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Re: ProSolo questions and launching

To: "Steve Ashcraft" <ashcraft2@home.com>, <autox@autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: ProSolo questions and launching
From: "Steven T. Ekstrand" <cyberlaw@earthlink.net>
Date: Fri, 7 Jul 2000 22:46:20 -0700
Fast in...Slow out...

Think late apex.  On this style of Solo2 start, the lights are usually just
past the apex of a short radius turn.  You need to set up your entry to
maximize your speed on exit.  That usually doesn't require a hard launch
unless you are in a low power to weight ratio vehicle and you can carry all
the speed you can muster.  Usually the corner is too sharp for that,
although at our last local Solo2 event (Norton AFB) they had such a start
and it was open enough on exit that the slower cars were flat out from the
start line, through the turn, cross the lights, and a 100+feet down to the
first slalom.  Fast course.

[Wait a minute....Why am I offering driving advice to this forum?  I hope I
didn't embarrass myself.  :-P  ]

Heating your tires is a different issue.  If that is necessary for your
setup then by all means.  But I would personally discourage course designs
from encouraging hardstarts.  And I'm the drag racer!  But hard launches
add tremendously to wear and tear on manual shift cars.  It can damage
pavement.  And it can cause stones to be thrown into the cars behind.

Another interesting debate--Take the case of a Solo2 course where the start
is straight and the lights are say 30 feet ahead of the start line.  Many
vehicles will benefit from spinning the tires on the launch (rather than
slipping the clutch or bogging after a "good" launch).  While the vehicle
spinning the tires will almost certainly have a slower 60 foot time if
measured on a drag strip, some low-end-torque-deprived vehicles might
actually achieve a higher velocity crossing the timing light even if it
takes longer to get there because of the spinning tires at the start line.

Drag Racers...  A thousandth here and a thousandth there...

-Steve Ekstrand


----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Ashcraft" <ashcraft2@home.com>
To: <autox@autox.team.net>
Sent: Friday, July 07, 2000 6:05 PM
Subject: Re: ProSolo questions and launching


| I'm still confused (but that's my usual state of mind).  I still don't
| understand why you wouldn't still launch hard if for no other reason than
to
| warm up the rear tires.  I'm not sure how you could ever design a start
| where a hard launch wouldn't have you going faster as you cross the start
| line than a smooth "slow" start.
| Steve
|
| ----- Original Message -----
| From: David Hawkins <otgrouch@twosrus.com>
| To: Steve Ashcraft <ashcraft2@home.com>; Michael Bullis
| <Mike@benchmarksales.net>; <autox@autox.team.net>
| Sent: Friday, July 07, 2000 5:56 PM
| Subject: Re: ProSolo questions and launching
|
|
| > >This might be an interesting discussion:
| > >    Do you launch harder at a ProSolo event than at a Divisional?
| > >    I launch the same but then again I drive a 1994 Miata.
| >
| > Very few of the NTs or divisionals I have attended had a drag style
| > start (straight line to the first technical part).  Most Solo II
courses
| > have
| > a start followed by a rather sharp turn to discourage clutch killing
| > launches.
| > Pros do nothing of the kind.
| >
| > David Hawkins
| > 86 Mr2 CSP in pieces
| >
| >
|
|



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