Much better weekend at VIR this go around...

[Cobra4B]

Well... other than having to fix a cracked composite valve cover Friday night and deal with some light seeping the car did great.

The new suspension is fantastic, the car is mostly neutral w/ a tinge of oversteer, very easy to steer w/ the throttle. For those that don't remember we have new 550lb front springs and 350 rears w/ fresh Koni shocks (the yellow body ones) and the Panoz GTS rear swaybar. Both bars were set on full soft to get a baseline. I'll probably put the front bar to stiff and the rear one to the middle setting for the next go around.

315 rwhp was nice... I was dead even w/ a buddy's stock C5 Z06 in terms of acceleration, but of course stomped him in the turns and the braking. I know many of you say the wings don't work well, but compared to a Corvette w/o any aero it was much better. If you look at most of the Vipers out at the track their wings don't extend over the roof of the car either.

I ran in TTS and posted a best of 2:11 on VIR full this AM. Running on old Hoosier R6s w/ a full fuel cell. The ST2 wining car was running 2:07s and using new A6s so I think w/ a bit more seat time and competitive tires we'll be right in the hunt when I decide to race it.

Put the car on the scales after 2 sessions (so probably a bit over 1/2 tank of gas) and weighed in a 2975 w/ me in the car. Remove 250lbs for me and I'm at 2725, so probably 2750 fully wet.

The one real downside was heat... so much heat. We have the exahust coated and wrapped and the school car has side carpet w/ heat insulation, but it still was like an oven, especially the floor... man that got hot. Will tackle that next. Nice that NASA lets you run HPDE and TT in short sleeves.

Flowmaster 50 series mufflers did a great job toning down the sound... it was still loud inside the car, but not bad at all. Didn't sound as sweet on the outside as it did w/ the glasspacks, but I'll take quiet over sounding good for the "fans".

Car sure does get attention.

[Cobra4B]

Some action shots...

[PanozDuke]

Brian,
It ought to get the attention, it's fast and it looks great. Heck it's even red! Great photos and awesome start with all the new goodies.

Mike

[Cobra4B]

Oh and another thing... I had no issues with the hood or trunk body work. If you remember we converted the 4 hood supports to hood pins so that doesn't move at all anymore. As for the trunk ours is fiberglass (rest of the car is plastic) and has 3 screw fasteners accross the front endge and two rubber T-hook on the rear. It didn't move or loosen up at all. I know people were reporting problems w/ them at speed. I don't have a speedo, but I figure the car was in the 140s on the back straight at VIR based on what my Corvette could do.

[NZGTRA17]

Originally Posted by Cobra4B

Oh and another thing... I had no issues with the hood or trunk body work. If you remember we converted the 4 hood supports to hood pins so that doesn't move at all anymore. As for the trunk ours is fiberglass (rest of the car is plastic) and has 3 screw fasteners accross the front endge and two rubber T-hook on the rear. It didn't move or loosen up at all. I know people were reporting problems w/ them at speed. I don't have a speedo, but I figure the car was in the 140s on the back straight at VIR based on what my Corvette could do.

Great to hear that you had a clear run this time round Brian. Enjoy.

Kel.