“The engine shop at Porsche worked on fuel mileage over the winter and we’ve used that to our advantage in a few races,” Erickson added. “The engine shop worked on making sure that the parts are durable and will live when you run them lean. Utah is probably the race that stands out most where we stretched it as far as you like to. I’m not going to say the cell was dry but there wasn’t much left!”
Dieter Steinhauser is Porsche’s general manager of motorsport development and leader of the RS Spyder project. Steinhauser says achieving reliability has been the most important element in pushing the programme forward.
“The first thing was that we could find the key for the general reliability of the car through the power train, electrics, suspension and so on,” Steinhauser commented. “Sebring was a bad start to the season for us, but since then there have actually been no failures through the whole season and that’s the key. It’s the key for when you want to go testing so you are not held up by technical problems and you can do your test programme and develop the car…”
To read the rest of this Gordon Kirby column and other 'The Way It Is' columns go to www.gordonkirby.com
