The Corsa 28th was once again a cold, semi-wet day.
A dozen drivers checked in. This is a small crowd, which is how things become when we know the day will be wet, cold, and windy.
But for those who brave the weather to play outside, these winter events reward the drivers with tons of space between cars.
The asphalt temperatures stay cold, and drivers learn about tire heating and managing slip angles.
Mild drift angles become normal, and so does front tire push if we get impatient with the steering wheels.
The speedway also becomes flooded in the sand traps and dirt berms, creating lakes and bogs where we normally have dry tumbleweed in other seasons.
Despite the challenge of cold weather, the track did dry after late morning, blessing us with sunshine at about lunchtime, then for the rest of the afternoon.
One of the missions Unplugged Performance brought along was the shake-down testing of Bionic Phoenix... For those not following, this is the Model 3 that crashed halfway up at Pikes Peak 2 years ago.
It's been gutted, bent back to shape, reskinned, and injected with new life.
These days, Craig Coker is responsible for pushing this beast to the limits, and today's shake-down testing goal was to make it hit under 1:50s.
Well, as if everything was written for drama, it so happened that the sun came up, the track dried up, and the battery charged up...and Craig had one chance at 3 PM...
And dramatically enough... a 1-minute, 49-second lap... Put down, mission accomplished.
This wasn't an ideal condition still, and there's a lot to be done with this car, but we are getting ever so close to the record for Model 3s here.
--Moto Miwa
A dozen drivers checked in. This is a small crowd, which is how things become when we know the day will be wet, cold, and windy.
But for those who brave the weather to play outside, these winter events reward the drivers with tons of space between cars.
The asphalt temperatures stay cold, and drivers learn about tire heating and managing slip angles.
Mild drift angles become normal, and so does front tire push if we get impatient with the steering wheels.
The speedway also becomes flooded in the sand traps and dirt berms, creating lakes and bogs where we normally have dry tumbleweed in other seasons.
Despite the challenge of cold weather, the track did dry after late morning, blessing us with sunshine at about lunchtime, then for the rest of the afternoon.
One of the missions Unplugged Performance brought along was the shake-down testing of Bionic Phoenix... For those not following, this is the Model 3 that crashed halfway up at Pikes Peak 2 years ago.
It's been gutted, bent back to shape, reskinned, and injected with new life.
These days, Craig Coker is responsible for pushing this beast to the limits, and today's shake-down testing goal was to make it hit under 1:50s.
Well, as if everything was written for drama, it so happened that the sun came up, the track dried up, and the battery charged up...and Craig had one chance at 3 PM...
And dramatically enough... a 1-minute, 49-second lap... Put down, mission accomplished.
This wasn't an ideal condition still, and there's a lot to be done with this car, but we are getting ever so close to the record for Model 3s here.
--Moto Miwa
