Darren shares insights on building his high-performance Evo 7 for World Time Attack, detailing the engine setup, electronics, and data analysis techniques used to optimize performance. He discusses the importance of understanding engine fundamentals and wiring to effectively communicate with builders and make informed decisions. The episode highlights practical applications of knowledge gained from High Performance Academy courses, including tuning strategies and the use of data logging to improve driving and chassis performance. Darren's hands-on approach and the challenges of fine-tuning the active center differential are also explored.
Money. No matter how much we have, no one likes to or wants to waste it. A motorsport application will cost precisely the amount you budget for it, plus some more. In this interview, some tips are discussed on how to trade a bit of your time to make better decisions for your build and your wallet, even if you don't intend to do all the physical work yourself.
Running Nitto 2.2L stroker kit, Kelford Cams, and ARP head studs to make around 500kw at 2.2 bar (670hp, 32psi), this RevZone built 4g63 powered EVO 7 Open Class Time Attack build is a constant work in progress for Darren Bishop, but not just in the way most people immediately think when it comes to simply adding more and more power.
At the World Time Attack Challenge (WTAC), Darren shared valuable insights into developing his time attack EVO. The knowledge base build to undertake this project has included using High Performance Academy (HPA) course materials, engaging in practical work, and consulting with specialists on their own level.
Using quality electronics like the EMtron KV8 ECU, MoTeC C127 dash, and Power Distribution Module (PDM), alongside a comprehensive array of engine and chassis sensors, Darren, with the help of Benchmark Solutions trackside dial in the car from multiple angles over the race weekend. This process involves adapting to the specific demands of each race weekend, including track layout (working to perfect every braking zone and corner), weather conditions (temperatures heavily influence tyre pressure, engine settings and traction control), and the unique preferences of both the car and driver discovered only by plenty of seat time, ensuring a solid performance between Darren's driving capabilities and the vehicle's technical setup.
Darren narrowly got squeezed out of the top 5, finishing with a respectable 6th place in the Open Class with a 1:30.3870 only JUSTTT off the pace of the 1:29.9110 set by the 5th place finisher. ------------------------------------ TIME STAMPS: 0:00 - Open Class EVO 7 0:30 - Engine Package 0:50 - Power and Boost 1:10 - Gearbox 1:25 - Electronics 1:44 - Why Use Course Material? 2:30 - How It Helped 2:50 - Spend Wisely 3:15 - Why 2.2L 4G63? 3:48 - Wiring Process 4:59 - Wiring Documentation 5:42 - PDM Configuration & Electronic Setup 6:38 - ECU Setup 7:01 - Not Just For Cost Savings 7:20 - Data Analysis 7:36 - Judd V10 On Song
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- Open Class EVO 7
- Engine Package
- Power and Boost
- Gearbox
- Electronics
- Why Use Course Material?
- How It Helped
- Spend Wisely
- Why 2.2L 4G63?
- Wiring Process
- Wiring Documentation
- PDM Configuration & Electronic Setup
- ECU Setup
- Not Just For Cost Savings
- Data Analysis
- Judd V10 On Song
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We're here at World Time Attack with Darren, who's running this Evo 7 behind me in the open class, and we wanted to get a little bit of insight from Darren as to what goes on when you're building a car at this level.
Welcome to High Performance Academy's tuned in Field Report podcast series.
In these special midweek episodes we look back through our archives to find the best conversations we've had through years worth of attending the best automotive events across the globe.
We've pulled the audio from these tech filled interviews with some of the industry's most well known figures and presented it in podcast format for you to enjoy as a quick hit of insider knowledge.
Darren, the reason we wanted to chat to enjoy as a quick hit of insider knowledge, darren, the reason we wanted to chat to you is a lot of this car.
You've sort of been involved heavily with the build yourself, rather than just taking it to a workshop with a big old pot of cash and saying here, build me a race car To start with, let's get a bit of a high level overview of the car and what's been done to it.
So let's start with the engine package.
What's in it?
It's a Nitto 2.2
litre.
Yeah, structure 2.2
, kelford cams, a lot of the other standard trimmings, arp 625 bolts, things like that metal head gasket.
What sort of power level and boost level are you running in it?
Because really that's kind of what drives the selection of your engine package.
Yeah, so we're probably pretty modest on the boost level, about 33, 34 pound at the moment.
And what's?
that give you in terms of power.
We're looking about 500 kilowatts at the hubs.
OK, so the rest of that obviously comes down to drive.
Trying to get that to the track reliably, what have you got there in the way of a gearbox?
We've got a six speed sequential.
That's yeah, 6 speed flat shifting.
Auto blip on the downshift as well.
Electronics package in the car.
What's actually controlling everything?
