Pictures of the X2 progress in chronological order

Sunday, June 8, 2008

X3 testing today-Ran into Greg's leg at 76 mph







I went testing today and made some changes from my last 79 mph run from last week. I needed to get more downforce on the front end to keep the X3 from blowing over. The lexan splitter I added underneath the front bumper definitely helped out but I could still see the car about to blowover around 80mph. I added winglets on the sides of the front to add extra downforce. I also wanted to reduce drag so I removed the spoiler from the rear. I felt like I was getting enough traction so I didn't need the downforce created by the spoiler. But removing the spoiler also reduced stability of the rear vertical stabilizers. I had done some test runs with this new configuration and I encountered significant flutter from the vertical stabilizers at high speed so I removed them. But as you can tell from the changes that I made I would create more front traction and loose lateral stability. This is exactly what happened on this run. The front end was too twitchy and the rear end was very loose. But on the positive side, the car was much faster with the same amount of throttle input as the 79mph run.

You can see in the video that the X3 had changed directions a couple times during the run, but was too close to the center of the track where Greg was filming and the radar gun was setup. I tried to correct but it wasn't quick enough to get out of the way of Greg and the radar gun. At the point in the video where you cant see the X3 is when Greg attempted to get out of the way. The X3's front left side took out the radar gun tripod at 76 mph, caught air, hit Greg's leg and flipped before landing on its wheels 20 feet away. The pictures above are after the accident. I checked over the X3 and I had to tighten some set-screws and she seems Ok.

The importance of the vertical stabalizers can been seen in the slow motion of the video. My next step is to modify the body so I can reduce some drag and add larger vertical stabilizers. Other than that, the car is setup very well. It feels and handles great besides the aerodynamic characteristics. With the X3 on 8s geared 64 pinion 36 spur the calculated top speed is around 95 mph. This is target speed for the X3 with this setup. After I reach around 90 mph I want to change to 12s and really push the envelope of that setup.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

why would you be in the middle of the track recording ? lol ouch !!!!

Nick Maslowski said...

Well, Greg wasnt supposed to be in the middle of the track. I started my run too soon and didnt give him enough time to get out of the way.