Diary

Seeing as we're recently back in the race engineering business, we're going to try to keep an online diary. We have no idea whether this will be of interest to anybody but we'll look at the site statistics after a couple of months, see how many hits this page has had and decide whether to keep going.

In the meantime, if you like what you see here, or even if you don't, please feel free to write to us with comments, observations and suggestions.

11/13/2008

Eagle Creek airport, home base for the corporate Bonanza and Angerole, Inc are here to test fly our new mount designed for Garmin's latest 696 portable. We've had superb service from our 396 portable for the last few years and this new piece from Garmin really looks like a winner - it has faster updates, a big screen and built in approach plates.

The snap above is an approximately pilot's eye view of the mounted 696. Note that it doesn't block the view of anything significant on the panel. OK, you have to peer around it a little to see the gyro slaving readout under the right fuel gauge but that's a small price to pay for that nice big screen.

Putting the GPS to the right of the yoke is the natural place for the pilot who can operate it with his free hand if he's flying. Additionally, as you can see above the view from the right seat - it's easy for the co-pilot's to help with navigation.

We hope the pictures here give some clue of how this new mount we're working on will fit. 

Today's first flight went well and we have a short list of improvements we'd like to make before releasing this mount. We'll try to keep updated progress reports here in the Diary. 

11/8/2008

Angerole, Inc is at the Technical Museum in Sinsheim. This was a day kind of like visiting the Air & Space Museum in Washington: one day is not nearly enough to take it all in.  

Actually, we didn't make the trip to central Germany just to take in this extremely interesting museum but visiting it did make a wonderful way to spend the day before Audi Sport's end of season banquet in Neckarsulm.

The Technical Museum is spread out over a number of very large galleries and it's kind of eclectic. For example, it's a bit of a surprise to find a large and well preserved collection of 1950's American chrome barges like this Chrysler Imperial.

Another gallery contains the racing car collection and we had a wonderful surprise when we came across the ADA 02 show car hung on a wall.

Some of Angerole, Inc 's personnel started their racing career at ADA Engineering, a tiny English team based in Brentford, west London. This was a perfect apprenticeship in race car engineering and we count ourselves fortunate to have had the opportunity. After successes including a Group C2 class win at Le Mans in 1986 with a Gebhardt JC843, ADA (it stands for Anglo Dutch American) Engineering designed and built its own car, the ADA 02. The basic monocoque was laid out by ex-Fittipaldi designer Richard Divila and, when he was snapped up by Ligier, some young Angerole, Inc people took over, completing the rest of the car's design, including all the suspension. We went on to design all the car's development chassis and aero pieces over the next three seasons. It was a real treat to be reunited with this piece of our history.

We left the race car section to spend some time with the motorcycles. As teenagers, we really lusted after one of these: a Benelli 750 Sei. Check out the 6 pipes.

From the sublime to the ridiculous, almost next door was this 2 litre single NSU based special.

You climb up a spiral staircase out of the main gallery to what's on the roof: a Concorde and a Tupolev TU144, the only place in the world where you can find both supersonic passenger jets together.

You can climb up into each jet and have a look inside as far as a glass screen protecting the cockpit. Here's Concorde's flight deck.

10/22/2008

Angerole, Inc has a look at rocket power. Actually, today was a very interesting day as guests of XCOR Aerospace in Mojave, California.

We'd love to show you what was behind this door on an otherwise anonymous hangar but, if we did, we'd have to kill you. Instead, we'll try to describe the journey because it's kind of evocative. Mojave is a place we used to read about when we were kids, it's way "out there" a couple of hours north east of LA. Here's a clip from the LA Sectional - Mojave is in the top left corner and the very famous Edwards Air Force Base is in the lower right, only about 15 miles away.

It's cool on the ride up from LA to see street signs like this:

Really cool stuff goes on at Mojave: it's the home of Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites, the company that built the Voyager non-stop-around-the-world plane and Spaceship One, the first private spacecraft. The city of Mojave is very proud of what gets built there.

In the natural way of things, some of the people who have been sucked to this place over the years have moved on from Scaled and gone their own way. So it is some interesting businesses inhabit Mojave airport. XCOR is one of them and we are very pleased to have had this chance to see what they're doing.

10/18/2008

Pirro's last race in an Audi R10. Actually, EP has a lot of possibilities and choices in front of him, hence the careful wording. It's likely he'll be back one way or another.

In the race, we had a very good run: Christijan Albers started this 4-hour race and EP finished. Our pit strategy was such that at the last stop under yellow we needed less fuel and therefore got out quicker than everyone else into the lead.

EP had it in the bag until making a very rare mistake on a restart allowing Marco Werner in the other Audi past into the lead. Still, an Audi 1-2 is not a bad way to finish the season. Audi have their 2009 Le Mans entries and we're very proud of our part in this extremely successful season.

10/16/2008

Today was a watershed for Angerole, Inc because it was announced that Laguna Seca would be friend, colleague and fabulously successful driver Emanuele Pirro's last race in an Audi prototype. Although the natural thing to have done would be to look backwards to the past, we took our cue (as we have often done) from how EP handled himself like the consummate professional. Here he is showing the car to a party of Scouts.

Later, we rode around the track to introduce it to our new co-driver driver for the weekend: Christijan Albers. Christijan (that's spelt right) had never driven in North America apart from the US Grand Prix in Indianapolis, where he scored his best ever Formula One finish. Here's Christijan scoping out the track on the way up to Turn 5.

10/15/2008

Setup day in Laguna Seca for the last ALMS race of the year. Before heading off to the track to put up the tent and get the cars out, we have a minute to take this snap of the moon and the city of Monterey across the bay.

10/4/2008

OK, we've been scolded by a lot of our regular readers about how far behind we are with the diary. We promise there is a good reason - we've been REALLY busy.

One of the things we've been up to is going racing and, today, it all finally came good for us when "our" car, the #1 Audi R10T won the 11th Petit Le Mans outright. Here's a clip from the American Le Mans Series website.

All's well that ends well, obviously, but this was a pretty big hill to climb after Allan McNish crashed the car very heavily on the way to the grid. With less than an hour to go before the race starts, you really don't want to see your car coming back in looking like this:

Audi Sport North America is made of stern stuff: the boys went to work and we got the #1 into the race only 2 laps down. Angerole, Inc race engineering expertise got the car back onto the lead lap before half way and, later in the day, our setup really came into its own as the sun went down and the day cooled off. McNish took the lead with 30 laps to go and held off the factory Peugeot and the #2 Audi to take a superb win, one that looked completely implausible only 9 hours before.

Here's a picture we liked of our car leading the Peugeot into Road Atlanta's turn 6.

We've said it before but today it bears repeating: Angerole, Inc is a commercial organisation and our expertise is available for your race program.

8/23/2008

We're proud of what we were involved with today. Here's a view of Dindo Capello lined up at pit out in "our" car, the #1 Audi R10T just before qualifying. The significance of the picture is that just a few minutes later, Dindo set not only the fastest ever lap at Mosport but the fastest ever American Le Mans Series lap on the way to pole position.

Dindo covered the 2.459 mile Mosport track in 1:04.094 for an average speed of 138.116 mph. To put this in perspective, the last time Formula 1 came here was in 1977 and Mario Andretti's pole time then in his Lotus 78 was 1:11.385. Another interesting factoid: they're going to have to reprint the lap time / lap speed table in the programme: it doesn't go up that fast.

8/18/2008

Indianapolis to Bowmanville, Ontario. Ah, Canada, home of strong ale and racetracks for real men. Today, Angerole, Inc flew the corporate Bonanza northeast across Indiana and Ohio, across Lake Erie and into Ontario. Here's the north shore of Lake Erie as we flew over this hazy summer morning.

Angerole, Inc has Canpass exemption from Canadian Customs inspection (evidently we're in the computer as good guys) and this really makes life easy; we were able to bypass the airports of entry and go direct to Oshawa Municipal where we met the team for the ride to Mosport.

If you scroll down the Diary far enough, you'll find that we waxed lyrical about Mosport when we went last year. The place is a timewarp and it's reassuring to find that nothing much has changed since we were last here. Here's an example: there's a tumbledown house at the junction of the main road and the lane which goes to the track and in the garden lies this bus.

Angerole, Inc first went to Mosport in 1992 and at the time this bus looked like if you spent a weekend working on it you could actually drive it someplace. In the years since it's never moved and it's sunk steadily lower into the ground. This year, it's safe to say it's down to its axles.

As a measure of how far "out there" Mosport is, cellphones barely work and you have to get inventive to get a signal. Here's Jerome Freeman getting some extra elevation to get some bars.

