Ron Earp
Admin
This past weekend the team finished up some T70 testing at VIR. Jeff G and I had made a fairly large array of changes to the car over the last few weeks and we were anxious to see the fruits of our labors. We performed many alterations that involved sway bar, end links, ride height, brake bias, spring rates, alignment, and some other items. Our car ran flawlessly throughout the day although start up in the morning revealed that our smoke pump only had one case screw holding it together. We were able to scavenge screws from another unit and button it all back up.
According to our test driver (Jeff Young, club day at VIR) feedback the continued development paid off handsomely. We had four sessions on track and continued to get good feedback from the driver while at the same time altering the driver’s habits to match the car. None of the test sessions were driven at 100%, instead we worked on certain techniques and corners throughout the day to evaluate various aspects of the car. In short the car is much improved over our outing last year at CMP. It seems to be predictible and was pronouced “raceable” – a big step forward! Now we have to work on sorting fine details of driver comfort, developing speed in the driver, and continuing to ensure the car behaves reliably.
Here are a couple of in car laps from VIR. The best we managed was around a 2:13 or so, but again, we’re not at a max effort. For example the Traqmate data showed we’re developing 122 mph in the uphill esses but backing off to 85 mph for T10 since T10 wasn’t a corner we were working on. This occurs in other areas of the track as well so we feel that a 2:13 is quite respectable, given only about 235 hp at the wheel and 2340 lbs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM0mqq5I_Lw&feature=mh_lolz&list=HL1311087366
<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OM0mqq5I_Lw" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" width="425"></iframe>
Oh, we did learn a little about our fuel endurance and we might have overshot our target if the data is correct. Two tests have shown we get about 0.7 hours of run time from five gallons of fuel at the moderate driving level we’re at now. If that is correct then it seems possible that the car could run for a bit longer than 2.7 hours on a fuel load. That is certainly longer than our two hour target, however I imagine that endurance time will shrink considerably with harder driving. On the other hand, running 2:13s with 2.5 hour driver stints could be a car which would be hard to beat. Fuel stops in the 13 Hour are a time killer and the high horsepower cars that are in every hour, or less, really suffer.
All in all a great test day and we’re looking forward to the UTCC this Friday. We’re treating that as a test day too and I will have some sessions behind the wheel then.
According to our test driver (Jeff Young, club day at VIR) feedback the continued development paid off handsomely. We had four sessions on track and continued to get good feedback from the driver while at the same time altering the driver’s habits to match the car. None of the test sessions were driven at 100%, instead we worked on certain techniques and corners throughout the day to evaluate various aspects of the car. In short the car is much improved over our outing last year at CMP. It seems to be predictible and was pronouced “raceable” – a big step forward! Now we have to work on sorting fine details of driver comfort, developing speed in the driver, and continuing to ensure the car behaves reliably.
Here are a couple of in car laps from VIR. The best we managed was around a 2:13 or so, but again, we’re not at a max effort. For example the Traqmate data showed we’re developing 122 mph in the uphill esses but backing off to 85 mph for T10 since T10 wasn’t a corner we were working on. This occurs in other areas of the track as well so we feel that a 2:13 is quite respectable, given only about 235 hp at the wheel and 2340 lbs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM0mqq5I_Lw&feature=mh_lolz&list=HL1311087366
<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OM0mqq5I_Lw" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" width="425"></iframe>
Oh, we did learn a little about our fuel endurance and we might have overshot our target if the data is correct. Two tests have shown we get about 0.7 hours of run time from five gallons of fuel at the moderate driving level we’re at now. If that is correct then it seems possible that the car could run for a bit longer than 2.7 hours on a fuel load. That is certainly longer than our two hour target, however I imagine that endurance time will shrink considerably with harder driving. On the other hand, running 2:13s with 2.5 hour driver stints could be a car which would be hard to beat. Fuel stops in the 13 Hour are a time killer and the high horsepower cars that are in every hour, or less, really suffer.
All in all a great test day and we’re looking forward to the UTCC this Friday. We’re treating that as a test day too and I will have some sessions behind the wheel then.