9.5 Degrees

Thanks for sharing that. It just goes to show that us armchair racers have no idea what it's like. Here is a guy that raced the RS Spyder at Le Mans and he was in awe of a 13 year old F1 car and was tiptoing around. WOW. Mucho respect to these drivers and gives me more appreciation for what Schumi is doing coming back to these beasts after a 3 year layoff.

BTW, I miss the sound of the V10s

APKhaos

Revealing, eh?
Its worth looking at all three 'parts' of the video story. This is part 2. You should see the other two when you click through to the You Tube page. Its really interesting to hear Martin Brundle's briefing before Chris gets in the car, especially about heat management. Basically, he say you have to drive it hard to keep the tires and the brakes working - at all! Once they cool off there is nothing you can do to get them up to operating temp again. Fascinating stuff.

This was very early morning on a test day at Silverstone. Ambient temps around freezing, and patches of ice on track. Not ideal conditions, but enough to show how seriously serious these cars really are. Not for the faint hearted, nor anyone prone to getting ambition confused with ability.

Flying Finn

Great clip that shows how difficult it is to be an F1 racing driver, yet quite often you hear or read a comment that: "anyone could drive these cars", "Formula 1 drivers are not a pinnacle of racing drivers" etc. etc... Yeah right.

speedbump2

I was at MMC yesterday morning, and it looked like they had the Vulcan F1 car relegated to the South course because there were club members running on the North course.
But I left at Noon, so they may have had access to the full track in the afternoon.

And, as stated above, the full course is just over three and a half miles. They must be counting all the track detours that separate the the track, as well as the extra chicanes, "bus stops", Pit lanes, and infield service roads.

--Chuck--

race911

I note in the first sentence: "modern F1 car." Uh huh.

Anyway, F1 at whatever level is quite entertaining. A couple of years ago I got plugged into a vintage F1 test at Thunderhill. Ended up running with an ex-Andretti Lotus 77 (the last of the pre-ground effects cars). It was so memorable to be out there, tucked tight on the Hewland and getting sick from the hydrocarbons as he would punch it and leave me out of the corners. Then I had to run for all I was worth to catch back up. Granted we were probably 10 sec/lap off of what the car was capable of, but I was on my limit in my car. I know it's the closest I'll get to F1, and it didn't cost me anything extra.

ltc

'A fool and his money are soon parted' ... I can see why their marketing department didn't go with this

917962

My biggest problem, aside from money is that I always felt I could give Sato a run. If I begin to question myself and my theory what will I be left with?

Flying Finn

Anyone could give Sato a run and for sure he'd end up with more broken carbon fiber bits on track than any rookie wealthy business man who drives an F1 car for the first time...

This begs a question though, am I the only Rennlister who has beaten an active F1 driver?
(I admit, it was Liuzzi and in a million euros simulator rather than a real car but still, that has to count for something...)

ltc

Do not tempt fate.
Insult the Takuma Sato fan club at your own risk


You have been warned...

Flying Finn

All I want to know if there is any type of car in the World Sato hasn't crashed...?
(below is an example what happens when someone stupid enough lets Sato do few parade laps in a historic Formula 1 car...)

multi21

I guess if Sato's average race distance is half a lap, it wouldn't be that much to rent him the car would it?.

ltc

Clearly another demonstration of Sato boldly going where no one else dares go in a car's handling envelope.
He has found the limit for just about every type of race car...

Driver8

Anyone want to split a lap?

Coochas

$7K for 30 miles?
I hope they throw in a massage,...with the happy ending.