It’s been awesome to see our customers out there over the last couple of weeks tearing it up all over the world, and we wanted to share their activities with the rest of you! We’ve also been finding some time each day to make progress on Kels, our Hybrid 350z. She’s getting ready for her Mosport lap attempt, which will happen this Wednesday. In other news, after a long delay, we finally have our Model Y comfort AWD coilovers available for pre-order!
Let’s start with Max. Max is a great customer of ours from Europe, who is a very bright guy and who has likely helped some of you on the forums before. He has a number of MPP parts on his beautiful Model 3, and after watching Nürburgring expert Misha Charoudin flog a stock Model 3 and complain about the suspension and brakes, Max wanted to show Misha what a sorted Model 3 could do! Well, not only did Max let Misha drive his car in anger around the Ring, he also decided to sit in the passenger seat, which was maybe something he regrets in hindsight – just watch the video and you’ll see. It’s pretty funny!
Thanks Max for your constant support and feedback on our parts, and thank you Misha for the kind words about our products and for mentioning them in your video.
On the other side of the globe Taka-san from Japan has added almost the entire MPP catalogue to his car, including our MoTeC C125 display logger kit, all of our suspension arms, and the StopTech MPP.R big brake kit.
Taka races in one of the first EV-only production car racing series, the All Japan EV Series. It’s an awesome series with races that last 30 minutes and fully use the battery! We’ve been working with Taka-san for a few months now, reviewing his data and trying to strategize about how he can win his first race.
Well, Taka-san finally did it! Maybe it was the brand new wrap with MPP logos, or maybe (most likely!) it was his great driving in the wet. Congrats Taka-san and thank you for your continued support of Mountain Pass Performance. We’ll visit you in Japan soon enough!
You can read the full story and see more pictures here: https://clicccar.com/2020/09/19/1012986/ – Don’t forget to use Google Translate!
In addition to that, a number of you guys have been tearing it up at tracks all across North America, with action at Mont Tremblant, Buttonwillow, and VIR in the last week that we know of, and I’m sure there was more!
We’ve been hard at work on Kels, getting ready for our lap attempt at Mosport (now known as Canadian Tire Motorsport Park) this Wednesday. After a successful second test at Cayuga we’ve installed the 3-turn stators in our Hybrid motor, increasing the hybrid motor output to 150 horsepower, and total output to 620 wheel horsepower.
The system is working really well so far, let’s see if it has what it takes to challenge the fastest road course in North America, the fastest corner being at 140MPH, and most being over 120MPH! This is a downforce track if there ever was one, and there is no feeling like a lap at the limit at Mosport (ok, well the Ring gives you the same euphoric / amazed you just avoided death feeling).
Here’s a video from our TMP test, a track that is quite the opposite of what we’ll be experiencing at Mosport, but a good second shakedown for this hybrid electric powertrain. Needless to say we’re very excited to get to Mosport and see what it will do.
You can be sure that every lesson learned from the development of this 350z is applied to the products we produce for Tesla’s, and it is only because of experience and projects like this that we can claim to know how to make quality high performance parts.
We hope you find the technology interesting. It’s something we’re certainly proud of, having written every line of code that runs the torque request, inverter, and motor system, and building everything from the carbon fiber parts to the design of the hybrid system start to finish.
Wish us luck, and stay tuned for an update. Our best time last year was a 1:18.1 without the hybrid system, and we’ve now gained 150 horsepower but also 230lbs. The fastest GT cars in the world (IMSA GTLM) run around the 1:14 time on a rubbered in track, so we are hoping to get there in the next few years. For now, we’ll be walking away happy if the car does a 1:16 – which is as fast as the IMSA GTD class qualifying time in 2019 and would equate to a lap time of around 1:24 at Laguna Seca.
Last but not least our Model Y coilovers are available for pre-order, so if you haven’t added yourself to the list, now is the time to do so! You can find the pre-order page here.
You must be logged in to post a comment.