There was nothing to gain either though, Button was a second ahead of him and still had to be passed, Hamilton was barely any faster and had no hope of getting past Button, short of Button having a good off, in which case Hamilton would still have had time to pass him. He was running on the podium, not perfect but at least he was somewhere and stopping Kimi being up there. I can't imagine Prost, Senna or Schumacher pushing so hard on the last lap with so little to gain and taking such a big risk running over the run off zones.
With a fresh install and running windowed I get this error message, clicking 'OK' just CTDs.
I can't get version 1 to work on either my normal install (that had the beta on it) or my 'clean' install used for Historic GT. It just seems to give an error message as soon as I try and load it (though I can't read it) any ideas?
Wrong.
I picked up the Lada for £350 (8 months tax, 6 months MOT) and insured it for £450 (TPFT with Tesco). Hasn't missed a beat and the only real work I've done to it is changing the clutch (£60 for a genuine kit), front brake pads (came with a new set), and put a set of safe premium tyres on it for rallying (£180 Continentals).
Unfortunately touring car racing has gradually degraded itself into a semi-contact nudge and spin formula to appeal to the general public, the racing was initially exciting and marred by the odd bit of bad driving and gradually became worse, any true competition between works teams, the respected drivers and true enthusiasts left and it all went downhill.
Supertourers are more exciting and just as spectacular to watch when they race cleanly, which I've only seen happen in club racing where drivers know they can't afford to treat them like banger racers.
Contact is not a side effect of a clean pass. If contact is made it means without exceptional circumstances then it normally means at least one driver misjudged the situation. If you are racing in a non-contact environment then non-contact must mean exactly that, drivers should be going to lengths to avoid contact not just letting it happen because they know they can get away with it. The minute you allow contact to creep in you start having issues with what drivers expect each other to do and can no longer race with the knowledge that those around them will play fairly.
There is also the issue of safety, touring cars and racing circuits may be relatively safe but the speeds involved are still high, they're often racing wheel to wheel at (and making contact at) speeds of over 100mph. Race tracks are not designed with run off for cars being launched off the track at silly places resulting from contact. A big accident has been on the cards for a while now in touring car racing, a high speed T bone into a driver side door is just a ticking time bomb and as soon as it happens, as a result of deliberate contact there will be all manner of shake ups and lawsuits.
There's no such thing as a small nudge on your rear quarter at 130mph...
The racing would be far better if there wasn't contact in the first place, with such rules in place Nash would be far less likely to 'accidentally' nudge Collard wide knowing that he'd be forfeiting his right to pass. If you can't trust other racers then you can't race close in the first place.
Nash was clearly at fault, he jinxed left into Collard, whether Collards move was acceptable or not is a different matter, it did not cause this accident. Given that Nash had already made contact with Collard in the Esses he really should have held back a bit and not taken him out whether deliberate or not. I think a disqualification is reasonable for this although penalties aren't handed out fairly or regularly enough. I think there should be clear rules for high contact series like the BTCC that if contact is made with another car a pass cannot be made until the next corner, the first bit of contact was completely Nashes fault and probably meant Collard was coming out the corner slower and off line.
Will be there for the weekend working/drinking with our Britcars. How many cars we bring will be dependant on how many survive a 40 car/90 minute race round Castle Coombe on Sunday
Going down the gears engine braking would be smoother and quicker than just declutching.
First give it a good service, an air filter, oil change, radiator flush and timing belt change are absolutely essential if you're going to push a car hard, should be able to get the lot done for around £80 including necessary timing tools, if you don't then you're not going to get very far. Changing the water pump and accessory belt is also sensible if you're not on a shoestring budget.
Then concentrate on safety bits, rollcage, harnesses and bucket seats can all be picked up cheap second hand if you're happy to take the risk with them. The roll cage must be at least CDS seamless steel for basic safety, do not go near seamed or stainless cages. How far you go with the cage is up to you for track days but if you want to develop the car connecting the cage to both struts is essential for strength, a good strut brace will also make a difference.
Leave the suspension completely standard to begin with, if bits need replacing then replace them with standard parts, with the possible exception of poly bushes if you can afford them. At a later stage fitting adjustable dampers may be worthwhile, but only if the car is stiff enough in the first place.
