BS: F-1, Indycar, NASCAR real race issues.

Subject: BS: F-1, Indycar, NASCAR real race issues.
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 14 Aug 13 - 01:13 AM

F1 is elegant, But it is hard to beat the pure horse power of the US circuits.

Agree?

Subject: RE: BS: F-1, Indycar, NASCAR real race issues.
From: Stu
Date: 14 Aug 13 - 04:56 AM

I've been watching F1 since I was a boy and I love it, despite not being a petrolhead in the slightest. We don't get a lot of NASCAR or indy coverage over here in the UK but racing on ovals doesn't really hold much attraction and although the indycars are impressive beasts it doesn't do it for me.

I love watching the world's best drivers going wheel-to-wheel and F1 provides that spectacle. It's better now than it has been for years and some of the racing is spectacular. I just love the racing. I want to see racing!

But what the heck. Each to his own.

Subject: RE: BS: F-1, Indycar, NASCAR real race issues.
From: gnu
Date: 14 Aug 13 - 05:33 AM

Bro used to watch NASCAR but even he called it Roundy-Round.

Gentlmen... start your engines.

Subject: RE: BS: F-1, Indycar, NASCAR real race issues.
From: catspaw49
Date: 14 Aug 13 - 05:40 AM

Given I had but only one type of racing to watch, my first choice by a wide margin would be Sprinters and Midgets on dirt short tracks. It is as pure form of racing as there is, especially on dirt. Dirt is for racing, asphalt is for getting there.


Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: F-1, Indycar, NASCAR real race issues.
From: Stu
Date: 14 Aug 13 - 05:43 AM

I do like bike racing too . . . MotoGP provides excellent racing and is very fast to boot.

Subject: RE: BS: F-1, Indycar, NASCAR real race issues.
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 14 Aug 13 - 07:42 AM

Sports cars. Six hour endurance races, not mention the Le Mans or Daytona 24 hours, sorts the men from the boys. And Porsche are coming back next year with Mark Webber. Remember when he and Peter Dumbreck flipped their Mercs on the Mulsanne straight in 1999?

Here's Peter Dumbreck's flight. They both walked away.

Subject: RE: BS: F-1, Indycar, NASCAR real race issues.
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 14 Aug 13 - 08:13 AM

Being limited to what I can pick up with my specially crafted bent coat hanger, about all I see are "tractor pulls" (i.e. mud races). Some impressive horsepower, but not much in the speed and exotic handling categories. (And not a lot of strategy.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: F-1, Indycar, NASCAR real race issues.
From: GUEST,highlandman at work
Date: 14 Aug 13 - 09:32 AM

Back in the old days before the IRL, Indy cars -- specifically the big Indy 500 race -- were my favorite motor sport. In those days Indy was the development league, if you will; the equipment rules were scant and whatever you could do to get a few more horses or a bit more handling was encouraged. Besides that, the Indy 500 was the first really long race of the season, so it was the time everybody got to find out which innovations were going to work out and which were going to blow up or fizzle out.
Now that it's more of a one-design league perhaps the series racing itself is more interesting, but from a gearhead's perspective it's not nearly as much fun to watch.
-Glenn

Subject: RE: BS: F-1, Indycar, NASCAR real race issues.
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 14 Aug 13 - 09:47 AM

Saloons. Gerry Marshall's Vauxhalls "Big Bertha" (V8 Holden-Repco Ventora) and "Baby Bertha" (Vauxhall Firenza - 495 bhp V8), David Brodie's Ford Escort (which I remember as being mid-engined - almost a formula 1 car with fibreglass bodywork - occasionally removed by Gerry Marshall when getting too close, to expose a rear gearbox), oh, and Mike Chittenden's V8 Morris Minor, Colin Hawker's DFVW.

