Testing:adjust the car, not the driver?
Four sessions in the antique last Saturday. The first one got the tire pressures right, after which no braking was necessary except for entry to Big Bend. Waddya want for 87 hp with class-mandated hockey pucks for tires?
Next two sessions were soft and stiff rear sway bar. Stiff didn't make the driver's buns very happy but both equaled the times in the fourth session with no sway bar at all. In the third and fourth sessions, I wasn't happy with the feel for the first three laps, after which I/it seemed to settle down and it was always the 8,9 and 10 laps that showed equal quick times.
Just to confuse things further, the last hot lap of the day (lap 10) was 4/10 sec. faster than any in the previous sessions. When you don't have horsepower, that says a lot for relaxing and being smooth.
So on the one hand, a consistent driver probably would have seen more dramatic differences in the car setups. On the other hand, this test session improved the driver as much as the car.
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QUALIFICATIONS 1987: Davidson: "Sammy Swindell's car runs a normally aspirated stock-block engine with Pontiac heads. It was developed by John Buttera." Palmer: "Wow, yeah, he used to play the sax with Louis Prima." Davidson: "That was Sam Butera." Palmer: "Oh, yeah."
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