pics from Nationals

[Guest]

http://www.spec-rx7.org/~cashmo/cendiv/2001/01nats.html

Gee, the setups on some of those A-mod cars looks awwwfully familiar.

[Neon Racer]

What class are those go-karts in? Is there any reason why we don't have something similar up here?

[Jeff Loh]

SCCA has an F-125 (shifter kart) class at Nats. This year there were 25 entrants. The reason it isn't available in all regions is simply due to lack of interest at the local level.

History lesson- few years ago SCCA decided it would be a nifty class to try, so they instituted F125 (125cc shifter, 300lbs min wt). Some regions adopted it, but karters found it cheaper to race or lap at real tracks than spend 3 minutes each Sunday dodging cones. That isn't to say it was a bad idea, some regions such as Colorado, NWR, SoCal etc do have regular competitors. CO in particular also has a Jr-karter program where people's kids can start solo-ing in Briggs and 100cc's before they can drive. (A good thing to get the whole family involved IMHO)

125's are really a blast to drive, A-mod performance for as little as ~$4500US



[This message has been edited by Jeff Loh (edited 09-20-2001).]

[dnf]

holy.. they're lifting not only inside rears but also inside fronts..

[Neon Racer]

That Dodge Colt in the bottom picture looks sweet

I was thinking that same thing when I saw those photos. If we assume that the surface is roughly as grippy as Boundary Bay, it seems that these guys must be really getting some good cornering grip from the tires. Normally, you only see FWD cars like Golfs, Neons, etc do this sort of stuff.

But I don't think I've seen better balanced cars like BMW 3 Series, and MR2's lifting front tires. Come to think of it, the only time I've seen front tire lift is from the Silver Datsun Z car with the Rover engine and the slicks.

Definitely looks like some awesome driving...

[Vancouver Special]

BB's concrete is as grippy as Topeka's. With a stiff enough front sway bar, sticky tires and enough power (at corner exit), quite a few RWD cars can lift the inside front. Besides Peter's 240Z, Pat Ma's former Porsche C4 used to pull its inside front also. The most spectacular one was when John Haftner pulled BOTH front wheels off the ground with his dune buggy at the start line at a Canadian National Championship back in the early '80s.

Joe

[Mike-L]

You've gotta realize that the turns where those pictures were taken were somewhat off-camber.

There were two turns like the one the BMW is entering, both with flat-out downhill entry. After brief braking to get some front-end bite, it seemed like I was accelerating flat out through them, but then I don't have much power. They were relatively large radius, 180-deg turns with lots of grip.

It's a shame only a few people got to drive Karen's North course. It looked like it would be a blast. The South course wasn't all that challenging, as indicated by the very small differences in times. All 14 trophy positions in CS covered by 0.9 sec.

[Prostrho]

The red car is a Toyota Corolla FX..

seems like fun though! hehe