Tech talking

Our sport is forever trying to find ways to improve the racing for the benefit of the fans.  Over the past couple of years we've experimented with a soft-compound sprint tyre and it's yielded some great racing and spectacular passing at the last two rounds.

However, it's not going to work at all tracks and certainly not at any of the longer or enduro rounds as it would be destroyed too quickly and there would be too many pit stops.  But there are other things the category is considering in our continual self-examination.

In the next couple of years we will see a totally new car hit the tracks.  One of the things we'll be looking at changing is the locked or "spool" differential in our current race cars.

A locked diff means the rear drive tyres always spin at the same rate, but when cornering the inside wheel needs to turn slower than the outside wheel, as it has less distance to cover. This in turn means the inside wheel is forced to travel faster than it wants to.

Apart from ripping up the track surface, it also causes mid-corner understeer, which means the car doesn't want to turn the corner but go straight ahead.  Next week at the Darwin round and the following Townsville round, certain teams will be allowed to test various differentials in practice sessions to gauge what they do.

The aim is to allow several different lines into a corner to encourage more overtaking.  With the spool diff there is basically only one line and if you dive down the inside into a corner, your percentage of contact with the car you are passing goes up.

The two types of differentials being tested are the Detroit Locker which is either locked or open and the limited-slip differential which alows different wheel rotation speeds at either end of the axle.  The locker is a bit agricultural, and another piece of dinosaur technology I suppose and that seems strange when we are going to more advanced technologies in the car of the future project.

Both types of diff are also going to be a bit more expensive in the short term, but once everyone's got one, the running costs shouldn't be any more costly.  We ran a style of locker two-and-a-half years ago when they were looking for more passing opportunities and it definitely reduces understeer, improves mid-corner speed and makes the car a bit more unsettled under brakes because it is completely free when you are off the accelerator.

With the limited-slip differential, teams can play with the settings to change the amount of slip or speed difference between the rear wheels, so they can make the car better at one part of the corner, but worse at another.  So there will be different strengths and weaknesses out on the track which will only improve the racing.

I'm a big supporter of this diff technology.  If our category is looking for more passing opportunities, this is one way to do it.  I think if it allows drivers to have more confidence on diving down the inside and knowing you can turn the car it will make much better racing and more passing.  It should also cause far less track damage.

Even though we're not racing at Perth this year, I have to fly over for some promotional ride days early next week which are always fun.  However it means I'll be missing out on a team track day at Morgan Park in Warwick.  Our team principal, Roland Dane, encourages us to burn off some steam and doesn't pack us in cottonwool like some of the other bosses.

And because he's a mad-keen motorcycle fan with a garage full of great bikes, he's right behind these track days that we have from time to time.  He's just bought himself a new BMW S1000RR sportsbike and this will be its first track outing.

It's funny how he's been getting all the workers to run it in for him. There certainly hasn't been a shortage of volunteers to help out.  I was really keen to have a ride on the track and see how it goes. Maybe next time.