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| Corvette Racing Pre-Sebring Report | |
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|  | | March 01 2008 11:53:50 AM EST | |
| Here's the heads-up from the Team as they gear-up for Sebring.
* THE CARS - 2 new racecars; chassis #007 / #008. Car specs are the same as the 2007’s [eg- don’t mess with optimal design, if no need].
* THE A/C - A sharp-eyed reader already caught the A/C condenser move to the nose. Godug explained the benefits of airflow, air volume, more coil exposure to the air, more thermal efficiency. All we heard was, “It’s working better”. BTW- no change in overall weight or distribution.
* THE TIRES - Michelin's cooked up the next gen of tire [same traction, more durability, less rolling resistance] and that begat a festival of suspension set-up recalibrations to, again, hit the optimal. Between the Sebring test and the P&M HAL 9000 supercomputer simulations, all is good.
"...Just what do you think you're doing, Doug?"
* THE FUEL - Those new E85 stickers speak to other adjustments. The ALMS ethanol brew has the same power punch as pre-global warming race fuel, but is less efficient. So, to compensate the car carries a bigger 105L tank [vs 90] and the refill fuel hose flows faster. Both are to equalize E85 cars vs gas cars [eg- distance per tankful and pitstop times]. Katech has rejigged engine mgt. calibrations. But, we continue to be assured - no detriment to team performance, no negative to Le Mans prep [not running E85 there].
* THE FIX - No Cylinder Dropout System in 2008 [see Le Mans ‘08 for reasons why].
THE BOTTOM-LINE - 2008 ALMS competition will be seeing a lot of the new BlackTail paint scheme. At Le Mans, the challenge stays the same - Overcome rules that give the Astons more HP and, as such, more top speed while the C6R's hold advantages in braking, cornering speeds, acceleration.
Stay tuned @ BBV for our ‘behind-the-scenes’ live cam reports from the Sebring kick-off. |
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