We're not sure whether the haze disappeared or whether it helped, but after we'd set up camp, we were treated to the most fabulous sunset. No filters or photoshop here.

8/1/2008

Our second full day in Mecca and, today we circled seven times. Truth to tell, you have to do this because there's just too much going on to take it all in on one tour. Here's friend and Angerole, Inc business associate Barnaby Wainfan giving a lecture on light aircraft drag reduction. Barnaby's day job involves plenty of wind tunnel time at Northrop Grumman on some very interesting programs and his very substantial aero expertise has been brought to bear on a number of Angerole projects.

Later we wandered off to the classic and vintage aircraft section and found this guy polishing the already mirror-finish propeller on his Waco biplane.

Yesterday, this Marine V22 Osprey tiltwing flew in and the magic of Oshkosh is such that today we could wander around inside it and stand and chat with the pilots. 

This amazing aircraft can take off and land vertically like a helicopter and, by tilting its wing and engines, can transition to very fast horizontal flight. Really, it's the world's fastest helicopter. The pilots told us today that it can do 280 knots in level flight and each of its engines makes over 6000hp.

Later in the evening of this hot and sunny day we had a reminder that we're in Wisconsin when we say this pile of firewood outside the gas station. August 1st? It's nearly winter!

7/31/2008

Angerole, Inc's first full day at Oshkosh and there's lots to see. Here's the main entry gate and the Goodyear Blimp flying overhead.

There's lots of interesting stuff to see - we liked this absolutely pristine B25 rumbling out for a hop.

There was some business to do during the day but, towards the evening, we took the chance to wander down the flightline to the Ultralight field. This guy is pushing his plane backwards with one hand - these things are certainly light.

Later still the powered parachutes come out to play. Honestly, these aren't our bag but on this still summer evening, it was easy to see the appeal.

7/30/2008

Angerole, Inc makes the annual pilgrimage to Oshkosh for EAA AirVenture. Actually, today we kind of did and didn't make it and here's the story.

For one week a year, Oshkosh is literally the busiest airport in the world and it's estimated 10% of the US civil aircraft registry flies in. To get that many thousands participating aircraft down in a timely way takes a procedure and, for pilots flying in, the FAA publishes a 32 page NOTAM which explains, in detail, what to expect, what to do and how to do it.

IFR arrivals are strongly discouraged and in fact the NOTAM requires transponders be turned off within 30 miles of the airport. So, today we were approaching the start of the VFR arrival at Ripon, WI when we heard two things on the radio: general aviation parking was saturated (polite speak for full) and, there had been an "incident" and we were to either hold or divert. Faced with this double whammy, we diverted to Fond Du Lac and tied the corporate Bonanza down in the grass about a mile from the FBO at this overflow airport.

Fortunately, because Fond Du Lac is a designated reliever airport for EAA AirVenture, there's a bus to take us to our destination. But, if ever there was a case of, it's better to arrive than travel hopefully, Oshkosh is it.

The scale of what we found here is just stunning. Here's a small part of one of the aircraft parking areas.

Eventually we head back to our digs for the show and on the way stop at an Oshkosh tradition: Leon's Drive In Frozen Custard stand.

7/19/2008

Race day at Mid Ohio and a good day for Audi: 1st and 2nd overall.  Here's a snippet from the ALMS website.

American Le Mans shared the billing with the newly resurgent IRL single seaters. The reward for motor racing's upper management stopping their infighting was obvious the whole weekend: they had a crowd there to watch. Mid Ohio was packed - this is a very small part of the grid walkabout.

At Mid Ohio, "our" car didn't quite have the outright speed we had last week at Lime Rock and we had to be content with second place. But in this company, that's not too shabby and the "boys" still had a spring in their step as they pushed the car back from parc ferme.

We were all glad to join the the team on the winning Audi team car in celebrating a wonderful day.

7/16/2008

Indianapolis to Mid Ohio for Round 7 of the American Le Mans Championship. After setting up camp, we have two things we need to do and here's the first: going to have a look at the track on the golf cart with the drivers. It's easy to imagine that Emanuele Pirro has some mischief in mind

And his fellow Italian Dindo Capello is also usually good for a bit of trouble.

The other thing we have to do is issue a setup, apply it and, only when we're done, put the car to bed for the night. Here's the bedroom: the top deck of the truck.

7/12/2008

Race day at Lime Rock and "our" #1 R10 took the race lead on lap 8 and pulled away in style. At this very short track (48 second laps are normal), we were far enough ahead to pit under green for fuel, driver change and new tyres and get back out still on the lead lap. When the other cars stopped, they would be miles behind us.

Sometimes, it's a temptation to think it's in the bag and, the instant you do, it all goes to hell. This time, Dindo Capello clipped a GT car while lapping it and our run was effectively over. Here's Dindo bringing the badly wounded car back into the pits.

The #1's crew worked a minor miracle to get the car back out in slightly over 40 minutes, enough for the car to score enough laps for an official finish and the Championship points that go with it.

Despite the problems, two things made this a proud day for Angerole, Inc. One was our car's speed: even after a lot of repair work in the paddock, it set a new outright lap record. This is a clip from the race results sheet:

And Lime Rock marked the debut and first finish for the next of our Ford GT's to hit the track. Here is Anthony Lazzaro leading an Aston Martin.

7/11/2008

With Frank Biela away on other duties for Audi in Europe, this weekend Rinaldo "Dindo" Capello joins Emanuele Pirro in the #1 R10T. Here's Dindo waiting to go out for Practice

7/9/2008

At last an opportunity to go and have a look at the newly reconfigured and completely resurfaced track. Lime Rock was built 50 years ago and a combination of plenty of harsh New England winters and ground pounding race cars had beaten the original surface within an inch of its life.

It's kind of funny to walk around the circuit - each team naturally groups together and following these little clumps of people around the track reminds us of cars on the racing line.

Track building is apparently like race car building - it all gets done at the last minute. We got to have a look at some of the final touches. Some of them are still wet and someone can't resist the temptation to leave their mark on the new curbing at a turn.

7/8/2008

Setup day at Lime Rock. Under perfect clear blue skies, this was a pleasure. Jockeying the rigs into place in Lime Rock's tight paddock takes a bit of skill from Champion Racing's drivers but Dane, Ricky and Kenny are up to the task.

We can see why the place is called Lime Rock Park. It's a beautiful place and on a perfect summer day it's great to be alive.

7/7/2008

Indianapolis to Lime Rock. Traditionally, the Connecticut circuit has its big race weekends on Memorial Day and the July 4th weekend. This year, the summer race is a week later than normal and Angerole, Inc heads off to New England in the corporate Bonanza the Monday after the holiday weekend. We made the trip between a squall line and a cold front so there were a lot of convective build-ups to dodge.

Everyone on the frequency was doing about the same thing and ATC was very gracious in granting permission to deviate as necessary for a smooth ride. Deteriorating weather meant we missed at Great Barrington and deviated 20 or so miles north to Albany, NY.

7/5/2008

Grissom Air Museum, Peru, Indiana.

For a number of reasons we had driven to Culver and on the way back down US 31 took the opportunity to stop and visit the Grissom Air Museum. This modest and interesting place is funded entirely by donations and occupies a plot of land right next to the approach end of Runway 23 at Grissom Air Reserve Base.

Grissom ARB (named after one of Indiana's favourite sons, the Mercury astronaut "Gus" Grissom) was for many years an active Strategic Air Command base. In its heyday, its tenants included one of our favourite aircraft, the supersonic Convair B58. The museum has on display one of the few remaining B58s - check it out: long needle nose, delta wing and four big engines.

6/29/2008

Culver Academy, Culver, Indiana.

As the stone in the main gate pillar above suggests, there was a time when Culver was an actual Military Academy. Now, 114 years after its founding, it's not quite so formal - after all, they must have relaxed to let Angerole's people show up - but there's still a definite order and regimen about the place.

What are now called Culver Academies occupy about 1500 acres of beautiful grounds on the shore of Lake Maxinkuckee, a deep natural freshwater lake in northern Indiana. Even a short walk turns up wonderful wooden Victorian mansions on the lake shore - it's a pretty area.

Angerole, Inc staff were here to teach an Advanced Aeronautics course at Culver's summer school. This was a new avenue for us and it was a lot of fun to work with some bright, enthusiastic and polite teenagers.

Culver has Naval and Army detachments as well as its Aviation section. The Naval Building is right on the lake shore and is built to look like the bridge of a ship.

