Its hard to say because the bus-stop (chicane) was key to the terminal speed before T1. So we worked hard on improving our entry-mid but especially exit speed in there and kept improving it throughout the weekend and as we tweaked suspension settings so we never had data JUST with/without aero tweaks. Nonetheless, I would say that 5 MPH is a likely ballpark figure. My wing is very efficient. Nonetheless, without it, we probably would have gained on the banking and following straight, but would have been offset by carrying less speed through and out of the bus-stop. Our entry speeds into it where close to 90 mph and exiting in the same range. So at those speeds the rear downforce does make a difference.
The data showed we lost time without the wing overall, and the car was much harder to drive. It could have possibly been faster with enough time to tweak the mechanical grip, but there was just not enough time to test. And since we, above all, wanted to keep it in one piece being our first time there literally learning the track, we felt that having a settled race car would gain us much more in lap times from driver confidence and exit speeds, that what we gave up from drag. With more time we would have tested more without the wing but we simply did not have that much track time as I was also trying to get my Enduro co-driver to get comfortable after only having driven the car for a few sessions in practice a few months before the event.
To top it off we also had our share of problems that included a water hose bursting as a result of fan blades rubbing, a broken splitter after a brief off by my co-driver, air/fuel issues due to available fuel, etc..... Busy weekend!
Some of the "Ugly"... Courtesy of a tricky, very fast, treacherous Chicane... Mistakes here almost always ended in heavy contact either with the inside wall or outside banking wall.
But we put our heads down and got it done with 3 minutes to spare after 3 hours non-stop.... From the underside it truly looks like the Frankenstein Splitter... <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/laugh.png" class="smilie" alt="" /> I have to take some pics of it! Multiple length and width wide heavy duty stitching!
