Photos and Numbers from the Recent Hotchkis Track Test

[Hotchkis]

It's pouring rain today, but we took advantage of the sunshine earlier this month and had our first track test of 2010 at Willow Springs.



The big event of the day was a complete before and after validation test of the new Hotchkis Total Vehicle System for E-Body Mopar. Elana Scherr brought her stock 1970 440 Challenger out to the track, where our test driver Mark Hotchkis ran the car hard through all three tests. Then the team went to work, stripping off the old suspension and installing the Total Vehicle System. By the end of the day, the car was back on the track with new Hotchkis A-Arms, front and rear sway bars, geometry-corrected leaf springs, steering and strut rods. Mark hustled the big block muscle car around the track so quickly our Corvette Z06 chase car had a hard time keeping up!



Other highlights include Carl Casanova and his Hotchkis TVS equipped, supercharged 1968 Camaro screaming around the track at full speed as we tested our latest upper and lower A-Arms, and a 4th Gen Camaro TVS test where the car pulled over .9G on the skid pad. Our C10 pickup Total Vehicle System is coming along nicely, and we secured a clean C10 hot rod for "before" tests. The truck will get a full compliment of the latest Hotchkis underpinnings and will be back on the track in about a month for the "after" numbers.



Steve Wall from Moparts.com and Pro-Touring.com observed the Challenger conversion and track test, and Mopar restoration legend Julius Steuer made some hot laps in both his own Dodge Magnum and in the Hotchkis "E-Max" 1970 Challenger. Rocker Kenny Wayne Shepherd joined us in his new 2010 Challenger SRT8, which is getting Hotchkis springs and sway bars. We also worked with the Super Chevy and Car Craft crews on a few different magazine stories that we can't reveal quite yet.


Overall it was a fantastic day at the track, and we want to thank the car owners and journalists who made the trip. We feel that thorough and rigorous track testing sets us apart from our competition, and we're lucky to have the weather to test all year!

We'll be posting videos soon, and you can check out more pictures in the photo albums on our Hotchkis Sport Suspension Facebook page.

Here are the testing numbers from our first test. We ran clockwise on the Streets of Willow. Streets is a configurable track, and we did not run the full course. Cars were on stock wheels and street tires, and the surface temp never was more than 50deg F during the tests. The surface varied from 38 deg when we started driving to 50 deg mid day. This is why the skid pad numbers for the stock 2010 Camaro are lower than many others tested.

In our tests, we are not comparing these numbers to any other skid pad or slalom numbers, we are looking at the improvement for each car over the stock performance. If you have any questions about specific vehicles, post them up, or PM me, I’ll be happy to answer you.

In next month’s test we are looking forward to seeing how quick Dan’s 4th Gen Camaro is on the road course.