[eimarshall]

Thanks Tim! Ive seen the group but not joined. Ill give it another look.

[eimarshall]

One of the last little things I had on my list was to make a set of smaller canards. The ZLE canards are pretty aggressive and probably suffer from lots of drag, but given that that car(ZLE) makes 200 more hp, it can put up with a little drag. Lat year, when I swapped the ZLE wing for the GTC300 I added the ZLE canards to try to keep some semblance of balance. But in doing so, I lost ~5mph on the straight at the ridge. obviously the wing has something to do with that as well, but I think the canards are also a culprit

With the new splitter, end plates, and tire blockers, I figure I've reduced the drag a bit on the front end and made back some of the downforce. So bolting on the big canards may not actually gain me much. Maybe a little more DF but probably a lot more drag. In one of AJ Hartman's wind tunnel videos, he showed that adding a tire blocker and a large canard greatly increased the drag, but running only one or the other got you nearly the same downforce.

I figured my tire blockers are little different than the "spat" or "air dam" style blockers, so having both may not suffer from the efficiency loss AJ described.

Thus I threw together a simple model, 3D printed a mold and layed a couple layers of 12K carbon fiber onto the mold. The finished product is about 7" long with a taper from 3" to 2" front to back and total curve of about 30 degrees. I also mounted it at a slightly less steep angle as the ZLE canards. I think I might try to re-make them 4" wide at the front, but these will do for now.



I got her all shined up(before the canards) and ready for the first event.



Loading was a little tight with the splitter on. I also had to take off both trailer fenders to get it to fit width wise.



I did a quick Track Night in America at the Ridge for a little shake down. beautiful weather and chasing a couple of other fast cars(GT350 and a C6 ZR1) helped me knock nearly a full second off my best on 200TW RS4s. Last year I couldn't get those tires under a 1:50.5 to save my life. Second session out I clicked off a flier at 1:49.5. My optimal sector times had me closer to 1:49 flat even. So something is working!




3 days later I drove over to Pacific Raceways in Kent for a Time Trial. PR was hosting the SCCA Pacific Grand Prix on Saturday and Sunday but decided to add a time trial on Saturday. They only had 10 participants signed up but to make it more competitive they lumped many of the classes together. I qualify as Max 2, but ran in a group with Tuner 1 and Unlimited 2.

I had never been on track there before but used the practice and first session to get comfortable and learn the track. I ran the RS4s to start because they talk a lot and would let me know when I was hitting their limits. I was sitting in first overall by only 2 tenths of a second with a C8 Z51 and a tuned Audi TT RS hot on my heels.

I will say, Pacific Raceways is NOT a smooth track. I am spoiled at the ridge. It is butter compared to the variations at PR. PR has some crazy bumps, yumps, and undulations that look like they can get real hairy real quick given that the track has little to no run off. I forgot to grab my PDR recording, but there are a couple points where I know I could make time, ....... but the consequence could be a dirt berm or a tree..... only 10 feet off the asphalt....

That said, I wanted to push it a little more, so I swapped to my SC3Rs for the afternoon and knocked another 2 seconds off. That locked down first place and I took the top time overall with a 1:29.8! WOOHOO!!



I really want to dive into some of the data (a la KHCoaching) but I'll have to save that for another post. Plus I have another full track day booked in 2 weeks where I plan on doing a bunch of back to back comparison runs with various bits on or off the car. Hopefully that will shed some light on the efficacy and efficiency of various components.

[khcoaching]

Nice!

Send me the data.....

[That1guy_tim]

Congrats on the first place man!!

And again you are killing it with the aero components for our cars!

[VaporPressure]

Great thread! Really impressive craftsmanship and attention to detail. I'm just starting to go down the aero pathway and despite really wanting splitter tunnels, I abandoned the plan because of those aux coolers and some heavy metal framing further inboard that sits pretty low. I'll be interested to see if you're able to make something work there.