The Nurburgring is claimed to be the perfect test facility and it is used by all the leading car manufacturers in the development of their new products.  As regular visitors to the Nordschleife over the years it is also the ideal venue for us to test our latest range of performance upgrades before they are offered to customers. The main focus of our trip was our Nissan GTR development cars but for this trip we took 3 cars in total:

• ·         Litchfield GTR 850bhp Development car
• ·         Litchfield Juke Development car
• ·         Monster Energy 630bhp GTR built for XGames Rallycross champion Liam Doran

Each car had their on-track performance tested along with the road performance on the journey to and from Germany.  

 

To ensure we had everything on hand to perform this work we teamed up with long-term engineering partners Forge and used Capricorn’s amazing Nurburgring Test Facility.  This is the same base Nissan used for the development of the GTR and seemed a fitting venue for testing our latest Nissan products.

  Inside the Capricorn Nurburgring Test Centre

 

    Litchfield GTR development car

You can see a video of us testing our development car on our YouTube channel or here:  

embedded by Embedded Video

With so many new parts developed for the GTR we wanted to prove the performance and reliability but more importantly we wanted to understand how they would work together as a complete package. The biggest change was to the engine power.  The Litchfield GTR engine program has been in development for over a year now and has seen us team up with the British manufacturers Capricorn http://www.litchfieldblog.co.uk/?p=1464 and Arrows Precision http://www.litchfieldblog.co.uk/?p=1228 to produce the very best engine internals.  The Sport engine is our initial engine offering designed to take circa 1,000bhp whilst maintaining OEM levels of refinement, oil consumption and reliability.

 

The Sport engine features

• ·         Litchfield GTR Pistons produced by Capricorn from proprietary high specification aerospace alloy.
• ·         Litchfield GTR Engine Rods with unique oil grooves and squirters to improve bearing oil supply and to cool pistons for improved performance. Beryllium Copper small ends offer the best friction reduction.
• ·         ARP Custom Age high strength head Bolts
• ·         ARP Main stud bolt kit
• ·         Engine internals and Crank dynamically balanced to insure smooth running.  Typically engine balancing was done by weighing each individual component and matching sets of pistons and rods.  This dynamic technique rotates the whole short engine assembly to ensure the components are perfectly balanced in their operating environment.
• ·         Blue printed engine block with oil and water ways smoothed, enlarged and cleaned to removing original casting marks and rough edges.
• ·         Litchfield Blue Printed and High Pressure Oil pump for more consistent flow at high rpm and power levels.
• ·         Cosworth Cylinder Head Gaskets
• ·         Litchfield Ported and polished cylinder heads with knife edge port separators and valve seat profiling
• ·         Litchfield Combustion Chamber modifications to improved squish and detonation reduction
• ·         Litchfield Sport Camshafts with unique profile for increased lift and duration whilst maintaining perfect idle control and low speed performance
• ·         Litchfield custom valve springs which ensure correct valve pressure but with reduced valve train noise
• ·         New bearings, engine gaskets and seals
• ·         Litchfield High performance 5w-40 engine oil

The Sport engine was coupled with our latest LM850 Billet GTR Turbos which are available as part of our Stage 5 conversion and these allowed this engine to produce 857bhp at a comfortable 1.45bar and a smooth 800lbft at 1.6bar with plenty more available (the car is now running 1.7bar-1.65bar to the redline).  The engine was controlled by the new Syvecs ECU which we are running in parallel with our Ecutek software development. 

The performance on the dyno and road had everyone commenting on its smoothness and eagerness to rev.  Further mapping on the road has brought the new turbos onto boost even earlier giving a better than standard response (thanks to their lightweight Billet Compressor wheels) but incredible top end flow.  These Garrett Ball bearing based cores also feature a custom large exhaust turbine wheel that allows slightly more peak flow and helps keep the exhaust gas temperatures even lower.

After running the engine in, our specially blended high performance engine oil was poured in, the car then did over 500miles with two trips to dyno for mapping before heading out to Germany.  The engine performed faultlessly throughout the 1,050 mile round trip to and from the Nurburgring along with countless miles on circuit over the two days.  The engine oil was regularly checked throughout the trip and incredibly returned back to our Tewkesbury workshop only requiring a 0.5 litre top up!  The oil has now been drained and sent for further analysis.  We will shortly be launching our own range of performance oils specifically designed for these ultra high performance engines.

