Gallery: Corvette Racing Team Refines an American Icon
Image: LinkedIn via TechCrunch01corvette-racing-corkscrew
MONTEREY, Calif. -- If you want to see innovation in motorsports, all the cool stuff is happening in endurance racing. The American Le Mans Series is a showcase of alt fuels and advanced drivetrains, an automotive laboratory where the rules encourage experimentation that points toward the future of motorsports. It’s the only place to see a diesel Audi challenging a [Lola-Mazda powered by isobutanol](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/2010/03/isobutanol-american-le-mans-series/) while Corvettes, BMWs and others burning blended [ethanol](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/tag/ethanol/) chase the championship. There’s even a [hybrid Porsche out there](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/tag/porsche-911-gt3-r-hybrid/) challenging your perception of gas-electric technology. By embracing such diversity, American Le Mans says it has reduced its petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas emissions more than 40 percent since 2005. More importantly, it has shown the viability of these alternatives under the most demanding circumstances in races lasting six, 10 or even 12 hours. “It’s very innovative,” says Doug Fehan, program manager for Corvette Racing. “Manufacturers are given the latitude to experiment. And people see that, if we can use this in a race car, then mom can use it in her SUV and dad can use it in his pickup truck.” The [American Le Mans Series](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/tag/alms/) wraps up this weekend with Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. We got a look behind the scenes of endurance racing with Corvette Racing during the season’s penultimate race, the six-hour ModSpace American Le Mans Monterey at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
02corvette-racing-paddock-02
There are five classes in the American Le Mans Series, from the top-tier LMP1 machines to the GTC racers that look like cars you see in showrooms. Corvette Racing competes in the GT class, which ALMS describes as “moderately modified, production-based grand touring cars.” Uh-huh. These cars a moderately modified like [*The Simpsons*](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/underwire/tag/the-simpsons/) has been moderately successful. Although the Corvette C6R — shorthand for Corvette, sixth-generation, racing — looks like the utterly bonkers Corvette ZR1, the two cars are kissing cousins at best. The racer shares the stocker’s aerodynamics, aluminum chassis rails, steering system and windshield frame. You’ll also find a few components pulled from other GM vehicles, including an air conditioning compressor from the [Chevrolet Volt](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/reviews/2011/04/chevy-volt/) (more on that in a bit). But most of the car and the components that make it run, stop and turn were built specifically for [auto racing](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/tag/auto-racing/). Still, a lot of what you see on the race car will appear on the next-gen Corvette, and a lot of what makes the current Z06 or ZR1 so sweet on the street was cribbed from the C5R. “What we learn in racing, we actually apply to the cars you drive,” Fehan said. For example, the C5R shaped the aerodynamics of the sixth-generation Corvette, which received flush headlights, a wider grille opening, some aero tweaks and a more laid-back roofline. The C5R engine block made it into the Z06. It’s an endless cycle, where the street car provides the basis of the racer, which influences the next street car. “The seventh-generation Corvette will be reflective of everything we’ve learned racing the ZR1,” Fehan said. [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/autopia/2011/09/corvette-racing-engine.jpg) Hidden beneath the massive carbon fiber airbox is a 5.5-liter V8 putting down 490 horsepower and something approaching a metric boatload of torque. That’s a rough approximation, because no one with the team would tell us the actual figure. According to the rules, the 6.2-liter engine from the ZR1 is far too big, so Fehan’s crew had to tweak it. “They only let you run a 5.5-liter,” Fehan said, “so we had to reduce the stroke and the bore.” The cylinder heads are “production based,” meaning they’ve got a General Motors part number but have been modified and stuffed with titanium valves. The engine runs 13.8:1 compression and burns E85 fuel. Forced induction is a no-no in American Le Mans, so the ZR1’s supercharger was nixed. The ZR1’s carbon ceramic brake rotors also got the axe because the rules require steel brakes. And you’ll notice a pair of 28 mm restrictors — those aluminum funnels — on the airbox intake. They limit the amount of air going into the engine and rein in the ZR1s otherworldly power. The end result of all this is the 638-horsepower ZR1 is, in many ways, meaner than the racer it inspired. “We’ve essentially neutered the ZR1 to take it racing,” Fehan said.
