Well, we have similar situations in the US regarding SCCA National competition. Statistically, it takes years and years for the price to really build to the point where it becomes nonsensical. But, it really depends on the rules set. Generally, the stricter the rules, the higher the initial cost, but the longer it takes for the price to go up. But that also depends on popularity too. If your ruleset is strict enough, it will take a while for the price to come up and you'll be in V8 Supercars by the time it gets bad.
But I agree, Formula Ford is nuts. They really need to have a spending cap or something.
Yep. Going the normal direction it's good to hug the inside for a couple feet and not approach it from way outside like you would on a banked corner. Going the reverse direction, you can see that I get my inside front tire over that small anomaly in the paint stripe right at the apex. That little bit of road is flat and seems to suck the kart in a bit and helps keep you turned as you climb the hill.
Hey man, Jim Russell will get your fix and it's cheap for a rental series. Just 4 and a half thousand for a full season, then add in practice days here and there. The whole season of 10 races over 8 weekends costs about 6 grand if you do every practice day. Can't race for cheaper than that... plus it's really friendly.
I wish that were the case out here. In the US, we have guys spending $100,000 on karting, regional and national. Of course, most of those guys want to get into IRL or some such, the path to which takes millions and millions, so I guess in the end it's peanuts. So, those of us who want to transition to sportscars or touring cars find ourselves paying less to drive big cars than it would cost to run a "pro" karting effort.
Thankfully there are other options.
If you don't mind my asking, what's the budget for Commodore Cup?
I envy you. There's no way average Americans would be interested enough to broadcast that. *sigh* my nation just doesn't seem to care about motorsport. 
Good luck, I'll be watching this thread.
Good luck, I'll be watching this thread.
Nice! Yeah, going reverse into TTT is kinda hit or miss. Just aim for "tac" and hope you make it out alright!
I think my favorite corner is Kramer... it's just so crazy. Downhill/uphill, off camber, increasing/decreasing radii... tough corner to get just right. That's the corner right before the big S-curves for y'all not familiar. For anyone interested, here's two track maps I made: Corner names and the two main configurations.
I was playing with Kramer all throughout the day last week and I found that sometimes I'd come off the corner a bit early and I'd seem to get a better run... but I didn't have the GPS data that day so I just stuck with what I knew for the race. Maybe cresting over that hill binds the kart up in ways that is hard to feel normally?
That's what I love about Infineon's kart track; every single corner has a trick to it. No token corners - they're all critical. Some tracks like Laguna Seca pretty much drive themselves because most of the corners are really textbook.
I think my favorite corner is Kramer... it's just so crazy. Downhill/uphill, off camber, increasing/decreasing radii... tough corner to get just right. That's the corner right before the big S-curves for y'all not familiar. For anyone interested, here's two track maps I made: Corner names and the two main configurations.
I was playing with Kramer all throughout the day last week and I found that sometimes I'd come off the corner a bit early and I'd seem to get a better run... but I didn't have the GPS data that day so I just stuck with what I knew for the race. Maybe cresting over that hill binds the kart up in ways that is hard to feel normally?
That's what I love about Infineon's kart track; every single corner has a trick to it. No token corners - they're all critical. Some tracks like Laguna Seca pretty much drive themselves because most of the corners are really textbook.
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I'd like to see some alternate classes of cars, not just new cars.
A stock car would be good. I wouldn't drive it, but I'd like to see it.
A Le Mans prototype would be good as well, or a Radical.
A real supercar, a hypercar, not that psudo-Porsche thingy. Like a big Lambo or a Ferrari.
A big sports sedan, like a midsize Merc or a 3er BMW.
And then a small, really lightweight sports car, like a Miata or an Elise.
Whatever you do, make them really designed, because the current road cars are really generic and pretty bland and understyled, except for the Raceabout.
A stock car would be good. I wouldn't drive it, but I'd like to see it.
A Le Mans prototype would be good as well, or a Radical.
A real supercar, a hypercar, not that psudo-Porsche thingy. Like a big Lambo or a Ferrari.
A big sports sedan, like a midsize Merc or a 3er BMW.
And then a small, really lightweight sports car, like a Miata or an Elise.
Whatever you do, make them really designed, because the current road cars are really generic and pretty bland and understyled, except for the Raceabout.
Y'know, I've heard rumors of this type of creature, but I only thought they existed in myth and legend!
