1500 Mile Road Trip to Velocity AP
 

A while back I got in touch with Stuart of Velocity AP to discuss making my car a "little" more track focused. He had some good ideas and we basically settled on doing a street legal GT4/SP8 type conversion. The car is going to get aero, coilovers, roll bar, racing seats, harnesses, wheels, a few other odds and ends, and we're switching the brakes over to steels to cut down replacement cost. The car already has VAPs power pack installed.



All that was left was getting the car to Penticton, BC so the work could get started. Rather than ship the car I figured it would be fun to make a road trip out of it. I decided to take the scenic route, starting in California and going through Nevada, Idaho, Montana, and Washington before ending up in BC. Figured some of you may enjoy the photos from the trip.


Along Hwy 6 in Nevada
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Hwy 75 in central Idaho

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Another portion of Hwy 75 in Idaho

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On Hwy 20 in Washington

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We met up at Area 27 before dropping the car off at the shop. It's a really nice track with some of the best views you can ask for. Looking forward to driving it!

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Great! I really look forward to the upcoming content. :cool:

Great project

awesome, I look forward to doing something just like this some day soon!

the road trip, not ripping my car to shreds :)

Are you doing any weight reduction?

Other than replacing the stock seats with recaros no major weight reduction is planned for now...that might change in the future but I'm wanting to keep the interior pretty unchanged if possible so it's still a nice place to be on the street.

sub'd

+1 ....

Oh! How i would love to do a trip like that with my Vantage the roads look superb as is the scenery, looking forward to reading more about your car additions

Lovely scenery!
Do you have videos of your car? Want to hear the full VAP power pack sound :)

Subscribed.

Sure do, it's in this thread:
https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...ml#post4641017


Currently still has the stock muffler but we're changing that for the build :)

Take a video from inside like mine when you get the exhaust :)
https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...st-yellow.html

So, after some delays just getting moved into our new building, and not wanting this car to be immobile when we needed to move, we're finally getting properly stuck into it. Chris (irish007) has been heading up the technical analysis and planning, great to have such an experienced hand on board steering that part of the ship.

Below, visualizing some possibilities for a wing mount, in this case looking at a rear mount through the plastic caps on the bumper cover. Talking to the OP we've settled on a trunk mount, and just doing some working through to decide what works best and is most cost effective. The GT4 style is a slam dunk but also means bonding mounts into the tailgate, cutting the tailgate and cutting & pinning the tailgate to prevent deformation & rocking around the hinge. One could simply order the tailgate assembly from AMR but once paint, Glass etc. is all done it's close to $10,000, versus fabricating something similar.

Also looking at doing an aluminum frame inside the trunk rather than supporting the load through the trunk. Nice to start with a blank slate.



https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.6sp...358c86247b.jpg


Working on swapping out the CCM System ($25,000 for a full replacement) for the Brembo GT System - 380mm 2-piece fronts, with the 6 Pot Calipers. Some trimming to the dust shield is required.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.6sp...81d746ad6.jpeg


We knew that the 380mm AMR Brembo system would fit under the 18" Prodrive wheels, but there was some questions remaining about THIS specific Brembo caliper which is a little different, as well as the upright & bracket from the V12V. It requires a spacer to be made since the V12V one doesn't space it correctly but not a huge issue. There is adequate clearance so we are a go on Brembo GT kit. This will be a good choice, as the pad & rotor replacement cost will now be IRO $2500 per change, compared to $25000 for the CCM. It does add a little weight but in the interest of cost & practicality, pad choice and ease of replacement it makes a lot more sense.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.6sp...2c88371fe.jpeg

On the rears, we were toying with simply having a rotor made that would fit (355mm) and even checked if a standard 355mm V8 front rotor would fit but the rotor to hub offset is 4mm different. The simplest solution is to stick with the V8V rear sized 2-piece rotor and delete the parking brake. Since this car is never going back to being a standard road car, & only see occasional road use this makes a lot of sense.

Tires are on order, Hoosier R7 295/40/18, an easily accessible tire and about $1000/set less than a Pirelli slick.

Nice work Stuart. The spacer you mention is to space the caliper not the wheel - correct? I ask because using the CMM data and Brembo's drawing we modeled the two geometries in CAD and with a 380 rotor the caliper interfered with the wheel taper towards the rear of the wheel. I have not had time to print the template and physically check. If you had to space the wheel,that would corroborate our model. If you are spacing the caliper that is a completely different problem and I am back into the upgrade.

Are you changing the rear for performance? Will you change the proportioning valve? Will you remove the interior bits for the parking brake?

x-chr

Edit - it occurred to me spacing the wheel would only make the problem worse since the wheel is tapered from outside in. Did you have to clearance the caliper?