The challenge of NASA Time Trial is never more apparent than in the run-up to the NASA Championships. Every detail counts, from the power output of the car and the weight target you must attain, to the setup and driver preparedness.
Yes, you can put the car on the dyno and hit a number, but the elevation at Utah Motorsports Campus is roughly 4,400 feet above sea level, so lots of NASA TT competitors are doing those dyno pulls, which are empirical, and then adjusting power levels according to correction factors, which are theoretical. Those correction factors are well established by the Society of Automotive Engineers, but it’s just one of those critical details that you simply have to get right. Getting it wrong could mean a DQ.
That’s the beauty and difficulty of Time Trial, the hundreds of details off track that help reduce times by often as little as a few thousandths of a second.
The 2024 NASA Championships is playing host to a record number of competitors, 84 at present, and this year’s event will be the most competitive in NASA history. There’s a lot on the line, so we caught up with a few Time Trial competitors to see how they have been ramping up for this year’s Championships event.