RS Spyder vs Porsche 962
03-26-2008, 02:24 PM
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RS Spyder vs Porsche 962
RS Spyder vs Porsche 962
"Generations"
(by Exce11ence Magazine)
962 meets 9R6 at Sebring, with the only team that has raced both...
23 years separate these Porsche prototypes. The first redefined dominance in endurance racing. The second hopes to build on one of the richest motorsport legacies of them all. But only one team campaigned the 962 in the 1980s and is racing the 9R6 today. That team is Dyson Racing.
You might know the 9R6 better as the RS-Spyder, Porsche's current entry in the American Le Mans Series LMP2 class. Dyson Racing is the only team that can directly connect the 9R6 to the 962, as it still has one of several 962s it campaigned in the car's heyday. It wears the team's hallowed number 16 and is the car Rob Dyson drove into the pantheon of sports-car racings elite. In early 1985, he was looking to step up from GTO and Trans-Am competition into the GT Prototype ranks. He just wasn't sure which car to buy.
I talked to Bob Akin, he remembers. There were really only a couple of alternatives, and the main one was a March. The prior champion in 1984 was Randy Lanier in a March. I said, Geez, maybe I ought to take a look at one. But Bob said to me, Look, it's real simple. Nobody collects Marches. Porsche's 962 had been competing in North America for a year, so his next call was to Al Holbert, then head of Porsche Motorsports North America. Al Holbert worked out a deal for Dyson to purchase 962-101, the first 962 chassis, from IMSA-racer Bruce Leven.
When I walked into our garage the first time and saw the 962, I thought “Wow, now that’s a real car!” recalls Rob. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd end up driving a car of that calibre. Ever. But there it was, sitting in the shop. The car debuted its Dyson livery several months later at Lime Rock and won the race.
But then, winning was what 962s did. By the time 1987's IMSA Camel GT season was over, 962s had amassed a staggering 72-percent winning percentage in four years of competition. In 1987, the last of the 962's bellwether years before time and rules changes finally challenged its competitiveness, the 962 was victorious in 13 of 16 events. Two of those wins came at the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring events the 962 had claimed three years in a row. Somewhere along the way, these prototypes took on a mythical status. Today, some regard them as Porsche's ultimate racing success story.
The 962 was such a great package, reflects Rob. The gearbox worked, the engine worked, the brakes worked, the steering worked, the driving compartment worked. It was so superbly laid out inside; it was just easy to get inside and go.
Dyson Racing's 962 program stretched into the early 1990s, right up until Porsche's pullout from top-tier prototype racing. Wanting to stick to prototypes, the team switched to other manufacturers, most notably Riley & Scott and Lola. But its relationship with Porsche remained a good one and, after the RS-Spyder's first year in North America, Porsche contacted Dyson to see if the team had any interest in campaigning 9R6's. It didn't take too much convincing to draw the team back into Porsche's fold.
Every car Porsche builds is additive to what they learned on the car before, says Rob. At the end of the day, you know that and that gives you a sense of confidence as to how well the car is going to work. Rob saw the 9R6's potential well before he bought two of them from Porsche, however. The 9R6 showed real promise at its 2005 debut at Laguna Seca and throughout its development year in 2006 with Penske Racing. To date, the RS has won the LMP2 class in 19 of 23 starts. Its success in 2007 included 11 of 12 wins in P2 against a three-car factory Acura effort. After faltering badly at Sebring due to bad electricals, the RS-Spyder battled back to take eight overall victories, vanquishing the supposedly-faster and formerly all-conquering LMP1 Audi R10.
Dyson's drivers finished a creditable third and fourth in the P2 championship behind only those in the two Penske Porsche factory 9R6s. Speaking of drivers, there's another connection between the Dyson Racing of the 1980's and the Dyson Racing of today. In 2007, second-generation racer Chris Dyson proved his mettle as full-time vice president, sporting director, and co-driver to Guy Smith in the #20 RS-Spyder. At the Petit Le Mans, 2007's penultimate round, Chris stormed to a second-place finish in LMP2 and third overall. It was the team's best finish of the year and it came at one of the world's most prestigious endurance races.
As we hatched our plan to revisit yesterday's 962 through the eyes of today's 9R6, we hoped to put each Dyson in a Porsche prototype he had never driven. Fate, however, had other ideas. A fall and subsequent ankle injury sidelined Rob just before his trip to Sebring. Chris is just as disappointed as we are. He had wanted this to be his dad's day in the Sebring sun. But it’s obvious that he's still pretty excited to drive a car from his childhood, too...
To have grown up in the heyday of the IMSA Camel GT and to have seen the GTP cars in their glory and watch my dad race these cars... says Chris as his voice trails off. Guys like Price Cobb, James Weaver, and Klaus Ludwig were my heroes growing up. To be able to drive the same car they were racing back then is really a dream come true.
His time in the 962 today will be interspersed with the teams main objective a scheduled testing regimen that will see both Chris and Guy driving the teams #16 and #20 Spyders. And, just as Chris will need some time to get up to speed in the 962, the car itself will need some sorting. 962-101 hasn't been on track since Rennsport Reunion I in 2001. So, while the mechanics tinker and tune, we use the opportunity to look closely at both cars.
With 962 and 9R6 sitting nose to tail, it’s easy to pick out distinctive design elements rooted in their respective eras. However, it's also easy to see similarities. Both are thoroughly cohesive, brilliant wholes. While Norbert Singer is the common denominator for both basic designs, the 2007 RS Spyder was significantly revised from Singer's 2005/6 model following the addition of Michael Pfadenhauer, designer of the Audi R8 racer, to Porsche Motorsports team in Weissach Flacht.
