Dyson Testing At Sebring Last Week
”The test went incredibly well last week,” says Chris Dyson – a view endorsed by Mike Lancaster at AER.

“I completed over 100 trouble-free laps on our first day evaluating tires and dampers, and then we did another marathon test the second day and logged 121 laps on the latest spec AER V8, which ran flawlessly.”

So Chris Dyson is happy, and the test pleased Mike Lancaster immensely too, because there were a number of changes to the AER V8.

“The idea of the test from the engine point of view was to run some new engine components to improve durability and performance, and to run some new electronics.

“On the mechanical side, we’ve made a fairly significant change to the scavenge pump assembly, to make it tougher for 2007, and we’ve also worked on the cylinder head sealing to make that more robust.

“The spec. for 2007 is now settled and for next year we’ve gained some performance and improved the durability.

“On the electronics, we’ve changed the wastegate and developed some new software for it. Basically there are now no adjustments on the wastegate, the electronics just tells it what to do.

“We’ve also made some inroads with the traction control, and that worked very well last week too.”

AER has also been developing its LMP2 engine, with a completely new coil system to overcome any misfires from that area “and we’ve completely changed the wastegate design, to make it more robust,” adds Mike Lancaster.

Chris Dyson wasn’t running alone at Sebring: “Andy Lally joined us for the second day of the test and did an excellent job, just as he did a few years ago in our 675 car.”