Convertible SpecE30?

#1

What do you think a convertible SpecE30 would be like? Did the one at Nationals run well? Any disadvantage? I think it would be fun not to have a hard top.

#2

Judging by all the videos i’ve watched it was the fastest thing out there and would have won had it not been for a racing incident. You may risk being banned if you build a convertable. Probably take a few years to happen if not having a top has anything to do with how fast that thing looked at nationals.

#3

The aero penalty didn’t seem to hurt Loren at MidO. I wonder what it would be like at a track with longer straights, higher speeds.

The benefit of the lower center of gravity pales in comparison to the gains you get from distracting your competitors with an open top. :woohoo:

#4

I was just thinking it would be cool not to have a top, but it would suck in the rain and on the starting line in the summer blast. I would need an umbrella girl to provide shade. Why would they be outlawed? I know in the early days of SM there was a hugh discussion about the hard top adding a safty factor, but they are miata drivers, you know.

#5

[quote=“greydog” post=60014]Why would they be outlawed?[/quote]Same reason they sunsetted the 318i. Look at the uproar over splitters. Verts and tintops are a hell of a lot more different than a tintop with/without a splitter.

I wouldn’t spend the money to build one unless I just wanted a fun project that might be eligible for a couple more years.

Besides, I prefer to beat people with equal-ish equipment. :wink:

#6

[quote=“Steve D” post=60013]The aero penalty didn’t seem to hurt Loren at MidO. I wonder what it would be like at a track with longer straights, higher speeds.
[/quote]

Yeah because his lap times were SO much faster than everyone else… in the RAIN. :laugh:
If anything he carried MUCH more water IN the car than anyone else. I wouldn’t say that his (Brilliant) performance there is anything indicative of any performance advantage of a convertible -V- tin roof.

#7

[quote=“SurferShawn” post=60017][quote=“Steve D” post=60013]The aero penalty didn’t seem to hurt Loren at MidO. I wonder what it would be like at a track with longer straights, higher speeds.
[/quote]

Yeah because his lap times were SO much faster than everyone else… in the RAIN. :laugh:
If anything he carried MUCH more water IN the car than anyone else. I wouldn’t say that his (Brilliant) performance there is anything indicative of any performance advantage of a convertible -V- tin roof.[/quote]

Clearly, Loren’s driving was excellent that Saturday. But there is no way to know if his performance would have been better, or worse, or exactly the same, had he been driving a hard top. We can all speculate, based on what we personally think, but there’s no way to actually know.

Carter

#8

I agree with Carter. While I only glanced at the car, it looked like a no-money spared build, and that would make it even harder to tell. I would guess it also had a very strong motor in it as well (was the vert dyno’d?). Looking at the lap times (in the dry), the car wasn’t really on pace. So it’s really hard to tell if there’s an advantage. My gut feeling is probably a very marginal advantage due to the rocker panel build-out.

Here’s probably the best session to compare the vert’s lap times to the rest of the field. This was the 2nd qualifying session (dry). I got pole with a 1:43.769 and the vert popped off a 1:45.853.
http://www.mylaps.com/results/showrun.jsp?id=2074341&perclass=1

If we want to be honest, the vert wasn’t the fastest thing out there during the final race either.
Looking at the lap times (http://www.mylaps.com/results/showrun.jsp?id=2074344&perclass=1), the vert’s fastest time was a 2:08.376 and the fastest times were set by Grace and myself with a time of 2:05.807 and 2:06.814.

There’s really no way of knowing which model has an advantage unless there was a back-to-back test of the vert and a sedan. Both the vert and the other car would need to be piloted by the same driver.

It was actually really cool to see a specE30 vert.

Rob

#9

I wasn’t thinking of it as having an advantage, and I do not see how it would. The cage would add all the stiffening needed to make any SpecE30 suspension work. I am sure there would be a minor disadvantage due to aero, but probably not enough to matter in our cars. I just think a open air car would be something different and there are many racers that like the open feel. Plus it would make it a whole lot easier to install the cage.