Walk around these prototypes and its hard not to be struck by their size. Only the 962's height contributes to a perception that it's small. Its 187.9 inches long and sits on a 109.1-inch wheelbase. For perspective, a new Cayman is 170.9 inches long and sits on a 95.1-inch wheelbase while the Carrera GT is 181.6 inches long on a 107.5-inch wheelbase. At 183.2 inches long, the RS-Spyder is 4.7 inches shorter than the 962, but it has a much longer wheelbase, at 114.3 inches. The 9R6, at 1,705 pounds, is considerably lighter than the 1,870-pound 962. Time, technology, and rules all had a hand in this factors that have contributed to a radically different approach to construction in each car.
The 962's aluminium sheet monocoque is antediluvian by today’s standards, consisting of varying thickness aluminium sheet (primarily 0.030-inch) pop-riveted and glue-bonded together. It was a first for Porsche, but it was hardly leading-edge technology, even in the early 1980s. It was, however, proven technology. Steel A-frame chassis tubes connect the rear of the monocoque with outriggers on the cast-aluminium bell-housing to keep the relatively flexible flat-six engine from bearing any chassis loads. 962s originally had aluminium bell-housings, but Porsche soon replaced these with magnesium-alloy units to save weight. The magnesium gearbox casing houses five forward gears plus reverse, arranged longitudinally.
The 962's front suspension is fairly conventional. Up front, a direct-acting coil-over mounts to each lower A-arm and attaches to a pick-up point on the monocoque. The anti-roll bar is located just aft of the spring, actuated via pushrods. The rear springs and shocks are mounted to the top of the gearbox and connect to upper rocker arms. The lower A-arms are connected to the bottom of the gearbox. The anti-roll bar receives input from the upper rocker arm. Cast-magnesium uprights are utilized front and rear, and locate twin four-piston brake callipers and steel discs at each corner.
Porsche stopped manufacturing 962 tubs by the late 1980's. Fabcar, then based in Atlanta, acquired a license to continue building them. However, prior to the factory's pullout, a cottage industry for 962 replacement tubs had grown up, primarily due to concerns with safety, as it was felt by some that the 0.030-inch aluminium sheets didn't offer much protection or rigidity. The car came to be known affectionately as the Flexible Flyer. Tubs from Holbert, Jim Chapman, John Thompsons TC Prototypes and GTi met the demand.
At first glance, the 962's aerodynamics seem elegant, uncomplicated. But the secrets of its speed lie deeper within. Look under a 962 and you'll see a bottom-surface undulation between the front tires that forms a raised bubble. A rising footbox forms the trailing edge of the bubble as it blends back to the underfloor, while the trailing edge of the tubs floor is angled to create clearance for the start of the underfloor tunnels. Due to its shape and proximity to the rotating front wheels, the bubble allows a localised low-pressure area to be created underneath the nose, improving front grip and aerodynamic balance. According to Singer, the idea was found by accident. A clay scale model deformed in this area during wind-tunnel testing and, low and behold, performance improved!
The rear underfloor reveals some of the challenges Singers team faced while packaging Porsche's wide horizontally-opposed six. The flat-six is certainly an aerodynamic detriment against Porsche's need to maximize underfloor tunnel volume for ultimate ground-effects efficiency. The competition used V-configured engines, meaning the 962 lost tunnel volume and, potentially, downforce to the Jaguars, Nissans, and Toyotas. The underfloor located below the engine is rendered in aluminium and incorporates an exit for hot engine air, but most IMSA 962 teams would eventually block this to gain more downforce. The 962's single-element rear wing is mounted close to the deck and attaches to endplates integral to its one-piece rear bodywork.
When the 962 debuted, IMSA regulations limited Porsche to the single-turbo and air-cooled 2.87-litre 962/70 flat six. The massive KKK turbocharger, prominently placed on top of the bell-housing, wouldn't look out of place on a Peterbilt. Its twin waste-gates one for each cylinder bank tuck underneath.
962-101 coughs to life and, after warming through, it's time. Chris will run the car for three short sessions. Through his first session, a significant hesitation from the flat six can be heard. Just after boost comes in, the stumble quashes acceleration. This, along with the wise trepidation that comes with driving anything old but new to you on track, keeps Chris pace slow and exploratory. There's more tinkering to be done to bring the 962 back up to speed, but Chris is still smiling wide when he climbs out of the 962.
The ergonomics are fantastic, he raves. The gearshift is exactly where it should be, the steering wheel is at a perfect height, and the pedals are a good distance from the bulkhead. You feel like you're tucked away, at peace. It's such a great sensory experience. You don't feel the wind on your helmet like with the RS-Spyder, but it’s pretty special when you're closed in there. You've got the world to yourself. The purity of the 962 is incredible. It doesn't have the refinement of the modern cars, but what it has is a lot of character. You feel, as a driver, like you're really connected to the car.
With the engine stumbling, Chris took no chances, short-shifting his way around the track. He has already felt the promise of the 962's straight-line speed, though. It may weigh 165 pounds more than the RS, but it makes more horses and far more torque. At race boost, its flat six develops an estimated 680bhp at 8200rpm and 487 lb-ft of torque at 5800rpm. The 9R6's 3.4-litre V8 reaches its claimed 478bhp at 10,300 rpm and 273 lb-ft at 7500, though many experts believe the V8's grunt is at least 20 percent greater than Porsche's claims. It's worth noting the normally-aspirated 3.4 breathes through a mandated intake air restrictor with a 42.9-mm diameter. The 962's blown 2.9 is unrestricted.
