Motorsports (non-NASCAR)

Postby **CBear3** » Wed Feb 20, 2019 3:09 pm

Well, Justin was probably going 180 mph
Let's say the deflector is 2 feet in front of his head.
The nose cone reached a height no higher than 10 feet from my reading.
So to move those two feet takes .00757 seconds. The maximum downward velocity of the nosecone is 25 ft/sec (Gravity bringing the nosecone down at 1g, no air friction). That means the nose cone's maximum loss of altitude is 2.11" from where the fin is to the driver's head.

Hitting me on top of the head, any debris probably deflects easy enough. Anything lower than the top of the visor is trouble. So I'd expect my deflector to be 2" higher than the top of my visor. The shark fin doesn't appear to be 2" taller than the visor so my guess is no.

Postby **dodint** » Wed Feb 20, 2019 3:12 pm

I also read some conjecture that this thing will act as a 'ramp' to keep crashing cars from riding up the body and slamming into the driver.

I don't think the device makes the car less safe; other than being in the field of view. Just not sure exactly what it's trying to do.

Postby **CBear3** » Wed Feb 20, 2019 3:39 pm

Exactly. I'm not sure the ramp is all that common either. There have been a couple of F1 incidents where the corner of the floor almost took somebody's head off, and because it was coming broadside I'm not sure the fin would have helped.

It isn't going to hurt, but I doubt we see an incident where it actually helps any time soon.

Postby **dodint** » Wed Feb 20, 2019 5:01 pm

Small nugget from a guy I know to work for an IndyCar team (was JPMs crew chief for the first 500 win if you want to dig) that goes to a racing forum I belong to:

Postby **tifosi77** » Wed Feb 20, 2019 6:03 pm

That seems like a good way to roll out structural 'safety upgrades' to a chassis.

Postby **tifosi77** » Thu Feb 21, 2019 6:36 pm

From the producer of 'Senna'.

Gets a little crash-porny towards the end, but of course I'll watch.

Postby **dodint** » Thu Feb 21, 2019 6:57 pm

Yeah, I've heard lots of good buzz about it. Even my wife has said we should watch it.

Incidentally Senna is also on Netflix at the moment.

Postby **tifosi77** » Thu Feb 21, 2019 7:07 pm

Still never watched the last five minutes of it.

Postby **Freddy Rumsen** » Thu Feb 21, 2019 7:25 pm

I ain't too proud to say I openly wept at the end of Senna. It is not something that I could ever watch again.

Postby **Shyster** » Thu Feb 21, 2019 7:42 pm

Watched the Mexican Formula E race. I must say, Formula E is producing some fairly interesting racing, although I haven't cared for many of the street courses they've used so far. I know the whole idea of Formula E has been street races, but IMO the tracks have been blah so far—narrow and cramped. I thought the course for the opening race is Saudi Arabia was awful. The Mexican race used about a third of the F1 track, including a variant of the stadium section, and I thought it was much better.

Postby **Shyster** » Thu Feb 21, 2019 7:44 pm

Also, Stoffel Vandoorne sux in Formula E too.

Postby **dodint** » Fri Feb 22, 2019 12:56 pm

Anyone interested in a group buy?

https://indianapolis.craigslist.org/cto ... 00073.html

Postby **tifosi77** » Fri Feb 22, 2019 1:03 pm

*clicks expecting a roller*

1996 Lola T96/00 Champ Car / Indy Car With Ford Cosworth XB

That's an ex-Fittipaldi ride that might have a win or two under its belt. (Altho I guess if it did they'd say so in the listing.)

OC isn't too far away. I promise to be a good steward.

Postby **dodint** » Fri Feb 22, 2019 1:05 pm

Yepper.

A friend of mine and I have always talked about buying something of that vintage and swapping in the most reliable motor that would fit, maybe a motorcycle motor.

In this case we can probably make some money back by selling the Cosworth.

Postby **dodint** » Sun Feb 24, 2019 4:29 pm

An excerpt from that F1 doc coming to Netflix on the 8th:

At a Haas team dinner, where struggling driver Romain Grosjean is not present, Steiner says: "Romain isn't here. Maybe he didn't want to come because he has scored no points, or maybe I didn't invite him because he doesn't deserve food."

Sick burn.

