>> One of the "shoes" involved had
>> cone trouble, and the other appears to have had an off day the first day when
>> you compare his times to other place markers in other classes.
> I would be the guy with the off-day.
Yup. When you compare your times with Andy B. and a few others I know, the
differential is higher on Day 1 than on Day 2. It suggests on "off day".
> But, not really. Let me start by saying Fedja drove extremely well! (Insert
> plug for McKamey school here, Mark Daddio and I instucted him about 3 week
prior)
No kidding. He suprised the hell out of me at the Virginia Pro.
You guys oughta put him on a poster or something. :)
> Sooooo, having driven Fedja's car and my own, I have a little insight.
Ah, good. Experimental evidence.
> First off, the Talon hadles EXTREMELY well (I was very surprised).
Incidently, I put Dean Sapp in my car in Virginia to get some feedback from a
"shoe" on how my car felt, and got a similar response. Mind you, he didn't push
it very hard, but the comment was "It's faster than I thought it would be"
> Lag isn't as big a problem as everyone likes to think.
Overall, I agree with you. It's there, but it's not that bad with a fairly small
turbo like the T25 or the 14b. When it _is_ there though, it can be really
nasty.
> Fedja's car had boost, and no traction problems. A
> f-body of Stang may have more torque, but can't put down what it's got most
> times. Fedja asked me at that school if I thought it was competitive with
> my car. My answer was, course dependant.
...and that's pretty well my assesment too.
But keep in mind the car you were driving was a Super Evil Nasty Overdog Spawn
of Satan ***backdated 14b turbo car***. This is the configuration that the SEB
winds up banning with the proposed new rule.
My opinion of this configuration is that it's still an underdog on power, but
much less so than the T25 car, and that the car has enough other attributes to
more-or-less make up the difference.
Your opinion (correct me if I'm wrong) is that the car may be competitive with
or slightly better than your car (a 3rd gen F-body, in case anyone lives under a
rock and doesn't recognise Sam) depending on course layout.
That sounds to me like a good match, possably as good a match as you can get
between such dissimilar cars. It certainly doesn't sound like a car that needs
legislation to slow it down.
> The Ayer Tour was one of those courses... [snip] ...was
> the prototypical DSM course.
And Fedja did a good job driving it. Cool. I don't see a problem here, do you?
> Again, just for the sake of fairness (all around) the traction of a F-body
> is NOT anywhere near a DSM car, or ANY IRS car. That is just as bad as lag
> issue at times.
Oh, I agree. I occasionally hang out with Marcus, I've seen first hand the
effects of the triumph of torque over traction. :)
Some days, a lack of traction on a certain corner may allow you to only put down
a fraction of the power you have on tap. And at the same corner, a DSM may be
able to put down all the power it wants to, but it's only making a fraction of
its power due to lag. The result is identical net acceleration, and no advantage
for either.
Now on some days, the DSM won't be laggy there, and will beat the F-Body. On
others, the DSM is laggy (or just plain old underpowered) and the F-Body is
hooking, and will beat the DSM. That's just racing.
But for Lord Thunderin', we DSM guys DO NOT need to have what power we make
REDUCED - especially when Nationals courses are typically open courses that
favour HP, and traction is less of an issue. We're not trying to make more power
here, we're trying to keep the power we already have. Legally, I might add.
So here's the choice we have, assuming this rule goes through. Either spend a
big chunk of money to put the old turbo back on and give up the open courses, or
spend bigger chunks of money to do an entire backdated engine. An engine that
may make more power, but (thanks to lower compression and bigger heads) may do
so at the expense of low end torque and throttle response. I don't particularly
want to do either. I'm happy with what I have now.
Or, I suppose I could change cars, thus abandoning the sponsors and
relationships I've worked very hard to develop to this point.
And why am I being forced to do this? The car isn't an overdog in ESP, and it's
a class-filler in P2, so "the good of the sport" isn't it. Can the SEB look me
in the eye and tell me that my backdated turbo is a sign of impending
apocolypse?
*sigh*
I'm getting tired of this. Not because of you Sam, you've been a voice of
reason. I'm tired of having to become a political lobbyist in order to keep
myself and my friends from being screwed over because we bought fun, popular,
and nifty cars.
Man, some days that kart really beckons.
DG
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