Mon May 12, 2014 6:51 am by 07CobaltGirl
While SME may not be doing well in the BRC, much has been learned! This has been an adventure for our company, who primarily specializes in building V8 OHV engines, in the classic American tradition. The smaller motors were a challenge, and we hope to learn even more once all of the results are in.
On the SME Lasher Mini (S1000 entry), we've managed to gain 14 spots on the BRC Stg 1 results with some additional motor tuning. The paltry 86.8kW motor which was submitted has been vastly improved to 103.9kW, shaving .7s off the 0-100km times and .4s from the 1/4 mile times, all while maintaining the weight balance and cornering g's of the original car. Once the competition is completed, we hope to analyze the other 5 stages to determine what else can be learned from the venture. For now, it seems the review on the Trump Card was just about spot on!
Not nearly as much has been learned thus far on the SME Lasher (BRC 1100 entry). We do hope to gather a list of other N/A and I6 engines to compare our results. We did not expect to compete well with the Turbo submissions, and it appears we were right. We did think we had a competitive entry among the N/A submissions, but it seems we were lacking there as well. An additional 1.6kW was eeked out of the 3.0L motor, but it did not make a significant impact on the times achieved. Our fears of running mid-pack have unfortunately been realized, as top speed simply wasn't there for the poor Lasher. It did manage a nice 13th finish in Stg2, and this is the sliver lining for this event.
Much thanks to Der Bayer and all of the organizers and contributors, as well as all of the participants!