About our vehicle, "Panda Express"
Seems appropriate to describe the vehicle Doug and I will be driving (and coexisting in, for eight straight days) during One Lap of America.
"Panda Express" is a cyber gray 2013 Corvette Z06. 2013 is the last year of the C6 generation, and it's also a 60th anniversary edition—1953 was the first year of the Corvette (back when it came with an inline 6-cylinder engine, what??). Its moniker comes from the fact that I'm Chinese American (my parents are from Taiwan, so Taiwanese American really)... no, I don't own a Panda Express franchise restaurant. I'm not sure I've ever eaten at a Panda Express restaurant (aside from maybe once at an airport somewhere, because it seemed vaguely more appealing than the other dismal food offerings).
Just something to underscore the fact that the vast majority of Corvette drivers aren't Asian. The car has a Colorado vanity license plate that reads "PNDAXPS" to go along with the logos a friend made for me that are displayed on the front splitter endplates.
We'll be running in the GT-1 "Big Bore" (3.5L and larger) class, where many of our competitors will be armed with cars with better power-to-weight ratios, such as Corvette ZR-1s, Dodge Vipers, and modified Nissan GT-Rs and Porsche 911 Turbos. Our Z06 has a 100%-stock engine (aside from mods that don't really make any additional power, such as a smooth-bore silicone intake coupler and a lighter-than-OEM Corsa exhaust) and has "only" 505 crank horsepower and basically no weight reduction—the rear cargo area interior carpet has been removed, and there's a fiberglass Recaro Pole Position race seat on the driver's side, but those very marginal weight savings are negated by the larger and heavier front wheels/tires; the six-point harness and harness bar behind the seats; the front splitter; and the rear wing. The car retains the full interior (other than the cargo area carpet), air conditioning, even the 52-pound boat anchor of a partially motorized OEM passenger seat will remain in the car for the duration of One Lap.
That being said, if we don't do well against our competition, it'll mainly be because we didn't drive well enough, not because we were outgunned in the power department.
Here's the list of mods that help it corner better, stop better, and be more reliable than as GM delivered it:
Dewitts radiator
Setrab oil cooler
Improved Racing 180-degree oil cooler thermostat
Lingenfelter thermostat
Red Line 40-weight race oil
Katech fixed serpentine belt tensioner
Recaro Pole Position seat
Sharkbar harness bar
Schroth Profi II 6-point camlock harness
Forgestar 18" x 12" deep concave CF5 wheels
Falken Azenis RT615K+ 315/30-18 tires
PSi Ohlins Raceline TTX-based double-adjustable coilovers
LG Motorsports G1 swaybars w LG quiet endlinks
Ridetech delrin suspension bushings
Corsa Extreme catback exhaust
Corsa XO crossover pipe
Stoptech STR-60 Trophy front 6-piston brake calipers (380mm rotors) with Stoptech SR34 pads
Stoptech STR-40 Trophy rear 4-piston brake calipers (350mm rotors)
Trackspec Motorsports hood vents
APR GTC-500 rear wing
APR carbon fiber front lip / splitter
DIY 11/32" plywood and fiberglass front splitter with aluminum end plates
Blendmount radar detector mount (for an Escort 8500)
ARP 1007708 extended wheel studs
aluminum wheel spacers (10mm front, 7mm rear)
A note on our tire choice: the RT615K+ is not the fastest 200 treadwear tire, but it is likely to be a better tire for any wet driving conditions—the wet skidpad at the very beginning of One Lap, and any track events that we may have to run in the rain—than the BF Goodrich Rival S, which is the only other tire choice for us, since we opted to run 18" wheels. The idea behind running a square setup (same tire and wheel size and same wheel offset front and rear) is that this way, we'll only need to carry a single 315/30-18 tire that can serve as a spare for all four corners of the car, should we manage to damage a tire during the event, such as hitting some metal debris during the highway transits. Since cargo space is extremely limited when we aren't towing a mini trailer and no support vehicles are allowed, bringing two spare tires (e.g., an 18" front tire and a 19" rear tire) is out of the question. Using the same size/offset wheel front and rear will enable us to rotate the tires about halfway through One Lap in an effort to equalize tire wear (the tires wear at about the same rate, front vs rear, but the front tires chew through the inside edges faster because there's more negative camber).
Here are a few pictures of the Panda Express... this car has seen action in SCCA autocross (in CAM-S class, where it managed the last trophy position at Solo National 2017) and as a track car in NASA Time Trials (TT-1).
You can see that the front splitter has gone through some revisions before I arrived at a design that holds up (read: doesn't get ripped off the front of the car from aero loading) and is a good compromise between downforce and drag/additional frontal area.
