- At World Time Attack Challenge, arguably one of the more competitive classes is
the open class.
There's a wide range of different car manufacturers and chassis running and
as we see each year, the times keep tumbling.
We're here with Benjamin from Benchmark Solutions to find out a little bit more about
the Global Aircraft Serices Evo 9.
Now this car is no stranger to the pointy end of open class, I believe it won open
class three years ago, second and a third somewhere in there as well.
For a start, what's the fastest lap time it's run around Eastern Creek here?
- From memory we're looking at around a mid 25 from memory so several years
ago when it won and then it's been within the first three to four ever since.
- Now it's really hard, when we're talking about lap times for people outside of
Australia not used to Eastern Creek, obviously that means nothing.
To give it some perspective, currently here today the fastest outright competitors
run a 1:19.27 so that's five or six seconds there, sounds like a lot but this is
undoubtedly a very fast car.
What I want to talk about is the changes because what we see with World Time Attack
is every year, competitors teams are pushing the boundaries further and further,
trying to find that next little iterative improvement so what has been focused
on the car since last year?
So since last year, the engine package has been updated, transmission, small electronics
upgrade, not a massive aero upgrade but just some refinement to the existing
package that's on there.
The car was scanned and then some aero changes made for this year for testing
and then fairly significant suspension upgrade as well.
- Alright so we'll go back and unpack a few of those aspects there, i want to start with
the engine and obviously we've seen power levels rise year after year and that's the teams
again chasing those improvements in lap time.
So let's find out what is the engine itself, obviously 4G63 but what capacity
are you running?
- So it's a 2.2 stroker, MIVEC variable cam engine, cast block still, not billet
on this engine.
Heavily ported head, 280 plus cams, we're running the 9280 Borgwarner turbo,
the new EFR Black series.
So yeah.
- Alright we'll come back and talk about that turbo as well 'cause that's interesting to me.
The engine, being a cast iron block now we're seeing that's pretty unusual now at the
pointier end of any of the World Time Attack classes.
What's the impetus there, why not go the billet?
- It's proven, it's tried and proven, this car started with a new block this year just to
make sure there was no potential issues with metallurgy and things with an older block,
so started with a brand new Evo 9 block, and then the changes were made internally,
it's got a custom billet crank, billet rods, pistons everything custom to suit whatever...
- To get it up to that 2.2 capacity.
- Yeah 2.2 capacity, so that way, it's a compromise between the billet blocks are,
while it's great, you don't see a lot of 4G63 ones running around,
particularly in Time Attack, like a continual circuit.
A lot in drag but we feel there's not enough proven testing results in the longer fields
than 10 to 15 seconds running.
- Yeah I think it is important to understand that while yes the billet 4G63 blocks are
proven to now 2000 plus horsepower, it's very different running a six second
pass down the drag strip to several laps around a racetrack so in terms of power
level and boost level, what are you at here?
- So we've come out today, being all new package in every area, it's turned up to
about 30, 31 psi, just over, 30, 31 pound.
Power wise around the 500 kW, 510 kW.
- Alright so that in terms of the other competitors in the field which are up
around that 700 kW mark, you're definitely not really pushing it and well within the bounds
of the factory cast block from my own experience there.
So is this just a fact of running out of time, I believe you were only on the dyno
last night.
- Yeah so we, being a new build, there was some delay on some of the parts being as
everything's custom so the car basically came together start of this week and then as usual,
Time Attack fun and hit the dyno on Thursday night, few trouble shooting things to sort out,
back on the dyno last night, about 10pm, finished at about midnight.
Got the car to a level where we could be competitive, set the gearbox up and go
out and then we'll turn up the car once we get some data from the track.
- Alright so back onto the turbo side of things, so you said you're running the new
EFR Borgwarner 9280 so that's a turbo that there's still relatively little data around on,
can you give us your interpretation of the upsides and downsides with that turbo?
- Yeah doesn't seem to be too many downsides at the moment compared to,
this car was running the 9180 last year so kind of gone to the next bigger brother,
the new iteration.
On paper, compressor map is 20% roughly give or take, more efficient with the same
turbine.
Running the 1.45 turbine housing, T4 twin scroll like usual.
Turbo outlet temps, very impressive, dropped quite significantly from similar
boost levels so on paper the compressor is working really well.
Makes about 360 kW at about 15, 16 pound, for a small capacity engine we were
blown away.
- Wouldn't be a bad street combo.
- Oh it's just, with that, with the paddle shift is ridiculous.
- Where are you seeing full boost on that 9280?
- About the 550, 200 mark.
- And you're revving it to?
- 8800 today.
- So particularly with that paddle shifted box, given there's no need to lift off the throttle,
just an ignition cut for the gear shift, that means that there's basically seemless
power?
- Yeah exactly so it's dropping from about 320, about 315, 320 kPa to about 260 on shifts.
So yeah it's good.
- Alright so that's brings me to the next point though because when you're running
what is still a relatively large compressor on a small capacity engine, one of the problems
is getting them on boost but of course once you're on boost, you can actually run into
problems if you drop too low in the engine RPM and you can run that compressor
into surge.