The question now is whether Ed Hosier, an original crew member for 962-101, can get the 2.9 to run right. He'll need to if Chris is to get any valuable subjective impressions of the 962. As Ed tunes and tweaks, the boosted six doesn't sound like it wants to cooperate with our plans...
One thing we won't be doing, no matter how well Ed can get the 962 to run, is a lap-time comparison between the 9R6 and 962. Why not? Well, pitching a long-retired race car against a current race car fully dialled in and fully supported by a large crew is hardly fair. Even if you took the world's best 962, you'd still be working with a vintage race car no longer supported or driven the way it once was. There may be no perfect way to compare a new race car to an old one, but studying 1985 and 2007 qualifying times for both at the same tracks is, at the very least, interesting. Of course, this approach is flawed as well. Depending on weather and track surface, lap times on a given course can vary day by day. While these variations are usually relatively small, tracks can change significantly over time due to repaving, surface changes, reconfigurations (usually meant to slow cars down), and variations in length. Especially after 20 years.
Even so, Dyson communications director Brian Wagner assembled times for both cars at various race tracks. They indicate the Spyder more than makes up for it's limited power posting times roughly 5-13 seconds faster at tracks still similar in length. What is equally clear is that the 962 used its turbo torque and slippery skin to good effect on the longer tracks such as Road America and the old Sebring. While there's no use comparing the Sebring times due to a radical change in course length, you can see just how fast the mighty 962 was in its day.
Even so, it's clear that the RS-Spyder is the faster car. The Road America times indicate the RS is braking later and carrying much more speed through the turns than the 962. That fits well with how Rob Dyson remembers the 962: In slow-speed corners, the 962 pushed a little. You had to gather the car up a little. In high-speed corners, it was just a breeze. You just kept it going. The speed neutralised the car. The downforce with the right springs really made the car work great. The harder you drove the 962, the better it worked. The big adjustment was getting your neck muscles up to the task.
We're still hoping the 962 can be made to run strongly so Chris can tell us what the differences feel like from behind the wheel of each Porsche, back to back. As Chris screams down pit lane and onto the track in one of Dyson's RS-Spyders, we take a closer look at its sister-ship...
Visually, the RS Spyder is vastly more complicated than the 962 or any Porsche prototype since. This is driven by the tighter regulations to which the RS has been designed. The result is a Porsche prototype that wears much of its aerodynamic trickery on its sleeve.
Interestingly, the Spyder and all prototypes succeeding the 962 are beneficiaries of the advantageous bubble discovered on the 956/962, though it has evolved. The 9R6's forward floor forms a proper diffuser hung from the tubs elevated footbox. The diffuser's leading edge is the prominent front splitter, which divides air either up over the nose and into the radiators or down into a diffuser. Air heading down is accelerated by interaction with the rotating front wheels and expansive diffuser shape, generating low pressure.
Air exiting the diffuser encounters a small secondary splitter below the sculpted lower leading edge of the monocoque and continues out the rear of the car either through the radiator inlets and engine bay or the sides of the car past the pontoon fenders formed behind the front wheels. A vertical wing-shaped turning vane sits in the valley between the monocoque and front fender, just aft of the front wheel. This helps extract air from the forward diffuser and reduces pitch sensitivity. Symmetrical wing-sectioned valance panels between the monocoque and pontoon fenders act as shadow plates to obscure any view of the floor in order to comply with the rules.
The 9R6's variable-camber, rear-wing main plane takes into account differing flow fields across its span, increasing the wing's efficiency. A Gurney Flap affixed to the trailing edge of the engine cover increases downforce. The rear underfloor tunnels are effectively written by the regulations. Starting almost 40 inches ahead of the front-wheel centreline, the planar tunnels rise nearly eight inches from the reference plane and extend about 30 inches past the rear-wheel centreline. The curved chamfer running the length of the bottom of the side pod creates a high ride-height appearance but is a mandated safety feature to reduce lift should the RS-Spyder get sideways at high speed.
The 9R6's carbon monocoque is manufactured for Porsche by Austria's Carbo-tech and consists of inner and outer carbon skins sandwiching aluminium honey-comb of varying thicknesses. The 9R6's tub is laminated in left and right halves and joined with connecting plies of carbon, creating a one-piece structure from a multi-piece mold. A central carbon-and-honeycomb spine runs through the cockpit longitudinally, just off the centreline. Internal carbon-fibre bulkheads provide additional structure and driver protection.
The 9R6's suspension is far more complex than the 962's. Up front are upper and lower A-arms. The lower arms activate pushrods and in-board rocker arms to which torsion bars are connected. The bars mount low, on the side of the monocoque, to keep weight low in the car and to create a shallow pushrod angle. The primary dampers are situated on the front of the tub, with anti-roll bars below. Both are actuated via the primary rocker arm input going into the torsion bar. A third damper also attached to the front face of the monocoque receives input, as well.
The rear suspension is similar, with upper and lower A-arms plus inboard torsion bars actuated by pushrods mounted on the lower arms. The primary dampers mount vertically on the gearbox, below the torsion bars, and are also helped by a third damper. The anti-roll bar, like the dampers and the torsion bars, takes input from rocker arms. Cast-steel uprights at all four corners mount six-piston aluminium callipers and huge carbon brake rotors.