I'm feeling the heat for sure. I know I started late, but that's why I ruled out F1! I figured out that it would cost me about 6 or more million Euros to reach a level where an F1 team would notice me. I don't have that dollar! It's a lot more realistic to try for tintops in the USA, especially if I start late. I figure I can make it to a paid ride with a 0.5 to 1 million dollar outlay over the period of 6 or 7 years from now. Two years ago, I had similar ideas to this guy, like "oh it'll be easy, I'll just approach 1 or 2 companies and they'll take me to Le Mans!" but I dropped those notions quickly. I'm setting up a business with my dad that will hopefully pay for a good portion if not all of my racing. I consider myself very, very lucky in that regard.
Ya I know, but with so much time in an F1 car it'd be habit.
Ayrton Senna used to blip-blip-blip the throttle to keep the turbo spooled up through a corner.
Watch his footwork in the NSX-R It's just a habit at this point.
Watch his footwork in the NSX-R It's just a habit at this point.
Yes, on the "infield" layout (we call it Sprint) with the many hairpins, the karts can't fully track out there if you want a good run from the 2nd corner down the next straight. So we have to give up some track on the exit of the 1st to be fast down the longer stretch. We do this both in turns 1/2 and in turns 3/4.
It's a devil of a track, because those direction changes really beat you up over a 15 minute race, especially after you've been driving for a couple hours already.
My fitness regime is pretty tough and I still really felt it on the cooldown lap.Which hairpin? The one that leads off the main straight or one of the infield ones?
All racers have massive egos.
Last edited by MadCat360, .
Ah, the Glen. I like the look of that track a lot.
What's your budget for SM? You should be warned that there are dudes spending 40 or 50ks a year to run that. It's possible to run with them and maybe even beat them for less, I hear, but 50ks is MX-5 Cup money. Skip Barber MX-5s are about 22k IIRC, so depending on your budget that might be a better deal. But, I'm sure you've thought of all that and I'm preaching to the choir.
I too plan on riding that Mazda ladder as far as I can. This year a kid just like me (19 years old, 1 year of Skip Barber MX-5s) got a free ride in the Playboy MX-5 Cup after being awarded a scholarship at a shoot-out with 7 other drivers, worth about 70k. Then the Playboy prize I think is a ride in SPEED World Challenge touring cars, which is about $250,000. Maybe we'll meet each other at the shootout?
As much as I appreciate the gesture, I will continue believing that the Russell School has taught me much more in a year than I would have learned in 2 or maybe even 3 years on my own, and probably for a lot less money. When I took my first High Performance (not racing school) class at Skip Barber, my first time getting a full sized car on the limit, it only took a few laps on the autocross and even their toughest instructor said I was really good and that he didn't have much to critique, and they all loved me because I was so smooth and consistent. Now, the skid pad, that's a different story... but that's not the point here!
Just watch me dominate that Mazdaspeed Challenge!
Last edited by MadCat360, .
Probably lots, but if you patronize, no one will listen or take you seriously.
If you don't feel tire slip then you're obviously just matting the gas and bogging the engine down, because slip angle coming off the corner is very important to our instructors. Did you watch my hands at all in my videos? For optimum grunt you're not even full throttle at the track out.
If you're speeding up by lifting then you need to use different jets.
Yes the tires are hard. The chassis are stiff because then a slide will become devastating. They didn't used to run it like that, they used to use chassis so bendy you could turn the thing almost by flexing your glutes. They found that by switching to the stiff chassis the drivers learned consistency better.
Quite obviously, you are. You think you know better than me and more about what my program is, and you haven't even seen it.
Car tires take much longer to warm up than kart tires. Lewis Hamilton's F1 car has more steering movement lock to lock because his car is quite a lot faster than yours or mine, and he needs more precision. Also, Mr. Hamilton has a differential, and we do not, therefore it's a lot harder for him to get his car into slip angle than it is for us. His car also requires much less slip angle than ours do; a kart is more like 10 or more degrees of slip whereas an F1 car is more like 1 or 2 degrees.
Sorry, I don't think spending 70ks on karting per year is a wise investment. Brutality is for ignoramuses. Racing is about intelligence and smart tactics, not being brutal.
Last edited by MadCat360, .
We can power-on drift every corner, even the slowest. If you can't make a Rotax's wheels spin then that tells me you just mat the gas.
The whole set-up of the kart is intended to make it hard to drive. We run the stiffest chassis, the most temperamental tires, the most unforgiving engine, and a very touchy brake system. This is a school series, remember, and the goal is to teach you to drive. Do Marine recruits get the best optics and rifles in boot camp? Hell no. As a result of learning to live with worse equipment, you learn to utilize the best equipment better.
