What sort of tyres are you running, most road tyres will be fine with 30 minutes of track use and a cooling off period, they need to be warm but if they get overheated they'll get ruined very quickly, typically brakes are the limiting factor in a road car on a track, in a car with road pads and DOT4 fade can usually be avoided by choosing not to brake as hard as you can at a couple of points on the circuit. Brake fluid boiling is unlikely in a standard (including tyres) road car being driven a bit bellow race pace, if you are too hard on the car and the fluid does boil before pads fade (easilly possible on a car running DOT4 and uprated brakes and tyres) then there's usually no warning and a total loss of brakes, if the brakes fail you're almost guaranteed to have a serious accident, getting them working safely is the most important thing in any car.
If you're in a car with plenty of power reserve sticking it in a higher gear than you have to use will help keep it a bit cooler on long straights (most tracks have a dull section where taking it easy reduces wear and fade and lets you stay out for longer, ie. at Donington the run from exiting Coppice to braking for Redgate nothing interesting happens, by easing off you save the car wear and the chance of having a silly accident at the chicane and get to stay out longer on the good part of the circuit).
Four point harnesses also fit into older cars very easily, just replace the standard seatbelt bolts with eyelets and you can unclip your harnesses when you don't using, they also add some lateral support for normal seats.
The speed at which you lap at is irrelevant on a track day, there's no point using slicks or road legal competition tyres on a car that only does track days/non-competitive events. The compounds in semi-slick tyres are usually effected by heat cycles meaning you're only going to get a few uses out of them before they become hard and old, still good for track days but not as good. Semi-slicks on road cars also produce a lot of road noise and wear out quickly (due to the small amount of tread they start with), not to mention they'll slow you down and waste fuel driving down a motorway. For a track day a set of non-budget tyres comfortably within their speed rating preferably worn but not damaged will be fine.
If you're in a car with plenty of power reserve sticking it in a higher gear than you have to use will help keep it a bit cooler on long straights (most tracks have a dull section where taking it easy reduces wear and fade and lets you stay out for longer, ie. at Donington the run from exiting Coppice to braking for Redgate nothing interesting happens, by easing off you save the car wear and the chance of having a silly accident at the chicane and get to stay out longer on the good part of the circuit).
Four point harnesses also fit into older cars very easily, just replace the standard seatbelt bolts with eyelets and you can unclip your harnesses when you don't using, they also add some lateral support for normal seats.
The speed at which you lap at is irrelevant on a track day, there's no point using slicks or road legal competition tyres on a car that only does track days/non-competitive events. The compounds in semi-slick tyres are usually effected by heat cycles meaning you're only going to get a few uses out of them before they become hard and old, still good for track days but not as good. Semi-slicks on road cars also produce a lot of road noise and wear out quickly (due to the small amount of tread they start with), not to mention they'll slow you down and waste fuel driving down a motorway. For a track day a set of non-budget tyres comfortably within their speed rating preferably worn but not damaged will be fine.
The victorious Riley returns on Thursday and ever optimistically we're intending to pick it up from the dock and drive it straight to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where it'll be on display on our stand. Quite how we're going to get it all the way back to Oxford on Sunday night I'm not sure, hopefully we'll be able to solve the fuel issue before then 
Got confirmation we have got a stand at the Festival of Speed today (trust students to leave it to the last minute 
). So if you're coming down look out for the Oxford Universities Motorsport Foundation stand.
). So if you're coming down look out for the Oxford Universities Motorsport Foundation stand.My single experience of an Elise was replacing the bonnet pull cable (apparently they routinely snap), Lotus couldn't have made this task harder and more fiddly if they tried, it took three of us 2 hours to do it.
Glitter: Didn't have 20 million dollars and didn't do it in a country where greedy bastards would let you buy your way out of serious crime...
Why on earth did they fly him to his autopsy?
The first, completely separate case years earlier was settled out of court, most normal people will not settle anything out of court unless they know they have done it and feel there is likely to be enough evidence to get a conviction (probably as well as lack of funds why he choose not settle the second one out of court).
Back in the real world, in the UK at least a large number of drivers, and not always just young ones, drive reasonably quickly down back roads. On some of our narrow lanes it can be impossible for even a fast car to reach the national speed limit on considerable stretches, saying everyone just sticks to the speed limit is silly, a 1 litre box and a 911 could both be driven quickly bellow the speed limit and one will obviously cover ground faster and make more of a mess when it goes wrong. Added to that the UK still has quiet but fast back roads that haven't been filled with traffic or speed cameras yet but still offer a good way to get from A to B, I regularly drive from Worcester to Oxford and recently worked out I average 75mph over a stretch of 35miles of fast backroads with slowing down for villages and twisty bits taken into account, it's a far faster and more enjoyable way of traveling than taking a longer route at the same speed down a motorway.
