncomfortable.. we'll get it done before the next outing.
Finally in the 4th session things clicked together a bit better and it seemed like everyone in the Red group calmed down after they've seen a big crash.
Traffic flow became more reasonable and I was able to click a bunch of laps in a row, finally get a feel for the car, finally get *some* feel for the track.
My absolutely horrific lap times from the morning started looking more along the lines of just regular slow lap times so there was some progress made :lol: ...
Managed a 2:04 flat with a one very costly mistake that was worth ~2 secs.. Predictive showed all bunch of 2:01.5-2:02 laps that I kept throwing away or hitting traffic in, and seeing that this was on ice skating tires (easily 3 secs slower than anything worth mentioning) I'm going to call this a reasonable start for the tuning and rust removal process.
....Aaand Buttonwillow claimed the first casualty on Morpheus.
The dark Blue stripe on the passenger side of the front bumper is no longer with us, please keep the stripe in your thoughts and prayers.
#wewillrebuild #standtogetherwithMorpheus #bluestripesmatter #makesmorpheusstripedagain #RIPstripe
#31
Are you using 1/4 foam core on your front splitter? Im going to build a mould for a NA front spiltter to offset the GT-1000 wing, a total of 3 ducts 2 for the brakes and another to cool the trans tunnel. Since my flat floor doesn't move much air, the front splitter ducts will cool that and create downforce.
#35
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Northridge, CA
Posts: 842
Total Cats: 412
When I started designing Morpheus I wanted to deal with one of the things that bugged me about Creampuff, which was the fact that the flow on the top surface of the car had to deal with a lot of elevation changes.
One of the advantages that Morpheus has over Creampuff is that raising the front hoop to normal height allows for much smoother top fairings.
And with said I took the long route and mapped the height of each point in the fairings that are / will be covering the opening of the tub, all in 3D for the smoothest bodywork possible.
Not an easy thing to do since the front and rear bodywork all curve in 3 dimensions and so the fairings have to account for the curvature.
Here's a glimpse of what's coming -
One of the advantages that Morpheus has over Creampuff is that raising the front hoop to normal height allows for much smoother top fairings.
And with said I took the long route and mapped the height of each point in the fairings that are / will be covering the opening of the tub, all in 3D for the smoothest bodywork possible.
Not an easy thing to do since the front and rear bodywork all curve in 3 dimensions and so the fairings have to account for the curvature.
Here's a glimpse of what's coming -
#37
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Northridge, CA
Posts: 842
Total Cats: 412
Silly tubes are nice to have in case someone decides to "let you by quicker" as you're catching up to him in the fastest section of Buttonwillow while doing ~115ish.
Let's also say that the speed differential is 15+ MPH and the suspension is heavily loaded as you're going through the kink and the last thing you want is the dude in front of you is hitting the brakes on the line to "help you pass"...
This is all in theory, not a chance it happened on Saturday, session 4 of the Red run group.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Oh wait -
Yeah, WTF.
William had a guy doing this in front of him in the same spot a few years ago and in effort to avoid hitting the guy ended up flying off track sideways, a very high risk of roll over.
Silly tubes are fine.
Let's also say that the speed differential is 15+ MPH and the suspension is heavily loaded as you're going through the kink and the last thing you want is the dude in front of you is hitting the brakes on the line to "help you pass"...
This is all in theory, not a chance it happened on Saturday, session 4 of the Red run group.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Oh wait -
Yeah, WTF.
William had a guy doing this in front of him in the same spot a few years ago and in effort to avoid hitting the guy ended up flying off track sideways, a very high risk of roll over.
Silly tubes are fine.
#39
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Northridge, CA
Posts: 842
Total Cats: 412
That's a part of the plan, I've done it on Creampuff.
Note the Lexan fairings behind the rear legs of the cage, the main hoop also has an aero fairing but you can't see it from this angle -
Note the Lexan fairings behind the rear legs of the cage, the main hoop also has an aero fairing but you can't see it from this angle -