(ETZ)Esattezza Autosport! Lancia Stratos "La Italiano" Model added

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Hey sukerkin, I've notified Nick about the change of ownership. I couldn't pick a better candidate for the job and besides, your the one whos kept this place alive while I've been gone so you deserve it more than anything. I really like what you've done with the place, and I sincerely thank you for it. Starting something that takes alot of time and not being able to keep it alive can be pretty depressing, but you've done more for this place than I could have asked for. Iam trully happy to turn ownership over to you and I would also like to aknowledge you as a good friend and business partner Sukerkin. Cheers!

Sincerely

Mark
 
Hey Soprano, I couldn't help but notice you have a PSN username. Do you have GT5:P?:dopey:
 
Hey sukerkin, I've notified Nick about the change of ownership. I couldn't pick a better candidate for the job and besides, your the one whos kept this place alive while I've been gone so you deserve it more than anything. I really like what you've done with the place, and I sincerely thank you for it. Starting something that takes alot of time and not being able to keep it alive can be pretty depressing, but you've done more for this place than I could have asked for. Iam trully happy to turn ownership over to you and I would also like to aknowledge you as a good friend and business partner Sukerkin. Cheers!

Sincerely

Mark

Soprano I hope everything is going great for you! Good luck with everthing and hope to see you back again:tup:
 
Hey sukerkin, I've notified Nick about the change of ownership. I couldn't pick a better candidate for the job and besides, your the one whos kept this place alive while I've been gone so you deserve it more than anything. I really like what you've done with the place, and I sincerely thank you for it. Starting something that takes alot of time and not being able to keep it alive can be pretty depressing, but you've done more for this place than I could have asked for. Iam trully happy to turn ownership over to you and I would also like to aknowledge you as a good friend and business partner Sukerkin. Cheers!

Sincerely

Mark

Yeah, good luck Soprano!

Senamic
 
Hi Soprano. Great to hear your voice, good sir 👍. Thanks for the e-mail; I'll get back to you tonight (getting ready for Iai this afternoon).
 
'Nuts & Bolts Only' or 'Dressed Up To The Nines', any way that you wish to give your opinion is fine, IH.

I'll try and get the Vanquish posted up tonight too if I get the chance.
 
Aston Martin Vanquish '04

610HP Race Prepared Version


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The challenge with this car was a bit different from the normal ETZ approach of trying to maximise A-Spec points. The client wanted us to make the car competative without going overboard but wasn't concerned with A-Spec. Of course, this being ETZ we didn't want to simply bolt on all the Max Power bits with R5 tyres and declare victory, so we kept things within reason and decided to match the performance to what is actually available in the real world ... tho' we did commit artistic treason by fixing a Wing to one of the most beautiful cars ever crafted :embarrassed:.

So in essence what we were after was a 200mph car that could do 0-60mph in about 4 seconds. Plus we needed to ameliorate the dramatic front tyre wear that PD had modelled for the Vanquish (previous testing a few years ago had revealed a two grades wear difference). The hardware we used was as follows:

Racing Exhaust & Racing Chip
Stage 2 NA Tune (with a change of oil to a short life but high performance formula)
Racing Tyres (R2 Grade)
Racing Brakes and Balance Controller
Racing Suspension with Rollcage addition (Stiffness upgrade) & Stage 3 Weight Reduction
Fully Custom Gearbox
Triple Plate Clutch, Racing Flywheel & Carbon Propellor Shaft
Aerodynamic Enhancements
Fully Custom Limited Slip Differential

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Because of the relaxed A-Spec goals and the fact that our engineers had previously worked with Aston's extensively in their own driving careers, this was not as long a process as usual for an ETZ build and the main challenge proved to be dialing down the front tyre wear without inducing an unacceptable amount of understeer.

The primary track used for testing was the Nurburgring as usual but we also used the boringly oval Test Track for top speed trials (201mph)whilst setting up the gearbox and the neon-lit streets of Las Vegas for acceleration data gathering (0-400m in 11.4s). Confirmation testing also took place at Tokyo R246, Trial Mountain, Deep Forest and Grand Valley. Sometimes this was in solo runs, sometimes against lower-tier supercars and othertimes versus JGTC vehicles.

