GREAT article on Corvette racing & development

[fbrdphreak]

For those who don't read Autoblog religiously, they recently posted an excellent article on Corvette C6.R development and racing. There are some really cool snippets in this article, with the requisite eye candy.

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/03/05/...omes-to-life-autoblog-tours-pratt-and-miller/

How about this shit:

The 1999 racecar was based on the then-current C5 Corvette, and since GT cars are required to retain certain dimensional commonality with production models, the shape of the fascia caused problems. The two slim horizontal inlets on the nose of the C5 and the small central under-bumper intake made cooling the engine and brakes a real challenge. When the time came to develop the C6, knowing that a racecar was to be part of the plan, the production team opted for a single large central air intake to feed both the brakes and engine. The result was much improved air-flow performance for both versions.

P&M's CFD (computational fluid dynamics) capabilities are such that when Corvette chief engineer Tadge Juechter's team ran into a problem during development of the ZR1, they went to the race team for help.

The ZR1 uses massive carbon ceramic brakes by Brembo (below, right). While the brakes can turn huge quantities of kinetic energy into thermal energy in a very short span of time, that heat needs to be dissipated, which requires air flowing over the rotors. In spite of plenty of duct work from the front air inlet, the engineers couldn't get the brake temperatures down.

The P&M engineers pulled the ZR1 model into their CFD system and quickly determined that at high speeds there was so much turbulence around the wheels that the air from the ducts was literally getting sucked right out around the outer edge of the wheel and into the wheel well, never coming anywhere near the rotor. Over the course of a couple of weeks, they designed and fabricated a system of ducts and baffles to control the air-flow around the ZR1 wheels and allow the cooling air to do its job on the brakes. Racing improves the breed again.

Pratt & Miller charges $750,000 for a complete turn-key, ready-to-race GT2 C6.R, which Fehan explained is about 15 percent more than a Ferrari or Porsche. However, Fehan and Gary Pratt explained that the higher up-front cost comes with substantially lower operating costs and includes a full package of spares, instrumentation and support.

The V8 is rated for 40 hours of run-time between rebuilds, which is more than its competitors and the rebuild costs are substantially less. They cited the example of Aston Martin that requires signing up for a $250,000 engine support engineer before you can even fire up the engine. The robustness of the Corvettes has meant that many of the GT1 cars have been reliably running and winning in European GT competition for 3–4 years of more.

To provide a clue about how tough these cars are, Magnussen walked away from the spectacular incident with only bruises. The car was launched into the air and then landed on the track nose first at 45 miles per hour. The impact deceleration was measured at 57 g. All of the damage was confined to the front of the chassis structure and according to Juechter the acceleration remained almost flat throughout the event. This is important because it indicates that the structure is absorbing the energy of the impact at a steady rate without any huge impulses. Those energy spikes are what often cause more severe injuries.

When the car was returned to Wixom a few days after the race, it was stripped down and the chassis was placed on the surface plate. Everything from the A-pillars back was intact and within tolerances. Only the structure ahead of the front axle center line was damaged. The crew cut off the structure ahead of the firewall and welded on a new one. Two weeks later chassis #1 was back on the track being tested.

I don't want to paste in every bit of the article, but those were just SOME of the cool shit the talk about. They also talk about the new 5.5L being used, and how they increase fuel efficiency from 10 laps per tank to 15+.

Gear heads and Corvette lovers alike, check it out and once you've cleaned yourself up, come on back in for a chat...

 

[helpme]

Pretty cool that they don't actually use a wind tunnel to do any testing.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Very cool info. I find it particularly interesting as to what the race teams develop that end up on normal production cars.

 

[Bignate603]

Very interesting read. I'm not horribly surprised that a Chevy V8 derived race engine can go longer between rebuilds than the exotics its competing against.

 

[Apex]

Great read, thanks!

 

[The Boston Dangler]

the GT1 cars have been reliably running and winning in European GT competition for 3–4 years of more.

it helps when you're the only car in your class.