Bottom End

Dave Caracci, retired VP from Robert Bosch, has returned to his first love – racing. In part three of this multi-part series, Caracci takes us behind the scenes on the road with Prime Time Racing, where he serves as Logistics Engineer. Having accomplished a Top 5 finish in the international 12-hour race at Sebring, the team went on to race in the streets of St. Petersburg, where the Viper was totaled following a collision with one of the Penske team Porsches. Dave brings us up to speed since then.

 

By Dave Caracci

When I last wrote, the Primetime Viper, which had been totaled during the St. Petersburg race was in the tractor-trailer and on its way back to the race shop in Hollywood, Fla. When the team tractor-trailer, carrying the wiped out Viper, pulled out of St. Pete April 6, many of the officials and our competitors counted us “out” for the upcoming Tequila Patron American Lemans Series race in Long Beach, Calif. The Tequila Patron event was scheduled to start Wednesday morning the 16th, giving the Performance Technologies race shop only 10 days to build a new Viper race car, load it in the semi and drive the 2,726 miles to Long Beach, Calif.

BUILDING ANOTHER RACE CAR — FAST

The wrecked car arrived at the shop and by Monday night had been disassembled, while the crew pulled out an older Viper chassis that had been saved as a “spare.” This would be the new chassis used to build the new car, since the one had been bent badly in St. Pete and was being shipped back to Roush Racing in Michigan for straightening.

Turning a street car like a Dodge Viper into a professional race car is an interesting process when considering basic things like a chassis. The chassis on the street never sees the forces put on the racing chassis as sticky racing tires, wings and a slew of horsepower push the street chassis (frame) to the point that it flexes and bends during cornering. As you can imagine, aligning the tires and wheels for maximum grip is impossible if the chassis bends and flexes in the middle of every corner. To keep the Viper chassis from flexing, car chief Frank Parzych welded steel cross bracing and gusseting into the Primetime Viper chassis when the car was built for Sebring. These braces and gussets kept the chassis straight and the Vipers handling through the high-speed turns under control.

The spare chassis being used to build the new car for Long Beach had no cross braces or gusseting but there would be no time for Frank to weld the gussets and braces into this new chassis as he had into the one used in St. Pete and Sebring.

What Frank DID take time to do while trying to build a new car in time to race at Long Beach, was to relocate the mounting points of the suspension parts to add anti-dive and anti-squat. These are critical when turning the street car into a race car that must stop and turn as fast as a Ferrari or Porsche. Think about your own car. If you jump on the brakes, the front of the car dives dramatically, allowing the back of the car to rise up. As the back rises, the traction on the rear wheels is lost and your rear tires skid, with the rear of the car sliding to the right or left. By Frank repositioning the Dodge factory suspension attachment points, he adds “anti-dive” keeping the nose up and the rear tires firmly planted on the pavement, during hard braking.

Likewise, under full power acceleration, the rear of a street car “squats,” raising the front of the car. As the front rises, the front tires lose traction and begin to slide. If the car is turning a corner, and the front tires slide, it is called “pushing” as the front doesn’t steer where you point the tires and instead, “pushes” to the outside of the turn. The technical term for this is “understeer” because the car is not steering in the direction that the drive is pointing the tires. As Frank made the changes to the chassis that would be used to build the new car, the team mechanics, Robert Milian, Ronnie Murphy and Mike Ansbaugh spent their time putting the engine, transmission and other running gear from the wrecked Viper onto the new Viper.

AN OVERALL TEAM EFFORT

Working 24 hours a day, the team spent hundreds of hours building a new Primetime Viper for Long Beach. So here it is Wednesday morning and I feel like I’m in the script of the “Oceans Eleven” movie. Just like George Clooney’s rendezvous with his team of guys in Las Vegas, nine of us from around the country meet at the Budget car rental booth in Los Angeles International Airport. We, the Primetime race group, load our gear in the van Brent rented and head off to Long Beach to set up our race garage for the week. Driving a car fast is NOT racing — being a member of a team aimed at beating the competition IS racing.

Like the race track in St Pete, this track is set up in the middle of downtown. And like St. Pete, the streets of Long Beach have been blocked off to make our racetrack and there is NO room for the race garage, team semi trucks or pits. But it’s very cool as we realize the whole darn town is shutting down to watch us race (and maybe they’ll have a party or two).

Like St. Pete, John, the Primetime semi driver has put the tractor-trailer in a good spot, but there is so little room, we can’t set up the typical giant tent for our garage, so we just unload the car, put a little awning over the car, set up the alignment rack and begin finishing the car. While other things are being done to the car, team engineer Eric Schieb, from Atlanta, has me connect wheel speed sensors to the new car while he works on the cars computer system. We need the wheel speed sensors as Eric is trying to install some new software that we didn’t have in the old car. He gets everything to work except the pit speed limiter. To make the racing pits safer for pit crews and drivers, there is an official pit speed limit. If the driver exceeds that speed coming into or exiting a pit stop, we get a penalty. Since it is hard to keep the cars going slow enough, Eric is installing a computer program to shut off some of the engines cylinders if the Viper starts to exceed the pit speed limit. This works well on a lower torque Porsche or Ferrari, but it is really hard on the driveline of a high-torque car like the Viper. Brent elects to drop the idea for this race and rely on our drivers to watch their pit speed.

On a professional race team, every one has specific responsibilities and while the mechanics work on the car, others are out doing their own jobs. Team owner/driver Joel Feinberg is on a mission to get better tires for the team. During the St. Pete race, Joel and Brent learned that Primetime was not getting same Michelin race tires as the Ferrari and Porsche teams. Since those teams have season contracts, they get the professional race tires while the tires sold to Primetime are “club” tires meant for amateur races. Brent predicts that the professional tires are sticky enough to take two seconds off our lap times. So, while the team works on the car, Joel and Brent use their connections with Hankook tires to strike up a deal.

As he comes back to our garage, Joel proudly announces that the Primetime Viper will be THE Hankook tire car for the season. Joel has struck a deal to get all the professional race tires we need for the season from Hankook, plus the help of their engineers to work with our team at test days to develop faster tires. We won’t have the tires for this race in Long Beach, but they have already scheduled two days testing next month at the race track in Savannah, Ga. As I said, everyone works on the team, so team marketing manager Britoni Burdett and I go to the press rep conference to meet with people like the announcers from ESPN or Radio Lemans. We give them press releases about the Primetime team and get to know them so that during the race, they may give our car and team news coverage which is great for our sponsors.

By about 9 p.m., we have dinner, close up the garage and head for the hotel. At 7 a.m. Thursday, we arrive at the track and get the car ready for technical inspection. We push the car to “tech” where the ALMS inspectors check to make sure the car is both safe and not breaking any rules. One of the things they check is to make sure the car and driver transponders are working. Each driver has an electronic sending unit that he carries and as he climbs into the car, it is plugged into the Vipers transponder. Every time the car passes the start finish line, it tells the officials which driver is in the car. This helps the officials keep track of how much each driver runs in practice, qualifying and even the race. This is how the officials know who turned what qualifying time and how the guys on TV can always tell you who is driving which car. During tech, the inspectors decide that the rear wing on the new car is too high and Brent agrees that he will lower it back in our garage. One of the rules of life, that you learn racing cars – “Never argue with a tech inspector or a guy with a badge.” During tech, we also discover that the team of the Aston Martin that hit Joel in St. Pete couldn’t fix the car in time to make the Long Beach race. So we figure we’ve already beat one team, by out working them at the shop.

It’s 1 p.m. and the Brent goes off to a mandatory crew chief meeting for all American Lemans Series crew chiefs. At this meeting the officials discuss any special details about this week’s event. How to exit pit lane safely on the Long Beach streets, what to expect from the pace car, etc. They will actually go over the same info and more with the drivers on Saturday right before the race.

THE FIRST LAP ON THE TRACK

After Brent comes back from the meeting, Joel climbs in the car for the first test session since the car was built. Everyone is a bit tense. Two laps (3 minutes 21 seconds) into the session, Joel radios in that the seat is too far back for him to reach the controls comfortably, so he pits and the crew repositions the seat. “IF that’s all that they missed building a new car in a week, we’ve got it made,” I say to Eric as we watch from the data center on top of the pit cart. (I should’ve kept my mouth shut).

Joel goes back out for more test laps and after seven more laps (11 minutes) he radios in that the brakes are not quite letting him turn into the corners without locking up the rear tires. Eric, who down loads the data from the cars computer during every pit stop informs Frank that the rear brakes appear to be “dragging” the rear of the car. Frank radios, “Joel adjust the brake bias knob for 53 to 55 percent of the brake pressure on the front tires.” Joel turns the knob until the display in the center of his steering wheel shows 54 percent. Still not happy with the brakes, Joel’s best lap time around the 11-turn, 1.8-mile course is 1:29.336 (One minute & twenty nine seconds). Joel pits and co-driver Chris Hall climbs in. Brent holds Chris in the pits for 9:14, letting he new brakes cool. He hopes this will fix the brake issue. After the 9-plus minute cool off, Chris exits the pits for his first time ever driving at Long Beach and turns a 1:29.860. Looks like Brent’s idea paid off.

