Re: FIA to ban traction control and other driver aids.

Post #76,362 by bepatient 1/23/03 1:05:29 PM Reply	Re: FIA to ban traction control and other driver aids. 1) You're very right...minor problem surrounding race strategy (telemetry)...and I'm not certain that giving the guys a clutch back will do anything at all. (driver aids) 2)Will never be accomplished. And these guys are good enough to do it without being obvious about it if they have to. The Prost/Senna team was fun to watch..mainly because Senna was a freaking >madman< that drove like a lunatic even in practice. 3)Wing area and the air intakes. These guys have engineered the radiator airflow to act as another very large wing. 4)Grooved tires was a waste of time. Agreed. 5)Dunno about this one. A safety compromise might not be advisable...especially if they get the aero regulated to make the cars that much looser in the corners. 6) Winston Cup style scoring would be great...points awarded for laps finished, laps led and final position. Winning 4 and not finishing the rest would end up not doing so well at the end of the season. 7) I knew they were threatening...but they actually pulled SPA from the circuit???? Please tell me they didn't pull the best track on the planet (my opinion) because they couldn't paint Marlboro on the wing??? More please...I am a little out of touch...but this US citizen loves that sport. My sister is a huge Schu.... fan (blech). I was glad to see Ferrari get back to winning form from their low point in the 80s...but I hate their driver. Was a huge Senna fan in the days. Liked Eddie Cheever...but he's back in the US now. Now I'm a Juan Montoya/Williams BMW fan. You were born...and so you're free...so Happy Birthday! _{Laurie Anderson} [link\|mailto:bepatient@aol.com\|BePatient]
Post #76,365 by pwhysall 1/23/03 1:09:56 PM Reply	Yes, Spa is gone :( The finest motor-racing circuit in the world is not on the 2003 calendar. This SUCKS. Peter [link\|http://www.debian.org\|Shill For Hire] [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal] [link\|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org\|Blog]
Post #76,426 by bepatient 1/23/03 3:04:01 PM Reply	Thats unbelievable. Just as bad a decision as the one that the idiot owner of Indy made in splitting CART and the IRL in the US, effectively killing the sport and making NASCAR undisputed. I was a regular attendee of the Belgian F1 race from 80 to 86...including the first year back at SPA in 85 when they cancelled the damned thing because the track was coming apart. Was at Zolder the day Villeneuve bought the farm, though I didn't see the accident. Spa needs to be on the circuit. It is a drivers track. You were born...and so you're free...so Happy Birthday! _{Laurie Anderson} [link\|mailto:bepatient@aol.com\|BePatient]
Post #98,598 by scoenye 4/24/03 4:51:35 PM Reply	Tried it out on Tuesday I had the opportunity to take my bike there for a track day. Four 25 minute sessions. Can't wait 'till next year :) :) The track is so big it dwarfs a bike (which is a good thing with street riders [OK... me...] >:-) but there are a couple of spots that I will remember for a while... First is transition from downhill to uphill at the Raidillon/Eau Rouge turn. The straight looks short standing next to it but the gravity assist makes you enter the uphill transition a lot faster than you think. Then the bike pushes up as your body continues on its way down... Gulp... And by that time I chickened out and backed off the gas as I desperately wanted to keep it on the inside of the turn to avoid pointing straight across the track at the other side of the turn. Even with that, the following hill climb is still long enough to max out the motor by the top. Rain started to come down in the Source turn near the end of the first session. This turned out to be not as bad as I dreaded because pedestrians were overtaking me anyway... By the time I got out for the second session, the place was soaking wet. So I found the second most memorable spot: the Bruxelles loop at the top of the track. It keeps turning forever and... it goes downhill. So you follow your survival instinct at the approach and slow well down before entering the turn. And then the speed picks up unnoticed. And then the rear end starts heading for the next county. VERY noticable. So you drift out to catch it. But the track keeps turning right. And that slick painted line on the outside is coming very close... (if I didn't yet know what "pucker up" meant, now I do...) And finally the turn ends, but with the bike on the very wrong side of the track for the next turn. And did I figure this out by the second lap? Nooooo... (and not by the third or fourth either. I just couldn't get it in slow enough to keep the rear end in line.) Luckily the rain stopped over lunch and the track started showing dry spots by the third session, so I could start building up speed without worrying about such details as keeping the threaded section of the tires on the pavement. By the end of the afternoon, the sun had come out and the track got warm enough to be able to build some temperature in the tires. So this was obviously the most fun session of the day (drawback was that by that time I was aching all over...) And the most memorable part: the never ending left sweepers from Stavelot to the chicane. Unreal. Shows how simple things can be the most fun: turn it wide open and go :) I backed off (just a bit :) here too because I still had to ride the bike home and a wipe-out at 120 mph wouldn't help much. The only place I couln't quite figure out was the double lefthander past the Bruxelles loop on the way to Stavelot. Mostly because I kept entering the first turn a gear too (s)low so I ended up running out of rpms in the middle of the second turn.
Post #98,599 by Another Scott 4/24/03 5:01:32 PM Reply	Sounds like a great time! Lucky you. :-)
Post #98,629 by bepatient 4/24/03 8:32:35 PM Reply	Awesome...worth every euro! If you push something hard enough, it will fall over. _{Fudd's First Law of Opposition} [link\|mailto:bepatient@aol.com\|BePatient]
Post #76,366 by pwhysall 1/23/03 1:11:21 PM Reply	Montoya is something special. He's got that raving madman behind the wheel attitude that has distinguished every great driver. Despite Schumacher's achievements, which really cannot be denied, I do not rate him as a great driver, because he's so BORING. Peter [link\|http://www.debian.org\|Shill For Hire] [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal] [link\|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org\|Blog]

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