Motorsports (non-NASCAR)

[dodint]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP6zj5_igiE

They're not wrong, but, man, the broadcast of the four of them in the pre-podium room was some high tension. Kimi just shows up and Max is like "oh...****."

You'd think he would have had a team rep come get him real quick.

[dodint]

Working from home today so I have the 1998 PLM running in the background. This was the inaugural PLM and this is from before I was a dedicated watcher of sports car racing.

Weird seeing drivers working on cars on a hot track. I know it's a Le Mans thing and all but the optics are terrible.
Calvin Fish is the pit lane reporter for SpeedVision.
There has never been a Ferrari LMP program in my adult life. The 333S in this race is the only Ferrari LMP racing I've ever seen outside of pictures and clips.
Lots of cool cars in the GT field, but they're only shown on screen when they break down. That hasn't changed much since then.




They went full Frenchtard with that opening.

[tifosi77]

The 333 was a great prototype car, and it certainly sounded the part... but I can't call it a Ferrari. It rightfully should be called a Dallara-Ferrari. My recollection was they badged it a Ferrari as a hedge in case the Scuderia's return to prototype racing was a turd, they had the public wiggle room to blame someone else. It's like the prototype version of the Dino, except Ferrari actually built the Dino... they just didn't want the Ferrari name on a V6.

[dodint]

It does sound very good.

[tifosi77]

An entertaining look back that conveniently ignores the inter-team collusion between Williams and McLaren that explained the late lap confusion between Villeneuve and Hakkinen.

[dodint]

This is as good a place as any:

Paul Newman's Rolex Sells For Record $17.8-million at Phillips Bacs & Russo Auction in New York

Article states it's the most iconic watch of the 20th century. I'd posit the McQueen Tag takes that crown but it could just be that way for me.

[tifosi77]

Ha, I was just about to post that in Randomness and thought, nah, probably better suited for Motorsports.

Was talking about this with car guy lawyer co-worker friend yesterday (who is also a pretty intense watch aficionado), and he thought that 5 mil would be expected, and that 7-8 mil would be optimistic but not surprising. First thing this morning he sent that story out to me with the body of the email just being the link and 51 exclamation points.

Apparently the background is that his daughter's then-boyfriend was at the family house in Connecticut, and PL asked him the time. He said, "Don't know, don't have a watch." So PL being PL, he took the Rolex off his wrist and said,"Here take this. If you remember to wind it, it tells time pretty good."

I agree that the TAG Monaco is the more iconic watch. It just is.

[dodint]

Yeah, I looked at about four different threads, including a watch/wearable thread, and just stuck it here.

[tifosi77]

Watching FP2 from Ciudad de Mayheeco, they're revisiting the last-lap incident from Austin. Came out of an interview clip with Max, and Hobbo was just straight up laughing. The absurdity of the penalty just seems to keep growing. I kind of go hot and cold with Max, but he really got screwed, previous comments notwithstanding.

I'd like to show Charlie a clip of Alex Zanardi taking Bryan Herta's lunch at Laguna Seca in 1996 to get his thoughts.

[Shyster]

I always thought Zanardi should have been penalized for going off track for that pass. I must disclose, however, that I also detested Zanardi and thought he was a total jagoff.

[tifosi77]

And Buxton made a point that I very much agree with; the circuit itself used to be its own deterrent for exceeding track limits. Go off beyond the curbs, the car will slow down because it's on grass, and slick tires don't go good on grass. But now, modern circuits don't punish off track excursions, instead providing drivers with a car park to dawdle around in.

I remember when they re-did the exit of La Source and immediately wondering how many drivers would extend the circuit by ten meters.

[tifosi77]

I always thought Zanardi should have been penalized for going off track for that pass. I must disclose, however, that I also detested Zanardi and thought he was a total jagoff.

The first motor race I ever attended was Long Beach 1998. The Pineapple can do no wrong in my opinion.

[Shyster]

Please provide a justification for Zanardi's actions here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRpZYzd41RI

[tifosi77]

*shrug*

Herta gonna Herta

[Shyster]

Right. Because it's totally acceptable for a car a lap down to punt the race leader into a wall.

[tifosi77]

You know rules about unlapping yourself were much more lenient in CART/Champ Car. Between frequent full course cautions and varying fuel strategies, it was common for pace setters to end up down a whole lap, especially on the shorter street circuits with 60-70 second laps. Watched a couple other clips (ESPN and Canadian feed), and Danny Sullivan was in the 'booo, Alex' camp and Al Unser was of the '50-50' persuasion.

I'll call it 'exuberant driving'.

Also, that incident was in 1997, not 1998. They completely reconfigured the circuit after this race, and the hairpin was eliminated.

[tifosi77]

Not to say that it's okay to punt anyone off track, of course. Just saying that Herta has a responsibility to conduct his car properly, too.

[columbia]

[Shyster]

I'll call it 'exuberant driving'.

That's okay. I call subsequent events in Mr. Zanardi's life "karmic payback."

[tifosi77]

Yes, I would agree that two consecutive CART championships is just reward for such decisive driving.

[BigMck]

NHRA tickets arrived today.

@tifosi77 I saved a ticket for you. Pit 2, (before the tree)Thunder After Dark. Saturday, final qualification.

[columbia]

That's Brian Johnson, BTW.

[tifosi77]

Goddammit.......

[dodint]

Great piece about the 'fire engine' 911 that saved Niki in '76.

https://petrolicious.com/articles/vinta ... audas-life

[tifosi77]

Formula 1 reveals details of 2021 engine plan

F1 teams met with the FIA, the commercial rights holder and potential new manufacturers in Paris to discuss the objectives for the new engine rules that will be introduced for the 2021 season.

Work will continue for another 12 months on the details of the new engine specification, and the FIA said that the design and development of the new power units will not be possible until that process is complete – ensuring that F1's existing manufacturers will continue working on their current engines through 2018.

The proposal for 2021 includes keeping the current 1.6-litre V6 turbo hybrid engine, but running it at 3000rpm higher "to improve the sound".

In order to try to simplify the internals of the power unit, the MGU-H will be removed, and several prescriptive design parameters will be introduced to "restrict development costs and discourage extreme designs and running conditions".

These will include internal and external parameters, with the latter allowing for what the FIA described as "a plug-and-play engine/chassis/transmission swap capability".

A single turbo with dimensional constraints and weight limits will be mandated, while a standard energy store will be introduced alongside control electronics, which have long been standard in F1.

The MGU-K will be made more powerful, with a focus on manual driver deployment of the additional power, similar to the way KERS was used when it was first introduced into F1 in 2009.