We're here at GridLife now and I wish I had more time to post to keep you guys all updated. I would suggest following our Instagram at @MountainPassPerformance for all of the updates, as we are able to push updates through while busy!
Quickly - our original weight posted above was incorrect - we must have had a scale reading incorrectly. The car is actually 3890lbs, not 3800lbs. Sorry! The wheels and tires increased the weight by 2lbs, simply because of the weight of the much larger tires.
It's been an incredible last few days here at Grid Life. This event is wild, there are over 10,000 people. Some are here for Time Attack, some for Drifting, and others just for the concert with some famous artists. I'm really proud to say that we have the first Model 3 in the world to compete in motorsport, and I think we did a really good job showing how capable this car is.
Everyone has been obsessing over both Blue Lightning and the Tesla. We're actually amazed at how many people are in love with the Tesla. The wheels are a huge hit, but the performance of the car has everyone very surprised as well. I don't think I made a post about that, but we got the Advan RGIII's on the car in 19x9+25 and 19x10+35 with 245/275 RE71R. This is just our track setup. You wouldn't want to run this on the street! Our efficiency went from ~150wh/km to over 220wh/km on the highway!
Unfortunately I've never driven this track before, so my own driving has left some to be desired, and with changing weather conditions it's been tricky to master the track. Either way we're faster than many purpose built cars for this class.
Hopefully I'll have time to make a longer post about the event, but right now it's 11:30pm and I want to get some real information out there for those interested.
The car was not enjoyable for the first few sessions. With the factory stability control on the drive unit would not apply full power unless there was very little lateral G / steering angle input. I suspect this is a new update as the car in California did not exhibit this behavior at ALL.
Secondly any aggressive driving was shut down by the stability control, to the point where if you would drive the car at the limit there would be significant laptime loss as the VDC continues to pulse the outside front brakes. I suspect the higher G forces from these RE71-R tires are making the problem worse.
We were able to disable the VDC while retaining ABS, and that was a difference of over 5 seconds per lap personally. Obviously results will differ based on driving style / level / car setup. But the fact that the drive unit would not apply power while turning is basically the same as putting in a rookie driver that doesn't accelerate until the car is totally in the straight away, so you can imagine the lap time gain from that change alone.
Even with Motul RBF660 and Ferrodo DS2500 pads I managed to boil the fluid after about 3 hot laps and the pedal went to the floor. Note that I am a pretty late braker and this was consistently 1.1G's in every braking zone of decel. The pads also faded before the fluid boiled, I guess I should have taken the hint
We then installed the larger rotors and pads and haven't had any brake degradation since then, even with the relatively mild DS2500 pad compound. I'll pound some more laps tomorrow to see if I can overheat the brakes, but I think this rotor upgrade is all that is needed for a very trackable setup.
The first two sessions with the car I was in the 1:47's, and after the brake upgrade, setup changes, and stability control improvements the time was down at a 1:42.9. I'm confident there is another 1.5 seconds in it as well. The fastest car in our class was a C6 Z06 I believe, who did a 1:38.9, who is someone that knows the track well and has been coming here regularly. So only 4 seconds off of a car like that is something I can live with. Although I'd like the gap to be smaller
You can see a screenshot of the data from the initial lap to the best lap I have data on so far. The data trace below is of a 1:43 lap as I didn't have the Motec in the Model 3 at the time of the 1:42 - it was in Blue Lightning
We've been swapping ECU's and reflashing firmware all weekend long!
Look carefully at the "Throttle Position" and "Motor Power" - on the white lines (the slower lap) you can see many instances where I was requesting full power but only getting 40-60kW. Needless to say that ruins the exit speed onto the next straight! You can also see the big difference in braking that comes from confidence that the brakes will be there for me when needed.
That's about it for today. One more day on track tomorrow but no more competitions. Blue Lightning did really well today, I only ran 3 laps in it all week as we've been focusing on the Model 3, but that bit me in the ass today in competition as we qualified in a poor spot - which meant we had to go up against the 2nd fastest car in our class - a high horsepower AWD car with aero on a wet track
I won the first battle but unfortunately I drove too aggressively on my second lap and got into a big slide and threw away a chance to move on to the next round. Sorry EV lovers! Everyone loved the competition though and were amazed at how capable these STREET car EVs were.
Remember that we are competing with 100% street cars against purpose built cars here - so we're really proud to show the capabilities of these cars and we've been talking to heaps of people who keep telling us this is the future (thanks for letting us know!) and showing interest in buying a new car. We've had a number of Model 3 reservation holders come see the car too - having never seen a Model 3 before but now seeing a modified one racing on track!
More cool stuff to share tomorrow.. I had a pro drive the Tesla and he loved it, and Chris Forsberg (a professional drift driver) drove Blue Lighting and also really enjoyed it. We're doing our best to spread the EV word! Still so much to learn / do / improve...