There isn’t much of this test session left, but in seven practice laps Chris turns, his last is best at 1:26.863. Our next and final test session today is in 45 minutes, so we just stay in the racing pit and primp the car a bit. When the time comes, Joel climbs in the car and takes it out for the second test session. The car seems to be running well, and Joel turns nearly two seconds faster than his first time out. But, my data shows something that may be significant. ALL the other competitors are turning SLOWER lap times than the first session. Something has made the track slicker and the other cars slower, but Joel is going faster. That looks good for Primetime’s new car.

After 11 laps, Brent brings Joel in to have Chris run some practice laps and Chris turns a 1:25.9, before the engine starts to get hot and Brent has him reduce the shift point to a lower RPM. After twenty four practice laps between both drivers, the session ends and our Thursday on the track is through. With the car back in the garage, the guys go over all the usual checks and adjustments. Robert Milian measures the fuel used and I calculate that on this track, the Viper is burning .33 gallons a minute or about .5 gallons per lap. Brent and I will use this in the race on Saturday to calculate pit stops.

During a review of Eric’s down loaded car computer data and a meeting with both drivers, who are complaining about the car “pushing” in the hairpin corner, it appears that the missing chassis braces and gussets are allowing the chassis to flex more than the old car. This could be causing the “push,” so Eric and Frank start working out a spring/shock adjustment to help reduce the handling problem.

Everyone on the team works all day on various projects. Our press work pays off as the promotional staff of ALMS invites the Primetime team to participate in the “Pit Stop Challenge” with the Corvette Racing team. This will take place Friday night at the big party held on the main street of Long Beach. A great opportunity for Primetime to get fan and press exposure and that helps bring in sponsorship dollars. By about 8 p.m., the team is feeling confident with the new cars performance, so we have dinner and head for the hotel.

A DAY OF PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING

Friday morning, we arrive at the track at 7 a.m. and race mechanic Robert Milian meets the ALMS officials at our racing pit. They are there to inspect the refueling rig that Robert has set up. This way the officials are sure that each team has a safe refueling system and rig. You can imagine the chaos and damage that would happen in a pit lane for 35 race teams if a team’s refueling rig failed and caught fire. Robert has been setting up rigs like this for Brent for many years and the officials approve it without issue.

By 9:05 a.m. the car is on the track for our first and only Friday practice session. Joel’s in the car first. It’s running great and he turns a 1:25.6 before going off in turn 9. Brent has him come in to check for damage, but the Viper is fine and he goes back out to turn a 1:25.4, before turning the wheel over to Chris. Chris hits the track and in three laps turns a 1:26.2 before he spins. The session ends with a red flag as one of the Prototype cars crashes.

At 11 a.m. race mechanic Ronnie Murphy has the AMLS inspectors come by to mark our tires. In an ALMS race, all our tires must be marked to make sure they are legal AND after qualifying on a set of tires, we must start the race on those same tires (they let us change one if there is any damage). This is done to prevent people from using special sticky qualifying tires that are not capable of running an hour or so in the race.

Friday afternoon, it’s time to qualify. The GT cars all hit the track at the same time for just 25 minutes. Every lap that they run is recorded by the officials and used to determine where each car starts the race. The driver’s transponders tell the officials which driver was in the car for which lap time. Joel turns a best lap of 1:25.22 and Chris turns a 1:25.144. My previous race experience tells me that when two drivers turn best laps that similar, they are both probably getting the car to go as fast as it will go in its current state. The session is over, and the car heads back to the garage for final checks before tomorrow’s big race.

Considering all that needs to be done and the fact that our race warm-up is at 7:15 a.m. tomorrow morning, Brent has Britonni and I cancel the team’s PR appearance in the “Pit Stop Challenge.” After all, we are here to win a race, not a “Pit Stop Challenge.” Friday night the crew goes over the Viper looking for any possible problems. Brent has me figure the “pit window.” The pit window is the period that we should pit for fuel, tires and a driver change. Burning .33 gallons a minute, and considering driver rules, Brent and I agree that we should begin watching for a yellow flag at lap 40 and as soon as a yellow comes out we should pit. If there is no yellow, our pit window will close at lap 45 OR 67 minutes into the race, which ever comes first. So even if there is no yellow flag lap to pit on, we must stop for fuel, since at 67 minutes, it’s all gone!

RACE DAY

Saturday morning comes fast as we need to have the Viper on the track for a 15-minute warm up at 7:15 a.m. It has rained during the night and the pavement everywhere is wet. As we drive the city streets to reach the track today, things are different. There are traffic cops everywhere, lines of spectators, blimps, helicopters, and planes pulling beer banners. There is even a giant 15-story-tall sign reading “Tequila Patron”, running down the entire side of one office building facing the circuit. There are groups of people all in lawn chairs out on the balconies of the condos and office buildings overlooking the race course. I think some of them might already have a celebratory beverage in their hands and it’s just after 7 a.m.!

Today the guards won’t let our truck transporting the race crew into the garage area. Wow, traffic jam or not, we explain, we’re the racers. “Race team pass or not, you’ll have to park your vehicle somewhere in the city and walk in,” says the guard. We finally get everyone into the garage area and roll the Viper out to the pits for the warm-up session. The pavement is wet, but no longer puddled, so all the cars keep their racing slicks on. The Viper looks ready. To a goofy sentimental car guy like me, the Viper even looks happy.

At 7:15 a.m., Chris and the other 27 ALMS cars roll out on to pit lane and begin a 15-minute practice. Chris runs a very slippery and slow three laps and Brent has him pit to practice a driver change. The guy’s break their record and change drivers in 43 seconds! Man, this team is “hot” today. Joel runs one practice lap on the damp track and goes nearly as fast as he did yesterday in the dry. Brent has him pit. No reason to risk damaging the Viper this close to race time. Everyone on the team is geared up, fast and ready today.

We take the car back to the garage, the drivers attend the mandatory pre-race drivers meeting and at 3 p.m., we and all the other teams full of race cars, pit carts, tire carts and pit crews line up at the garage exit to caravan to the racing pit. This track is like St. Pete. We have to haul all our race gear from the garage, over to the racing pit for the actual race.

At 3:45 they open the garage exit and 27 teams of some 15 crew members each (about 500 people), all riding on pit carts, golf carts and such, carrying tires, tools and race “stuff”, caravan down the track past tens of thousands of spectators. As I ride on our cart, wearing my fireproof crew suit, radio headset and clipboard, I watch all the crazy spectators in the stands and on the buildings.

We set up our pit, the cars are lined up for the start. It’s a big deal with music, movie stars, flags and formalities. Finally, after all the formalities and traditional singer, the cars fire up their engines and roll off the starting line. I am already back at our racing pit, manning the data center station and tuning in my radio headset. Brent and Frank are wearing radios, when Chris calls in from the Viper with a radio check. We hear him loud and clear. Chris and the Viper are read to blast off, just two weeks from when the other car was totaled in St Pete 2,700 miles away !

As the cars circle the circuit on the first pace lap, Chris radios in that there seems to be a problem. When he gives the car full throttle it feels like it’s only getting a quarter of the power. Brent and he try to diagnose the problem as the Viper and other cars do a second pace lap. Then as fast as the problem appeared it disappears. Any experienced mechanic will tell you that we hate it when that happens, because you never know when the gremlins will reappear.

The car seems fine, the cars roar up to speed for the start as the pace car pulls out of the way. At more than 100 mph accelerating, the green flag drops and the entire American Lemans Series field Ferraris, Porsches, Corvettes, Prototypes and all, thunder off to turn one. WAIT — Chris and the Viper coast to a stop just past the starting line, right in front of the TV cameras and tens of thousands of spectators. The car won’t move! Chris shuts down the engine and checks around the cockpit. Brent and Frank radio him to see if he can nurse it back to the pit, so the team can work on it.

Chris restarts the engine and hears a horrendous roaring sound, so he quickly shuts it back off, only to realize that the roar continues? It is the crowd in the stands! When the fans see him restart the car, they think he’s back in the race. They think the American Viper is going back after the Italian Ferraris, the German Porsches and the Japanese Accura prototypes. The ensuing cheers from the fans are so loud that Chris thinks the noise is coming from the broken car. He fires the engine again, but once in gear, the car still won’t move. The 700-plus horsepower V-10 engine has broken the drive shaft.

Kelli from ESPN runs to our pit to find out what is going on with our car and the entire Primetime team is standing in our racing pit, watching the TV screens show the Viper sitting dead front of the crowd as the announcer talks about our broken car.

The race is over for the Primetime team, before it even starts.

Depressed? Disappointed?

Racers are a funny group of personalities, driven to keep trying to beat the odds and the other teams. And, that night after the car is loaded and heading back to Florida and the race team is sitting at the bar in the Los Angeles Airport waiting to fly home (it’s 11 p.m.), the team is already planning for the next race.