Also fitted to the car was the Milltek 90mm exhaust system, it was superb on track and offered excellent performance without causing any noise issues. The noise is purposeful without being obtrusive and  also provided an excellent soundtrack at motorway cruising speed. 

Although we have produced a new engine oil cooler with Forge we wanted to fully understand how the standard system coped with bigger power under sustained track conditions.  The standard system performed very well but it was clear that it was close to the limit of its efficiency and could really benefit from our additional cooling to take the edge off what it had to contend with.  It was able to deal with the consistent high speed of the 14mile Nordscheife but after a couple of laps of the short and twisting Nurburgring GP circuit the oil temps quickly began to climb. 

One upgrade that didn’t work quite as we had hoped was our new power steering cooler and larger tank but this is the point of a trip like this.  The larger cooler worked very well but the internal Baffle design within the tank will need some further work as on the first day it would leak fluid from the cap as soon steering was used in anger and pressure increased.  A quick modification that evening to the cap seal made things much better on the second day but we will be working with Forge to perfect the setup (we now have v.2 on the car and working well).

Also in constant development was the new Syvecs S8 ECU which worked excellently and allowed constant tweaking to the map settings for the various conditions the engine was under. 

The instant map switching allowed us to test the engine initially on track on the lowest boost settings where it produced around 720bhp before analysing the datalogs and making any changes. 

The track work also highlighted improvements that need to be made in the gearbox control and we will be hiring a UK test track to perfect this with the Syvecs team.

We were quickly able to advance our map settings and deploy all of the 857bhp around the famous circuit.  However it wasn’t just the track sessions that proved valuable in the map development.  The long cruising to and from the Nurburgring allowed us to make live changes to the engine settings to improve smoothness and fuel consumption in real world conditions.

This was the main point of the trip, how would the car and in particular the chassis perform with this type of power.

For over a year we have been working with world leaders Bilstien and Eibach to produce a new suspension package for the GTR.  Developed predominantly on the road it was important to see how it would work when pushed hard on this tortuous track.  The brief for the new suspension setup was tough as not only did we want to significantly improve the ride quality but we also needed to insure the GTR’s outstanding circuit handling was not affected but actually improved. 

The 2011 GTR in particular has a disconcerting handling trait on track and it was something we wanted to eradicate.  The incredible amount of traction the GTR manages to find and the standard under-damped rear suspension would begin a rocking motion when pushing hard out of a bend.  This bucking sensation would make the car feel like it could violently spin if you were not fully committed to the throttle.  You can see the rocking motion in action around the Top Gear test track when the Stig was setting the lap time in the GTR.

The new suspension kit worked perfectly around the circuit with significantly less understeer and more front end grip.  The rocking motion was completely removed as the increased roll stiffness gave the body great control and composure.

The increase in steering weight gave more feedback which further improved our confidence to push on.  It was equally as good around the perfectly smooth GP circuit as it was around the bumpier Nordschleife.  The adjustable rear roll bar also allows fine adjustment to the handling balance but around this track most drivers won’t need to change much from our standard fast road settings.  The increase in damper and spring rates also controlled lateral body movement better even with the extra engine power being generated and this translated into finding more traction out of the bends.

Because our suspension kit uses the same adjustable damper technology as the standard GTR we were able to instantly switch between settings using the dashboard switch.  This really came into it’s own on the long motorway journeys to and from Germany.  Here we could flick the switch into Comfort mode and enjoy a gentle and smooth ride.  Although our kit features higher spring rates the increase in damping allows for a much more controlled and comfortable ride, even in Race Mode!

The Litchfield Suspension kits final specifications have now been sign off and we expect to receive our first sets in late May.  We are now taking pre-orders for those customers who wish to have a set from our first batch.  The initial order price will be £2,995+vat and will come with a 2 year warranty from Bilstein.

Another key test ingredient was the new Michelin SuperSport tyres as we wanted to directly compare them with the original fitment Dunlop SP600 tyres for both ride and handling.  We also wanted to make sure they performed well with our new suspension kit which was developed using the standard Dunlop and Bridgstone run flat tyres.  We were lucky that Michelin have been able to provide pre-production SuperSports for us to test and were keen to know our feedback.  The results were very positive and they worked better than we could have hoped.

