Where are all the "real" track reports by owners?

[Boxer12]

Come on guys, these cars have been out there for a while so give us some real life track reports! Are you putting up some good track times?

 

[ACRucrazy]

HA! I think most are still waiting for their damn car

 

[PilotaX]

If I'm lucky I might get mine out in July. But right now it's the NASA race season so I may not be able to get the Gen V out on the track until the Fall.

 

[bluestreak]

Way too early, not enough cars out yet. I would bet the vast majority of Vipers never see the track. Not only that, no one is going to be setting blazing times in their first time out in the car.

We will be lucky if there is a good sampling of lap times by this time next year.

 

[Boxer12]

Way too early, not enough cars out yet. I would bet the vast majority of Vipers never see the track. Not only that, no one is going to be setting blazing times in their first time out in the car.

We will be lucky if there is a good sampling of lap times by this time next year.

Idk, when I took delivery of my ACR, took it to the track that weekend for a shake down with just barely 500 miles, and there were three of us there with paper plates on the car!

Pilota, NASA events are very reasonably priced, well run and a great time. Go join them! It is prob a lot safer for your car to run in controlled groups than just with whomever shows up at your local T&T event. I think I saw on a post you have racing experience, and if you have a racing license, you can prob just join up in HPDE 3 for a check out and after one session they will prob move you to HPDE 4 (open passing). Get a TT license for an extra $10 and run with the fast boys!

 

[TowDawg]

I think Ole Blue would be OK in HPDE4, but I don't think the fast guys would want him in TT.










...He'd end up taking their contingency tires like he did from the NARRA guys.
In all seriousness, he is EXTREMELY fast!

 

[bluestreak]

Point taken, I do know some people who do that as well, probably a little less likely than it would be with a track car like an ACR. I still think we will be lucky to get many track reports before much later in the year though I'd gladly be wrong.

Idk, when I took delivery of my ACR, took it to the track that weekend for a shake down with just barely 500 miles, and there were three of us there with paper plates on the car!

Pilota, NASA events are very reasonably priced, well run and a great time. Go join them! It is prob a lot safer for your car to run in controlled groups than just with whomever shows up at your local T&T event. I think I saw on a post you have racing experience, and if you have a racing license, you can prob just join up in HPDE 3 for a check out and after one session they will prob move you to HPDE 4 (open passing). Get a TT license for an extra $10 and run with the fast boys!

 

[Policy Limits]

I have a GoPro camera...but no car hee hee

even if I had it i'm no racer but i'll try n upload some spirited cruisin'

guessing within 60 days custom orders should all be built & delivered?

 

[bluestreak]

I think Ole Blue would be OK in HPDE4, but I don't think the fast guys would want him in TT.










...He'd end up taking their contingency tires like he did from the NARRA guys.
In all seriousness, he is EXTREMELY fast!

I think he edited to clarify who he was talking about. I own the NASA and NARRA TT records at my home track so I'm no noob. LOL.

 

[Boxer12]

I can't believe none of the NARRA guys have brought one to the track! Not even one of the 'dealers'? Not SRT? What's up with that? They built 50 test drivers and none have appeared at track events??? I thought for sure that Kuno would be smokin the tires in one at The Glen.

 

[PilotaX]

Way too early, not enough cars out yet. I would bet the vast majority of Vipers never see the track. Not only that, no one is going to be setting blazing times in their first time out in the car.

We will be lucky if there is a good sampling of lap times by this time next year.

Idk, when I took delivery of my ACR, took it to the track that weekend for a shake down with just barely 500 miles, and there were three of us there with paper plates on the car!

Pilota, NASA events are very reasonably priced, well run and a great time. Go join them! It is prob a lot safer for your car to run in controlled groups than just with whomever shows up at your local T&T event. I think I saw on a post you have racing experience, and if you have a racing license, you can prob just join up in HPDE 3 for a check out and after one session they will prob move you to HPDE 4 (open passing). Get a TT license for an extra $10 and run with the fast boys!

I'm already running two groups every NASA weekend and sometimes instructing. I think my crew would kill me if I brought another car!

 

[PilotaX]

oops. I didn't see the full message about running the Gen 5 in HPDE3 and then TT. I can tell you right now what the outcome would be in TT. The Gen 5 would get smoked against any serious TT car with a competent driver.

I'm not exactly a newbie at this. I won the SoCal TT1 class two years ago in a Cup car, beating out last year's national champion in all but one event. I also won GTS5 that year in the same car. Unfortunately i missed Nationals due to an engine fire that caused major damage a month before Nationals. I'm taking another run at it this year, in a different class though. Strategic move to take advantage of a new classification scheme mostly affecting what is now called TT3, but used to be TTA.

The Gen 5 will need slicks, real aero (along the lines of the ACR) and a competition suspension to be competitive.

I can tell you without even driving it on a track what it will do on the main courses we run around here. It will do about 1:30 at WSIR with the Pzeros, with a talented driver, and maybe 1:49 or 1:50 at Autoclub Speedway, also in stock trim with the standard P zero. Maybe a second quicker at both tracks with the Corsas.

