Well, we got chassis #868 paired with the first Gen3 motor G30006 sold to a private individual (me) installed and on track this weekend at Texas World Speedway. It was the first time in the car and we didn't have time to check the car setup (e.g. camber, toe, suspension, sway bars). To make things worse, having never driven the car or even sat in it, we missed qualify and so the first time I get to drive the car was the Saturday race. I started in the back. Brand new car to me, brand new Gen3 motor, and the first test was an SCCA race. Fun stuff.

I have video of Saturday's race which I can post later. Sunday's race is much better because we were able to do setup on the car and I came from P29 to P3 and a couple of more laps? Well, we'll never know. Unfortunately, we forgot to turn on the GoPro camera. I'm going to install a RaceKeeper system with 3 cameras for next time...

Thanks to Brandon Piper for doing all the work to get the car ready. Thanks to Erik Skirmantz, Mike Davies, and Nikki LaRue for all their help, phone calls, getting us parts, etc.

Now that I have a Gen3 and a Gen2, it's really hard to decide which car to race.

Kevin, you need to give Brandon an award for his efforts this weekend. And he didn't even give up after the unfortunate toolbox incident. When I rolled in Thursday PM, the car was not ready to run, to say the least. He, Mikey, Tom D. and others cranked to get it on track. It was tiring just to watch. Great to see (and hear) it run!

Should you ever use a customer for an experiment? You decide...

I have been rather uncharacteristically mum about the incredible GEN3 launch going on over the last 8 weeks. What I did, with the Month1 and Month2 customers (also known as the "bidders") was to sort them a second time in the following order:

1. Kits going to CSR’s / Prep Shops who have built R&D cars or have been heavily exposed to GEN3’s
2. Kits going to CSR’s / Prep Shops for installation
3. Kits going to full time mechanics to install
4. Kits going to true privateers for home garage install

Why? Simple, no manual yet! I have a good draft from Tray Ayres and he did a great job of developing a customer friendly manual from some excellent assembly notes Mike had created. I could give you a rundown of the last 8 weeks, but I have already forgotten most of what happened. Let’s just say we all earned our keep and did Enterprises proud. What we have shipping now is…well….RIGHT!

So how did Kevin / Brandon end up with a kit. Two reasons, #1 lead to #2:

1. I saw Kevin’s drool factor and enthusiasm at the Runoffs. Also, he submitted a bid immediately after we sent out the process. On top of that Brandon had made a great first impression on me…young and enthusiastic...he had Test Subject written all over his face, I just didn’t know it yet.
2. As Kevin’s spot in line came up, and I was going to pass over him, he attended a race at High Plains Raceway here in town and Nikki LaRue asked if he could have his engine while they were in town. Save shopping...get the enthusiasm going. I had just that minute seen the Prism / Robinson cars run trouble free at Daytona (once assembled), so I was feeling confident and said "sure why not"! I at least knew the parts were right.

So we let a partially assembled (but dyno’ed and sealed) kit leave, missing lots of items, it did not get double checked for completeness and the paperwork was…not up to the new standards. The engine dress level we have now changed to (represented only by the kits shipped last week to SRS / Romine and Mike Amy) are way beyond what they received. In fact two parts never before left off were shipped in boxes later. This was the “worst” GEN3 kit ever shipped…with no instructions…we even hadn't sent the assembly notes (that is my term for Mike’s original document) and pictures for a week or more. By then I had called Kevin and set up a conference call to basically explain that we really went out on a limb and knew this was a tough deal they were heading into…I did not refer to them as an experiment. But by then I knew they were in fact just that! Obviously all ended well…they have a proper final GEN3…with a few clean up actions to take care of on our end. (Kevin was extremely kind in his above summary).

