[Land-speed] HP/DRAG/Traction...

[Rick Byrnes]

To address all questions, then Glenys and I are off to the airport for the 
first leg of a Hawaii vacation and destination of a dear friends daughter.

AERO
The Fusion spent a number of hours in the wind tunnel, and while I don't 
have the specific data available to me now. (no longer employed) the car was 
very neutral at a drag cooef of .213  I think there was a couple hundred 
pounds of lift on both ends at lower drag numbers, but we had set ups to 
increase downforce, but of course increasing drag.  There was insufficient 
time to do all those things at SpeedWeek.  I have been working at the 
management guys that could cause this car to return to the salt.  Only time 
will tell.
Interestingly enough my old Merkur which was ~.28 Cd (no actual data) spun 
the tires in a similar way with 545 lbs ft on reasonable salt.

Also we made the fast run at around 4PM on course 1 which was reported to be 
noticeably less tractable than #2
The differences I saw in the 1/4 mile times between two different runs that 
the car would have run much faster thru the 5 mile with just a little better 
traction.

The curves of tire slip appeared to be pretty much the same at speeds above 
100 MPH.  We ended up using 3rd+4th gear with 5th late in the 4th mile. 
because we had more power and dont know if the power curve had change when 
the fuel cell stacks were so happy and making really good power, the car may 
have gone faster if I had left it in 4th gear.  The driveline in the Fusion 
was configured to provide a power curve similar to an IC engine.  Shifting 
was normal.  Shift light was set at 7500 motor rpm but the motor will run to 
10K rpm.  There is so much that could be optomized, now that the little 
first time gremlins have been chased away.

More when I get home from Hawaii

Rick