Clubsport Specs: Dive Planes, Splitters, Kylie Flaps...

[nick997]

Following on from an earlier thread I'm getting more and more interested in swapping my 997 for a Radical with the aim of going racing once up to speed on some track days. As you guys rightly pointed out, a Clubsport will give the same amount of fun as some of the more modern cars at much lower cost. So my next questions are about Clubsport specs if anybody can shed some light.

I think I am right that they were built between around 97 and 2003, were there many changes in spec in that time? Any must have options? Am I right in thinking that all cars used the ZZR1100 engine? What's the difference between a Prosport and a Clubsport beyond the 1300 busa engine? I've read of quite a few people replacing clubsport bodywork with prosport, is this legal in 750MC bikesports?

I've seen dive planes, splitters, diffusers all mentioned, seemingly some of which are interchangeable options, is this correct? I'm ok with splitters (horizontal-ish board at the front to separate airflow beneath the car) and diffusers (upward sloping plane at the rear to take airflow from beneath the car) but what do dive planes do? Can anybody give a basic description of the aero set up of a clubsport?

A kylie flap, and I kid you not, was a name given to some of the aero appendages of one of the F3000 cars from the early 90's - a Reynard I think. Presumably they came in pairs. I'm not sure if you could also get danni flaps but I imagine they would be larger. Perhaps that's just me though...

Nick

[jpivey]

Nick
I like the sound of this your 997 for my clubsport one of us would have had a great deal.
The spec on the clubsport did change abit over the years to start with the chassis was altered very slighty i think they added a couple more bits of box section here and there and moved the angle of the two bars that connect to the main roll hoop.
Other changes added the flat slide carbs, undertray, dry sump system, light weight wheels, vented front discs, there might have been some smaller changes anyone else help with these.

Difference between club-prosport chassis is the same, hayabusa engine, center lock wheels that are slighty wider than clubsport,koni shocks well thats the only difference i can see between my club and prosport and of course the wings rear wing front splitter is longer on prosport and the dive planes are bolted onto front end just below where the lights should be, all to add more downforce. I haven't driven my prosport yet will have to wait and see what the difference is, i imagine Robc will add some info to this he started with a clubsport then added wings.
You could race in the bikesports but you would have to run in class A or B cant remember which, if you fitted the wings, Class D is for clubsports.

[nick997]

An interesting offer JP, presumably it includes enclosed trailer and brand new 6 berth Hymer with it? Shame you are selling your car now, just a bit early for me as I ideally want to go to a race meeting before jumping in head first. Fancy taking it off pistonheads and all the other sites and leaving it for me to buy in a few months time?? Surprised to see that it is still for sale actually, I was under the impression that Radical's don't generally hang around too long.

Thanks for your comments on car spec's, I understand what dive planes are now. Be interesting to hear from RobC, he seems particularly knowledgeable on these cars.

Nick

[RobC]

Looks like J-P has covered most of it. The only thing I think of is the Prosport came with 4 pot calipers front and rear. Most Clubsports have been upgraded to 4 pots on the front and 2 pots on the rear. The chassis rear sections did change and a bar was removed which increased the flex in the chassis ... don't know the reason behind this. I also thought that the Prosport came with Nik Link front and rear, however I've recently seen ProSports with Nik-Link on the front only.....so that blew that theory out the window

As for aero, never heard of Kylie flaps (sounds like a blue movie title of a certain Australian singer ) The standard clubsport came with a low down force splitter but I've not seen a car with one of these for a while, most are running the Prosport version which has "kick ups" at side of the splitter. There is now a extra high downforce splitter which is wider. Dive planes are as J-P described, some have flaps on the side to channel the air, I understand these are only really any good on lower speed corners. Personally I don't run them, but then I race at Castle Combe which doesn't contain any slow corners...just scary ones! At the rear of the Clubsport is a Gurney flap which provides modest downfoce but nothing near what a proper wing provides. The Prosport has the proper wing and no gurney flap, you can buy all sorts of different styles some provide high downforce at the expense of high drag thus need a punchy motor to use them. Others have lower downforce and inturn less drag so the engine has a easier time but you loose some ultimate grip on the fast corners. As you can see aerodynamics is a big subject and it takes a lot of testing to see different benefits which is one reason why a lot of people stick to what Radical have done.

Dunno if any of that helps....went into a bit of a ramble

This is my Clubsport with Prosport aero fitted (although not a Radical wing). At the front the yellow bits are the dive planes (just below light covers) and splitter (right at the front along the bottom of the clam). It also has side skirts along the side pods (yellow again) and then at the back the wing.



Keep firing the questions and we'll try to answer them. If you have a spare day have a read of my site as there is a fair bit of info on there. www.mtcracing.co.uk

[jpivey]

Well nick i could add a trailer to the deal and believe it or not do have a motorhome its not a six berth and its not new.