Here is a video of Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) straight-line testing at Kennedy Space Center's 3 mile runway. After wind tunnel testing race teams will validate what they learn in the tunnel with the track or coast down testing. A development driver at JGR, runs the car to 205 mph on the landing strip, coasts to about 150 mph and then runs it back up to 205 mph, doing this three times before turning around and coming back and doing the same thing. Since there are many variables that factor in to straight-line testing (weather, wind, temp, etc.) it take several engineers just to keep track of conditions, configurations, and data and takes many hours to complete. The cars are instrumented with data acquisition and most teams use a Pi Sigma data- acquisition system to log data on the racecars during testing. NASCAR has a rule against instrumented race cars during races (Not allowed) so teams must do it while testing and since NASCAR has now banned testing at tracks that they race on the teams must either use non-sanctioned tracks or straight-line testing, which they have been doing for many years (straight-line). You will not find video on this type of testing because teams don’t want information to get out of data and procedure. This is rare footage and although it seems more PR type instead of technical I thought you guys might enjoy it. Before I get tossed in the lions den.. the announcer dose mention that this is one of the worlds fastest type cars and I know that some of you will find offence to that so please don’t kill the messenger.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM11-Qm5QOQ.
