Random Thoughts... (Motorsports Edition)

[Karoug]

Robert Kubica just won his first rally!

And he crashed again! He wasn't injured though!

 

[jsausley]

Went to today's ALMS race at Virginia International Raceway.. tons of fun. Corvette C6.R #4 won GT and Muscle Milk HPD won LMP.

 

[Gingertom]

Why can't all crashes be settled like this?

http://img51.imageshack.**/img51/1236/screenshot20121007at221.png

 

[Donington]

^Always liked those two, Rob Austin in particular seems like a really cool old-school racer.

A shame then, that the once-great race series they complete in is complete trash, the WWE of motor racing. Gave it another go today and could hardly watch.

Not like switching off means missing anything, I'm sure I'll tune in again in twenty years and find Jason Plato and Matt Neal still crashing into each other every weekend, only this time with their mobility scooters.

 

[Gingertom]

^Always liked those two, Rob Austin in particular seems like a really cool old-school racer.

Me too. They're both proper racers, trying to get along on a shoestring budget.

A shame then, that the once-great race series they complete in is complete trash, the WWE of motor racing. Gave it another go today and could hardly watch.

Not like switching off means missing anything, I'm sure I'll tune in again in twenty years and find Jason Plato and Matt Neal still crashing into each other every weekend, only this time with their mobility scooters.

Alan Gow has gone too far now with trying to make the series entertaining. He wants the BTCC to be as big and exciting as it was in the 90's but it can't be because the money is not there.
There are too many drivers who are only there because they have paid to be, they don't have the driving or car building skills. This means that there's only a handful of drivers/cars battling it out for wins each time. Gow tried to fix this with the ballast/reverse grid/turbo boost but it just means that you get fast drivers in slow cars and slow drivers in fast cars and this leads to lots of crashes.

The BTCC needs more manufacturers, but they don't want to be involved in a chamionship that punishes fast cars and has drivers constantly crashing into each other. It's a shame really.

 

[Hazardous]

You might be right in theoretical terms.

In practical terms, however, catering for manufacturers tends to drive the costs up, causing you to lose the privateers, and when the manufacturers decide to leave you are screwed (see the end of Supertouring era, or WTCC this year). In the end BTCC is a national series and as such you need a rulebook which allows private entities (car dealers and importers, tuning companies, guys like Rob Austin and Dan Welch) to design and develop cars at affordable prices and the chance to be competitive with them. This drives the car counts up, brings variety to the field and makes racing more exciting for the big audiences.

I think the current rules package is reasonably good. You have a lot of different makes of car in the races and there's a decent amount of people battling for podium positions, but on the other hand the cream still rises to the top and in the overall standings you have the top teams who clearly do the best job at the top for most of the time.

 

[Donington]

Yay Austin finally got a sponsor! Loving the Audi's new livery, very much like Ryan Newman's Nascar.

I think if he and Welch stay and get some well deserved backing I'll certainly continue watching. Apparently the very underrated Chris Stockton has bought an RML NGTC Cruze prototype, so it will be very interesting to see what he'll do with that...

 

[Mr Snow]

DTM & SuperGT join forces

well common regs at anyrate

 

[vikiradTG2007]

Started making inquiries about packages for the Le Mans 24h next year. I've got Thursday-Sunday clear (in theory, will only know for sure on Friday) of school commitments on LM race week, it's a chance too good to miss.

 

[Senninha25]

The fact that yesterday, on Felix da Costa's Macau GP win, due to the lack of Portuguese anthem and having the crowd (well, Da Costa's friends and family) sing it, pushing him to tears has never made me this proud to be Portuguese before :')

 

[marcos_eirik]

991 takes to the track, first one out is the GT3 Cup:

Previews the road-going GT3

Porsche has officially unveiled the 2013 911 GT3 Cup at the company's "Night of Champions? celebration.
Based on the upcoming 911 GT3, the Cup features an evolutionary design with a new front bumper that has a front splitter and carbon fiber canards. There's also a rear wing, a center-mounted dual exhaust system and single-piece racing wheels with wider Michelin racing slicks.

