Superlap Battle COTA, an Insiders Look at Working an Event

I think the Evasive car is one of the best-looking cars out there.  Since there is no GTA electric class, we were entered in unlimited.   We knew we would have no chance of anything in unlimited but our goal was to beat 2:25 seconds around the track which was the electric car record.  The other goal was to do testing and improve the car.

The other car I was helping with was the IAG Street Class STI driven by Devin Hoffman.  The car had new brakes and a different rear chassis setup that I was hoping would cure some mid and later turn oversteer.

Devin and I before the first session, we were smiling then.

The Tesla can only do 1 lap at speed before the battery is depleted. One out lap, one fast lap, and a cool-down lap. Then the battery has to charge the rest of the day to reach 80-90% which can give sort of a fast lap.  So really you only have 2 laps to get useable data from a day! You need a driver who can get up to speed fast and is consistent.  Dai Yoshihara was driving but he had never driven COTA before except on a sim.  Here Evasives Crew Chief Kelvin Jong is looking at the car ready state before sending Dai out.  Dai was fast from his first session which says a lot for his driving skills!  The car did a 1:26 at this point and Dai was complaining about excessive body roll and movement with low straight away speed.

5 comments

  1. I saw you there on Saturday, Mike. Like you said in one of the pics, you didn’t look happy, though, so I left you alone. Congrats on finding the time on the Tesla. I was so confused on why I never saw the Tesla out on track more, but now I know!

  2. Not sure about that splitter on the Tesla. AFAIK, the Tesla has a completely flat bottom, which is perfect for ground effect. The middle section of the splitter should be turned up and radiused to enhance airflow to the underbody. As it is now, it’s effectively reducing airflow to the underbody, especially on corner entry (when all that weight transfers forward) and you are losing downforce when you need it most.

    Also, by adding side skirts you can move the CoP rearward and make a ton more downforce with very little drag penalty (the most efficient solution.) These are super low buck modifications, so they should be simple to do. It won’t look great, but you can use fiberglass lawn edging from Home Depot to make very effective side skirts. Don’t ask me how I know. 😉

    1. I helped design the aero and it works just fine. There is more to it than meets the eye including suspension tricks. Also a lot depends on what the owner is willing to do the car cosmetically and spend and how sophisticated of a shape that we can create with our homemade molds and bucks. We are actually trying to reduce drag as we have more than enough downforce. Our aero is currently pretty slippery. With 440 hp we are only a few mph slower than the stock car at this slightly uphill straight.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*
*