Matt Shumaker's test body

Matt has been testing with a prototype custom lexan body. He wants to look at different designs that will give him more downforce. This is what he has to say:

Hey Guys,

I have found that I need more downforce than I had with my CF body. So, while I make changes to the CF body, I decided to make a simple, high downforce body for experimentation purposes, and this is what I came up with.

Now, bear in mind, the purpose of this project was to make the simplest body I could. So, I picked up some .060" lexan and went to the shop. 90 minutes later I had this body finished.

So, it is definately ugly with a sort of "Mad-Max" appeal. It reminds me of a late seventies 1/8 scale car.

Anyway, I have run the car at 75mph with this body (6S rather than the 12S it is setup for) for testing.

The car runs very well with this monstrosity, ugly though it is. It even corners very well with the downforce I am getting. The car has a bit of oversteer up to about 40mph. Beyond that, it weather vanes into the wind due to the large side dams acting as rudders. I let the car run for a good 3 to 4 seconds wound out at 75mph and it was well planted and relatively easy to control.

Anyway, I will be running the car tomorrow on 12S if the rain stays away. Tonight and tomorrow morning I am rebuilding the car. I stripped the pinion and spur doing some drag car launches as a test. After all, I have put 42 miles on the car since the CF body was made.

Matt