Why name the Test Track corners?

simple answer: why not?

slightly more complex: it helps the audience become familiar with the track, so when they are commentating on what happens it not only makes their job easier, but the audience is clued in as to whats going on
 
Hope this may helo! ;)

http://img411.imageshack.**/img411/2629/p66vogj2.th.jpg
 
Hope this may helo! ;)

http://img411.imageshack.**/img411/2629/p66vogj2.th.jpg

It did, thanks for that.

If you go all the way back to Ep 1, they go through the names of all the corners (although Gambon had a different name back then, or none at all) when they first put the Lambo and the Zonda head to head on it.

Some of the corner names are descriptive, like The Follow Through, which ideally should be a full throttle corner, but the layout of the track makes some folks think you need to get on the brakes there. Did you follow through? And then there's parody names, like Crooner Curve, which is more than likely a play on Craner Curves at Donnington Park, a British Gran Prix circuit.

All in all, naming corners just makes them more fun. Europeans do it, but sadly, they don't very much on American circuits. We get dreary functional names, like "The Chicane" "The Cyclone" and "The Bus Stop" and from there its T1, T3, T13a, so aon and so forth.
 
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I assume the producer mentioned for Bentley Corner is Jon Bentley off 5th Gear or am I just being silly.
 
It did, thanks for that.
All in all, naming corners just makes them more fun. Europeans do it, but sadly, they don't very much on American circuits. We get dreary functional names, like "The Chicane" "The Cyclone" and "The Bus Stop" and from there its T1, T3, T13a, so aon and so forth.

Well, in all fairness, Laguna Seca has the Corkscrew, and "The Bus Stop" is actually the name of a corner at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. I'm also not so sure that "The Dunlop Chicane" at Le Mans is that much better than "The Chicane", and I'd be hestitant to say that "The Cyclone" (what track is that at, I'm not familiar with it) is that much worse than "The Carousel" (Karussel) at the Nurburgring. Heck, just because it's German, "Nordkurve" isn't really all that fantastic just being the "North Curve".

Corners should be named, it's much nicer to hear about someone tearing through Parabolica or Le Combes rather than "turn 1" or "turn 10", but I wouldn't say that Americans are any better or worse than the Europeans at giving names to corners, at least at the more storied tracks.

Now Japan, on the other hand, could use some help at that. I mean, honestly, one of the most heroic turns at Suzuka is called "130R", a reference to its radius. Honestly, the corner is named after the radius of it? I propose we rename it "The Widowmaker".
 
Well, in all fairness, Laguna Seca has the Corkscrew, and "The Bus Stop" is actually the name of a corner at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. I'm also not so sure that "The Dunlop Chicane" at Le Mans is that much better than "The Chicane", and I'd be hestitant to say that "The Cyclone" (what track is that at, I'm not familiar with it) is that much worse than "The Carousel" (Karussel) at the Nurburgring. Heck, just because it's German, "Nordkurve" isn't really all that fantastic just being the "North Curve".

Corners should be named, it's much nicer to hear about someone tearing through Parabolica or Le Combes rather than "turn 1" or "turn 10", but I wouldn't say that Americans are any better or worse than the Europeans at giving names to corners, at least at the more storied tracks.

Now Japan, on the other hand, could use some help at that. I mean, honestly, one of the most heroic turns at Suzuka is called "130R", a reference to its radius. Honestly, the corner is named after the radius of it? I propose we rename it "The Widowmaker".

for me 130R is a good name, but maybes thats because im an engineer and i know what it stands for.

it is a good name though, gives it that clinical techno-edge like its some sort of device. it reminds me, for some reason, of the R33 skyline, which is a beast and fits in with japans knack for naming almost anything they make with numbers.

130R makes it sound like a machine

plus anyway....would u really want the japanese to give the corners names? afterall they;ve called cars the cedric, bongo and 1 car destined for export to american was actually called the toyolet or something.
 
1 car destined for export to american was actually called the toyolet or something.

that was in one of JC's books, from the 90, which i have. what a stupid name :lol:
 
plus anyway....would u really want the japanese to give the corners names? afterall they;ve called cars the cedric, bongo and 1 car destined for export to american was actually called the toyolet or something.

