OK.....so here we go.
Goal for todays testing was to put some sort of rational and quantitative value on the new crop of higer downforce Can Am bodies. Its pretty easy to look at them and figure that they'll be fast. The question is whether they will make existing models obsolete. As a reminder, we haven't split hairs as much on the basis of year of competition or "scaliness" but rather, we have tried to keep the starting grids relatively diverse. Hence, we have resisted some bodies that have been in general use elsewhere.
A sampling of our current contenders. In general, these have been pretty even in performance and all models have won races within the last six months. These are all from my own race cars.
#60 - Classic Lola T-160, #75 - Kirby T-22, #50 - Parma Lola 163 w/ 1/4" spoiler, #1 - O/S Ferarri 612
I have used the Kirby Ti-22 the most over the last two years or so. The 612 is a great body on one specific car which I have raced several times recently. The Lola T-160 gets used on sub 4" cars and the the 163 is getting play on a couple of pretty long cars that I've built lately.
Here are the new contenders along with the long standing JK TI-22 which we currently do not allow. All bodies were tested with an interior and with a spolier that totaled 1/2" including molded in portion of the body. This is an important stipulation b/c on most of these, the add on only sticks up about 3/16" above the body.
#3 JK TI-22 (short), #4 O/S Ti 22R, #2 O/S Lola 163, #1 Original JK TI-22
A few general comments about these........The JK #1 has been around for years and I keep this one around to test against from time to time. It has always proven faster than the bodies we currently allow. The new O/S Lola is very long and is long enough to cover a 4 1/2" stock car frame. The nose deck and rear deck are not sculpted as deeply between the fenders as the classic T-160 The JK #3 is an enhanced Kirby and is billed as short and is in fact shorter than the rest of this batch. The enhancement vs. the classic Kirby is in the 'tunnel' area between the fenders and on either side of the cockpit. The tunnels have been sculpted out lower which in effect raises the side fences and puts a steeper arc on the leading edge of the rear fenders. This body was very thin and so I built it up with clear packing tape in order to equal it out in that way. The #4 O/S TI-22R is a longer and enhanced MAC TI-22. The side fences are taller and run nearly the full length of the body and the molded in rear spoiler is quite tall and doesn't take much add on to reach 1/2". The placement of the front wheel wells is perfect and a 1" guide lead clears the nose easily while the front wheels fall smack in the middle of the wheel well. This body fits a 4x1' car the best of any of these and possibly the best of any body I've seen. This body has a lot of vertical side on it and could be cut very tall. I cut it so that the rear deck was the same height as the JK #3 which was cut at the cut line.
Testing................My standard format is to run the test cars in their normal setups 20-30 laps to condition the lane and get a baseline time. I then run each test component about 10-12 laps. I'll run the 10-12 laps at "race pace" meaning 98% of fastest possible so usually no deslots in the test sequence. The first 2-4 are to get the feel, then I watch the clock for the next 5-6 laps for record noting the times. Then I'll run 2-3 laps seeking a "hair" lap. For a result, I keep the hair lap, then I drop the high and low of the remaining 5-6 and average the middle 3 times of the record laps. When those 3 are very close, that's a good result and what I'm looking for. When they vary a lot, the body isn't working that well no matter how fast the times might be. Today, conditions were not great and the test car was very much faster when the tires were freshly rubbed up. After 10-15 laps, the times started to drop off. Rubbing up the tires before each body test was probably the most consistent however the bodies showed their differences most dramatically when I left the tires alone as long as I could. The results below are subjective in the sense that I often repeated a body several times in order to get a feel for it with fresh tires and also as they started to get loose.
Test Cars............... Top: Standby 3 15/16 x 1" 110 gr. BB fronts, single rail .078 wire all scratch except Warmack bracket, JK 4713 PT. Center: new 4 1/16" x 1" 105 gr. single .078 rail, JK components, JK 4713 P. Bottom: new 4 1/2" stock car to provide reference as to how long some of these bodies are. Motors were not hand picked at all and in fact, the one in the top car had laid down at the last race. It started the day pretty good today but laid down again and basically invalidated the body tests on this car after the first 4-5 tests. That motor is gone. For reference, a very good race time on a fresh track is about 5.0-5.10.