I could fill a few more pages on just this subject; and many more on the GEN3 kit quality you will see from now on. But I'd rather wait for customer testimonials. Instead I will simply close with a thank you to Kevin and Brandon. Also to Tom Dalrymple who I understand jumped in and you cannot close a GEN3 discussion without praise to the GENfather himself…Mike Davies for all he has done overall, and did with Brandon. In a way it was my decision that set both of them up for a tough week. was that fair?...your call

Erik, thanks again! I knew we were getting the kit a little premature but I'm good with that because I know Brandon won't stop until it works and with your help and Mike and Tom and Nikki, failure was not an option. My only wish is that I'd be the only Gen3 racing with Gen2's. Damn that was fun. Another lap or two on Sunday and I would have taken Denny to school where he needs to be learned. Woe is me, I'll be back in mid-pack soon so I'd better enjoy this for the short time it will last...

Well, I was going to comment on Kevin's drool (Erik's post) not being from Gen3 excitement but more from general mental state, but instead I took the high road. Sure is a good thing that I did

I wish that Gen3 had caught me on Sunday as I might have just opted to leave it with a little love mark as it went by. My nose certainly wasn't going to look any the worse for wear after Saturday. Getting "taken to school" can be a bit rough (inside joke from the Sprints last year, those in attendance may or may not recognize the dig).

So Mike and Tom helped Brandon and Kevin (ok, Kevin played more of a "director's" role) this weekend and the team deserves kudos for getting that sucker up and running. On top of all of that, Tom and Austin performed the quickest "in and out" of a fuel cell that I've ever seen on Tim's car... it was quite impressive.
Then we ate, drank, and watched Kevin's race and mine from Saturday projected on the side of Kevin's trailer with a wonderful cast of characters. Some pretty cool technical stuff going on. Now if they could just figure out the Rubik's cube-like exercise that is *turning on a GoPro camera* we might have had some tasty footage from Sunday's romp but nooooooo.

In speaking with the guys in the paddock, I think we will have a significant portion of the field migrating at the first opportunity, including most of the perennial front runners.
The Gen3 sounds amazing and feels great as well (different post to follow in another section, as well as eventually the video from my Saturday race which was... exciting, to say the least).

It was great to see the first privateer car out there running with Spec Racer Sports' beautiful black and blue Gen3, both of them buzzing around putting down fast laps and sounding amazing doing it. We need more Gen3's soon, mostly because what we *don't* need is Ferguson's head getting any bigger from carving up the field like he did on Sunday.

Erik, it was the right choice!

Congrats to all involved in getting the first customer GEN3 running and on track.

Just curious, but where do things stand regarding delivery of conversion kits? Have all of the bidder kits been delivered? When is the first non-bidder kit expected to be delivered?

Sounds like it's a good idea to do a slow roll-out to ease us into the process to iron out any remaining glitches before "opening wide," as they say in the movie biz.

peterjank wrote:Congrats to all involved in getting the first customer GEN3 running and on track.

Just curious, but where do things stand regarding delivery of conversion kits? Have all of the bidder kits been delivered? When is the first non-bidder kit expected to be delivered?

This was the first bidder kit that was delivered. I believe a couple others have shipped.

Here's the video from the Saturday race. I didn't get a video from Sunday because we forgot to turn on the GoPro. I can't wait to get the Race Keeper in there. Anyway, it's a little cheesy because I narrated over it. I wanted to explain some things and I hate captions because why watch a video and have to read? Anyway, here's the youtube link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jD86-R ... detailpage

Kevin's kit was the 6th bidder kit, the first to a non-R&D installer / privateer. Four cars are running with a total of 8 race weekends completed by my count. We will end the month with 11 kits delivered. With many bidders requesting specific delivery dates, not just first available, we had no more than 17 we wanted to deliver before June 1st. Everyone with a specific race target was accommodated. We are working into privateers now and the manual drafts are moving along swiftly. Month3 / first regular lottery customers (targeted as June) are mid-June; assuming clutches and wire harnesses catch up.

All kits are currently being delivered with interim air intakes, dip sticks and intake manifolds. In July all kits will get packages with final parts (at no cost of course). We are not rushing out deliveries with this in mind. The interim intakes, supplied at Ford Racings expense, are hundreds of dollars each and will be disposed of later. All R&D cars have updates that are being managed as well; after written request for parts, they will receive a check / order list of mandatory and optional updates (obviously optional are non-performance items).