The VIR Test Day was a success!<?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o
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Over the last few weeks we’ve had a lot of late nights putting the final touches on the RCR T70. It takes a crew to even get a race car to the track and many thanks go out to all the folks that worked to get the car ready: RCR’s crew (Fran, Donny, Scott), Jeffrey Roussel, Ed Palombo, Jeff Giordano, Jeff Young, Jeff Lengel, Dave Brown, Rex and Zack from Happy Japs, and a few others – thanks for all the hard work. Getting these two items for a car are not particularly easy but now that we’ve got the logbooks we can campaign the car where we see fit.
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>We went into the VIR test day with a few known issues and we weren’t even sure that we’d get any real running on the car at all. There are only so many hours in each day and there is never enough time to get a car completely sorted. Besides, this is the first time the car had been driven anywhere and we wanted to go race the car, not just drive it!
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>As it turned out we made the first session and I was able to take the car out for the first lap on track. No failures or problems of any sort but we were able to identify a number of things we had to correct:<o
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*Cooling problems – we were too cool as a result of replumbing and removal of tstat<o
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*Overfull gearbox – self correcting, in a way….<o
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*Minor toe/steering correction<o
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But, we made the first 30 min session with no huge problems. The initial driving impressions were good – even with a mere ~240hp engine the car has plenty of power. Shifting was very good with the 930 box although I think we need a numerically lower R&P instead of the 5.11 this box has. Grip level is very good as the car just doesn’t weigh anything. Shod with Hoosier DOT race tires, 275 rear / 225 front the grip is good. Straight line stability was not good due to the alignment but the general handling at the 30% effort level was promising.<o
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In the pits we worked on re-routing some cooling lines and re-installing the thermostat but due to timing we missed the second session for the day. We made some toe adjustments upfront and got thing more in like with what we wanted, around a 1/16” toe in. We also put the fueling system to the test and man is it awesome! Seriously, the fueling system RCR adapted for the car from NASCAR parts can really give us an edge up on the competition. We split the fueling into three five gallon pours so we could get used to how the procedure works. The first time we pushed the dry break into the male fitting on the car and did the pour it was simply amazing – Jeffrey and I didn’t even know it’d dumped the five gallons. Turns out it can put five gallons in the car in about six seconds with no spillage. Twenty four gallons (12 gallons per can) can be put in the car in about 30 seconds.<o
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Jeff Young drove the second session of the day and came back in with a big grin on his face – “that car is phenomenal”. He was able to drive it a little harder than my shakedown run and felt the car was doing well. Great power, good suspension, high potential but felt we needed to work on chassis setup if we were to have any chance of pushing the car hard for the test day. In some parts of the track handling was good, but in the uphill esses the handling was pretty tough to deal with at the speeds this car could achieve and maintain through that part of the track. We suspected that the Lola could maintain 120mph+ up through that section (we’re around 105 mph in the Z and TR8) but the steering feel was giving the comfort level we needed. We also has a cooling issue with large temperature swings so we suspected an improper bleed of the system. On the list of things to do:<o
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*Restrict cooling/bleed lines to lower pressure in certain areas of the system<o
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*Re-examine front suspension setup, make some changes, have a look at shock settings all around
Jeff coming out of Oak Tree, which was quite pretty in the fall foilage!
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I drove the next session and pushed the car much harder than in my shakedown run. Fantastic! Power was better now that we’d increased the rev limit to around 5600 RPM. Giving it the full boot out of Oak Tree had the car on the rev limiter in 4<SUP>th</SUP> gear a little before the rise on the back straight so it was clear we needed a bit more gearing to allow the car to stretch more at this track. I felt the steering was much better than in the previous session but felt the shock settings were now going in the correct direction as the uphill esse section of the track was really difficult to manage, beside which I was probably going slower than I might in my Z. I looped the car in turn four as I’d become maybe a little too comfortable with the rear grip. No damage done though. Got to love these brakes, very good.<o
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This car has huge potential though and when developed is going to be a seriously capable track weapon. And we can easily add more power……hmmm……. Back to testing. Learned a few things, shock settings need to be changed, the cooling issue seems to be solved however with the car being pushed harder the oil temp is getting on up there to a level that we are not too happy with, but there isn’t anything we can do about that on the test day.
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Pit work continued with some additional shock settings, using the tire temp/pressure data to alter suspension setup a bit, and going over car to make sure all is ok. Thus far everything has been fine and the car has been 100% functional which is a feat in itself. Anyone who has ever taken a car out on track for the first time knows how this story usually goes and I was very pleased that the car had not suffered any catestropic failure of any sort. <o
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Jeff Young gets the last session out for the day and as we’d discussed he’d drive it at maybe the 65% level or thereabouts. Car was working well but the turning and turn in were still not setup quite right to where we were comfortable and could drive it really fast, but that wasn’t the goal at this point. The goal was to go out, drive it a bit faster, and collect data. Again, driving impressions were very positive. We’re not driving the car but to maybe 65% of potential and it is still fast. Jeff run a comfortable 2:16 at VIR without pushing on the fast sweeping corners. He did push a little in one of them though and had a little whoops, but no damage done.
Jeff's One Lap On Youtube
YouTube - RCR T70 VIR Test Lap
Jeff's spin on Youtube (sorry Jeff!)
YouTube - Lola Spin Jeff - Spin at VIR Turn 10 on Shakedown testing
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So all in all a fantastic first outing for the car. I was very pleased with it, we see a lot of potential in the car and we just need to do the development work. Not suprisingly the team and I voted to not run the car in the 13 Hour race this year. We just don’t have enough development time in the car yet for it to be fast and we don’t have enough seat time with the drivers. We’ve got a few things to sort and I think if we pushed it we could run the race but, we would end up damaging the car, ourselves, or even worse yet another car/team. Not good. I feel that if I’d not gotten the flu two weeks ago and made the CMP test day we’d have been ok, but I can’t change the past. However, there is 2010 and the same team will be planning to enter next year.<o
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A final shot of the rear of the T70 – covered with track dirt, just the way a race car should be!
In short, great time and awesome car - we'll be doing some racing with it for sure!!
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