Leave the wheels standard size, or if anything reduce their size to reduce your gearing. Wide wheels are, just like semi-slick tyres, completely pointless on a track day car, the slower the thing is at the limit the better with you as a complete novice.
The engine, brakes and fuel system should be fine left standard, far too many people spend all their money taking the approach Nathan is suggesting and end up with a bag of shit to drive.
Yes they allow you to travel a little bit faster in a non-competitive environment whilst wearing out a lot quicker and costing a lot more in the first place.
For the £7000 you suggest he spends on a £400 road car with no roll cage or shell preparation you could easily go and buy a single seater with spares and a trailer to tow it with. Or frankly you could go and by any well sorted racing hot hatch/saloon and blow and badly built over weight road car away on both pace and performance.
Touching the engine should be the last thing on the list. Anything other than a cheap set of dampers and anti-roll bars is going to be lost on a car without a rollcage and the idea of spending £2000 on a set of wheels and road tyres is ridiculous. For £7000 you could buy and prepare a decent Silvia, buying the cheapest car you can find is a false economy, putting a full cage and doing neccessary shell work is the starting point if you're going to build a good car.
...and you prove how clueless you are, the kerb weight for a mk. 1 MX5 is 940kg, you'll struggle to get a fully stripped Silvia to get anywhere close to the MX5 with every bit of trim and equipment it left the factory with.
As I said before replacing the fuel tank is pointless, you will need to spend a lot more on an external fuel pump and piping/connectors than you've budgeted, as I posted in your other thread. You've still got to mount that tank and really need a firewall with that much fuel plus it'll raise your centre of gravity significantly.
The seat needs mounts, they're about £45 to buy if you can't fabricate them yourself and you need two seats as you're required to have an instructor in the car.
You need an adapter for the wheel, about another £25. A quick rack and smaller steering wheel are probably not a good investment for beginning track days, you aren't going to be throwing the car around much on circuits and making the car is as stable as possible is a good idea for you.
Lowering the car by that much will make it far worse to drive, leave it standard to begin with and possibly change anti-roll bars and fit better dampers at a later stage once you've learnt to drive.
Alloy wheels are a waste of time on a track day car, and those ones look stupid with 8 stud holes, there also probably not going to be any lighter than steel wheels.
The tyres you've linked to are not semi-slicks, they are just everyday good road tyres, pretty well suited for your purpose, semi-slicks are a waste of money for non-competitive events.
Add the cost of a fuel pump, external fuel pumps are not cheap for injected cars unless you're prepared to make an old pump fit. Braided hose is very expensive, if you're interested in safety then it's best to run with the standard tank and fuel lines unless you're prepared to spend the money to do it properly. High pressure lines on a budget through the cockpit may be acceptable but it doesn't help safety at all. If you want to run MSA events and generally be safe then you need to have a firewall, properly fitted and sealed around the rollcage, it is a good days labour to fit a firewall well.
Approximate costs for fitting a fuel system:
Fuel cell - £300-400 (guessing you're talking a proper fuel cell not some homemade steel box)
Fuel pump - £100
In line filter - £15
Hoses/piping - £50
Hose fittings/connectors - £50
Wiring/switches/fuses and holders - £10
Aluminium for firewall - £40
Labour to get the job done by a professional would probably put the cost into four figures, and all for no real advantage. The standard tank will be better for performance anyway with the weight all very well packed under the car. In our race cars (on six figure budgets) we use the standard plastic tanks in conjunction with a fuel cell (for extra capacity), there's nothing wrong with them and in an accident I'd rather not have all the fuel in the car with me, given that the best fitting firewall is useless when the car changes shape.
It would be far wiser to ensure that the standard fuel tank is well connected, make new straps if you have any doubt of their condition, the mass of the fuel creates enormous force in an accident, a full large capcity endurance tank that is well mounted will deform the car if it is stopped fast enough. Check all the lines and if you've got time and money to burn renewing hoses is sensible.