No, you can't do that in cars, but this is simply to train our muscles to be delicate. A new driver with a loose car won't learn to control his throttle as fast as a new driver with an understeering or flooding car.
The way our carb works (don't ask me how), we need to roll on the throttle over a period of about 2 or 3 seconds otherwise the engine floods and we bog down. The Parillas we used to run were basically just flat from apex to track out.
Jim Russell runs the Rotax because it's hard to drive. Yeah, the jets can be a pain, but it teaches wonderful throttle discipline.
3G was confirmed via accelerometer. We have GPS track data and such.
There are plenty of decent drivers to push me. For instance this year we have an F3 driver (guy in red), that's American F3, not British. Last year we had the Western Formula Mazda champion. There are also plenty of drivers who are not so qualified yet are just as fast. Me, for instance, and my rival in the championship. Yeah, the entry list is way down (last year we had 40 drivers, this year we have about 16). I keep trying to tell them to merge the groups but they won't do now since we've been running the two championships separately.
The main thing I want from this series is coaching. We have three top notch coaches that work with us, Jared Thompson (drifter), Jeff Sakowicz (former dirt track USAC driver), and Gary Carlton (CRG factory driver). You can't buy that kind of private coaching for 6 grand a year... which is how much this series costs. Plus the top 3 guys in each championship gets track time in Russell's F3 cars.
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Ah, but the difference is, I'm doing something about it!
Done and done.
I've written up a report on my Blog.
Link to Round 3 Onboard
Link to the Round 4 Onboard
Enjoy!
MadCat's quest
I wanna be a racing driver! I've spent the last year at Jim Russell racing school at Infineon Raceway and this is my second year in karts, I'm 19 years old. Next year I plan on doing Skip Barber's Mazdaspeed Challenge in the MX-5 Cup cars. After that, I don't know. I plan on doing Koni Challenge at some point, and I want to make it to ALMS/LMS, FIA GT or Rolex Grand Am.
Right now I'm on track to win the karting championship and get seat time in a Formula 3 car.
Here's an onboard:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5V_wLBnNc0
I have rounds 3 and 4 tomorrow.
Right now I'm on track to win the karting championship and get seat time in a Formula 3 car.
Here's an onboard:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5V_wLBnNc0
I have rounds 3 and 4 tomorrow.
The only reason why they wouldn't require blipping would be because the engine management does it itself. IE, on formula cars.
There's that, too. I enjoy the journey as well.
I can't wait to see it finished.
Don't I know it. Right now I'm using a keyboard and mouse and I'm about 2 seconds slower than the front runners. The only reason I sometimes place well is staying out of the first-turn melee... you learn how to be lapped really quick in that situation.
Racing incidents happen, people. Out on the track, we never say who's fault it is; hopefully we each know who caused the wreck. Arguing about who did what and pointing blame will just make it worse. In the end, we pay for the damages to our own cars. In karting you may have to pay 200, 300 bucks for a broken control arm, and it wasn't even your fault. In a touring car, you may spend 10, 20 grand for somone else's mistake. But in the end, your car is your responsibility and only your money is going to fix it; there are no insurance claims in racing. The money is why we play LFS, thankfully wrecking costs nothing but lap time.
We all have our opinions but pointing blame out on the track just isn't cool.
Unlike me.
I doubt I'd get it anyway. I'm 8 seconds off the WR pace in the Formula BMW.
I'm only demo, but right now I'm loving the Formula BMW, on Blackwood of course... ah, if I only had a spare 200 grand!
To add, real life engines are quite hardy. There are many professional drivers who frequently abuse their engine. The most common form of abuse being downshifting just before they actually start braking. This can usually put 10 or 11k on the engine meant for 9.5k. Most of them do this every few laps, many do it every lap, some do it more than once per lap. If LFS is accurate, a little bit of over-revving shouldn't hurt anything if done somewhat infrequently.
Personally, I always power shift on starts into 1st (from neutral) and 2nd gear and maybe 3rd if I feel like I'm going too slow. A power shift is simply holding the accelerator while shifting gears in a normal H-pattern gearbox. It adds flywheel torque to your launch, evident by the tire noise that results. I can get away with it without burning the clutch too bad because I didn't start the race by duck-walking in 1st, I started from neutral. If I duck-walked the clutch and accelerator, I'd definitely be too hot to do it on a good launch, and I'd only use it when I get a really bad start.
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG