Nordic Supercar Corvette.

[Goran Malmberg]

I have not written anything about the Corvette I designed for "Nordic Supercar" in a long time, there are only 24 hours a day, but now we have finished the basic building work with the car.

Now we have been out on the track, test driving the car. I must say that we are very pleased so far. In the first tests a month ago, the car showed to have too little rear downforce, and that the splitter hit the ground. So, we increased the front wheel rate and reduced the expansion of the rear diffussor with 2 "to raise the downforce effect. Further reduction in expansion resulted in less downforce. Adding the rear wing did dramatically increase rear downforce. At 110 mph, we had about 600p over the rear axle.
Here is the starting diffusser level.

Here's how the diffusser looks after adjustment.

The steering was good feeling when all the downforce came with, and the manual concept car is working well. We were wondering how the almost zero consolidated front end geometry would work, 1 SAI dgr, 2 dgr caster and almost no scrub. But together with the manual steering so the drivers thought that the feeling in the steering wheel became even better and cleaner.

We are now starting to get a better picture of how the spring system must be designed and we will probably use a third vertical system that has about 1/2" clearance before it stops kompression from downforce. In this way we can go right soft suspension (more front roll stiffness) at low speed and get good acc grip out of the curves.

Here are a few more images form the test 21-9-2009.



Goran

[dxk1]

That's a very nice looking car, it looks fast just sitting there. Doesn't that diffuser hit the track when you go over a bump, it just appears to be so near the track?

DK

[Goran Malmberg]

Yes, it is too close to the ground. It is because we gradually reduced ground clearance during testing. But it is only about 1/4". The sides of the diffusser are interchangeable and are not fixed in diffussor roof because that is height adjustable.
I may add here that the car does have three front diffussers that are also adjustable, which breath through side tunnels of the car. The mid section is possible to totally close flat with the belly pan. So we have a wide range of aero adjustments.
Goran

[FIRE]

What engine has it?

[Goran Malmberg]

Originally Posted by FIRE

What engine has it?

The team, which I designed the car for, raced a Corvette C4 GT car purchased from the U.S.compleete with engines. When this building was started so these engines were in good condition, so to save a little time and money the team decided to retained these engines in every fal for this test period with the new car. It is a SBC 350 cui iron block and aluminum cylinder heads and carburetors. The idea is to purchase new LS engines with fuel injection, for the next season.

All Components, upprights, driveshafts, A-arms, etc., as well as shock absorbers are made for the car but not caliprar, which is AP.
I see that one image was doubble, here is the right one.

Goran

[skycafe]

Well Goran, that baby is something else! I was around Greenwood Corvettes back in their heyday, and your build is like a spiritual heir!

[Goran Malmberg]

Originally Posted by skycafe

Well Goran, that baby is something else! I was around Greenwood Corvettes back in their heyday, and your build is like a spiritual heir!

Thanks, nice of you to say so. I was impressed and was always watching the Greenwood cars at the time.

I see that the images still does not appear, a new try.
The engine


The rear.

Goran

[AndrewF31]

Really nice Vette you've got there.
It will start racing next year or has it already this year?

Good luck!

[Goran Malmberg]

Originally Posted by AndrewF31

Really nice Vette you've got there.
It will start racing next year or has it already this year?

Good luck!

Thanks.
We will start racing next year, but we will put as much testing track time on it as possible during this fall.
Goran

[AndrewF31]

Testing in Sweden? Guess the testing season ends soon with winter coming around?

Any specific reason for choosing a Vette over other cars?

There was another thread a while back about Nordic Supercar. It appeared this year was not easy with not that many races. Hopefully next year will be better.

[Goran Malmberg]

Originally Posted by AndrewF31

Testing in Sweden? Guess the testing season ends soon with winter coming around?

Any specific reason for choosing a Vette over other cars?

There was another thread a while back about Nordic Supercar. It appeared this year was not easy with not that many races. Hopefully next year will be better.

