We heard reports that the middle part of the course near Glenn Cove was dry but the rest of the course was wet. Combined conditions are the hardest to set up for and the hardest for the drivers. We decided to go out on rains. The Yokohama engineers advised us that the Yokohama rain tires could withstand dry conditions without falling apart better than most so we felt a little better about this decision.
We put the rains on and turned the tire heaters on full blast to try to heat the wheel, brakes and the air in the tires to make things more stable when the cold water this the tread. We also switched our suspension to a wet setup. Conditions change so fast on the mountain that this is always a gamble but it actually seemed to be getting worse. The thing about Pikes is the Mountain always decides your fate and even the best guessing is often wrong.
For good luck, everyone present supporting the car signed the wing endplate. This is an Evasive team tradition at Pikes that seems to work.
As our starting time approached, Dai got in the car. He ended up sitting in there for quite a while due to red flags caused by crashes. Crashes are always bad news on the Mountain. News of them puts everyone on edge. Fortunately this year no one was hurt seriously but this is one of the most dangerous races in the country. The bad weather means no medivac helicopter.
4 comments
Very cool! Congrats to Dai and the team! BEV has come a long way, and this format is perfect for the current state of battery tech. Exciting times!
Thank you!
Mike, these Pikes Peak race support stories are the best. When you talk about this car reaching the damping limits of conventional shocks, what are you options when that happens?
since we were using the stiffest commercially available springs, fortunately this was not an issue. If we had to somehow go stiffer, I would have to find another manufacturer and possibly do something like off-road shocks that have bigger pistons and more fluid flow.