Car of the Month February - Saleen S7 '02 - Can you tame this beast?

TurnLeft · Mar 1, 2015

cbarbosa
Despite i'm being way less active in GTP and with less time in testing cars, now that February CoTM is over, just wanna say a big thanks to @Bowtie-muscle for creating the CoTM threads and all the great tuners and tunes that filled this thread with awesome chances of driving great and sometimes forgotten cars...

And wanna express my apologies for only tested a few cars, but with a new job time is getting shorter and shorter... I really wish I could have tested all...

Now that March is up and a new great car is due, see you guys on the track! 👍

No need to apologize my friend

, you are a great asset to this community and the time you have to share is always appreciated.👍

Otaliema · Mar 1, 2015

TurnLeft
Why do you always have to see how far you can go before all hell breaks out? Just make sure the "Chicken Pedal " is working properly , I may have to use it this time .

All pedals were functioning when I gave you the car the first time, did you break it and that's why you couldn't use it?

TurnLeft · Mar 1, 2015

Otaliema
All pedals were functioning when I gave you the car the first time, did you break it and that's why you couldn't use it?

Ah... really....must have been the sandman

who did that :lol:

. Now enough of this chit chat, I have two more reviews I want to post for tonight, one of them is quite a surprise.

TurnLeft · Mar 1, 2015

Saleen S7 '02 Review
@sinof1337

This one is a little more nervous on the throttle :eek:

, not bad or good, you just have to take it into account. Just beat the best lap on SM and SS at Willow Springs. It’s very smooth all around the track and well balanced from brakes to Front/Rear suspension, not a car for lead foots but not very hard to get accustomed to, the only issue and this is largely due to the track’s layout is in the the hills where throttle control makes or breaks your lap time. It’s as good as your reviews which are by the way amazing :bowdown:

.

TurnLeft · Mar 1, 2015

Saleen S7 '02 Review
@Ridox2JZGTE

Now this is a dandy, CS on a 550Hp machine. For this review I used the 114/114 RH and the Custom Ratio Set 2 Transmission. After a few laps I lowered the front brakes to 1 and rear to 3 because you know I’m not the softest with the brake pedal. This is the only one I’ve driven with MT and ALL aids off so far.

If anybody has never driven with all aids off this would not be the best choice to start with, I can think of plenty of cars to get your teeth in before attempting this, you can always drop a line to Ridox or try my replica 2cv, that one anyone can drive it with no aids, even Ot......

This car has a very wild nature, you need to exert patience on acceleration and braking, it’s very responsive to direction changes and braking with no abs demands to find the right deceleration point, late hard braking = disaster. It took my 3rd lap to get a non-penalized time, after that it was just trying to get better at every section. On the long curves I was able to hold on even with the rear traction burning the tires to agony, the perfect throttle input was hard to find on most curves, a little to slow or flamed tires. I also had trouble finding the right gears for most sections, some of them seemed to work better with 1 gear higher and others this would kill your time. I just reread all of what I wrote and it does sound like I went through a nightmare, so I must be one of those persons who like horror movies and gets a thrill out of being scared. I really loved this one 👍, it’s the type of car that when you make a good lap you feel you’ve accomplished something great, mastering a beast with your skills.

Willow Springs
My best lap time on CS - MT - BB 1/3 was 1:23.807, sounds slow? wait.

I then tried putting some SS but used AT instead (mental fatigue was starting to get apparent) with BB 1/3 , I could have raised it to 3/5 but forgot to do it.
My best lap was 1:16.903, still not as fast as the others but only 0.712 off the slowest so far, and with abs/0.

Finally (getting quite hungry) I flipped on the abs/1, BB 5/5, AT, my best lap was 1:15.408

These are the other SS lap times I have so far at 550PP, note that this car is a 566PP so it has a power edge.
1:15.893
1:15.791
1:16.102
1:15.705
1:15.460

and the car still had a bit of wild in it, and still more room to get a better time. Excellent job, with a good driver I can see easily go under the 1:15.000 , now I'll have to rework mine, don't ever want to lose to a replica (<BAD WORD)

Ridox2JZGTE · Mar 2, 2015

TurnLeft
Saleen S7 '02 Review
@Ridox2JZGTE

Now this is a dandy, CS on a 550Hp machine. For this review I used the 114/114 RH and the Custom Ratio Set 2 Transmission. After a few laps I lowered the front brakes to 1 and rear to 3 because you know I’m not the softest with the brake pedal. This is the only one I’ve driven with MT and ALL aids off so far.

