C.Plavan Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 What was the final HP/TQ you ended up with? I know the goal was 285, but you teased us saying you went over. 185? Engine development is almost done with a positive result on the plus side of the planned target of 185HP. There is a video of the engine running here: Opps- Yes, 185hp. Wishful thinking I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rex.racer Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 One word. V..I..D..E..O (with sound) Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElanMark Posted July 12, 2015 Author Share Posted July 12, 2015 I was away from my desk Thursday afternoon on but will be back in on Monday so you'll probably hear from me then. The engine as installed in the car is right at the quoted 185 HP number. We haven't weighed the complete car dry yet but I believe it came in around 1475 with some fluids, i.e. engine oil, trans oil, coolant, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rex.racer Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 That will put it right at 1550 with 12 gallons of gas. Man, I'm going to have to go on a diet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElanMark Posted July 15, 2015 Author Share Posted July 15, 2015 (edited) Tested at Carolina Motorsports Part yesterday. Andrew Davis handled the driving and did a great job. He gave us excellent feedback and made the setup work easy. Check him out on facebook @Andrew-Davis-Racing . The day went great with no major issues. We have a couple of things we'll improve but overall being in the 1:38s out of the box with no real development was pretty satisfying. A few of you have asked about how the car sounds so here are links to a couple of short videos from yesterday. https://youtu.be/mquqs24oyTU https://youtu.be/eRxRT56OiCY Edited August 4, 2015 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILIKETODRIVE Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 Sounds awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rex.racer Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 No drive by? I will say that pit exit was pretty sweet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rex.racer Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 Also, if more than one, which track configuration is that so I can look up comparison times. Thanks Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElanMark Posted July 15, 2015 Author Share Posted July 15, 2015 Sorry, I think one of the other guys got a drive by. If so, I'll post it. We got a little GoPro video too which we should be able to get up soon. We ran the full course which I believe was the 2.279 mile configuration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.Plavan Posted July 16, 2015 Share Posted July 16, 2015 Looking good. Thanks for the call Mark. I'll call you back, I was on vacation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElanMark Posted July 16, 2015 Author Share Posted July 16, 2015 (edited) Here's a short drive by video from Tuesdays test at CMP http://youtu.be/43WCP6dQqCg Edited August 4, 2015 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drakekemper Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 Sounds PERFECT!!!! Can't wait to hop in one of these bad boys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbutler1414 Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 Thanks for the updates and video Mark, Looks good, sounds good, you are in the know of any short comings, etc. Just from the video, it seems to have a very high overall gear ratio. What ratio will the set up come as? Will alternate ratios be readily available as spares or options? Thanks again for your postings, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rex.racer Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 I'm sitting in the Atlanta air port typing this after having spent the afternoon yesterday with Mark at Elan in Braselton. I figured if I was going to drop 65k on a race car (aka toy) I owed it to myself to fly out there and see what kind of car this thing was and more importantly to me, what kind of company Elan was. After flying in yesterday I rented a car (treated myself to a Mustang instead of some crappy poop box) and drove the hour drive up to Braselton. I found Elan tucked back into a little wooded section of Georgia. The entrance is non-descript and if you blink, you'd miss it (Thanks Google Maps). The facility looks like a bunch of single story office buildings in your cities run of the mill business district. I wasn't sure I was in the right place until I walked in the front door and saw an LMP car, delta wing and a couple of formula cars. Suddenly I forgot why I was there and was enamored with the hardware. Now I was wondering, Is this the place that's building a car for amateur grass roots racers like us? Seems a car like that would be something a company that can build the Delta Wing (I didn't know they built that) wouldn't bother with. Soon I met Mark Sanderson. Lovely chap, took me up to his office and we chatted for a bit. All the while I'm thinking to myself, "show me the car, let's go see the car, where's the car" But I'm being polite chatting with Mark, we are getting to know each other and it's time well spent. He then takes me on a tour of the facility. Now, this isn't some fly by night outfit here. This is a full blown race car building facility where they build engines from the MZR we are getting to formula engines and even V10 engines for factory Viper race teams. He then showed me the dyno rooms. They have 4 of them set up for different purposes. What was really cool is that they can upload track data into their computers and then simulate an engine running on that track for an enduro race. So upload the data, let if fly and come back, 6 or 10 hours later and they can see how the engine performed. Next was off the the composites room. Here they take the cut composites, mostly carbon fiber and lay them up in molds. Then they are taken and vacuum bagged and then cooked in an oven or autoclave. They had two of them, one was big enough to drive a pickup into. Very cool. Then we were off to the machine shop. Every kind of metal working tool you could imagine was there including a pair of Haas CNC flood coolant machines. All this stuff was state of the art stuff. While I was there, their TIG welder was welding up some control arm and rods for the NP01. Finally off to the main attraction. The NP01 was up on stands with all the body work removed being worked on. The pictures Mark has posted thus far...doesn't do this thing justice. The first thing I noticed was that the car was bigger than I thought it would be but it does sit low to the ground. There is a ridiculous amount of accessibility to everything you'd need to work on. Being able to remove all the panels in 10 minutes, fahgetaboutit. It will be so ridiculously easy to work on this car that even if you're not the type to work on cars, you might want to. The setup of the engine and mounting make it so that you can slide the engine and trans right out of the back of the car. The radiator is a huge radiator for just a 4 cylinder engine. It's about the size of the Corvette Dewitt radiator. There's a nice Spal fan there for when you are sitting on the grid. Top of the line steel braided lines with AN fitting. Top of the line Deutsch style mil spec aircraft electrical connections are used in some spots. Many of the parts are cast and then CNC machined to exact specs. Finally, they fired up the