7L V8 Porsche, How Formula 1 Wiring Is Tested and More | Today At HPA 217 [UPDATE]

Here’s Andres update that came right before your members-only webinar lesson ‘217 | Idle Tuning HP Tuners - GM/HP Tuners’ using our LS2 Powered Holden VE Commodore (aka Pontiac G8). Details on membership below.

V8 PORSCHE: We don’t take in cars to tune very often due to filming and time constraints, however this particular car piqued Andres interest. This 996 GT3 Cup car is being used for a local endurance series, and recently had a problematic twin turbo Porsche engine binned in favour of a 7L GM LS7 V8 from Mast Motorsports along with a Hollinger 6 speed sequential transaxle gearbox which all produces over 600HP to the hubs with the help of a MoTeC M150 ECU.

F1 WIRING: Right off the bat Andre dives into a little more detail behind a recent Instagram post (@HPA101) that displayed part of a test, or demo harness from our trip to Renvale Ltd in the UK. While you might not have heard of Renvale, you will have heard of Formula 1. The link here is that Renvale produces the looms for every Formula 1 team on the grid other than Williams who try to produce as much as possible in house. As some wiring posts often do, this copped a little heat for missing the Kapton tape that is usually there, and also because all the wiring are a single colour. For the Kapton tape, this is a display piece, it was deliberately not fitted so there are no dramas there. For the single colour usage a lot of people raised the issue around repairing a loom constructed like this. Andre outlines the lifespan of looms like this, along with the rigorous testing they receive before going out the door. This level of wiring is simply not comparable to OEM, street, or club class looms, nor are the budgets that pay for them and as such considerations and requirements are quite different.

HPA TRACK DAY: We get a quick update on the Black 86 (we really need some more creative names) which has had a modified 1UZ fitted for sometime, along with a GTO 6 speed sequential more recently. Since the gearbox fitment we have has some issues with the loom due to what we can only assume was damaged by the fabricator who fitted the box in. Life happens, and while it took us a while due to schedules and also the Goodwood trip, our main man Brandon here has affected a repair. Unfortunately when we hit the track to test another issue cropped up, but as the weather was also horrendous on the day it really wasn’t too upsetting and the STi managed a few laps instead to make the most of the day its AWD system in the wet.

DYNO TUNING: Lastly Andre gives us a good run down on we use a Mainline eddy current dyno instead of an inertia dyno, and how outside of drag racing steady state tuning is of huge importance. You’ll visually see how WOT covers only a very small portion of your map.

VIDEO RELEASE: If you haven’t seen it, make sure you check out one of the latest Formula 1 based releases titled “How To MODERNIZE A Formula 1 Car? | Williams 650HP NA V10 FW19 [TECH TALK]” This interview touched on how to dyno tune an F1 car along with what goes into keeping these cars from being more than non-running museum pieces and what updates and changes are required for this. Link below.

WEBINAR INFO: One of the areas we see a lot of people struggle with when reflashing GM vehicles is with the idle performance. This is particularly an issue if you’re planning to fit a large cam. We’ve seen many tuners use workarounds such as drilling holes through the throttle butterfly but in this webinar we’ll show you how to address the tuning correctly all within the software.

Want to watch the members-only webinar on idle tuning along with over 200 other lessons on engine building, tuning, and wiring topics? Sign up here for only $19 USD a month, start and stop at any time (unlike your gym membership!).