This past week was a fun opportunity to develop and optimize a newly-built race car for its racing class package. In fact, it was the same Porsche 911 that Rob Trollinger entered in the Targa Newfoundland last month.
The car had been on track once for an initial shakedown, then we took it to the Targa Newfoundland, and now it was time to put it in its final form for Porsche Club racing. For the Targa, we had a different type of tire, the ride height was very different, and it was full of rally gear—like a co-driver’s seat and timing equipment. A lot of things had to be removed or changed to prepare the car for its original purpose on the race track.
Goldcrest Motorsports did an incredible build, and the purpose of this test was to really dial the car in and get it finalized in its race track trim for the coming 2019 season.
We had some gorgeous fall weather at VIR, with two full days of track lapping – certainly music to my ears! It was a lot of fun working with a very experienced team like Goldcrest to develop the car, and they have an incredible amount of endurance racing success. Although both Rob and I are newer to this platform, it was something we were able to figure out together.
We worked through suspension settings, such as sway bars, shocks and ride height to fine-tune proper balance. We even confirmed that the cooling package was adequate, and we got to play with some aerodynamic changes to finalize the car.
It was a fun chance for Rob since, beyond getting tons of seat time, he got to be a part of the development process, which allowed him to really understand what changes were made and how they affected the car.
At the end of the test, we came away with a to-do list, as any productive track test does. But we also came away with a great sense of accomplishment, and this will be a very exciting ride for Rob going into 2019.
Off-season is always the time for development, and next week I’ll have an update on the new Mazda Global MX-5 Cup car with its updated 2019 engine!