Tuesday 27 March 2012

First test day at Oulton Park 10/03/12

It was an early start on Saturday morning at Oulton Park for the first test day of the two new race cars. This was a brilliant opportunity to test the cars, iron out any faults and practice timings. The team worked extremely efficiently from the word go. They arrived at 8am and had a kettle set up by 8:03! For a short while the chocolate Hob-Nobs took priority whilst the cars were still on the trailers waiting patiently to be unloaded.
After the boys had finished their morning banter they set to work on the cars, rolling them into the pit garage.  It should be pointed out that both cars are Porsche GT silver, but have orange and green highlights to their livery respectively.  The “orange” car (35) was fighting fit and raring to go on track the moment it opened but the “green” car (99) had an issue with the central locking system. This proved a superb test for the team its self as it forced them to quickly adapt a strategy which would enable them to make the most of the track time. 
It was decided to split the team into two with some working on prepping and analysing the orange car as it went out on track and the others dealing with the issue on the green one.  Some might say that the stack of cream cakes by the kettle added a little extra motivation to deal with the task, but regardless before long the green car was ready to go out too.


The team had the extra benefit of an experienced test driver who after driving both of the cars was able to give invaluable feedback on the cars performance. It allowed the team to adapt and adjust the set up of the cars a little every time they went out on the track, this sufficiently reduced the time it usually took to find the best set up. They made numerous records from the track session noting down various data such as tyre pressures and temperatures, fuel loads etc.  The team now know what changes they need to make to both cars for them to perform at their best, have a clear plan of what to do at the next outing and are currently fighting over who will bring the next lot of inspirational cream cakes.
Just a few track photos (courtesy of Daniel Walton)




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