We took 3 sets of wheel with us which allowed for quick changes between the various options:

• ·         OE Dunlop SP600            255/40/20 Front and 285/35/20 rear
• ·         Michelin SuperSport       255/40/20 Front and 285/35/20 rear
• ·         Michelin SuperSport       275/30/20 Front and 305/30/20 rear

Straight away it was clear the 255/40/20 front and 285/35/20 rear Michelin SuperSport tyres offer better day to day comfort, significantly improved wet grip and less road noise.  They appear to at least equal the Dunlops in grip in the bend and have more traction from the rear tyres out of a bend.  However because of their softer side wall they do feel a little vaguer compared to the Dunlops on turn in and seem to have more initial understeer despite gripping just as well.  It is also important that they have the correct tyre pressures as they seem more sensitive to pressure changes.

However this slight negative is only apparent when pushing hard on track and they certainly out perform any other GTR sized replacement tyres we have tried.  For the majority of road based GTR’s they will offer a better all-round package.  The slight perception of more understeer is probably compounded by the increase in rear grip that the 285 Michelins have.  This was really apparent in the back to back testing around the GP circuit.  The Dunlops would frequently light up as we accelerated hard out of a 3^rd gear bend and often bring on the traction control.  The Michelins however would always find more traction and the car was much more stable out of the bends.  This is possible as the side wall would give slightly allowing the tyre to gain more purchase.   

We also tried a wider version of the Michelin which worked even better.  We  chose to fit 275/35/20 Front 305/30/20 Michelin SuperSport tyres which in our eyes are currently the perfect higher performance tyre for the GTR as they not only have a wider contact patch (7% front and 6% rear) but also have a lower profile and therefore stiffer side wall.  This gives a sharper turn in and improved steering feel as there is less side wall flex and the drivers inputs are more direct.  The wider tyre also gives more steering weight which again aids feedback.  The choice of wider profile also fits well onto the standard size Alloy wheels without affecting the balance of the car.   The only downside to the wider tyres is slightly more tyre noise but this is arguably no louder than the OE Dunlops or Bridgestones anyway.  We now carry the wider size Michelin’s in stock and a complete set of these costs £1,632 Inc. VAT fitted.

The final piece of the jigsaw was the astonishing Alcon Super Kit braking system.  These didn’t need testing as we have had them on numerous demonstrators but their performance is so astonishing it was worth mentioning them again.  This is a complete front and rear kit features larger 400mm brake discs and billet CNC finished brake callipers ensured we were never worrying about slowing down.  Despite the best efforts of the engine the Alcon’s would always offer massive braking power without fade and incredible pedal feel.  This again increased our confidence behind the wheel which is something you need lots of when pushing on around this famous old circuit.

Along with our GTR demonstrator, Liam Doran’s Stage 4 tuned Monster Energy GT-R was faultless on the first day but at the very end of the day it was involved in a huge accident that saw it spin off the track and flip upside down over the catch netting! 

Once again the Nurburgring maintained its fierce reputation and had proved that even the very best drivers can be caught out. More information on Liam’s car can be found here:

http://www.litchfieldmotors.com/nissan_gtr_liam_doran.asp

Although not quite in the same league as 600+bhp GT-Rs, the Juke proved to be great fun on track and surprised quite a few people who were not expecting the performance from this cross-over city car. It also gave us an excellent opportunity to evaluate the car to see the best bits and the parts that need revision and it also reinforced our belief that there is a lot to come from that 1.6 turbocharged engine. Watch this space…

At the end of each day we had a number of customers back to the workshop so we could provide post-track inspections and even carried out a Stage 1 upgrade.  The fully equipped ultra-modern facility was excellent in giving us the opportunity to speak to our customers whilst we were working on their cars.

After each busy and incident packed day the Litchfield team headed to the famous Pistenklause for a much needed meal, debrief and a chance to catch up with old friends.  The 2 day track event was very well run, as always, by Destination Nurburgring who we have used many times before and can thoroughly recommend.

Overall the trip was a huge success and the car performed impeccably throughout.  As a team we learnt a huge amount about our products, the car and the direction we need to take next.

The new products we tested on our car are near completion and will shortly be available to order.  If you have any questions or would like more information please feel free to contact us.