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February
2007
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2.21.07
 >>Acura
has just completed their preparation for Sebring with a 12 hour race simulation
carried out on Sebring's full 12-Hour circuit. All three Acura
teams were in attendance, Fernandez Racing, Andretti-Green Racing,
and Highcroft Racing. The test included simulated yellow flag situations
and was as close to actual race conditions as possible barring the other
competitors and 150,000 spectators, naturally. In the end the Fernandez
Racing Lola "won" the test, while trouble hit both the AGR and Highcroft
Courages. Acura will only say that the AGR Courage had a starter
motor fail 6 hours in but would later succumb to, "an undisclosed problem,"
at the 9 hour mark. And while there has been no official release
of the number of laps completed by the Lola, we are led to believe the
number was substantial, and on par with past Sebring race pace. |
 This
test was also the first shake down of the rebodied Acura-Courage.
Enlarging the image we can see a number of changes. The most interesting
is the highly developed splitter profile complete with foot plates at the
outer-most ends. The inlet located just under the nose (whatever
its actual function) has been covered over making for a more elegant shape. |
 But
wait, there's more! We also get a glimpse of the 2007 Lola
B07/40 update (again via an enlarged image, apologies). Ironically
Lola has gone the opposite route compared to the modified Courage (shown
above) in that they've opened up the area underneath the nose for the brake
ducts doing away with the previous iteration's inboard location.
The "Cyclops" auxiliary headlights are a '05 endurance spec item being
first run at Le Mans of that year. |
| 2.18.07
|
 >>Racecar
Engineering gives us a preview of their April issue's article on the
Epsilon LMP. A rather interesting read that gives lots of insight
into how current prototypes are being optimized to the 'nth' degree given
the much more restraining chassis regulations (not to mention the 900 lb
gorillas in Audi and Peugeot!). Epsilon designer John Travis has
gone to great lengths in designing every element to have as low a center
of gravity as practical, call it "lateral thinking." According to
Travis, "Having looked at simulations, we started to manipulate components
in the car and examine what small changes in the centre of gravity would
do for cornering performance...That has been our philosophy with every
single component - the fuel system, the damper layout, the gearbox - where
can I move it to get it lower?" The gearbox's lay shaft and main
shaft run parallel rather than on top of one another, the gearbox itself
is of composite construction, the rear dampers are located within the bellhousing
rather than on top of it, the disc calipers are rotated as low as practical
on the upright, etc. The tunnel program has been delayed but is due
to kick off shortly. Check out the full article in the April issue
of Racecar Engineering. |
>>Lost
amongst the slightly more significant news of Intersport Racing's purchase
of a Creation CA06/H to run in the American Le Mans Series is the update
on Creation's February 5th test at MIRA's full scale wind tunnel.
Ian Bickerton relays that they spent 10 hours in the tunnel working on
validation work on the "big wheel" Creation LMP. Recall that the
big wheel update will be new to this year and will be applied to both the
CA06/H and CA07 chassis. This entails replacing the "LMP 675" wide
tires with proper LMP1 rubber. The validation study was to (hopefully)
confirm that the wider tires weren't a aerodynamic detriment considering
they called for wider wheel arches, ultimately increasing the car's frontal
area to an extent. Ian indicates indeed the conversion was nearly
invisible, that they have the same level of drag and, "...maybe, a little
more down force," putting them in exactly where they want to be for
the sprint events. Creation also looked at Le Mans developments and
confirmed their previous conclusion, "We probably need to look at a new
rear wing configuration but, to be honest, we knew this last year."
Wing developments will essentially consist of finding an optimized position
for the current elements. KWM Motorsports and Creation's Chief Engineer,
Ian Smith, will analyze the data and head back to the wind tunnel towards
the end of the month.