Rumors & Gossip
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Notes:
April, 1999 Were not racing Spec Racers any more, so were kind of out of the loop. I refer you to Mike Steeles Page (http://www.specracer.com/) for the latest SRF skinny. |
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The Next Thing For the 1999 season, the Mumm Brothers team will be campaigning in SCCAs World Challenge Series. Well be running Mercury Cougars. Nice looking cars!
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Notes: August, 1998 From the Pro Race at Watkins Glen. Substantive Stuff |
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Notes:
August, 1998 From the Pro Race at Pikes Peak. Substantive Stuff |
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Notes: June 26-28, 1998 From the June Sprints at Road America. Substantive Stuff: During
post-qualifying inspections, a high-buck Snap-On exhaust emissions analyzer was used to
sniff the exhausts of most of the field. Naturally, our car was one of
the few that didnt fall into a common emission range (high idle CO). We
started hunting down the reason. Heres what we found: |
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Notes: June
12-13, 1998 From the Pro Race at Mid-Ohio. Substantive Stuff: Thing #1:
Check the routing of your oil lines and battery cables. We had a DNF at Mid-Ohio
after the crankshaft pulley wore through one of the oil lines. DUMB on our
part...and expensive...no prize $ and a $100 Start-Lite hose shot. |
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Notes: May
16-17, 1998 From the Pro Race at Heartland Park Topeka. Substantive Stuff: The differences in setups on the BFGs between the front runners was amazing. Some guys had big camber, some small. Both seemed fast. Over time well figure out what is optimum. A couple of things seem clear, however. First, proper break-in seems pretty important. There is a big difference between scrubbed-in tires and new tires. Second, based on the total number of spins and sideways events by all the cars, the coefficient of friction vs. slip angle curve of the BFG is clearly steeper than the Yokohama. Referring to the graph on the right, if you imagine the curve of the Yokohama being the one labeled Street Tire and the BFG the one labeled Radial Race Tire youll get the picture. The only difference from the graph is that it appears that the Yokohama has slightly more overall total grip...that is that the Street Tire curve would be higher on the graph than the Radial Race Tire/BFG curve. The bottom line: when you go past the limit, its more likely you could save a Yokohama tired car...the value of precise driving has just gone up. |
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Gossip as
of May 10, 1998 Comments from test day at Blackhawk, May 2, 1998. Substantive Stuff: We didnt learn too much. Just scrubbing in BFGs in preparation for the first Pro Race at Heartland Park May 15th. Only interesting technical note was Jim Marinangels mysterious miss. The prior weekend Jim had replaced the voltage regulator on his alternator. Everything worked fine in the subsequent race. During qualifying this weekend, the car developed a terrible miss. After much chasing, the culprit was found to be that very same regulator. Lesson: Whatever you changed last is most likely the cause of any problem. |
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Rev. 2/8/99 |