And here's the view in the other direction. It's fun to hear the clicking of rigging on masts in the wind.

Angerole, Inc was a bit caught out when we had to admit we could not read the flags flying on the Naval Building's mast. With our eyes newly opened we realised that Culver is very strong on teaching its students enough basic military skills that they will never be embarrassed. So it's fun to see Cadets practicing on the summer lawns. Here are a group working on rifle drill. Any picture you take at Culver is framed with trees. It's a lovely place and we enjoyed our time here.

6/12/2008

Ohlins shaker rig, Hendersonville, NC, working with Robertson Racing and their Ford GT.

A little bit off the beaten track in the North Carolina mountains, the Swedish damper manufacturer Ohlins has made their North American home in a modest and inconspicuous unit in Hendersonville. This pretty market town is only about 20 miles from Asheville and the Vanderbilt monster mansion, Biltmore.

Angerole, Inc is here to follow up on the Ford GT's compliance rig testing. For the next couple of days we're going to be shaking the car on a very complicated and sophisticated rig.

The snap above shows the car in the test bay with each of its wheels on a computer controlled hydraulic platform. The platforms can be driven such that wheel travels can be generated which mirror those seen on an actual race track. Force sensors in the rig then compare actual wheel load with what would be expected for the position. The objective is to minimise the load anomaly, the difference between expectation and reality and we made a lot of scans of springs, damper valving and settings and anti roll bar settings to get there. On the way, we found to our pleasure how effective the adjustment methods we designed for the Ford GT are. Good engineering never goes out of style.

Adding to the difficulty, aerodynamic downforce needs to be taken into account. The rams in the picture above are mounted in a well underneath the car and pull it down to simulate aero loads while still allowing it to rise and fall over the "bumps". There are lots of rams, pipes, hoses, valves and wires but the data we need is generated much faster than we could find the same information on the track. It's an interesting time and we left with high hopes for the next race.

We found an unexpected bit of Americana on the Comfort Inn's room door:

It's kind of blurred because of the flash but the brass plaque says, "John Denver slept here, August 10, 1992".

6/9/2008

At Morse Measurements, Salisbury, NC.

Angerole, Inc are here to oversee testing of our little baby, the Ford GT on Morse's Kinematics & Compliance rig.

This very sophisticated machine applies motion and forces to the car in ways that accurately represent what it really sees on the track. Nothing is completely stiff so the car will deflect under load, the issue is where and by how much. The string encoders connected to the wheel hub resolve to 0.0004" so there's no guessing: if there's a problem, we'll know about it.

The good news is, we find no structural issues: the rig confirms we have a nice, strong, rigid and stable car. Please remember the same quality design expertise from Angerole, Inc is available for your next race car project.

5/24/2008

Angerole, Inc reduces our carbon footprint and rides the Subway into Washington DC. When you're used to London's Tube, it's a bit surprising to find every Washington station looks the same. It makes it harder to know where you are and the stations don't have their own personality. But, they photograph well.

We were on our way to the holy of holies, the Air and Space Museum. Of all museums you can ever go to, this one has the Actual Real Stuff. Here's Mike Melville's Spaceship One between Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St Louis and Chuck Yeager's Mach 1 Bell X1 Glamorous Glennis. August company, all three.

Angerole, Inc personnel think the X15 rocket plane was about the coolest aircraft ever. Here's the first of three built, this one flew 81 missions, reached Mach 6.06 (over 4100 mph) and an altitude of 266500 ft.

Wandering around the galleries can easily swallow a whole day and gigabytes on the camera memory card. Here's an engine we liked, the Bentley Rotary from a 1917 Sopwith Camel.

5/23/2008

Angerole, Inc has the weekend off and we load up and head on out to Washington, DC. It's cool to call the Indy controller and ask for the clearance to India Alpha Delta, Washington Dulles. This is our third Class B airport, only 13 more to go.  After a nice 2 1/2 hour flight, here's the view on final for 1C, at 11501 ft a new record runway for us. Yes, we made the first turn off - hard to miss it on a runway this long.

It's a lot of fun to taxi around amongst the heavy iron, here are two from Lufthansa and one from Air France.

Eventually after couple of miles taxi, we found Signature's ramp and took the hint to follow their truck to where they wanted us to park.

We'd come to DC to see the sights and first on the agenda was the Udvar-Hazy annex of the Air & Space museum. This new museum is attached to Dulles and it's just a short drive.

The Udvar-Hazy annex holds a lot of interesting aircraft they don't have room for at the Air & Space Museum on Washington's Mall. We found it an interesting place to be on a May afternoon. The Space Gallery houses Enterprise, the first Shuttle and the one that was used for all the gliding tests.

We had a soft spot for this pretty Monocoupe.

5/15/2008

Somewhere on I80. When you're based in the Midwest, it's fun to watch the mountains on the morning drive from Salt Lake City to the track in Tooele. And when you're originally from England, it's just amazing to learn about the distances out West. We liked this road sign

Actually, it's not completely empty for the 401 miles between Wendover and Reno. In between, there's Elko, population about 17000.

The drive to the track has lots of fun distractions. Check out the polished aluminium bodywork of this guy's Cobra. Tasty!

Although we didn't run the car today, there's plenty to do. Miller Motorsports Park is surrounded by mountains and Audi marketing took advantage of the scenery to take some promotional shots of "our" car, the #1 R10T.

The sun is setting as we leave the track. It's cool to watch the evening light show on the mountain faces .

5/14/2008

Angerole, Inc are on our way to Salt Lake City in the corporate Bonanza for Round 4 of the American Le Mans series. This trip West has become a yearly treat for us - it's fun but we have to work for it. Yesterday, we were in the soup for 4 hours of the 6.8 it took to reach Cheyenne, Wyoming from Indianapolis. Today, it was another 3.3 hours against the wind across southern Wyoming into Utah. On the way across the Rockies, we were treated to this view of a lenticular cloud. Better respect these babies.

4/19/2008

Audi 1st & 2nd. The first 1-2 for the team since St Petersburg in 2007. It's taken a mighty amount of work to get back on top and Angerole, Inc are very proud of our part in this team effort.

4/17/2008

Running begins at Long Beach and Audi are on the pace immediately. Here's Frank Biela leaving the hairpin in "our" #1 R10T.

Meanwhile, there's another vital line of work going on: at American Le Mans races, the very important position of flag girl has to filled. Her job is to hold the Stars & Stripes (since we're an American team) next to the car while it's on the grid and every race it falls to each car's mechanics to recruit the cutest girl they can find. Here's Mark Murray and Bobby Mouzayck interviewing a candidate for our car.

4/16/2008

There are circadian rhythms and there's the racing season: if it's mid April, we're on the west coast, in Long Beach. This southern California port town has a 34 year history of hosting a race and we were pleased to see this year the beginnings of a Walk of Fame. Here's the first plaque, honouring a very famous name, Dan Gurney.

Long Beach is a street race and, as we move in to the hotel, there's plenty of work going on building the bleachers and setting up the walls and fences that define the track.

Next to our paddock, Patron Tequila has taken over an apartment building that's being restored and hung this enormous banner. The banner was taken down the next day and here's the story: apparently, Patron had not obtained the correct permits for the banner and the city demanded they remove it. From Patron's point of view, this turned out to be a winner because the removal was covered extensively by the LA news media.

After setting up camp, we enjoyed meeting up with friend and associate Barnaby Wainfan. Barnaby is a very experienced aerodynamicist, presently working on some extremely interesting government projects. Like all good engineers, his mind is always working. Here are the vortex generators and tufts on the rear window of his Pontiac Grand Am as he studies and manipulates the airflow on his commute to work.

4/8/2008

Angerole, Inc takes a day out to go to Sun N Fun and do a bit of promotional work for our GPS mounts. Actually, after record rainfall in central Florida, we discovered this year it's more like Mud N Fun. We found out why it took such a long time to get in to the parking fields at Lakeland's Linder Regional as we came in the gate: there were some busy tractors pulling out cars that had sunk up to their axles. But, everybody was in a good mood and pretty soon we were at the show proper.

This was the first time we had been to Sun N Fun and we didn't really know what to expect. It turns out that while this is a very large event, it's very much #2 behind Oshkosh. Still, there's some really neat stuff to see and we could dream about buying the ultimate thrill ride in Crazy Horse.

Snooping around the flightline, we came across this restored T6 showing off her insides. "Better than new" doesn't even begin to apply to this work of art.

4/5/2008

Audi 1st & 24th. Unfortunately "our" car, the #1 R10T was the one in 24th due to wing damage after being hit from behind. But, the good news is, Audi won and our own car set fastest race lap.

