A Full test of engine overhaul & body rigidity upgrades!

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graysonrocks
Some info’ on engine re-builds and chassis strengthening

Having not found a definitive answer as to whether or not the engine and chassis re-builds actually work, I figured this may deserve its own thread… Sorry if I’m wrong!
After finally acquiring a Formula GT I decided to run a few tests. For A-Spec I used the 10 lap Indy’ circuit from the Dream Car Championship and for B-Spec I used the same race but over its 22 lap distance.
For the B-Spec races I issued no instructions to my level 26 Bob.
I ran each race twice. The first run before the expensive engine and chassis re-builds and the second run after having them installed… At a cost of 1 million credits!
At the time of purchase my Formula GT had already clocked up 4,522 miles or 7,277 kilometres. Before the first run I gave the Formula GT an oil change, (which increased the BHP from 880-925) bought racing-soft tyres (for A-Spec only) and installed the ‘rigidity’ upgrade.
After installing the engine and chassis upgrades the BHP increased to 935!

Here are the A-Spec results
1st run best lap-00:38.423
1st run total time-06:40.354
2nd run best lap-00:38.402
2nd run total time-06:34.848

Here are the B-Spec results
1st run best lap-00:42.542
1st run total time-16:50.973
2nd run best lap-00:42.444
2nd run total time-16:47.365

Hope this is useful!

Please feel free to draw your own conclusions… I can’t help but feel like I’ve just wasted 1 million credits!
 
Yeah its hard to justify the cost and benifit of engine rebuilds for million dollar cars.

If its a cheap car i always rebuild the motor.

I did a small test of my own with the ford gt test car II at indy, I Gained 10 hp or so which took 3 secends of of the 5 lap race and with prior tuning got up to 220 max, up 2 mph from pre rebuild. not worth a half million.

Keeping the oil clean seems to be a better route.
 
something to maby take into consideration, used cars with say 5000k's never seem to have much engine wear after a new oil change... in your case you were missing out on 10hp.. but a car you have done 5000k's in yourself does seem to have a lot more engine wear... my zonda is short about 60hp after a oil change and its done around the 3500k mark 60hp would be a lot more noticeable then 10hp ... to be fair i have hit the limiter a lot whilst getting used to manual tranny
 
I don’t understand what the OP accomplished beyond splurging a million credits. Lap times don’t say anything. How did the car feel? How did it respond? Clearly the engine overhaul has a number figure we can see and measure. However, after only 4,500 miles, it may have been too soon to see any significant changes. It might be better to try it with very high milage cars from the used car lot…

Take some used cars with 300k~ km on them, and test weigh transferring, body roll, &c. and with the engine, test engine response, and power and torque curves. Then we’ll see better answers.
 
Maybe not useful but realistic nonetheless. A real f1 team would spend a million on those Increases without hesitating.
 
After about 1400 miles my Veyron was beginning to feel bad. I did the chassis rebuild which made a difference.

Not sure how many DIY miles you need to do before a chassis rebuild becomes crucial.

I suppose it is Driver's choice. If you have the cash and want to spend it and are pleased with the result then how can anyone say it was a bad idea.
 
I would say from the cars i have have go bad that road going sports cars seem to wear down faster than their purpose built race cousins.

Having used my minolta on the indy 500 quite a bit grinding the engine started to go, top speed was down 2 mph on the straights, plus when you drafted to 240 the draft speed would drop faster than a rebuilt engine with fresh oil, even when the oil starts to go off in the indy like 60 lap in the car will shed draft speed down faster.

So engine rehaul is debatable, one off races yea you want a fresh engine for the FGT and other hard races like that. Just like F1 you want the freshest engine you got for races.

Chassis is the most important of the two by far, But it depends on car type how far you can drive it before you start to get the looseness that a really worn chassis shows under hard driving. But there is zero point in refreshing any cars chassis until it starts to drive very off from normal. In the case of my italia you could not put down power in turns else the back end would go flying sideways and spin you out unless you caught it in time. High speed ring is an excellent track to test chassis stability since it has a ton of fast bends and we all have driven the heck out of it probably grinding for cr and xp.
 
So if my FGT wants to swap ends with very little provocation a Chassis refresh may be in order? I use Extreme European Rome Course for my tests as it has a nice mix of corners.
 
TC, In a-spec your car is clearly much faster. How can you justify all of this over one test, on one track? This is hardly a full test, if anything it is a half-assed showing. Before chassis restore haven't you noticed the wobbling of the car, even on straights? After you restore all of that is gone.
 
Grimmeh
I don’t understand what the OP accomplished beyond splurging a million credits. Lap times don’t say anything. How did the car feel? How did it respond? Clearly the engine overhaul has a number figure we can see and measure. However, after only 4,500 miles, it may have been too soon to see any significant changes. It might be better to try it with very high milage cars from the used car lot…

Take some used cars with 300k~ km on them, and test weigh transferring, body roll, &c. and with the engine, test engine response, and power and torque curves. Then we’ll see better answers.
Click to expand...