The team has been racing Corvettes for a number of years. The reason for this was that they had the opportunity to buy an old GT racingcar from the US in the early 2000. So, for sponsor reasons (to name one thing) they decided to continue racing Corvette. On the other hand, the only similarity this car has with a Corvette is the outer shell and a front engine, that is almost located in the middle of the car anyway.

Yes, I know, NSC have not been racing to much but we hope it will be better. However, there are other classes to race in.
Goran

[Goran Malmberg]

Hi again, latest news from the Speedlab Team is a new diffusser and rear wing. As usual, the last part of the work is very late so it continious for 24 hr a day, hopefully to get the car to the track friday 21 of may.




A new rear wing has been designed hopefully to work in the speed of Swedish tracks, is to behanging in "swan necks".




I will be back with the result...
Goran

[Goran Malmberg]

It is sometimes so I wonder if your car is too intimidating for a small team to row ashore. We could not be ready for tests this weekend, sorry. But a few more pictures, it was in all cases.
This is the so-called "third spring" that takes care of vertical suspension in downforce.

Mounted on the car.

I have designed a new carbone fibre airfoil that we now have to try.
The wing is mounted using "swan neck" that has lightening cut outs filled with balsawood in order to lessen turbulence.

A new rear diffusser is also made since the old adjustable show what sort of
expansion to run.

One of the two front diffussors.

Regards
Goran

[skycafe]

Inspiring stuff there Goran!

[Goran Malmberg]

Originally Posted by skycafe

Inspiring stuff there Goran!

Nice of you to say so. Inspiration is what I hope to transmit by showing things.
Regards
Goran

[Valker]

Are you going to race it in Alastaro?

[PorscheFanNo1]

Nice work. When is speedlab.se coming back up? Been down for a long time now!

Hope to see it on the tracks this summer.

Cheers

[Michael Karpers]

Hello, first time for me here!
The car will be ready, but sadly there will be no Alastaro.
The reason is that I'm having relatives here from US that weekend and we are going together to St:Petersburg. And this is probably the last time I will ever see some of the people there, they are getting old. So I choose relatives instead of motorsport that weekend... But we will go for the rest of Nordic GT races this season.
When it comes to speedlab.se: We are updating the whole page but I don't have possibilities to give feedback to the html-guys because right now I'm in the garage all the time until late in the evenings. So hopefully it will be up and running again sometimes next week.
Best regards to you all!
/Michael Karpers

[Goran Malmberg]

I should fill in that Mikael Karpers are the team manager. I am just trying to design a car for the team.
Regards
Goran

[AndrewF31]

Once it gets out there, be sure to try to film it a bit if you can and put it somewhere so we can have a whiff of the sound that comes out of that monster.

It's looking good. Best of luck for the rest and the season!

[Michael Karpers]

Originally Posted by AndrewF31

Once it gets out there, be sure to try to film it a bit if you can and put it somewhere so we can have a whiff of the sound that comes out of that monster.

It's looking good. Best of luck for the rest and the season!

We'll keep you posted!

BRG/
Michael Karpers

[Matt]

Looks like it was based on a C4, the roof looks identical to one.

[Goran Malmberg]

Originally Posted by Matt

Looks like it was based on a C4, the roof looks identical to one.

The car is not Corvette C-4 when it comes to the technical and geometric
suspension layout. Not even C-6, I have done everything suspension from a
clean sheet of paper based on the type of track we are going to race on,
and according to the rules.

But, you are right, the mid section is from the older car and the reason
is that it was certified by the Swedisch Bilsportförbundet. This made it
much easier to rebuild the car to become certified for this type of
racing. However, there are a few areas around the driver section that is
reinforced. That is the reason for the look of roof.

In fact I do not like this mid section tubings, it had been easier and
better to build a new one. But this is the way it is.
Regards
Goran

[Goran Malmberg]

Our first race ended in disappointment, left wheel did not hold up with the load in a right curve and the result is visible in the picture. Fortunately, the car landed on track after an air journey which could have stopped really bad.
Goran

[skycafe]