The 9R6 is the first Porsche prototype to enter competition without a horizontally-opposed engine. The normally-aspirated MR6 90º V8 is a pure racing powerplant. Porsche's desire to minimize the centre-of-gravity impact of a V configuration drove its selection of such a wide angle and the diminutive, squat 3.4 looks lost in the engine bay. Intake air is drawn at the forward face of the monocoque, next to the drivers head. The oil tank is ahead of the engine, recessed in the back of the monocoque, to improve weight distribution. The stout cam covers, coupled with a lack of any chassis members within the engine-bay area, demonstrate the structural utilization of the engine, unlike the 962.
It's the singular connector between the rear end of the Spyders monocoque and its gearbox, which mounts the rear suspension. The aluminium gearbox and bell-housing are cast as one piece, but a structural carbon-fiber doghouse sits atop the bell-housing to mount much of the rear suspension. The Porsche-designed GR6 gearbox sits longitudinally and places its cluster of gears as low as possible. Gear selection is made electro-pneumatically via paddle shifters on the steering wheel.
You could look at the 9R6 for hours and still miss many of its intricacies. However, we're quickly distracted by the 962, which sounds great on its way past the pits and down the front straight...
Chris is getting up to speed in his second session, but it isn't until the third session that everything gels. Though he's still leaving something on the table, you can tell he's finally starting to really drive 962-101 as he hurtles down Sebring's straights and brakes his way into its turns.
The most impressive things are the engine, the acceleration, and the low drag level, begins a clearly excited Chris back on pit lane. Having a coupe and, essentially, unlimited (intake) air, makes for real straight-line speed. There was some throttle lag, but, once the car came on boost, the acceleration was mind-blowing. Going down the back straight, the car never stopped accelerating, no matter what gear I was in! That's a real eye-opener for someone who drives the modern cars.
The goal of slowing modern race cars down has been met in terms of top speed, continues Chris. But, from a driver's standpoint, I can tell you it sure is exciting to go down the straightaway quickly. The RS-Spyder has very good acceleration, but, as you come off the second-to-last corner and onto a long straight, you're going up through the gears and the air restrictor takes over at a certain point. And so does the drag level, really limiting top speed.
While Chris notes that carbon braking technology has definitely changed the game, he finds the 962's stoppers surprisingly effective: the 962's brakes are actually a pleasant surprise. But they had to be good, because the 962 doesn’t have a lot of drag and its engine doesn't have a lot of compression. And, as fast as you were going, you had to have good brakes. Obviously, carbon-brake technology has been a huge step forward over the years, not only in weight savings but in sheer performance. Not having the downforce in the 962 and not having the modern materials in the brakes and gearboxes, there's no way I can attack under braking as aggressively as I can in the Spyder. In the RS, I'm braking much later and much harder.
When asked about the 962's handling balance, Chris says it’s easier to drive than he thought it would be given his earlier forays. The handling characteristics of the 962 are quite benign, continues Chris. I did experience some understeer caused by the rear differential. Despite the fact this car doesn't have power steering, it's steering was quite light, even once I got some downforce. I was expecting worse. But Chris still thinks he'd be more careful on his way into the turns at a race pace.
I think, having all that horsepower under your foot, you'd drive the corners differently in the 962. Whereas with the Spyder, you're attacking to get as quick an entry speed as possible and working on squaring up the corner, I think you'd brake much earlier in the 962, get the car sorted out, square it up, and give yourself a couple feet off the exit of every corner because, as you accelerate, the engine will eat up that road. If you talk to anyone who's seen the transition from the GTP cars to the modern prototypes, I think they'd say that has been the biggest change. As horsepower and top speeds have gone down, engineers are finding speed in the corners. The 962 is a straight-line maestro where the Spyder is a cornering wizard.
Even so, he sees similarities, too: The one thing that impresses me the most about working with Porsche is the thoroughness and the integration of the entire package. The attention to detail in both cars is immaculate, and the engineering is phenomenal. It gives you a lot of confidence when you're behind the wheel of a car like that. You know, first of all, that it's going to be fast and well sorted, but second, that it's going to be safe and reliable. Today's Spyder is so refined and so integrated that the team is left with fewer areas to change on its own, beyond the standard setup parameters.
His father, Rob, agrees: “The key with the Spyder is that it is so much more optimized that, to modify it, you'd have to do it with a lot of assistance from the Porsche factory. They can bring to bear all of the technical know-how to enhance the performance. They can do the very minute tuning on the chassis, on the aerodynamics, and the engine that a privateer team, on its own, can't do nearly as well as they did on the 962s. The 962 had simpler systems. The window for the 962's setup was so much bigger. One reason was that the tunnels were so big and the ground effect was so strong that you could miss a little on the setup and still carry the car. The RS requires the driver to have a very strong sense at the tail to get it properly adjusted.”
Chris has clearly demonstrated that he has that sensitivity in the RS Spyder, but his brief time in the 962 has elevated his respect for those who drove them in the 1980s: “With the 962, you would brake more gently. You'd have to look after the gears. There's no anti-over-rev software. The driver was asked to do more. One of thing that’s happened in the modern cars because there's so much electronics, telemetry, monitoring, and assistance via paddle shifters and electronics is that some of the art of driving has been lost.”
If nothing else, the day has elevated the Dyson's appreciation for Porsche's continued ability to turn out a top-flight prototype. Says Chris: The RS-Spyder is one of the most phenomenal pieces of engineering we've seen on the track in the modern era. The same can be said for the 962 in its day. Its track record is without peer. We're trying to build the same heritage for the Spyder now...