Brent sums it up: “That’s why they call it racing and not just winning.”

More View From The Shop>>

 

It seems only a short time ago that a $60 barrel of oil caused great concern among industry business leaders, politicians and consumers. There are now predictions that $200 a barrel may be likely. Gasoline prices have escalated to all-time highs while automobile sales are decreasing at rates not seen in decades. Combined with higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions, climate change becomes increasingly apparent.

While The American Le Mans Series will not portend to have a solution for the escalating price of crude oil, it will profess to have a solution for helping the auto industry - and ultimately consumers.

To further emphasize its commitment to help auto manufacturers find alternative fuel solutions and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the American Le Mans Series in concert with the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and SAE International announced at the North American International Auto Show earlier this year that it would implement the first ever Green Challenge™ at its signature event - Petit Le Mans, October 4 at Road Atlanta. Officials from those entities will be on hand to present trophies to the winners for that race-within-a-race. In 2009, the Green Challenge™ will include all Series events and culminate in a Green Challenge™ Championship Award made by these three organizations.

In recent months, members of the aforementioned entities have comprised the Green Racing Work Group commissioned with the task of creating the rules, regulations and protocols of that competition in which all race cars would participate in a competition measuring three critical criteria:

Performance

Fuel Efficiency

Environmental Impact

"This has been an interesting and challenging process," said Scott Atherton, President and CEO of the American Le Mans Series. "With four different classes of cars, 14 auto and chassis manufacturers, and three different alternative fuels to take into consideration, a formula of how to create a fair competition with real time analysis and a format that is easy to understand and communicate has been very difficult. It has taken hundreds and hundreds of hours and involved some of the finest technical minds in the automotive and energy industries."

The American Le Mans Series and internationally recognized Argonne National Laboratory have developed a Green Challenge™ ranking system to be used for all cars competing in the Series. Cars will be ranked by the:

amount of energy they use

greenhouse gases (GHG) they emit

amount of petroleum they displace

 

GM has embraced the Series' green focus with its two factory Corvette C6.Rs competing in 2008 on cellulosic E85.

In brief, race cars that go the farthest, the fastest with the smallest environmental footprint for the energy used will get the lowest scores. The Green Challenge™ point score differs from racing score totals in that the lowest number wins. Two awards will be given - one to the lowest score among the prototype classes (LMP1 and LMP2) and one to the lowest score among the GT classes (GT1 and GT2). Thus, the Prototype and the Grand Touring (GT) race car that uses the least energy, the least petroleum and emits the fewest GHGs on a distance and speed equalized basis will be the winners.

During the 2009 season, those teams will earn the same number of points toward the season-long Green Challenge™ Championship as those earned by the race winners each race in the overall American Le Mans Series Championship. All teams will participate and qualify for the Green Challenge™ and receive points for their Green Challenge™ scores for each race based on the Series' race point structure (i.e. maximum points for less than four hours is 20; for four to eight hours, 25; and for more than eight hours, 30). The twist, however, for winning the Green Challenge™ Championship is that each American Le Mans Series team starts off the season with the maximum number of points available for all the scheduled races (i.e. - 250 maximum in 2008). When teams win Green Challenge™ Championship points, they are deducted from this total. As a result, the points decline for successful teams over the course of the season with the lowest total at season's end, winning a Green Challenge™ championship for one prototype and one GT team.

The aforementioned ranking factors (energy used, GHGs emitted, petroleum displaced) will be compiled into a single weighted number representing the car's environmental performance. Race cars that use less energy and petroleum and produce fewer GHGs will score low. All measurements and calculations will be done on a well-to-wheel (life cycle analysis) basis, the most comprehensive and realistic approach to establishing the environmental impact of racing.

The GREET model developed by Argonne calculates all the energy consumed and the GHGs created from the time the oil is pumped out of the ground, the corn is seeded in the field or the wood waste is harvested, to its use as fuel in the car. [GREET stands for Greenhouse gasses, Regulated Emissions and Energy use in Transportation. It evaluates energy and emission impacts of advanced vehicle technologies and new transportation fuels, the fuel cycle from well to wheels and the vehicle cycle through material recovery and vehicle disposal.]

 

Audi revolutionized motorsport by building and winning races with its Audi R10 TDI powered by clean, sulfur-free diesel.

The difficulty of creating such a formula to rank environmental impact arises from the realities of racing that have to be factored to make valid energy comparisons. Faster cars and heavier cars use more energy and produce more greenhouse gasses than comparable slower or lighter cars. Cars that go farther during a race also require more energy.

To develop the formula, Argonne and the American Le Mans Series created "normalizing factors" for each variable so that they could accurately and fairly compare the environmental performance of each car in the race. The normalizing factors took into consideration such things as average speed, distance covered and car weight. These calculations were compared using sophisticated computer modeling with previous races to check their validity. In some cases, the cars that win the race will also get the best environmental performance score, but that will not always be the case.

"Motorsports has always enjoyed the distinction of being at the forefront of advanced automotive engineering," said Andy Karsner, U.S. Department of Energy's Assistant Secretary of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, "and it has been a primary catalyst for moving new technologies to the showroom floor. The leadership role the American Le Mans Series has taken by embracing open and diverse alternative fuel technology platforms has not only set the bar for automotive racing, but it has helped redefine the future of the transportation sector."

The American Le Mans Series, where automobile manufacturers race to develop technologies for future consumer cars, is the only racing series in the world where all its cars race on not one, not two, but three alternative "street legal" fuels: clean sulfur-free diesel, E10 and cellulosic E85 ... with rumors of a next-generation hybrid soon to come. "Street legal" refers to fuels that are virtually the same as the consumer buys at the fuel station. The Series has 11 auto manufacturers/marques involved, more than any other major racing series in the world.

"We have always claimed to be the most relevant racing series on the planet," said Atherton. "Now, we hope to play a role in saving that planet by working with manufacturers on innovative alternative fuel solutions and new technologies. We believe this could be truly paradigm shifting by effectively putting the auto back into auto racing and taking the sport from a form that for some has been primarily entertainment-focused to one that is also relevant and issue-focused. We are working with the car companies on new technology that matters."

For more information on ALMS, visit www.americanlemans.com.
 

 

By NEIL WHITE, The State

Tony Nguyen doesn’t need a business analyst to tell him why major automakers are considering cutbacks in the face of sluggish sales.

He sees it every day in his Seven Oaks Auto Repair on Piney Grove Road.

Nguyen used to have customers facing expensive repairs tell him they were going to buy a new car instead.

“But in today’s world, people are fixing their cars instead of buying them,” he said.

General Motors is preparing to cut thousands of jobs and possibly unload one or more of its brands, according to published reports Monday. Ford has already taken similar measures.

In an economic downturn, the decision to repair a car as opposed to getting a new one has customers shifting gears.

“It’s cheaper to fix a car than to buy a new car,” said Tanya Blankenship, who has run Danny’s Automotive in Northeast Richland with her husband, Danny, since 1999. “We’ve seen a lot more transmission repairs. We’ve done more head gaskets this year than in a long time. In the past, people wouldn’t fix that kind of stuff.”

Nguyen estimates an average transmission overhaul would cost anywhere from $1,800 to $2,800. But even a used model, such as a 2006 Ford Taurus on cars.com at $16,000, would cost $400 a month over four years.

Faron Waguespack of Columbia, a regular customer of Seven Oaks Auto Repair, had his teenage son’s 1994 Dodge Ram pickup in the shop this week for cable accelerator work. In addition to the pickup with 190,000 miles, his family also has a 2003 Ford Expedition with 60,000 miles and a 1983 Datsun 280-ZX with 100,000 miles.

“Without a doubt, I can maintain and fix my cars easier and quicker and cheaper than I can paying a car note and high property taxes,” he said. “I’m all about maintenance.”

Nguyen believes his business benefited from the economic-stimulus package that had tax rebates coming to people in the past couple of months.

“Rather than spend that on a $20,000 to $30,000 new vehicle, they took that $1,000 and spent it on repairs,” he said.

Danny’s Automotive has a pair of regular customers who do what they can to keep their cars running, even when the required repairs start to add up.

Raymond Foster drives a 1998 Ford Explorer with more than 174,000 miles. He recently had exhaust manifold and suspension work done on it because he likes the idea of keeping it.

“Twice in the last four years, I’ve put $1,400 to $1,600 in it at one time. But that’s still more cost-effective than going out to get a new vehicle,” said Foster, who added it’s also important to have a mechanic you can trust who knows the car. “Four or five months of payments is better than six or seven years of payments with interest.”

Mike Metzger of Columbia has four cars, including a 1999 Chevy Suburban with 120,000 miles and a 2000 Cadillac Escalade with 225,000 miles. Because he has regular maintenance done on them, he has no problems sending his daughter off to college in a vehicle with that many miles.

“You’re looking at $25,000-$30,000 for a decent size car,” Metzger said, “and you can repair them for a long time for that kind of money.”