If anybody has never driven with all aids off this would not be the best choice to start with, I can think of plenty of cars to get your teeth in before attempting this, you can always drop a line to Ridox or try my replica 2cv, that one anyone can drive it with no aids, even Ot......

This car has a very wild nature, you need to exert patience on acceleration and braking, it’s very responsive to direction changes and braking with no abs demands to find the right deceleration point, late hard braking = disaster. It took my 3rd lap to get a non-penalized time, after that it was just trying to get better at every section. On the long curves I was able to hold on even with the rear traction burning the tires to agony, the perfect throttle input was hard to find on most curves, a little to slow or flamed tires. I also had trouble finding the right gears for most sections, some of them seemed to work better with 1 gear higher and others this would kill your time. I just reread all of what I wrote and it does sound like I went through a nightmare, so I must be one of those persons who like horror movies and gets a thrill out of being scared. I really loved this one 👍, it’s the type of car that when you make a good lap you feel you’ve accomplished something great, mastering a beast with your skills.

Willow Springs
My best lap time on CS - MT - BB 1/3 was 1:23.807, sounds slow? wait.

I then tried putting some SS but used AT instead (mental fatigue was starting to get apparent) with BB 1/3 , I could have raised it to 3/5 but forgot to do it.
My best lap was 1:16.903, still not as fast as the others but only 0.712 off the slowest so far, and with abs/0.

Finally (getting quite hungry) I flipped on the abs/1, BB 5/5, AT, my best lap was 1:15.408

These are the other SS lap times I have so far at 550PP, note that this car is a 566PP so it has a power edge.
1:15.893
1:15.791
1:16.102
1:15.705
1:15.460

and the car still had a bit of wild in it, and still more room to get a better time. Excellent job, with a good driver I can see easily go under the 1:15.000 , now I'll have to rework mine, don't ever want to lose to a replica (<BAD WORD)

First of all, thank you for the courage to drive the beast on CS tire :cheers:

, like some of my other replica, they are built with no compromise

690+HP Aventador on CS, Countach LP400 on CH, Diablo Base Coupe on CH, SV/GT on CM; these cars requires concentration to drive well. What startled me was the Diablo Base Coupe, the run on CH tire was almost life like ( throttle pick up, braking point, cornering speed ) in comparison to the inboard video on the real lap record at Tsukuba, freaking comfort hard on 485HP 1690kg Diablo RWD :eek:

Anyway, I really appreciate your effort with ABS 0 driving the Saleen S7, it's tough car to begin with and you managed 1:23s on CS 👍 I was hoping someone would break into 1:21s on the CS :sly:

. Did you get the replay and use it as a ghost ? If you watch the replay, you can see how I brake, maintain traction with throttle and speeds the S7 capable of. I think I used lower gear ( high RPM hold ) on some of the corner.

When you fit SS tire, did you use the high final as well ? When I tested the higher final drive ( 4.220 ), it has very quick acceleration which should help it stays competitive in racing.

CS 1:23.8s, SS 1:15.4s, that's about 8 seconds quicker, and if I did 1:21s on CS, in theory I could do 1:13s on SS

Bring it to 550PP, that would take a second off, 1:14s it is.

1:21s was on this setup : The 1:21s run was done using the dry weight spec + dry weight suspension ( 114mm ride height ) + High Final 3.700/Custom Gear Ratio Set 2 and NO Body rigidity improvement

The last sector was in 55s range.

The replica is also a base for S7R which has RH tire and aimed at real life lap record, the S7R needs a lot of work though

Otaliema · Mar 2, 2015

I think the biggest problem the car has in the game is fubard distribution of weight if it was correct the car would be highly competitive I think. The fact we got it running faster than well respected cars shows it potential.

TurnLeft
that one anyone can drive it with no aids, even Ot......

That all most sounds like a challenge sir.