Got Emtron KV8 for the ECU, motec PDM, motec C127 dash.
An Emtron can expander for things like shock pots and additional sensors throughout the car.
So pretty typical open class build, very high spec, lots of power, lots of aero, lots of downforce.
One of the reasons I wanted to pin you down for a bit of a chat here is you have actually taken a few of High Performance Academy's courses and I'm interested to learn how you've actually put that knowledge to use with this car.
So for a start, can you tell us what courses you actually have taken?
So I've taken the engine fundamentals course as well as the electronics, the wiring fundamentals, the engine.
I wanted to be able to understand and speak the same language to the engine builders and not just go there and say, hey, build me an engine, actually understand what's happening, help with part selection and all that sort of thing.
So let's talk about how that panned out.
What did you learn from that course that helped drive the parts you selected?
And how did the dealings go then with the shop that actually built the engine?
yeah, I, I think it helped a lot because you could really look at where you need to spend the money and spend it in the right places, and also try to spend it, once you know, for a man pace.
So, yeah, look, a lot of that went in, had a lot of conversations with the engine builders and then came up with this sort of package.
I think your point there is.
Something that is so often missed is that I quite often see people wasting money on parts that aren't needed at the power and RPM levels they're going to.
So if you've got an unlimited budget, well obviously that doesn't matter, but not too many of us do so.
Actually selecting the parts that are suited for your power application is so important.
I'm interested with, obviously, the 4G63 in particular.
There's a variety of different engine capacity options 2 litre, 2.4
, 2.3
and the 2.2
.
Why did you go to the 2.2
?
So we went with the 2.2
because I think that's been tried and proven for Time Attack.
The top open class Evo, the pro class Evo of Tilton Evo, they all ran 2.2
, so why reinvent the wheel?
I think, yeah, that was a good decision to go with it.
In terms of the wiring, you did the wiring course, but you actually haven't wired the car yourself, but that was still again, just like the engine welding course helpful to you when you were working through that process and designing it.
So talk us through that.
How did you use that course?
Yeah.
So I actually started with the intent to do it myself, but I wanted the.
I didn't have the experience in building it, but I had the knowledge at that point and I really wanted a well polished product at the end of it for ultimate reliability and the satisfaction behind a big project like that.
But what I took from the course is being able to decide on sensors, what hardware I needed and what sort of inputs and where the sensors would be wired to.
All of that sort of thing I did myself and did all of the documentation, pinouts, diagrams, all that sort of thing and then took that to a professional motorsport wiring shop.
And then they took all that information and made a few changes that they would recommend here and there and then built the harness off that.
But I'm guessing that sounds like similar to the engine.
It allows you to sort of get a head start, making sure that you've got the results that you wanted without again needlessly wasting money on sensors or wiring that wasn't essential, plus that documentation.
I think this is one of those points that's so often overlooked, again, even with those who are doing this professionally.
It's very easy to just sort of jump in with a couple of rolls of wire, some side cutters, and actually get stuck in making the harness, but when you come back to it in six months or 12 months time and you need to make a change or maybe fault, find, problem, that documentation it's so critical, isn't it?
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, we've got additional pinouts throughout the car for things that we plan for and we've sort of added those like tire temp sensors, shock potentiometers, and then you know, you know all of the stuff when you're building it.
But fast forward 12 months, we had spreadsheets to go back to and then instantly know what does what, what goes where, and adding additional things is a very straightforward process.
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So it's about the configuration.
I mean, I know you didn't tune the engine yourself, but there's a lot that goes on before you can even fire a car up like this for the first time, particularly with the PDM or power distribution management system.
You've got to program that as well the dash communications between the ECU, dash, pdm.
How did you go about that?
How did you find that process?
How difficult is it?
It's actually not that difficult when you read the the documentation from the manufacturers.
You know I watched a lot of the gold webinars and there's a lot of good info in there, so a lot of that I took in and and did uh, all of the pdm configuration myself.
I mean, starting with the basics.
You know getting the ignition to turn on, then you know giving power to coils and you know all the other ancillaries across the car and then started to play with a little bit more advanced functions.
You know start, stop buttons, auto start, all that sort of thing, and then on on the ECU side just configuring all the sensors.
So looking at the data sheet, what's 0.5
volts relate to a pressure just configuring all that stuff.
So when the tuner sits down, that's all ready to go for him and he can start doing all the important bits.
So therefore, that should, in theory, make the tuner's job easier.
When the tuner's job's easier, it's going to make the whole tuning process quicker, and that obviously results in a smaller bill at the end of the day.
Yeah exactly, and that was a huge driver and not just cost saving.
I mean, I like to tinker and play around and learn a lot along the way and try and be as hands on as possible, but, yeah, ultimately it saved a lot of money.
