[Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
 | [Main Performance Bulletin Board | BBFAQ |
Prev by Date | Next by Date | Post Followup ]
Member Login / Signup - Members see fewer ads. - Latest Member Gallery Photos
Re: Picture of the Saab post race :) Posted by Justin VanAbrahams [Email]  (#32) [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Justin VanAbrahams) on Thu, 12 Oct 2006 19:04:03
In Reply to: Picture of the Saab post race :), Trev, Thu, 12 Oct 2006 16:52:24 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
Actually, I believe the people that wrote that bit don't know what they're talking about...
We had NO handling issues whatsoever until the car started getting hit. The car went where it was pointed every time - it was great driving! When Sunday rolled around, after the car had been tagged a few times, our first drivers of the day spent some time time spinning out, but I'm not exactly sure how FWD has anything to do with that - if anything, I'd say that's a RWD trait. Truth be told, I suspect the spinouts were related to some combination of force-adjusted suspension (i.e. the car had been hit), cold tires, and a really dirty/dusty track. By the time our fourth driver of the day came around (Damien), that was all in the past. He didn't spin once, and the only "handling issue" he had was when he was run off the track by the Buick wagon (I think - may have been the Benz). I was up next, and didn't have a single off-track excursion until I was forcibly put there by the ^%#$&^ Camaro.
Contributing, we had a lot of varying driver experience... Some of our team had never been on a track before, some had never even driven a Saab before (much less in a competition environment). Finally, we decided early on we were not in it to win. We saw by the third or fourth hour of the first day that the winner was gonna be one of the cars moving slowly around the track, trading drivers every several hours. We wanted to drive quickly, really push the car, and make sure all our drivers had a chance behind the wheel. We've all been talking via email since the race, and the consensus is we wouldn't do it differently next year. It would not be a challenge to get a $500 Saab to run around a .3m track for 16 hours... I've done far worse to far cheaper Saabs on public roads. The challenge here was to hustle the car around as fast as possible and get our drivers and pit crew trained for some possible future competition. This race was a super low cost of entry, and a great training ground!
I suspect that the same race minus the huge cars (an '80s Caprice, an '80s Benz, an '80s Buick Electra wagon, and the aforementioned Camaro) would have resulted in complete success from us. I cannot recall the number of times our drivers - not to mention other drivers - had to take emergency measures to avoid being tagged by those behemoths. I don't remember ANY run-ins from smaller cars, or any situations where our tires/suspension/brakes couldn't get us out of the way of a faster or slower car. The issues came when one of those beasts went bombing into a corner and lost traction or changed lines or made sudden inexplicable moves. That BS is what ripped Team Pirate Ninjas with Lasers FRONT SUSPENSION OFF....
We're all hoping next year a clear emphasis is placed on driving the crap out of $500 cars, and not a pseudo demolition derby. I imagined a race where mechanical limits were pushed, not structural.
posted by 216.57.64...
, Fri, 13 Oct 2006 08:52:45, Fri, 13 Oct 2006 10:54:03, Fri, 13 Oct 2006 10:57:11
, Mon, 16 Oct 2006 08:48:59
, Mon, 16 Oct 2006 08:51:56, Thu, 12 Oct 2006 19:04:03 <-- Viewing This Message, Fri, 13 Oct 2006 09:17:50, Tue, 10 Oct 2006 12:24:20, Wed, 11 Oct 2006 11:01:15
No Site Registration is Required to Post - Site Membership is optional (Member Features List), but helps to keep the site online
for all Saabers. If the site helps you, please consider helping the site by becoming a member.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