It's the team that wins and our management show their pleasure by treating everyone to some champagne. Got to love that explosion of energy and foam.

Another bright  spot was our other little baby, the Ford GT scoring its first finish, driven by David Murry and one of its owners, Andrea Robertson.

4/3/2008

After we've set up camp, the race organisers finally are able to close the city streets that make up most of this Monaco-like circuit and it's time to go and have a look. This weekend, the very experienced Frank "The Tank" Biela joins us in the #1 Audi R10T. Frank understands it's all about looking cool, even when you're driving the golf cart.

Frank's helmet is easy to spot (can you tell he's German?). He makes a good pair with the equally shy and modest Emanuele Pirro.

4/2/2008

Angerole, Inc cranks up the corporate Bonanza and heads 12° of latitude south to Albert Whitted for the St Petersburg Grand Prix. It's bumpy but sunny when we arrive in Tampa Bay about lunchtime.

This is the most convenient of all races for flying to. In the photo above, we're on final for runway 36. The diagonal runway at the far end of the airport is 06 / 24 and it's the racetrack's main straight. It's a lot of fun to be able to park the plane about 100ft from the paddock.

3/24/2008

Angerole, Inc heads off to Road Atlanta for some tyre testing. Normally spring would be sprung by late March but in these days of global warming, it's -10°C at 7000 and there's a hard frost on the ground of northern Kentucky as we cross the Ohio.

Further south the clouds thickened and came up to meet us as and we picked up a bit of ice. Fortunately the corporate Bonanza has TKS and we were never in trouble.

Eventually, we make it to the track and join the boys in setting up. After the practice run in Florida 3 weeks ago, this went quickly and smoothly.

Later in the evening we started up the car to be truly sure it was ready for the following morning.

It's a bit of a procedure to start an R10 from cold. The left hand pair of silver pipes carry hot air from a space heater to the intercoolers, the right pair carry the exhaust to a filtration unit. A diesel, the R10 is completely smoke free when running under load but presently it needs some special handling to stay clean when warming it up. This is evolving and eventually the motor engineers will be able to map it to stay clean all the time. Learning how to do this is one of the reasons Audi go racing.

It's a fact the American Le Mans is the only EPA approved racing series. What you see in the picture here is one of the reasons why.

Later, Emanuele Pirro shows up. Ever modest, his new helmet sports glow-in-the-dark paint.

And he stole an ejector seat handle for his radio plug.

Of course, it's good and dark by the time we're finished so here's the car about to be put to bed for the night.

And here it is on the way up on the lift gate.

3/8/2008

The Ford GT makes it onto the track at Sebring.

It's not ideal to make the car's debut in front of absolutely everyone in the racing world but sometimes it just has to happen that way. Fortunately the car is good out of the box and David and Andrea Robertson of the first customer, Robertson Racing are "ecstatic" with their new baby. We at Angerole, Inc are very pleased to have been part of this project.

3/5/2008

Angerole, Inc heads back to Ohio for the final build of Doran's Ford GT ALMS car. It always seems to be late in the day when we're going somewhere so we get to see lots of sunsets. This time it's over the left wing so you know we're heading north.

Things have come down to the wire for the Ford GT and it's a real thrash to get it and all its spares out the door for the trip to Sebring. Here's some of the bodywork, waiting to go into the paint booth.

The detail work on this car is just gorgeous. Here's the view looking in the driver's door. Check out the carbon dash, the billet floor-mounted pedals and the first of Angerole, Inc's new generation of self-exciting shift cut sensors.

At last the paint's done and the bodywork fitted for keeps in the nick of time for the car to be loaded. It looks absolutely stunning and something of which everyone involved can be proud.

It's never easy. Here's the brand new car about to head out into the snow to be loaded.

3/3/2008

If you've ever seen the MASH episode where they have to move the 4077th to the other side of the road, that's what it's like getting a race team packed and actually on the road. Champion Racing is a good enough organisation that this is explicitly recognised and the whole team does a dummy run from the shop down the street to the local Harley Davidson dealer's parking lot. There, the whole show is set up and we check the new tents fit properly and all the new equipment works as it should.

If you've ever wondered what a race team does over the winter, the pictures below maybe give some idea of the scale of work involved. Here are some new high and low stands. The low stands just fit under the car when it's up on air jacks, making it easy to safely take the wheels off for routine between-session work.

The high stands are for more serious work, for example a gearbox change. Both kinds have been made in-house by the team's fabricators: they're nickel plated to make them look nice and they fold up to fit inside a custom travel box.

Race teams rely on nitrogen bottles to pump up tyres and operate "air" tools, like the wheel guns. Nitrogen is readily available and is very safe because it's practically inert. The bottles are compact and heavy so they are commonly used as ballast to hold down the tent legs. The only vulnerable thing left is the regulators and Champion have made and painted new protective "cages" for every bottle.

Next, all the tools have been sorted out and organising inserts made for the team's Lista cabinets. Here is one car's pliers drawer. And all this is just the tip of the iceberg.

We also took the opportunity to do a bit of pitstop practice in full race gear on this year's Audi R10T. It's kind of fun to do this right next to I95.

3/2/2008

Angerole, Inc heads south in the corporate Bonanza for Champion's Spring Training. Here's the sun setting off our right wing over north Florida.

Given the general cold, wet ooze that had taken root over the Midwest for the last few weeks it was nice to have an opportunity to a) fly at all and b) head somewhere nice.

2/20/2008

Angerole, Inc is at Doran Racing working on the Ford GT. This evocative car is finally making headway, just in time actually seeing as there are only two more clear weeks until Sebring. On the plus side, it's really looking nice and something of which everybody involved can be proud.

The detail work on this car is fabulous. Here's the exhaust tips, brought together because it's a styling cue from the original GT40 and because the car will sound like it's turning some serious rpm. Note the Emco gearbox behind the exhaust and the 4-cam Ford heads against the firewall.

Here are the trumpets, echoing the really cool CanAm cars of the late 60's with unequal lengths. These are supposed to be functional and broaden the power band but who cares when they look this good?

Today marked a victory of sorts when the car made it down onto the ground. Here it is on the air lifts, halfway through the transition from chassis stands to workshop floor.

At last, she's on the ground and if she's half as fast as she looks, we'll win every race.

2/2/2008

Angerole, Inc heads to the oldest continuously occupied city in North America, Saint Augustine, FL. We came for the culture and history. Actually, we kind of really did, but it's also nice just to hang out on the Intracoastal, especially when it's really cold back in the Midwest. Here's the view on final for runway 31 at KSGJ. At 10 ft MSL, this is the second lowest airport at which we've landed.

Later, Angerole, Inc found this evocative road sign on the way to see the sea from Anastasia Island. We chose the path less travelled: A1A.

Looking back from the bridge, we could see the Castillo de San Marcos. This coquina fort was built by the Spanish in the late 1600's.

2/1/2008

Angerole, Inc flies in to Lakeland, FL and takes a minute to go to an aircraft museum.

As Lakeland's Sun'n'Fun airshow / meeting / trade show / fly-in has grown in stature and importance, there has been growth around the airport to meet it. The Florida Air Museum's front hangar traces the history of the experimental aircraft movement and it was a real pleasure to spend an hour in this gentle little place.

There was quite an extensive Howard Hughes exhibit and in something of a closing of the circle, we had the same trouble taking a photo of a model H4 Hercules as we did taking one of the real thing when we saw it in July 2006 in McMinnville, OR.

Florida Air Museum has an annex about a quarter of a mile away from the main hangar and this temperate February day we enjoyed the walk between them, past some ancient live oak trees dripping Spanish moss.

Inside the Annex, there's some cool stuff and the light makes it possible to have fun with the camera.

Here's the nose section of Fertile Myrtle, a B29 used at Edwards to launch the Douglas Skyrocket research aircraft. The silhouettes on the side are successful Skyrocket drops. Scott Crossfield was the first man to exceed Mach 2 after being dropped from this aircraft.

And a truly rare bird was seen: this Hawker Tempest. Cool!

1/28/2008

After the weekend's "break" getting 4 Audi R8's and a Bentley up to snuff, it was back to work with the front line cars for this week's official IMSA test. You know it's official when you can't just sign the waiver: you need an actual credential to get in.

Some of it went well (see below) and some of it needs some more work. We'll be back.

1/24/2008

Audi R8 Reunion, Sebring, FL. Not very many of these iconic race cars have escaped from the factory into private hands. Four that have were at Sebring this warm weekend for a special clinic aimed at making sure they're in the best shape they can be.

