Ahh Vintage Racing. Love it.

Had a friend who used to race a 1927 Bentley 3-Litre Speed Model, a GT350, and a 53 MG-TD. Not all at once of course!

It's too bad they stopped doing the hares and hounds race. They used to give some Morgan Three-Wheelers a big head start, then send off a bunch of MG-TC's for ten laps. See who finished first.

 

If the rules keep the drivers alive at the expense of boredom then I'm all for it. I don't see what benefit was gained from the deaths of Peterson, Villeneuve, Senna, etc.

Anyway, I don't agree that F1 is boring. 2007 was one of the best in recent memory. Again, there is soooooo much more to racing than passing alone . . . at least when evaluating the quantity thereof.

 

Since we're on the subject of vintage speed, I want to go here someday:
http://www.goodwood.co.uk/fos/

 

The F1 cars are incredible the way they are, but I'm definitely liking the moves that F1 is taking to get the driver more involved. Didn't they do away with traction control this year? Wasn't there something else they took away?

I love watching the NASCAR drivers shift when there are so many cars around. Granted, there will be no shifting (unless getting into the pits) at a superspeedway, but in smaller tracks like Bristol and Martinsville it's fun to watch.

Obviously, road courses are the ultimate as they aways have cameras at the feet of the driver...particularly Boris Said. LOVE watching heel/toe action

 

No traction control this year is correct. Slicks are slated to make a comeback next year along with a 50% drop in downforce. And you want to see heel and toe at it's finest? Find a driver at the top of his game in one of the most well respected sportscars and put them both on Suzuka (in some very white socks):

 

Now THAT is phenomenal....just an absolute thing of beauty!!

 

And white socks!

 

So no one has mentioned offroad racing. In my opinion there isnt any other type of race that requires more skill. My family has been in offroad racing for 20 years and my two brothers race. some day i would like to race and im on the way with my pre-runner. offraod racers have to maneuver an unpredictable coarse, fix the trucks/buggies on coarse, and build their own vehicles. you want to see a real racer, Ivan Stewart accumulated 84 victories, 10 drivers championships, including winning the famed baja 1000 3 times. He had numerous video games, started his own racing series, and even has his own line of tundras from toyota. Here he is with the truck that started/won most of his championships (btw the first single centered seat trophy tuck and he was the first to win the 1000 all by himself)

 

Here is the link for a complete photo series of his famous toyota
http://www.race-dezert.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12081

Robby Gordon is fallowing in his footsteps, my he is a major *********! Every time i have met him, he acted way way to pre-madana

 

With all due respect, I think there is a bit of mythology in the suggestion that recent F1 drivers aren't involved!

To be honest, much as Dr Obnxs mentioned, a mortal could not drive a current F1 car without paddle shifters and micro second gear change . . . even the quickest human reaction times . . . much less shift lever throws . . . would give the car the response time that it needs from the cockpit.

I'm not trying to take issue with everything, its just that I sincerely believe that today's F1 drivers are the most UNDER rated drivers in the world.

 

I wanted to follow up on this point as I responded last night after a "discussion" with my wonderful, sweet wife.

My prior post ignored the larger whole of this point, but I feel that we are leaving something out of the equation.

There seems to be this idea that because a F1 car could drive upside down that it is easy to drive. Certainly I have heard dozens of NASCAR fans make this claim.

I don't agree with this, at all.

That said, I agree that is fair to say that for many, technology has advanced to such a point that to the average spectator there is no longer any connection to their road car with no connection to their own cognitive driving experience.

 

I posted this in another thread, but I'll quickly repeat: If anyone saw the Top Gear that was on this Monday, they'd see that F1 cars are absolutely not easy to drive. Hammond could barely manage a few-year-old V10.

 

I believe FIA wanted beacoup bucks for the edited coverage. It almost didn't get televised in Europe either for the 07 season due to the high cost. Speed did not want to pay the toll.

Unfortunately, on this side of the pond, we have to go to wrc.com (window media format) and pay per view, or rely on somebody's generosity to digitize each race and then put them up on bit-torrent (which has been sparse of late).