Approximate costs for fitting a fuel system:
Fuel cell - £300-400 (guessing you're talking a proper fuel cell not some homemade steel box)
Fuel pump - £100
In line filter - £15
Hoses/piping - £50
Hose fittings/connectors - £50
Wiring/switches/fuses and holders - £10
Aluminium for firewall - £40
Labour to get the job done by a professional would probably put the cost into four figures, and all for no real advantage. The standard tank will be better for performance anyway with the weight all very well packed under the car. In our race cars (on six figure budgets) we use the standard plastic tanks in conjunction with a fuel cell (for extra capacity), there's nothing wrong with them and in an accident I'd rather not have all the fuel in the car with me, given that the best fitting firewall is useless when the car changes shape.
It would be far wiser to ensure that the standard fuel tank is well connected, make new straps if you have any doubt of their condition, the mass of the fuel creates enormous force in an accident, a full large capcity endurance tank that is well mounted will deform the car if it is stopped fast enough. Check all the lines and if you've got time and money to burn renewing hoses is sensible.
Most I've been on allow slicks but only on cars with a rollcage. Having said that the work track day car runs on thrown out slicks without a rollcage. Unless you happen to have a free/very cheap way of getting old slicks I see no point in running them on a track day car.
Why do you want a fuel cell?
Renault were caught in a far worse situation with the data actually at the factory. There's every possibility that the Ferrari data never got past Stepney/Coughlan and the idea that teams could gain anything from just copying random parts of cars is just silly.
Why should there be a sudden investigation? One accident happened due to the far too routine occurrence of debris flying off a car from an avoidable accident that by chance happened to hit the driver this time. The solution to this is simple, get the drivers to crash less. The second accident was caused by the third spring somehow managing to work loose, there's no reason to believe one is likely to do the same again and the risk presented is nominal compared to debris from accidents. What do you propose tethers for every component? And tethers for the tethers as well?
Had it been possible anybody who knew the wheel nut was not on the car correctly would obviously have stopped the car.
I don't understand what Renault have done wrong here, they didn't deliberately not bother doing up the wheel nut to save time in the pitstop and Alonso slowed to a sensible pace so that when the wheel did come off it didn't fly miles and he kept control of the car. Trying to get back to the pits is just common sense.
The three recent high profile incidents involving single seaters and debris are not as related as people will try to make out, Massa had a truely freak accident, probably the only non-pitstop component to fail and fly out of the back of an F1 car for years and by complete chance it happened to hit him.
Alonso's wheel flying off was a result of a poor pitstop, quite a few wheels fly off cars due to not being fitted correctly during pitstops, normally flying off at much lower speeds and causing less harm than wheels/debris flying about for other reasons.
Poor Henry Surtees was not killed by a freak accident, it was an accident waiting to happen. Everytime cars have a big shunt debris poses a potential risk (and there are far more wheels flying off cars from driver error than pitcrew error), the chance of debris ending up at head height above the track is pretty low, the chance of it hitting a driver is tiny. Cars are crashing more and more now with drivers thinking they're safe, when John Surtees was racing the chance of getting hit by a stray wheel would have been much lower because people simply crashed less, had the guy who went off been racing on a tree lined circuit he wouldn't have been over confident and had an unforced accident in the first place from pushing too hard. The increase in debris and accidents resulting from other cars having avoidable accidents is getting worrying, my mate who races in F4 has had two crashes involving stray wheels coming across the track, one which ripped a corner off his car at Brands Hatch and one which glanced his head at Snetterton (literally leaving tyre marks on his helmet!), both caused by silly car to car contact and neither freak accidents by any stretch of the imagination.
The three recent high profile incidents involving single seaters and debris are not as related as people will try to make out, Massa had a truely freak accident, probably the only non-pitstop component to fail and fly out of the back of an F1 car for years and by complete chance it happened to hit him.
Alonso's wheel flying off was a result of a poor pitstop, quite a few wheels fly off cars due to not being fitted correctly during pitstops, normally flying off at much lower speeds and causing less harm than wheels/debris flying about for other reasons.
Poor Henry Surtees was not killed by a freak accident, it was an accident waiting to happen. Everytime cars have a big shunt debris poses a potential risk (and there are far more wheels flying off cars from driver error than pitcrew error), the chance of debris ending up at head height above the track is pretty low, the chance of it hitting a driver is tiny. Cars are crashing more and more now with drivers thinking they're safe, when John Surtees was racing the chance of getting hit by a stray wheel would have been much lower because people simply crashed less, had the guy who went off been racing on a tree lined circuit he wouldn't have been over confident and had an unforced accident in the first place from pushing too hard. The increase in debris and accidents resulting from other cars having avoidable accidents is getting worrying, my mate who races in F4 has had two crashes involving stray wheels coming across the track, one which ripped a corner off his car at Brands Hatch and one which glanced his head at Snetterton (literally leaving tyre marks on his helmet!), both caused by silly car to car contact and neither freak accidents by any stretch of the imagination.