Thanks to all for the feed back ,
50 mins' grinding is all I really lost out on so it's not a big deal... I'll be happy if others can learn from my foly!

To Grimmeh,
You have a good point. Higher mileage could lead to different results.
I had some time today and after bagging the FGT thought it may be able to answer a few questions.
I used the Indy' circuit as i hoped it would provide info' on top speed and handling that was relevant to the topic and with less variables than may be found with a more complex circuit.

My #1 Bob is working the FGT Championship as I type but anyone else with info' relevent to this thread could help by testing your ideas.

Thanks again to all!
 
RogsR34UK
So if my FGT wants to swap ends with very little provocation a Chassis refresh may be in order? I use Extreme European Rome Course for my tests as it has a nice mix of corners.
Click to expand...

I haven't tried this course with the FTG yet but I will. All I would say though is that if your cars mileage is less than 4,500-5,000, an engine re-build is far from necessary... 10 BHP is no big deal at this level!
As was mentioned earlier in the thread, handling is a bigger issue.
I could definitely feel a difference in th FGT's handling after the chassis re-build (post 7,600km) but as the times I posted at the start of the thread will tell; the increase in performance is negligible... ie. not worth 500,000 by a long way!
Hope this helps too!
 
You would only need to do a Chassis restrengthening after 3 or 4,000 miles, that's when you will notice that the handling of the car is stiff and not as agile as it was when it was new, as for the engine rebuilds only do them when an oil change does not restore the maximum HP of your car and the HP is lower than it should be when it was worn in or new. Trust me on this i have over 100 wins in my Minolta with over 11,000 miles & my Peugeot 908 also needed these fixes after long hours of Endurance races.

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Killa Aaron
You would only need to do a Chassis restrengthening after 3 or 4,000 miles, that's when you will notice that the handling of the car is stiff and not as agile as it was when it was new, as for the engine rebuilds only do them them when an oil change does not restore the maximum HP of your car and the HP is lower than it should be when it was worn in or new. Trust me on this i have over 100 wins in my Minolta with over 11,000 miles & my Peugeot 908 also needed these fixes after long hours of Endurance races.

274501292.png
Click to expand...

Respect to you Mr. Aaron:tup:
 
I personally think the chassis restore is a joke. I took a brand new car and checked the option and it told me the car did not need the Chassis restored. Then I took the car, a 458 for one lap on the high speed ring. This was an easy lap with no stress on the car. I took the car back in and the chassis restoration was to cost me 1/2 of the cost of the car. Check it out for your self and it will always be half of what you paid for the car. The Chassis in not damaged in one lap on any car. So for me this function is broken
 
The chassis restore function is not an indicator of NEED for one, simply an indicator that you can get one if you feel like it (which you can't do if you haven't driven it at all). Nothing broken, just a misunderstanding of its' function.
 
The cost of chassis repairs are stupid.... its just a video game
Reality should just remain in important features. In the physics and damage (fail) department. Its boring as it is to race. Simply doing lap times is just becoming a pain in the ass.
 
you cant do this test with a car from the used car lot the mileage and engine wear is not consistent do it with a car you put mileage on theres a much bigger difference .. cars from the UCL could of had an easy life.... thier 5000miles of simulated mileage could have the same engine wear as you driving 2000miles or even less... i have seen plenty of high mileage cars that actually have 1-2hp more then it should of, then you do the oil and you get even more hp, why? i believe UCL cars engine wear is determine by wether a old granny or young teenager was the previous owner... type of thing
 
I think there should be an indicator when you need to fix your engine and chassis .. just like the oil light indicator
 
R35-Vspec
I think there should be an indicator when you need to fix your engine and chassis .. just like the oil light indicator
Click to expand...

I think it should turn on soon as you drive the car, hence your engine and chassis has wear, gods you people will you give it a rest.

If you do not drive a car enough to know if its chassis needs repair or that its engine is losing hp then why complain seriously. You know a car you know it needs work when it needs work period. Otherwise it does not matter if that car that sit in your garage so much that you never look at the thing, never bother to drive it and then go omg i needs a button tells me to to take it it to fix it.

I know my ferraris, i know my mclarens, i know my AMGs, i know my minolta and i know my FGT, i know them because i drive them, and i regularly check the hp after an oil change, and i know when the body needs work simply by DRIVING it.
 
Bravo to you. You did something for the community.
Thx and keep up your good deed.

Highly appreciated.
 
vinze1129
Bravo to you. You did something for the community.
Thx and keep up your good deed.

Highly appreciated.
Click to expand...

No worries. I'll be letting Bod grind out a good few thousand miles more on the FGT and maybe try again!
If anyone else has a cheaper car with hard miles that they've driven themselves, that too could be a good test subject.
As mentioned already, a cheaper car will require a less costly re-build. The highest mileage I have on a new car is just over 3,000 on my ZR1 (RM) which maybe isn't enough to show much of a difference.
Cheers.
 

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