Month: September 2015

Wilmington Data Crunch Part 3: Killer Oversteer

/ edfishjr / Leave a comment

After the big error discussed in Part 2 of this series, I got mad, got fast and made up some time. Then, it happened again!

Recall that this is what the course looks like from the GPS data, with sectors designated by dots. Run 1 is in blue, Run 3, overall slightly faster, is in red.

Fig 1 Overall Course Day 1

Fig. 1 Overall Course Day 1

I want to focus now on the revised seventh segment from the start (green dot), which is the one preceding the cross-hairs, i.e. the last one before the finish segment.

A closeup of segment 7 looks like this. It contains three sweeping corners.

Fig. 2 Segment 7 Close-up

Fig. 2 Segment 7 Close-up

Right off we can see significant differences between the two tracks. There even appears to be a kink in the red path, Run 3. Uh-oh! That’s probably not good.

Continue reading →

Coolness At Cars & Coffee

/ edfishjr / Leave a comment

Lot of cool cars yesterday at Huntsville Cars & Coffee. (First Saturday morning each month, Barnes & Noble on the Parkway)

I promised a friend I’d post the pictures, so here are a few of the highlights.

First up, two brand-new 2016 MX-5s. I hadn’t seen one in person before:

2016 MX-5

2016 MX-5

L1030685

A V8 Lotus Esprit:

Lotus Esprit V8

Lotus Esprit V8

A really nice Opel GT:

Opel GT

Opel GT

And a Viper GTS, complete with turbo-charged(?) engine and drag radials. For when the stock 645 horses isn’t enough!

Viper GTS

Viper GTS

Viper V10

Viper V10

Sewer pipes leading to duel intercoolers

Sewer pipes leading to dual intercoolers?

There was a 914-4 that someone had added a couple of extra air-cooled cylinders to, a modded RX7 twin-turbo that was down to one (big) turbo, a sort of resto-mod Camaro SS, super-clean and chromed-out, with “almost nothing original”, and a few others, including my Corvette FRC, still all stickered-up from Wilmington. I went home and de-numbered, de-stickered it now that the national tour season is over. Tomorrow I’ll be removing cone marks.

Huntsville C&C is becoming interesting!