Below, Timo Hartmann of Audi Sport is inspecting one R8's engine internals with a bore scope.

Later, with all the fettling and rubbing done, it was time for a photo opportunity.

This was a cool event to have been at and Angerole, Inc is proud to have participated.

Motorsport is absolutely a function of the people involved and the social part of a racing weekend is central to what happens on the track. Especially when it's at one of the sport's legendary watering holes, Chicanes at the Inn on the Lakes.

1/21/2008

Drivers are a unique breed. Emanuele Pirro is working on his instrument rating back home in Italy and in between driving duties, he's in the Engineering tent practicing his approaches in Microsoft Flight Simulator.

1/20/2008

There must be something in this global warming you hear so much about: last year when we rolled the corporate Bonanza out of the hangar to head for Sebring, it was 0°F. This year is was 1°F. The reward for getting out of bed this bitter day was a 1300 ft/minute climb out of Eagle Creek at 140 KIAS and severe clear as we headed into the dawn.

Once the sun was up, we could see the OAT gauge start to climb as we headed south. Even over central Kentucky, it was still -5°F (-20°C) at 7000.

A little further south, we were able to see why, in Eastern Tennessee, the Appalachians earn the name Smoky Mountains.

Today's trip was for Audi testing and the strong high over the central plains gave us enough of a tail wind to make Sebring non-stop in 4:32 flying time, an average speed of about 173 knots or 199mph. Got to love a Bonanza.

Once at Sebring, it was straight down to work. Here's Marco Werner "rolling out" the car with some 150mph evening passes up and down the paddock.

12/22/2007

Since getting back from Florida, Angerole, Inc has been on site at Doran Racing's shop in Ohio. This is fun because the Ford GT is coming along nicely and parts and assemblies we've designed are coming together and being fitted.

We've taken advantage of the rules and moved some of the suspension pickups to gain the suspension geometry we wanted. What happens is, a GT car runs very low, much lower than the road car on which it is based. Coupled with the big racing wheels, if we used standard Ford geometry, the suspension would be in full bump before the car ever left the pits.

Faced with the same problem on their GT cars, Porsche and Ferrari simply do nothing and leave their customers to sort out the mess. Angerole, Inc and Doran Racing go to the trouble of doing it properly: we raise the pickups on the chassis and lower them on the uprights so that proper geometry is retained at the low racing ride height.

Here's one of the consequences: new mounting points have to be spot faced on an assembled chassis. The car's frame is too large to put on the machine so instead Angerole, Inc designed a fixture for it to be done (very carefully) by hand.

Later, we are able to trial fit the entire rear suspension.

It's nice when it goes together first time. Note another indication of the quality of this car: Ohlins TTX through-shaft dampers.

And nicer still when the wheel goes on. Another primary advantage of the Ford over other GT contenders is the way the rules allow it to run wider rear wheels.

Please remember that the same competent design and engineering expertise is available from Angerole, Inc for your project.

12/7/2007

Angerole, Inc takes time off from the PRI Show in Orlando to ride over to Cocoa Beach to watch a Space Shuttle launch. As it happened, some fuel sensor problem prevented the launch but sitting on the beach listening to the waves was balm for the soul. Here's a memory:

12/4/2007

Concord, NC to Peachtree Dekalb. The sun was setting even before we fired up the corporate Bonanza to head south and we took a moment to admire this Gulfstream G4 in the evening light.

Angerole, Inc would look really good riding around in a G4 so please buy our products and services!

OK, we're aware we have a limited range of original photo compositions but we still delight in watching sunsets from the air so here's another one, taken on our way south-west to Atlanta.

12/3/2007

At Roush Fenway Racing doing shaker rig testing on the Doran Daytona Prototype. This is an interesting place to be for a couple of days, doing the preparatory work on spring/damper/bump rubber combinations for Doran's assault on the 2008 Daytona 24 Hours. Here's the car on the rig.

Pease remember that Angerole, Inc is a commercial organisation and our experience at closing the loop between rig and track testing is available for your race program.

12/2/2007

Indianapolis to Concord, NC in the corporate Bonanza. Reasons why are in tomorrow's entry but for now the journey is the reason. It's fun to finally break away from the soup covering most of the midwest and watch the sun go down as we approached the Piedmont area.

11/29/2007

Angerole, Inc is at Doran Racing to check on progress on the Ford GT. It's coming along: here's the rear wishbones trial fitted on the chassis.

Work is also being done on the Doran / Dallara hybrid Daytona Prototype. This car has evolved very greatly from the original car we designed in 2002 but a lot of the design intent remains intact. Angerole, Inc is very proud of this car's long competitive history. Anyway, yet another rearrangement of the engine bay requires new exhaust headers. Making headers requires skilled hand work to get stuff to fit and to last. A really good bloke can also make them look nice. Here's the new set under construction.

11/23/2007

Thanksgiving in Memphis. Well, actually the day after thanksgiving and, according to Paul Simon "There's some part of me / Wants to see Graceland". So Angerole, Inc has a day off to visit the home of the King of Rock'n'Roll, Elvis Presley.

It's well known that the Presley fortune was in a sad state indeed when Elvis left the building but maybe a little less well known that Priscilla took up the reins and set about turning the estate, the memory and the music into something that could turn a profit. Here's an example of Americana we like from the souvenir shop that you naturally wander into while waiting for your bus across Elvis Presley Boulevard to the mansion: a 12" tall talking Elvis Action Figure.

We once saw a Bill Clinton one of these that said, "I did not have sex with that woman". OK, we made that up but never let the truth get in the way of a good story. Anyway, back to today's tale: after a while you get called outside to wait for the bus and we had our first sight of Graceland.

Because it's the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas decorations are up and the front lawn is dominated by a large nativity scene. The mansion itself is modestly set back amongst the trees. We liked the modesty aspect and the way Elvis kept the home's name when he bought it in 1957 from the family that built it. Eventually, your turn to ride across the street comes up and about 1 minute later the bus drops you at one of rock'n'roll's more famous front doors.

A home like this is normally a living thing and it becomes clear that during the 20 years Elvis lived here, Graceland was often redecorated. This all suddenly stopped one late summer day in 1977 and the home is caught in a kind of limbo, trapped in 1970's kitsch. Somehow, it survives with "grace" and good humour and the total effect is not bad.

Once you're through the home, there's a chance to see some really neat memorabilia. Here's the leather suit Elvis wore for the 1968 Comeback. Please forgive the darkness: you're not allowed to use flash.

Later still you have your chance to file past Elvis' grave.

It's interesting to look back on this scene as you head for the bus. Check out the lowered heads. The God of Rock'n'Roll lives on.

11/16/2007

It's been a little while since Angerole, Inc went to the museum at Indianapolis Motor Speedway so today we spent our 3 bucks on a very enjoyable couple of hours.

The cars on display rotate through an impressive stock kept safe by the Speedway so there's always something new to see. Today we tried to look at the cars with an aesthete's eyes and it's a pleasure to see the love and care that has been put into making race cars look nice. Here's the engine bay exit duct and exhaust of a Mercedes W196:

And here's the exhaust of an Offy-powered roadster:

Indy has a (presently dormant) tradition of fostering independent thinking amongst car designers and it's nice to have a look at what people have done before. We like the asymmetry of Jim Clark's 1963 2nd place Lotus:

And in a certain sign there's nothing really new under the sun, here's a diesel powered race car, about 6 decades before Audi got round to it:

11/5/2007

Angerole, Inc are at Doran Racing to continue work on what we can now reveal is a new GT car to ALMS rules based on the Ford GT. Please remember that Angerole, Inc is an independent engineering consulting firm with separate clients in Doran and Audi. In no way should Doran's GT car project be construed as having anything to do with Audi. We hope this is a clear statement.

The really good news is that actual commercial clients have recently placed deposits on the Ford GT cars which means we now have to really get on with it. Here's the first bodyshell with Angerole, Inc designed front suspension mounted.

We're continuing work on the rear suspension and go to see the first rear upper wishbone come off the machining centre.

We also had a chance to review progress on a project we were involved with a couple of years ago. The Sports 2000 in the picture is the Doran JE1 raced to a SCCA Runoffs gold medal by David "Big D" Doran. After this triumph, the car was bought and raced by Bill Braucksick and, over the years, it's performance had honestly faded. Bill called in Angerole, Inc to recommend a way forwards.

In the picture above, our recommendations are being applied: a new and structurally complete engine bay structure. This work will be completed in time for the 2008 season. Please remember that good advice and competent engineering from Angerole, Inc are available for your program.

