Yesterday we gathered some data which indicates we need to tweak the ECU map a bit. The cabin we’re staying at is rustic so we can’t do much mechanical work here, but electronics/software is fair game. After waiting out the hottest part of the day, and the subsequent hailstorm, we opened up the trailer and got the tweaks done. Didn’t take long and we were all set for today’s testing.
The pit space at Glen Cove is crowded but the officials did a good job of directing everyone and making it work. Overall so far the whole race week experience is proving to be more streamlined and efficient than in years past – many thanks to the organizers and volunteers who make it happen!
Just the routine preflight checks and we’re ready to go.
This time we’re pitted next to the Enviate Hypercar. It’s a many-year project by Cody Loveland and the amount of work, effort and overcoming challenges/setbacks it took his team to be there is in many ways similar to our own. The Enviate also features our GTC uprights.
Even though they are direct competitors, I can’t help but hope they do well. Of course I hope we’ll do even better 🙂 The Mountain will be the ultimate judge.
Our goal today was mostly to verify and adjust the ECU map, tweak the shifting a bit, and get Rodney re-acquainted with this section of the course. We’re running on the DOT Hoosier A7 tires which take a while to warm up, but ultimate times are not the priority today. Even so we end up doing pretty well versus all the other cars running today. Last I looked we were 4th fastest, although that may have changed during the last run which we didn’t take. Today’s goals accomplished.
One thing we kind of expected to fail here is the center torque splitter that directs power to the front wheels. We’ve gone through three generations of the design but this car still had gen 2 part in it. So we brought a spare. After the last run Rodney said the tail was loose under power, a sure sign that the car is now RWD. Checking it before we pack up – yep, we’ll need to swap in the new one. So that’s what we’re doing today.
We’ve been assisting David with troubleshooting the D2 shifting issues and now have more data and more things to try. Despite the issues he managed to post some decent times as well, so overall it’s encouraging though we have work to do.
Tomorrow we’re on the top section again for the last test day.