Three Factory Five Coupes Conquer the Nevada Open Road Challenge

[Dave Tabor]

https://www.factoryfive.com/whats-new/nevada-open-road-challenge-results-2025/

[GT77]

Awesome work to all! Hopefully one of these days, I will get to join the party and help overrun the event with Coupes :)

[Presdough]

I'm hoping to be out in September in my Spyder.

[Rsnake]

Presdough,
We are looking forward to having you join us in Nevada. We might have a good group of Factory Fives, possibly 5 or 6 if John makes it from Virginia.
Going to be an epic event.

[Bart Carter]

How are the timing and calculations done to get so close to the times? Or is this something like a GPS?

[Dave Tabor]

How are the timing and calculations done to get so close to the times? Or is this something like a GPS?

Hi Bart,

These are 'time to distance' events and you win/place by running the course as close to the calculated time required to run a certain average speed (of your choosing) for the measured distance of the course.

You can do this using a stopwatch and a table of mile markers - with the ideal time listed for each mile marker. You do the time subtraction in your head. If you are early, you slow down and if you are late, you speed up. You can create a short cheat sheet something like the one attached for 120 mph average: as you pass a mile marker, you check the table - if you are early or late you adjust your speed. You can do this solo or have a navigator ride with you who does the math and tells you what to do. The blue arrows on the cheat sheet point out two examples of how the table works.

Or you can use a computer - but it's not as simple as running an average speed. The reason is this: for the 60 mile leg (both ways in May) the perfect time to distance for a 140 mph average is 26:18:34 - this time is what you need to hit. Averaging 140 mph might get you close to that time, BUT if you drive the route a bit longer or shorter (say you take the turns on the inside or on the outside) you will be off with respect to time - maybe you drove a bit of a shorter route (early) or bit longer (late) - sure, you averaged a perfect 140 mph but you might be off by a couple of seconds.

You also have max and min speeds that you must remain within - you can't sprint to the finish line, stop just before it and then pop over the line at the last second.

It's certainly a challenge regardless of how you do it.

I hope this makes sense.

Dave
Gen III Coupe #17215917