11/2/2007

Angerole, Inc heads for a rendezvous in Atlanta in the corporate Bonanza and on the way had this sight for sore eyes over eastern Tennessee.

10/22/2007

Monterey to Indianapolis. With the pressure off for a day or so, Angerole, Inc enjoyed the drive north to San Francisco. There's plenty to like in California: here's some of the tall trees that line Highway 101.

Later, we had a real treat this clear evening as Frontier 108 climbed out: a wonderful view of San Francisco bay. In the foreground is the former Alameda Naval Air Station, the Bay Bridge is behind it, San Francisco itself on the middle left, Alcatraz near the right edge and the Golden Gate bridge is just visible in the background. Wow!

As we flew east over northern Nevada with the sun setting behind us it was fun to watch the light patterns on the scenery below.

And our altitude meant the wing stayed lit up while the ground darkened.

10/20/2007

Three days of understanding
Of moving with one another
Even the cops grooved with us
Do you believe me?
Yeah!
Down in Monterey

2007 marks 50 years since Laguna Seca was built and 40 years since Eric Burdon & The Animals played at the Monterey Pop Festival, along with The Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix and The Grateful Dead. Some things have changed and some stay the same. One that stays the same is that it takes a team, understanding and moving with one another to climb back on top of the results sheets. More below.

Another thing that (thankfully) stays the same is the sea. When you're based in Indiana, it's cool to get up and have a look at the waves. This fine morning gave us a nice shot as the sun lit up the gentle surf.

After this little bit of calm, the pace picks up a lot but it's reassuring to find a corporation like Audi can find time for a bit of fun when Pirro the Bear rode shotgun to the grid with Mike Rockenfeller.

Pirro told us it was a bit draughty in the open cockpit of a 700hp race car so he climbed out and helped us on the pit stand during the race.

Pirro the Bear yelled encouragement to his drivers throughout the race: here's Mike Rockenfeller turning titanium skidplates into sparks in the Corkscrew.

And here's Marco Werner making a masterful comeback from broken bodywork and bent suspension after being rammed by another car.

This very exciting race finished after dark with the #1 Audi winning while Marco's sterling work brought the #2 home 3rd and on the lead lap, completing a 100% finishing record for 2007 by Audi Sport North America in ALMS races.

10/17/2007

Setup day at Laguna Seca. This starts off on the right foot with breakfast in the hotel restaurant overlooking Monterey Bay. It's nice to watch the sea otters playing while enjoying poached eggs and hash browns. There's a minute to enjoy the view of the ocean and then we all have to pile into the rental cars and head off to do some work.

Laguna Seca is built on a former Army base, Ford Ord, land now owned by Monterey County. A couple of years ago Mazda bought the title rights for the track and with a touch of class kept the original name.

Mazda's influence (and dollars) have been very good for this beautiful track, there's investment in quality buildings and infrastructure and, this year, a brand new track surface. All Mazda seem to ask in return is a little space to showcase some of their history. 2007 is the 40th anniversary of Mazda's first rotary engine production car, the Cosmo sportscar. Here's a nice example on display in the tent.

The cockpit is just as clean and stylish. Good design never goes out of fashion.

With Emanuele Pirro still out with concussion after his crash at Road Atlanta, Mike Rockenfeller was brought in for the weekend. Rocky has driven the R10 before and drives for Audi in the ultra-competitive DTM sedan series in Europe. He's young, fast and confident and we're pleased to have him. For Rocky to be able to drive at speed, we have to mould his seat. This is made out of special foam which the driver has to sit in while it sets. The whole job takes the better part of the day - here it is in process.

Later we head out to walk the track to check out the new surface and all the other changes. It's an interesting 2.38 mile walk when your driver for the weekend gives his impressions of the track and describes his thoughts on how he's going to drive it. To work well, the engineer / driver relationship takes vocabulary and imagination. Audi's drivers have it and it's a real privilege to work with them all. Here's Rocky at the top of the famous Corkscrew turn.

10/16/2007

Indianapolis to Laguna Seca. This is a long trip and, even though we had an early start, took the better part of the day. This was the view of the dawn from seat 11A on Frontier 615 as we climbed out of Indy.

We broke off from Highway 101 to go south from San Francisco to Monterey on California 1, the Pacific Coast Highway. It's a cool ride and, luckily, we're staying right on the ocean. Here's how we know we'd found the right exit.

If we get a sunset as nice as the sunrise, we'll post the picture tomorrow.

10/15/2007

Going back together day for the corporate Bonanza. Honestly, we were hoping this would be done earlier and because of the doubt we've booked a commercial ticket to go to California tomorrow. Anyway, it's nice to see our new overhauled propeller going back on. When the guys at Eagle Creek had finished bolting it up we were able to take the Christmas paper off: it looks great and it really runs smoothly.

10/12/2007

At Doran Racing in Lebanon, Ohio. Angerole, Inc travelled to Ohio for a sales meeting with two teams looking to move into the GT car we've been working on. The meetings went well and we have high hopes for a good number of cars on the track next year. We also had a chance to meet up with an old flame in the shop lobby:

This is one of a pair of Dallara SP1's that Doran Racing campaigned very successfully in 2002 - 3, including an outright win in the 2002 Daytona 24 Hours. Angerole, Inc provided race engineering services for this program. It was love at first sight when we saw this car, all those years ago, and it's great to see her looking this good today. Here are another couple of views of the power of curves.

10/8/2007

Atlanta to Indianapolis. With the corporate Bonanza down for a propeller overhaul, we made the trip home on Airtran 401.

Sometimes Angerole, Inc is very productive on airliners and sometimes we just look out of the window and watch the clouds go by. After the events of the last week, you can guess which way it went on the way home.

10/7/2007

Today we turned around the cars, meaning prepared them for Laguna Seca. After that, we broke camp and loaded up the trucks for their long trip across country to California.

And of course, the work goes on into the night. There's something universal about loading race cars: the only time it ever takes place in the daylight is when it's morning and you've been working on them all night.

10/6/2007

Well, after waking up full of optimism, this day turned out to be a big hill to climb.

The bad news began 2 days previously when Emanuele Pirro crashed very heavily in Turn 1 following a sudden tyre deflation. We'd repaired the car but Pirro had concussion. This is not a trivial injury but we were hoping for the best until the news came on race morning that Emanuele had not passed the medical tests and could not race. We've never seen a grown man look so heartbroken.

So what do you do when one of your drivers can't drive? Well, you have to get resourceful. Fortunately, Lucas Luhr was in the paddock. Lucas is an Audi contracted driver who, with Audi's permission, was this weekend taking a sabbatical from the DTM program race a Ferrari GT car. The GT team did the honourable thing and released Lucas to drive the R10T.

If you've been around a Prototype, you'll know that they don't actually have seats. Instead, an insert is moulded to exactly fit both the monocoque and the driver. Typically, you make one for the largest driver and then mould another one that fits inside the first to suit the smaller bloke. This work takes time and getting something that would work for both Marco and Lucas was only completed on the grid.

For a number of very good reasons, we had Lucas start the race. Starting drivers are nominated immediately after qualifying (we'd nominated Marco) so changing driver meant we started from the back of the grid. All that work to get the pole went up in smoke.

As a reminder of why he's a professional, Lucas took a couple of laps at the start of the race to play himself in and then started to move forwards. Here he is on lap 34, in the lead and ahead of Capello in the #1.

And here he is checking out

It was shortly after this photo was taken that the hill suddenly got steeper. With 36 cars from 4 different classes on a 2.5 mile track, the fast cars are overtaking someone every other corner. While it's part of sportscar racing and always will be, over the course of a race distance this gives thousands of opportunities for something to go wrong. And go wrong they did for us when Marco Werner, who had taken over the car in our second stop, tangled with a Corvette while passing it and we had our second trip into the barrier of the weekend.

The time lost for repairs put the #2 completely out of contention but we soldiered round to a finish and a bit of reflected glory when the sister #1 car won the race outright. This is important: after a long summer drought, Audi Sport North America has not only climbed back on top but this win brings with it an entry to Le Mans next summer.

10/5/2007

A Good Day. "Our" car, the #2 Audi R10T is on pole position for tomorrow's Petit Le Mans. Here's a screen we lifted from the American Le Mans website.

Marco Werner not only drove the fastest ever officially timed lap at Road Atlanta, he was 0.460 seconds faster than the other Audi, the #1 car driven by Dindo Capello. We try to be modest about what we do but please remember that Angerole, Inc is a commercial organisation and our engineering expertise is available for your race program.