 From www.thestate.com

 

By Dave Carraci

For those of you who read the report of our Sebring race last month, welcome back. For those of you who didn’t, I’ll recap what the Primetime Racing Group is and what I have been doing with them.

Primetime is a non-factory backed (privateer) team campaigning a full race Dodge Viper in the American Lemans Series (ALMS) for 2008. The car was built and is maintained in Hollywood, Fla. , by Performance Technologies and is owned and driven by Joel Feinberg from Fort Lauderdale. U.K. native Chris Hall, who lives in Daytona Beach, is our co-driver. The race crew is made up of between 11 and 21 of us, depending on the length of the race. Some of our races are less than two hours long, while Sebring lasted 12 hours.

My job as a logistics engineer is to track data through out the entire practice and race week, and then use it to help make race strategy decisions. We track things like fuel consumption, tire wear, brake and suspension adjustments and every lap time of every session. We also keep track of other things such as how long it takes to change drivers, brake pad condition, suspension adjustments and competitor lap times.

FROM ONE RACE TO THE NEXT

When we left the Sebring race, the Primetime Viper had raced 1,080 miles in 12 hours, finishing in fifth place. Having beaten a bunch of factory Ferraris, Porsches and a Ford GT40, we were happy and excited, but the Viper was tired. In a little more than two weeks, we had to be in St. Petersburg for the Acura Sports Car Challenge, so the team semi took the car directly back from Sebring to the Performance Technologies shop to be prepped for St. Pete. Shop owner Brent O’Neill, car chief Frank Parzyck and the guys in the shop went through the car replacing all the brakes and wheel bearings, rebuilding the gear box and rear axle. During prep at the shop, Brent discovered that the transmission oil cooler thermostat had failed during the Sebring race. This small thermostat is a necessary part of the transmission cooling system. During a race, the six-speed transmission builds up so much heat, that an oil cooler and fan is installed to keep the transmission oil cool. But, if the trans fluid stays too cool, it causes frictional drag, slowing down the car.

Brent replaced the thermostat and thinking of the possibility of a transmission failure at a race, he ordered a spare six-speed transmission. This was no small decision since a racing sequential six-speed costs $21,000.

Of course after 12 hours of wheel-to-wheel racing at Sebring, there was a lot of body work to be done before the car could leave for St. Pete. But, with the race schedule for 1:30 Saturday, the Viper left the shop Tuesday night to arrive by Wednesday morning.

SETTING UP A RACING GARAGE IN THE CITY STREETS

The race track for the Acura Sports Car Challenge is made up of city streets running around the airport and marina in downtown St Petersburg, Fla. To build the track, race officials close several main streets for most of the week. The airport runway becomes home to temporary race car garages.

Between the Indy cars and our sports cars, we end up with more than 100 teams each setting up a temporary garage on the airstrip in the center of town. It’s one big traffic jam. So, to make some room and to help keep us organized, all team semis and trailers are moved to the sports stadium a mile or two from town. The trucks all park in the stadium and as the race officials pick each team’s space for the week, that team’s truck is summoned over to the race track. If you ever thought every detail about racing must be sexy, it’s not. I would describe this part more like setting up a three-ring circus. Once our alignment rack is set up, the car is unloaded along with the tools, golf carts, scooters, wheels and “race stuff.”

Primetime owner-driver Joel has only raced at St. Pete once and co-driver Chris has never raced here at all. At 1.8 miles in length, with 14 turns every lap, this is a complicated race course. So Joel and Chris take the motorcycle and scooter out to drive laps around the course while we set up the garage. This is a good way to become familiar with the course, before they hit the track in a 170-mph race car. By 8 p.m. Wednesday night, we’re set for the next day, so we head for the motel. On Thursday, we have a trackside breakfast at 7 a.m. If setting up temporary garages resembles a circus, so too does feeding the race teams. Ten to 20 people per team, who will spend at least 12 hours at the track each day for nearly a week, can’t subsist on hot dogs alone.

A businesswoman named Marion has developed a great service to keep the AMLS teams fed. A large event tent is set up that gives shelter to an entire cooking staff to feed hundreds buffet-style at each race. She is open every day as long as we are at the track. Each team pays her by the person, by the day and we eat whenever we want to. This keeps the teams from worrying about food logistics, with the only negative being that we each gain weight by the end of each race week.

After breakfast, we open the garage and ready the car for the day. The guys push the car over to the technical inspection center where the IMSA safety inspectors go over every car to make sure it is safe and meets the rules. We pass tech without any problems and spend much of the day readying the car for testing.

SETTING UP A RACE CAR FOR CITY STREETS

A race track on city streets is much different than a track like Sebring, Indy or Daytona Speedway. The streets have bumps, dips, pavement changes, and all kinds of other issues can force the car all over the place. Every time the car bounces, the tires lose adhesion, making it dart right or left. In a turn or under braking, this bump issue makes it impossible to drive at racing speeds. To handle the bumps, Frank installed softer springs giving the car a better feel as it rides over the bumpy streets of St. Pete. The only concern is how much the softer springs will allow the car to lean over during hard cornering.

Another issue with a street course is that it is tight. With 14 turns in 1.8 miles, the drivers use the brakes over and over in quick, hard succession. While the driver never brakes as hard at the end of the long straightways as they did at Sebring, he has to brake much more often. On a per-lap average, Chris will brake the Viper 11 times each lap. Thinking of it another way, he will be on the brakes an average of once every eight seconds! To handle this, the brake technicians worked with Brent and Frank to choose a softer “grabbier” brake pad for St. Pete. These softer pads won’t last as long as the harder Sebring pads, but the St. Pete race is less than two hours long. Frank has also changed rear and front master brake cylinders to allow more pressure on the rear brakes. This is done by varying the brake cylinder diameter. A smaller diameter cylinder applies more brake pressure for the same amount of foot pressure, but requires more brake pedal travel. A larger diameter master cylinder takes less travel but requires a lot more pressure from the driver’s foot to stop the car.

IT’S OFFICIAL TRACK TIME FOR THE ALMS

Friday morning, we are ready for our first official practice session at St. Pete. The Viper is polished, the tools, tires and equipment have been taken across to the racing pits and the drivers are in their flame-resistant suits. Since the racing pits are across the track from our garage, all the teams need to move cars and gear at the same time across the track, before the cars begin to practice. Once the cars are on the track, the only way back to the garage and semi is over a spectator walking bridge. It’s about a one-mile walk.

Thirty minutes before the cars are to go on the track, Frank plugs the computer terminal into the Viper and, for some weird reason, the on-board fire system goes off. An on-board fire system has a fire bottle with nozzles all around the car. The driver just pushes a big red button and the fire extinguisher squirts foam throughout the car. But right now, there is no fire, but the Viper has just “extinguished” itself 30 minutes before it needs to be on the track for practice! The entire team goes into action pulling the back window and windshield out of the car to gain cleanup access. The shop vacuum is used to suck up the foam inside, while the air hose is used to blow foam off the engine, fuel tank, and electrical connections. With a new fire bottle attached, Joel hops in a wet seat and starts to warm up the engine. At 8:05 a.m. , he pulls on the track for practice and we all breathe a lot easier.

The crew mans their race pit stations, while I start tracking data. Joel’s first lap is a 1:29.7 as he charges off around the track for more practice. Then the times are 1:26, 1:23, 1:22, as the lap times drop but soon he levels off, not getting any faster. “The front of the car is pushing out as I enter the turns” Joel reports over the car radio. “Adjust the brake bias” suggests Frank, back through the radio system. The viper has a red knob on the dash that allows the driver to adjust the pressure being applied on the front and rear brakes. The dash shows that the pressure is 55 percent front 45 percent rear, so Joel turns the knob to 50-50. The lap times drop to 1:21, 1:20.8, 1:19 and then level off again. He’s been in the car 29 minutes, so Brent has him pit to put Chris in for some practice. In order to run the Saturday race, a driver must have practiced at least five laps, so it is important to make sure each of these guys gets time in the car for the first session, in case we have a problem getting out for practice again before the race. Chris turns a first lap of 1:27 and gets down to a 1:186 in 12 laps when he reports in that the rear brakes are now locking up as he brakes for the turns. He pits so that Frank can adjust the shock rebound. The Viper has gas shocks that are fully adjustable both on the down or compression stroke of a bump as well as the rebound after the bump. By turning the shock adjustment knobs to allow the shocks to rebound quicker, Frank hopes to keep the tires more firmly on the track as the car brakes over bumps and dips on the St. Pete streets. Chris takes the Viper back out but is still having brake lock-up when the Audi TDI bumps him entering a turn. Brent decides to have him come in for a look over and at 9:02 a.m. , our first practice session ends.

Back in the garage, the guys and I measure the fuel used and I determine that we are burning .51 gallons a lap for an average of 3.5 mph. This will be important when we start the race on Saturday. The spare transmission Brent ordered arrives via airfreight, but we hope we never need it. Frank, Brent and the drivers talk over the brake-locking issue and Frank decides to reverse the master cylinder diameters, little in the front (more pressure) big in the rear (less pressure) and the rest of the guys go over the car looking for problems.

