Nothing new under the sun
Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at 10:29AM
I mentioned yesterday about the late arrival of my Autosport magazine. If you are an enthusiast and not reading Autosport and it's monthly companion, Motorsport, you are missing out on a lot of great information and interesting articles. This month's Motorsport has a few items that caught my eye. Although mainly a car magazine, it does have a very good page by Mat Oxley, rider and journalist. Mat is talking this month about how the really good riders are exploiting the electronic aids, and mentions rear wheel braking while accelerating to control wheelspin. This reminded me of one night in 1993 at a small dirt track in Lodi, Northern California, with Kenny Roberts, Wayne Rainey and a host of other stars, when we watched Kenny Jnr. and Kurtis learn their trade, including rear wheel braking accelerating out of corners.
Ina similar vein, but not from Motorsport, Eddie Oliver mentioned in a comment a couple of days ago that one reason riders can continue longer is the improved safety, including air bag leathers. Now I admit I have not kept up with motorcycle racing as much as I should, and I missed this development. It reminds me however of a day at Eastern Creek during the '91 GP when a 250 cc rider fell off in the very quick Turn 1, and the machine gyro'd for a long, long way, the run off being extensive. It finally hit the wall well past where it would normally be expected, so there were no straw bales. The rider complained about that because his bike was damaged, but I somewhat churlishly said,"well to be sure there were straw bales where it hit you would have had to tie one to the front of the bike." So, now to be sure there is air fence where you happen to fall off someone has worked out a way of doing just that, except for the rider not the bike.
Back to Motorsport for a moment, it was interesting to read a piece on the new Alfa Giuletta which has a 1.4 litre engine giving out 170 bhp and 50 mpg! Some trick computer controlled hydraulic valve actuation on an old engine was all it took, so who says the ICE is dead. As someone once said, they will always invent a better mousetrap. Let's hope that the Government does not invent a better "mouse" to keep Alfa from bringing this sort of technology to the US.
Also in the latest Autosport is a very good aerial shot of the new Silverstone Arena layout. Not sure I like it, but I guess we will see when the F1 and MotoGP races are run. The little kink on the exit to the new Abbey just looks like it will make the approach to the next corner a one line track, and the combination of hairpins looks a lot like the "Mickey" and "Mouse" pair of corners at the Indy F1 track. The exit of Abbey looks like the exit to the "Adelaide" hairpin at Magny Cours, which Kenny Roberts pointed out screwed the guy trying to come back at the person who had just overtaken them, or the little kink after the Turn 7 corner at Sebring that I am not proud to say I did, but with no choice.
Le Mans 24 Hours is coming up fast and I am sorry to say my plans to be there this year have had to be put on the back burner. Still, there is the TV, which presumably Speed Channel, aka NASCAR TV, will cut away to a truck race. So, be sure to go to the live feed which Speed will continue and does even through the night. I know some of you missed the ALMS at Laguna, be sure not to do it again.
Talking of Le Mans and ALMS, it seems the Jaguar is headed overseas to the Silverstone 1000km, a round of the LMS Series, and Le Mans. Now this car finished 46 laps down at Laguna and was about three seconds a lap off the pace, so why would Jaguar marketing let this car anywhere near a larger audience? "Murphy The Bear" says they are talking of putting the engine in a prototype! What as, ballast? It is inconceivable to me that a team of Paul Gentelozzi"s cannot get this car sorted. Tony Dowe where are you?
Last but not least, this headline should be printed in large letters and hung on the wall of every would-be F1 race promoter. "Hockenheim hopes to break even this year." Why, other that a sense of enormous ego, would you do all that work and take all that risk to HOPE to break even! And I bet that is after a Government bale out.