Subject: RE: BS: F-1, Indycar, NASCAR real race issues.
From: catspaw49
Date: 14 Aug 13 - 10:00 AM

Couldn't agree more Glenn. I still follow Indycar and haven't missed a 500 since 1959 by either, radio, TV, or live. But the spec series concept has killed most interest for me and that part really got underway in the ISL days. NASCAR has the spec series problem too but now it is the better series by leaps and bounds. The high point for Indy ended by the late eighties, especially by the time they let the hottest open wheel driver of that time walk off to NASCAR. Nobody wanted Jeff Gordon.

I love Indy history and loved the roadsters, the rear engine revolution, all of it.....until the spec cars came along.   It won't be back to what it once was......more is the pity.


Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: F-1, Indycar, NASCAR real race issues.
From: Bobert
Date: 14 Aug 13 - 01:19 PM

I've run mini-stocks and drag cars...

But anything with right turns to go with the left turns works for me...

Actually, there is a new series called Lemonz... You have to race a car that didn't cost you over $500... Of course, the fuel cell and other requirements might cap the cost of the car at a couple grand but it sounds promising...

Back in the early 90s there were Enduro races... All old V-8 grocery getters... The purse was big... Like $10,000... Raced it up in Hagerstown, Md.... No caution flags... You wreck and you stay in the car people just gotta drive around you so by the end of the event the entire track was littered with wrecked cars and you just had to remember where they were...

My poor brother and I were building one... A '74 Plymouth with a 440 V-8... We had the glass out and had it in my poor brother's barn and I was going to do some work on it so I pushed it out of the barn... The car kinda took over from there and started rolling down the hill... The drivers door was already welded shut and I'm running beside it and good sense took over as I knew I could jump in it so I just watched it plow thru two of my poor brother's fences and bury itself two feet deep in a big oak tree at the bottom of the hill...

Oh well???

B~

Subject: RE: BS: F-1, Indycar, NASCAR real race issues.
From: redhorse
Date: 15 Aug 13 - 03:47 AM

"Remember when he and Peter Dumbreck flipped their Mercs on the Mulsanne straight in 1999? "

Get the T-shirt !

Subject: RE: BS: F-1, Indycar, NASCAR real race issues.
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 15 Aug 13 - 07:13 AM

Ouch!

Subject: RE: BS: F-1, Indycar, NASCAR real race issues.
From: Bobert
Date: 15 Aug 13 - 10:42 AM

Brings new meaning to "That car can really fly"...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: F-1, Indycar, NASCAR real race issues.
From: Bobert
Date: 15 Aug 13 - 08:40 PM

Refresh...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: F-1, Indycar, NASCAR real race issues.
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 16 Aug 13 - 07:40 AM

Lap of Le Mans in a '99 Merc that didn't flip. Listen to that V8!

Subject: RE: BS: F-1, Indycar, NASCAR real race issues.
From: Bobert
Date: 16 Aug 13 - 10:12 AM

Wow... If I am not mistaken the shifts were being made thru some switching in the steering wheel... Check out the guys right hand...

The motor sounds awesome, too...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: F-1, Indycar, NASCAR real race issues.
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 16 Aug 13 - 11:41 AM

Gear shift paddles, Bobz, one either side of the wheel. One for upshift, the other for downshift. Been fitted to serious racing cars since the early nineties and are now available on road cars.

Check out the BMW version.

BTW, imagine getting PAID to drive a race car like that...

Subject: RE: BS: F-1, Indycar, NASCAR real race issues.
From: Bobert
Date: 16 Aug 13 - 07:58 PM

Cool, Pete...

My last race was in October, 1984 and we were all old schoolers in my division... No fancy shift paddles so things were a tad busy...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: F-1, Indycar, NASCAR real race issues.
From: gnu
Date: 16 Aug 13 - 09:02 PM

Me son! Speakers on ten! Hope ya got a big screen.

Love this WILD RIDE!

Subject: RE: BS: F-1, Indycar, NASCAR real race issues.
From: Bobert
Date: 16 Aug 13 - 09:31 PM

Wow!!!

My mini-stocker car wasn't quite that technologically advanced...

It was down right, ahhhhh, primitive...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: F-1, Indycar, NASCAR real race issues.
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 17 Aug 13 - 11:59 AM

Phew!