9/30/2007

On the way to Road Atlanta for the 10th Petit Le Mans. Because the corporate Bonanza is down for a propeller overhaul, we're going commercial and the wait after checking in is an opportunity to catch up on the Diary.

9/21/2007

Gainesville, GA to Indianapolis in the corporate Bonanza. Here's the view looking northeast when we're on top over the Smoky Mountains. No filter used on the camera - that's just how deep blue the sky was.

Further north, the skies cleared and the wind dropped. We stopped by I68, Lebanon, OH to check in with Doran for some work we'll be doing shortly and conditions were perfect for hot air balloons.

It's neat to see how these folks do it: they lay the envelope out and blow it up with a pair of large fans driven by what look like lawnmower engines. Once they have enough air inside, they can start to heat the air with their propane burners.

Only about 15 minutes after starting, off they go. It's fun to watch.

8/30/2007

A day at the (Detroit) races. But first, an interesting start to the day when we find the Old Mariners' Church

This is the church Gordon Lightfoot sang about in The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald: In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed / In the Maritime Sailor's Cathedral / And the church bell chimed 'til it rang twenty-nine times / For each Man on the Edmund Fitzgerald

It might be musty but it's beautiful and it's maintained. It's good to see a piece of history like this treated with the respect it deserves.

Later at the track we actually get to do some work. Here's our car being towed down to the pits in the evening so we could do some pitstop practice. As usual this weekend, it's ahead of the #1.

8/29/2007

Indianapolis to Windsor, Ontario for the Detroit ALMS race.

Angerole, Inc decided to fly the corporate Bonanza into Windsor, on the Canadian side of the Detroit River because it was a new airport for us to land, it's actually the closest airport to the track and it's substantially less expensive than the US side of the border. It turned out to be a good decision: Windsor is 15 miles and a world away from the mean streets around KDET, Detroit City. Here we are parked in the Guest spot at the very friendly Windsor Flying Club.

It took a cab ride to downtown Windsor to catch a $3 bus through the tunnel under the river back to the US. There's a ramp down, a level section in the middle and a ramp back up. All told, it's about 2 miles underground and under river. Here's the view half way through.

Another cab ride got us to the track to meet The Boys at the track on Belle Isle. Most of the water that goes over Niagara Falls the other end of Lake Erie flows from Lake Huron through the Detroit River so it's fast moving and has shaped the two main islands, Belle Isle and Grosse Isle into natural streamlined shapes. Belle Isle is a city park and, despite its fabulous location right by downtown Detroit (or maybe because of it), in recent years it's gone to rack and ruin. As you drive over the bridge to the island, the hulk of the former Detroit Yacht Club forlornly watches you. It's too sad to put in a picture.

Races have been run in downtown Detroit since the 1980's: Formula 1 used to come here. At some point, the races were moved from closed city streets to the roads on Belle Isle. The last time Angerole, Inc came here was in 1999 with Hogan Racing running Helio Castroneves in a CART ChampCar. Right around the time single seater racing in the US began to splinter and self-destruct, the City of Detroit was really hit by blight and the last races were run on Belle Isle in 2003.

In what appears to be a gesture of heroic civic-mindedness, Roger Penske this year poured millions of dollars into renovating the Belle Isle facility and promoting a race. You don't have to be in racing long to appreciate how much money a major race generates for the local economy. Oh yeah, and Detroit gets a better park for 51 weekends a year. We hope this marks something of a new beginning for a hurting city.

8/27/2007

Detroit preparation and tear down day at Mosport. And in an example of the resourcefulness a good team can apply to whatever comes up, here's truckie and tyre guy for the #2 Kenny MacMillan balancing the tailgate off one of the team's other semis.

We'd had to take it off because the recirculating ball jackscrew had jammed and used this borrowed forklift to carry it to the mobile repair guy's trailer. All in a day's work for Kenny.

8/23/2007

Yet another front moves through. We drive to Mosport through showers.

And then, in Practice, get in only a few laps before the heavens open. Here's Bobby Green, car chief on the #1 getting drenched putting the cover over his baby. The professional mechanic's credo: look after the car before yourself - way to go Bobby!

8/22/2007

Setup day at Mosport and time to go and have a look round. This year our qualifying speed around Mosport was over 135 mph and, since one of the corners is taken at about 30, gives a clue about how fast the rest are. Here's Turn 1 - this stunningly fast corner is taken very nearly flat out.

8/21/2007

Indianapolis to Toronto.

Hooray! One of our favourite trips of the year. Northeast across Indiana and northern Ohio, northbound over Lake Erie and out over Lake Ontario for the approach into Toronto City Centre. Here's the view just after we broke out - see how the CN tower is poking up into the clouds.

City Centre was Toronto's original airport before Pearson International was built. It's still an island and still has no bridge but since we came in last year, they've built a nice new ferry terminal at both ends (the ride is free) and the place is busy with commuter airline traffic. Here's the corporate Bonanza parked next to a nice example of Canada's primary form of transport.

We were lucky enough to land at KCGX Chicago Meigs before it was destroyed in a cowardly raid by Mayor Daley's henchmen. City Centre in Toronto is an example of what Meigs could have been - a first class asset to a thriving city.

After meeting up with the Team, we had a nice evening in Toronto's Hard Rock Cafe, taking in a Blue Jays' baseball game.

8/16/2007

Indianapolis to Dayton, OH for the US Air Force Museum.

Angerole, Inc joined the Audi Sport propeller heads at this amazing museum that celebrates more than 100 years of flying with the absolute coolest, most evocative aircraft ever. Actually, it's hard to run out of superlatives at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (Wright-Pat) because there is no shortage of really cool hardware to see.

The R&D exhibit is in a hangar on a secure part of the base and you need to get clearance to even get on the bus to ride over. Here's a couple of snaps of part of the reward. First, the six monster sized jet nozzles of the XB70

Another view of the XB70 Valkyrie. This bomber could and did fly continuously at Mach 3, 40 years ago. The photo is of one edge of the engine pod, the wing's leading edge comes in from the top right and the cockpit with its canard wings is about 100 feet in front and 30 feet above the camera.

Here's a nice shot of an early Air Force One - the Lockheed Super Constellation of Dwight Eisenhower.

They also have the actual Boeing 707 on which Lyndon Johnson was sworn in after JFK was shot. This bay in the aircraft is protected by a clear acrylic panel so you can't stand where Johnson is. But if the acrylic window had been there when this classic Cecil Stoughton photo was taken, Jackie Kennedy would have been leaning on it. Makes you feel that history is very close.

Back in the main hangars, there's plenty to see. Here's a Boeing-built early Stealth study aircraft. Difficult to imagine something like this could fly but apparently it could. Kind of makes you wonder what the ones we don't get to see look like.

And in a certain sign that the US Air Force understands the Essence of Cool, here's a dramatically lit Convair B58.

8/9/2007

Elkhart Lake for American Le Mans race 9. Elkhart Lake is, as the name suggests, on a lake and is also very close to the western shore of Lake Michigan. So there's plenty of moisture around to fuel morning fogs. Here's the view from the middle seats of the crew van on the way to the track in the morning.

A few minutes later, this is what it looks like getting the car out of the truck. Still no sign of the sky.

Actually, gray as it was, we were at least dry when we went through tech. Those behind us weren't so fortunate - here's one of the factory Corvettes waiting patiently in the rain.

8/4/2007

OK, we were getting embarrassed about how far behind we are on the Diary so today got up early to write a brief history of what we've been up to for the last 6 weeks.

7/28/2007

Indianapolis to Oshkosh, Wisconsin for AirVenture 2007.

To anyone with a love of flying, this is THE pilgrimage: you just have to do it . For 10 days in July, a more-or-less ordinary airport called Wittman Regional on the shores of Lake Winnebago comes alive. Angerole, Inc has been to Oshkosh a number of times but, this time, we flew in to what is literally the "World's Busiest Airport".

It's a measure of how busy Oshkosh is that you have to turn your transponder off within 30 miles - presumably ATC's radar would saturate if you didn't. We went up IFR from Indy, cancelled at Madison, WI and flew the Fisk VFR Arrival which involves following roads, railway lines and waggling your wings to acknowledge controller's instructions (the frequency is too busy to reply). It's absolutely wild and a lot of fun. In the photo above we're just about to turn downwind for Runway 27, we'll turn base over the lake and land coming back this way.

The ad-hoc crew of controllers know what they're doing and call your turn to final to slot in between departures from the same runway. The Oshkosh runways are long enough that they land more than one plane at a time, guiding you to where they want you to actually touch down. Once you're on the ground, some of an army of volunteers send you to where they want you to park and, once you're tied down, there's a fleet of school buses to take you to the actual show.