The driver-focused cockpit has a flat-bottomed steering wheel, an angled center stack and a digital instrument cluster. There's also a newly-developed racing seat, an improved roll cage and a roof "rescue hatch" that allows for easy extrication of the driver in the event of a crash.

Motivation is provided by a 3.8-liter flat-six engine that develops 460 HP (338 kW) which is 10 HP (7 kW) more than its predecessor. It is connected to a six-speed "dog-type" transmission that is operated via steering wheel-mounted shift paddles.
According to Porsche works driver Timo Bernhard, ?The new 911 GT3 Cup is much easier to drive at the limit. The car is excellently balanced. The new axle geometry is enormously positive for the handling. Apart from that, the new Cup 911 is great fun to drive.?

The 911 GT3 Cup will be priced from ?181,200 (excluding VAT) and will compete exclusively in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup beginning next year.
Source: Porsche

Also, the Mezger-engine isn't dead, long live the Mezger-flat-6...

Lovely RSR photos just shown. Is it true that the RSR and Cup car will usethe old Mezger engine and not the new DFI motor?
[Grimacing] "I know where the photos were taken and I don't know how they did it. We want to participate next year [the next day Manthey were announced as running factory 991 RSRs at Le Mans 2013] and, yes, the RSR and Cup will use the old engine. It is very reliable and strong and it does a good job and in the Cup it will be 3.8 litres. It was an easy decision."

 

[vikiradTG2007]

Also, the Mezger-engine isn't dead, long live the Mezger-flat-6...

Which is probably one of the worst decisions they could have made, the Metzger is outclassed now in terms of power and, critically, fuel economy. The Ferrari 458 GTE keeps the DI from the road car and can routinely go about 10-15 minutes more on a tank of fuel than the other cars in the class. Porsche need to go down the DI route for the GTE engine ASAP.

 

[bone]

couldn't find anything in english, but things aren't looking well for pescarolo!!
seems like they went into liquidation

http://pays-de-la-loire.france3.fr/...on-judiciaire-pour-pescarolo-team-176821.html

 

[Mr Snow]

On facebook today the SCCA noted that the World Challenge will the be support races for the V8SC's at CotA this year.
I'm doubtful us viewers here in Oz will get to see them via the coverage*, cause I think the World-Challenge deserves more international exposure**.
Nevertheless Good luck with the racing and hope all the US viewers/attendees enjoy the race!

*(I'm aware I can watch the races online)
**(sorry if that's ignorant, but here in Oz there's none, maybe more in Europe asia etc)

 

[bone]

http://live.24hseries.com/live-broadcasting-24h-dubai-2013

start in 20 mins...

 

[bone]

don't know if anyone else is watching, but...

...what is code 60????

 

[vikiradTG2007]

...what is code 60????

All cars restricted to 60 kph on the track by Race Control, replaces the Safety Car. Cars are not allowed to overtake (unless they're passing a crippled car that is crawling along at 20 kph or something), and if you go too fast under code 60 you get penalized (as with other elements of the Dubai 24h, the cars basically stick to a target laptime, in this case a very slow target laptime which means a 60kph average speed).

 

[bone]

why did they get rid of the safety car?
i like safety cars...bunches the field up again

 

[GT VIRUS]

Code 60 is a great innovation that should be in all forms of racing. It makes racing fairer for competitors as gaps are more or less maintained. It also makes it much safer for officials, as you can respond as soon as code 60 is called rather than waiting for they saftey to get the field together. Also you don't get the people who pit and then go really fast to catch up to the saftey car. In high level racing, this could easily be enforced with a speed limiter, where as in club racing, using split times will also tell you who's speeding.

 

[vikiradTG2007]

why did they get rid of the safety car?
i like safety cars...bunches the field up again

Code 60 is a great innovation that should be in all forms of racing. It makes racing fairer for competitors as gaps are more or less maintained. It also makes it much safer for officials, as you can respond as soon as code 60 is called rather than waiting for they saftey to get the field together. Also you don't get the people who pit and then go really fast to catch up to the saftey car. In high level racing, this could easily be enforced with a speed limiter, where as in club racing, using split times will also tell you who's speeding.

And there's your answer. It's the best way of covering an incident when it comes to multi-class long-distance endurance racing. Safety cars bunch up the field, but they can break up class battles by picking up certain cars.