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Just the opposite - it wasn't enough. Most cars get roll stiffness from their springs, but the layout of the Bezerkely meant that only the sway bar provided roll stiffness. So the sway bar had to be much bigger than you'd expect.
I need to go back and read the whole series.
There is more to this than everyone is discussing...
The biggest thing, is that the rule book changed. When we first thought this thing through, and don't take our beer references too seriously, as we were quite sober when we actually got this thing going. Heck, Denny doesn't even drink. We wanted to build a super cool, D Mod car. Half way through the build, everything changed, like the minimum weight allowed, and motorcycle engined cars were disallowed. That was a pretty major buzz-kill.
Second, Denny did an amazing job designing and building this thing, but like any project of this incredible magnitude, there is at least a year of sorting out. This is not a slam on Denny, just the realities of building race cars. Denny has a wife and and kids, sports things he has to attend to and a real job. He asked to be released from his shackles on this.
Per, Tom and I could have sorted this thing out and made a fun and safe car out of it. Magazine demands, coupled with lack of interest, both from the staff and the vast majority of readers made this seem impractical (given item 1. above, that there was now no place to competitively run it), so we decided after eight interesting parts, it was time to move on.
So, I gave the car to the only guy I know, twisted enough to take it and make it work. Since Per let this out of the bag, that person is my buddy Steve Ekerich, who helped me sort out the RoSpit. He has made great progress and said the thing was really close, it just needed a couple of months of fiddling. I asked Margie not to mention this for two reasons, sometime we like to surprise you people and mainly, now that it is not officially in magazine hands, we have no real control over when he gets it done and if we will get more magazine stories out of it.
That said, I talked to Steve yesterday and he says he is taking the nearly sorted beast to the Zentrum at BMW headquarters in SC for a big European show in a couple of weeks and readers in the NC area have already reported seeing it in that area at events. He has taken pictures of every step and I am committed to sit with him and write a follow up story when he is ready.
Don't be surprised if the finished car is in our booth at the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Okay, there is the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Per Schroeder wrote:The real cool part was the massive direction change when it would get on its cams. Which was followed by violent torque steer back the other way...and then back again the other way. It's about the only car I was ever unable to keep going in a straight line on a straight.
High power FWD + Torsen. Mine does this. It kinda sucks. I'm looking for a clutch LSD to help clean this up. Well, after I get a job. Job, then racecar parts. Gotta keep reminding myself of that order...
Tim Suddard wrote:...lack of interest from the vast majority of readers...
That's hard for me to understand. True, not everyone wants a bike powered FWD single seater, but it's the best fabricating you've had in the magazine in a decade. It amazes me that that doesn't get the juices flowing for people.
Yes, more interesting fabrication work. Oddball cars and interesting builds are what keeps me subscribing each year. I liked the Berzerkely though the Ro-Spit was my favorite by far.
We aren't talking direction changes measured in inches. We're talking car widths.
DILYSI Dave wrote:High power FWD + Torsen. Mine does this. It kinda sucks. I'm looking for a clutch LSD to help clean this up. Well, after I get a job. Job, then racecar parts. Gotta keep reminding myself of that order...
Per Schroeder wrote:We aren't talking direction changes measured in inches. We're talking car widths.
DILYSI Dave wrote:High power FWD + Torsen. Mine does this. It kinda sucks. I'm looking for a clutch LSD to help clean this up. Well, after I get a job. Job, then racecar parts. Gotta keep reminding myself of that order...
Whoa. That's insane.
It must be hard to gauge the level of interest by readers in a given project. Personally, I really liked the project. Perhaps we lurkers should be more vocal.
This project had drama: Outlandish idea. No guarantee of success. Not just installation instructions for a kit. Trial and error, trial and error ...
As some other magazine says, "Dare to be different!"
slantvaliant wrote:It must be hard to gauge the level of interest by readers in a given project. Personally, I really liked the project. Perhaps we lurkers should be more vocal.
This project had drama: Outlandish idea. No guarantee of success. Not just installation instructions for a kit. Trial and error, trial and error ...
As some other magazine says, "Dare to be different!"
Yep. It's the most interesting project to me in years. Oh well. I like the others too, I just love seeing fabrication, and the Berzerkley had it in droves.
slantvaliant wrote:It must be hard to gauge the level of interest by readers in a given project. Personally, I really liked the project. Perhaps we lurkers should be more vocal.
In the project cars section, you can vote for your favorites. It's not the be-all, end-all final word on which ones people like, but it is a way for you to say "Hey, I really dig this project", and it IS noted.
It was cool seeing it go from concept to reality. Sometimes reality isn't what you expect. Still, a great project and good magazine material!
Per Schroeder wrote:We aren't talking direction changes measured in inches. We're talking car widths.
Well you've only got yourselves to blame. You put the berzerk in berzerkley. It was only trying to live up to it's name.
The Berzwekley was my favorite GRM project car of all time. See the test fire of my scratch built lotus 7-like BEC here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyDaEirK6lI
there is nothing like designing and building your own car. period.
Kudos to the Berzerkley buid team.
Yep-I dug it! Keep us posted on the progress.
I was saddened to hear that it was going.
