Picture from today:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v2...rrent=4269.jpg

 

 

Nice pics!

I see you found a way around the grill bogey by going aftermarket.

How is the test progressing, are you meeting the program goals?

 

[quote=astrochex;1963716]

I see you found a way around the grill bogey by going aftermarket.

quote]

P/N 51110140255. It's a factory part ! All legal -and lighter!

 

No 198 car in the 2nd practice results???

The Subarus are fast again this year.

Lots of VWs showed up too.

 

Happy New Year to the RST team and crew!

Best of luck with the testing and the whole, entire season! I will see you at Lime Rock, if not before.

 

Excellent, thanks for the correction. I had no idea.

 

Great to see you guy's back! Have the testing results been positve so far?

 

[QUOTE=J Propane;1964014]There is a lower aero grill, too!

 

Saturday pics:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v2...rday/?start=40

 

Alain, you driving down there?

No sign of RJ Valentine's M3 GTR? Heard he was going to campaign that in GA this season

 

We turned a 2:13+ in the #198. The fastest ST class speed is 2:10+ by one of the Subaru's.

Not bad, when you consider the aerodynamic disadvantage. Plus, the engine is new and only has 150 miles on it. We have been short shifting and avoiding the hard downshifts.

We are currently 5 seconds faster than our BEST time last year. Progress is being made . . . .

The #197 is our 'practice car' for this test. We are using it for seat time and lapping. It did a 2:16+ today.

We are doing the set up and real testing in the #198. When the race comes later in the month all the engine and setup data will be applied to both cars.

I will give a more detailed update later.

Randy

ps: Alain, Thanks for posting the pictures !

 

Greg, the only thing I'm driving right now is my mouse. Sounds familiar?

Randy, great results. I'd call that significant progress!

Alain L.

 

Oh yea, I'd say peddling the car and your 5 seconds quicker than last years best time is REAL improvement! Where on the car do you feel you are paying the biggest aero penalty?

 

MINIMARKS,

I don't want to answer on behalf of Randy, but I thought I could help by posting this simple illustration, based on our own experience. After all, an image is worth a thousand words :

 

Oh man Alain, ....
Hey, is your car all fixed and ready to race in the spring? Better be, with a post like that.

 

Just a few observations on the weekend.

After popping the engine on the #198 on lap two of the first session, we found ourselves working around that situation for the rest of the weekend. In short, Tim and Randy had to change the game plan to work around this setback yet great strides were made despite this early surprise. The real upside of all this is that even when RSR is thrown a curve ball it still finds a way to work through the problem and make big gains. I can only think of "what may have been" if we had a chance to test the full agenda of items scheduled to test. Running a 2:13+ with a virgin motor in the 198 and a 2:15+ in the 197 with an old motor is very good indeed.

Minimarks - With regard to aero, I gained 4-5 mph in the tri-oval when towed by an RX-8 through NASCAR 3 and 4 and 4 mph gain on the back staight.

Daytona should be a good run, I can't wait to get back to the track.

Mark

 

Me Too!!

 

As Mark mentioned above, we broke an engine in the 198 on lap two of the 1st session. Like the good 'Boy Scouts' that we are (always prepared!), we installed the spare and were ready to go Saturday morning, missing only the Friday afternoon session.

We were puzzled by the failure. It appears we had a part failure. We think a rod broke. There was nothing in the oil, no bearing material, no nothing!. Just a dent in the bottom of the pan. The Data showed full oil pressure, normal engine temps, no over-rev right up to the failure. The engine had 4 hours of dyno time and still had the break-in oil for the that session. All the parts passed magnaflux testing during assembly.

We chalk the failure up to bad luck. Better now than later in the month. We will tear it down in the next few days and see what happened.

Anyway . . . The real problem was the lost test time. We had an extensive agenda of items to sort out. We still got 90% of them done so we are very happy. The plan was to use the 197 as a driver and the 198 as a test platform.

We effectively lost 3 sessions in the 198 . . . session 1 = engine failure . . . session 2 = new engine install . . . session 3 = break in new engine . . . session 4-6 = actual testing.

The 197 performed flawlessly and ran about 500 miles at racing speed in the 3 days.

- We sorted out the high speed suspension setup.
- We successfully tested the new front grills after the Grand Am induced disaster at VIR.
- We verified the engine tuning.
- We made some valuable updates to the "AIM' dash data system.
- We tested and confirmed the updated JCW brake system.
- We all gained valuable seat time on the newly paved Daytona infield.
- We got an upclose and personal look at the 2008 competition.
- Both cars passed tech and were verified by Grand Am for 2008.
- We trained some new crew who will be with us in '08.

All in all, a good weekend. It was an expensive trip, but worth the effort. When we arrive at Daytona later this month, we will be be ready to go and can focus on racing!

Looking forward to seeing many of you again at the track. Please come out and show your support.

Randy

 

Hate you lost the testing time, but it sounds like things were going well until the motor broke... As for the brick, I was just trying to think of how one might help the brick be a little cleaner. A few years back, they did a closed course top speed competition and the NASCAR Monte Carlo with Tim Richmond beat out all others with a (as describe) very aerodynamic brick at a top speed of 240MPH. Good luck guy's, I look forward to the season!

 

This was good! Creative and funny!!

 

Are the holes for weight reduction???

 

This is a picture of Mark on the Tri-oval with the aero package that was such an advantage at Daytona. Mark used this advantage to record the 1st sub 2:16 lap for the team.

Grand Am turned down our request for the JCW rear spoiler fearing we might outrun the pelicans who are migrating west at this time of the year.. . . go figure.

Randy

 

I like yours better. May be I should be migrating south...

As Greg was mentioning, too much time on my hands this time of the year. Must be the winter time blues.....or withdrawal syndrome.

Great job (as usual) by the way. Can't wait to see you guys at a track that will favor the car.

Alain