Landracing Forum
Bonneville Salt Flats Discussion => Build Diaries => Topic started by: fabio montani on January 05, 2011, 01:09:58 PM
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Hello
My name is Fabio Montani and I'm building an EFS streamliner and plan to run at speed week 2011.
attached a few pics of the car under construction
It is quite difficult to handle the construction and then to run a LSR streamliner project being based in Europe but I was so fascinated by speed week that I simply couldn't resist and gave up any other motorsport activity to concentrate in this project
Any comment/interest from forum members is welcome
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Hello, Fabio - and thanks for joining the landracing.com Forum. We enjoy seeing the progress of folks new to our forum - and to building for land speed racing, too, so your car and your ideas will be welcomed. Please post often - and keep us up to date as you progress.
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sorry I'm not familiar with this oum yet
attached more pics 2 of 3
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When you want to ost a photo on the topic you've started -- it's just like posting more text -- first click "reply", then typethe words, then click to add "additional options", like photos. You do not start a new topic for each post.
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THANK YOU
should be ok now
3/3
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Welcome to to Landracing. Now tell us a little about the car,engine etc. Also a little about yourself.
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That is a very nice- looking car, Fabio. Best of luck at Bonneville.
Regards, Neil Tucson, AZ
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That, is a beautiful thing.
Show us more, tell us more.....
what motor?,
what speeds to you hope to run?
Where are you in Italy?
What have you raced before?
Welcome Fab'........
Dr G
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Yes, I am interested in details as well.
Can one of the moderators merge his two threads?
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Cool looking car!
...and what Glen said. :-D
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That car looks great. Is that a motorsickle engine in there?
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That car looks great. Is that a motorsickle engine in there?
I wouldn't think so if it's an E motor. :cheers: Wayno
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Do you have any as built pictures. Interesting rear suspension.
Rick
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If you look at the suspension and gearbox and some of the stuff Fabio has in his shop my guess it the engine is some sort of F1 style motor, maybe one of the older (mid 90s) 3.5 units. Fabio looking forward to seeing you next year, give us some more details on your car.
Rex
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Thank you for your interest will try to reply to your question at once:
I'm 51 and leave in Bergamo (near Milan) .I gained significant experience in motorsport as driver and team owner in international sports car - prototype racing including four participation to Daytona 24 hrs.I campaigned in the last years Riley and Scott cars both in Europe and USA till 2002 including my own construction car named ReM in 2002 when this activity come to an end.
I'm a genuine enthusiast and my main activity is in a totally different field.
I have always been fascinated by LSR and since 2007 I regularly visited Bonneville with the people ,old friends with race car engineering experience, actually involved in the project and the construction of Gus Gus .
Also I had a diving experience at Maxton in a GT car just to became more familiar with this kind of motorsport.
Gus Gus project reflect the kind of race cars we are familiar with where applicable with some emphasis on safety that determined the adoption of a carbon tub in conjunction with the tubular chassis ,according the rules, and fabricated aluminium front suspension assy.
The attached pic are quite dated but gives an idea of the combined construction .
The engine is 3,5 litre V8 a Chevroled Indy Racing League 2004 spec built by Menard it run on methanol and deliver 750 Hp at 11.000 RPM. with a max torque of 450 Nm at 8000 RPM.
The gearbox is also a derivative of Indy Racing League manual H 6 speed with much different gearing built by EMCO USA
Aerodynamics has been extensively simulated by computer with particular attention to prevent stagnation of the air under the body.
Bodywork has been modelled full scale to make the moulds and construction is made with prepreg fiberglass-nomex ,the floor is made with stainless.
car dimension :
LENGTH 8004 MM (24.25’)
WIDTH 1145,5 (3,5’)
HEIGHT :
TOP OF CANOPY 960 MM (37,8”)
TOP OF FIN 1460 MM (57,5”)
BOTTOM TO GROUND 50 MM (2”)
FRONT TRACK 800 MM (31,5”)
REAR TRACK 900 MM (35,4”)
WHEELBASE 5036 MM (15,26’)
WEIGHT 1300 KG (2870 LBS)
FRONT SECTION AREA = 0.91 M2
We hope to achieve speed in the region of 310 miles but we know it will not be easy and we surely need to gain experience to achieve the target.
rear suspension pics to follows
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the adoption of a carbon tub
If someone told me they were going to do this I would suggest it is not possible-advisable.
Must admit its pretty slick now that I see it.
~JH
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Fabio, thanks for the updates and additional pictures. It shows some good work and the details of your build. Looking forward to seeing it on the salt.