TurnLeft · Mar 2, 2015

Ridox2JZGTE
Anyway, I really appreciate your effort with ABS 0 driving the Saleen S7, it's tough car to begin with and you managed 1:23s on CS 👍 I was hoping someone would break into 1:21s on the CS . Did you get the replay and use it as a ghost ? If you watch the replay, you can see how I brake, maintain traction with throttle and speeds the S7 capable of. I think I used lower gear ( high RPM hold ) on some of the corner.

My pleasure, maybe @danbojte can do it, I'm seeing a lot of places that I can do better on the track but it would take some dedicated practicing time which I have very little for now. I didn't think of using the replay :banghead:

, that's something I'm going to have to get use to using to get my lap times better, just so many things I want to do and try :lol:

.

Ridox2JZGTE
When you fit SS tire, did you use the high final as well ? When I tested the higher final drive ( 4.220 ), it has very quick acceleration which should help it stays competitive in racing.

No I kept the same transmission setting all the time :eek:

. It didn't even cross my mind :grumpy:

.

Ridox2JZGTE
1:21s was on this setup : The 1:21s run was done using the dry weight spec + dry weight suspension ( 114mm ride height ) + High Final 3.700/Custom Gear Ratio Set 2 and NO Body rigidity improvement The last sector was in 55s range.

When I finish doing the remainder of the reviews I'll give it a shot, probably in about a week 👍.

Ridox2JZGTE
The replica is also a base for S7R which has RH tire and aimed at real life lap record, the S7R needs a lot of work though

When you get it worked out give me a buzz and I'll try it.

Otaliema
That all most sounds like a challenge sir.

Eh.. did I really mention your name? :lol:

@Thorin Cain actually already beat me, but if you want to try to beat him, be my honorable guest, some people can always use a little humility :sly:

. You'll find it here.............
Citroen 2CV Type A'54 REPLICA for 2CVGB Race at Silverstone National

TurnLeft · Mar 2, 2015

Saleen S7 '02 Review
@shmogt

Some people just can never get enough :eek:

, this one is powered up to the maximum, so far it’s the one I’ve put the most laps on. Due to the high power available I had a tendency of trying to use it all and I was overpowering 80% of the curves. It is a handful to control, because of the high speed and some other topics I’ll discuss later, there is no rest time, just adrenaline all the way.

When I said it was a handful I meant that you have to make constant steering corrections to keep it on the track, the tires want to keep it on the track but the body seems to have a mind of it’s own :rolleyes:

, there is a lot of rocking movement in the cabin as the car feels it’s way over every little nook and cranny on the road. Also I might be getting old for these high powered monsters :scared:

. When watching the replay you can see the body following the tracks detailed surface, I had never noticed how bumpy Willow Spring was.

You have to always be in contact with the tarmac, put a wheel off and it just wants to drag you over to see the Sandman. The car has a lot of grip, incredible speed, and will keep you awake every second you are in it, and your chances of winning against other super cars are great, but how many races are there for 650PP> with RS? That is my main gripe with this, exciting and fast but nowhere to go. :cheers:

danbojte · Mar 2, 2015

TurnLeft
maybe @danbojte can do it

I found accidentally that you've mentioned me. No alert received for this. :mischievous:

Sorry, but I don't drive Standard cars anymore. :cool:

Otaliema · Mar 2, 2015

danbojte
I found accidental that you've mentioned me. No alert received for this.
Sorry, but I don't drive Standard cars anymore.

You could go have some fun in a PITA standard like this one for a little bit, but I am starting to agree standard cars seem to be getting left in the dust in terms of handling compared to the premium cars.

Yeah I don't know whats up with @TurnLeft when he tags you it don't notify.
Mr Left how are you tagging @ then typing the name? or copy and paste? copy and paste doesn't work for some reason.

danbojte · Mar 2, 2015

Otaliema
copy and paste?

Yes, very probably he's doing it that way...

TurnLeft · Mar 2, 2015

Saleen S7 '02 Review
@Lapse

Yes I used ABS/0, but I use a DS3 controller 👍. I’m taking all these cars to the same track, Willow Springs, just seemed appropriate to test these where they were probably tested IRL (American car, American track).

