Zandvoort 14 March 2011 Second time testing the SPAA05 GT57 with the new body and gearbox. Hans drove in the morning, his first experience driving a saker ever...

His first reactions were very positive, remarking on how direct the car responded to inputs. At first he had some problems with the gearbox, but this was resolved by shifting without using the clutch pedal. Afterwards his times kept on improving and he managed to get a best time of 2.07,2 which was good considering this is his first time driving a race car at all. After the midday break it was my time to drive. The first couple of laps were with a passenger logging data for a real-time data logging system SPAA05 is currently developing. After these tests I could finally get to pushing the car and already on the second lap 1.50,9 was managed. This was done with worn out tires so it looked like a sub-1.50 was in reach. However tires got worse and worse, and eventually times ran into the 1.53. At that time it became quite clear that the car needed some modifications as the extra weight from the gearbox over the rear axle had effect on the handling of the car. Even with new tires a 1.50,5 was all I could manage that day. However before we could do some modifications to the suspension the gearbox broke shifting into 4th just after the tarzan corner. This meant no more testing, as this could not be fixed on the track. Back at the factory, the gearbox malfunction appeared to be caused by production error. The manufacturer of the gearbox has already adressed the problem and send the new parts. Despite the gearbox problem, we thought this was a good day. We learned a lot about the car, got a lot faster since last time and we're sure that the car will be a lot faster for the upcoming race on the 10th of April. Check out the video section for the onboard video of the fastest lap!