We're here at Pike's Peak International Hill Climb
with the LYFE Motorsport R35 GTR.
Now this car should be reasonably familiar to anyone
who's been following Global Time Attack
or also World Time Attack Challenge.
And we took the opportunity here during the setup day
to give you guys a quick tech tour of the car
to find out a little bit more about what makes it tick.
Now, we've actually followed this car around the world
a couple of times now.
We've seen it both in Sydney at World Time Attack Challenge
as well as here at Pike's Peak,
and unfortunately, both times we've seen the car,
the team have suffered some really bad luck
with some engine failures.
Now this time around, during early testing for Pike's Peak,
Cole was driving the car,
and it suffered from a crankshaft failure.
Now this didn't really give the team very much time
to get the car back up and running,
and unfortunately they were also restricted
in what they could do.
Normally, they run a custom crankshaft
that produces a four-liter engine
from the base 3.8 liter Nissan VR38.
They weren't able to source another custom crank in time,
so they had no option,
but to fit a stock production crankshaft.
The problem with this is the production crankshaft
has a shorter stroke, and while they were stuck
with the aftermarket pistons and conrods
that they were running for the four-liter crankshaft,
this means that the pistons now sit a long way down
from the top of the bore at top-dead center.
This has the effect of severely reducing
the compression ratio of the engine.
So unfortunately, while it's not an ideal solution,
the team have worked around the clock,
including Phil Laird from Australia,
who worked overnight to build the new VR38 engine
so that they could make it to the start line
for the race tomorrow morning.
Now let's start with a quick rundown on the car.
We've already discussed the engine,
and what I'll go over is what the original four-liter engine
that the team normally run consists of.
Now this is the same engine that Cole was using
when he famously beat HKS in the Speed Ring event in 2016.
The engine consists of the custom stroker crank
that I've already mentioned,
as well as a set of Carrillo H-Beam conrods
and a set of custom CP Pistons
that in the four-liter engine produce a compression ratio
of around 10.5 to one.
That's a relatively high compression ratio,
but that works really well with
the E85 fuel that the team use.
On the intake side to the engine,
it's fitted with an AMS intake manifold.
Now this intake manifold is a bit of a work of art.
The base of the manifold as well as the runners
are CNC machine from aluminum,
in this case they have been anodized red,
and then runs into a pair of custom
carbon fiber manufactured plenum chambers.
They still mount the factory, Nissan
drive-by-wire throttle bodies.
Now one of the keys with the AMS intake manifold
is it allows for two sets of injectors to be fitted,
and this becomes essential once we start running
very high power levels out of these Nissan VR38 engines.
The primary injectors are a set of Injector Dynamics ID1700s
while the secondary injectors are a set of ID1000s.
Now these are all controlled through the ECU,
and what happens is that at low loads and low engine speeds
only the primary injectors are used.
However, as the boost and RPM is increased,
the secondary injectors are staged in by the ECU.
This all happens seamlessly and there's no change
in the air-fuel ratio, and it's impossible to feel
when those secondary injectors are staged in.
One of the keys to making power
out of the Nissan VR38 engine is the turbo charger selection
and in this case LYFE Motorsport are using an AMS kit,
which consists of custom AMS exhaust manifolds
with Turbosmart 45 millimeter external wastegates.
And the turbochargers themselves
are a Garrett Gen 2 GTX3076.
Depending on the conditions and the event,
the driver has the ability to adjust the boost
from a low boost of 15 psi above atmospheric pressure,
all the way through to 26 or 27 psi.
As is key of course, at an event like Pikes Peak,
we were battling against low barometric air pressure,
and this tends to strangle the engines
and makes it much harder for the engines
to make power in the first place.
In terms of the power the engine is able to produce,
on high boost as it was run at the Speed Ring event
where it beat HKS, the engine was producing
around about 1,200 horsepower.
Cooling an engine that's producing this sort of power
is obviously a critical aspect
and the team have addressed this really thoroughly,
and in fact, they've made some specific changes purely
for the Pike's Peak event because the low air density
at Pikes Peak not only affects the amount of power
that the engine produces, but it also reduces
the efficiency of the cooling system.