It took 2 laps to get use to it, I had just driven a monster :scared:

at 640PP with RS + abs/1, so a little time spent to find my marks and we were on our way. The brakes worked fine, I thought that I would have to lower them because you tuned it with a wheel and this was not the case, in fact I think I could have raised them just a bit. In general I really like this car, it has a few flaws but less than I bought it. There was one thing I noticed that it had trouble with and that was off throttle turning on the last long curve, I always wanted it to keep on line but it pushed out with a few tremors. Controlling out off curve acceleration was easy though overdoing it did make it spin out a bit, but always managed to catch it. Front end could have used a bit more traction to my liking, but that’s personal taste, as is just gives it a little more x-factor. A very good car to drive with no driving aids ( don’t tell anyone but I still use the driving line). It was a pleasure to try this and I hope that our paths will cross again. :cheers:

TurnLeft · Mar 2, 2015

Otaliema
Yeah I don't know whats up with @TurnLeft when he tags you it don't notify.
Mr Left how are you tagging @ then typing the name? or copy and paste? copy and paste doesn't work for some reason.

Yes I was using copy/paste, it use to work fine but if it's not well I'll take the time to write it :banghead:

.

Otaliema · Mar 2, 2015

TurnLeft
Yes I was using copy/paste, it use to work fine but if it's not well I'll take the time to write it .

the names auto complete after about 3-5 letters based on recent activity so as long as you get them right you don;t have to finish typeing the names. it helps speed things up.

TurnLeft · Mar 2, 2015

Otaliema
the names auto complete after about 3-5 letters based on recent activity so as long as you get them right you don;t have to finish typeing the names. it helps speed things up.

Thanks my friend 👍, this should help, too bad for those who didn't get the alert for their reviews :ouch:

.

Otaliema · Mar 2, 2015

TurnLeft
Thanks my friend 👍, this should help, too bad for those who didn't get the alert for their reviews .

Tag them in a new post and if you want to be really nice link to each review

TurnLeft · Mar 2, 2015

Otaliema · Mar 2, 2015

@TurnLeft tagging worked this time 👍

shmogt · Mar 2, 2015

TurnLeft
Saleen S7 '02 Review
@shmogt

Some people just can never get enough , this one is powered up to the maximum, so far it’s the one I’ve put the most laps on. Due to the high power available I had a tendency of trying to use it all and I was overpowering 80% of the curves. It is a handful to control, because of the high speed and some other topics I’ll discuss later, there is no rest time, just adrenaline all the way.

When I said it was a handful I meant that you have to make constant steering corrections to keep it on the track, the tires want to keep it on the track but the body seems to have a mind of it’s own , there is a lot of rocking movement in the cabin as the car feels it’s way over every little nook and cranny on the road. Also I might be getting old for these high powered monsters . When watching the replay you can see the body following the tracks detailed surface, I had never noticed how bumpy Willow Spring was.
You have to always be in contact with the tarmac, put a wheel off and it just wants to drag you over to see the Sandman. The car has a lot of grip, incredible speed, and will keep you awake every second you are in it, and your chances of winning against other super cars are great, but how many races are there for 650PP> with RS? That is my main gripe with this, exciting and fast but nowhere to go.

lol ya it's insane. There is no need to do hardcore drugs with a car like this. It is all the excitement you will need. You must have extreme focus, but once you get it right there is nothing else like it. I have beaten actual race cars with this car/tune and have a new YouTube video of it battling one on the Nurburgring coming soon. Thanks for trying it out and giving your thoughts on it. If you want real excitement the Ferrari FXX is 10x faster and will leave you sweating lol.

shmogt · Mar 3, 2015

I was wondering are you using a wheel on controller to test these?

Otaliema · Mar 3, 2015

shmogt
I was wondering are you using a wheel on controller to test these?

I know @sinof1337 just go a wheel. I think @TurnLeft uses a DS3 I know @Bowtie-muscle uses a controller.

TurnLeft · Mar 3, 2015

shmogt
I was wondering are you using a wheel on controller to test these?

I use a PS3 controller, joy stick for acceleration/brakes.