Let's get on to actually getting the best performance out of the car.
I mean, there's a lot of things going and you've got a lot of adjustability in the car between suspension, power, delivery, everything that goes into it.
How are you using the data analysis or the data logging to kind of find out where there's potential to improve either the chassis or, potentially, your own driving?
So I'm using a lot of.
I would say I'm using the basics.
So your throttle position, brake pressures, steering angle, your speed, all that sort of thing.
But then also, looking at the variance plot, where are you losing time, where are you gaining time?
Let's talk about that variance plot For those who aren't aware of what that is.
What is the variance channel?
What does that mean?
So you can use or compare a lap to another lap and that gives you an idea of where the comparison lap.
You're either gaining time or losing time, and then you can look at whether you're coming in too hot or you're braking too much.
So you can really get a lot of information out of that.
So essentially it's showing where you're up or where you're down compared to the reference lap, and then you can dive into that particular area of the track in a little bit more detail to really figure out exactly why you're up or down.
So there's a couple of ways we can use this.
We can obviously use this against our own benchmark lap, but as amateur drivers, often it's also beneficial to stick a pro driver in the car for a few laps and you can see where they're faster or slower.
Is that something you've done?
Yeah, the car for a few laps and you can see where they're faster or slower.
Is that something you've done?
Yeah, definitely, that's something I've done a couple of times and that's really helped with chassis development as well as my own personal driving development.
We've made a lot of changes based on their feedback and I've been able to take a lot of different bits of information throughout how they're driving, different corners and all that sort of thing so it's been very helpful.
Another element with data analysis and I'm guilty of this myself.
I love data, I love sensors, and it can be very tempting to just go and throw more and more sensors on the car.
But particularly when we're new to data analysis, sometimes less is actually more.
Do you find that just focusing on a few key parameters, at least initially, helps you filter out?
the noise?
Essentially, yeah, definitely.
Like I said, those key elements around throttle, brake, steering and speed, that's where you start, I mean, for most of the event, that's really what I'm looking at.
And then you start looking at things that we've got on this car, like tyre temp and shock data, and that's really giving us an idea of which direction to go.
But, yeah, it's very easy.
I mean, I'm also a data nerd.
I've got many sheets and workbooks in i2 and, yeah, it's very easy to get lost.
I think as well for those who aren't aware i2, you're talking here about MoTeX, data analysis software and you can set that up, as you mentioned, with specific worksheets or workbooks for a particular element that you want to dive into.
So setting that up beforehand, because obviously a race weekend is busy, you don't have a lot of time, so you want that set up.
So once you've downloaded that data, you can quickly find the data that you want and zero in on that.
Another element I wanted to talk about is with the Mitsubishi platform these later model cars you've got an adjustable or active centre differential which is computer controlled.
You're doing this, as I understand, through the Emtron, so can you talk to us about how that works and how instrumental that is in improving the handling and balance of the car?
Yeah, definitely.
So we went down the path of using the Emtron to do the differential control.
We didn't use a standalone diff controller.
Essentially that's just working off the wheel speeds, some inputs and outputs to the hydraulic pump, as well as the solenoid to control the pressure to the actual clutch plates.
What are the inputs, then, that you can use to define how much rear drive?
Because this is essentially primarily a front wheel drive platform, with drive being transferred to the rear by that active centre differential.
So what are the inputs that are controlling how much rear drive is being distributed?
Yeah.
So we've got a few tables and things that we can play with, primarily throttle application coming out of corners and the way that the fronts and rears lock together on corner exit, as well as braking stability.
So locking the fronts and rears together for the ultimate braking stability and then offsetting that with steering angle.
So when you start entering the corner, really opening it up for that turn in so can you talk us through, maybe, what this looks like if you've got the settings really out of the ballpark, compared to when you've got it really dialed and everything's working properly.
What?
What's the downsides when it's wrong?
so when it's wrong, especially through the slower corners where you're jumping on the throttle and giving it all the beams, the car starts to hop around.
It's basically just the.
The whole thing is just bound up and and we've just got very poor drive out of the corner and it'll start hopping around and bouncing and it's it's quite violent in the car how long does it take to get these maps dialed in?
is it a really big job, or do you sort of have some base maps that at least get you into the ballpark?
So it's fine.
Tuning.
I think it's been a long process.
Definitely A lot of probably black art's gone into it.
A little bit working with the chassis engineers to ultimately get the electronics of the diff controller and the chassis to work together, rather than one trying to mask the problems of the other.
All right, look, darren.
Thanks for giving us your time today.
It is an amazing car, great to hear how you've actually put some of HPA's lessons to use, and all the best for the rest of your weekend here at World Time Attack.
Thanks a lot.
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