GTM Test Day at Summit Point

Jan 7, 2005  Summit Point Raceway, West Virginia

Date:                January 7, 2005

Location:          Summit Point Raceway, WV

Attendees:        Jim Schenck, FFR Lead Development

                        Mike Pisani, FFR Engineering

                        Bryan Dobyns, BDM Racing

                        Dave Smith, FFR President

Test Sessions:   9:00 am to 5:00 PM Closed Track

Conditions:       45 degrees F, partial Cloudy, dry surface

Vehicles:           FFR Challenge Series Car #210

FFR Challenge Series Car #77

FFR Challenge Series Car #1

FFR Type 65 Coupe #65

FFR GTM Prototype #3 Chassis

Goals:  

1.      Test and determine final selection of new Challenge Series issue Bilstein Shocks.

2.      Perform initial track testing and functional testing on new GTM prototype.

Report:

We arrived at the track at 8:00 am and met Bryan Dobyns from BDM Racing.  Bryan is a good friend and an accomplished driver who was hired by the development team leader Jim Schenck to help with the Bilstein shock selection on the challenge cars and with early testing and development of the GTM chassis and suspension.

It took an hour or so to un-load and set-up the tent, heaters, tools.  The weather was cool with temperatures in the mid 40’s.  The skies were generally clear to partly cloudy.   Other than being a bit cool, the weather was ideal.  Throughout the late morning and early afternoon the sun would poke through the clouds every now and then, warming up the surface and making for a fine test day.  We really considered ourselves lucky as the day was the only clear/warm day between three days of rain and slop.

We were able to get on the track at 9:00 am sharp.  The first order of the day was to complete testing of the third revision of new Bilstein shocks.  These are not the same Bilstein shocks that are standard on the street cars.  The Challenge Series shocks (or rather the Bilstein shocks that we want to begin using on the Challenge Series cars…) have different compression and different rebound valvingsettings. 

We brought two Challenge Series cars outfitted with these newest Bilsteins (car # 77 and #210) and one car with the current Pro-shock set-up (car #1).

After an hour of testing, both drivers (Jim from FFR and Bryan from BDM) agreed that the new shocks were an improvement.  Testing notes have the drivers reporting the shocks are more consistent and predictable. 

The conclusion of the test team is that they want to try one more small change in rebound setting before final selection.  If all works out, these shocks MAY be ready for the 2005 season.  Stay tuned to the new Challenge Series website (www.ffrchallenge.com) for news on these shocks.

With the Bilstein testing out of the way, the team turned it’s focus to the GTM. 

Initially Jim took the car out for some easy laps and to make sure everything was tight.  After 8-10 laps at increasing pace, Jim was satisfied with the car and ready to begin testing.

We made changes to the car throughout the day.  There were some gremlins in the form of a leaking coolant line plug and a loose front aluminum shroud.  No extensive suspension adjustments were made.  Most of the testing evaluations were qualitative to simply give us an initial feel for the car.  No performance numbers were recorded (braking, acceleration, etc).

Test notes are as follows…

…“surprise that the car is a lot further along than we were thinking… this with very minimal set-up work.” “The basic physics of the chassis is solid, really good.  The car feels really low slung… feels like  driving a shifter cart.”

“Center Rear view mirror placement is no good, need better rearward visibility, raise rear window and increase opening size”…

“Front nose lip (trailing edge) is too high.  Increase forward visibility maybe less radius and/or by dropping hood height”…(note: this has been lowered in the production car.)

…”shifter linkage works but needs improvement (note: this has been updated in the production car), trans is great… hook-up out of corners is fantastic”…

“…Cool conditions eliminate significant temp evaluation… fairly quiet in cockpit, engine sounds transmitted are welcome and not too high”. 

“…Brakes work well, front end has some bumpsteer (this was not measured or adjusted for prior to the test)”…

Jim Schenck                                 

FFR Development Engineer in Charge of GTM Project

We really were pleased with the car at it’s first track test.  There were some things that need to be changed as well as some pleasant surprises.  We didn’t expect to be driving the car WOT in fourth gear at 120-130 mph on the straight, nor was sliding the car sideways thru the carousel on the agenda for the very first test, but as the chassis was a lot closer than we guessed, Jim decided to push things just a bit.  

There was no expectation that we would get any high speed testing done as this is too soon for that, besides, the entire rear tail section of the car is currently being re-shaped and that wasn’t the goal of the day. 

We have work to do at this point on both changes that resulted from the initial testing as well as normal production tooling work that continues.  Major work remains in the shaping of the new rear-end clip, the roll-up windows, dash and door liners, as well as small tooling and jigs for the chassis and sub-assembly.

Good news from the test day is that we are closer than we expected to be at this time.  We’ll be returning to the track for more sessions in the coming weeks and we’ll release news as we get it.  Stay Tuned!

Factory Five Racing, Inc.