Here is a fast lap in the Tesla, note the eerie silence. Dai is getting annoyed with the slow speed on the straights, but notice the really high cornering speed.
For the Evasive team, the event was a success, the car went two seconds a lap faster than the target time and a lot of testing got done, improving the car overall. These changes should make the car quite a bit faster at Pikes Peak although we sure wish we had the power and batteries of a Plaid. Imagine Plaid power with our Suspension, Aero, and Brakes.
Overall GTA put on a great, well-run, and fun event and I hope I get to come back to help some teams in the near future!
5 comments
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!
It’s hard doing 4 cars!
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. 😉
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.
Great article! Thanks for all your hard work.