Virginia Research Center Gives Hands-On Instruction
SoVa Motion is presenting a thre- part seminar series and we attended part one. SoVa is a division of the GCAPS center located near Danville, VA on the grounds of the Virginia International Raceway. GCAPS stands for Global Center for Automotive Performance Simulation, and they have some of the most sophisticated testing equipment available anywhere in the world.
Frank Della Pia is the Executive Director of GCAPS and spent 35 years in various positions relating to vehicle performance at General Motors. The Technical Director is Kevin Kefauver, Ph.D. who in the past has worked for Dale Earnhardt, Inc. racing managing the shaker rig test program.
As related to circle track racing and stock cars, SoVa Motion has available an Eight Post rig used to re-create the dynamics of the motion of the car when circling a race track. They also have the most advanced tire simulation machine in the world and they have tested and have data on the actual tires being used at short tracks like you run on.
They can also measure race cars for geometry and do simulation runs and reports on the eight post rig. They offer track testing and data acquisition with two engineers and will come to your shop to assist you in setup preparation. They also provide race day consulting. Now that you know a little about SoVa Motion, let us tell you a little about their seminar series.
As of this writing, Keith Montgomery, the motor sports director at SoVa Motion, is conducting a series of seminars designed to help racers understand more about race car dynamics and introduce them to the tools available that can improve their setups.
I attended the first of three one day seminar on October 11th and observed as Keith and guest speaker Shane Huffman, spoke to those in attendance. They told the attendees of the most important aspects of race car preparation and setups. Keith is a long time crew member of NASCAR teams climbing the ladder from short track racing up to crew chief in NASCAR Cup competition.
Shane, as you might recall, is a very successful driver who excelled in the Pro Cup Series for a number of years and is now a crew chief for a top NASCAR Camping World Truck team. His extensive range of experience was apparent as he described in terms every racer can understand, the critical steps race teams need to take to become more successful.
We visited the nearby NTRC facility (National Tire Research Center) and observed as the crew tested a passenger car tire for a major tire manufacturer. The NTRC facility is another division of GCAPS. Keith explained how the tire rig simulates life on the road using a rolling road, flat belt simulation technique that produces a tire shape and contact patch true to the reality of everyday use. It has done the same true testing for race tires.
We then moved to the Eight Post rig where Keith had mounted up a NASCAR Late Model Stock car so that the attendees could watch and participate in testing the setup. The car was “run” through a typical lap re-enacted from data taken from an actual race car running a local track.
Check out SoVa’s Promotional Video of their capabilities:
We made changes to the car to see what the rig showed as a performance difference and the data correlated with what we knew should be the results of those changes. If we weren’t sure what the changes would result in, the data would show us and we could decide if that were a positive or negative change.
The seminar series consists of three sessions, all presented on Tuesdays. The second part was an on-track demonstration of data acquisition on location at Orange County Speedway in Rougemont, NC. This is a very fast, 16 degree banking, 3/8ths mile track. The seminar took place on October 25th.
At this seminar session, racers observed firsthand how the data gathering equipment was installed and what were the most important types of data to record. At this test, steering, shock movement, throttle, RPM, lap plus segment times and speed were recorded.
As a plus, the engineering team also installed load sensors on the bumps to record when they were on and off the bumps and how much loading was taking place throughout the lap. This data represents the most essential areas of data you would need to evaluate your setup performance and how the driver reacts to the setup conditions.
As changes are made, the data shows the results not only in lap times, but steering input, chassis motion (shock and spring travel) and chassis balance. It’s one thing to talk about these tools and how they can benefit the racer, but quite another to actually see how they work and to observe the process of reading, evaluating and making changes based on those results.
The third and final seminar session will take place on Tuesday, November 8th at the SoVa Motion building at VIR. Keith will present information and analysis using the ChassisSim software program as well as tire reports on the Hoosier 45 race tire. He will show the students how that data can be used to improve the cars setup and performance before going to the race track.
Even if you were not able to attend the first two seminar sessions, part three will be very useful because it will provide new and innovative information using data from earlier test sessions to go the extra distance by putting all of that to use.
Source:
SoVa Motion
1020 Lotus Drive
Alton, VA 24520
434-766-6644
www.sovamotion.com
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