PRACTICE AND MORE PRACTICE

At 1 p.m. , Joel takes the car back out for another practices session. As the cars are getting faster with practice, he really needs to concentrate on traffic. While the Viper and other GT cars are fast, a Porsche or Audi racing in the bigger Prototype class is 20 to 30 mph faster on the straight. In a GT car it is easy to not realize you are being passed by a P car and if you cut one off you could cause a horrible crash. In fact, the classes each run different color headlamps to help the drivers know what kind of car is catching and passing them. A GT, like our Viper has yellow head lamps while a P car like the Penske RS Porsche has white lamps.

Keeping an eye out for overtaking traffic, Joel works his lap times down to 1:16.6 and after 17 laps of practice, Brent brings him into the pit and puts Chris in the car at 1:31 p.m. Chris runs 10 laps running around 1:17.2 when he calls in to report he is calling it a day until Frank and Brent can figure out what is making the brakes continue to lock up.

Back in the garage, Frank and the guys install all new brake rotors and change back to the harder brake pads that we ran successfully at Sebring. He also has the team install softer springs. I measure the fuel, double check the mileage calculations and put in 10 gallons for the upcoming qualifying session.

A look at our pit stop data shows that while the guys can refuel the car in less than 45 seconds and the tire change takes less than 40 seconds, it is taking close to two minutes to change drivers during the pit stops. Following a lot of kidding by the crew, Joel and Chris begin to practice and develop techniques that eventually enable them to make a driver change in less than 50 seconds. Practice, it seems, is not just for driving.

QUALIFYING, THE FIRST LET DOWN

With Joel having turned the fastest practice lap so far, Brent decides that Joel should drive the car in qualifying and he gets the Viper down to our best time yet of 1:15.8. That sounds terrific until we realize everyone else in our class went faster too, and we have qualified on the back row. It’s a far cry from the fifth-place finish at Sebring just three weeks earlier!

With the car back in the garage, the crew starts going over everything and Brent, Frank and Eric, our engineer start brainstorming over car handling and poor lap times. While they make a tweak here and a tweak there, my wife Mary calls on the cell. “I’m here to see the race tomorrow, but I don’t have a car pit pass,” she explains. She has parked in the city parking garage on 2^nd street and 4^th avenue and expects to be picked up! I jump on the pit crew Vespa and zip out of the pits into the St. Pete city traffic to pick her up.

As Mary and I re-enter the racing garage area, the track has closed for the day, so I suggest we take the Vespa for a spin around the track, so she can see what the drivers see, Vespa-style. As we circulate the course, we get to a very high speed left-hand turn skirting the marina boat basin. There is a concrete wall on both the inside of the turn and the outside of the turn. Having driven many race cars in my youth, I point to the outside wall and suggest to Mary that during tomorrow’s race, someone will drift into that wall at over 100 mph and hurt their car big time. We head back to the garage, then dinner and the crew rests up for our Saturday race in St. Pete.

RACE DAY RACE STRATEGY

With the race scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. , the entire crew is up, out of the motel and having breakfast in Marion ’s tent by 7 a.m. On a race day, you need to get to the track ahead of the spectators or you can have a really tough time getting to your garage.

The American Lemans Series has an excellent policy of allowing the fans to come into the garage area on race day to meet the crews, drivers and see the cars. It’s a great promo tool and actually helps us appreciate how much the fans love seeing our cars race. Joel and Chris set up a table in front of our semi and autograph driver pictures for the spectators. Frank and the crew go over every detail of the car, while some of the team goes to the racing pit to make sure everything is set up there for the actual race.

Brent and I review several classic pit strategies:

A) With lap times of 1:15 , if we pit during a green flag lap and it takes 1:25 for fuel, tires and a driver change, the field will lap us during our pit stop. But, yellow laps behind a pace car take about three minutes. If we can pit during yellow flags displayed as they clean up after a crash, we can pit and get out, before the field laps us. Some questions to be answered:

· How much will the car burn on each green flag lap?

· On each yellow flag lap?

· When is the earliest we should pit for fuel if there is a yellow flag?

· What is the farthest we should try to go before fuel is there is no yellow flag?

B) To qualify for championship points accumulated during the season, a driver must drive at least 30 percent of the race. Or to look at that another way, neither of our drivers More questions:

• How does that fit into the refueling situation?
• How do we make sure we don’t need to change drivers during a green flag lap?
• Which driver is fastest in mid-day heat, early race traffic or rain?

C) For the car to qualify for season money and points, it must complete 70 percent of the total race length or it is as if it never entered that race.

Following our strategy session, I write all the pertinent times and notes into my data lap sheet as reminders. This way when we’re in the heat of the race, I am reminded what needs to be done before or after a certain lap. These are commonly referred to as “pit windows.”

IT’S RACE TIME

I’ve been lucky enough to be involved in some big things in my life, and I’ve been in hundreds and hundreds of races, but I’ve got to tell you that there is still nothing in my life that gives me a bigger thrill than putting on a fire suit and walking along with the rest of the race teams past all the cars, spectators, bands, TV’s and other gala to line the car up for the start. At 12:30 p.m. , we all cross the track along with the Primetime Viper for the last time before they close the track. From now on, the only way back to our garage is over the spectator bridge. Brent’s been here many times before and he’s one smart dude, so he has one of the guys drive the Vespa to the pedestrian bridge and park it there. “If we need anything from the semi during the race, one of us can just hoof it across the bridge jump on the Vespa and get to the semi fast,” he explains.

The cars are all line up on the front straight and my data center has the computer screens fired up and ready to go. The bands play as the spectators cheer. In a city street race, there are spectators on the balconies and roofs of every condo and office building. There are enthusiastic spectators everywhere and at 1:18 p.m. the race engines fire up and the cars roll down the front straight for the first of two pace laps.

Chris is taking the first stint as driver. He does a radio check. I can hear him, Frank and Brent on our car channel and I hear the race officials on their channel, as my radio scans for any important announcements. Frank and the guys have made a lot of changes to the brakes and springs on the car trying to fix the braking and handling issues and we just have to keep our fingers crossed. The rest is up to Chris, then Joel. As the cars come by on the first pace lap, it is quite disheartening seeing the Viper in the last row, where we qualified. But, it’s a nearly two-hour race, so here we go. The green flag drops and nearly 40 cars roar into turn one. They all make it through and Chris disappears with the pack.

Lap 1 takes more than two minutes as the traffic is horrendous. But over the radio I hear Chris. “The car’s handling beautifully and braking perfectly,” he says.

Lap 2: The Viper comes by still surrounded by traffic and turns a 1:51 . “The car has never felt faster,” Chris’s voice reports on the radio. “I’m going after the GT 40 this lap.”

Lap 3: The Viper comes by in 1:19 , followed by the GT 40!

Lap 4: Chris starts to chase down the Panoz. He runs a 1:185 and we know he’ll pass that Panoz in Lap 5.

Lap 5: Suddenly a voice with a British accent that sounds like Chris says, “Sorry guys.”

What?

When you start to go really fast, it’s like driving on ice. It’s the edge of a razor blade if you want to be really fast. At those speeds, as the saying goes “stuff happens.” Remember that wall I showed Mary on the Vespa ride? Guess who drifted into it.

Thirty or 40 seconds after we hear the voice on the radio, Chris and the Viper limp into our pit with a bent right front suspension. Frank and Brent immediately decide to repair it. Remember, we only need to finish 70 percent of the race to get points. The front brake rotor and hub are broken, so as Brent and Frank start dissembling it race mechanic Mike Ansbaugh heads for the semi to get a new hub, brake rotor and tie rod end. Hoofing down the pit straight through the spectators, over the bridge, he jumps on the Vespa Brent had strategically parked there, only to find that someone has been trying to “borrow” it. The ignition key hole is messed up. He jumps off the Vespa and runs on foot to the semi and back carrying the parts in a box.

I’m still tracking laps and race distance and by the time Brent and Frank have the car fixed, 32 laps have been run by our competitors. Joel’s in the car and as soon as the air jack drops, the wheels hit the pavement, and he smokes it out of the pit! After he catches his breath, I report to Brent that we should finish the race within 69 percent and 71 percent of the total length depending on the lead cars and how fast Joel can push the Viper. With a suspension put back together on the pit lane, without alignment equipment, Joel will need to sort out the car’s handling. He’s pushing the car hard, turning laps of 1:45 , 1:31 , 1:25 , 1:21 , 1:20 , 1:18 and he is starting to move.

