New (to me) RS bodied SR8: Stack dash questions
I just bought a 2009 SR8 and got it home last night. It solves my gearbox issues in an over-the-top way, lol. The car has a Stack dash setup, and I want to review the wiring/harness/sensor setup. So I have some questions: 🙂
- How does one remove the panel to access the dash wiring? I see some rubber plugs... are there screws underneath?
- Nicki Schumann mentioned that Radical had helped him connect his similar system to the Life ECU via CAN to remove all the duplicate sensors and harness. I can try to get help from SMR or Radical, but I thought I'd ask here first.
- In general, is there someone who is familiar with Stack instrumentation? I'd like to replace the existing the IR lap beacon with a GPS sensor. Not sure if that's supported.
Congratulations on the new car! Stack still sells these so you can get the manuals and diagrams directly from them. Regarding removing the dash, I believe they are installed the same way the Aim dashes are with rubber isolators between the brackets and the dash. I tried removing my Aim dash from the brackets, but found it was much easier to remove the brackets from the carbon dashboard in the car. You have to be a bit of a contortionist to get to the fasteners behind the carbon dashboard, but it is the easiest way I have found.
Thanks Charley -- I know a Stack dealer here in Florida. I guess I'll give him a call tomorrow.
From the local Stack dealer:
I’m going to guess that you have one of Eric Vasian’s old cars from Radical South in Atlanta. He was a Stack dealer for a while and most of his cars got this package.
A picture of the back of the ECU:
Seems like a factory Stack setup. I'm hopeful the dash is connected to the ECU via CAN-bus. I don't see any duplicate sensors on the engine.
Yes, it looks like your stack system is tied into your CAN-bus to me. For reference this is what the sticker on my SR3 ECU looked like.
Thanks Charley. That's good information. Also, the wiring on this car looks pristine. I think I'm going to leave the driver's seating position alone -- no need to start ripping into the wiring. I'm working on a GPS solution for the dash, and am going to see if I can get the advanced video recording system in the car working.
The body panels are in excellent condition (a bit dirty -- it's obvious the car hasn't been on track in a long time) There are two sets of slicks with less than 10 heat cycles apiece on them (based on tally marks on the sidewalls), and some never-used wets and intermediates. The big bonus is 6 Van Diemen OZ Racing wheels and never-used tires, and two password protected laptop computers. 🙂
The only disappointment is that (as we suspected) the rotors are 280mm. The good news there is that there is enough pad for at least one track event, and the car came with a box of new pads. So I'm hopeful I can get a year's worth of wear out of the 280mm rotors before having to make a decision about upgrading.
It is great to hear that the car is working out well. I think you got an amazing deal on that car. It's hard to tell in the pictures, does the second nose have headlights? Also, you mentioned that the car came with 6 extra wheels, I thought there were 8?
Regarding the Stack dash... did you see that they have many manuals available on their website? http://www.stackltd.com/support3.html This should be helpful for getting the video going.
Have the tiger stripes grown on you yet? 😉
Congrats on the purchase John!
The Life ECU will do both a datastream for AIM and Stack so I would like to think that the Stack is receiving a CAN stream from the ECU to suit the stack.
I've got a good contact for Stack -- Creative Motorsports Solutions right here on the east coast of Florida. Colin from there has already sent me software upgrades, links to the right manuals, and confirmed all of the equipment. James at Radical confirmed this morning that it's a factory install. The video is PAL, so I'll only be able to use it on a computer, but that's fine.
Once I have a Stack data cable (they use a bespoke design) I'll know more. But I think I'm going to leave all the instrumentation be, and learn to drive the car from the right side. How hard can it be? 🙂
Dan, thanks! I'm hoping this will be a more mainstream supportable car. I'm leaning to making my '07 a spares car... or maybe try my hand at converting it to Honda or Subaru power or something... the MoTeC ECU in it can support any engine I can dream of.
Charley, I go back and forth on the tiger stripes. The orange part is just a vinyl decal, and comes off easily. I'm afraid that the gelcoat underneath will be a slightly different color, so it will just look "mottled" if I pull them off. So... I'll decide later. 🙂
Oh: the 6 VD wheels are for an FE (Formula Enterprise) car. Know anybody interested in them?
Well Honda and Subaru engines have been installed into these chassis but apparently it didn't make them better cars. The SR5 had a Honda engine but only about 24 were ever built. It seems like it would be a great combination, but apparently the didn't handle as well as an SR3 or 8. Chassis number 193 was converted to a Subaru engine. Here is a link to some information on that car. https://radicalsportscarregistry.com/sr3-chassis-number-193/
Wow that Subaru swap looks difficult.
300 lbs added to the curb weight...
All that turbo torque will blow up the SR8 gearbox...
I need to look at the SR5 more carefully to see about a Honda swap.
I like the Honda swap a lot more. Much lower torque, slightly less horsepower, far less expensive. I could re-use the existing (and broken 🙂 ) Quaife gearbox with a Honda K20/K24 swap. I see engines in the 280-300hp range in the $12-15k range with a dry sump.
But even a K20 will add 150-200 lbs to the car's weight. Clearly, it will be slower than an SR8, and probably slower than an SR3. The gain is a longer engine life, and tons of support all over the US. So I don't know... For now, I'm trying to figure out the oil leak on the new car.
speaking of stack , anyone know how to operate this ?? Or know where I can buy a lead to connect to it ?
My Stack guy was super helpful for several days, but hasn't returned any recent emails or calls.
That stuff is now a decade old -- and you transfer the video data using an SD card. Try opening the back and see if there's a card in it.
I think I'm going to switch my Stack gear over to an AiM setup. Anybody know of a used setup (like an AiM MXL Pista) ?