ervtx

Here's a fun little clip involving a spin and the subsequent reaction from my high school age daughter...

I took her out for an open session at MSR this past Saturday. It was only her 2nd time on the track with me, and the first time was over a year ago. So it's not like she's seen a lot of action from an in-car point of view. Yet she absolutely knew what was happening when a Corvette driver spun in front of us.

From her first comment "he took that too fast" to her post-track analysis, she was spot on. Not only that, while I was focusing on avoiding the vette and then putting it behind me for the next set of turns, she had the wits about her to perform the role of commentator to the small camera she was holding - aimed backwards, in order to film herself. Only one turn beyond the spin and she was already thinking about the lesson to be shared with her high school physics class.

Here's the spin, followed by her post-track physics lesson...

http://www.vimeo.com/2878189

(MSR 1.7 CW, Ricochet)

M758

Well,
The C5 driver went in too deep and could not slow down at the turn in point. His braking put him off line in the dirty part of the track causing less grip than normal sending him spinning when he turned in. The drivers should have recognized he was in dirty part of the track while braking and went of straight. Dumb idea to try to make the corner as it was never going to happen.

Ok to bring it to physics. The coefficient of friction is lower in dirt and marbles off line than on well rubbered in line.

MTosi

Or taken driving lessons, or learned how to downshift (I cringed at that last one).....



I watched the video first and knew before I heard anything or read your description, that had to be a highschool aged girl in the passenger seat. Pink camera faced backwards, clearly taking a picture for facebook/myspace.

ervtx

Yeah, I think he was still thinking about the pass, and forgot where his braking zone was. Totally missed it. His real mistake was in trying to save it; there was plenty of safe runoff area if he had just kept the wheel straight. All kinds of things going on there from a physics perspective, like the differential between front grip and rear grip, effect of the dirty track on maximum static friction, etc.

You should see the rest of the video taken from her camera. It's a lot like the Patrese video of his wife screaming in the passenger seat, except my daughter's are screams of pure joy!

MTosi

Good to see she likes it! Now more importantly, come license time is she going to get out there and drive? We need to even out the M/F ratio at these events, so all the elligible young men like me......trails off..... I'll keep my mouth shut so dad will still consider letting her get out there .

Veloce Raptor

Your daughter is smarter than 99.999% of the population. Well-done!

StoogeMoe

I think it follows Newton's fourth law.

A dumbass in motion, stops being in motion.

ervtx

She will be a handful for anyone who tries to keep up with her (see the next post), but yes, she will be encouraged to DE at some point.

Including her father.

I'd try to confirm that with her, but I've already had a debate with her on Newtonian vs. Aristotelian physics, and lost.

Chads996

Great clip. Funny how the Vette driver also did a money shift (bounced the engine off the limiter on the downshift.) Funny...I have a feeling that my daughter will be a lot like yours in the not-so-distant future.

Her 1st "track day" -

Veloce Raptor

GREAT picture!!!

Mine about 6 months ago, in daddy's race car:

Reimu

Oh man, obvious camera angle for myspace/facebook

ervtx

Charming pics!

In your near future...

teaching them the rules of the road...
(2006)



sharing with them your passion for the sport...
(2007)



and finally.... track time!!
(2008)

Veloce Raptor

renault??

You let her wear a FRENCH TEAM'S shirt?????

Chads996

Too cute... You gotta bring the wife and munchkin over when you come back to Road Atlanta. The two of them would have a blast.

C.

ervtx

She IS a cajun, after all.

Not to worry - women of all ages are fickle. She jumped to Red Bull the following year, and to Ferrari the year after that.