Club Arnage

Anyone seen the latest issue of Sniffpetrol? http://www.sniffpetrol.com

The Le Mans section highly amusing, and hopefully not TOO accurate.... ;)

Of course, they could always resurrect the Index of Thermal Efficiency, last awarded in 1974, I think, but of great note to production car manufacturers in the 50s and 60s.   

A hybrid Toyota Prius wouldn't really get in the way of the LMP and GT cars would it?  ::)

MG Mark

It's all political Bo**ocks on the honest face of it, but motorsport has traded allot of carbon (to quote the current buzz word spin) on their safety and efficiency innovations and having run a TDi Passat for 3 years at 47 mpg over 150,000 miles, the writing is on the wall for endurance racing, Hybrid's will be next (aka Peugeot).

Liked the pseudo quote from everybody’s mate Dave:-

Meanwhile, Conservative leader Dave "Dave" Cameron was happy to join in the blathering; "I am speaking now," he said. "Listen to me speaking in a nice voice. I think it's clear that I agree with whatever this is about, and I have shown this agreement by not wearing a tie. I like trees. Yea kids. Clouds are nice" A spokesman later admitted that Mr Cameron was himself a major source of pointless CO2. ;D

Aren't they all?

The LM bit is good stuff, personally I think the arrival of the smokers will be the death of endurance racing.
Sure, you'll find always find enough people interested in getting pissed on a few hundred acres of dirt, even if it was a race for shopping carts.  But as far as the racing goes...Yawn!  Wow! the thrill of watching cars quietly whistle past, with the evocative smell of deisel exhaust in the air...Makes me misty eyed standing next to Interstate 71.
How long until the Moto GP season opener?
Fax

to far away!! roll on LM in may ;D

I know that part of the motor racing experience is the sound of the cars, but there is no reason to think that cars powered by diesel engines will provide racing of a lower quality than petrol powered cars just because they are quiet.

Some years ago (late 70s/early 80s perhaps - can't qute remember) the UK was visited by the Indy Cars (as I think they were called in those days).  They were powered by some alcohol based fuel (ethanol? My memory is having a bad day today) and the engines omitted little more sound than a whisper... so was the racing dull?  No it was fantastic.

Console yourself with a (no doubt half-empty) glass of something Fax whilst you wait for the MotoGP to return.

Oldtimer, I think it was 1978 when the Indycars visited Brands and Silverstone. As we've said before, everyone has their own opinion.  I always thought the seventies and eighties Indycars were fantastic, I also know people who thought they were complete crap.  I thought the Audi R10 was possibly the dullest, least charismatic racing car I have ever witnessed when I saw it at Sebring.  Some think its lovely, cutting edge stuff.  As I said, everyone has their own opinion.  As for my glass half empty?  As I peer into my coffee mug...Its three quarters full!  Fine day ahead, its warm enough to get out on the Kawasaki for a few hours and carve up some of the hills above the Ohio River.
Fagey (and the rest of the bike fans), can't wait to see the new 800 screamers!
Fax

Fax - don't get me wrong I am not trying to have a pop at your opinion but surely, assuming of course full grids can be obtained at some point in the future, any cars relatively closely matched will provide excellent racing regardlessof their fuel type.  Think of the inevitable march of the oil burners with your three-quarters full cup of coffee goggles on.  Don't worry all will be well with the world of racing.

I was lucky enough to attend both the Silverstone and Brands Indy events and despite absolutely terrible weather (those cars really weren't happy in the wet!) the racing was brilliant.  I loved them.

As for MotoGP - also fantastic. Enjoy your burn-up.

We can but hope that the arrival of the Pug will mean Audi may be pushed a bit harder and make a bit more noise ;)

o/t, do you remember the Gold Leaf gas turbine car?  That was a blast, eh?  Never seen (sorry, heard) anthing so dull as Jochen Rindt (one of the top-most guys I've ever seen on a race track) whispering past.

This might amuse everybody - I have been invited to a seminar on the future of green fuels at the ACO next week!!! (No idea why, assume it's an ACO members' thing.)
http://www.sartem.fr/fr/

Point well noted about full grids making for a competitive race.  However I suspect we're going to see four ultra expensive Audi's and Peugeot's, and a bunch of grid filler.
I suppose at the end of the day what makes me warm and fuzzy about racing is watching the competitors visually on the limit, laying it out there.  Didn't see that with the R10 (and never did with the R8 for that matter).  Probably why I find F1 such a crashing bore these days as well.
As for Jochen and the Lotus, it may have been quiet, but you can be sure he was on the limit ;)
Fax

Yes the Audis never looked near the limit, and Jochen smoked more than an R10

From what was left of his tires, the cigarette in his hand, or from his ears when he was having a usually well deserved melt-down at Colin Champan. ;)
Fax

Yep - suspect you are right about this year, but success will spawn imitators.  It may take a couple of seasons (or maybe more?) before full competitive grids are achieved but I reckon it is inevitable.

