gixxerdrew
DSM Wiseman
- 664
- 21
- Oct 5, 2007
-
Yokohama, Japan,
Asia
I got a couple PMs asking whats going on with the car so i thought I'd post up. I've been busy here in Japan with races but I talked again with Mike, the owner of the new sponsor shop, Competition GT in Costa Mesa, CA. Things are moving forward and we’re planning a little rebirth for the car. It is going to be taken off the racing scene and developed to come back hard. We realized with two consecutive races that we either had a DNF or nearly had a DNF, both times from gearbox. We exploded 3 gearboxes in two races. Not good.
Our major limiting factor right now is drive train reliability. I talked about the concepts with Mike and they are now redesigning the engine mount setup. The goal is to take the loads off the gearbox and drop some weight in the process. It will also increase the front structural rigidity of the car. The fabrication capabilities they have there are top notch. I can’t wait to see the results. We are essentially working to resolve DSM gearbox problems without the expense of a dog box.
So far things are going really well Mike talks to me often about what I can honestly expect and keeps me updated with progress and every thing he’s said he’ll do he delivered on schedule. If you’ve worked with a lot of shops before you’ll know that's pretty rare.
John Shepherd is building us a very special gearbox now, the target is to put the driver in for reliable laps and develop the car to its full potential. Although we have been winning every race, we knew that the cars potential was still on the table. Win or lose, none of us are willing to accept less than the cars potential. I've been really happy with how supportive of the cars goals the shop has been. We plan to develop to where it can run continuously, event after event. Our progress before was incremented in seconds per lap and now we begin the search for tenths. I feel really proud of that and I think you guys are going to love how the car turns out.
Since we’re building replicas of the body this summer I get a chance to clean up all the little things on it that needed to be done and rework the exterior appearance. Stay tuned and keep your eyes on the car magazines
Our major limiting factor right now is drive train reliability. I talked about the concepts with Mike and they are now redesigning the engine mount setup. The goal is to take the loads off the gearbox and drop some weight in the process. It will also increase the front structural rigidity of the car. The fabrication capabilities they have there are top notch. I can’t wait to see the results. We are essentially working to resolve DSM gearbox problems without the expense of a dog box.
So far things are going really well Mike talks to me often about what I can honestly expect and keeps me updated with progress and every thing he’s said he’ll do he delivered on schedule. If you’ve worked with a lot of shops before you’ll know that's pretty rare.
John Shepherd is building us a very special gearbox now, the target is to put the driver in for reliable laps and develop the car to its full potential. Although we have been winning every race, we knew that the cars potential was still on the table. Win or lose, none of us are willing to accept less than the cars potential. I've been really happy with how supportive of the cars goals the shop has been. We plan to develop to where it can run continuously, event after event. Our progress before was incremented in seconds per lap and now we begin the search for tenths. I feel really proud of that and I think you guys are going to love how the car turns out.
Since we’re building replicas of the body this summer I get a chance to clean up all the little things on it that needed to be done and rework the exterior appearance. Stay tuned and keep your eyes on the car magazines