RS-Spyder_vs_Porsche-962
...thanks and big respect to Exce11ence for a great article!
"Generations"
(by Exce11ence Magazine)
962 meets 9R6 at Sebring, with the only team that has raced both...
23 years separate these Porsche prototypes. The first redefined dominance in endurance racing. The second hopes to build on one of the richest motorsport legacies of them all. But only one team campaigned the 962 in the 1980s and is racing the 9R6 today. That team is Dyson Racing.
You might know the 9R6 better as the RS-Spyder, Porsche's current entry in the American Le Mans Series LMP2 class. Dyson Racing is the only team that can directly connect the 9R6 to the 962, as it still has one of several 962s it campaigned in the car's heyday. It wears the team's hallowed number 16 and is the car Rob Dyson drove into the pantheon of sports-car racings elite. In early 1985, he was looking to step up from GTO and Trans-Am competition into the GT Prototype ranks. He just wasn't sure which car to buy.
I talked to Bob Akin, he remembers. There were really only a couple of alternatives, and the main one was a March. The prior champion in 1984 was Randy Lanier in a March. I said, Geez, maybe I ought to take a look at one. But Bob said to me, Look, it's real simple. Nobody collects Marches. Porsche's 962 had been competing in North America for a year, so his next call was to Al Holbert, then head of Porsche Motorsports North America. Al Holbert worked out a deal for Dyson to purchase 962-101, the first 962 chassis, from IMSA-racer Bruce Leven.
When I walked into our garage the first time and saw the 962, I thought “Wow, now that’s a real car!” recalls Rob. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd end up driving a car of that calibre. Ever. But there it was, sitting in the shop. The car debuted its Dyson livery several months later at Lime Rock and won the race.
But then, winning was what 962s did. By the time 1987's IMSA Camel GT season was over, 962s had amassed a staggering 72-percent winning percentage in four years of competition. In 1987, the last of the 962's bellwether years before time and rules changes finally challenged its competitiveness, the 962 was victorious in 13 of 16 events. Two of those wins came at the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring events the 962 had claimed three years in a row. Somewhere along the way, these prototypes took on a mythical status. Today, some regard them as Porsche's ultimate racing success story.
The 962 was such a great package, reflects Rob. The gearbox worked, the engine worked, the brakes worked, the steering worked, the driving compartment worked. It was so superbly laid out inside; it was just easy to get inside and go.
Dyson Racing's 962 program stretched into the early 1990s, right up until Porsche's pullout from top-tier prototype racing. Wanting to stick to prototypes, the team switched to other manufacturers, most notably Riley & Scott and Lola. But its relationship with Porsche remained a good one and, after the RS-Spyder's first year in North America, Porsche contacted Dyson to see if the team had any interest in campaigning 9R6's. It didn't take too much convincing to draw the team back into Porsche's fold.
Every car Porsche builds is additive to what they learned on the car before, says Rob. At the end of the day, you know that and that gives you a sense of confidence as to how well the car is going to work. Rob saw the 9R6's potential well before he bought two of them from Porsche, however. The 9R6 showed real promise at its 2005 debut at Laguna Seca and throughout its development year in 2006 with Penske Racing. To date, the RS has won the LMP2 class in 19 of 23 starts. Its success in 2007 included 11 of 12 wins in P2 against a three-car factory Acura effort. After faltering badly at Sebring due to bad electricals, the RS-Spyder battled back to take eight overall victories, vanquishing the supposedly-faster and formerly all-conquering LMP1 Audi R10.
Dyson's drivers finished a creditable third and fourth in the P2 championship behind only those in the two Penske Porsche factory 9R6s. Speaking of drivers, there's another connection between the Dyson Racing of the 1980's and the Dyson Racing of today. In 2007, second-generation racer Chris Dyson proved his mettle as full-time vice president, sporting director, and co-driver to Guy Smith in the #20 RS-Spyder. At the Petit Le Mans, 2007's penultimate round, Chris stormed to a second-place finish in LMP2 and third overall. It was the team's best finish of the year and it came at one of the world's most prestigious endurance races.
As we hatched our plan to revisit yesterday's 962 through the eyes of today's 9R6, we hoped to put each Dyson in a Porsche prototype he had never driven. Fate, however, had other ideas. A fall and subsequent ankle injury sidelined Rob just before his trip to Sebring. Chris is just as disappointed as we are. He had wanted this to be his dad's day in the Sebring sun. But it’s obvious that he's still pretty excited to drive a car from his childhood, too...
To have grown up in the heyday of the IMSA Camel GT and to have seen the GTP cars in their glory and watch my dad race these cars... says Chris as his voice trails off. Guys like Price Cobb, James Weaver, and Klaus Ludwig were my heroes growing up. To be able to drive the same car they were racing back then is really a dream come true.
His time in the 962 today will be interspersed with the teams main objective a scheduled testing regimen that will see both Chris and Guy driving the teams #16 and #20 Spyders. And, just as Chris will need some time to get up to speed in the 962, the car itself will need some sorting. 962-101 hasn't been on track since Rennsport Reunion I in 2001. So, while the mechanics tinker and tune, we use the opportunity to look closely at both cars.
With 962 and 9R6 sitting nose to tail, it’s easy to pick out distinctive design elements rooted in their respective eras. However, it's also easy to see similarities. Both are thoroughly cohesive, brilliant wholes. While Norbert Singer is the common denominator for both basic designs, the 2007 RS Spyder was significantly revised from Singer's 2005/6 model following the addition of Michael Pfadenhauer, designer of the Audi R8 racer, to Porsche Motorsports team in Weissach Flacht.