And this goes for the intercooler
as well as the radiator for the engine itself,
and the oil coolers cooling the engine oil.
Starting with the radiator,
there's a large, front mounted radiator,
and this is the sole radiator system the car uses
during normal Time Attack type racing.
For Pikes Peak racing, the team have fitted
an extra two radiators in the rear of the car,
and this means that the cooling capacity
has increased to a massive nine gallons.
So this is going to help control the engine temperature
as the car runs for approximately 10 minutes under high load
from the start to the 14,000 foot summit.
Not only do we need to worry
about the actual coolant temperature,
it's also vital to get rid of
the heat out of the engine oil,
and this is dealt with in a couple of ways.
At the front of the engine bay,
there's a Laminova water to oil heat exchanger,
but there's also a pair of Setrab oil to air heat exchangers
or oil coolers mounted on each side of the front bumper.
Those oil to air heat exchangers also mounted right
beside the two air to air intercoolers.
One for each turbocharger.
Making huge horsepower is one thing,
but it's also critical to get it to the ground
and make sure you can get it to the ground reliably.
Now the R35 platform is already a four-wheel drive car
so that's obviously an advantage,
and it's fitted with a six-speed dual clutch transaxle,
which is mounted in the rear of the car.
Now, this provides some advantages,
but also some disadvantages or challenges for those
who are making high horsepower levels.
Certainly, at the 1,200 horsepower level,
the factory dual clutch transmission has proven to be weak,
and Lyfe Motorsport have gone through
and fitted a full Dodson Motorsport upgrade kit
to the transmission, making sure that it's capable
of reliably handling the power and the abuse
that's being dished out to it.
Now the electronic control aspects
of this dual clutch transmission are another area
that become a little bit challenging.
The transmission has its own electronic control module,
which is the factory Nissan module.
Now this has been modified in its tuning
by the EcuTec tuning software,
and this is used to change aspects such as the RPM
that the shifts will be accomplished at.
It's important though for seamless use and reliability
that the Transmission Control Module also receives
and sends the correct signals to the ECU
in charge of controlling the engine.
And in this case, the team are using a full accompaniment
of MoTeC product and the engine control itself
is handled by a MoTeC M150 ECU running the R35 GTR package.
Now this runs the engine much like you'd expect
from any aftermarket engine management system.
However, the interesting part is the interaction
between the Engine Control Unit
and the Transmission Control Unit.
What the MoTeC ECU does is constantly calculates
the amount of torque that the engine is producing,
and this value is then sent via CAN
to the Nissan Transmission Control Module.
Now, when the driver selects an upshift
using the paddles mounted behind the steering wheel
what happens is that the Transmission Control Module
sends a signal back to the MoTeC ECU requesting
that the torque is reduced so
that the next gear can be engaged.
Now this is critical because if the torque
is not reduced correctly, then this can result in damage
to the clutches and the dual clutch transmission.
Once the MoTeC ECU receives this request for an upshift,
what it does is it reduces the engine torque via
either ignition retard or ignition cut
or a combination of both of those.
Once the Transmission Control Module knows
that the torque has been reduced,
the next gear can be engaged.
And one of the advantages of the dual-clutch transmission
is that these shifts are lightning fast
because the next gear is actually already engaged.
All that needs to happen is that the clutch for the low gear
is disengaged and the clutch for
the higher gear becomes engaged.
On a downshift things are a little bit different,
and what needs to happen is that the engine RPM
is revved up or increased to match
what the RPM should be for the lower gear.
Again, this is all done using computer control.
The Transmission Control Module will send a signal
to the ECU and in this case the MoTeC ECU
can automatically blip the throttle to match revs
using the drive-by-wire throttle bodies.
This means that the driver can concentrate solely
on keeping his hands on the wheel and driving the car.
There's no need to use a clutch
and in fact these cars don't have a clutch pedal.
This adds up to more control of the car during acceleration
and braking, and this is one of the reasons
why these cars prove to be such
a fast package for Motorsport use.