Also, FWIW, SRT did have the cars out at big willow several times. There may be some video or other info online from those outings. I know for sure there's a video on YouTube showing a Gen 5 running the Streets of Willow for one of the magazines. It was posted around February I believe.

 

[Boxer12]

Pilota, don't you want to be the first guy in the world to put some Hoosiers on one and see what she'll do? Come on! I know you want to!!

 

[PilotaX]

Pilota, don't you want to be the first guy in the world to put some Hoosiers on one and see what she'll do? Come on! I know you want to!!

Absolutely! I'm trying to set it up to go to Laguna Seca with the car next month. That's probably going to be my best shot before the Fall.

 

[Boxer12]

I've been looking for a reason to get out to LS...maybe I will join you out there! I would love to see it fly!!

 

[PilotaX]

I've been looking for a reason to get out to LS...maybe I will join you out there! I would love to see it fly!!

It will be interesting to see how it does.

I wish NASA had some higher HP classes where the cars can remain relatively stock and be competitive. But the highest HP class where a mildly modified car could be competitive is TT3, where the max wt/RWHP ratio is 9.0. Anything above that wt/power ratio and the allowable mods are virtually unlimited. The Gen 5 would have to compete against 997 Cup Cars which are pure race cars, not even remotely streetable. You could always make those mods so the car could be competitive. But it doesn't make a lot of sense. It would make way more sense to start with an ACR-X and modify it further.

 

[Boxer12]

My personal curiosity is whether it will post a better time than a nicely modded ACR.

 

[PilotaX]

My personal curiosity is whether it will post a better time than a nicely modded ACR.

I seriously doubt it. Michael Van Quilich set a NASA ST1 lap record at WSIR last month at 1:24 and change. I'm not sure what all he's done to his ACR-X, but I'm pretty confident 1:24 is out of the Gen V's reach without aero and suspension work.

Of course Van Quilich can make virtually unlimited mods as long as his power to weight ratio is in compliance. So that car may be a bit over the top vs what you are considering "nicely modded"?

Bone stock on DOT rubber, I think it would be close.

The hard part to answer is how they compare in between those two extremes.

 

[Allan White Mamba 200/200]

Any Gen. V owners have any feeling for a good track/DE set-up? I have a new SRT V with TRACPAC and MCS shocks set up by Mark. I'm interested in hearing what experienced track guys are thinking about spring rates and alinement set-ups. Any suggestions will be much appreciated. Allan

 

[Boxer12]

Allan, you might be the first to get some track time on a Gen V other than SRT guys. Join the VCA and you can put the question to the Grailkeeper. I think you get a free one year membership with your purchase.

How much track experience do you have with Vipers and how much tire wear are you willing to accept? More aggressive settings are for experienced Viper drivers, and will yield greater tire wear. The MCS shocks are new, so you might have to experiment. Mark is an autocross guy but he should be able to give you a good starting point. I imagine he sent the car out with a street setting which is probably rather neutral on the alignment and medium-soft on settings but check with him. Did you get the alignment checked after shock install? He should have done that, and you can prob get the specs from him. Depending on the track, I personally would go out with 1.5 deg camber in front, .5 in rear, a medium setting in front, and slightly softer setting in the rear to start and adjust from there. BTW, can you post some pics of the car with the MCS shocks installed? I am curious how much lower it is than stock.

 

[Allan White Mamba 200/200]

Boxer12, I would say I'm a solid intermediate driver. Mark set up the shocks with 500/700 springs on MCS double adjustable shocks. Camber is -2.4 front and about -1.3 rear. The ride height is 4 1/4 front and 5 1/2" rear. Corner weights are 837/832 front and 812/792 rear. The car handles well except on high speed sweepers (100mph+) where the front bobs up and down and side to side, at the same time. Understeer is more prevalent than oversteer. I've tried many combinations of compression and rebound settings and tire pressures. The car has corsa's installed. I've got about 200 track miles and the right front is shredded - mainly from a fast left sweeper. I think I need more camber and higher spring rates which I hope to test next week. For pictures see Mark's web site. Any advice is appreciated. Allan

 

[Jack B]

Mark said he was installing 500/800's on my car.

Boxer12, I would say I'm a solid intermediate driver. Mark set up the shocks with 500/700 springs on MCS double adjustable shocks. Camber is -2.4 front and about -1.3 rear. The ride height is 4 1/4 front and 5 1/2" rear. Corner weights are 837/832 front and 812/792 rear. The car handles well except on high speed sweepers (100mph+) where the front bobs up and down and side to side, at the same time. Understeer is more prevalent than oversteer. I've tried many combinations of compression and rebound settings and tire pressures. The car has corsa's installed. I've got about 200 track miles and the right front is shredded - mainly from a fast left sweeper. I think I need more camber and higher spring rates which I hope to test next week. For pictures see Mark's web site. Any advice is appreciated. Allan

 

[bluestreak]

My personal curiosity is whether it will post a better time than a nicely modded ACR.

