The Off-Topic Thread

[irokin]

Oh now that's a bit low. This is by far the most competitive season of F1 in years. 4 different race winners from 4 different teams in the 4 races so far. Sure beats the conga line supertaxis.

[ke70dave]

the F1 on chanel 10 is pathetic.

 

crossing between commentators, advertisements and advertisements, and yeah those advertisements are annoying too.

 

i just download it after the race and watch the whole BBC coverage add free....

 

also there is a streaming website i have discovered, vipbox.tv

 

not the greatest quality, but good to have on when its not on TV (qualifying and practice etc)

 

they do show the main event, but gets a bit sketchy as i suspect alot of people stream it then.

[irokin]

Oh don't worry Dave. I have plenty of ways to avoid watching Ten's dismal attempts at "coverage" ;)

 

Sadly the Sky coverage can be pretty bad (sappy/tacky/derpy/wrong) too. I cherish the races which have full BBC coverage.

 

 

Then again, I heard Ch7 went to ads with 2 laps to go in the supertaxis and missed the end of the race. Maybe it's just Motorsport coverage in general in Australia is pathetic.

[ke70dave]

geez thats a bit rough of ch7.

[irokin]

Here's the story. Allegedly a technical ʞ©$ɟ up but who knows.

[B.L.Z.BUB]

After the brilliant race last week (F1) it really was disappointing.

 

Why do I always have to turn italics off ATM???

[clubby2084]

Oh now that's a bit low. This is by far the most competitive season of F1 in years. 4 different race winners from 4 different teams in the 4 races so far. Sure beats the conga line supertaxis.

 

Ouch!, conga line supertaxis. When did they start racing Toyota Prius and Hybrid Camry's ?. :harhar:

 

Kind of agree though. Use to loooove the V8's but these days, meh. I go when they come to town and I watch Bathurst, the rest I can take it or leave it.

Really looking forward to Nissan joining the party (and maybe Chrysler). Spark some interest in it again (still going for Holden though!).

 

Bit the same with F1. It just became too much of a hassle to watch.

Parity rules have killed motorsport. There's no incentive for teams to come up with new and innovative ideas to beat the other guy.

[Willis]

.

Parity rules have killed motorsport. There's no incentive for teams to come up with new and innovative ideas to beat the other guy.

 

Like Nissan and the GTR lol.

They beat em' good there

[clubby2084]

Like Nissan and the GTR lol.

They beat em' good there

 

Nissan wipped the floor with the GTR, and the response was a dummy spit that led to banning everything except Falcon and Commodore. Pisses me off too, that was the day motorsport in OZ started to get boring.

But what if Holden and Ford showed some courage and made a car that was competitive?.

Would be a hell of a lot more interesting than it is now.

Edited April 23, 2012 by clubby2084

[irokin]

Bit the same with F1. It just became too much of a hassle to watch.

Parity rules have killed motorsport. There's no incentive for teams to come up with new and innovative ideas to beat the other guy.

 

There are a lot of restrictions in F1 but there is still HEAPS of innovation.

 

Restriction -> Innovation -> Restriction -> Innovation. That's pretty much how the F1 cycle goes.

 

Probably the most notable at the moment is the use of the Coanda effect to try and recover some of the downforce lost from the outlawing of blown diffusers (See McLaren, Redbull). Other innovations of note are Saubers use of a slot through the nose of the car to keep the airflow attached behind the step nose. Mercedes double DRS system which stalls out the front wing when DRS (drag reduction system) is activated.

 

I haven't seen it so much this year but last year teams were using a very clever layup of carbon fibre that allowed the wings to flex at high speed (to reduce drag) but maintained enough stiffness in the right load directions to allow them to pass the mandated load testing. Redbull last year were using a clever pivot system that exploited flaws in the testing jig to pass the loading tests on the plank (wooden section that runs along the bottom of the car). That allowed them to run the car closer to the ground with a high rake angle to improve downforce without wearing away the plank below the minimum depth requirement.

 

But you have to get pretty invested in the sport to follow the changes and understand what it means for the cars performance. Scarbs blogs always good for a read and covers a lot of what I've mentioned: http://scarbsf1.wordpress.com/

 

 

WTCC has some pretty good racing: Link

[Willis]

Nissan wipped the floor with the GTR, and the response was a dummy spit that led to banning everything except Falcon and Commodore. Pisses me off too, that was the day motorsport in OZ started to get boring.

But what if Holden and Ford showed some courage and made a car that was competitive?.

Would be a hell of a lot more interesting than it is now.

 

They should have just had competitive cars from the get go. A 32 GTR was always going to beat a VN/VR Commodore, no matter which way you look at it...

To be honest, I don't see why they even raced them (Commodores/Falcons) in the first place. Fair enough, these days they're not Commo's and Falcons anymore, not even the same chassis as the production car but in the end a VR/VN Commodore just wasn't meant to be a race car.

I don't mind watching it every now and then but it doesn't really appeal to me.

[ke70dave]

I thought the idea of group C racing was that they raced cars that were very closely related to cars that you or i (at the time) could buy from the local dealer.

 

holdens, fords, mustangs.

 

appart from the safety gear, and bolt on bits, the car was the same as you could buy. looked the same appart from a spoiler or two etc.

 

these days v8 super cars are exactly that v8 super cars, not holdens or fords at all. which is a bit sad they have gone this way. i mean its cool technology, but its sort of lost its roots a bit. you can't buy anythign that even remotely resembles a v8 supercar. appart from the badge.

[Hiro Protagonist]

To say that

Nissan wipped the floor with the GTR, and the response was a dummy spit that led to banning everything except Falcon and Commodore. Pisses me off too, that was the day motorsport in OZ started to get boring.

But what if Holden and Ford showed some courage and made a car that was competitive?.

Would be a hell of a lot more interesting than it is now.

 

It is hardly fair to say that the ATCC/CAMS "spat the dummy" and banned them - Group A was dying the world over due to the dominance of the GTR and M3, had already been superceded in the BTCC 2 years previously, was replaced by Class 1 Touring Cars in the DTM in the same year as the ATCC and only lasted another year in the JTCC. CAMS actually followed most of the world in implementing Class 2 Super Touring for the ATCC, they just also included the V8s under the old Group 3A rules too in a different class. Of bigger note was that the Super Touring cars got dumped into their own standalone series after only a year to die a slow painful death, despite the continued success of the class in the BTCC (until 2001) and DTM/STW (until 2000). The only place in the world where Group A really survived was in rally up until the adoption of the WRC car.

[Spencer[RL]]

Just relized how good the Ford Serria was back in the day!

[B.L.Z.BUB]

Huh, just? Man that car was/is awesome.