:cheers:
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THANK YOU
will send more recent pics in the next few days
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rear suspension as asked by richard 2 here again dated pics but more updated will be available soon
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Fabio, Thanks for the pictures. Looks good can't wait to see the car and meet you good luck.
Rick
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Wow, bravo!
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Fabio, The car looks great!!! I like the your idea of the tub for a safety cell. This should give you an added dimension of protection. Are you using the Delphi ECU or something ells with that Pi dash? Tony
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Fabio, magnifico! :cheers: That is a huge project and well done for sure. My only suggestion is to be sure to have the tires covered to prevent salt from getting all over that wonderful suspension and transaxle, it gets everywhere. I love the car within a car for the driver's tub, it is much better to bump against panels in a tub than the edge of a roll cage tube. :-D
I was lucky to have been in your town with it's walled old city area some 3-4 years ago, beautiful area of Italy for sure. We were there on business in Brescia and had a great 10 day stay, mostly at the company that was building a special robot cell for us.
Bonneville brings out all kinds of unusual design ideas, I hope you and your car make it to the salt this year, it will be interesting to see. Best of luck!
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Thank you for your kind comments I appreciate that after so much work !
The data acquisition system is from P.I. and is integrated with the dash and with the ECU engine management this last from Pectel .Both units are fixed on the carbon tub while the ignition box is just behind head restraint
Have provision for wheel housing/fender to assure better aerodynamic performance of the wheel and protect from salt spray as much as possible : There are two lower stainless fairing fixed on the upper side of the floor inside the wheel housing and a wheel cover for each wheel, in the picture this last one is made in fiberglass but will be in manufactured in Kevlar once all details defined.
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Wow.................. what a neat suprise for the new year. This ain't a garage built jalopy.............. Welcome to the LSR world. I can hardly wait to see it at Bonneville with the body panels off.
You might want to talk to our rules committee about how much space you have allowed for tire clearance to the tubs. If I remember correctly, they sent a streamliner home about ten years ago for not enough room left for salt build up in the tub.
Good luck................. Bob
:cheers:
p.s. bring some good cheese and wine with you............. :-D
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Hello to all the enthusiasts of LSR world .
I am Fusi , the electronic specialist involved in GusGus project of Fabio Montani .
I am the electronic project leader and the builder of electrical harnesses .
As specified by Fabio we are using a Pectel ECU with a PI Sigma Sebring Data Recording System .
As soon as I can I will gave You more info about it .
Best regards from Italy .
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Welcome aboard. Looking forward to watching this build. :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:
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Very nice build. And I'm sure that one side of your exhaust cost more than my car... :)
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Hi Fabio and crew,
I'm the driver of the #1133 Flower of Scotland streamliner and I'm based either in Zurich (just up the road from you) or in Nice (just down the road from you), so if you want any help or advice about Speedweek from logistics to whatever or even just a chat with a fellow LSR dreamer please drop me a line.
(More than anything I'm after an invite to come and see the car in the flesh because it looks absolutely STUNNING.)
Welcome to LSR and you've come to the right place with this forum!
Cheers
Rick
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What a beautiful piece. Every year, the bar is raised another notch! Can't wait to see this in person...
Fabio - I tried to e-mail you about a book I'm working on. Would be honored to have you in it.
Scotty
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What a beautiful piece. Every year, the bar is raised another notch! Can't wait to see this in person...
Fabio - I tried to e-mail you about a book I'm working on. Would be honored to have you in it.
Scotty
I'll vouch for Scotty, he reallly is a writer and has crewed at Bonneville on the Chili Pepper Nash.
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The engine is 3,5 litre V8 a Chevroled Indy Racing League 2004 spec built by Menard it run on methanol and deliver 750 Hp at 11.000 RPM. with a max torque of 450 Nm at 8000 RPM.
340mph?..........
That is a very, very impressive build.
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Thats an impressive amount of engineering you did. Good luck when you run it! I would be interested in hearing your adventures at the 24 hour events.
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I'll vouch for Scotty, he reallly is a writer and has crewed at Bonneville on the Chili Pepper Nash.
[/quote]
Thanks, Trent. I'd love to cover this quest in the book, but so far, no replies to my e-mails.
Good luck to you, Fabio! I'll be cheering you on!
Scotty
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I would be very interested to hear the designer's thoughts on under-body flow, pitch sensitivity (not a solid-suspension chassis), and aft vortex flow vs. separation drag as compared to the other absolute wheel-driven streamliners.
