Motor racing

[betiko]

the OT definitely needs a thread for motor racing!!!

Anyone going to follow the 2015 formula 1 world champioship this season? The Australian grand Prix will start soon. Who are your favorites?

Mercedes seems to be in good position to win the title back to back.
Williams with their mercedes engine are pretty close.
Ferrari seems to have uplifted expectations for this season.
Lotus will definitely do much better switching to mercedes engine
Red bull... Hard to say. I expect them to do worse than last season. Not a top team anymore.
Mclaren... I expect them to be a huge disapointment with their new honda engine back in competition
Toro Rosso... What a joke! A 17yo and a 19yo driving???????? Gtfo
Force India... I think the car will be alright.

[KoolBak]

I am happy to see the Germans and the Italians at it again I watch all the races I can; Really dig the Dakar rally.....

[betiko]

I am happy to see the Germans and the Italians at it again I watch all the races I can; Really dig the Dakar rally.....

Really? Not the kind of race that can be followed live though. A bit like the world rally championship. All about highlights! I prefer the WRC though. Is that even known in the US? Because of ken block maybe?

Here in europe here is what gets the most media attention:

1) formula 1
2) moto GP/ WRC at the same level
3) dakar.. But that s just a 2 weeks race.

Pikes peak was popular las year, because Sebastien Loeb who is a legend in France (9 WRC championships) decided to give it a go for fun. He beat the all time record by over a minute lol.

[waauw]

the OT definitely needs a thread for motor racing!!!

Anyone going to follow the 2015 formula 1 world champioship this season? The Australian grand Prix will start soon. Who are your favorites?

Mercedes seems to be in good position to win the title back to back.
Williams with their mercedes engine are pretty close.
Ferrari seems to have uplifted expectations for this season.
Lotus will definitely do much better switching to mercedes engine
Red bull... Hard to say. I expect them to do worse than last season. Not a top team anymore.
Mclaren... I expect them to be a huge disapointment with their new honda engine back in competition
Toro Rosso... What a joke! A 17yo and a 19yo driving???????? Gtfo
Force India... I think the car will be alright.

Haven't read much about the engines yet. Usually I just find out on the first few grand prix where the commentators just keep on talking about it.
Personally I don't expect that much from ferrari. They seem to have uplifted expectations almost every year and every year they dissapoint.

btw: Max Verstappen? Is that the son of Jos Verstappen?

[notyou2]

I heard Vespa is entering a team this year.

[KoolBak]

LOVE WRC...freaking phenominally exciting....

As to F1, the thing that gets me is the manufaturers and their participation....THANKFULLY, mercedes and ferrari are not yet owned by Volkswagen (what are they up to....Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche? Fook me...). Would love to see VW enter into the mix but what do they say....3 years min to deal with politics / whatever? Gonna be either Audi or Porsche? Come on mega-corps....lets just race!

Sadly, the CART / Indycar feud in the late 90's (into the 2000's) really fooked up the sport's popularity here, with the corporate infighting and lack of racing, NASCAR took the opportunity to flourish.....with it's history in bootlegging and colorful characters, frequent fights and stellar marketing, that has grown hugely.

Again, I don't care if it's me and my son going stupid balls out on our dirtbikes through the forest, kids in carts, drags, whatever....just love racing ;o)

By the way, I watch every kind of vehicular racing on Pike's Peak that I can....fun.....

[betiko]

the OT definitely needs a thread for motor racing!!!

Anyone going to follow the 2015 formula 1 world champioship this season? The Australian grand Prix will start soon. Who are your favorites?

Mercedes seems to be in good position to win the title back to back.
Williams with their mercedes engine are pretty close.
Ferrari seems to have uplifted expectations for this season.
Lotus will definitely do much better switching to mercedes engine
Red bull... Hard to say. I expect them to do worse than last season. Not a top team anymore.
Mclaren... I expect them to be a huge disapointment with their new honda engine back in competition
Toro Rosso... What a joke! A 17yo and a 19yo driving???????? Gtfo
Force India... I think the car will be alright.

Haven't read much about the engines yet. Usually I just find out on the first few grand prix where the commentators just keep on talking about it.
Personally I don't expect that much from ferrari. They seem to have uplifted expectations almost every year and every year they dissapoint.

btw: Max Verstappen? Is that the son of Jos Verstappen?

nope, i follow each pre season, and this year ferrari managed to do lots of laps with very interesting timings. They'll be better than red bull for example, you'll see. and definitely better than mclaren. the 2015 ferrari is really pretty too.




and yes, Max is Jos verstappen's son. The funny thing is that the other guy driving for toro rosso is... Carlos Sainz junior! obviously carlos Sainz's son, who won 2 WRC titles in the 90s.

by the way... it's confirmed by mclaren that alonso is injured and won t participate in the first GP.