Oshkosh is a gathering, a trade show and an air show, all rolled into one. About 2pm, the serious flying starts, this perfect day with some sky writing.

It's not cheap to get in to Oshkosh but we often think that race organisers and promoters could learn a thing or two from how the Experimental Aircraft Association does it. The entire airport grounds are squeaky clean and the port-a-johns are serviced so often you actually don't mind using them. EAA's reward is an absolutely vast crowd of polite, civilised people.

The crowd's reward is you get to be this close to a P51 taxiing out for the show. We had to step back to get the whole airplane in the photo.

Eventually, a hot and noisy day draws to a close and Angerole, Inc finds an oasis in the EAA's hangar. Here's the view looking out from some very welcome shade.

7/21/2007

Race day at Mid Ohio. Only 8 men have ever won Le Mans three times in a row and here are two of them, Marco Werner and Emanuele Pirro, sitting on the pit wall waiting for the race to start.

It is a privilege to work with these professionals who, in an error-free performance between them, took "our" car from 8th on the grid to the race lead by lap 7. After leading for more than half the race, Marco Werner (below) brought the car home in 3rd place and on top of the P1 class. On the track we won; current refuelling regulations mean that we simply had to spend more time in the pits than the two cars which beat us.

7/2/2007

Indianapolis to Great Barrington, MA. Almost exactly 600 nautical miles great circle in about 4 hours in the corporate Bonanza and the 142nd airport at which we've landed. Trip purpose: the July 4th weekend race at Lime Rock.

New England is usually a pleasant place to be in early July and on a nice day, it's really lovely. We stayed at the Interlaken resort hotel not far from the track (took it over would be more like it) which, because of its long history, has some neat touches. Check out the wooden easy chairs and the cedar shingles.

In this cradle of the American Revolution, July 4th is an excuse for all things to be red, white and blue. Here's a flower pot we nearly tripped over.

7/3/2007

Lime Rock celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and, honestly, the actual track looks its age. Each year, we go out to inspect how bad it is and each year shake our heads and each year race on it anyway.

As cars have got faster and grip levels risen, over the years the track surface has been worn and damaged by the heavily loaded outside wheels. The temporary fix some years ago was to lay concrete patches on the racing line. The trouble is, since the concrete is harder than the surrounding asphalt, at the joint the asphalt gets peeled away leaving a step in the surface. In the photo above, the step is more than 1/2" high, which, to a Prototype, is a violent bump.

At Lime Rock, this very hard bump is but one of many, making this a long weekend for a car designed for the long straights and smooth, wide open corners of Le Mans. It got worse in the race when a sudden tyre deflation at the worst possible point on the track pitched Marco Werner into the barrier. The crew worked a minor miracle getting the car back out in the nick of time to pick up a classified finish and the Championship points to go with it.

Still, we did have some success on the weekend - the #2's crew moved up a round in the Klein Tools pitstop competition. This is a chance for the "boys" to really show their stuff and even make some money in return for all the hours they've spent training and practicing. Here's left side gun man, Donovan Spears in action.

6/17/2007

Paris Airshow at Le Bourget as guests of Embraer.

Wow! At this most historic of airports - this is where Lindbergh landed after his solo flight from New York - the chance to go to a serious airshow was a real breath of fresh air. We got to see some astonishing stuff, for instance here's the engine and ducted fan unit out of the F35 Joint Strike Fighter. With the fan engaged and the vectored thrust nozzle swivelled downwards this Mach 2 fighter can transition to hover like a helicopter.

A very convincing demonstration of what vectored thrust can do was put on by the Russian Air Force's Sukhoi SU29.

6/16/2007

Well, this was truly bittersweet. After more than 20 years in this business, today we got to see "our" car lead Le Mans. Unfortunately, it also was the day we drilled the barrier at Tetre Rouge. Here's a clip from autosport.com

Later, the #1 Audi also crashed when a wheel nut failed and we received an education when the European Audi Sport team rolled up its sleeves and set about winning with the single remaining car. It's truly eye-opening to see how some hardened professionals can stare down misfortune.

This year the race was run mostly in the dry but when it rains at Le Mans, life gets interesting in a hurry. Here's what it looks like when these most aerodynamic of cars lift the water off the road surface.

The hours wind on and the tension is just unbearable as Marco Werner takes the #2 back out onto a streaming wet track for the last time. Marco knows The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner - he is one of only 7 men who have won Le Mans, Daytona and Sebring.

A little under an hour later, here's the reward as Marco brings the car home to the checker. This win took Audi ahead of Jaguar for Le Mans wins; they're now third behind only Porsche and Ferrari.

6/15/2007

What's laughingly called "Rest Day" at Le Mans. Although we don't actually hit the track, today we work to apply everything we learnt to the cars and make them as ready as they can humanly be made for the race. "Our" car, the #3 Audi R10T will start the 24 Hours tomorrow from 5th on the grid.

Angerole, Inc's part in this means that we spend practice, qualifying and the race itself from what's called a pit stand, meaning a purpose-built transportable control console that's set up just across the pit lane from the garage. We'd have to kill you if we showed you the equipment that's in ours but here's a view of the one belonging to the team next door.

You're looking down the pit straight, in the direction the cars approach from. The pit lane is on the left with the garages behind it, the track is on the right with some of the grandstands beyond. Looking directly behind us, here's a view of our car waiting to go out for first practice.

Le Mans is mostly on public roads that are closed temporarily for racing. The famous Mulsanne straight is the main highway running south from Le Mans to Tours. Even in France, it's not a trivial thing to close roads for racing so for all sorts of reasons, practice and qualifying take place late in the day. So, at 7:00pm on Wednesday, first practice begins in front of some already well filled grandstands.

There's a one hour break from 9:00 to 10:00 and then the real magic of Le Mans starts as night falls. Here are the Audi team cars just before the 10pm to midnight night practice session.

In between practice sessions, if we're ever in danger of running out of things to do, we fill in by doing a bit of pitstop practice outside the garage in the pit lane.

And then there's getting all the tyres ready. Here are just a few. The box-like thing behind them is the oven that's used to preheat the tyres so they grip a bit better when the car leaves the pits.

6/12/2007

Tuesday at Le Mans. Running begins tomorrow so today everyone has work to do. The track people came along and put up the sign over the garage. These signs are made of paper over a wooden frame and traditionally they're a prize the crew carries home after the race.

Tuesday means Scrutineering for which we have to get the cars downtown to the Place des Jacobins which is right next to Le Mans' gothic cathedral. The organisers use Scrutineering as an opportunity to take the racing to the people - it's an chance to stir up local interest in the race and is directly equivalent ot the circus parading down Main Street when it comes to town. 3 time Le Mans winning team manager John Wyer described Scrutineering as "an ordeal designed to reduce the most equable to a state of gibbering frenzy". It's not quite that bad any more but it is still a very interesting place to be on a June afternoon.

With three cars, it makes sense for Audi to use one of the transporters to go to Scrutineering. As soon as the truck is parked, it's surrounded by people. Once the cars are off, there's a whole lot of standing around while waiting to go into the actual technical inspection. For the crews, this means mostly trying to stop pieces of your car being unbolted and spirited away.

Finally, it's time to push your car into the Tech tents.

Here, the organisers prod and poke, measure and weigh and, if you're lucky, pronounce themselves satisfied. Here also, drivers are declared and, once declared are fixed for the duration of the event. For a variety of reasons, "our" car, the #3, has a changed line up from the Test and our drivers are now Lucas Luhr, Alex Prémat and Mike Rockenfeller.

Finally, the car is through and it's time to take the official photos. Here are The Boys pushing the #3 into place.

Naturally, it's the cars and the drivers that get most of the attention but the time comes when the press want the Team Photo and we all have to line up behind the car. Here's what it looks like to the mice in the cage while the photographers are getting ready.

At last it's all done and while our cars are being loaded for the trip back to the track, there's a couple of minutes to look at how other people are doing it. Most cars make their way downtown on the back of local towing companys' transporters, if you're reading this in the US, they're similar to Jerr Dans. Here are three of them waiting to take their charges back to the track. With all the tow trucks here, we would bet no cars get repo'd on the tuesday of Le Mans week.

It's kind of fun to watch some pretty serious race cars get loaded on these trucks. Here's a GT1 Lamborghini Murcielago setting off back to the track.

6/4/2007

In the garage at Le Mans. Today we turned around our car after the Pre Test. Turn around means i