2014 Car Launches and Testing Thread

[lukenwolf]

Didn't you promise to stop watching F1?

So what? I didn't promise to stop posting here, if for nothing else, just to annoy the raw crap out of you.

Apart from this, while everything apart from your frankly stupid blanket criticism of NASCAR may hold true, your judgement is way off in one important point: DTM, no matter how it's named, is not touring car racing. It's not even GT racing. It's closer to sports prototypes or, sorry, NASCAR insofar as the cars may loosely resemble production cars from the outside, but are purpose-built racecars that don't even share the sheetmetal with the production cars.

Did I say they're touring cars? So my criticism of NASCAR is stupid, but you agree with it :lol: Decide! As far as the formula goes, yes they are indeed closer to NASCAR, except that they use technology that was invented after we gave up on horse and cart as the preferred mode of transport. And no matter if they're touring cars or not, the racing they provide is superior to just about everything except GT racing. They even made DRS work without converting it into an 'instant pass' button, as drivers actually have means to defend themselves.

That has one important consequence for racing, one that (sadly) is not shared with NASCAR: DTM cars are almost as fragile as F1 cars, thus you won't see the close-quarters, body panel banging racing that makes touring car races special in DTM. Which makes DTM, frankly, boring.

Something tells me, you've never actually been to a DTM race. There has been one boriung DTM race this year. All others where full of action. And DTM cars are not as fragile as F1 cars. They too race with modest body contact, which I think should be the maximum allowed. If I want to see cars banging into each other, I'll watch Raab's destruction derby. Banging into each other at 200+ kph is a stupid idea and I never understood the fascination of it. A slight leaning in is one thing and routinely happens in DTM, too. Bashing the opponent out of the way to attain a position is douchebaggery.

 

[Dr_Grip]

So what? I didn't promise to stop posting here, if for nothing else, just to annoy the raw crap out of you.

That's only fair and this place, admittedly, would be more boring without you.

So my criticism of NASCAR is stupid, but you agree with it

May I point you to the words "apart from" or "au?er" in German?

Something tells me, you've never actually been to a DTM race.

Last time I've been to a DTM race a 190 Evo2 in Diebels livery won, I guess that does not count.
But the last time I've watched a race on TV someone was losing more than a second per lap due to the complex aero being ruined after a modest bodycheck.

 

[lukenwolf]

Last time I've been to a DTM race a 190 Evo2 in Diebels livery won, I guess that does not count.
But the last time I've watched a race on TV someone was losing more than a second per lap due to the complex aero being ruined after a modest bodycheck.

A bodycheck is something that belongs in ice hockey or WWF wrestling. The last time I checked, car racing was about racing cleanly, not about bashing your opponent's car up to render him uncompetetive.

 

[Dr_Grip]

ashing your opponent's car up to render him uncompetetive.

That's the point I was trying to make: With a classic touring car ("old" DTM or BTCC) a bodycheck will not render your opponent uncompetitive and thus can be part of racing, as it is in the BTCC and NASCAR.

 

[IceBone]

Anything but boring.

 

[lukenwolf]

That's the point I was trying to make: With a classic touring car ("old" DTM or BTCC) a bodycheck will not render your opponent uncompetitive and thus can be part of racing, as it is in the BTCC and NASCAR.

Have you seen what happens in NASCAR after the slightest of bumping at Talladega? Half the field slides through the pearly gates backwards, on fire. The point is not to build tanks, so people can bump into each other like idiots. The point is to see racing that works without running all over your opponent's fat arse.

 

[Adamar]

Anything but boring.

So beautiful. :')

 

[DubyaStep]

Hey, so, this is an F1 thread so lets keep it that.

Please, take your debate/argument to either another thread or PM. Thanks!

Also, using a restrictor plate race as an example of NASCAR is a flawed idea, the cars there are very loose because of the lack of down-force and the same way that F1 cars will move around easier at Monza. NASCAR actually bang each other pretty hard.

 

[Mercury]

Didn't you promise to stop watching F1?

Apart from this, while everything apart from your frankly stupid blanket criticism of NASCAR may hold true, your judgement is way off in one important point: DTM, no matter how it's named, is not touring car racing. It's not even GT racing. It's closer to sports prototypes or, sorry, NASCAR insofar as the cars may loosely resemble production cars from the outside, but are purpose-built racecars that don't even share the sheetmetal with the production cars.

That has one important consequence for racing, one that (sadly) is not shared with NASCAR: DTM cars are almost as fragile as F1 cars, thus you won't see the close-quarters, body panel banging racing that makes touring car races special in DTM. Which makes DTM, frankly, boring.

So you're saying what's wrong with DTM cars are the same things that are wrong with F1 cars. I disagree with that and at least DTM cars look awesome and they sound awesome. 2 more things that will be missing from F1 from now on. Frankly I could probably make a case for pretty much ANY other racing series against F1 and it would win.

F1 has been going down hill for a while now and I fear to say that if someone like me loses interest in it, so will at least 50% of all F1 fans out there. I'm just seriously bummed by all this, F1 has been boring for a while now and it's about to become much much more boring.

Sorry for taking the debate off topic, it's just that I'm a tad gutted with this crap version of F1.

 

[jsausley]

I'm more interested in 2014 than I have been from 2011-2013. At least it's not a Red Bull shitshow now.

The cars still sound great (admittedly not as good as before, but better than most other racing cars) and I don't think they look THAT bad. Yes, the sex toy noses are hideous on some cars but I feel like they'll get thrown to the wind a few weeks into the season and we'll be back to business as usual.

 

[vikiradTG2007]

Appreciating the sound of a racing car is an extremely subjective thing. For example, at Le Mans, you have one of the more varied arrays of engine noises that you can find in motorsport, but in terms of which ones I personally like... well, let me put it this way. I love hearing a GTE Corvette growling past and shaking the ground under your feet and your heart and lungs inside your rib cage. However, oddly, I love the hushed noise of an Audi R18 even more, simply because it's an absolutely surreal experience to see it whistle past at a huge rate of knots, almost like it has a (slightly quietened) jet engine at full throttle inside it.

From the first on-track videos, these new F1 cars sound quite a lot like the 1980s V6 turbo monsters, and that is in no way a bad thing in my book. But it's not going to get me trackside to a F1 race any time soon, two things must happen in the mean time: 1) getting rid of those ridiculous noses, and 2) my ticket money no longer going to Bernie or his cronies.

 

[NooDle]

I'm more interested in 2014 than I have been from 2011-2013. At least it's not a Red Bull shitshow now

Well we don't know that yet...

But Im quite excited too, the new rules hopefully will shake things up. We'll get used to the new noses soon enough

 

[Topgearfanatic]

I don't know if anyone has really appreciated how small Marussia's sidepods are.

 

[mpicco]

Did I say they're touring cars?

My german is not the best, but what exactly does "Tourenwagen" means?

I don't know if anyone has really appreciated how small Marussia's sidepods are.

So small you can't really see them on that picture...

Yeah pretty small. It seems that Ferrari is certain their engine will only need that much of cooling. The F14T shows about the same size sidepods.

Or were you talking about the actual width of them and not the opening?

 

[Topgearfanatic]

I was talking the actual width of them.

 

[nicjasno]

That Marussia looks very nice. And it has a nice livery. Lets hope that with a proper engine they will score some points this year.

 

[Dr_Grip]

My german is not the best, but what exactly does "Tourenwagen" means?

Let me help you out there....
...yep, it means "touring car".

 

[Thanatos]

BTCC is the touring car series that still uses cars that are based on the real things.

Sorry to go offtopic again but with the end of S2000 era thats not true anymore. the NGTC specs make the cars pretty much the same, manufacturers can use their own engines, but thats it. Just like dtm afaik.
WTCC on the other hand with the new T1 class will be pushing FWD to its limits with 380HP on FWD, we could see some interesting techology coming out of that for the street use.

 

[bone]

as mentioned before, ferrari routed their exhausts to the top of the cam cover

 

[nicjasno]

Smart. This way the heat doesn't accumulate in the sidepods and there is more room for cooling.

- - - Updated - - -

Lotus to hit Jerez on firday for a filming day.

Gottra love the placement of the Autosport cover on the desk