You, sir, are absolutely correct, and I stand corrected :)
 
its actually much much simpler to name the corners, and more fun, than to say " here he comes into turn 5" take any of the corners on any track and imagine calling them numbers(i have too because i live in michigan and people are too boring to name the corners at our race tracks)

just trust me its better

Gambon: Michael Gambon almost flipped their, so they named it after him, before it was gambon i think they actually called it something alot less memorable(i.e. i forgot)

Chicago: In some racing, like Solo II/ Autocross they often will set up a part of the course with a "chicago box", chicago corner seems to take a similar concept, so i believe thats where it comes from, and calling it "Chicago Box Corner" just sounds really bad, ive heard it over a load-speaker before and trust me its no good!
 
Some corners just have to be made. Although sometimes it starts getting slightly confusing with all the names. Imagine the Nurburgring Nordschleife having all 73 corners named lol. That would make for a pretty interesting race commentry surely. But hey I surely prefer 'Follow Through' to 'Turn 4'.
 
Never knew that all the corners had names - the only ones they ever mention on the show are Chicago, Hammerhead, Follow-through and, of course, Gambon. Crooner, Bacharach and Bentley, when they're mentioned at all, are just "the first corner", "the second-to-last corner", etc. Obviously, someone's not happy with the names they got...

Ghostwolf said:
Uh oh the BBC is here, quick hide the torrent links!! :lol:

Is this BBC guy actually Andy Wilman? The Stig? JC himself?
ESPNSTI said:

What makes this post funny is that it was posted after the website quit :)
 
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naming corners is good, just like naming things in paint balling. you just cant yell out "hes behing the bunker in the middle!" then you have no idea whats going on.

Thombstone, Big Cola, Snake, Tits ;) etc Im so glad the season is starting soon :mrgreen: Oh yeah in Feb, we are playing with Joy as Ref's :)
 
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Well, in all fairness, Laguna Seca has the Corkscrew, and "The Bus Stop" is actually the name of a corner at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. I'm also not so sure that "The Dunlop Chicane" at Le Mans is that much better than "The Chicane", and I'd be hestitant to say that "The Cyclone" (what track is that at, I'm not familiar with it) is that much worse than "The Carousel" (Karussel) at the Nurburgring. Heck, just because it's German, "Nordkurve" isn't really all that fantastic just being the "North Curve".

Corners should be named, it's much nicer to hear about someone tearing through Parabolica or Le Combes rather than "turn 1" or "turn 10", but I wouldn't say that Americans are any better or worse than the Europeans at giving names to corners, at least at the more storied tracks.

Now Japan, on the other hand, could use some help at that. I mean, honestly, one of the most heroic turns at Suzuka is called "130R", a reference to its radius. Honestly, the corner is named after the radius of it? I propose we rename it "The Widowmaker".


Laguna Seca is one of the more richly named tracks in California, with the Corkscrew, Andretti hairpin and Rainey curve. I think most any track that has a lazy chicane (something that looks like this: ___/''''''\___ ) gets called "the bus stop" because that's what it looks like - you stuff it into the middle of a long straight to get people pulled over and slowed down before they kill themselves on the entry of the hairpin at the end of the straight.

In slight defense of just leaving turns as numbers, though, its much easier to learn a track from conversation about it, or reading about it, when they're just numbers. its hard to get a visualization of a track when people are talking about the drive from Melbourne to Goddards, or how the entrance to Old Hairpin has a bunch of ripples in it. its easier to build a mental map when its coloring by numbers. But all in all, naming is better.

"The Cyclone" refers to a corner at a local track here in California, Thunderhill Park. Nothing much famous goes on there, which leaves the track surface open most days for trackdays, which is why a lot of folks love it. The Cyclone is one of the more remarkable corners on the track, which involves a 90 degree blind left at the apex of a hill directly into a steep downhill righthand sweeper. Sort of like a poor man's Corkscrew.
 
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I agree that Laguna Seca is one of the more richly named ones, obviously you can compare it to the USGP, which the legendary "turn 13". That's just sad. I still think that it's not necessarily something that's wholly American though, not naming corners, and I think a lot of the European names only sound cool because they're in another language.

I know about Thunderhill, I live in Los Angeles, and I'd always wanted to go up there and toss my car around. Thanks for clearing up that corner name! One of these days I'll get there :)
 
130R is one of the best names in motor sport for a turn. To the point, and tells ya something about it, plus it's unquietly Japanese witch helps make the name just so quaint.

Turn 9 might just stick for the Turkish track, while "Quad Apex" or simpley "The Quad" would be an good name for it.
 
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