Nifty Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 Not as promising as one might have hoped Keep off the straight and narrow 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leadership Team SLR No.77 Posted April 10, 2006 Leadership Team Share Posted April 10, 2006 But the other benefit is the reduced temperature of the induction charge .............. this would need appraisal on the rollers though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankyknuckles Posted April 10, 2006 Author Share Posted April 10, 2006 The intake ducting (on the way that we have installed it), sits right on the corner of the rad. I am not sure and I cannot measure the benefit of intake temps from this location. I should point out that the testing was done with the hose in place. But in the afternoon sessions, I drove the car without the ducting. I did not notice any significant differences in performance, but I also did not have time to do back to back tests. www.R300.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knowley Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 Seems the box does work to some degree, i.e. the maximum Exhaust side noise is reduced by 3dB... But it doesn't seem like much, would doing noise tests whilst stationary on the rolling road be a good idea? I suppose the noise of the rollers is going to be a problem though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Area Representative bluenose Posted April 10, 2006 Area Representative Share Posted April 10, 2006 It sounds like the box will need to be fitted permanently to the car as it is not a simple case of swopping it over with the foam filter each time you go on a track day. I for one do not want to start bending plates and removing throttle cables each time. Personally I think that if the performance is as good/better than the foam filter then I would see no need to use the foam filter again unless I was selling the car back to Caterham. As far as noise is concerned I was always under the impression that these type of air boxes would help reduce induction noise so someone must have noticed this before? Surely it would not make it worse? Noise testing sounds(pun) very hit and miss, what with temperature, wind, moisture etc so I think a circuit needs visiting where the standard Caterham RX00 has consistantly failed, on a day when it is failing to see if it would now scrap through with an airbox fitted. (Goodwood?) Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankyknuckles Posted April 10, 2006 Author Share Posted April 10, 2006 I'm going to Bedford on Friday. I could start the day with standard filet, see if I get warned, if I do, I can then add the box and ducting (and show them at Bedford that I am making an effort to reduce noise) and then see if I get warned again? www.R300.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petrolhead Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 Keep up the good work and thanks NE7Club Web Site R5 no 65 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leadership Team SLR No.77 Posted April 10, 2006 Leadership Team Share Posted April 10, 2006 Seems the box does work to some degree, i.e. the maximum Exhaust side noise is reduced by 3dB... Noise measurement is logarithmic, not linear, and as such doubles with every 3 dB increase - enough said Stu. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petrolhead Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 Valid point NE7Club Web Site R5 no 65 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankyknuckles Posted April 15, 2006 Author Share Posted April 15, 2006 I was black flagged at Bedford Just to remind everyone that the testing of this product has been done on an R300 fitted with a large R500 (7 inch I think) silencer. After the briefing in the morning I decided that because of the noise rules (2 strikes and your out) I would drive with the airbox installed all day. So before I went out I also fitted the cold air feed pipe to the airbox to try and reduce noise levels to a minimum. The morning weather conditions were cold, windy and slightly overcast but the cloud level was high. I drove all morning with no issues at all. Wingnut also drove my car so I had the chance to listen to the noise levels as the car drove past the pit corner. For those that know Bedford, you know that it is an almost flat out corner in 4th. Mike was also at Bedford in his Duratec so again I could compare noise levels. Considering the Mikes exhaust is on the drivers side, his car was much noisier than mine and indeed, Mike was warned very early on in the day. The noise levels coming from my car were alot quieter than Mikes and also alot quieter than most of the Elises that were driving that day. Also, observing my car around the circuit (far as far as i could see it from the pit wall), there was a noticeable noise difference (mine being very quiet) compared to all the other cars. However, after lunch I was black flagged on my first session for noise. Before I went on track, I had a static noise test which I noted as 86db, very quiet indeed (I passed the static test in the morning with a cold engine, but I did not record the noise reading, so I though it worthwhile doing after lunch with a warm engine). When I arrived in the pits, the marshal told me that I was 0.2db over the drive by noise limit. If I remember the numbers correctly, the limit is 87.6db and I was 87.8db. The Marshal would not tell me which noise meter I triggered, but he did hint that it 'could have been' under hard excelleration away from a hairpin bend, so I can only imagine that it was after the first hairpin. Why did I trigger it in the afternoon and not in the morning? Good question. The weather conditions in the afternoon were much improved from the morning, it was alot warmer, less windy, little cloud etc, so one would have thought