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I Thanks all of you for your interest and comment and apologise for late reply
Here below I have some answer to your question :
- Blue : I forwarded to our car designer your comments and got this reply :
Your question is very technical and need a long answer not suitable for such a forum. Moreover we cannot compare to other streamliner as we have not all those data. In summary, let’s say that the air flow below underbody has been studied to reduce Drag. Rear extractor creates downforce on the rear axle and front nose has been studied to extract air above the car. Back of the car is designed to cover the mechanical components, flow separation does exist after rear tyres, does creates drag but – depending how is designed - it could also create positive effect
If you have more information about competitors I would be happy to discuss further on all these aspects.
- Tman : thanks you I'm talking with Scott
- DocBeech : Thank you as far as 24 hrs result not very lucky :
1996 Chevron BMW WSC DNF broken transmission after 4 hours
1997 Riley Scott Mk III DNF broken engine early in the morning
1999 Kudzu three rotor 15th overall after much delay due to gearbox stuck in fourth gear three times
- Dr Google : I would love to do 340 Mph but our estimate of the car possibility is just above 300.May be is conservative but we have no direct experience
- Revolutionary : I recycled and modified second hand IRL exhaust , bill for this component is reasonable so far... !
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Well I hope to see you running there again soon! My friend Eric Meyers (the guy whose helping me with my build and we just finished custom designing the radiator) races the 24 hours of daytona in a RX8. He does Daytona, I am going to shoot for Bonneville lol. First I will run the Texas mile in a year or two after I finish some more projects on the car! But I have always thought the 24 hour races were an extreme test of engineering and endurance for the cars. Good luck with your build!
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A 24 hour race comes second to the Dakar type ralley raid when looking for endurance of car and man.
DW
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Hello
We had two days testing at Monza race track main straight whose total length is one mile.
The purpose was purely to have a shake down of the mechanical and electronic system and I'm happy of the car performance.
We installed a short ratio gearbox to enable the car to start from stand still and to accelerate properly but I could not push more than third gear @ approx 8500 RPM then I had to quickly start braking given the limited braking power of the car.
Carbon brakes are fitted only on rear wheels and same starts to works only at considerably high temperature.
The max speed achieved was approx 140 Mph and I stopped every run very close to the limit.
The first day we had to sort out a bug in the ECU software and the second day we did 12 runs troublefree .
for the occasion the car was fitted with Michey Thompson front tire and a pair of Michelin Rally tire at the back providing good grip but the rigidity of these tire is far less than Michey's moreover we put no ballast on the front and in conclusion we did no proper suspension set up that under the circumstance would have been meaningless .
Said that I had a good feeling : the car goes straight , react positively to steering , engine-gearbox and data acquisition works just fine .
Clearly such a test conditions with the car under severe accelleration and then immediately under braking condition combined with low speed can not generate any real indication.
I opened the high speed chute at low speed (approx 130 Mph) just to try . This was my first chute deploy and could not resist !
Right now I'm litterally struggling to find a test track of min 2-3 miles somewhere in europe to continue our testing schedule.
Will keep you posted of any progress .
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Fabio
Wow looks like great progress, it's always good to be able to check out the systems at lower and controlled speeds. The chute looks good and is flying at the proper elevation behind the car. Keep in mind that more tow line may be needed at speed. The high speed chutes can get mixed up with the low speed chutes without the proper distance between the canopys. Every car is different and it's just part of the learning curve with a new car. Keep up the good work and testing. Hope you can find a longer test ground. Thanks for your updates.
:cheers:
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Marvelous! I wonder how many parachutes have been used at Monza!
The VW test track at Ehra-Lessien has a 9km straight: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehra-Lessien (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehra-Lessien) (but you probably knew that).
Mike
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Mike
I think many tens of years ago there was a drag racing demonstration at Monza which involved a large number of British cars from Santa Pod, so there will have been chutes galore then. And before you ask for relevance ........ the jet car Vampire that was there now holds the outright UK land speed record at over 300 mph.
Fabio now faces the problem of all European fast teams that apart from perhaps some two mile long military airfields we do not have the length of test tracks needed before shipping off to the States.
Malcolm UK
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Hello
After a lot of painting , nickel-chrome plating , aluminium anodizing and polishing we just started gus gus final assembly.
Our schedule is tight ,as usual in these situations, as we must have everything ready and packed end of may for shipping to long beach and trucking to SLC-Wendover.
Keep working to see you guys....
Ciao
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Wow. Looking good, Fabio! Good luck getting it all to fit into the container! Want me to send you a shoehorn and a can of WD-40?
Scotty
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...from the land of the Birfcage Maserati :lol:
Nice chassis work!
