I got an email from Tom Shannon letting me know that the BYU engineering team who'd brought a chassis to the salt in 2008 for pre-inspection was ready to make a few test runs on the front straight at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Ut. It'd already been a busy day with the Graham liner shoot, but I headed out there and ran into some of the usual suspects, Wester Potter, Tom, my friend Jim, Kent and Brent Singleton and a cast of thous....nevermind. It's late and I'm gettin goofy from the long day.
The team had reserved the track for the hours 5 to 8 pm, but there was some nasty lookin weather heading in from the southwest. Just like on the salt, that valley is just one big air channel. And true to form it got dark, then it got darker and then it got wet.
However, before all that nasty stuff happened, the team made a few adjustments to the car...the one I liked was the mill file on the underside of the bodywork so it would clear the "pavement" tire. On the salt they'll use an aluminum wheel, but for the asphalt, they used a conventional rubber inflatable tire...which, under load didn't quite clear the body.
While the they were working on that, Jim Burkdoll (the hired shoe) got into his firesuit and prepared to get the belts and other cockpit adjustments made. Finally they were ready to go and it (as usually happens with electric vehicles) took us by surprise. Jim ran halfway down the 3/4 mile main straight and then tossed out the laundry. It all worked very well. My friend Jim and I headed for the turn one end of the straight...but it got real dark and foreboding. However, Jim got a full length run and although my photos are a study in blur, the results were good. Other than the wheel clearance issue, there were no problems that were apparent to those of us observing.
Jim stated that he was surprised by the acceleration and the car handled well with no apparent balance issues. All factors considered, I'd say they did pretty well. Jim and I split just as the incoming thunderstorm started to let loose. The team had already stated that they didn't think it'd be a good idea to get a lotta water into the battery boxes where there's some serious current capability. So when the we got more that 6 inches of desert rain (the drops were closer than 6" apart) we decided it was time to split.
I'm not really happy with the photos I got, particularly the speed shots at the end. Maybe Wester has some better. Mine would make great abstracts to hang in the Museum of Modern Art as a study in carbon fiber blur.
But I'll include a couple in this post or the next (depending on when I fall asleep at the keyboard) and you can decide for yourselves.
I'd like to publicly thank Tom Shannon for keepin me in the loop on this. Good friends like Tom are worth their weight in gold. So. I dunno if they have another test scheduled...s team member told me that they'd only been able to get it to about 40 mph in the campus parking lot. I think the track is a lot safer.
Ok. Here are the photos:
1. The team Banner
2. Last minute check with Burkdoll in the saddle
3. And then he just took off. I dunno about these quiet cars. Hard to use the ears to keep track of what's goin on.
4. The liner was already gettin with it pretty good just in the first 10 or 20 feet.
More in the next post.
