Blackhawk Farms Raceway

First Track Impressions of the DRM C500/RSR

May 5th 1999
Written by Doug Rippie

Hello race fans. I have just returned from Blackhawk Farms Raceway in Rocton IL. with my son Randy. It was a great father and son outing and was a personal and business success. We just completed our latest round of testing on our ultimate Corvette package called the DRM C500/RSR.

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For those of you not familiar with Blackhawk Farms Raceway, it is a Gem of a track that is two miles in length with seven official turns according to the track map but some people say it actually has ten. Anyway, we were testing a customer car belonging to Steve Melnick. Steve is an accomplished high speed driver and testing his car allowed us to gather important track data to further improve our C5 Supercar.

Steve's C5 is of the Fixed Roof Coupe variety. Modifications on this DRM C500/RSR include a DRM ExtraGrip coil over suspension with special Bilstein shocks, huge 6-piston AP calipers on 14" rotors in the front and 4-piston AP calipers on 13" rotors in the rear. Our brake package would not be complete without our custom DRM modified master cylinder and biasing control valve to give a FIRM brake pedal. Also included in the upgrade are oil coolers for engine oil, transmission and differential. An accusump oil system was incorporated to ensure proper oil pressure during high G-forces encountered while cornering. Finally, a chassis stiffener, racing seats and 6-point harness system completed our upgrades.

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Here I am reviewing captured data on my Tech-2 analyzer after a pounding 30-minute session on the track. We elected to run the entire day on BFGoodrich g-Force KD street tires. Yes, I did say STREET TIRES. We did this to help find the smallest imperfections in our chassis and suspension upgrades. Racing tires would mask inefficiencies in the suspension setup and although we would go much faster our intent was to test and tune.

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Here is Steve's impressions of his new car.
"This animal of a car is nothing short of amazing. I have never driven a car so well balanced and properly set up. Now I know why Doug has a reputation for developing engine, chassis, brake and suspension upgrades that really pull everything together. The brakes are without a doubt the most incredible braking system I have ever felt. Blackhawk is known as one of the toughest track on brakes in the country. This will usually cause even the best cars to encounter boiling brake fluid after a number of laps. On this car the pedal stayed FIRM the entire time, lap after lap with absolutely no brake fade after 30 (hard) minutes. The brake pedal engages immediately without that dreaded 1-2 inch initial travel before engagement associated with many expensive brake upgrades by other companies that utilize master cylinders too small to handle all those pistons. Wow!".

Our previous excursions to Blackhawk Farms Raceway in DRM modified C4's with engine (450+hp), suspension and brake upgrades would yield lap times in the low 1:19.xx range using race compound tires and a good driver.

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Now get this people. Both myself and Steve were turning times in the 1:20.xx range all day with a few in the upper 1:19's on the street tires. Holly Cow! Could you imagine what we could do on race rubber!

Body roll is virtually eliminated and even spectators commented that the car was so flat in the corners that in looked like it was on rails.

We had no shortage of horsepower either. To make a comparison, our straight away speeds were hitting 124+ mph before turn one on the street tires. That is 10 to 14 mph faster than our C4's would run on slicks. Man, does this car move!

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Needless to say, I am very impressed with the results of this machine. I guess all those late nights in my shop performing dyno runs, tweaking suspensions and developing killer brake packages really does pay off.

Give us a call at DRM and see what we can do for you. Whether you drive on the street, strip or race track we can build a car that will meet all your performance expectations. Like we say, "Race Car Performance for the Street". It's our motto we live by.

Thanks,

Doug Rippie