[betiko]

LOVE WRC...freaking phenominally exciting....

As to F1, the thing that gets me is the manufaturers and their participation....THANKFULLY, mercedes and ferrari are not yet owned by Volkswagen (what are they up to....Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche? Fook me...). Would love to see VW enter into the mix but what do they say....3 years min to deal with politics / whatever? Gonna be either Audi or Porsche? Come on mega-corps....lets just race!

Sadly, the CART / Indycar feud in the late 90's (into the 2000's) really fooked up the sport's popularity here, with the corporate infighting and lack of racing, NASCAR took the opportunity to flourish.....with it's history in bootlegging and colorful characters, frequent fights and stellar marketing, that has grown hugely.

Again, I don't care if it's me and my son going stupid balls out on our dirtbikes through the forest, kids in carts, drags, whatever....just love racing ;o)

By the way, I watch every kind of vehicular racing on Pike's Peak that I can....fun.....

actually.... porsche owns WV now!
they also have Seat, Skoda...
Audi makes some Le Mans Series mostly, such as Porsche, Lamborghini, Aston Martin... VW is in WRC and became world champion last season with Sebastien Ogier (why are all french drivers called sebastien?)

[KoolBak]

actually.... porsche owns WV now!

Help me with this statement if you would....like to see where you got that!

[betiko]

actually.... porsche owns WV now!

Help me with this statement if you would....like to see where you got that!

Hum just had a look and you are right... Forgot the 2012 latest changes. Basically porsche had a lot of cash in the 2000s and they became majoritarian shareholders of the VW group (VAG). But then they had some financial difficulties with that credit and had to drop down... So finally the VAG group helped financially and became... Majoritarian shareholders of porsche!
Porsche is the most profitable manufacturer in the world, so even if they don t sell that much they still generate much more profits than companies making the most sales in terms of turnover.

The funny thing is that VW was created by ferdinand Porsche....

[KoolBak]

Indeed...now as an aside, here's the VW I shall buy when I win the lottery

Click image to enlarge.

[Electricksabers]

the OT definitely needs a thread for motor racing!!!

Anyone going to follow the 2015 formula 1 world champioship this season? The Australian grand Prix will start soon. Who are your favorites?

Mercedes seems to be in good position to win the title back to back.
Williams with their mercedes engine are pretty close.
Ferrari seems to have uplifted expectations for this season.
Lotus will definitely do much better switching to mercedes engine
Red bull... Hard to say. I expect them to do worse than last season. Not a top team anymore.
Mclaren... I expect them to be a huge disapointment with their new honda engine back in competition
Toro Rosso... What a joke! A 17yo and a 19yo driving???????? Gtfo
Force India... I think the car will be alright.

I agree with most of what you said. I think alot of the Red bull success was Adrian Newey and now he is going to working on "other red bull projects" instead 100% on the F1 team they are going to suffer. Ricciardo is such a talent and I bet he switches to another team in a couple years if they struggle. The next 2-3 years will really show how much talent Vettel has to develop a car now that he drives for the team with bottomless pockets.

Unfortunately the only way I see Merc not repeating is if they have a major meltdown with drama between the drivers. The car is just too good.

I don't know why but I have always rooted for Force India succeed, they just seem like a cool team to root for.

Hopefully Alonso it not out long.

Loved auto racing my whole life but, as an American I didn't discover F1 until the early 2000, before I had DVR I had to wake up at 7 am to watch the Euro races and stay up most of the night to watch the Asia ones. Went to a few of the USGP at Indy, even the one with the tire debacle and 6 cars in the race.

I can't seem to find much WRC on tv here, but when I catch it I really enjoy it.

[betiko]

I m surprised to see that some americans know about F1 here. Really thought it was looked down onto and that you guys only cared about nascar.
I have to say I have trouble understanding nascar... And with the little I know they just look like tubular body cars with a technology from the 80s running around in circles. I know that the driving is actually pretty hard, at least much harder than it seems though.

Regarding red bull: yeah newey is the heart of the team, but they do have a lot of money to put on the table. And there are budget caps (40 million euros I think) so it's not like ferrari has bottomless pockets.
Alonso is one (if not the best) car developper of all the drivers. He just had shit cars to work on with from the start. I think the 2015 ferrari will be much easier to develop for Vettel than what Alonso had to deal with these past few years (although not all the ferraris Alonso had to deal with were total shit, last year it was but there's 2-3 years were the car was decent enough to compete for the title).