"Panda Express" is a cyber gray 2013 Corvette Z06. 2013 is the last year of the C6 generation, and it's also a 60th anniversary edition—1953 was the first year of the Corvette (back when it came with an inline 6-cylinder engine, what??). Its moniker comes from the fact that I'm Chinese American (my parents are from Taiwan, so Taiwanese American really)... no, I don't own a Panda Express franchise restaurant. I'm not sure I've ever eaten at a Panda Express restaurant (aside from maybe once at an airport somewhere, because it seemed vaguely more appealing than the other dismal food offerings).
Just something to underscore the fact that the vast majority of Corvette drivers aren't Asian. The car has a Colorado vanity license plate that reads "PNDAXPS" to go along with the logos a friend made for me that are displayed on the front splitter endplates.
We'll be running in the GT-1 "Big Bore" (3.5L and larger) class, where many of our competitors will be armed with cars with better power-to-weight ratios, such as Corvette ZR-1s, Dodge Vipers, and modified Nissan GT-Rs and Porsche 911 Turbos. Our Z06 has a 100%-stock engine (aside from mods that don't really make any additional power, such as a smooth-bore silicone intake coupler and a lighter-than-OEM Corsa exhaust) and has "only" 505 crank horsepower and basically no weight reduction—the rear cargo area interior carpet has been removed, and there's a fiberglass Recaro Pole Position race seat on the driver's side, but those very marginal weight savings are negated by the larger and heavier front wheels/tires; the six-point harness and harness bar behind the seats; the front splitter; and the rear wing. The car retains the full interior (other than the cargo area carpet), air conditioning, even the 52-pound boat anchor of a partially motorized OEM passenger seat will remain in the car for the duration of One Lap.
That being said, if we don't do well against our competition, it'll mainly be because we didn't drive well enough, not because we were outgunned in the power department.
Here's the list of mods that help it corner better, stop better, and be more reliable than as GM delivered it:
Dewitts radiator
Setrab oil cooler
Improved Racing 180-degree oil cooler thermostat
Lingenfelter thermostat
Red Line 40-weight race oil
Katech fixed serpentine belt tensioner
Recaro Pole Position seat
Sharkbar harness bar
Schroth Profi II 6-point camlock harness
Forgestar 18" x 12" deep concave CF5 wheels
Falken Azenis RT615K+ 315/30-18 tires
PSi Ohlins Raceline TTX-based double-adjustable coilovers
LG Motorsports G1 swaybars w LG quiet endlinks
Ridetech delrin suspension bushings
Corsa Extreme catback exhaust
Corsa XO crossover pipe
Stoptech STR-60 Trophy front 6-piston brake calipers (380mm rotors) with Stoptech SR34 pads
Stoptech STR-40 Trophy rear 4-piston brake calipers (350mm rotors)
Trackspec Motorsports hood vents
APR GTC-500 rear wing
APR carbon fiber front lip / splitter
DIY 11/32" plywood and fiberglass front splitter with aluminum end plates
Blendmount radar detector mount (for an Escort 8500)
ARP 1007708 extended wheel studs
aluminum wheel spacers (10mm front, 7mm rear)
A note on our tire choice: the RT615K+ is not the fastest 200 treadwear tire, but it is likely to be a better tire for any wet driving conditions—the wet skidpad at the very beginning of One Lap, and any track events that we may have to run in the rain—than the BF Goodrich Rival S, which is the only other tire choice for us, since we opted to run 18" wheels. The idea behind running a square setup (same tire and wheel size and same wheel offset front and rear) is that this way, we'll only need to carry a single 315/30-18 tire that can serve as a spare for all four corners of the car, should we manage to damage a tire during the event, such as hitting some metal debris during the highway transits. Since cargo space is extremely limited when we aren't towing a mini trailer and no support vehicles are allowed, bringing two spare tires (e.g., an 18" front tire and a 19" rear tire) is out of the question. Using the same size/offset wheel front and rear will enable us to rotate the tires about halfway through One Lap in an effort to equalize tire wear (the tires wear at about the same rate, front vs rear, but the front tires chew through the inside edges faster because there's more negative camber).
Here are a few pictures of the Panda Express... this car has seen action in SCCA autocross (in CAM-S class, where it managed the last trophy position at Solo National 2017) and as a track car in NASA Time Trials (TT-1).
You can see that the front splitter has gone through some revisions before I arrived at a design that holds up (read: doesn't get ripped off the front of the car from aero loading) and is a good compromise between downforce and drag/additional frontal area.
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