ALMS: Pruett's Thursday Mosport Blog: Rumors & Rumblings

[Kitdy]

So no Ford GT-R this weekend? Why is that?

[MPME]

IMO stuff are used and then stuff used for a reason are not one and the same. Yes torsion bar are used on cars(and horse drawn carriages), but they are used today for better control of characteristic, not because its cheaper or easier. Covering the actual brake disc, not wheels, is something I think is relatively recent. And that's not before the advent of ridiculous of amount of CFD and windtunnel work done in F1 that made them realise there are gains to be made there.

Fundementally nothing rarely is new in racing, there all stem from other industry and got applied here. The thing I don't agree with is that F1 teams do not just spend their money for nothing. It may be irrelavent to us, but to them because of the level of competition they have to make all the gains they can. As a result the usage of those technology that I think brought by what I termed as "F1", is because they spend their millions of dollars to understand down to the system level that gains can be made in those area. As with everything KISS principle is the first and foremost in designing anything, but because the competition demends that they find something to beat the other guys, they start look for the ridiculous. Sportscar racing rarely becomes that competitive that people really start to look for diminishing return, most era ended up being dominated by a particular solution, and then the rule changes Because of the nature of the tight competition that F1 teams tend to tryout new stuff to gain that advantage. There were always exceptions obviously, stuff that Charparrel(I really don't know how to spell that) does was really to understand something. Backed by GM(who has lots of money at that time), they tried all sorts of different stuff, as such they were driven by different purpose as most racers(that program does bring about the beginning of trying to make vehicle dynamic into a real science, backed by people like Bill Miliken who literally wrote the book on the subject). Stuff like J-Dampers(or as the Cambridge guy calls it, the "inerter"), its unlikely that someone would've given it a second glance if it weren't for McLaren to pay the guy to let them use the technology on their F1 car, because I doubt there were many people who can see the benefit to be gained of having something to control the undamped tire spring being excited by road undulation. But as the nature of the competition that drives them now everyone is looking at it. And its a lot easier for someone else to look at that and say, "ah, how come I never thought of that" and try to incorporate that...

I like sportscar more because the stuff that gives them the "Eureka" moment now is a lot more relavent to making cars, where as F1 does that to find the next tenth of a second. But when the competition demends it, as in the case of the diesel battle now, they look across to find what the other side are using that might give them the edge....

There's always a bit of looking into one another's yard, but to assert that sportscar teams look over to F1 to get their ideas has no merit or basis in fact.

[Kitdy]

Well I had the pleasure of attending the race in person and have top say it was a great experience like it was in 2006 - we were pretty ill prepared though but still had a good time.

We walked around the whole track during the race and had a bunch of vantage points - the Andretti straight was great along with Moss corner and turn 1, as well as turns 2,3,4 - lots of elevation change and I'm outta shape so I was pretty tired!

We had a brief bot of rain before the race that lasted a minute or so then the weather held. Saw some cool passes and hairy moments - the big off at the first yellow flag at the bottom of the hill etc etc.

All in all, a great time, a great atmosphere and a great event - I highly recommend it to any interest fans.

Of course saw tons of amazing street cars at the race as well - as for the racers, my friend and I agree the C6.R's had the best engine note.

EDIT: We was the Ford GT-R there but it was not raced - why is that?

[The_Canuck]

EDIT: We was the Ford GT-R there but it was not raced - why is that?

I saw that it was there but had a tarp over the rear 3/4ths. Something must have broken in practice or qual...

[Dino Scuderia]

EDIT: We was the Ford GT-R there but it was not raced - why is that?

Don't know what happened to the Doran Ford GT(silver), but the Black Swan team opted to do more testing before Detroit.

[RacingManiac]

Don't know what happened to the Doran Ford GT(silver), but the Black Swan team opted to do more testing before Detroit.

there might be some of that "oh crap, Mosport if you have a crash the car can be totaled so I'd rather stay in US and not break the car" thing going on...wouldn't be the first time for some of the non-contending teams...