Walk around these prototypes and its hard not to be struck by their size. Only the 962's height contributes to a perception that it's small. Its 187.9 inches long and sits on a 109.1-inch wheelbase. For perspective, a new Cayman is 170.9 inches long and sits on a 95.1-inch wheelbase while the Carrera GT is 181.6 inches long on a 107.5-inch wheelbase. At 183.2 inches long, the RS-Spyder is 4.7 inches shorter than the 962, but it has a much longer wheelbase, at 114.3 inches. The 9R6, at 1,705 pounds, is considerably lighter than the 1,870-pound 962. Time, technology, and rules all had a hand in this factors that have contributed to a radically different approach to construction in each car.
The 962's aluminium sheet monocoque is antediluvian by today’s standards, consisting of varying thickness aluminium sheet (primarily 0.030-inch) pop-riveted and glue-bonded together. It was a first for Porsche, but it was hardly leading-edge technology, even in the early 1980s. It was, however, proven technology. Steel A-frame chassis tubes connect the rear of the monocoque with outriggers on the cast-aluminium bell-housing to keep the relatively flexible flat-six engine from bearing any chassis loads. 962s originally had aluminium bell-housings, but Porsche soon replaced these with magnesium-alloy units to save weight. The magnesium gearbox casing houses five forward gears plus reverse, arranged longitudinally.
The 962's front suspension is fairly conventional. Up front, a direct-acting coil-over mounts to each lower A-arm and attaches to a pick-up point on the monocoque. The anti-roll bar is located just aft of the spring, actuated via pushrods. The rear springs and shocks are mounted to the top of the gearbox and connect to upper rocker arms. The lower A-arms are connected to the bottom of the gearbox. The anti-roll bar receives input from the upper rocker arm. Cast-magnesium uprights are utilized front and rear, and locate twin four-piston brake callipers and steel discs at each corner.
Porsche stopped manufacturing 962 tubs by the late 1980's. Fabcar, then based in Atlanta, acquired a license to continue building them. However, prior to the factory's pullout, a cottage industry for 962 replacement tubs had grown up, primarily due to concerns with safety, as it was felt by some that the 0.030-inch aluminium sheets didn't offer much protection or rigidity. The car came to be known affectionately as the Flexible Flyer. Tubs from Holbert, Jim Chapman, John Thompsons TC Prototypes and GTi met the demand.
At first glance, the 962's aerodynamics seem elegant, uncomplicated. But the secrets of its speed lie deeper within. Look under a 962 and you'll see a bottom-surface undulation between the front tires that forms a raised bubble. A rising footbox forms the trailing edge of the bubble as it blends back to the underfloor, while the trailing edge of the tubs floor is angled to create clearance for the start of the underfloor tunnels. Due to its shape and proximity to the rotating front wheels, the bubble allows a localised low-pressure area to be created underneath the nose, improving front grip and aerodynamic balance. According to Singer, the idea was found by accident. A clay scale model deformed in this area during wind-tunnel testing and, low and behold, performance improved!
The rear underfloor reveals some of the challenges Singers team faced while packaging Porsche's wide horizontally-opposed six. The flat-six is certainly an aerodynamic detriment against Porsche's need to maximize underfloor tunnel volume for ultimate ground-effects efficiency. The competition used V-configured engines, meaning the 962 lost tunnel volume and, potentially, downforce to the Jaguars, Nissans, and Toyotas. The underfloor located below the engine is rendered in aluminium and incorporates an exit for hot engine air, but most IMSA 962 teams would eventually block this to gain more downforce. The 962's single-element rear wing is mounted close to the deck and attaches to endplates integral to its one-piece rear bodywork.
When the 962 debuted, IMSA regulations limited Porsche to the single-turbo and air-cooled 2.87-litre 962/70 flat six. The massive KKK turbocharger, prominently placed on top of the bell-housing, wouldn't look out of place on a Peterbilt. Its twin waste-gates one for each cylinder bank tuck underneath.
962-101 coughs to life and, after warming through, it's time. Chris will run the car for three short sessions. Through his first session, a significant hesitation from the flat six can be heard. Just after boost comes in, the stumble quashes acceleration. This, along with the wise trepidation that comes with driving anything old but new to you on track, keeps Chris pace slow and exploratory. There's more tinkering to be done to bring the 962 back up to speed, but Chris is still smiling wide when he climbs out of the 962.
The ergonomics are fantastic, he raves. The gearshift is exactly where it should be, the steering wheel is at a perfect height, and the pedals are a good distance from the bulkhead. You feel like you're tucked away, at peace. It's such a great sensory experience. You don't feel the wind on your helmet like with the RS-Spyder, but it’s pretty special when you're closed in there. You've got the world to yourself. The purity of the 962 is incredible. It doesn't have the refinement of the modern cars, but what it has is a lot of character. You feel, as a driver, like you're really connected to the car.
With the engine stumbling, Chris took no chances, short-shifting his way around the track. He has already felt the promise of the 962's straight-line speed, though. It may weigh 165 pounds more than the RS, but it makes more horses and far more torque. At race boost, its flat six develops an estimated 680bhp at 8200rpm and 487 lb-ft of torque at 5800rpm. The 9R6's 3.4-litre V8 reaches its claimed 478bhp at 10,300 rpm and 273 lb-ft at 7500, though many experts believe the V8's grunt is at least 20 percent greater than Porsche's claims. It's worth noting the normally-aspirated 3.4 breathes through a mandated intake air restrictor with a 42.9-mm diameter. The 962's blown 2.9 is unrestricted.