03corvette-racing-tommy-milner
Tommy Milner is one of four guys lucky, and skilled, enough to drive the two C6R racers Corvette Racing campaigns in American Le Mans. He’s wrapping up his first season with the team, having come over from Rahal Letterman Lanigan BMW. Longtime race fans may recognize the name Milner. That’s because Tommy’s father, Tom Milner, is the head of Prototype Technology Group. “He’s been racing all his life,” Milner said of his dad. “I’ve been around racing all my life, too. I’ve just absorbed it.” Don’t think that means Milner, who is 25 and lives in Florida, simply walked into the big time. His career started more than a decade ago with karting. And gaming. “Before I even got in a car, I was playing sims on a computer,” Milner said. “It helped me learn the basics of car control and racecraft. And then before I joined ALMS, I used a lot of different games to learn the tracks. They aren’t perfect, but [they do shorten the learning curve](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/2011/04/jonathan-m-gitlin-goes-racing/).” [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/autopia/2011/09/corvette-racing-tommy-milner-02.jpg) Milner got behind the wheel of a kart at 14. His father arranged it for Christmas. Milner loved it. He’s been racing ever since. Karting. Two years with Dad’s team. Formula BMW, which Milner called “racing college.” Stints with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Porsche and Rahal Letterman Lanigan BMW, where he was part of last year’s championship-winning team. He racked 24 top-five finishes (17 of them on the podium) in 51 races before landing at Corvette. So now he’s at the top of the GT class, a competitive field where any one of a handful of cars vie for the checkered flag each weekend. What’s next? The top-tier LMP1 class? A [jump to NASCAR](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/2011/07/behind-the-scenes-at-nascar/)? Maybe [IndyCar](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/2010/09/behind-the-scenes-at-indycar/)? Milner shrugged when asked. He says he’s happy where he is. If you spend any time with him, you believe it. You get the sense he can’t quite believe he’s being paid to do this, so he’s going to have as much fun as possible while he can. “I’m 25 years old,” he said. “I’m being paid a lot of money to race a Corvette. This is my job: racing a Corvette. There’s nothing about this that’s negative. I am having a lot of fun.”
04corvette-racing-fan
Corvette Racing drew the largest crowd by far at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. It was a passionate bunch, armed with photos and posters, books and T-shirts, even model cars they wanted signed. Milner and co-driver Olivier Beretta, along with teammates Oliver Gavin and Jan Magnussen, spent 40 minutes signing autographs and posing for pics. “It’s crazy,” Milner said. “Nonstop.” One young fan asked Milner and Beretta to sign his cast. They happily obliged. “I’ve signed the weirdest stuff,” Milner said. “I even signed an ass cheek once.” A woman’s, right? “Yeah,” Milner said. [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/autopia/2011/09/corvette-racing-fans-02.jpg)
Image: LinkedIn05corvette-racing-fans
The crowd cheering for Corvette Racing was easily twice the size of the crowds there for other teams. Maybe it's because there's something about a Corvette. It’s more than a car. It's an icon. Everyone knows what a Corvette is, even if they don't care about cars. That appeal is one reason Corvette Racing exists. “The main reason we do this is to sell cars,” Fehan said. “This connects with customers.” It’s an idea as old as racing itself: What wins on Sunday sells on Monday. As if to prove the point, dozens of Corvettes filled the “Corvette Corral” outside Laguna Seca. “You’ve got to give people a reason to be proud of what they’re driving.” Fehan said. “You have to make it about more than transportation.”
