Claire “Gray” McIntyre: Pre-Race 1
In a venue canopy, Claire looks over the course map for for the first route, laid out on a fold-out table.
“A downtown course. Never driven through this part of the city in anger but I think I know the roads. This straightfoward layout should really benefit my car. No decreasing radius corners and nor much in the way of mid-corner elevation changes, things that can make a rear-engined car spooky. Instead, this course is comprised of things a rear-engined car excels at: deep braking zones and a heavy emphasis on corner exit speed. I can stop fast, I can put the power down. It’s an easy course to keep textbook; brake in a straight line, smooth inputs, ease on the throttle at apex.”
She heads back to the LCm79/80 and starts it up. The engine is cold and settles into it’s fast idle. For all of it’s power, the 05fm5d Turból V6 sounds actually rather mundane. From the aggressive cams and direct injection, it has has a bit of a lopey, clattery idle, and it will spin up to 8200 rpm, but otherwise, it doesn’t sound much different than any run of the mill DOHC V6. No wild induction roar from its single throttle body, no insane turbo sounds with just 15 psi of boost. It’s not even all that loud; it’s still got mufflers and even in this application it still has the cats in place. Frankly, tuning the ECU to not throw a fit when the cats were removed seemed more trouble than it would be worth. Claire’s mods to the engine were modest; a richer AFR, advanced timing, and a touch more boost. Good enough to maintain a torque plateau from 3500 rpm and peak hp of 596.
"This is a point-to-point, and not a particularly long one at that. Getting a good start will be paramount; It will be hard to challenge if I’m not near the front early on.”
Launching the car is a touch tricky. Unlike a lot of RR vehicles, the LCm79/80 has a seperate transmission and differential instead of a single piece transaxle. As a result, Claire was able to use the electronic LSD hooked into the donor engine’s ECU, with the original close-ratio, dogleg 5 speed. Problem is, the final drive ratio was long, and that combination results in a first gear that reaches beyond 60 mph.
“I’ve got to let it build boost, slip the clutch a bit from stop, then lean on the torque curve and fight the urge to go full throttle. If the rears break loose it might not want to stay pointed straight, and I don’t want to short shift into 2nd and give up any acceleration in the crucial run up to turn one.”
Claire checks her tire pressures, then lights a cigarette, and takes a few drags facing away from the rest of paddock. Her clinical examination of the course gives way to anxious excitment. As if she’s become inpatient with the time it’s taking to smoke, she drops her cigarette to the ground only about half way to the filter and stomps it out.
“No more waiting. Let’s see what I can do.”
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