engine. It was surprisingly tame at idle, not some ear drum splitting drone. But rev it up and it sounded great...it sounded like a race car. I can imagine 6 or 8 of those out on track...fahgetaboutit!! The sound will be incredible. There was just so many things to take in and see it's just not possible for me to list them all. They are still tweaking things. They asked me when I sat in the car what I thought, what I would change. The first thing I noticed would be the steering position. It was set to where their test driver wanted but I stated that needed to be something that could be easily customizable because many drivers have many different positions they like. Needs to be something that can be tweaked to the drivers preference. I also commented the shifted needed a fatter grip and that was something they already were working on. So little bits and bobs here and there to tweak...stuff you expect when building a brand new car. But to lay down a lap of 1:38.xx at CMP right out of the box is fast...really fast. Looking at lap times GTR's in the TTU group were putting down 1:36-1:37s. This car is not a 65k Miata, this car is going to be fast and a hoot drive. But I can tell you this, if you are on the fence about buying one of these, you owe it to yourself to go visit the facility. If you have any interest in race car building at all, even if you do not end up buying one, the trip is well worth the time to see how these things are built. This is not some small shop building these, this is a professional race car building business with world class facilities. They wouldn't be building cars for Formula race groups, IMSA, Tudor United Sports car and now we can add NASA to the list of groups. As a result of my visit, I am now the proud owner of Chassis #14. Man I can't wait. Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olaaf Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 I think i'm speaking for the group when i say we are dying for the in-car video! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike 40 Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 I think i'm speaking for the group when i say we are dying for the in-car video! Well, you're certainly speaking for me! Any recent updates or video? Question for Mark: does the NP01 employ a "drive by wire" throttle control system, or mechanical throttle cable? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjracer Posted July 29, 2015 Share Posted July 29, 2015 Thanks for the videos Mark, especially the on-board. Keep 'em coming! Would also love to hear Katherine Legge's initial thoughts and impressions on the car. Eric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rex.racer Posted July 29, 2015 Share Posted July 29, 2015 As long as you are mapping the rev limiter, why don't you map in a few more ponies as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElanMark Posted July 30, 2015 Author Share Posted July 30, 2015 First an answer to Mike 40's question, we're running a cable throttle, no fly by wire. On to new business, last week's test at Roebling Road went great. We learned a few things, made a couple of changes and ended up very happy with how the car is. Katherine said it was fun to drive, very forgiving, and easy to balance between over and understeer. No matter what we threw at it set-up wise, it never did anything diabolical and when set up well, was comfortable to drive quick. The largest improvement was changing the front splitter to a lower down force configuration that balanced the car much better. Here is a little video from the day. Katherine used the REV LIMITER ON PURPOSE, so we could confirm how well it worked and how harshly it engaged. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drakekemper Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 I got to visit the Elán factory today, and WOW. I was very skeptical from the images that I had seen online of how the build quality would be. Well all of my doubts were WAY wrong and I'm leaving SUPER IMPRESSED. First of all, the factory is WAAAAY bigger than I thought it'd be, there are so many different sections and workshops and factories within the complex. There are people working everywhere on multiple projects with absolute precision. Secondly, the car's quality is out of this world. Seriously looks like a $150k racecar, from the parts, to the finishes (even on this rough draft prototype), to the tiny details and amount of customization. I snapped 18 random photos that I wanted to share with all of you guys, they are in no order at all, but you can see some of the amazing facility. I can NOT WAIT for this thing to arrive, it's going to be truly incredible. The car is overbroke and has perfectly sized tires. No aids which makes it more fun. The size was something I was worried about aswell, photos had made it look like it was smaller than a radical... not the case! It is exactly the size of a true prototype LMP car. Low to the ground, incredibly wide, mean aero, etc. -Drake Kemper (sorry for the randomness in order of these photos) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rex.racer Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 I'm glad you took pictures when you were there because I was so enamored with everything I forgot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.Plavan Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 I officially put one of my race cars up for sale. I think I'm sold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foursevens Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 Mark, Thank you and the Elan crew for allowing us to test the NP01 today. The car is truly fantastic. The only thing more fantastic is you and your team so helpful and eager and open to feedback - not easy when it's your project. Now that I have seen the car in person and driven it I am so ready to get mine. The car has so much potential and so much room for me to learn. Like someone said - this is not a track car - it's a real race car. I've uploaded some video (in 60fps) for you guys to enjoy! Here is one of my in-cockpit videos - sorry for my shabby driving. I don't have the data but it was doing in excess of 2+ g's for sure. Some lead-follow of the np01 with my mono Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILIKETODRIVE Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 GOSH that thing sounds so awesome. Wonder what a K20A would sound like... Now we just need Elan to get together with the Gran Turismo team so that all of us can drive one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drakekemper Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 Here are some photos of David hopping in the car and you can see how unbelievably roomy it actually is, and some photos of me in the car, as well as the obligatory selfie lol. Driving the car blew us all away. The downforce and grip is absolutely comical and almost unreal. You don't have to worry about weight transfer throwing you off, the car is GLUED. The brakes stop the car on a dime, the sequential shifter works flawlessly, the throttle is super responsive, clutch is quick, steering is heavy under load but absolutely precise. This is no toy, this is a FULL ON RACECAR. There were only a few tiny kinks to sort out before this thing is complete, it didn't even feel like this was a development car but a completed project. I can't wait until the UPS man has to deliver me the new love of my life haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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