Full Throttle

While we all wait for the official announcement Petty Enterprises will align itself with a cash flush financial savior they are making news by being charitable.

PE has donated two #43 Sprint Cup race cars to the Virginia Institute for Performance Engineering and Research (VIPER). Richard and Kyle have donated the race cars to VIPER as research tools for mechanical engineering students pursuing graduate degrees at Virginia Tech and Old Dominion University.

“In this sport we need an area where we can groom and shape engineers to really fit the racing model. There always seems to be a disconnect between the book engineer and the actual applications engineer at the racetrack. So we hope we can bring that together for the future,” said PE General Manager Robbie Loomis.

VIPER Director Steve Southward couldn’t agree more. “We are thrilled to have the race cars in the lab for hands-on experience. Working with these cars on our eight-post shaker rig allows our students to put what they learned about chassis engineering in class into practice in a way that leads to real know-how,” said Southward.

Notice how VIPER has upped the ante on the current NASCAR buzz word/technology, the seven post shaker, with an eight post version?

The seven post version was cited as one in a laundry list of reasons Dale Jr. left DEI. Family squabbles aside he failed to understand why the much larger DEI organization used JR Motorsports shaker rather than getting off their duff and purchasing one.

For the curious, VIPER has provided a web page showing an interactive 8 post shaker that is very interesting.