On lap 21, Joel passes the GT 2 Aston Martin and enters a fast right-hand turn just before being lapped by one of the super-fast Prototype cars with the white head lamps. Pat Long, driving the Penske RS Spider, is fighting for first overall and doesn’t want to wait to pass Joel, so he ducks under the Viper’s inside rear fender and as Joel turns into the corner, Long spins our Viper into the outside wall. At more than 100 mph, Joel and the Viper bounce off the wall, wiping out the left front and rear suspensions before spinning 180 degrees to face the exit of that corner. Out of the turn shoots the GT2 Aston Martin. The driver tries to fit between Joel and the cement wall, but he can’t fit and hits Joel, tearing the entire right side off the Viper, body, suspension, and all. The Aston Martin is wrecked, the Viper is totaled and Pat Long doesn’t win the race anyway.

Joel is O.K. but at 2:35 p.m. Primetime’s St. Pete race is over.

After the wrecker brings the car back to our garage, we assess the damage: All four brake assemblies, wheels and hubs are gone. The body is pretty much destroyed, but worst of all, the chassis is bent at least six inches. There’s no time to fret now. We load the car in the semi so it can head back to the Performance Technologies shop. The guys only have two weeks to build a spare car and get it to Long Beach where we’ve got an ALMS race to run.

 Photo credits: Richard Prince

Story courtesy of sister publication AftermarketNews.com


More View From the Shop>>

 

With high energy prices being top-of-mind among many consumers today, we are interested in what alternatives are being developed and what kinds of engines may be in our shops down the road. The Waste Heat Engine is quite an interesting idea that is being developed by the same group that has built the Cyclone Engine.

The Cyclone Waste Heat Engine (WHE) is a self-starting engine that operates in a low pressure, low temperature range. This feature allows the engine to run on waste heat emanating from an external source, such as the exhaust from an internal (or external) combustion engine, or the direct burning of biomass (i.e., processing garbage into methane would not be required). The Waste Heat Engine is also designed to run efficiently on solar heat without the installation of costly photovoltaic panels. Commercial applications for the engine include boosting the power and efficiency of large gasoline or diesel-powered generators. When installed to the exhaust system of an engine that can generate over 1000 degrees of heat, the WHE could materially increase overall horsepower and reduce fuel consumption. Additionally, once installed, the Waste Heat Engine could serve as a stand-by generator should the primary system shut down. Another major commercial application includes solar-power generators for homes or businesses. By attaching inexpensive panels to a roof, enough heat can be produced to run the Waste Heat Engine. Cyclone believes that such a system could be installed at a price of approximately 20% of the cost of comparable photovoltaic panel systems, while also providing home owners with a back-up power supply. Excess electricity could be directed back to the power grid for electrical power credits.

 

No, it's not a ghost, it's a  Dale  Earnhardt Sr. (aka, Big E) look-a-like, Bob Brinkerhoff.  We have been running into  Bob, er, Big E on the trade show circuit as he was hired by Professional Products to work the SEMA and PRI booth to freak people out who see him walking around. When Big E stopped by our PRI booth in Orlando, we had to capture the moment on video,otherwise who would believe it?

University of Hawaii Assistant Professor Zackary Johnson examines algae cultures

Within just two years, Americans could be filling their cars with clean-burning biodiesel made from algae.

That’s the ambitious assessment of Harrison Dillon, co-founder of synthetic biology company Solazyme, who believes the transition could move even faster if oil prices continue to climb north of $100 a barrel.

Solazyme is one of the leaders in the rapidly blooming algae-oil industry, and has recently entered talks with Chevron about distributing its fuel, Soladiesel. Other front-runners include Shell, working with HR Biopetroleum, Global Green Solutions, Valcent Products and International Energy. However, all owe a debt to a 30-year-old research project.

The $25 million Aquatic Species Program was set up in 1978 by the Carter Administration to investigate high-oil types of algae that could be grown for biodiesel. The project, run by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, found algae farms producing the plants in shallow ponds could supply enough biodiesel to completely replace fossil oil for transportation and home heating.

Scientists estimated the 140.8 billion gallons needed to fuel the country at the time could be produced by 15,000 square miles of algae farms. To put that in perspective, Arizona’s Sonora Desert alone is 120,000 square miles.

But by 1995, oil prices had settled down again and President Clinton's government was looking for budget cuts. The NREL decided to concentrate on ethanol and closed the ASP. However, its collection of more than 3,000 strains of algae is still open to researchers at the University of Hawaii and is widely regarded as the intellectual property backbone for today’s algae-to-fuel startups.

Work on algae cutltures at National Energy Laboratory Hawaii Authority (NELH) , Kona

[Liz Turner, Green Fuels Forecast] 

BMW has once again put on a dominant display at the International Engine of the Year Awards, securing no less than six category wins, including the prestigious overall title of ‘International Engine of the Year 2008’ for its outstanding 3-litre twin-turbo engine.

The powerful BMW unit was one of seven engines to triumph in the 2008 Awards that use turbocharging to achieve high power output from smaller displacement engines that use less fuel and produce less CO2.

Indeed, another BMW class-winner was its 2-litre Diesel Twin-Turbo unit, which thanks to its ability to sip just 5.2L/100km yet deliver 204bhp, scooped the ‘Best New Engine of the Year’. And the co-engineered BMW-PSA 1.6-litre Turbo engine with a strong 175bhp also won the keenly contested 1.4-litre to 1.8-litre category.

Peter Langen, BMW’s director of powertrain who also witnessed his engines top the 3- to 4-litre and Above 4-litre categories, commented: “BMW rightly views these awards as the highest industry recognition of its outstanding achievements in engine technology and manufacturing. It is an honour for our 3-litre twin turbo engine to have secured the highest accolade for the second year running, and we are truly delighted.

http://www.ukipme.com/engineoftheyear/whatsnew.html 

 

For the second year in a row, Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, has won an award in the International Engine of the Year competition. By winning the coveted "Best Performance Engine Award," the 911 Turbo engine has underscored Porsche's position atop a star-studded field of high performance competitors. This is the tenth year this prize has been awarded by the British specialist journal "Engine Technology International" for outstanding engine characteristics.

Having won in the three to four liter category in 2007, the 3.6 Liter 480 horsepower boxer engine (530 HP in the GT2 version) scored its first place win in the "free capacity class," defeating other globally-recognized high performance automobiles like the BMW (M5 & M6 V-10), Ferrari (599 GTS V-12), Nissan (GT-R twin-turbo V-6) and the Audi (RS6 V-10).

For model year 2008, the 911 Turbo power unit features an exhaust gas turbocharger with variable turbine geometry (VTG: 8.42, -0.12, -1.40%) for efficient control of the exhaust gas flow throughout the entire RPM range, guiding the flow of exhaust gas in exactly the right direction and at the appropriate angle to the turbine blades. This leads to a discernible improvement in flexibility and acceleration, particularly at low speeds, and virtually eliminates "turbo lag."

The jury for the Engine of the Year Awards consists of 65 renowned automotive journalists from more than 30 countries. The judges review and evaluate engines in various different categories, considering factors such as overall performance, power output, fuel consumption, drivability and comfort. Special attention is paid to the use of advanced, cutting-edge technologies. Judge Jake Venter of South Africa's Car Magazine enthused, "Very few turbocharged engines have been honed to such a state of perfection."

Porsche Cars North America, Inc., based in Atlanta, Ga., and, Porsche Cars Canada, Ltd., based in Mississauga, Ont., are the two importers of Porsche sports cars and Cayenne sport utility vehicles for the United States and Canada respectively. Each is a wholly owned, indirect subsidiary of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG. Combined, these two subsidiaries employ approximately 250 people who provide Porsche vehicles, parts, service, marketing and training for 200 U.S. and 12 Canadian dealers. They, in turn, provide Porsche owners with best-in-class service.

SOURCE: Porsche Cars North America, Inc.

 

Dave Caracci, retired VP from Robert Bosch, has returned to his first love – racing. In this multi-part series, Caracci takes us behind the scenes on the road with Prime Time Racing, where he serves as Logistics Engineer. Stay tuned for more notes from Caracci’s race team travel journal.

 

What Goes Around Comes Around

by Dave Caracci

In 1962, my dad took me to see my very first sports car race. It was the 12-hour endurance race in Sebring, Fla., and I was 14. A rich Mexican named Pedro, driving a factory backed Ferrari won. My dad took me to Sebring 12 hours, every year after that until I was old enough to drive myself.

Between 1963 and 1966 three Americans, acting as individual “ Privateers ” decided to build cars themselves, here in the U.S., to end the Ferrari dominance. They were called privateers because they raced without the big dollar backing of the car manufacturers.

The privateers , Carroll Shelby, Jim Hall, Dan Gurney and a few others, started putting big American street car motors into sports cars, to compete against the exotic European race cars. Each year, my dad and I watched as the Shelby Cobras, the Gurney Ford Lotus and the Jim Hall Chevy Chaparral chased the factory Ferraris and Porsches around Sebring for 12 hours. To us and the 56,000 other spectators, those privateers were America. In 1966 Jim Halls Chaparral finally whipped ‘em, winning the Sebring 12 hours.

By 1970, I had grown up and started racing myself. I’d also met a young man named Brent O’Neill, who was 14, and he came with me as my friend and assistant to every single race I ever ran, until I decided to stop racing full time in 1976. Brent, who now owns and operates a successful auto racing shop in South Florida, has been one of my best friends ever since.