As well as the MoTeC ECU, a MoTeC C127 dash logger
is also fitted, and this serves as both
a driver display, as well as a logging hub.
And one of the advantages with the C127 dash logger
is it's monitoring all of the channels that are being
sent into it both directly as well as from the ECU via CAN.
And the tuner can set up warnings for the driver.
So, if any of the parameters such as water temperature,
oil temperature, or oil pressure go outside
the bounds that the tuner is happy with,
those can alert the driver
to the situation via an alarm.
Now the advantage of this is that the driver
can concentrate solely on driving
the car until there's a problem.
There's no need to scan gauges and make sure
that everything is performing as you'd expect.
As soon as there is a problem, a warning light
will shine on the dash to bring the driver's attention
to the fact there is a problem,
and then the driver can simply glance at the dash
and a message will display what that particular problem is.
The last of the MoTeC products that we'll discuss
is the MoTeC power distribution module or PDM.
Now, this eliminates the need for any relays or fuses,
and it uses solid state relays to control
the power distribution through
the various electronic modules and circuits inside the car.
Now, while we've discussed the powertrain fitted to the car,
it's obviously only one part of the puzzle
to produce a fast and competitive race car.
The other aspects that are important
are the aero dynamic package
as well as the suspension package.
Now in terms of the aero dynamic package
we can see that the aero dynamics
on the car are visually pretty wild.
Andrew Brilliant from AMB in Australia has been involved
with the aero package on the car,
and this produces obviously a huge amount of down force,
which becomes essential with these cars
producing such high power levels.
In terms of the suspension setup,
this includes a complete custom setup from Wisefab
including custom billet uprights on the front of the car,
as well as custom arms both front and rear.
These are accompanied by a set
of Ohlins' custom coilovers front and rear.
These coilovers are also fitted with linear travel sensors,
which are logged into the MoTeC dash,
and this allows the suspension setup to be fine tuned
and optimized based on what it's doing on the racetrack,
and the conditions of that track.
If there was a downside to the R35 platform,
that would certainly be it's weight.
And while LYFE Motorsport have gone to some extreme lengths
to reduce this weight, including producing a lot
of the panel work out of carbon fiber,
certainly the addition of the extra cooling
for the Pikes Peak event hasn't helped.
And this car currently weighs in at 3,700 pounds
or approximately 1,700 kilograms.
Now, that certainly makes life a lot more difficult,
and it also puts a lot more stress
into the braking department.
Now in this case, the front brakes, which do the majority
of the work have seen a large upgrade.
We've got a set of Brembo rotors and calipers,
which are the same that are fitted to the R35 GT3 race car.
The rear on the other hand has retained the factory calipers
and these are just fitted with uprated pads,
which have proved to be sufficient.
One other aspect that's really important
to ensure reliability in a race car that's able
to pull very, very high lateral g-force in corners,
is to ensure that the lubrication system
to the engine is sufficient.
In this case, the factory wet sump system is seldom
going to be up to the task, and LYFE Motorsport
have again chosen to go for the top shelf products here,
fitting a full dry-sump system.
What this does is uses an external oil pump
to evacuate oil out of the crank case,
and it pumps it back to a remote mounted oil reservoir.
An extra stage of that dry-sump pump,
then pulls the oil from the dry-sump reservoir
and then pumps it through the engine.
The design of the dry-sump oil reservoir
is of a tall cylinder with the pickup at the bottom.
Now this means that regardless of the loads
being applied to the car, be it
from cornering, accelerating, or braking,
there's always a constant supply
of oil available at the pickup.
Now an extra stage of the dry-sump pump
fitted to the engine,
draws that oil forward from the reservoir,
and then pumps it through the engine,
and this ensures a constant supply of oil
and ensures a reliability of the bearings
as well as the valve train and the turbochargers.
While it hasn't been the ideal run up
to Pikes Peak International Hill Climb for 2017
for Cole and the LYFE Motorsport team,
Cole is no stranger to this hill
and he's definitely no stranger to his R35 GTR.
So, we're looking forward to seeing how
he goes in tomorrow's hill climb
and we wish him and the team all the best.