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| The drysump tank is located forward of the engine before the mid car bulkhead. The gold kapton heat shield keeps the bulkhead from getting too hot. |
The engine puts out an amazing 775 hp @ 5600 rpm with a redline of 7200 rpm with 750 lb/ft of torque @ 4800 rpm at only 15.5 psi of boost. This is a huge, superwide powerband putting up a wall of power and torque. The engine can handle 20 psi of boost easily so the team can instantly turn up the wick for more power if needed.
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| Twin oil coolers are used that take air straight from the nose of the car. The coolers have air directed through carbon ducts and exit in the low pressure wheelwells. This large hose feeds cooling air to the brakes. |
RMR started with a Palmersport JP1 chassis as it was designed for a V6 engine and most small sports racers like the more common Radical or Van Diemen are designed for either motorcycle engines or inline 4 cylinders. The Palmersport has an easy to modify 4130 chrome molly space frame that does not run the engine or transaxle as a stressed member, all attributes which lend themselves to running production based engines and converting to AWD.
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| The oil cooler ducting and brake ducting are shown here. The brake cooling duct takes air from in front of the oil cooler. |
Aerodynamics are critical for Pikes Peak as it is hard to make downforce in the thin air. Rhys took some advice from his father Rod and turned to motorsport aerodynamics guru Lee Dykstra to help design the body of the car. You might not know who Lee Dykstra is but most of you will recognize his work. He designed the Intrepid GTP car, the privateer GTP machine powered by a stock block Chevy that gave the factory Toyota and Nissan teams a run. Dykstra also penned various Jaguar GTP and Group C racers.
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| The PM580 looks like a ALMS or Daytona prototype car. The side air inlet pressurizes the airbox that feeds the engine and the scoop on the roof feeds the intercoolers. The side louvers vent hot air from the coolant heat exchangers. The low mounted wing activates the big tunnels and improves downforce. |
The RMR car really looks like a Dykstra design, much like a Jaguar Group C car with a sleek, compact and narrow dry carbon body built by RMR. Since Pikes Peak rules have no aero restrictions, RMR built a new dry carbon undertray with full length tunnels extending all the way past the middle of the car. This enables the use of huge, tall tunnels while maintaining a 7 degree included angle to keep the flow in the tunnels laminar.
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| Wow! Look at the size of those tunnels! Most racecars have the tunnel dimensions dictated by the rules which usually limit them from starting in front of the rear axle. Hill climb has no such restrictions so the venturis start mid body and can be this big while still maintaining the 7-10 degrees angle needed to avoid flow separation. This makes the under body shape like an upside down airplane wing. |
For closed wheels cars, generating enough front downforce is always a problem. RMR has a lot of details in the front end to help maximize front downforce. A really big dry carbon front splitter is employed with large canards/vortex generators incorporated into the fender pontoons. Small suction creating venturies feed from the front of the cars into the low pressure front wheel wells. All of the front aero was designed to maximize aero efficiency with minimal size and bulk to ensure the car’s smallness and compactness.
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| A view of the nose with the body work off. You can see the wheelwell feeding venturis, the oil cooler ducting and the splitter. The splitter is made of carbon fiber with a Jabrock wear lower surface. Jabrock is an extremely durable and expensive laminated wood. It is what the infamous F1 plank is made of. |
The rear wing is extremely high tech; a low mounted Aeromotion twin element carbon wing is used with huge endplates. The compact and narrow greenhouse allows a low mounted wing to be efficient with low drag as it can still see fairly clean air. The low mounting and the big endplates also have the double advantage of activating the airflow under the car, increasing the effectiveness of the large tunnels.
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| Some of the front splitter detail. This venturi helps produce a low pressure zone in front of the tire increasing downforce. |
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| The nose of the PM580 manages the air to do the most for making downforce. The side canards produce downforce and make side voracities to prevent air from curling under the car. This improves the efficiency of the undercar tunnels. RMR cleverly sinks them into the sides of the pontoon fenders so the nose of the car can be kept compact. This like the what the Porsche RSR does but on a larger scale. The lower vents just above the splitter feed the oil coolers and front brakes while the upper vents feed the coolant heat exchangers. |