That's going to be a crap shoot unless you can get the same guy (or same talent level) to have driven both cars. Unless it's a pro driver you have to consider time behind the wheel getting acclimated to the handling, which at this point for the Gen V is next to none, track familiarity, and so on and so forth.

Unless someone out of the box jumps out and starts taking lap records in a Gen V, we aren't going to learn much.

That being said, the Gen IV ACR will be faster IMO.

 

[Jack B]

What did Mark say about the toe setting, you would think any side-to-side motion could be associated with a toe setting that is too close to neutral? That cannot be a postive feeling getting the shakes at 100 plus!

Those corner weights, is that with you in the car?

Boxer12, I would say I'm a solid intermediate driver. Mark set up the shocks with 500/700 springs on MCS double adjustable shocks. Camber is -2.4 front and about -1.3 rear. The ride height is 4 1/4 front and 5 1/2" rear. Corner weights are 837/832 front and 812/792 rear. The car handles well except on high speed sweepers (100mph+) where the front bobs up and down and side to side, at the same time. Understeer is more prevalent than oversteer. I've tried many combinations of compression and rebound settings and tire pressures. The car has corsa's installed. I've got about 200 track miles and the right front is shredded - mainly from a fast left sweeper. I think I need more camber and higher spring rates which I hope to test next week. For pictures see Mark's web site. Any advice is appreciated. Allan

 

[bushido]

Boxer12, I would say I'm a solid intermediate driver. Mark set up the shocks with 500/700 springs on MCS double adjustable shocks. Camber is -2.4 front and about -1.3 rear. The ride height is 4 1/4 front and 5 1/2" rear. Corner weights are 837/832 front and 812/792 rear. The car handles well except on high speed sweepers (100mph+) where the front bobs up and down and side to side, at the same time. Understeer is more prevalent than oversteer. I've tried many combinations of compression and rebound settings and tire pressures. The car has corsa's installed. I've got about 200 track miles and the right front is shredded - mainly from a fast left sweeper. I think I need more camber and higher spring rates which I hope to test next week. For pictures see Mark's web site. Any advice is appreciated. Allan

-2.4 camber in front is a good amount already. You said that the front right tire is shredded,but how's the tire wear going across each tire front and back?

 

[Boxer12]

Allen, I am sure Mark adjusted the bump steer after shock change? Also, is the front tire wearing more on the inside or outside shoulder? Personally I would start with less camber all around (try the settings I suggested above), check the bump steer, and see if you can 'neutralize' the handling a little. Mark may have checked with SRT on preferred track settings and those were recommended, but SRT doesn't test with MCS. To ease the bobbing, add some clicks to the rebound setting up front. (I don't know how many clicks since I'm not familiar with the MCS dampers). Too much camber can make it tricky in high speed situations, whether its a sweeper or a straight. I think a lot of drivers use too much camber trying to improve handling when you can adjust the shocks to ease the handling in most situations.

 

[Jack B]

The MCS's have a range of 15 clicks. How is the bump steer adjusted on the Gen 4-5?

Allen, I am sure Mark adjusted the bump steer after shock change? Also, is the front tire wearing more on the inside or outside shoulder? Personally I would start with less camber all around (try the settings I suggested above), check the bump steer, and see if you can 'neutralize' the handling a little. Mark may have checked with SRT on preferred track settings and those were recommended, but SRT doesn't test with MCS. To ease the bobbing, add some clicks to the rebound setting up front. (I don't know how many clicks since I'm not familiar with the MCS dampers). Too much camber can make it tricky in high speed situations, whether its a sweeper or a straight. I think a lot of drivers use too much camber trying to improve handling when you can adjust the shocks to ease the handling in most situations.

 

[Boxer12]

The range doesn't tell all..for eg, one click on the ACRX shocks is equal to three clicks on ACR shocks, and setup is clockwise instead of cc. Go in a positive direction. Here is a good article on bump steer. http://www.longacreracing.com/articles/art.asp?ARTID=13

 

[Allan White Mamba 200/200]

Thanks for all the suggestions Guy's. The spring rates are 500/800, corner weights are with 1/8 tank of fuel and no driver, I don't know about bump steer,tire wear is greatest on the inside of all tires and right-front is shredded on the outside I have the car at TopSpeed Motorsports here in Alpharetta Ga. They have a lot of "sedan" race experience - including 4 strait overall wins in The One Lap of America. I 'll let you all know what they say. Thanks again, Allan

 

[Jack B]

What did Mark and MCS think the issue was? Are these the Pirelli's? Good luck and let us know what the result is.

Thanks for all the suggestions Guy's. The spring rates are 500/800, corner weights are with 1/8 tank of fuel and no driver, I don't know about bump steer,tire wear is greatest on the inside of all tires and right-front is shredded on the outside I have the car at TopSpeed Motorsports here in Alpharetta Ga. They have a lot of "sedan" race experience - including 4 strait overall wins in The One Lap of America. I 'll let you all know what they say. Thanks again, Allan