TurnLeft · Mar 4, 2015

Saleen S7 '02 Review
@Lagwrath

I’ve got mix emotions about this one

/

, when driven by the book it handles very well, some oversteering but not dramatic, throttle control is easy, braking could use a bit more power for aggressive braking, and it’s quite fast. But as soon as you start pushing it you’ll see it’s other personality :crazy:

. Most likely if I were to try it on a different day I would probably find this quite exciting, but today I’m finding it a bit difficult. I think there is room to get more speed from this, maybe just a couple of tweaks here there, I place this one somewhere in between hard grip tunes ( angel) and the free style tunes (demon), if you don’t listen to the right one at the right moment your to slow or your being towed, Good fun tune :lol:

👍. I was curious to se how I would do on the Nurburgring Nordschleife :rolleyes:

, 1st attempt crashed a little after the long straight at the beginning :banghead:

. 2nd attempt, clean lap :odd:

, 7:00.238 , I don't drive or tune here because it's too long to get a lot of recorded lap times, but I think that a good driver who knows this track should get at least between 6:45.000 and 6:50.000 with this car. 👍

TurnLeft · Mar 4, 2015

Saleen S7 '02 Review
@Rush471

This car reminds me a little of @Bowtie-muscle tune, there are no surprises unless you drive like Fred Flintstone :grumpy:

(might be a few of you who haven’t heard of him :eek:

). It has ample grip, great controllable out of curve acceleration, rides the track like if it was on silk road, brakes gracefully, and yes a very good tune 👍, unless you want to be the fastest (0.619 off the fastest I’ve tried with the same PP/Tires). This is where all tuners face a dilemma ( the chicken or the egg?), make a tune for everyone to be able to drive it and get decent lap times or tune it with more opening to get faster lap times but have less people be able to control it. Both are great as long as the result was what you were aiming for :confused:

. I’ve tried a few of your tunings and it does have your signature, I think that you should be able to bridge the gap between the chicken & the egg by testing and tweaking a little more, who knows, you might come up with a new species, the chic-egg

. Very good work 👍 and as always take my reviews with a pinch of salt, and a lot of water :lol:

.

To mister/miss @Acan , I guess you've deduced that your the next one to be reviewed :scared:

, you know if you don't want it you can tell me to forget about it :lol:

.

Acan · Mar 4, 2015

TurnLeft
To mister/miss @Acan , I guess you've deduced that your the next one to be reviewed , you know if you don't want it you can tell me to forget about it .

Well,

hahaha i dont mind actually, its up to you if you want to do a review of my tune or not. if you do, i dont mind if i will get bad :mad:

reviews for it. I know you will hate the tune so much as i do :lol:

.

TurnLeft · Mar 4, 2015

@Acan , I'm trying to set up your car but I'm running into a little problem, I'm getting 543PP/455HP/527ft-lb. Did you do an oil change? The weight is the same as the weight distribution.

Acan · Mar 4, 2015

TurnLeft
@Acan , I'm trying to set up your car but I'm running into a little problem, I'm getting 543PP/455HP/527ft-lb. Did you do an oil change? The weight is the same as the weight distribution.

I really cant remember, but i haven't put it in the tune sheet, so i assume i havent change it. im not on my console at this time of post.

TurnLeft · Mar 4, 2015

Acan
I really cant remember, but i haven't put it in the tune sheet, so i assume i havent change it. im not on my console at this time of post.

When you get a chance can you check it out, there`s no rush, I`m at work and after I`m going out and tomorrow I won`t have the time, so it will be friday or saturday.

Rush471 · Mar 4, 2015

TurnLeft
Saleen S7 '02 Review
@Rush471

This car reminds me a little of @Bowtie-muscle tune, there are no surprises unless you drive like Fred Flintstone (might be a few of you who haven’t heard of him). It has ample grip, great controllable out of curve acceleration, rides the track like if it was on silk road, brakes gracefully, and yes a very good tune 👍, unless you want to be the fastest (0.619 off the fastest I’ve tried with the same PP/Tires). This is where all tuners face a dilemma ( the chicken or the egg?), make a tune for everyone to be able to drive it and get decent lap times or tune it with more opening to get faster lap times but have less people be able to control it. Both are great as long as the result was what you were aiming for . I’ve tried a few of your tunings and it does have your signature, I think that you should be able to bridge the gap between the chicken & the egg by testing and tweaking a little more, who knows, you might come up with a new species, the chic-egg . Very good work 👍 and as always take my reviews with a pinch of salt, and a lot of water .

To mister/miss @Acan , I guess you've deduced that your the next one to be reviewed , you know if you don't want it you can tell me to forget about it .

Thanks for another great review! I'll see if I can make a more controllable tune for everyone when April comes. I already submitted my March tune, and it needs a little care. :lol: