Does Budget Aero Work? | SIERDC Round 2 Highlands Motorsport Park [VLOG]

The 8600RPM V8 Toyota 86 is on track again, but with a few changes.

In this second update from the Carters South Island Endurance Series, we’re at Highlands Motorsport Park just up the road from HPA Labs.

What was the distinctly aero-less V8 HPA86 at the last round hit the track with some budget aero mods care of ‘Head Spanner Spinner’ Brandon which consisted of a new front splitter, some canards and an ‘eBay special’ rear wing. While we plan to address the aero in more detail for this season, the results of the changes were very noticeable in some areas of the track and saw ‘Car Nerd’ Andre reset the cars PB around the circuit.

During the Friday practice, we had an issue with a cylinder dropping out which has appeared briefly in one previous shakedown of the car, but a quick look at the data and swap over to the spare coil saw us up and running again and resolved that issues. We weren’t quite out of the park though with some more fuel sensor issues popping up right at the start of the race which saw Ben pitting on the formation lap and then again on the first lap while Andre frantically tried to diagnose the issue and implement a solution.

The rest of the race went smoothly with a satisfactory pitstop and off-track wandering from Andre during a pass where he ran out of track but avoided drama partly in thanks to some astute driving from those cars around too, cheers guys. With that out of the way, there was a little time for a few battles right before the chequered flag.

‘Gentleman Driver’ Ben also discusses how much of a help it is for him to chase Andres lap times and get tips from him while driving. This is made possible by the live MoTeC telemetry, and gives Ben a chance to improve his confidence, skills and lap times to get the most from the car as possible. The switch from Hankook tyres to Michelin was also great for the car which is great because the wallet was not as ecstatic with the purchase.

The car's setup was also adjusted slightly from Teretonga where the rear sway bar was removed, but at Highlands this was more hindrance than help so it was refitted and the alignment re-done at the track to make sure everything was dialled back in after the car had been torn apart and reassembled a few times before the race.

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