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The set-up suite we spannered onto her was as follows:

Brakes: 1/5 (part of the front tyre preservation strategy)

Springs: 11.6/9.1
Ride: 103/98
Damper Bound: 4/4
Damper Rebound: 9/7
Camber: 2.1/1.4
Toe: 0/0
Stabaliser: 4/5

Gearbox: AutoSet 13 @ 3.770 Final (adjust individual gears)
1st: 3.110
2nd: 2.110
3rd: 1.540
4th: 1.195
5th: 0.960
6th: 0.800

ASM/TCS: 0/0/3 (only required for grid starts)

Downforce: 28/30

LSD: 8/40/16

Ballast: 1KG @ -10

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There is a small tendency to understeer built in to the car to allow for those occasions when the driver turns off the TCS and lights up the rears for the sheer fun of it :lol: This gives her excellent high speed stability, such that we could take Flugplatz flat out and dive into the Tiergarten Hohenrain Schikane at full power.

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Passing the second element of Tiergarten at 190-ish mph ... time to dab the brakes then back on the throttle
 
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Hey Soprano, I couldn't help but notice you have a PSN username. Do you have GT5:P?:dopey:

Sorry Paulie I no longer have my 60gig, picking up another in not to long. Hopefully an 80gig.

Soprano I hope everything is going great for you! Good luck with everthing and hope to see you back again:tup:

Yeah, good luck Soprano!

Senamic

Hi Soprano. Great to hear your voice, good sir 👍. Thanks for the e-mail; I'll get back to you tonight (getting ready for Iai this afternoon).

Thank you all and good to hear from you guys again! Its good to see that not much has changed even though I've been out for a while. :cheers:
 
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Acceleration-wise, the TVR was frighteningly quick. The whole car was tingling and vibrating, it felt like the engine was trying to escape. In fact, I swear it was melting the road!

Speed-wise, the car felt swell. There seemed to be an adequate amount of time when the engine was at maximum revs down the straights.

Suspension was incredibly good. It reacted well to the bumps and curbs. The subtle changes in suspension meant sensational results. The amount of bumps the car experienced was markedly lower. I also would have previously objected to putting ballast, but I was fine being proved wrong. The ballast provided a very stable platform for the car when going into corners.

If there was something I had to complain, it is that you didn't fit a supercharger into the set-up, but the car goes quicker than my set-up of the car with it, so I'm okay with it whether you wish to act on it or not (to fit a supercharger into your set-up).

All in all, an excellent set-up from an excellent tuner. Good job, sir!
 
Many thanks indeed for those insightful words, IH. I'm glad you liked her.

At some point I may very well try to do a 1000HP build of the Twelve, just to see if I can; but recent experiences with the Stingray have rather put me off Superchargers (tho' I have used them in the past without witnessing such vile effects as that one caused).
 
Of course, this being a TVR was like....having a lion for a pet. It was cool, exciting and fun...until it mauled you and disengaged limbs from you, which it will! It may be a car that would be awesome to race in, but I wouldn't want to use the Cerbera Speed 12 to drive to and from college.

I look forward to trying out the Aston. Elegant car that reeks of style and class. If only Polyphony Digital allowed the spoiler to be available in British Racing Green colours instead of the usual Black, White or Grey (?), then we could make it look like the DBR9.
 
Hey Soprano, hope to see you back here soon mate. My life has just ruined my GT4 time as well: on the good side of the ledger will be having my first child and buying my first house, on the bad side finishing writing a PhD and you don't wanna know the rest. Although I signed up around the time you were slowing your input I was lurking for a good 6-9 months beforehand, and remember keenly following your comments and tunes, despite knowing virtually nothing back then about tuning in GT4. So, sir, I thank you and wish a speedy return and safe travels, but won't mention St Christopher cause I'm an atheist. Thanks mate.
 
Thank you very much indeed for such glowing words, S-Line 👍.

As you say, she's a lovely car to drive fast, especially at the 'Ring, without having to have a white-knuckle grip on the wheel - a great stress reliever :D.
 
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Cheers for the proof-read, S-Line.

Also, please do feel free to request something.

We've never really gone out of our way to make it clear that people can 'commission' a project with us, it is true; perhaps I should add a note to that effect to the front-of-house?

One word of caution is that real life woes are running at a record high at present so it could take quite a while between request and delivery - after all, I have taken up to six weeks working on a car for ETZ before now and that was when life was running smoothly :eek:.
 
Here is one of the current projects ongoing at ETZ:

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/Top-Gear-Audi-RS6-Avant_169783.htm

http://www.evo.co.uk/videos/planetevovideos/226875/audi_r8_v_audi_rs6.html

As usual, because it's not a Japanese car, PD have waved the 'degrade performance' brush over it but by upping the HP to 754 we have gotten over 200mph out of her at the Nurburgring. Again, the Nippon Bias wrecked the handling, which meant that to overcome that defecit our engneers have had to wield spanners like heros to make her driveable at anything like race pace.
 
Audi RS 6 Avant

754HP 'Nurburgring' Version

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The Audi RS 6 Avant is a very remarkable car in it's class. It's a 4WD Estate (or Station Wagon as our Trans-Atlantic cousins call them) with blistering performance and handling.

Our client wanted a build to attack the Nurburgring with maximum horse-power, maximum Weight Reduction and racing grade tyres but no Wing.

IMG0197.JPG


The car we started with was obviously a factory reject as it's handling was atrocious and it could not get the power down to the road. It was as if the rear had none of the weight and yet, paradoxically, all of the grip. Still we persisted and the parts list reads as follows:

Racing Exhaust & Chip
Port Polish & Engine Balancing
Racing Tyres (R1 grade at the front, R2 grade at the rear)
Stage 4 Turbine Kit with Large Racing Intercooler
Racing Brakes & Balance Controller
Racing Suspension (with Weight Reduction 3 (un-ballasted weight 1560kg))
Fully Custom Gearbox
Triple Plate Clutch & Racing Flywheel & Carbon Prop Shaft
Fully Custom Limited Slip Differential
Variable Centre Differential Controller

IMG0199.JPG

This heavy car handles the curbs at the 'Ring with aplomb

What we aimed for was to get two laps at least out of a set of tyres and to finish those two laps in 14 minutes or less, with a top speed of 200mph. We achieved our target but without aerodynamic changes the car understeers dreadfully exiting corners at high speeds.

However, we have balanced her such that either a momentary lift, gentle brake application or downshift will drop the nose back on line. For sharper corners, a little patience before hitting the loud pedal, allowing the apex to open, will yield very fast acceleration out of the corner.

Front tyre wear was huge, so we had to take the unusual step for us of utilising a different grade at each end of the car.

IMG0200.JPG


The suite we eventually settled on is as follows:

Brakes: 6/5
Springs: 12.2/10.9
Ride Height: 117/127
Damper Bound: 3/3
Damper Rebound: 4/6
Camber: 2.7/0.9
Toe: +1/+0
Stabaliser: 2/2

Gearbox: AutoSet 25 @ Final 5.500 then adjust individual gears
1st: 1.580
2nd: 1.010
3rd: 0.735
4th: 0.560
5th: 0.460
6th: 0.390

ASM/TCS: 0/0/0

LSD Front: 10/30/15
LSD Rear: 15/20/15

VCD: 30

Ballast: 25kg @ -15

IMG0201.JPG

A dab on the brakes at the corner before the final chicane drops the speed to 200mph and keeps the car on the black stuff
 
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Aye, changing the oil will throw off the range you can adjust the gears to (please ignore the PM I just sent asking if you'd fitted the Custom Gearbox :embarrassed:).

How you can get the ranges available again is to take off some power mods to get as close to the specified HP as you can. Adjust the gearbox and then put the power mods back on - don't edit the AutoSet after that or it will readjust to the higher HP value again.

When I put a build together, people are of course perfectly entitled to change it as they see fit but it has to be borne in mind that I engineer the cars to a specific HP, Weight and Tyre mix. The major challenge with this RS set-up was that she has just too much power as it is; adding even more may well not do her any favours.
 
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