The question now is whether Ed Hosier, an original crew member for 962-101, can get the 2.9 to run right. He'll need to if Chris is to get any valuable subjective impressions of the 962. As Ed tunes and tweaks, the boosted six doesn't sound like it wants to cooperate with our plans...
One thing we won't be doing, no matter how well Ed can get the 962 to run, is a lap-time comparison between the 9R6 and 962. Why not? Well, pitching a long-retired race car against a current race car fully dialled in and fully supported by a large crew is hardly fair. Even if you took the world's best 962, you'd still be working with a vintage race car no longer supported or driven the way it once was. There may be no perfect way to compare a new race car to an old one, but studying 1985 and 2007 qualifying times for both at the same tracks is, at the very least, interesting. Of course, this approach is flawed as well. Depending on weather and track surface, lap times on a given course can vary day by day. While these variations are usually relatively small, tracks can change significantly over time due to repaving, surface changes, reconfigurations (usually meant to slow cars down), and variations in length. Especially after 20 years.
Even so, Dyson communications director Brian Wagner assembled times for both cars at various race tracks. They indicate the Spyder more than makes up for it's limited power posting times roughly 5-13 seconds faster at tracks still similar in length. What is equally clear is that the 962 used its turbo torque and slippery skin to good effect on the longer tracks such as Road America and the old Sebring. While there's no use comparing the Sebring times due to a radical change in course length, you can see just how fast the mighty 962 was in its day.
Even so, it's clear that the RS-Spyder is the faster car. The Road America times indicate the RS is braking later and carrying much more speed through the turns than the 962. That fits well with how Rob Dyson remembers the 962: In slow-speed corners, the 962 pushed a little. You had to gather the car up a little. In high-speed corners, it was just a breeze. You just kept it going. The speed neutralised the car. The downforce with the right springs really made the car work great. The harder you drove the 962, the better it worked. The big adjustment was getting your neck muscles up to the task.
We're still hoping the 962 can be made to run strongly so Chris can tell us what the differences feel like from behind the wheel of each Porsche, back to back. As Chris screams down pit lane and onto the track in one of Dyson's RS-Spyders, we take a closer look at its sister-ship...
Visually, the RS Spyder is vastly more complicated than the 962 or any Porsche prototype since. This is driven by the tighter regulations to which the RS has been designed. The result is a Porsche prototype that wears much of its aerodynamic trickery on its sleeve.
Interestingly, the Spyder and all prototypes succeeding the 962 are beneficiaries of the advantageous bubble discovered on the 956/962, though it has evolved. The 9R6's forward floor forms a proper diffuser hung from the tubs elevated footbox. The diffuser's leading edge is the prominent front splitter, which divides air either up over the nose and into the radiators or down into a diffuser. Air heading down is accelerated by interaction with the rotating front wheels and expansive diffuser shape, generating low pressure.
Air exiting the diffuser encounters a small secondary splitter below the sculpted lower leading edge of the monocoque and continues out the rear of the car either through the radiator inlets and engine bay or the sides of the car past the pontoon fenders formed behind the front wheels. A vertical wing-shaped turning vane sits in the valley between the monocoque and front fender, just aft of the front wheel. This helps extract air from the forward diffuser and reduces pitch sensitivity. Symmetrical wing-sectioned valance panels between the monocoque and pontoon fenders act as shadow plates to obscure any view of the floor in order to comply with the rules.
The 9R6's variable-camber, rear-wing main plane takes into account differing flow fields across its span, increasing the wing's efficiency. A Gurney Flap affixed to the trailing edge of the engine cover increases downforce. The rear underfloor tunnels are effectively written by the regulations. Starting almost 40 inches ahead of the front-wheel centreline, the planar tunnels rise nearly eight inches from the reference plane and extend about 30 inches past the rear-wheel centreline. The curved chamfer running the length of the bottom of the side pod creates a high ride-height appearance but is a mandated safety feature to reduce lift should the RS-Spyder get sideways at high speed.
The 9R6's carbon monocoque is manufactured for Porsche by Austria's Carbo-tech and consists of inner and outer carbon skins sandwiching aluminium honey-comb of varying thicknesses. The 9R6's tub is laminated in left and right halves and joined with connecting plies of carbon, creating a one-piece structure from a multi-piece mold. A central carbon-and-honeycomb spine runs through the cockpit longitudinally, just off the centreline. Internal carbon-fibre bulkheads provide additional structure and driver protection.
The 9R6's suspension is far more complex than the 962's. Up front are upper and lower A-arms. The lower arms activate pushrods and in-board rocker arms to which torsion bars are connected. The bars mount low, on the side of the monocoque, to keep weight low in the car and to create a shallow pushrod angle. The primary dampers are situated on the front of the tub, with anti-roll bars below. Both are actuated via the primary rocker arm input going into the torsion bar. A third damper also attached to the front face of the monocoque receives input, as well.
The rear suspension is similar, with upper and lower A-arms plus inboard torsion bars actuated by pushrods mounted on the lower arms. The primary dampers mount vertically on the gearbox, below the torsion bars, and are also helped by a third damper. The anti-roll bar, like the dampers and the torsion bars, takes input from rocker arms. Cast-steel uprights at all four corners mount six-piston aluminium callipers and huge carbon brake rotors.
