Quote Originally Posted by Snorman View Post
I think it's already been a "win". The car ran a very fast Nurburgring time. And they didn't spend months testing and a full week there with 3 cars and 3 drivers waiting for perfect weather and track conditions.
7:03 is very fast and the car proved itself not only there, but on tracks all over the US where many of us regularly race and do DE's.
S.
Snorman very solid and acurate post. I would like to discuss a conversation I had while I was there after we ran the second 7:03 lap with an Engineer from Porsche that was in charge of lap/record attempts for Porsche.

He explained to me that they would lap their "Ring" cars basically for a full season, testing, tweaking, changing the cars to get them to run the numbers that they wanted. Their tire manufacturer would create whatever compound was needed to stand up to the lap and get them the best result, they would have a/b/c revisions of the same tire that all looked the same to the naked eye. Then they would wait and run the car during the most optimal conditions, usually in mid October. They would go out with tire, powertrain, and aero engineers with their hottest shoe and lay down a lap that they had already run several times before. Basically unlimited time, unlimited budget, on a track that they live, and design on.

He asked me where everyone else was, and I didn't understand him at first, he said where is your support? I had to explain to him that the handful of people that he saw WAS the onsite support and that we were the extension of 1,000's of Viper Owners, and Viper devotees across the world that had spent their own money to make the effort a reality. He was blown away by what we were running in those conditions with the support that we had. I asked him what he thought the 918 would have run in those same hot conditions and he said 7:03-7:05 with a smile.

I am proud of the car, I am proud of the people that worked so hard over there, I am proud of our owners, and I am proud as an owner.

ViperExchange: Ben Keating,Bernie Katz, Andy Wheeler, Morgan Day
Prefix: Dick Winkles, Jahn Dolphin, Kim Zeile
Riley Technologies: Matt B
Crew Chief: Joe Kallas
Mintgen Motorsports: Michael Mintgen and his Team
Drivers: Dom and Mario Farnbacher, Luca Stolz
Russ Oasis
Kumho Tire: Manfred and the folks on site there.
Dale from The Bridge to Gantry
Nurburgring staff that fell in love with the idea of the effort and kept working with Russ and Bernie for windows of track time.
Colin Fox and his excellent camera crew
The kid at the front desk of the hotel that put up with Dick Winkles calling him at 1 in the morning to tell him that there was a party going on next door, when Winkles damn well knew that there was a Techno Concert going on at the ring LOL.
The list goes on and I know that I am forgetting some people and I will apologize for that upfront.