Regards, Neil Tucson, AZ
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Wow, what a project. Can't wait to meet you and see your car. Today is Apr. 22 over here, I bet you are too busy to even read this. LOL
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Since you have experience with them I would love to see 3 or even 4 rotor in that thing! It was just a thought :P You know since it was the only car that loved you back enough to finish a 24 hour race in 15th place none the less!
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Hello
today Gus Gus final assembly is nearly completed including bodywork painting.
Just miss rear fender floor side panels and a few parts like front shocks and wheels wells still under working .
Shipping container must be collected from the workshop June 10Th and it seems we are within the right timeframe.
Look forward to meet you guys ! :-D
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they look fast sitting still. very fast.
good luck, fabio.
franey
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Fabio, that is a fantastic piece of machinery and it looks like it is moving all of the time, best wishes!
Bob
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Fabio,
molto bella auto da corsa! :cheers: Hope to see it in person this year at Bonneville!
Matt Guzzetta
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Don't try pushing it with bare hands in August...Please use some gloves..Good luck
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That is one beautiful machine!!! :lol:
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Looks great, really like that blue
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Beautiful!! Now if they just tow it in on that open trailer, I'll get to SEE it too! :-D
Good luck and I'm looking forward to meeting you at Land's End!
Safe Journey,
Lynda
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That is a lot of work and it looks good. Very nice.
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Beautiful!! Now if they just tow it in on that open trailer, I'll get to SEE it too! :-D
Good luck and I'm looking forward to meeting you at Land's End!
Safe Journey,
Lynda
And I'll be looking forward to seeing it and you on the salt
G
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Complimenti Fabio,bellissima realizzazione,finalmente anche in Italia abbiamo una macchina per Bonneville.Fabrizio T.
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Congratulations to Fabio and the entire GUS GUS team effort, all of Italy should be proud!
they had some issues that tech wanted to see done differently---
they made the changes
made the lisc runs
QUALIFIED and backed it up for a blue hat!!!
:cheers: :cheers:
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:cheers:
New vehicle, rookie driver, blue hat!
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I just loved to stand around their pits to listen to the crew speak Italian!!! Don't understand a word but it sure sounds neat!! Ever notice how most of their words end in vowels?
Beautiful car, fantastic design and fabrication, very professional operation. They should have the record.
Rex
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I just loved to stand around their pits to listen to the crew speak Italian!!! Don't understand a word but it sure sounds neat!! Ever notice how most of their words end in vowels?
Beautiful car, fantastic design and fabrication, very professional operation. They should have the record.
Rex
I did the same thing in Tech! They came prepared, I do not know who they were in contact with but they had an extensive diary to back things up as they went through tech.
Paging Nathan Stewart, as a tech guy can you lend us some insight into this car? You made a couple comments to me about how nice it was.
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:cheers:
New vehicle, rookie driver, blue hat!
:cheers: :cheers: :cheers:
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That IRL engine packed a punch. Fabio, Are you running it as a 3.5L or did you bump it to a 4.0L? La dolce vita :cheers: Tony
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It seems to me there is much more to that car than just an engine.
Congratulations, fellows. A marvelous accomplishment.
Besides that you make good red wine.
FREUD
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Nice Folks, Job well done!
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Nice job, Fabio and team. That is a real accomplishment.
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Great guys, beyond savvy and their pit coffee was even better than the French guys - that's saying something!
Congrats to Fabio and company on a great reward from a great effort! You inspired a lot of people over a week's time...
Scotty
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Dear friends
Dear friends
I wish to sincerely thanks all the people that helped us and encouraged our participation to 2011 speed week.
Too many to list and it include the SCTA staff , partecipants and spectators.
I will never forget all the people that show to us their sympathy and their very helpful suggestions.
Under the technical point of view GUS GUS debut was definitively a success considering our lack of experience but under the emotional point of view my teammates and I got even more.
Back to today we are extremely anxious to get the car back sometimes mid october to strip it and start working at GUs GUs next step forward bigger engine/s ...
will keep you posted !
ciao a tutti e most important Grazie !
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Fabio, it was a pleasure to meet and talk to you. Your build is awesome and you have every right to brag and be proud. You did what many have tried to do and went home with a neat pair of hats. Congrats and look forward to seeing you next year.
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Bravo and good luck in the future, tell us about the bigger motor! :-D
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Congratulations Fabio on a impressive and successful build.
My boy "Gus" requested that I take a photo of him and "Gus Gus", but I was busy and forgot.
I hope to see you next year so I can repair the afore mentioned damages.
Don
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Buona fortuna!