i watch improved production, motorsport is still alive for me
and the local carrera cup (lol half the guys are gentleman racers)
Furniture
i watch improved production, motorsport is still alive for me
and the local carrera cup (lol half the guys are gentleman racers)
Andreas Preuninger, Manager of Porsche High Performance Cars: "Grandmas can use paddles. They aren't challenging."
Fanatic
No, just look at Can-Am racing. The Porsche 917/30 with 1000+ horsepower killed the sport.Originally Posted by Black Edition
I'm dropping out to create a company that starts with motorcycles, then cars, and forty years later signs a legendary Brazilian driver who has a public and expensive feud with his French teammate.
Enthusiast
Just listen to this! (desmodromic straight-8)
YouTube - Fangio and Brabham 1978
^^ can muchly relate.i watch improved production, motorsport is still alive for me
Being a motor racing addict I loved seeing the bikes on TV especially when Wayno Gardner was around, it was great racing! So I dutifully followed Mick Doohan through into the time when he used to win every race .. of every motorcycle GP .. year after year .. after year. Doohan would quickly attain a gap, then proceed to ride around all by himself for virtually the entire race, while the rest of the field would likewise follow as if separated by an invisible buffer, with very little interaction let alone passing manoeuvres to grace the 'spectacle'
BORING !!!!
Eventually, during yet another interminable Doohan procession on the TV, I got so fed up I switched off in disgust and headed down to the local minibike club track where, fair dinkum, there was more passing action and good quality racing in the Under 11 y/o 80cc scratch race, than with the bloody 500cc Grand Pricks I'd been watching 20 minutes ago on the teevee!
Member
As was said before, a lot of motorsports didn't 'die.' It just adapted with the times.
But some motorsports have adapted to much. Like when...
It became a business to race, and not actually about racing. Now it's more about who can get the best sponsors, and supply them with the most money to win. It used to be possible for an average joe or small company to beat or take on the bigger teams. Now it's only possible when the bigger team messes up on aerodynamics and the average joe has the budget to start out in the first place.
When there were more rules about what you can't do, instead of what you can do.
When everything on the grid started looking the same, and there was no variations in styles etc. Only minor cosmetic things. (Mostly Nascar and F1.)
When it longer became possible for someone to enter a racing career without having money etc. I wasn't born when races like Nascar started. But I do know that it was possible for someone to take a car, do their thing, take it racing and become a legend. Now most racers are already racers and just want to move up the ladder and want to be with the best paying team etc. It used to be a 'family' atmosphere with race teams. Now it's all business. Some have exceptions, but for the most part it's all business.
I am all for safety, but why did everything else have to suffer to make things safe? With all the technology etc. We have today. Is it not possible to make something safe, and keep it intriguing? I mean with safety, everything became boring.
The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're okay, then it's you.
-Rita Mae Brown-
Novice
One of the best quotes I have read in a while. The vicarious thrill of crashes has spawned many a police TV series too. Motor racing hasn't died, it has evolved. Formula 1 has changed because of the drivers wish to stay alive and paradoxically Ayrton Senna was one of the leading proponents of safety measures.
I live at Le Mans and know the track intimately. The point about the Mulsanne straight was that the manufacturers would have had to develop special bodies just for Le Mans because of the extremely high speeds on the Mulsanne and that wasn't feasible financially; the smaller teams couldn't have afforded it anyway. There comes a point where sheer speed is meaningless too (unless you go to Bonneville - and I advise you to once in your life!). In the 1970's the 917s were clocking around 400kph; last year I was with the radar team on the hump before Mulsanne bend and the Audis and Peugeots were passing at 306kph and that just 0.9 km from the last chicane. The last owner of my house here holds the unofficial record at 440kph in a much modified Peugeot 905 in the 1990s.
Perhaps racing is a trifle more boring, but that is also as much to do with the mechanical improvements of today. Watching a monoposto Maserati with the driver sawing away at the wheel at Madgwick is emotional, but there is also magic in the intensity of the racing today. As someone who is building a drum brake car I am somewhat apprehensive of how it will behave the first time I take it on a track and will leave plenty of margin but will enjoy myself immensely, but at the same time we wouldn't want drum brakes on our daily driver now, would we?
No, racing hasn't died, just changed.
Enthusiast
Sure, there is no doubt about the personal qualities of Fangio for example.
Yet I'm convinced that early GP racing too had a fair share of mental cases like Mansell or Prost vs Senna type of rivalries. Basic human nature doesn't change.
Fanatic
I foresee Ferrer saying he was referring to previous generations of drivers.
and in such case I would agree for my (limited) knowledge of them.
KFL Racing Enterprises - Kicking your ass since 2008
*cough* http://theitalianjunkyard.blogspot.com/ *cough*
Supporting Admin
Take Achille Varzi for example.
If you should see a man walking down a crowded street talking aloud to himself, don't run in the opposite direction, but run towards him, because he's a poet. You have nothing to fear from the poet - but the truth.
(Ted Joans)
Enthusiast
Me too.
Because of my limited knowledge of early GP racing I did use more familiar names from recent F1 as an analogy to describe a certain type of driver.
Edit: Thank you, Wouter!
Last edited by Revo; 05-19-2009 at 08:31 AM.
Enthusiast
This has nothing to do with political correctness, this has to do with the contracts they sign.
I dont if I'll make home tonight
But I know I can swim
under the Tahitian moon
Fanatic
I would say political correctness (an idiotic term, I might add) is overtly trying not to offend anyone anywhere in the slightest. They cannot offend anyone because that might affect their sponsor's sales etc... so they rarely say anything incisive about other drivers, their team, others teams, the sponsors etc...
It has been interesting to hear DC's thoughts on Kimi, that he could have never told us while he still had a drive, for example.
"Kimi, can you improve on your [race] finish?"
"No. My Finnish is fine; I am from Finland. Do you have any water?"
Furniture
Of course there were exceptions but I don't know, I get the impression that back then drivers were more likeable than now.Me too.
Because of my limited knowledge of early GP racing I did use more familiar names from recent F1 as an analogy to describe a certain type of driver.
Edit: Thank you, Wouter!
Except, when Vettel wins everything changes. Or something.
Lack of charisma can be fatal.
Visca Catalunya!
Supporting Admin
They should make it mandatory for F1 drivers to compete in other races as well. I like Bourdais for the simple fact that he races sports cars while being an active F1 driver.
If you should see a man walking down a crowded street talking aloud to himself, don't run in the opposite direction, but run towards him, because he's a poet. You have nothing to fear from the poet - but the truth.
(Ted Joans)
Flat Out
i think that is a challenge for the top level drivers due to the time that F1 takes up. It's not like the 70s when all of the F1 drivers were also racing CanAm. it would be very cool for something like that to happen again though.
Honor. Courage. Commitment. Etcetera.
Fanatic
that. do it.
KFL Racing Enterprises - Kicking your ass since 2008
*cough* http://theitalianjunkyard.blogspot.com/ *cough*
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