Is that your tow vehicle for the SealSlayer 2000?
Meanwhile, back at Daytona, we get to go out and play on the new surface while the cars go to the grid....
Why yes my tow vehickle for da Seal Slayer 2000 is exactly like this except it has the corvette mako shark paint job....Sonethingy a bit more subtle fer around town...if ya know what i mean
Well, from what I’ve seen that day…anything with a engine was fair game…8-D
That particular “race” was held held a place called “Cork Marts”…this is where farmers trade cattle and machinery…so a tractor was not out of place here…
If that was a figure-8 race the tractor would be an imposing opponent.
Green flag dropped at Daytona 3:30 pm Saturday. As in most endurance racing, there are prototypes and production-based cars (running in different classes) racing side-by-side. My son and I were pulling for the Target/Telmex #01 and #02 BMW powered prototypes, and obviously the Turner M3 which was one of two BMWs in the GT class. GT field is largely made up of Porsche GT3 Cup cars (factory turnkey racecars), running in same trim they race all over the world.
Very Nice!
Dusk comes, and we had a chance to go to the backstretch of the oval. This was the first Rolex 24 that this area has been accessible in years. Sort of decent view of the chicane, which I've wanted to see since this feature became part of the track some years ago. (wouldn't it be fun if the NASCAR guys had to use it?)
Juan Pablo Montoya had just started his stint in the #02 (in 13th place) when we went back there. In 2 1/2 hours, he charged to P1 while my son and I watched him hurtle into the chicane every lap, car all jittery and nervous under heavy braking; then nearly sideways through the first left/right combo. He'd collect it up and romp through the right/left exit somehow. On the verge of disaster every time.
Hey, drifting is cool. As some of us older guys said earlier on this thread, we used to do it all the time (but it wasn't called drifting then). Too bad your car got flooded...
We went to sleep in the truck with an alarm set for 5 am. Watching the night become day at these endurance events is always a fun time. All of our cars were running at or near the front at 11 pm.. Unfortunately, the Turner M3 fried his gearbox while we slept, losing nearly 100 laps for replacement. And when we awoke there was fog so thick you couldn't see from one side of the track to the other, just over two hours had to be run behind safety car (lotsa laps on the 1 series M coupe!).
When the sun burned off the haze, we went to garage area for some breakfast. Only 8 more hours of racing left....
I hope you have better luck with the insurance company than that board's having with twist!
Out in the front parking lot of the speedway, there was a charity event that would allow you, for a $15 donation, to get a few laps around a small (~1/4 mile) road course they had coned off; in a Porsche with a pro driver. I was fortunate to escape with enough cash for the rest of the day. $15 more $? Suuuuurrrrrre! My son was stoked!
Also saw this pristine E26 M3 in the carpark, and I should include (from the historic exhibit) the outlandish 1976 John Greenwood Corvette from the IMSA Camel GT days. I watched these beasts thunder around Daytona and Sebring back in the day.
Those first-gen M3s were so balanced, so direct, that it was a revelation at the time. It truly was the first time a manufactuer delivered race-car handling in anything resembling that kind of package.
Meanwhile, the light got good and I figured out how to follow-focus a little...
Back to end of race.... Montoya blazed to the front again diring his last stint, before handing off to Scott Dixon for last 2 hours. Pics are of him getting interviewed right after getting out of the #02 car (while the estranged member of ZZTop takes a pic of the back of his head). Sometime during the night they had to replace the front bodywork and had to use an unpainted piece, hence the white nose in the previous set of pics..
The #01 car had to overcome a drive-through penalty, but he was back to the lead pack by the time final pit stops came around. The team split strategies on the last stop, which made sure one of the cars would be in position to win regardless of caution flags, etc. The 01 got the better choice for how things played out, and rolled to victory lane.
1-2 sweep for BMW Power, engines built by Steve Dinan. Special Rolex watches for all the drivers. Big fun!
12 hours of Sebring is only a little over a month away, can't wait for that one. Audi will be back, this time with the last iteration of the R15, called the R15++. The R18 will debut at Le Mans in June. Factory BMW M3 team returning to Sebring, to begin defense of last years manufacturer's title in GT class!
Bit of a different world, but a lot of the concepts apply to surfing.
Some projects in my Dad’s hangar
A Piper Saratoga getting a blueprinted twin-turbo Lycoming with a full carbon custom-made cowling. Honeycomb core with pre-preg carbon cured in an autoclave. Heat shielding applied to the interior of the cowl in-mold to keep the heat from the turbos from cooking the cowling. You can see the white plugs for the oil cooler and the NACA ducts on the side of the intake cowl for the turbo inlet air. Everything is nicely radiused and super smooth to prevent air stalling and creating disturbances in the airflow. Lots of little details to incorporate everything as cleanly as possible.
And the airplane equivalent of stripping a board, reshaping it and reglassing it. A wrecked Piper Cherokee being rebuilt from the spar up.
The carbon half-tube is the air intake tube for the Saratoga with a bypass door in case the intake gets blocked for some reason (bird, balloon, etc.), it’ll open up and keep the engine running with unfiltered air.
Aircraft have a lot in common with surfboards, I wonder how many on here know that Rutan's Vari-Ez (sp?) was made with foam kits supplied by Clark Foam? Those little canard-wing wonders put Rutan on the map, and made all-composite kit airplanes legit.
Carbon autoclaved parts have a tolerance for high heat that lends them to engine cowlings. But if the resin content is low enough, they'll conduct electricity also. As some F1 mechanics inadvertantly discovered a couple of years ago. The high-voltage KERS system arced a gap and shocked the crap out of them when they touched the bodywork.
When the Surfs flat in Florida we have fun with the (name this car)? Running at Nostalgia gasser events up and down the East coast…Blown/Injected/Aluminum Donovan 540 cu in. Alcohol breathin beast…
1949 Ford?
The 59th running of the 12 Hours of Sebring was March 19. I got there the preceding evening, and the first thing I saw while walking to the paddock was a 1975 3.5 CSL ripping around, thought I was in a time warp.... Just a few laps for some vintage racers, lol.
Then I got to check some of the teams prepping cars for the event, anticipation starts to build. Factory Peugot and Audi teams expected to dominate top prototype class; GT field is loaded with strong teams from BMW, Ferrari (brand new 458 Italia and a couple of F430s), Corvette, Porsche, and Jaguar.
Oops, I forgot the pics are going to post in reverse order (I still don't know why that happens). The old CSL is the last pic.
Is that a Henry J ? I saw an untouched one years ago and reminds me of it.
I missed the part about ''name this car''. When I was 12 I probably could have, A/GS was my my favorite class of drag racers. That and the ''wheelie'' cars, like Little Red Wagon and the Hemi-Under-Glass. Or anything with moon eye decals; hell, I was 12...
Jeff may well be right (Henry J), the recipe for the gassers was the smallest, lightest early 40s coupe you could find - stuffed with giant motor and piloted by brave individuals who cared little for their own safety.
I'll get back to Sebring later.