He made an out of court cash settlement previously though in another case, an admission of guilt if ever there was one and how typically American and disgusting is accepting a cash settlement for such a crime.
No great loss, just got to endure weeks of tribute rubbish in the media now
Try over here then, currently the Race Club (fun Wednesday night races) are running the Caterhams, two new seasons (Academy and R500, you can run in both) are starting again in July. The grids tend to be reasonably big for the championship races (15-20) and the drivers are clean and friendly, unfortunately the times might not suit you.
They all either have unrealistic tyre drop off curves, or other completely wrong variables (usually crazy slip angles), they may not feel that bad but just a quick bit of guessing in carfactory and some copying and pasting can 90% of the time produce a more convincing result without botching data.
Niels physics have never been released officially as far as I'm aware, they have no relation to the official mod and is great fun to drive
Historic GT & Touring - the big one, requires GTL
EOAA GT - a collection of GT1 cars, requires GTR2
Caterhams
Legends
CSGT Holiday Preview - to become the full 1970 WSC within days
Corvette - Niel's road version
Ferrari 312B - scary!
Formula 3 - this mod
There are other mods that are passable but get things wrong, TCL and NAGT spring to mind but they'd be so much better with the little things corrected. I've yet to find a modern F1 mod that's even worth bothering with. Thankfully some good mods are finally coming out, the Caterhams and Historic GT both have a good following and with the 1970 WSC mod due for release any moment fans of historics will be spoilt for choice
You're car is producing more than twice the power at the wheels so if efficency is the same drivetrain losses are going to be twice as great.
Highly unlikely, just a typical inflated rolling road reading to please the Max Power lot.
They all have completely implausible tyres and fail at the first hurdle as a result.
Just about everything was guessed and not even close or logical, in a weird thread over at RSC the physics creator got reprimanded for flaming anyone who made logical constructive criticism.
Unfortunately I very rarely have time to watch any racing on TV, and a full afternoon of it isn't something I'm likely to bother with. A short highlights program (max. 15 mins) for the afternoon would be more appealing to me, I found the previous series to long to find time to watch.
Might be exhibiting at the FOS and running a car at the revival, certainly not paying for tickets at the current prices though
There's an example of a far worse danger on a track that caused a near identical crash 12 years after the danger was first graphically highlighted.
It's only suggestion but it does fit in this situation that there wasn't fair play, from some of the comments it seems like these drivers had come together a few laps before and were known for being fiery characters and there's no reason that I can see why the other car moved across the car in front, which he should have been clearly able to see.
Helping other drivers to spin is not part of non-contact motorsport, deliberate contact is completely unacceptable in any situation but may be viewed less seriously when the speeds and danger are lower, shoving a car out of the way at a hairpin is unsportsmanlike and ruins racing. Deliberately spinning a car out at high speed on a straight is nothing short of assault with a deadly weapon, and if there is evidence to prove that this was a deliberate action there's no way it can be anything other than manslaughter.
Well this looks like a clear cut situation from what can be seen in the video (which may not be the full story). One car clearly span the other through contact due to the driver inexplicably nudging his nose in then pulling up the track, suggesting either total incompetence or a deliberate attempt to spin the other car, either way this was not just a clear cut tragic accident.
Very few oval series have any association with the FIA, the only example I can think of was the ill fated ASCAR/European oval nonsense. NASCAR and the other independent bodies don't answer to the FIA, neither does grassroots motorsport organsied by local promoters (ie. short circuit and autograss), which although it gets very little publicity probably has as many racers in the UK as all forms of car to car racing that answer to the MSA.
Last edited by ajp71, .
I think you're right, don't know where I got the impression it was after the finish.
Kubica's accident was more of a glancing blow than head on, a true head on collision into a concrete wall at those speeds would be unquestionably fatal in any current race car.
The wall isn't the issue here, it's avoidable contact after the finish. The car behind looked like it almost deliberately spun the car behind with the way it stuck its nose in and then pulled across the track. Whilst not great it just looks like the end of a pitwall, which are rarely protected with anything substancial enough to make a real difference. The wall moving due to being a makeshift block probably disapated a lot of energy. Ultimately though nothing will protect a driver from T-boning the end of the pitwall at that speed.
Not always true, but we've had a few E36 M3s dragged into the workshop bought for £2000-3000 that were absolute sheds. BMWs are prone to being abused and being expensive cars to run often get bought by people who can't afford to maintain them properly. If you're buying a car for less than the bill for any major work then think twice about what you're going to do when you need to pay it.
Assuming you can afford insurance running costs will be high if you go for a cheap old E36, parts are expensive, although they're relatively simple to work on for a modern car if you can do the work yourself.
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG