So Summer 2004 was
drawing to a close and for a while Project M71 had stalled...
there was the Big Turbo problem
and a general lack of funds and time to devote to the great plan
Things weren't so bad though... the engine was safely tucked
up in my garage and I had a number of options for getting
round the issues - so for the time being, just a regular visit to
turn the engine over and experiment with positions for the GT8RSs
was enough
Strangely though, it was as if I was waiting for some development....
Then an email arrived - from "GW" (the names have been changed to protect the innocent), a researcher on the 5th Gear TV program! Click here to read the trail
So 5th Gear were doing a piece on how
easy it is to get a road car to do 200 mph and they had picked
the Esprit V8 for the challenge and they'd realised I might be able to
help in the quest! The deal was that GW of the 5th Gear team
wanted to come and look at my engine, talk over the modifications,
measure up my GT1 plenum and fabricated chargecooler with a view
to building the same spec engine as mine complete with GT28RS
turbos!
Well, we duly met up in my garage
discussed all this and GW also explained plans for the first
shoot, with the opening scene with Tiff Needell, Vicki
Butler-Henderson and Jason Plato sitting the pub introducing the
challenge
I took great pleasure in explaining my behind the scenes involvement to friends, family, guys at the office etc. and it was kind of cool telling them what was going to be in programme before it aired. Then on 29th November 2004, the predicated scene was broadcast (click on the TV icons for movies)
Intro to 200Mph car (wmv)Vicki's not wrong about the
L.O.T.U.S. acronym, huh, and I
love the way Jason says "I'm sure between us we can pull in a
few favours, get a few trick bits"... yeah, like copies of my
plenum and chargecooler!
Now my contact on the 5th Gear team "GW" doesn't regularly
appear on the program - he just does all the hard work
preparing the items and liasing with people behind the scenes
However, as we know, their worries about the gearbox
were well founded and when L.O.T.U.S. acronym made itself known, he
did make it onto the shoot, driving the car and then pushing it
onto the trailer!
My converstions with GW of 5th Gear continued
for the rest of 2004 and I thougth that there was a good
opportunity for us to work together on the engine development -
it had to help having the program's budget and GW's time to
dedicate to finding companies to help with things like exhaust
manifold fabrication!
It certainly wasn't looking like taking long for the
5th Gear engine to reach the same stage as mine - their heads
could be sent to the same grinder that I used for flowing, they
could purchase their GT28RS turbos - all they needed was a GT1
plenum and chargecooler like mine
SO in
the interests of fostering a partnership, I agreed to be
helpful and removed the plenum and chargecooler from
my engine and took them to Serck's workshops for them to
fabricate copies
L.O.T.U.S! (wmv)
I hoped, in return, that we could share development and production costs for the much needed exhaust manifolds for the GT28RSs and also the next stage of ECU mapping on the dyno. I wanted the 5th Gear project to succeed - a 200 mph Esprit would be cool to see! - and I thought I some of my input could help. Ultimately I'm more concerned with acceleration than top speed (0-100 & 0-150 times), but that could just be a choice of final drive ratio - apart from that the two cars' mechanics could be identical. One thing did bother me though... GW informed that 5th Gear were going to give the car away in a competition at the end of the feature. This was a bit disconsoling - that's building a car in a few months with an identical copy of my unique engine, that had taken me 3 years to achieve, and then just giving.. Harsh!
The program production people were telling GW to
aim for cheaper and cheaper options though...
This direction continued
further and Fifth Gear decided that trying to achieve 200 mph at the least
cost was paramount and they were only using standard turbos,
standard heads, standard red ECU (good for upt to 450 bhp)
and a twin chargecooler set up
So "there goes developing together" I thought - they're not even taking the engine out now! Mind you, I also thought "at least they're not giving away an engine like mine now!" - GW said they might go to further mods if they don't make 200 mph - stage 1, stage 2, stage 3 (where stage 3 is my full set up)
Five months after the first airing, on 11th April
2005, another installment of the project
was broadcast on 5th Gear, which started with a recap on the
challenge and the gearbox problems
Recap on 200Mph car (wmv)
Recap
gearbox probs (wmv)
I was a little confused when the
program got to the turbo modifications - if you've read the Big Turbo Problem section, you'll
probably recognise the GT28RS turbo held up next to the standard
T25, from the 5 bolt exit on the turbine/wastegate here - now I
thought they weren't using them? Oh, and I didn't pay £3 Grand for
my GT28RSs!
Turbo
modificationss (wmv)
I called GW about the episode and asked about this shot - he said
they filmed it earlier with a GT28RS before it was decided not to
use them
As thease 2 clips show, 5th Gear used SuperChips to do the rolling
road dyno tuning and the result was 426 bhp (not sure if that's at
the rear wheels?)
SuperChips (wmv)
426
bhp (wmv)
It wasn't really shown but it's obvious from this footage that a
blow off valve was also fitted - I love seeing Tiff's reaction to
the performance here (he's always been my preferred TV driver -
it's no coincidence that teams let him loose with all sorts of
exotic machinery!)
He does mistakenly describe the sound as that of a wastegate
though...
Tiff test
drive
Guess what, the gearbox failed again!
So I've been on hold with Project M71 since the 5th Gear
involvement began (admittedly things may not have progressed far
with available finances, pressure of my normal day job etc.)
but as I write this in early 2005 there's still a small
possibility that 5th Gear might get to a stage 3 set up and we
can work together, so I'm not looking to get things moving on
the exhaust manifolds until I know what they are doing.
I'll be waiting for the new series to see how they got on with the timed run!
Update:
Well, when I went back to Serck to collect my plenum and
chargecooler, after GW had called to say they had finished with
them, I asked how they had got on with fabricating copies (guess I
wanted to see them and compare the quality too) and I was
surprsied to hear that they hadn't copied them at all!!
It seemed clear alredy then that they were never going to get to stage 3 on the tuning then and it seemed a little pointless for me to have taken them off my engine - GW informed me that the program producers were heavily leaning towards the cost being the driving theme now and also (here's another surprise) that he had "jumped ship" and moved to the Top Gear program!
Update:
As this story started, Summer was drawing to an end and Project M71 was stuck where it was a year before but this time I was waiting to see what further, if anything, would transpire with 5th Gear - maybe this wasn't so urgent, as finances were limiting progress anyway but at least knowing the plan for the way ahead would help.
In October 2005 5th Gear returned to
the screens with a new full 1 hour format - a couple of programs
aired but there was no mention of the 200 mph Esprit anymore
I wondered if they would just let it die, as GW was no longer on
the team... then on 7th November 2005
the "final installment of the 200 mph Esprit" was the theme of
almost the whole of second half hour of the program.
The recap before the new footage just covers all the car
modifications that were previously covered - including the rolling
road session at SuperChips
This time though the power is quoted as
480 bhp and not 426 bhp?
There's no explanation given for this but perhaps it's just
assumed power at flywheel without transaxle looses? 54 bhp is
maybe a tad optimistic here but then looking at the gearbox
problems, perhaps not!
SuperChips
recap - 480 bhp? (wmv 268 kb) SuperChips
426 bhp ?(wmv)
On to the first speed run then.... as
you'll see on this clip, all was going quite well... until... the car very worryingly blew oil smoke out
at 175 mph (the top speed of original unmodified car!)
My earlier comments on fuel mixture and doing the ECU mapping properly immediately came to mind! (as Tiff admits later on, in the summing up at the end of the program - there's even a comment about using "high tech race components" at the end of the clip... like a copy of my GT1 plenum, chargecooler etc. perhaps?! )
I've cut it off the end of the last clip but the full "final
installment" clip above shows that the engine & transaxle was
removed from the car to effect repairs to engine damage caused by
the horrible oilly mess in the first run
This isn't a good situation in the first place - but.. what
happens just before this clip of the second speed run
starts??
CLUTCH
SLIP!! What? they didn't change the clutch plates while they
had the engine out!! oh, you gotta be kidding me!!!
I can't understand this - was the price of clutch plate now too
much!
Take note too that Tiff makes a point about using full fire
proofs, Having probably been a bit "spooked" by a non-race
prepared machine dumping it's oil at 170 mph+ (didn't I originally
say this to GW?)
So they even resorted
to NOS.... NO, please! This is just a cop
out - a short term power boost - not the way to obtain durable
and usable power like all true 200 mph vehicles
Anyway this turns out to be the final run because the "engine had
lost compression" - in other words it had really blown this time!
There were big problems again at high speed/high RPM, seemigly
with fuel mixture (fuel to air ratio, one of basic tenants of
engine management and one that I hoped we cover off properly in
partnership), that probably led to something melting in the
combustion chamber
During the closing chat, Tiff admits to a "melted piston or
valves" - they were hoping that their intercooling would help
avoid this.... but more is needed, like my Keronite coated
pistons and above all engine management properly developed and
tested to ensure the fuel/air ratio is always right.
So the 5th Gear project failed - the engine lacked the
reliability to prove if enough power was there to make 200mph
For me, it's bad that I will get no help on development on my engine - but it's good they are selling off a their car with its under developed engine, rather than giving away a copy of my engine!
200 mph might not be my goal but how do I hope to succeed with my engine? Take time - do it right - no conservatism on power but also no comprimises on engineering... they will always come back and bite you!
So that's the real story behind the Fifth Gear "200 mph" car....
you might find it interesting to contrast with the comments on the
PistonHeads discussion list