What you're describing sounds like a parade around a race track, often done at race meetings in the UK during the lunch break normally at a very nominal expense (certainly not $100!) or often free when they try and get a themed bunch of cars lapping the circuit.
Track days in the UK all allow you to drive as fast as you want and allow passing on designated sections of track.
Track days in the UK all allow you to drive as fast as you want and allow passing on designated sections of track.
Building a completely faithful recreation of a 250 GTO would set you back maybe £500,000 using as many original parts as possible and producing everything else, only a fraction of the value of a real one. Whilst the bills may be high they're actually going to be much smaller relative to the value of the car than any of the cars people on the forum drive or race.
Jamie if you actually look at the car before berating it because you can't cope with the fact you'll never be able to afford one you can quite clearly tell this is a somewhat scruffy clearly actively used example of an absolutely gorgeous car. It's not been over restored and been attacked with chrome like so many American classics. There's nothing wrong with cars that aren't driven either there were some real stunners in the Goodwood concourse, and half the cars were never meant to be driven in the first place, none of them a waste (except for the rebodied E type!).
).RBR is a rally sim, there is no wheel to wheel racing.
iRacing is probably the best experience you'll get, if you're prepared to pay the huge price tag (remember you'll need to buy countless extra content on top of the subscription in order to get to qualify to drive the interesting cars). iRacing also has no real sense of community whatsoever it's all very regimented and you have to put up with the voice chat which is almost entirely populated by whining 12 year old Americans.
nK Pro is also very good but has poor netcode and seems to be dead.
rFactor can be good but only good with a few accurate mods racing in an organised league, the pick up racing in rF is full of mismatches and appalling driving.
iRacing is probably the best experience you'll get, if you're prepared to pay the huge price tag (remember you'll need to buy countless extra content on top of the subscription in order to get to qualify to drive the interesting cars). iRacing also has no real sense of community whatsoever it's all very regimented and you have to put up with the voice chat which is almost entirely populated by whining 12 year old Americans.
nK Pro is also very good but has poor netcode and seems to be dead.
rFactor can be good but only good with a few accurate mods racing in an organised league, the pick up racing in rF is full of mismatches and appalling driving.
There are three main approaches to building a chassis available to anybody with a bit of common sense. Firstly there's the old fashioned approach of using common sense and doing what seems right, a hard skill to master but in reality all good chassises still have a lot of this going on. You could take the first approach then do some FEA on it (or get someone else to do it) and tune it a bit from there. Or the most common approach is just to make a wild guess and then wonder why your super lightweight special with geometry as refined as an AC Cobra's spits you off the track.
The majority of small scale specialist car design is largely based upon guess work and experimentation, nothing wrong with this but look how many duff cars Colin Chapman produced for every great one. Very few cars are just designed on a computer and work out of the box, it is changing though, for example the JCB Dieselmax had no wind tunnel testing and was largely produced by CNC, very impressive but unreachable at the moment for the hobbyist.
The majority of small scale specialist car design is largely based upon guess work and experimentation, nothing wrong with this but look how many duff cars Colin Chapman produced for every great one. Very few cars are just designed on a computer and work out of the box, it is changing though, for example the JCB Dieselmax had no wind tunnel testing and was largely produced by CNC, very impressive but unreachable at the moment for the hobbyist.
My dad's 1.6 Focus was great fun round Donington and Silverstone, though being somewhat underpowered down the straights does mean it is very difficult to pass some people who you're clearly lapping faster than who just can't bare to let you through. We managed to get a Caterham and an Audi RS6 to spin at Silverstone when they saw the Focus in the mirror and couldn't take being slower than it.
Generally track insurance is a waste of time if you own a car outright and are going to use it reguarly. For one off uses it could be worth it, and for rented/shared cars it is the only sensible approach.
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