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Capturing Lightning in a Bottle

Although Turn 10's audio team had already dyno'ed hundreds of cars over the years, they knew that Kevin Countryman's Z16 Corvette was special just by virtue of the fact that the car drew crowds from both the dev team and neighboring auto enthusiasts even before it hit the dynamometer. We'd seen such clamoring to attend dyno sessions from exotics like Ferrari, Lotus, and Lamborghini before, but for the masses to assemble for a Corvette? Obviously, this was no ordinary Z16. Turn 10's audio content coordinator Mark Price recalls both the car and the day: "Kevin’s Corvette drew quite a crowd at the dyno shop with its stunning paint job and sweet engine sound. When we fired her up, it was like the song of a siren for anyone within earshot."

Instead of conducting the recording session at our usual AWD Mustang dyno at FAME Automotive here in Redmond, the team used a Dynapack dyno for the Z16. It was simply a matter of convenience — the shop was open on Saturdays and it was a shorter trek for Countryman. "We've done plenty of great recordings on Mustang dynos," Price comments, "but the Dynapack is so accurate that it was able to hold the 'Vette at whatever engine speed we dialed in, literally within one or two rpms. The dyno provides a barrier speed as well, and will not allow the engine to spin faster than that speed. So, with that kind of accuracy, the recordings come out great."

Astute readers who have seen previous Dyno Spotlights may notice that there are no rollers with this Dynapack dyno at all — instead, the wheels are unbolted from the car and the car’s hubs are mounted directly to the dyno at a big box or "pod." The pods then support the weight of the car, and provide resistance to the rotation of the car’s drive hubs. Price tells me that with all the mods on the Z16, the car quickly became quite hot so the audio guys had to let the engine cool regularly between runs. Although it's normal for motors to heat up as you drive, you're also typically getting huge mouthfuls of wind fed into its grill which helps keep temperatures under control.

Turn 10's audio engineer Mike Caviezel was highly impressed with the Z16's induction and exhaust note. "This car sounded pretty danged loud thanks to his heavily modified intake path," Caviezel says. "I also remember Kevin getting out his laptop, and hooking into his car’s fuel injection computer to change his fuel map for us on the fly! Very cool." Like Price, Caviezel emphasizes the spot-on precision of the Dynapak dyno system.

"It’s amazing how accurate the Dynapak dyno can get in terms of holding rpm. You want 5000 rpm, and the Dynapak holds the car at pretty much exactly 5000 rpm, with a margin of error of plus or minus one rpm. Pretty cool. Dynapaks work great for recording cars, when you can find ‘em. You can’t do free runs with them, though, which is the only downside, as we like to have free runs for reference when putting cars into Forza Motorsport 2. Bottom line: the Z16 was big and brash and sounded very modified. I think I remember Kevin saying he had at least $30,000 worth of upgrades on this car!"

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