Last fall, Brent invited me to be a member of Prime Time Group racing team. With a home base in Hollywood , Fla. , the team would campaign a Dodge VIPER in the 2008 American Lemans Series. So here I am, 32 years later, helping Brent at the races, instead of him helping me. What goes around comes around.

Owned and driven by Joel Feinberg ( Ft. Lauderdale ) and co-driven by Chris Hall ( Daytona Beach ), the Prime Time Viper was built at Brent’s shop, Performance Technologies Inc., in Hollywood , Fla. Through out the fall of 2007 the Viper was prepared by Prime Time Car Chief Frank Parzyck. The car was finished in late February and other than two days of testing at a Savannah race track, the car had never raced until Sebring.

The Prime Time crew consists of nearly 20 people (mostly volunteers from the Florida area who love the sport) and there is so much interface and job sharing between the team members that when discussing the car and the operation or the team, people’s names don’t seem to enter the conversation, but instead the effort is a general “we.” We are fast, we are late, we have a brake issue, we need to get to tech, we should go to dinner, it is 11pm and we are worn out. Even though each of us has an assignment or area of responsibility, Brent and Joel’s team seem to know that it is a “we” -- all of us and each of us at the same moment.

But most of us do have a responsibility or specialty. Mine is logistics engineer.

When Brent gave me my responsibility, I didn’t even know what a logistics engineer does at a race in 2008. But, what I’m doing is a blast. Simply put, I track data during the race to calculate and brainstorm pit strategies with the team manager (Brent), car chief (Frank), the drivers and a ‘real’ engineer named Eric. We calculate such things as when we should stop for fuel, when we should stop for tires, how to combine and plan those stops to coincide with driver changes. Can we stop for all or some of the above during a yellow caution lap while the competition is going slowly behind a pace car in order to not lose much distance? Or, do we pit when our competitor pits? And if so, which competitor is the most important? Which competitor is gaining on us? Who are we gaining on? Just like racing a sailboat, where we do the input and the final decision is up to the captain, Brent makes the final decision and he or Frank relay the plan via radio to the driver.

To collect the data, we have some awesome tools, all in what I would describe as a data center on top of our pit tool cart. Joel bought a tool cart that carries all the car tools, and has a five person padded bench seat, with desk, on top of the tool cart. We have to use a ladder/steps to climb up to our seat and desk. There is a canvas roof over our heads (so my head won’t get sun burned) and five computer monitors. The five monitors can display any data we choose and the data is all “real time” transmitted directly from race headquarters.

We can see:

What position we and our competitors are in.

How far ahead or behind we and every other car is.

How fast we are going every lap.

How fast our competition is going every lap.

When each competitor pits, for how long and what they did while in the pit.

And a whole bunch of data as needed.

A few of the monitors can show the Speed channel coverage of the race, allowing the team and guests to watch the TV coverage as they stand behind our pit cart.

At left: Caracci (center) on the pit tool cart with other crew members.

Another awesome tool is the head set Brent has me wear. With that head set, I can hear everyone on the crew if they talk on a radio. I can hear/talk to Brent and Frank and I hear everything the driver says to either of them. The same headset scans race control and anytime race control talks to each other on the radio, I am the one on our team who hears it. At anyone time, I may hear the TV helicopter report an accident on a turn, the pit marshals call for a penalty on us or another car, the safety car and most importantly I hear the race chairman as he tells the pits to open or close or the race starter to wave a yellow or green flag. As anything I hear fits into or affects our race and pit strategy, I report and discuss what I heard with Brent, Frank or Eric.

So, enough explanations, now for the race report you all asked for:

We have been here since Monday. Practicing, testing, and qualifying: Sebring is not just a 12 hour race, but a four-day survival test of car and team. If, you’re not running Saturday morning at 10:05 race start, you don’t count!

It is Saturday morning and is just like it was in the 1960s when my dad brought me here, we are an American Privateer team racing an American Sports Car race prepared in a private race shop in South Florida. And, like the 1960’s, the competition is four Ferraris, six Porsches and a myriad of other Grand Touring cars prepared or back by the car manufacturers. We are the little guys with a brand new car and conventional wisdom is that we will not be running at 10 pm when the race ends!

From here on I am writing in the “we,” because the team (including the car) really acts as one.

Race strategy:

Knowing that you can’t win a race if you are not on the track when it ends, we limit the engine shift points so the engine never runs over 95 percent of its capability. This will help the Viper last and save fuel and reduce brake wear. No matter how slow we are compared to the other cars, we will go our set speed of around 2 minutes 9 seconds a lap and save the car. The car can go under 2:05, but Joel and Chris will hold it at about 2:09 or 2:10

We know that we and everyone else will have to stop once to replace the front brake pads, which takes about five minutes. If we push too hard and use too much brake, we may have to stop twice losing another five minutes. So, we want to be easy on the brakes as well as the engine. 2:09 to 2:10 lap times.

At this engine speed, we will need fuel every 40 to 55 minutes along with tires. That can be done in a pit stop lasting about one minute. Changing drivers takes over two minutes, so we will change drivers every 2^nd stop, saving a minute plus on the fuel/tire stops in between.

We are all in our fire suits, Joel is in the car, there are Helicopters, TV guys and 36 cars (our 15 car class plus three other classes of car – all bigger and faster) and at 10:05am Saturday morning, the Prime Time Racing Group Viper rolls across the starting line !

Joel does a great job staying out of trouble in the horrific traffic of the first ten laps, turning lap times between 2:08 and 2:0996. This is an amazing consistency, on a 3.7 mile track with 17 corners every lap and 35 other race cars all around him. We still plan to pit for fuel and tires around lap 24 but at lap 12 two cars crash, bringing out the yellow flag and the pace car. We pit under the yellow for a “splash and go” – fuel only, no driver, no tires. My data shows that from the time Joel entered pit lane, stopped for 15 gallons of fuel and exited pit lane took 56 seconds.

At lap 17 the leading Ferrari in our class laps us. He is flying, but will he be here at 10pm tonight?

With fuel in the car at the yellow, we readjust our scheduled stop to lap 41, but at lap 28, our lap times drop from 2:09 to 2:15 and Joel calls in for a driver change. Unexpected by all of us, the Florida heat has taken its toll on Joel and he can’t keep u the pace.

At lap 31 (ten laps ahead of schedule) we pit under the green flag, changing drivers, tires and taking on 13.5 gallons of fuel. We get lapped during the 2min. 49 second stop. We are now down two laps, But Chris is fresh and in the car turning laps between 2:08 and 2:10.

The lead cars in our class are still turning 2:02s and by lap 46, they have lapped us three times

We are scheduled to stop for tires and fuel at lap 56, with a driver change at lap 81, but at lap 50, our lap times suddenly drop from 2:08 to 2:15 and Chris calls in for help. Just like Joel, the heat has taken a toll on Chris and he needs a driver change.

At lap 51, we again must pit under the green and the Prime Time crew puts 17 gallons of fuel and tires on the car while the drivers change. Time from pit entrance to pit exit is just over two minutes, but as Joel exits the pit, I get a call from the from the Race Chairman that we exited pit lane too fast (there is a pit speed limit for the safety of the crews) We have to call Joel back in for a “stop and go” penalty!

We are less than two hours into the race and already down by 5 laps. But, we are 11^th out of 15.

The same scenario goes on for a several hours, with the car running perfectly, the drivers dealing as best they can with the heat, but having to change before schedule and the Prime Time crew doing trouble free refuel/tire stops. Eric uses my data and calculates that we are getting .8 of a lap per gallon of fuel. IT IS HOT. But that is COOL, because this is an endurance race. By lap 94, four hours into the race (2PM), we are six laps behind the leading Ferrari and in 8^th place, as other teams wear out the equipment or drivers take chances and crash.

Again Joel and Chris continue the laps (2:08 – 2:095) for hours. From my perspective it is a blast, sitting on top of my little data collection center helping Brent and Frank plan. Lunch arrives, diet cokes arrive, people stop by to visit and ask questions while Chris and Joel keep running 2:09.

At lap 150, 5 ½ hours into the race (3:30pm) my radio suddenly reports that the 2^nd place Porsche tried to pass the lead Ferrari and they took each other out! Not half way through the race and they are history. How dumb is that? The Prime Time Viper moves into 6^th, 9 laps behind 1^st and 4 laps behind 5^th, with a whole bunch of GT2 cars chasing us down from behind. We are suddenly living in interesting times.

Of course, life does not come without its little problems and as Joel exits the next pit stop, the Vipers instrument display goes dead. Joel calls in and Eric working through Brent tells him to shut the ignition off while going down a straight then restart the car.

For those of us that have had to reboot a lap top, ever done it at 150 mph?

Eric’s idea works and the instruments come back on. Whew.