Hopefully with the new infusion of cash from a new sponsor, FIA will make coverage more affordable for the cheap bastards at Speed TV, who have the money for pinks and whips?!

Too bad about Dakar this year. My understanding is the locals rely on the business when the rally rolls through their neck of the woods.

At least on Speed, we can watch Targa Newfoundland a year late.

UPDATE: Oops, Looks like wrc.com does not offer streaming pay per view anymore. They did last year. They do offer live audio from the service park.

Motor on!

 

I find myself far more interested in road-course racing, rallye, offroad, vintage and drag racing than oval or fixed track racing. Drag racing will keep giving you the winners of each race one after another. Road courses, rallies and especially offroad racing has far more unexpected happenstance than closed course racing. Vintage racing is just so cool because it harkens back to the roots of racing and pure competition, driver skills and vehicle engineering. NASCAR is a shadow of what made it great in the past.

 

+1 The most enjoyable racing I have seen all year was the SCCA finals coverage on speed. If I could find more racing like that covered all year long, I'd quit whining.

 

I saw an awesome MX5 Cup race a few months back that was incredible. Those guys beat the crap out of those Miatas and they took and than some.

 

I just look at a NASCAR race and anyone can see how much the driver and the team are involved in the race. There is so much adjustment happening in a race that it's really entertaining to see what teams do to get their car to the front. Tight and loose conditions are always fiddled with to get the car as perfect as possible. Sometimes it takes one stop, sometimes it takes 5 stops, and sometimes the problem is never corrected during a race. I think it's fun to watch races that start in the afternoon and end in the dark as well because the cars go through so much change and the teams have to keep up. It's up to the driver to relay the right information to the crew chief. Driver involvement is HUGE.

Now with F1, are any adjustments made during either of the 2 pitstops in F1? Is it strictly fuel and tires? I have only watched F1 since the last season, someone had told me that if any adjustment needed to be done to the car it was done remotely from the pits. I had also heard that the driver could request a "boost" if needed to get by another car. I'm not sure how true that is or what, if anything, is done from the pits remotely. Can anyone clarify?

 

I've always been under the impression through racing media that F1 is without question the top racing league in the world. I think it would go hand in hand with the drivers. If you're racing in the top league you've gotta be one of the best drivers in the world. That's not very under rated.

Do you mean under rated in the sense that there is more to what the F1 driver actually does during a race and what he actually goes through that the public doesn't see?

 

Regarding car set-up, driver input and contribution is incredibly detailed and ongoing through each session of a GP weekend. IMHO this process is far more complicated in F1 than it is in NASCAR.

Regarding adjustments during the race and during pitstops . . . the driver has a great deal of control in the cockpit, and can adjust numerous things from brake bias to engine management during the race. Adjustments to downforce are executed by the crew during stops. There are regulations on the degree of constant adjustment, but to answer your question it is not strictly fuel and tires.

I don't believe the teams have remote control of the cars via telemetry. They certainly can monitor the car and consult the driver during the race, but no they can not make remote adjustments.

No, there is no such thing as a "push to pass" button in F1. I personally hope there never will be.

 

In the US? Do tell? Where can I subscribe to such a media outlet? I wouldn't think that from watching SPEED. Heck I can barely find any mention of F1 at all in most newspapers, despite pages upon pages of NASCAR coverage. Forget about mainstream broadcast from ESPN to Local News . . .

 

Drivers even have adjustability over the differential settings from in the car. WTF!

 

F1 is not a league.

It is a financial, technological, developmental war.

 

Well put.

 

Hahahahahaha! Drunk rednecks+NASCAR+pissed off=funny to me!
http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/news?...yhoo&type=lgns

 

Did you happen to see the race, even the last 20 laps? It was one of the most intense finishes in motorsport.


How about this?

May 5, 2008
INDIANAPOLIS (AP)—Police are investigating the death of a Newman/Haas/Lanigan IndyCar Racing mechanic as a homicide.
David “Davey” Evans, 63, died early Sunday morning after a fight while leaving Kazablanka Bar, which is attached to the hotel where team members were staying during practice for the May 25 Indianapolis 500.


Respectfully and soberly submitted