Picchio DP Monza test notes 2005-11-08

Picchio Daytona Prototype Flies at Monza

MONZA -- After a crowd pleasing and popular display at the 'Fiera Alumotive', the international exhibition of innovative solutions in Aluminium components, held in Modena from October 20th to 22nd, the Picchio DP3 returned to its rightful home on the race track.

After having been popularly admired at the most important exhibition in the aluminium technology field, the flagship prototype of the Picchio factory was prepared for a free testing session on the Monza Grand Prix circuit. The characteristics of Monza allowed a test of both the braking system and the aerodynamics improvements made on the car: Feedback in both cases was excellent.

From the aerodynamic point of view, a new rear spoiler was tested: this gave the car a downforce even greater than what the car actually needs. The challenge for the engineers now is to find a good compromise in order to optimize also the low drag needed for car penetration through the air.

"We knew that we could obtain more downforce right from the beginning," explains Mr. Di Pietrantonio, GM of Picchio, "but we wanted to operate gradually, and adjusting the ideal set up to guarantee the needed aerodynamic efficiency."

It is now the clear aim of the technical staff not to retain the great aerodynamics of the car, and augmenting it only with improvements that resulted for optimum performance. The new aerodynamic devices were previously studied with CDF analysis.

Alessandro Vitacolonna came back to the wheel after having previously tested the car with the original setup. He confirmed what the telemetry analyses had recorded about the new aerodynamic effect. If the weather is good, next week the car should get on the track again for new tests, but this time they will be aimed mainly at vehicle dynamics fine-tuning.

-www.picchio.com