And you've got quite a unique way of dealing with that, can you talk to us a little
bit about that?
- Yeah so this car's running a small 32 mm Bosch drive by wire throttle body,
it's actually being used like an electronic blow off valve or like a bypass valve
on the high compression side of the intercooler, turbo outlet side.
And what it's designed for is the mapping in the ECU is kind of looking at basically
compressor mapping from the data coming in and then we're required to
bypass the surge line, pretty much just bleeding boost off using the valve.
It'll just crack open, bleed it out, sling the turbo past the compressor
surge area based on turbo speed and then just slam the valve shut and away you go.
- It's a pretty smart solution, I like it.
- Now it's probably a good point to talk about the electronics package there
and I know you've got a lot going on but let's just start with the engine management
system, what's it running?
- Yeah so this runs an Emtron KV8 engine ECU, tuned by Scott at Insight.
- So that whole package, the engine and the tune, the ECU, that's all come from Scott.
You're involved in some other aspects of the electronics of the car so can you talk
us through what else is in the car to make it run?
- Sure so we were involved with, just had to update the wiring loom, it's a bit of
a work in progress this year but we just made a fairly substantial upgrade
to cover the new sensors for the new engine package.
The car was converted from cables to drive by wire, paddle shift was added so
there's the pump and the paddles and all the inputs regarding for that.
We're running a PDM 15 for power distribution.
- So for those who aren't aware, PDM, power distribution module so essentially a solid
state electronics package to get rid of fuses and relays?
- Yep electronic fuse box so everything sensor wise goes into the dash, the ECU or the PDM
and then the relevant decisions are made regarding which needs to make the right
decisions.
And then the PDM's running the fuel pumps, it's running the compressor, it's running all
the engine functions, dash, suspension things.
- Now in terms of that, you've now, you've just mentioned you've got the the KV8 ECU,
you've got the MoTeC dash, all of the information, the nice thing is that while
one is an Emtron brand, the other is a MoTeC brand, these days it really doesn't matter
because we've got CAN communications so all of the data can be sent from the ECU
to the MoTeC dash.
So what are you using for a central logging location or are you using multiple?
- Yeah so the engine parameters itself, because that's handled in a package from Insight,
they're looking after that, we see all those parameters coming across the dash
as a central logger in this case and then we're getting suspension inputs, PDM and
load and current inputs, engine, core engine function inputs, just driver inputs from
brakes and suspension and steering angles.
- Now you mentioned there that you've added a lot of sensors in the run up to
World Time Attack, can you just briefly sort of tell us what sensors have gone onto it and
kind of what the drive for those additional sensors have been?
- Yeah so we're kind of mapping the whole compressor map or turbo dynamics as it's
often known.
So we've got a pressure and temp on the inlet pipe into the turbo, pressure and
temp on the outlet, of the turbo outlet side.
And then a pressure and temp before the throttle body.
So on the turbo side we're running a coolant pressure and temp in and out of the radiator
and running EGTs in each cylinder so yeah.
- Just about everything.
Now without getting too far into the suspension as well, because that's probably
a little bit beyond the scope of our video here, I do want to just talk about some of
the sensors that you've added around the suspension and some of the ones that will
be added as well, can you talk to us about those?
- Yeah so we're running the non contact rotary suspension sensors from MoTeC.
- So these are for shock travel or damper position?
- Yep so they have a few benefits compared to the traditional shock pots we've found,
a little bit less sensitive, little bit more sturdy and about a third of the price
so they're mounted just off a turn buckle rod off the sway bar and they read the
suspension travel position.
- Another couple of advantages with those, they are waterproof and you quite often
find with the shock travel potentiometers, the linear ones when they're bolted to a
shock and all it takes is a mechanic to take a suspension arm out and leave everything
hanging off the shock pot and it doesn't end too well so given the price,
not a great option.
Alright so in terms of the development of the car for this year, you've also mentioned that
you've gone to a paddle shifted transmission, just talk to us about what that is,
what model you've got in there?
- OK so the transmission's from Hollinger Engineering in Melbourne.
It's the MFE9 Evo Lancer transmission, their bolt on tranny.
Has a custom ratio set to suit the engine RPM and the aero load and the speed
of the car.
It's being determined by the engineers there.
So Hollinger transmission, the Hollinger paddle shifted kit, their solenoids, pretty
much their whole kit.
- And that paddle shift, all controlled through the Emtron KV8?
- Yep yep all through the ECU, so the input from the compressor pump, paddles inputs,
gear position inputs and then the ECU determines what to do.
- Now on top of that you've also got a centre differential that defines torque
output from and rear, is that electronically controlled or are you mechanical there?
- No so that's running a MoTeC MDC, it was doing the job so it's still in there,
it just takes the four wheel speed inputs, diff pressure, G sensors and the driver
position, steering input and then it just makes it clamp to your centre diff
and yeah so.
- Alright look great to get some insight on the car Benjamin and it's fairly early in the day
here on Saturday so still some more running to go, hopefully you'll work through the
teething issues that every new build has and we wish you all the best for the
rest of the day, thanks.
- No worries, thank you mate.
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