CCWS Feature - Panoz 2007 Car Up And Running
06/10/2006
The new DP01 Champ Car has completed more than 2,500 almost trouble-free testing miles with Roberto Moreno behind the wheel.
The car, built by Panoz, was put through its paces at Sebring, and then demonstrated its capabilities at Road America. And Moreno, always the race driver and a thinking test driver, did more than fuel mileage and handling tests. He knew there was one more test needed.
“When you win a race, there is one more thing that you need your car to be able to do,” Moreno grinned.
So after getting the high five sign from the test team, Moreno got two last gallons of methanol poured into his tank and launched out of his stall, ran to the end of Pit Lane and proceeded to become the first driver to turn victory donuts in the DP01 Champ Car, burning up some Bridgestones in the process…
The smoky celebration put an emphatic point on three long weeks of testing in Sebring that saw the new DP01 turn more than 2,500 miles on the Sebring International Raceway short course.
Moreno piloted the new car for each and every one of those miles, testing every component of the new car through a rigorous schedule designed to ensure the reliability of the machine before the DP01 gets delivered to the teams.
“The car has performed exactly as we expected it to when we designed this test schedule,” said Champ Car Technical Director Scot Elkins. “We were really hard on this car and did a lot of things to it that teams won’t do when they get it. We wanted to make sure we are giving the teams a car they can have confidence in, and I feel that we have done that.”
The end of the testing program put a cap on a long three weeks for the test team that feverishly worked on the DP01 prototype, braving rain, wind and extreme temperatures to keep the car on the track.
Engineers from Champ Car, Bridgestone, Elan Motorsports, Pi Research, Cosworth Racing, Performance Racing Brakes, and Hewland Gearboxes all spent the three weeks in Sebring making sure the car was ready to answer the bell for each and every test day.
“I can’t say enough about the job these guys did here,” Elkins said of his team. “There were some pretty tough conditions out here and you can lose focus doing the same thing day after day, but these guys were always ready to do whatever it took to get the job done, and it shows.”