At six hours into the race most of the cars start pitting to put on new brake pads. A brake pad stop takes five minutes. At green flag speed, that puts us in the pits for 2 ½ laps, so Brent refuses to call the change until a yellow flag. The brake company engineer warns of brake pad failure, but Brent hangs in there, waiting for a yellow flag. “Take it easy on the brakes”, he tells both drivers.

By 3:30 pm , the sun has fallen to an angle that drops the heat so the drivers can stay in the car longer.

The Andretti team creates a timing and scoring issue with the officials, creating a 19 lap yellow. We pit for an 8 gallon splash and go. With the lower sun and the yellow laps, Joel drives 36 laps and his last lap is a 2:09.970. Amazing stamina.

We pit at 4:03 pm for fuel and to put Chris back in the car as Joel has driven an hour and 36 minutes. The stop takes 2 minutes 11 seconds from pit entrance to pit exit. No tire change and still no new brakes.

It is really cooling down. Eric calculates that the fuel consumption is dropping. Instead of getting .8 laps per gallon, we have moved into the 1 lap per gallon range. Being an engine guy originally, I speculate it is the cool air making the car run more efficiently, but who knows?

Chris is holding up well, running 2:079 to 2:085 laps and he stays in the car long enough to finally take maximum advantage of our fuel and tire calculations. We run the tires 62 laps and when we finally bring Chris in for a change, the car takes 231/2 gallons. It only holds 25 gallons.

There are 3 factory Porsches and 2 factory Ferraris running WAY ahead of us, but the Prime Time Viper keeps on ticking and at 5:38pm , my data monitor suddenly shows the fastest Ferrari slowing rapidly, running 2:20 lap times and dropping. As a Brazilian co-worker I knew would say “the car, she is not feeling very well.”

On lap 192, 5:52 pm Brent pulls Joel in for fuel, a driver change and new brake pads. They have lasted 710 miles for 7 hours 52 minutes. We now are only 4 hours 8 minutes from the finish line. The pit stop, including new front brakes takes 5 minutes 22 seconds and as Chris leaves the pits. Brent radios him to kick the engine speed up to 5,800 which is 97 percent of capacity. We know we have enough brakes to make it and the cool air has brought the mileage up.

The sick Ferrari drops out. We are in 5^th.

On lap 216 Joel comes on the radio. Something is wrong with the power steering. It is making noise (I would too after 800 race miles) and it is difficult to turn to the right. Sebring is 3.7 miles each lap with 17 corners and 9 are to the right! This power steering issue is not good. No turning back now guys, so Brent says just keep driving. He figures the power steering fluid is leaking. With 17 turns every 2 minutes trying to turn the tires that are about 14 inches wide gives the power steering a real work out. Frank installed an oil cooler on the power steering, but it must not be able to keep up with the heat and now with a leak, most of the fluid is probably gone. We can add fluid. But, who wants to bring the car in and pull the hood just to add fluid. We’ll have to tough it out for a while.

Just before dark, the GT 40 collides with us in a turn. We win. The Ford GT is out, but the race chairman tells me over the radio that we are dragging something. After a few laps, the car comes in and the crew pulls the hood off for some body damage control. Brent refills the power steering with fluid and the Viper heads off to do battle at night.

Darkness sets in around 7:42 and the left headlight does not work. The rules say we only need one headlight, so the guys keep driving. At night, every cars times drop, probably because of the poor vision. But, Joel and Chris are still running 2:10.42 to 2:11.29, with one head light.

The car keeps making laps in the dark of night. The power steering keeps making noises and the one headlight never comes back on, but the fuel use keeps dropping. We have improved from .8 laps a gallon to 1.2, so we begin to stretch the fuel stops out a bit.

At 9:03 pm Joel pits and Chris gets in. New tires, more fuel and he’s off. We calculate that Chris can finish the last 57 minutes of the race and still have 3 gallons of fuel left. Brent decides to go for it, no more pit stops.

Brent and I have been here before. You can not believe all the things you can hear going wrong in the last hour to the finish line. But, you just hang in there.

At 9:45, my monitors show that we can not catch the Ferrari ahead of us and the Porsche behind us can not catch us unless the car breaks. Brent radios Chris to ease back on the car and bring her home for a top five finish in one of the Worlds three biggest sports car races. Chris runs 2:14 lap times for the last 15 minutes to save the car.

At 9:59:59pm I count 21 people wearing Prime Time Racing Group fire suits standing out on the pit wall straight, waving at Chris, as he and the car drive by to the finish. The fire works start and we have done what folks with conventional wisdom knew could not be done.

The Prime Time Racing Group Viper not only finished the Sebring 12 hours but we also took 5^th in Grand Touring and placed the highest of any American car in GT2. And, Joel received the “PRIVATEER CUP ” for being the highest finishing non-factory team.

In 12 hours the Viper had run 1087 miles or the equivalent of the Daytona 500, immediately followed by the Indy 500, with 87 miles left to drive home!

We took all our tools back to the semi, patted the car a bunch of times and drank a few of beers. Around 1pm I decided to sleep a few hours in my truck and head for home just before sun up.

I hugged Brent, said a bunch of farewells and as I walked back to my truck, across the Sebring paddock there was that warm tropical breeze I grew up with as a kid and I thought: “American privateer verses the European factories just like the early 1960s with my dad. I sure wish he had been here to see this.” I stopped, turned to look at the quarter moon and there was one bright star, all alone, looking down at us. I then realized that my dad had indeed been watching the entire event with me. How cool is that?

Remember, what goes around comes around.

Dave Caracci, the retired V.P of Robert Bosch Corp, was born and raised in Miami Beach. He currently lives in Daytona Beach, Fla.

 

 

After years of two competing open wheel champ car racing series in the U.S., only one Indy-type series remains standing: the Indy Racing League. The assets of Champ Car World Series, LLC, which filed bankruptcy earlier this year, will sell to the highest bidders at auction early next month.

Gallivan Auctioneers, of Speedway, Ind., have been approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to liquidate all remaining assets of Champ Car. The sale will include pace cars, race car transporters, race cars, shop equipment, scoring and timing equipment, memorabilia and more.

This auction promises to attract interest from race teams, racing organizations and enthusiasts across the U.S. and around the globe. It will be conducted on-site, plus feature a live online webcast of the sale, allowing bidders to bid online, in real time, from anywhere in the world.

The auction will be held at the Champ Car headquarters, 5350 W. Lakeview Parkway, South Drive, Indianapolis, Indiana 46268 on Tuesday, June 3 at 10 a.m. EDT.

Several Champ Car teams have already joined the Indy Racing League, promising to increase competition and bring more excitement to open wheel racing. Champ Car World Series, LLC was formerly known as CART and CART/PPG SERIES.

For more information, visit http://www.njgallivan.com.

The Scuderi Group arrived on Tuesday for the opening of the 2008 Engine Expo in Stuttgart, Germany, Europe’s premier trade show focusing on engine design and development. This is the third consecutive year the Scuderi Group and its Air-Hybrid Engine have participated in the event.

Sal Scuderi presents his talk during the Open Technology Forum held Tuesday at Engine Expo in Stuttgart, Germany.

The company had on display  for the first time a model of what it claims is world’s most fuel efficient internal combustion engine, its unique and highly promising split-cycle air-hybrid engine. The Scuderi split-cycle arrangement and valve train technology changes the heart of the conventional engine by dividing (or splitting) the four strokes of the Otto cycle over a paired combination of one compression cylinder and one power cylinder. Gas is compressed in the compression cylinder and transferred to the power cylinder through a gas passage.

The gas passage includes a set of uniquely timed valves, which maintain a precharged pressure through all four strokes of the cycle. Shortly after the piston in the power cylinder reaches its top dead center position, the gas is quickly transferred to the power cylinder and fired (or combusted) to produce the power stroke.

By splitting the strokes of the Otto cycle over a pair of dedicated compression and power cylinders, the design of each cylinder can be independently optimized to perform the separate and distinct tasks of compression and power. As a result, the split-cycle design provides more flexibility in how engines are built. Features that were understood to be beneficial but impossible to implement in a conventional design can be implemented in the split-cycle design.

Another highlight of the day was a presentation by Scuderi Group president Sal Scuderi to a packed Open Technology Forum where he participated in the Reducing Emissions track. Titled, “Air Could Be the Answer,” Sal explored the idea of using compressed air to reduce vehicle emissions. In his presentation, he highlighted that the Scuderi Air-Hybrid - with its air tank that captures wasted energy in the form of compressed air - has the potential of increasing fuel efficiency to historical levels and reduce the release of NOx by up to 80 percent compared to all the vehicles on the road today. He also discussed how the Air-Hybrid is expected to have considerably more torque an power over conventional engines with minimal manufacturing and retooling costs.

For more information visit, http://www.scuderigroup.com/index.html.

 

 

Who needs the Car of Tomorrow (COT) when the car of yesterday worked just fine, thank you very much. I'm willing to bet these cars were quite a handful to drive as well. All totaled, 37 drivers were knocked out of the race, and no one was seriously injured. Boogity, boogity, boogity, let's fire up the Hudson Hornets!