Car #1 Baseline avg time - 5.23 w/ O/S Ferrari 612 this car is tuned and set up for this body.
- Classic Lola: Avg time = 5.29, hair lap = 5.21. This body was loose and inconsistant. Could not stabilize this car in these conditions.
- Parma L-163: Avg time = 5.25 (3 identical laps) hair lap 5.21. Much more stable and driveable.
- Classic Kirby: Avg time = 5.27 Hair lap = 5.24. Very consistent.
- Original JK TI-22: Avg time 5.21 hair lap = 5.21 six laps in a row of the same lap time. Super stable but motor weakening by now.
Car #2 Baseline avg time 5.19 w/ Parma Lola 163 (this is a new car so no tuning has been done yet)
- Classic Lola: Avg time = 5.22, hair lap 5.16. This combo was good but the body was a little unstable in the high speed sweeper.
- Classic Kirby: Avg time = 5.19 hair lap 5.16. More stable in infield and sweeper than T-160.
- JK enhanced Kirby: Avg time - 5.17, hair lap 5.10. With short spoiler, not much diff than classic Kirby. Tires loosening up.
- O/S enhanced MAC: (freshened up tires) Avg time 5.09 hair lap = 5.04. Stable and faster in sweeper. very balanced.
- Original JK: Avg time 5.09, hair lap 5.06. Tiny bit looser than TIR but very close, very easy to drive.......stable.
- O/S enhanced MAC: (retest 30 laps on tires) Avg time 5.12 hair lap 5.10 looser but still very good.
- O/S Lola 163: (freshened tires) avg time 5.02, hair lap 4.98 slowest time 5.09. Yow!!!.....super stable, solid, able to go very hard.
- O/S Lola 163; (retest 30 laps on tires) Avg time = 5.12, hair lap 5.09 very driveable even with loose tires.
- Classic Lola: (retest freshened up tires) Avg lap = 5.17, hair lap 5.14. could hang in for about 6-8 laps but dropped off fast.
The new enhanced bodies (and the old JK as well) are FTMP clearly faster and more stable on the Purple Angel and in these loose conditions. In this case the advantage in driveability went to the smooth feel of the long bodies with the O/S Lola 163 being the big surprise. This body didn't look like it would work (kinda shapeless and really long) yet.....it was really good. The JK Kirby looked like it would work great but didn't impress that much. The O/S TIR may prove to run a little faster than the O/S Lola especially on a different surface. It also fits the avg race car the best. The TIR did seem to be slower down the main straight but was very quick in the sweeper coming toward the driver's panel. OTH, the long Lola and the orig JK could maybe go a little deeper in the deadman and both were very forgiving as well as being fast.
So................................These new bodies are all obviously and visibly enhanced. The TIR actually looks pretty much like the real car (depending on the pic you look at) but the Lola looks pretty shapeless and ridiculously long but it's surprisingly fast. The old JK is a really a morph job but works exceptionally well. The new JK Kirby looks at first glance like the classic Kirby but the changes are notable. I really expected this body to be better....but it just wasn't. I don't see any clear winner out of this batch but this was a very simple cut 'em and run 'em test. On this day, I would have chosen the O/S Lola 163 on my longer car and the TIR on my shorter one. With tuning and more testing on other tracks and cars, a clear overall favorite would possibly emerge.
If we allow any of these new bodies, they will make our current crop of bodies 90% obsolete. Personally, I don't think we need them. The crop of bodies that we currently have gives us plenty of options, relative parity, and the ability to "body tune" for conditions. However, I won't dictate one way or another. If we do decide to allow these bodies in........it will be a group decision. I will have these samples with me at the next couple of races and dialog is invited and encouraged online and at the race meetings. I will test some of the New F-1s in a similar fashion next week.
Edited by JimF, 03 May 2012 - 12:57 PM.
Thursday 11 AM....cleaned up some typos and added a thought or two.