Ina similar vein, but not from Motorsport, Eddie Oliver mentioned in a comment a couple of days ago that one reason riders can continue longer is the improved safety, including air bag leathers. Now I admit I have not kept up with motorcycle racing as much as I should, and I missed this development. It reminds me however of a day at Eastern Creek during the '91 GP when a 250 cc rider fell off in the very quick Turn 1, and the machine gyro'd for a long, long way, the run off being extensive. It finally hit the wall well past where it would normally be expected, so there were no straw bales. The rider complained about that because his bike was damaged, but I somewhat churlishly said,"well to be sure there were straw bales where it hit you would have had to tie one to the front of the bike." So, now to be sure there is air fence where you happen to fall off someone has worked out a way of doing just that, except for the rider not the bike.
Back to Motorsport for a moment, it was interesting to read a piece on the new Alfa Giuletta which has a 1.4 litre engine giving out 170 bhp and 50 mpg! Some trick computer controlled hydraulic valve actuation on an old engine was all it took, so who says the ICE is dead. As someone once said, they will always invent a better mousetrap. Let's hope that the Government does not invent a better "mouse" to keep Alfa from bringing this sort of technology to the US.
Also in the latest Autosport is a very good aerial shot of the new Silverstone Arena layout. Not sure I like it, but I guess we will see when the F1 and MotoGP races are run. The little kink on the exit to the new Abbey just looks like it will make the approach to the next corner a one line track, and the combination of hairpins looks a lot like the "Mickey" and "Mouse" pair of corners at the Indy F1 track. The exit of Abbey looks like the exit to the "Adelaide" hairpin at Magny Cours, which Kenny Roberts pointed out screwed the guy trying to come back at the person who had just overtaken them, or the little kink after the Turn 7 corner at Sebring that I am not proud to say I did, but with no choice.
Le Mans 24 Hours is coming up fast and I am sorry to say my plans to be there this year have had to be put on the back burner. Still, there is the TV, which presumably Speed Channel, aka NASCAR TV, will cut away to a truck race. So, be sure to go to the live feed which Speed will continue and does even through the night. I know some of you missed the ALMS at Laguna, be sure not to do it again.
Talking of Le Mans and ALMS, it seems the Jaguar is headed overseas to the Silverstone 1000km, a round of the LMS Series, and Le Mans. Now this car finished 46 laps down at Laguna and was about three seconds a lap off the pace, so why would Jaguar marketing let this car anywhere near a larger audience? "Murphy The Bear" says they are talking of putting the engine in a prototype! What as, ballast? It is inconceivable to me that a team of Paul Gentelozzi"s cannot get this car sorted. Tony Dowe where are you?
Last but not least, this headline should be printed in large letters and hung on the wall of every would-be F1 race promoter. "Hockenheim hopes to break even this year." Why, other that a sense of enormous ego, would you do all that work and take all that risk to HOPE to break even! And I bet that is after a Government bale out.
Reader Comments (7)
The new Giuletta is a lovely looking car. I think that small capacity petrol engines aided either by turbocharger or supercharger or both in the case of VW are a lot more enjoyable to drive and not that far off the economy of 2 litre sized turbodiesels. Diesels have become rather troublesome if driven at low speed in town a lot as well. The DPF filters get clogged. I work for Hertz UK and that's happening to a lot of the vans we supply to couriers who obviously drive around town a lot.
I just wonder how much longer car manufacturers will continue to offer spark ignition V8's in their luxury cars. Every BMW 5 or 7 series or E and S class Mercedes I see these days has a Diesel badge on the bootlid. 20 years ago you couldn't even buy a diesel version of these cars in this country.
You make some good points Bob, especially about the Jag. They rolled it out at Petit and started it. Entered it at Laguna Seca the next month and it was uncompetitive. Now here they are 1/3 of the way through the schedule and they are having to remove a radiator to replace a battery mid-race? That's a lot of money to spend on stupidity.
Good job. I agree with you.
Nice Website. You should think more about RSS Feeds as a traffic source. They bring me a nice bit of traffic.
If what I ultimately have to offer is half as much as what you now have to offer, I’ll be able to consider it a job well done.
Your work has always been a great source of inspiration for me. I refer you blog to many of my friends as well.
magic!