Crossing the line at 195.7 mph in Oct 2009 was not good enough for Team Vivid. As their first time competing at the famous Texas Mile, the crew from Vivid Racing were happy, but not satisfied. With the next event scheduled for March 26, 2010, this is their story of how in 20 days they will prep their Porsche 997 car to break 200 mph.
Starting March 6th, they will chronicle their updates with pictures, video, and more including live coverage of the event. Make sure to follow them on Twitter @VividRacingCom for exclusive updates.
So the Story Starts...
With about 800hp to the crank, we were sure we could be 200mph and would be coming home superstars. We fell short of that mark by 4mph due to a couple of reasons that we will remedy shortly. The first major change will be aerodynamics. There is an obvious reason Porsche spends millions on designing their cars the way they do. Just cause it looks cool, does not mean it is functional. For most of us, that does not matter as we almost never get over 100mph or at most 150mph for fun. But when you are chugging down the strip trying to break records, aerodynamics means everything. Although the Vorsteiner carbon fiber front and rear bumpers are aesthetically pleasing, they are not doing the trick. The front bumper has large side radiator pockets that catch air slowing it down. When running these blocked off, improvements were seen, but cooling abilities lessen. As well, the rear bumper with the straight pipes acted like a parachute catching air. The rear bumper could be modified, but for the sake of our goals, we are going back to stock. The front bumper will have the Agency Power OEM like front lip spoiler on it and the rear bumper will get a complete custom aluminum rear diffuser from the plastic under tray back. This will help eliminate any air flow issues we might have had before. Like our previous attempts, we will remove the carbon wing blade and leave trunk lid with GT2 style inlets to help force air into the engine bay for cooling.
Visit the Vivid Racing Forum for the complete 20 Days to 200 MPH story including pictures and video.
Arizona's Premier Performance Shop and Service facility located at 1429 W. Scott Ave. Gilbert, Az 85233. Vivid Racing has an executive 15,000 sq ft facility to provide customers local and nationally with a large selection of parts, service and installation, as well as dyno tuning. www.vividracing.com
Beverly Hills Porsche is centrally located to all of Los Angeles. Stop by and see why there is NO SUBSTITUTE!
Beverly Hills Porsche
8425 Wilshire Blvd
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
Beverly Hills Porsche On-Line
Jay Huffschmidt
Porsche Lifestyle Manager
310.481.8238
Follow us on Twitter @BevHillsPorsche
Beverly Hills Porsche
8425 Wilshire Blvd
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
Beverly Hills Porsche On-Line
Jay Huffschmidt
Porsche Lifestyle Manager
310.481.8238
Follow us on Twitter @BevHillsPorsche
UPDATE 3/29/2010
ReplyDeleteWe started our 20 days to 200mph thread knowing that it would take some work to reach that goal. We figured some people would read it, some would cheer us on, and some would put us down. In the end, we not only reached our goal, we smashed it by 6mph. In October 2009 we were only able to touch 195.7mph. That extra 4mph did not seem far away, but was tough to obtain. Now in March 2010, we went back to Goliad with some new tricks, engineering, and desire only to leave with smiles.
Building a car to go fast in a 1/4 mile is something many people do. But building a car that can reach speeds in a 1 mile race over the $1M production Bugatti Veyron is another story. We learned alot from our first go at it. When we return to the Mile again, we will have learned more and will continue to strive for the best. Each little tweak the Vivid Racing Team added helped. This was not by luck, but determination, talent, and proving that we are more then just a place to buy car parts.
So what were the final numbers:
Run 1 Shakedown - 195mph
Run 2 - 202.1mph
Run 3 - 203.6mph
Run 4 - 206.2mph
60-130mph Time with PBox - 6.04sec