zanick

Now they make one more step backwards with those new smooth birms. you used to have to "drive " the track, now you can cut corners, miss the turn in at the corkscrew and be OK. those old aligator teeth birms made everyone THINK about line, position, etc, now, its just a James Bond smoke screen fest with everything except the rockets and tacks! (well, those rocks are like little bullets)
what a mess that track is now, literally.

by the way, the hacks are getting better in World Challenge. ( i say that affectionately) top 18 times are in the 1:33s. then 18-24 place from 1:35 to 1:38. (Dearing at 1:36.4 after first AM practice today)


by the way, from your dads video clip (awesome by the way!) looks like those guys were running the equivilant of a 1:38-1:40 or so based on their turn 6 to start finish line time, as everything before is way differnet. (hard to tell with editing) Kent may have given your dad a run for his money in the new Evo beast!

man, would be cool to have the track the way it was! no turn 2, 3, 4 !!

MK

Boro

The smooth rumble strips were placed there because of motogp i think.

Richard EVO

I like the smooth burms. Why should I rip up my tires going up on the burms?

chronohunter

iTrader: (1)

BTW I'm "chomping at the bit" for this to happen!

Also there is no way in Hell that the Volvo was actually faster than the Porsche, At Portland for instance (the race before) it was over a second slower than the front runners (including Wolf) with Michael Galati driving. The Volvo, if we kept running it would have been a race winner in 2006, it just needs some testing to work out the ideal differential combo (still all standard Xtrac) some refining of the spring rates (the car is a little stiff so it runs the tire temps up too fast and high) and a better sized turbo (the current one is too small so it has to be overspun to make the hp we need but then causes too high intake temps and we lose 75+ hp after three laps!). In Denver at altitude the intake temps even in low ambient temps was crazy because the Turbo so so far off the map trying (and failing) to make the needed boost at 5300ft. It is a cool race car though...like a big EVO, BTW with the same budget Volvo gave us we could have been winning with EVOs all year (no kidding), the EVO would rock in GT , Wolf wouldn't know what hit him

nils

iTrader: (56)

I agree.

n

nils

iTrader: (56)

Great vids!!

thx!

n

zanick

you dont get it. its not ripping your tires up on the birms, its drivng the track. you can nip the birms, and thats alwasy been ok, but, removing the aligators on the birm allows for using the birm as part of the track and allows for driving up on the sand. at Road america, we have grass, at sears, its harder dirt, but at laguna, it makes a big mess and a sloppy race! when i used to see even new pros missing the turn in points of the corkscrew, their exits would be on the birm and it would slow them down a bit, now you can drive right on the birm and even off the birm in the sand with no consequence. most of the pros agree as well, especially after this weekend.

MK

zanick

have you been to laguna? it wouldnt "rip" up your tires anyway, it , at worst, would bend a rim outer and maybe weaken a ball joint or two!

so, the answer is , dont hit them, kiss them, and let the nee caps of the motocycle drivers out of the track design. Or as a couple of pros suggested, leave them like they are, but make some alligator birms inside of the now smooth surfaces, but that just creates the same issues for the motorcycles, and changes the track to a shorter configuration.

MK

zanick

Did you see the times today in qualifiying with SpeedGT at Laguna? 1:30 for the pole, and Kents 1:37 would put in just about in last place. in fact, The Touring car pole winner , PD cunningham ran a 1:37.0 (faster than kents best time) in a TSX, at 2920lbs and a so called under 300hp flywheel running 235x17 tires!!!!! trust me, im amazed but we all did race with the little Acuras last weekend and they were running a solid 1:38 and 1:39 range. something up with their engines or there is an evolution of racing style and line due to the new birms that we all didnt pick up last weekend at the SCCA race

anyway, Dearing in the viper was in the low 1:35s, and even Johnathan in the other GTS was 1:37!!!!!

the bar just keep going up and up. This is why i wanted Kent to run, he would have been in the back, but it would have been great experience. now, his competition was able to raise the driving part of their game, and thats worth 100hp!! I was trying to tell Kent how great of experience it would have been. Now, they will have to wait until next season and everyone will be that much better then!
Racing in the Pros is just crazy now. the good news , is with the right equipment, even guys with very little even club racing experience, are running 1:32 and 1:33s now and in the thick of things (but it did take 3 seasons of pro racing to get to this point for them)

Ill be out there tomorrow. (watching)
should be quite a show.

Mk

Richard EVO

zanick -

As usual, your numerous, long-winded posts make absolutely no sense. I was speaking generally. Why on earth would you prefer choppy burms to smooth ones?

For example, at Reno-Fernley Raceway, the burms were so bad that you had the choice of taking the racing line over the burms and destroying your tires, or pinching the turns to avoid the burms and running longer lap times.

I'm not a masochist. I prefer low, smooth, freshly painted burms to shark-toothed, neglected ones.

ShaunSG

iTrader: (1)

The driver of the evo is either not rev matching, or is doing it extremely poorly. You can hear it.

Plus he is taking a completely crazy line through T2 and T3. Seems to think that driving deep across curbs and kicking up all that gravel is funny too - even doing it after the race is over.

nils

iTrader: (56)

I am not as lucky as you, I have never been to Laguna.

I should have been more clear in my post. Not sure about ripping up tires....

I dont mind the birms... I dont mind dirt... I dont mind a sloppy race... work with what you got and adapt.

n

john@rre

Actually Pierre from Realtime predicted this would happen, because of the volume of rubber that gets put down by the ALMS cars. He was confident that the 38.5s that they ran at the Regional would translate into 37 flats with no changes to the Acuras whatsoever.

chronohunter

iTrader: (1)

Magazines out, spill the beans

Ludikraut

iTrader: (17)

^ +1 ... Rumour has it there was a loud boom. Damn shame, to say the least.

l8r)