Savannah National???

[Daniel]

Mark,

Are you not using the wing extensions because you don't think the '99 wing needs them or for some other reason? I'm curious because I have a set for my '99 that I have not installed yet. The drivers that were running them at Kershaw said the wing extension along with the diffuser extensions made the car feel more stable in high speed turns.

[mark defer]

i run the pennon polecat diffuser on the rear of my '99. when i bought it, jon at pennon also sold me some small strakes that attach on the bottom of the front wings. seems to work, the high speed balance is fine. truth is, i'm probably just too cheap to buy the extensions.


mark d

[Tom Fatur]

Daniel,

I've been running the front wing extensions along with the factory diffuser upgrade combination for a few races now. I have a 99, but with 01 front wings, so it's not exactly the same as your setup. That said, in the GTP group we do have at least one other driver with a 99 using the 99 wing extentions who saw similar results to mine. Here is what we found:

At the Sebring national I did some back to back testing with the front wing extensions on and off. The upgrade to the diffusor was always on during these tests.
The data from the track maps showed higher corner speeds in all the third gear corners (by about 2mph) with the front extensions on, but the terminal speed at the end at the end of the straights was actually about 1 mph less than with the extensions off. The extensions do seem to create a little more drag, but there still was a small overall improvement in lap times by 0.3 seconds with the extensions on. And as others have commented, I noted a better, more stable "feel" to the car.

Reducing the front flap angles with the extensions on gave us the straight line speed back with little or no loss in corner speed and lap times were now consistantly 0.5 seconds better.
The other thing I noticed was that braking seemed to be improved with the front extensions on.

While we should have also experimented with the diffuser extensions on and off, it seemed like a lot of guys have been using a Pennon style or diffuser extensions with the "regular" front wings and have noted improvements; so we figured the diffuser upgrades would stay no matter what we did to the front.

I think the bottom line is that you'll be happy with the extensions on the car if you already have a diffuser upgrade or new Pennon style diffuser.


Tom

[Purple Frog]

In a public service effort to get all of you caught up to '98 Tatuus technology...

I think Comprent has rakes available to mount under the new extended front wings for VD.

[Daniel]

Mark and Tom,

Thanks very much for the info, that is just what I wanted to know. I do have the diffuser extensions also but have yet to install any of it. I guess I'll have to find the time....somehow....anybody invented time travel yet?

P. Froggy, I was very impressed with the underwing strakes when I first saw your Tatoo last year. Ever since I've been thinking they couldn't be that hard to make a mold for. Another project to add to the list. I noticed them under Tim Minor's front wing at Kershaw as well. Something else to buy to keep up with the Joneses. Hey, does this big ring in my nose look to obvious?

[Chas Shaffer]

A few comments:

I tested the wing extensions (which have been around for about 2 years) on private test days at Summit Point and Mid Ohio. I think they have potential but I want to evaluate and test some more before risking them in a race. I plan to test more. I use the 2000 wings but I thought they were the same as the 99 and 01 so I'm a little confused. I know the 98's were different. I thought the only thing that changed in 01 was the nose box but the wings remained the same from 99. Did something change between 99 and 00?

The Pennon Pole Cat diffuser is a real improvement over the 97-00 diffuser. It's almost identical to putting the extensions on the 2001 diffuser. It worked very well on the 97 VD at Kershaw as well. I told my brother it's a must have for his 97.

Mike, you now know what I learned a few years back about Elite Engines, they are awesome. Every engine I've ever sent Steve has come back even better. When I sent Steve my first engine I was a regional racer. He had no idea who I was but treated me like I was Schumacher. I received a prompt estimate, the work was completed on time and instantly I had a very competative engine while getting the lowest rebuild cost I'd ever had. What I like most about Steve is he brings a drivers perspective to how the engine should run. If you put him in any top 5 car at a National he'd smoke us. He was an awesome driver coach at the Sprints last year as well. I've found that perspective really helps his engines. Plus they just flat make big power!

[mark defer]

chas,
the '99 wings are slightly longer, maybe by an inch. but if you run them, you can't run the '00 and newer wing end plates with all the fancy vanes on the outboard side. if you do, the whole assembly will be longer than legal. only plain flat endplates will work.

mark d