Did you get to carve up the hills above the Ohio river then..?

 I may well co-drive a diesel powered beastie, but I do like hearing a good racing petrol engine on full noise as much as the next man or woman, but a lot of the change in direction is down to marketing and the environmental side of the house.  In our Off-Road Championship, aside from it being increasingly difficult to find good venues, the use of bio fuels is positively encouraged.  This year, the first 3-day BAJA GB was held succsessfully and the FIA have now sanctioned it as an international round from next year.  A quote from the organisers "Sustainability will be a priority for us in devising and arranging the event and, in particular, bio fuels, already being used by some UK competitors, will be encouraged.”   Much more difficult getting bio-petrol than bio-diesel, hence the popluarity of using diesel, although Nasamax did a fine job of using bio-ethanol from purely bio sources, rather than a 5% mix of something biological with 95% non-biological, which is what most of those running so called "bio-fuels" are doing.   Oh, and the UK government taxes bio-ethanol as alcohol, which makes it prety unviable economically on its own.   All a sign of the times methinks,

MG Mark   

Oldtimer, yeah, got out for a few hours until the rains came.  Temperatures that are tolerable on a motorbike in the dry quickly become miserable when it gets damp.  However this time of year one has to grab every opportunity you can to get a ride in, because once winter really sets in, there no riding until almost April.
On the subject of the oil burners, I suppose if the new breed of sports-racers turn out to be something exciting to watch I'll probably change my tune pretty quickly.  I freely admit that much of my opinion is coloured by my dislike of the R10.  As I said before, despite all the bells, whistles, & technology involved, it left me cold as a stone when I saw it at Sebring.
Fax

Fax,

I know it's difficult to get excited by a quiet whisper when compared to a good rip-snorting exhaust blast from a good petrol V8, V10 or V12.  Like you can't.   But what I enjoyed with the R10 was watching them last year at Arnage during qualifying in the wet.   Virtually all of the other cars were pulling away from Arnage and heading to the Porsche curves kicking up the spray but stuttering, banging, and popping with constant wheelspin through all the gears, despite short shifting.  The R10s were just soooo much faster through and out of that corner compared to the others.   You didn't need a stopwatch to see the gulf of a difference, in pretty abysmal conditions.  Quite aside from the powerplant choice, seeing something that is so well sorted in terms of suspension, drivetrain etc rattling through the corners gets my respect, even if it does not make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up....and it sets a bar for the petrol cars to aim at.  The relative lack of noise may have something to do with the filtering that is needed post-combustion so that it runs with no visible smoke, although the latter probably has as much to do with using Gas-to-Liquid refined diesel.  Mind you the R8 wasn't exactly the noisiest thing on the block either.

MG Mark   

Sad thing is Mark, I don't want to respect a car - it needs to make my heart thump - that's the problem.

I know - I hesitated in using the "love" word....stiff upper lip and all that y'know.   I love the sound that the Judd V10 makes.  I love the sound of the Ascari, Corvettes and Ferraris.  I love the sound that the McLaren made.  I love the sound that the Mazda 787 made..... The only way a diesel stirs the soul is when it is emitting a guttural, visceral noise from a pretty much unsilenced main battle tank, with 1200+ bhp under its engine covers, when its dark and its coming towards you out of the woods.  And there's more than one of them.   That sends a shiver down my spine every time, because it must be what pre-historic man felt like when he heard a pack of carnivorous dinosaurs callling...... Poetic enough?

MG Mark

Ah, Mark, I could almost have been there....

Still cannot imagine what that first practice session on Wednesday afternoon will be like when we pop open the bottle of fizz and wait for the pit lane lights to turn green and 55 cars rev the bejasus out of their engines - and they're all bl**dy deisels (even if the Termites do run 3 oil burners) - damp squib or what?

Yes, I have to say, the only diesel engines that ever got my heart pounding were the 2 stroke slow speed diesel engines I looked after when I was in the merchant navy.
They varied from 550mm to 900mm bore size, about 2000mm stroke and between 6 and 10 cylinders - giving from 15,000 to 35,000 shaft horsepower.

THATS a diesel engine  ;)

(http://www.dieselduck.ca/machinery_page/diesel_engine/slow%20speed%20engine.JPG)

(http://www.dieselduck.ca/machinery_page/diesel_engine/KHI.jpg)

(http://www.dieselduck.ca/machinery_page/diesel_engine/modified.ani.sulzer.gif)

And also worth the name power plant.