The merc is indeed too good, and there will be drama between rosberg and hamilton this season again, no doubt. If hamilton manages to get a substancial advance in the first few races though, they might give hima number 1 status and ask rosberg to step back during the rest of the season given that he is the current world champion. I think that if it's the other way around, they will let hamilton race... and if they don't, well he will just not give a f*ck and play it solo.

Regarding force india... I happened to know briefly the owner vijay malia when I was a kid and lived in india. My father did business with him and he was a friend of my parent's friends. I got to visit his car collection in his huge property. He mostly had very old rolls royce and other models from the 20s. A couple of F3 old race cars, and I remember he had this funny BMW with the door in the front panel, first time I saw it back then:


He probably has lots of big properties all across india with parts of his car collection elsewhere anyways.

[KoolBak]

That's an Isetta! My folks had one when I was a kid....sure wish they still had it; worth big bucks now....

There are TONS of motorheads here dude....all racing is embraced. I won't go off (too much) on nascar, but it is most definately not 80's tech....the cars ARE theoretically based on production cars but the specs are within thousandths of an inch and very strict rulings on everything to try and keep it fair. Unrestricted races have vehicles pushing 1000 HP....probably the best feeling that you would understand would come from Juan Pablo Montoya who did a 7 year stint in nascar after his F1, etc, racing....he has gone back to open wheel racing. He was interviewed by Hammond from Top Gear once and his comments were classic....compared the stock cars to racing on ice where F1 freaking STICK .....F1 is science....nascar is brute force. Here's a nice article

http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/F1-vs-NASCAR-which-is-better-2014-03-28

Do you have drag racing in France Betiko?

[Electricksabers]

I used to watch nascar quite a bit, but the races are several hours and they have like 36 races a year. so the time commitment is much more than f1, so I have basically stopped watching nascar.

I am hoping that Haas F1 is successful and maybe wins some races. It would be nice to have a local team to root for. looks like they are going to use Ferrari's engines.

Isn't that the car that Clarkson drive inside the BBC building a couple season ago on Top Gear?

[KoolBak]

Agreed on the length of the races; I record them and FF thru much of it if I can't get time off from the fam (most of the time)....BUT, the big ones are much more important to me than any other sporting event (superbowl, playoffs, whatever) and I get Daddy-Time for those

They had an isetta on one time when they trapped May against the wall Think the one he drove in the building was even smaller....edit...it was a Peel 350....worlds smallest car....lol....LOVE that show.

[betiko]

That's an Isetta! My folks had one when I was a kid....sure wish they still had it; worth big bucks now....

There are TONS of motorheads here dude....all racing is embraced. I won't go off (too much) on nascar, but it is most definately not 80's tech....the cars ARE theoretically based on production cars but the specs are within thousandths of an inch and very strict rulings on everything to try and keep it fair. Unrestricted races have vehicles pushing 1000 HP....probably the best feeling that you would understand would come from Juan Pablo Montoya who did a 7 year stint in nascar after his F1, etc, racing....he has gone back to open wheel racing. He was interviewed by Hammond from Top Gear once and his comments were classic....compared the stock cars to racing on ice where F1 freaking STICK .....F1 is science....nascar is brute force. Here's a nice article

http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/F1-vs-NASCAR-which-is-better-2014-03-28

Do you have drag racing in France Betiko?

Yes, I'm a huge fan of top gear UK and I saw the episode where hammond drives a nascar. By the way... there's already a top gear US and a top gear australia that are no way as fun as the UK one and these idiots are doing a french one... just stick to the real shit top gear! no need to make all these pale versions of the original.

Regarding the nascars.. they are just to big and heavy for me. I don't really care about HP... and I don't really understand why americans are so obsessed with it. I dig more for light weigheted cars with the best handling possible.

we more or less have drag racing here but it's basically some guys that try to do like in the US for their own pleasure, there is no fans or whatever, and I guess the level isn't very high. Here in europe, anything involving a race around an oval or running on a straight quarter mile doesn't really interest people. we prefer sneaky tracks with difficult curves and go hard on the breaks... i guess that is beaucse of our roads and cities compared to yours... cities in the US are very straigh forward, with huge boulevards everywhere all parallel and perpendicular.

[betiko]

I used to watch nascar quite a bit, but the races are several hours and they have like 36 races a year. so the time commitment is much more than f1, so I have basically stopped watching nascar.

I am hoping that Haas F1 is successful and maybe wins some races. It would be nice to have a local team to root for. looks like they are going to use Ferrari's engines.

Isn't that the car that Clarkson drive inside the BBC building a couple season ago on Top Gear?

I didn't really catch that... they bought back marussia?
no chance for this team mate. If they start from scratch, no way they will ever win a race or make any points. That will be a too long process, finishing last all the time. Just look at the last 3 that tried... HRT has already disapeared, caterham/lotus racing team has disapeared, marussia has more or less disapeared.... The standards are way too high. By the way, when those 3 new teams entered in 2009 or something like that, there was supposed to be USF1 team. They were all very enthousiastic and shit, but didn't even manage to finish building their car so they gave up when the season was starting.

I'd like to see a very good american driver though. It's kind of crazy that I've never seen one. I remember scott speed not too long ago, he totally sucked (he had a cool last name though lol). Or mario andretti in the early 90s... he sucked too.

[KoolBak]

Well at least we can agree on Top Gear

I likee horsepower....my streetbike has 150 at the tire and my old truck is pushing 550

[Electricksabers]

I used to watch nascar quite a bit, but the races are several hours and they have like 36 races a year. so the time commitment is much more than f1, so I have basically stopped watching nascar.

I am hoping that Haas F1 is successful and maybe wins some races. It would be nice to have a local team to root for. looks like they are going to use Ferrari's engines.

Isn't that the car that Clarkson drive inside the BBC building a couple season ago on Top Gear?

I didn't really catch that... they bought back marussia?
no chance for this team mate. If they start from scratch, no way they will ever win a race or make any points. That will be a too long process, finishing last all the time. Just look at the last 3 that tried... HRT has already disapeared, caterham/lotus racing team has disapeared, marussia has more or less disapeared.... The standards are way too high. By the way, when those 3 new teams entered in 2009 or something like that, there was supposed to be USF1 team. They were all very enthousiastic and shit, but didn't even manage to finish building their car so they gave up when the season was starting.

I'd like to see a very good american driver though. It's kind of crazy that I've never seen one. I remember scott speed not too long ago, he totally sucked (he had a cool last name though lol). Or mario andretti in the early 90s... he sucked too.

if I read right they bought marussia's facility and plan to use it during the season. I don't think it included much beyond that. Its probably a pipedream, but i'm hoping

[betiko]

if I read right they bought marussia's facility and plan to use it during the season. I don't think it included much beyond that. Its probably a pipedream, but i'm hoping

but what I don't get is that marussia IS racing this season! it's renamed Manor racing and will be using 2014 ferrari engines.... wtf

Well at least we can agree on Top Gear

I likee horsepower....my streetbike has 150 at the tire and my old truck is pushing 550

can you really use those though? I think it's all about ballance. sure torque and horsepower are a big kick in the nut, but... if the car/bike is pretty undriveable at high speed I don't get the point.

I know that americans learned their lesson and now the new C6 (or was it C7?) vette was developped on the nurburgring and I heard very nice things about it. It's not just some undriveable junk with unlimited horsepower.

[KoolBak]

Straight line baby....hell yes you can use it. 0 - 60 in under 4 seconds on my bike...10 seconds in my 3 ton, crew cab dually. And on long trips when I have 2,500 pounds of crap in the back of my truck and pulling a boat / trailer, I wanna be able to pass people up long steep mountain grades.....also doing smoky 4 tire rear burnouts and setting off car alarms is cool.....lol. I refuse to grow up. Stoopid Uhmerukin

[betiko]

I know i m going to be no fun at all here but.... Burnouts seriously? That dammages the mechanics and makes you good to go buy a new set of tires.... And some tires are hell of expensive if the size is rare! Call me cheapstake, but in my opinion it s a waste of money. Use these tires on a track, that s racing, not degrading them stopped in a parking lot. At least do donuts!

And speeding on the highway with a trailer and a boat on it? Wouldn t like to see that comming in my rear mirror!

[KoolBak]

Dude.....when the tires are almost gone, one can play. New tires at $1400 for 4? No. Damage the powertrain? Don't think so...I built it...it's bullet proof ;o) And I never said speeding....my beast will barely do 70 mph....but I can do 65 up a massive 4 mile hill while most others are at 45.....ok?

[betiko]

Dude.....when the tires are almost gone, one can play. New tires at $1400 for 4? No. Damage the powertrain? Don't think so...I built it...it's bullet proof ;o) And I never said speeding....my beast will barely do 70 mph....but I can do 65 up a massive 4 mile hill while most others are at 45.....ok?

Well fair enough if it s a set of tires ready to get changed!
I just love all these car build programs, and they have a serious tendency to do burn outs with all they can find. You re like dude!!! You might just spoil all your work there!!!
I don t know, a burn out seems to put some excessive forces on the clutch and the engine, a kind of force that uses motor parts unnecesairly. Not something too bad, but if you do it often, it s not rocket science... You are reducing the lasting of your engine/clutch.