I’ve been catching a bunch of abuse about not posting… I didn’t know you cared so much!
After getting abuse for posting non-Midlana material, I thought, okay, I won’t, which has led to the aforementioned periods of, well, nothing. I haven’t posted because I feel a bit guilty about not having anything worthy. There are a couple track events coming up, but they’re scheduled out far enough that registration hasn’t even opened yet. There’s also a Laguna Seca event, and while part of me wants to go, I’m too afraid until the car has wings. Why?
I used to drive my old Datsun 1200 at that track and loved it, coming up over the rise past Start/Finish, with the car getting just a little light as it crested the hill and the track curves left. It drifted over toward the right edge of the track somewhat, but no problem.
Fast forward to running the Mini there, which had probably 3X the power/weight. The first time I crested that rise I remembered thinking “oh crap”, because I was carrying way more speed and at the same time, the front end got really light, so the car floated way over to the right edge of the track and there was nothing I could do about it (lifting abruptly can cause a spin). After that “clincher”, I had to let off slightly as I got to the top of the rise so that weight transferred forwards onto the front tires, allowing it to turn.
Fast forward to now, where Midlana has 2.5X the power/weight of the Mini, with even less weight on the front end. Unless I let off, probably a lot, before the crest of the hill, I worry I could do a “Mercedes Backflip” (jump to 0:32). Could that really happen? I don’t know, but suspect Midlana would be at around 120 mph at that point, and with no down force at the front and air getting under it, so I don’t want to find out. So, wings are in order before running there. I’m not entirely imagining things. Two friends, after hearing my plans for the weight and power of Midlana back during the design phase, staged an intervention, saying that they seriously recommended I not track the car without wings, especially if there are any rises or drops.
Another annoying issue with Laguna Seca is, of course, the sound limit, which is 90 or 92 dB. Even some OEM cars struggle to reach that, and I have no idea how loud Midlana is at 50 feet. Yes, it’s got a muffler again, but 90 dB is really low. I’d hate to pay the high track fee, drive the 450 miles there, only to get black-flagged after a couple laps for sound (which did happen with the Mini).
Back to wings for a moment, my brother found another source of extruded aluminum wings, these being about 50% larger chord than the ones I already have. Haven’t decided to switch to these for the main elements, available from Nine Lives Racing.