06corvette-racing-steering-wheel
Just about everything Milner and his teammates might need to fiddle with, from traction control to engine mapping to the wipers, is [controlled from the steering wheel](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/2011/05/porsche-911-gt3-r-hybrid-steering-wheel/). Yes, the button at 3 o’clock means exactly what you think it does: The C6R has air conditioning. It can easily reach 150 degrees in the car when you’re racing at a hot track, so keeping cool is key. But the system doesn’t cool the car; it cools the driver. “It doesn’t make much sense to cool the cabin when the driver is wearing a snowmobile suit,” Fehan said with a laugh. The system blows cool air into the driver’s helmet and onto the driver’s back through the seat — much like the air-conditioned seats in high-end cars. All of the componentry comes from current GM models. The compressor, for example, came from the [Chevrolet Volt](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/tag/chevrolet-volt/) because it was designed to use half as much energy as a conventional compressor. “It’s nice,” Milner said of the racer’s A/C. “It really does work. We used to use Cool Shirts. They didn’t actually work.”
07corvette-racing-pit-wall
Everything that happens in the cars and on the track is monitored from Corvette Racing's pit wall, which spans 30 feet. "This is race central," said Stuart Taylor, who keeps tabs on the data coming from the cars and going to the drivers. (That's Taylor on the far left, and Fehan with his arms crossed.) "It is literally mission control." The massive rig includes 23 monitors (one is obscured in this photo), and about a dozen laptops. The screens show the live TV feed of the race, footage from cameras at each corner on the track and video from each car's on-board camera. Still other screens provide timing and track position for every car in the race. And then there's the telemetry. Oh, the telemetry. Name it and they're tracking it. Tire temperature. Engine temperature. Gearbox temperature. Brake caliper temperature. Tire pressure. Brake bias. The list goes on. And on. And on some more. "The chassis alone has up to 120 channels of data," Taylor said. "There are another 200 channels of engine data. We can tell at any instant exactly what's happening on the car." All that data is analyzed in real time by engineers and mechanics to monitor the the car and prevent, or troubleshoot, any problems. It also is used to guide the drivers and shape strategy. And it's used to predict what will happen throughout the race, usually with 70 to 80 percent accuracy. "We are always looking ahead," Taylor said. "Information is king." [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/autopia/2011/09/corvette-racing-electronics.jpg) Jason Trompeter, a data acquisition engineer, checks out the telemetry system from inside the team's transporter. Among the things the engineers can track is how much fluid the drivers are consuming through the hydration system in each car. A meter measures the flow through the system. Not that Milner uses it. "I don't drink in the car," he said. "I try to get hydrated before I get in the car. For me, it's too distracting. As simple as it is, it's still something to think about. I find it annoying."
08corvette-racing-pit-stop
Before the race, there is qualifying. Before qualifying, there is practice. And before practice, there are hours and hours of computer simulations. Data from previous races at the same track are analyzed and simulations run, so things like engine mapping, suspension settings and other variables are largely dialed in before the team even arrives at the track. It isn't perfect, but it provides a baseline. "We come to a track 70 percent ready to roll, if not 80 percent," Taylor said. That last 20 to 30 percent is paramount, however, so practice sessions on the day before a race are frantic. Drivers hammer the cars hard during their two one-hour sessions, making pit stops as often as needed to confer with engineers and the mechanics who make minute adjustments. "Practice is where we chase it all down," Fehan said. Everything must be perfect, or as close to perfect as possible, before qualifying. Once qualifying begins, drivers have just 15 minutes to post their fastest lap time, which determines where they start on race day. Practice nearly made perfect at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, where Oliver Gavin put the No. 4 Corvette on the front row. His fastest lap around the 2.23-mile track was 1 minute, 23.124 seconds, good enough to start second. Teammate Olivier Beretta qualified eighth in the No. 3 car with a time of 1:23.566. "I knew by Turn 7 that it was going to be a good lap," Gavin said, "I'd been losing some time in the Corkscrew because I was trying too hard and overshooting the corner. This time I backed down a little bit, got through the turn quickly and then it was just hauling through the rest of the corners to the start-finish line."
