Glad to see shots of that car on the salt. I watched Chaz and crew for years and I am sure it is a bittersweet happiness for them as well.
... In our calculations we figured the car would top out at 213 MPH...
Chaz,
I'm thinking your 213mph calculation will turn out to be very close; i'm guessing 215-ish when (if) Don & I learn how to drive better. Maybe even more
On my last pass, 1st time on the long course, the last mile & exit speeds were 208/209, but i'm guessing there is more to be had.
1 - My run up in 1st & 2nd showed very sloppy throttle control. I'm thinking we need to push the traction envelope a lil harder, and also consistently run the shift point as high as is healthy for the motor.
2 - In 3rd gear, i tried to be WOT from the 2-3 shift thru parachute deployment, but the Throttle Position log shows many small dips, maybe due to track bumpiness? Gotta concentrate better,
3 - Neither Don nor I are completely comfortable with how the car hunts around the track a bit, so we are both somewhat "throttle-tentative" at this point, not agressive enough.
4 - other stuff we don't know about
We are told that the car has a great Cp/Cg relationship and that it will mostly correct itself like an arrow in flight, but it takes some getting used to. I'm kind of a chicken and our motorcycle background makes us alarmed when the handling is anything but rock solid.
Basically we are complete noobs and we would love to hear any tips on how we should drive our car better. In fact, after the event, Don & I changed our 2015 strategy.
Previously we were talking about going to higher hp/more efficient engine /trans. But now, after actually driving the car, it is likely we will do some checking & tweaking, but will stay at our current basic config and concentrate on learning to consistently drive the livin' pistol out of it.
Sorry to get carried away...