TKR Test Day - Sept 1

[RaceTime]

TKR TEST DAY GOES WELL

Team Kiwi Racing have completed a full test day at Winton race way on Monday in the teams All Black Holden V8 Supercar as they prepare for the upcoming Sandown Endurance race.

Driver Craig Baird completed 75 laps and endurance driver Mark Porter completed 25 laps on the twisty and technical Winton circuit which is approximately 2 hours out of Melbourne before the TKR crew tried a few new pieces of equipment and different set ups on the car to ensure they are maximising its full potential.

"The TKR car is now very strong with the development we have been doing in house to get us back on the pace over the last couple of months"

"All we need now is a clean run and we will be right on the pace at Sandown which will be great for our legion of Kiwi fans, Supporters and Sponsors" Said Baird.

For Porter it was his first drive in the TKR car.

"The TKR car is certainly different from the car I drive in the Konica series, it is a step up in terms of braking ability and engine horsepower which is great to experience and the TKR crew were great to work with" said Porter.

Baird and Porter will contest the Sandown 500 Endurance as the Team Kiwi driver pairing on the 14th September at Sandown Raceway approximately 20kms from Melbourne's City Centre.

The Sandown 500 is billed as lead up to the Bathurst endurance race and is a two driver 500km race.

[GTRMagic]

Interesting that the TKR and IRC cars are from the same parent but the driver claims a difference in feel between them.

Ignoring the engine of course (Neill Burns is the claim to fame for TKR these day), but the brakes were a surprise.

I assume TKR will release their new enduro livery soon?

[The Tool Man]

I just hope they do really well, theyve kinda plugged away at it for the last few years and havent done to badly a top result for them would be nice.

[RRR]

GTR, are the Kiwi mob changing their colour scheme for the enduros?

[Onlooker]

You can change the feel of the brakes by simply changing the pad compound so maybe the enduro compound felt a bit different and a bit of a lack of exposure to the diferent compounds explains it.

[GTRMagic]

I understand Hydraulink are taking a larger space on the car, so I imagine the paintwork would be slightly different

Its odd that the driver thought the brakes were better though, doesnt an enduro compound brake pad feel worse because the bite isnt as good as a sprint pad?

[Onlooker]

Yes and no, what may have happened is that the "sprint pad" has an initial bite but tapers off thus allowing you to modulate the pedal and brake much deeper into the corner that is disturbing to the driver and makes him zip tyres easily,where as the enduro pad is more progressive and allows the driver to maintain a more constant pressure as the speed decreases.
It can also be the configuration of the rear brakes,ie rotor diameter,slots/no slots that gives the driver greater confidence that the car isn't going to swap ends on him and encourages him to apply a greater initial force on the pedal giving the sensation of braking better.
Then again it may just be that the pedal ratio is different and so are the piston sizes in the m/cyl or calipers and thus feels more to his liking
It may have one of those little rear brake dampeners on it too to prevent rears locking
Finnaly he may just be making it up in the effort to have "provided the engineers with good feedback" included in their press statement like all the hot shots do.
There just my guesses anyway somebody in the know about these things may be able to shed some light on it
:confused::confused:

[GTRMagic]

I never took too much notice of the Hydraulink car to know if it is running Harrop, AP Racing or Brembo brakes.

TKR have Brembos up front and Harrops on the rear usually... drivers in the past have said that the brands make a difference to the feel, I suspect it has a lot to do with the variables you describe more than anything Onlooker.

Oh, and if they have the grooved, cross drilled discs on the TKR thing, the brakes will feel & bite better than flat discs

[Onlooker]

Some times bite on the rear = sh1t scared driver and slower lap time.

But yes there are so many variables that anyone of them could contribute to the feel of the brakes.Level 1 teams swap brands of calipers so often that a car a few years old can be very different to a current spec car.Equally pad material can change from track to track in some teams and be almost the same at every track fot another.When 2 drivers have a different opinion it can make it interesting when sharing a car.Some just point blank refuse to use compound A even if the other driver proves it is quicker.