kirby ,just for the record, why do you think FIA ,Le Mans race ,
banned the Audi dieselsā¦
they said fu$kit, any diesel they run today is a beaten down puppy!
No doubt. Helpful to remember, though, that the rules were what created
those diesel cars in the first place! The class had a minimum weight
regulation, meaning the car couldnāt be light, if you built a light car youād just
have to add weight to it anyway. As long as the car has to be heavy anyway,
why not use a diesel engine and reap the benefits of their torque range? If
not for the minimum weight requirement, those Audi diesels would never
have been competitive ā too heavy.
as you are aware, the politics in professional racing is as bad as the
latest US election!!
Iāve all but given up on most racing venues, theyāre all hogwash. NASCAR
has Fords and Chevys and Toyotas and whatever, all representing FWD
cars you can buy at the dealer, but there isnāt a stock part on them, they are
all RWD racing cars with the SAME drivetrain, the fiberglass body is just a
billboard. And for this coming year, theyāre going to a format where each
race is run in 3 parts, with breaks in between where they can interview
drivers and run commercials.
ALMS went off the rails when they started penalizing the winning cars to try
to make things more competitive. The Aston Martins would have kicked a$$
but were carrying around a coupla hundred pounds of excess weight even
BEFORE they had demonstrated their potential! And then theyāve come up
with several different classes for Porsches including some green something
or another that makes no sense to anyone.
Meanwhile F1 outlawed refuelling and penalizes anyone who has to replace
a broken transmission. And theyāve got that silly DRS. Get real.
Indycars are all the same other than 2 different engines and some minor trim
stuff. Drivers like these regulations because it takes the cars out of the
equation and makes it all about them. But racing isnāt SUPPOSED to be all
about the drivers, itās supposed to be about the CARS!
I have long postulated that we desperately need a new racing venue with
simple, non-biased regulations that encourage innovation. Three classes:
one prototype and two classes of production cars, all with intake orifice
stipulations that are fixed within each class but will vary according to fuel
used using a simple formula of energy produced per quantity of air
consumed. One production class will roughly correspond to 2-litre NA cars
while the other is for larger-engined cars. All three classes will have to
adhere to the following requirements: 1) The driver will have only a steering
wheel, gas pedal, brake pedal, and a 3-position shifter: Forward, reverse,
and neutral. There is nothing else controlled by humans, either in the car or
back on pit row. However, anything and everything controlled by processors
without human intervention is acceptable. 2) The track will be studded with
those little metal domes that sit about 3" tall, and there will be enough of
them that you canāt miss them; you will at least have to straddle some. You
will either need to have 3" of ground clearance or an automatic sensor thatāll
detect the things and raise the car to clear them.
The prototype class should be especially interesting, as ā for the first time in
decades-- moving airfoils on the cars will be legal as long as they are
automatically controlled (the driver cannot fiddle with them). This will
GREATLY enhance the speed, stability and safety of cars at speeds
approaching and exceeding 200 mph.
ā Kirbert