that the noise conditions were better. But, I am gradually getting the hang of 'heel and toe', so I was using 2nd gear alot more in the slower corners. My guess is that it was hard acceleration in 2nd away from the hairpin (and possibly overtaking another car which would have taken me closer the the noise meter) that gave me the problem. It is worth noting that the noise meter is on the exhaust side of the car at this location. For the rest of the day I did not use 2nd gear and I had no more issues. All in all, I had a fantastic day at Bedford What concerns me is that I 'only' have an R300 and I still triggered the noise meter. I'm not convinced that the airbox is providing significant noise level reductions. For all those people interested in the airbox that have more than 160bhp, I am not at all convinced that the airbox will provide sufficient noise attenuation. This of course, is simply my opinion based on not very scientific fact, but more on practical observations. The next thing we have to do is get the airbox on the rollers to see if it is restrictive. Driving my car with the airbox installed does not appear to make the car restrictive, but I think something like this can only be tested on the rollers. Would I buy the airbiox? Probably yes. For the cost it is probably worth it for those times that I visit Bedford, something I would like to do often because it is such a good circuit and the airbox kept me safe for most of the day. But like I say, it only just did it on an R300, I'm not sure if it would have done the same on R4 and R500's. Simon, I need your address to post the airbox back to you. www.R300.net Edited by - frankyknuckles on 15 Apr 2006 07:43:42 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSL Posted April 15, 2006 Share Posted April 15, 2006 My Caterham supplied carbon airbox did the trick last time I was there along with a large 7in exhaust ,(R400) not one warning or comment all day & it was very cold that particular day. But as for that load of pony about giving you more power, definatley not in my experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Plato Posted April 15, 2006 Share Posted April 15, 2006 Just a thought but 87.8db is pretty quiet by any standards, but maybe the noise of the R300 is pretty low anyway ?. Maybe greater noise reduction could be made with it fitted to a R400 / 500 May I suggest a repeat of the tests - drive by, with and without airbox ,at the forthcoming Llandow trackday on 29th April with a r400 or 500 - there are a few there including Simon Rogers and Mark Durrant . Simon and I also have noise meters . Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankyknuckles Posted April 15, 2006 Author Share Posted April 15, 2006 Good idea. When Simon gets in touch, I will post the airbox back to him for further testing. www.R300.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankyknuckles Posted April 18, 2006 Author Share Posted April 18, 2006 Does anyone else have any comments on this testing? www.R300.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankyknuckles Posted April 18, 2006 Author Share Posted April 18, 2006 A reply from the European Sales Manager at Pipercross ============= Dave Many thanks for the update.... Sound testing is always difficult, we struggled to get conclusive test results, as they constantly altered... I cannot really see the kit NOT reducing sound.. due to the size of the intake... the only way to reduce the noise further would be to fit duel filters..as the Lotus 340 did O.E... But with this airbox we would not want to cause that extra restriction... SO you are still to test power are you? will be interested to see the results.. Please keep me informed and let me know if you have any ideas you would like me to look at. Regards James =============== www.R300.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noddy Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 Any chance of getting hold of "the" airbox to try on my car which has Freestyle inboard front suspension, I would like to see if it will fit R400 .......... I love it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankyknuckles Posted April 21, 2006 Author Share Posted April 21, 2006 Simon curently has it. He will be power run testing it on Monday and then noise testing it at Llandow with Dave Jackson + others. After that, it is yours. But at that time, we will have to make a decision on the group buy. I need lots of feedback (on this thread, not via email) if all the interested parties are still interested given the testing we have done so far www.R300.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leadership Team SLR No.77 Posted April 21, 2006 Leadership Team Share Posted April 21, 2006 Still interested Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milo Posted April 22, 2006 Share Posted April 22, 2006 Still interested Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnM Posted April 23, 2006 Share Posted April 23, 2006 You can still count me in too Never too old...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian M Posted April 23, 2006 Share Posted April 23, 2006 Me too, still interested Ade Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D6VEC Posted April 24, 2006 Share Posted April 24, 2006 Yes Franky - still interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Smith Posted April 24, 2006 Share Posted April 24, 2006 Franky, Still interested! Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NigelJ Posted April 24, 2006 Share Posted April 24, 2006 Hi Franky Yes, still interested Cheers NigelJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rj Posted April 24, 2006 Share Posted April 24, 2006 I'm not just interested. I'm getting sort of desperate to get one! /r Growing old is mandatory - Growing up is optional Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now