Postby **dodint** » Wed Feb 27, 2019 11:15 am

https://reservedrivers.com/2019/02/27/v ... hoke-test/

Scuderia Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel has successfully completed his championship choke test programme, crashing into the barriers during Day 2 of testing in Barcelona.

“We successfully completed our program” Vettel told reporters sitting in the passenger seat of a tow truck.

“The aim is to prepare for all scenarios, including throwing away a race and championship winning car”

Ferrari confirmed Vettel was doing a race simulation, specifically a 2018 German Grand Prix race simulation.

“For us, testing is not just about the aerodynamics of the car, it’s about getting used to scenarios we will face in 2019, and 2018, and 2017, and every year” Team Principal Mattia Binotto told us.

“The car was fantastic” Vettel said, “it faulted, spun and drove off the track exactly how I wanted”

However the German conceded there is more work to be done.

“We need to see if it will spin out easily, particularly in Italy and Japan when the championship is on the line”

Postby **tifosi77** » Wed Feb 27, 2019 11:22 am

Ouch

Postby **dodint** » Thu Feb 28, 2019 12:25 pm

Gasly walked away from this:

Postby **dodint** » Thu Mar 07, 2019 2:38 pm

heh:

Pirelli has asked teams to allow one to provide the tire maker with a mule for developing the 2021 tires. With so much advantageous information to be gained from such work, of course nobody had given permission for another team to test. Until now.

They have almost unanimously said "It's ok if Williams does it, we don't care".

Postby **tifosi77** » Thu Mar 07, 2019 2:49 pm

Man, that's sad. Frank Williams is (I believe) the world's longest-surviving quadriplegic, you gotta wonder what motivates him at this stage.

Postby **Shyster** » Thu Mar 07, 2019 3:54 pm

heh:

Pirelli has asked teams to allow one to provide the tire maker with a mule for developing the 2021 tires. With so much advantageous information to be gained from such work, of course nobody had given permission for another team to test. Until now.

They have almost unanimously said "It's ok if Williams does it, we don't care".

Postby **dodint** » Sat Mar 16, 2019 10:16 pm

Savage.

Postby **dodint** » Tue Mar 19, 2019 11:04 am

@CBear3

I swear I asked you this already but I can't find it. How is the JCW coming? I seem to recall you hadn't made much progress with it. Wasn't sure if anything new has happened since then. Autox/TT/RR events are starting up soon, if not already.

I ordered a crate of parts for the E46. I'm blocking off my weekend next week to put a ton of parts in, including welding in subframe reinforcements (a better version of a factory recall).

Postby **CBear3** » Tue Mar 19, 2019 11:48 am

So, the JCW's parking space in the garage has just been taken over by my kids' 10' trampoline that became a parachute during the bomb cyclone last week. I need to get a couple of sleeves made to straighten out the tubes so the Coop can go back inside and get worked up. I had it moved to the larger side of the garage to put in service mode but the flying trampoline put a stop to it.

Thank God for Mod Mini, I've got a lot of seals to change and his videos are better than having a shop manual. Then I've got a beat on a good Mini shop to look into the torque steer issue I'm having. Of course all this is coming from a guy who still hasn't taken down his Xmas lights, so the timelines for me to get stuff done are much longer than a lot folks.

I'm not going to make the division's first TT @ Gateway in April, but AutoX at HPT May 4 & the TNiA/TT May 17-18th seems doable.

That gives plenty of chances for something to go boom before the June event (and hopefully fix it).

Postby **dodint** » Tue Mar 19, 2019 3:09 pm

'Torque steer issue' on a JCW, you don't say?

Man, I love finding a good Youtube series for car DIYs that are made for your platform. There is a guy called '50'skid' that has taken apart the E46 BMW in just about every way. And he's really good about conveying the information. Also, in a stroke of good fortune, some drift channel made a video about subframe reinforcement welding and put it up a few weeks ago. It's really well done and shows exactly how to do that job, which I plan to tackle with my Dad next week.

I'm going to do the National TT tour in Carolina, Kansas, Michigan, and Kentucky. The first event is Memorial Day weekend. But I have a test and tune day I want to run on April 12th here in Pittsburgh so I'm trying to get all the driveline stuff done by then.

I *really* want to squeeze in the Track Night in America event at VIR but it's the Wednesday before I'm supposed to go to Michigan. We'll see.