09corvette-racing-tires
The Corvettes roll on Michelin racing rubber — 30/65-18 up front and 31/71-18 at the rear. They're filled with 100 percent nitrogen to 25 to 30 PSI. The slicks, used in dry conditions, are stickier than the floor of a [New York taxi](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/2011/05/new-york-names-nissan-taxi-of-tomorrow/). But they weren't quite sticky enough at Laguna Seca. "Looking at the lap times, we had cars that were very competitive today," Fehan said after the race, in which the team finished fifth and seventh. "Unfortunately, we couldn't find a setup that would allow the cars to keep the tires under them for the entire stint." [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/autopia/2011/09/corvette-racing-pit-stop.jpg) Pit stops are both frantic and balletic as eight men service the car in around 30 seconds. The driver rolls into the pit lane and shuts off the engine. At that moment, the refueling crew fills the car with E85, a process that takes about 25 seconds. Under the rules, the team can swap drivers during refueling, but no other work can be completed. Once the car is refueled, a mechanic plugs an air line into the air jack to raise the car. (The air line is just behind the left front wheel. Another line, connected near the mirror, is used to download telemetry data.) Four men — two per side — change the tires. Slapping on tires takes six to 10 seconds, the air and telemetry lines are released and the driver speeds away. "A big smoky burnout and you're off," Milner said with a smile. *Photo: Richard Prince/Corvette Racing*
10corvette-racing-c6r-rear-view
"No Static" refers to a rap song the crew listens to before each race. [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/autopia/2011/09/corvette_racing.jpg) A race car is loud, and hot, and it vibrates. But it's also oddly serene, a place where [you tune all of that out](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/2011/08/team-spectre-streamliner/). Everything you've learned as a driver becomes second nature. Instinct takes over, and it's just you, the car and the next turn. "The second I'm at full race pace, everything shuts down," Milner said. "I'm no longer thinking. I'm just driving." Milner's raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where the C6R will hit 185 mph on the Mulsanne straight. It's an almost incomprehensible number, even for someone who's been there. "It just feels so fast," Milner said. "One-sixty is pretty quick. But then you're at 165, 170, 175. ... Everything's just flying by. And the only thing I'm thinking is, 'Look for the braking point. Look for the braking point.'" Laguna Seca isn't nearly so fast; Milner said he'll hit about 145 or so — "It's one of the slower tracks we go to." — but it's physically demanding because it's so technical. The 2.23-mile track features 11 corners, including one of the most famous in all of racing: [The Corkscrew](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/2010/08/behind-the-scenes-at-motogp/?pid=138). The wicked left-right combination is famous for its perilous drop. Riders drop 59 feet as they tackle a 12 percent grade between turns 8 and 8a. Then it's another 50 feet down — at 18 percent grade — to turn 9. "You aim at a tree" as you approach the end of Rahal Straight, Milner said. "That's the target. If you're looking at the track, you'll get it wrong. Then you're in the turn, and it feels massively quick. You're going downhill, which makes it feel like you've got an extra 150 horsepower." Negotiating so tricky a track successfully requires the utmost concentration and leaves little room for error, especially in a field so competitive as GT racing. "The hardest part of the race is not making *any* mistakes," he said. "This class is so competitive there are eight or nine cars that can win. So it all comes down to the guy who has the perfect race." Corvette Racing did not have a perfect race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/autopia/2011/09/corvette-racing-alms-laguna-seca-01.jpg) It was a rough day for the team, which had the speed but not the grip to keep up with the front of the pack. The team ran strong through the first half of the race, but then things started going sideways, figuratively if not literally. "For whatever reason, today we sustained high tire wear and a drop in grip," Gavin said after he and co-driver Magnussen finished fifth in the No. 4 car. It was the same story for Milner and Beretta in the No. 3 car, which started strong but ended in seventh place. "Today we weren't the quickest car and weren't as competitive as we would have liked to have been," Milner said after the race. "The team was awesome, they made great pit stops and fast driver changes. I think we're primed and ready for Petit Le Mans." The team hopes to take its ninth Petit Le Mans title and its 11th win at Road Atlanta during a race that will run 10 hours or 1,000 miles, whichever comes first. *Photo: Richard Prince/Corvette Racing*