The 9R6 is the first Porsche prototype to enter competition without a horizontally-opposed engine. The normally-aspirated MR6 90º V8 is a pure racing powerplant. Porsche's desire to minimize the centre-of-gravity impact of a V configuration drove its selection of such a wide angle and the diminutive, squat 3.4 looks lost in the engine bay. Intake air is drawn at the forward face of the monocoque, next to the drivers head. The oil tank is ahead of the engine, recessed in the back of the monocoque, to improve weight distribution. The stout cam covers, coupled with a lack of any chassis members within the engine-bay area, demonstrate the structural utilization of the engine, unlike the 962.
It's the singular connector between the rear end of the Spyders monocoque and its gearbox, which mounts the rear suspension. The aluminium gearbox and bell-housing are cast as one piece, but a structural carbon-fiber doghouse sits atop the bell-housing to mount much of the rear suspension. The Porsche-designed GR6 gearbox sits longitudinally and places its cluster of gears as low as possible. Gear selection is made electro-pneumatically via paddle shifters on the steering wheel.
You could look at the 9R6 for hours and still miss many of its intricacies. However, we're quickly distracted by the 962, which sounds great on its way past the pits and down the front straight...
Chris is getting up to speed in his second session, but it isn't until the third session that everything gels. Though he's still leaving something on the table, you can tell he's finally starting to really drive 962-101 as he hurtles down Sebring's straights and brakes his way into its turns.
The most impressive things are the engine, the acceleration, and the low drag level, begins a clearly excited Chris back on pit lane. Having a coupe and, essentially, unlimited (intake) air, makes for real straight-line speed. There was some throttle lag, but, once the car came on boost, the acceleration was mind-blowing. Going down the back straight, the car never stopped accelerating, no matter what gear I was in! That's a real eye-opener for someone who drives the modern cars.
The goal of slowing modern race cars down has been met in terms of top speed, continues Chris. But, from a driver's standpoint, I can tell you it sure is exciting to go down the straightaway quickly. The RS-Spyder has very good acceleration, but, as you come off the second-to-last corner and onto a long straight, you're going up through the gears and the air restrictor takes over at a certain point. And so does the drag level, really limiting top speed.
While Chris notes that carbon braking technology has definitely changed the game, he finds the 962's stoppers surprisingly effective: the 962's brakes are actually a pleasant surprise. But they had to be good, because the 962 doesn’t have a lot of drag and its engine doesn't have a lot of compression. And, as fast as you were going, you had to have good brakes. Obviously, carbon-brake technology has been a huge step forward over the years, not only in weight savings but in sheer performance. Not having the downforce in the 962 and not having the modern materials in the brakes and gearboxes, there's no way I can attack under braking as aggressively as I can in the Spyder. In the RS, I'm braking much later and much harder.
When asked about the 962's handling balance, Chris says it’s easier to drive than he thought it would be given his earlier forays. The handling characteristics of the 962 are quite benign, continues Chris. I did experience some understeer caused by the rear differential. Despite the fact this car doesn't have power steering, it's steering was quite light, even once I got some downforce. I was expecting worse. But Chris still thinks he'd be more careful on his way into the turns at a race pace.
I think, having all that horsepower under your foot, you'd drive the corners differently in the 962. Whereas with the Spyder, you're attacking to get as quick an entry speed as possible and working on squaring up the corner, I think you'd brake much earlier in the 962, get the car sorted out, square it up, and give yourself a couple feet off the exit of every corner because, as you accelerate, the engine will eat up that road. If you talk to anyone who's seen the transition from the GTP cars to the modern prototypes, I think they'd say that has been the biggest change. As horsepower and top speeds have gone down, engineers are finding speed in the corners. The 962 is a straight-line maestro where the Spyder is a cornering wizard.
Even so, he sees similarities, too: The one thing that impresses me the most about working with Porsche is the thoroughness and the integration of the entire package. The attention to detail in both cars is immaculate, and the engineering is phenomenal. It gives you a lot of confidence when you're behind the wheel of a car like that. You know, first of all, that it's going to be fast and well sorted, but second, that it's going to be safe and reliable. Today's Spyder is so refined and so integrated that the team is left with fewer areas to change on its own, beyond the standard setup parameters.
His father, Rob, agrees: “The key with the Spyder is that it is so much more optimized that, to modify it, you'd have to do it with a lot of assistance from the Porsche factory. They can bring to bear all of the technical know-how to enhance the performance. They can do the very minute tuning on the chassis, on the aerodynamics, and the engine that a privateer team, on its own, can't do nearly as well as they did on the 962s. The 962 had simpler systems. The window for the 962's setup was so much bigger. One reason was that the tunnels were so big and the ground effect was so strong that you could miss a little on the setup and still carry the car. The RS requires the driver to have a very strong sense at the tail to get it properly adjusted.”
Chris has clearly demonstrated that he has that sensitivity in the RS Spyder, but his brief time in the 962 has elevated his respect for those who drove them in the 1980s: “With the 962, you would brake more gently. You'd have to look after the gears. There's no anti-over-rev software. The driver was asked to do more. One of thing that’s happened in the modern cars because there's so much electronics, telemetry, monitoring, and assistance via paddle shifters and electronics is that some of the art of driving has been lost.”
If nothing else, the day has elevated the Dyson's appreciation for Porsche's continued ability to turn out a top-flight prototype. Says Chris: The RS-Spyder is one of the most phenomenal pieces of engineering we've seen on the track in the modern era. The same can be said for the 962 in its day. Its track record is without peer. We're trying to build the same heritage for the Spyder now...
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...thanks and big respect to Exce11ence for a great article!
Last edited by Boxster Coupe GTS; 08-27-2009 at 10:11 AM.
