The Motorsport Thread (possible spoilers)

[MotorToad]

Wow. After last weekend's race Lorenzo's got a serious chance again.

Not after *last* weekend.

Nori's on row 3, wow. If he doesn't get it tomorrow, I sure as hell hope he gets it next year. (GO BEN!)

[Amarantha]

Go Nori!

MotoGP is on free-to-air telly at 9pm tonight - yay Malaysia! For once we won't have to d/l and risk spoilers.

[BigBoss]

I just now got the (possible spoilers) part of the thread title.

[MotorToad]

Some good racing today. I was really bummed watching that Ducati sliding out of the corner in the first WSB race.

I was slightly bummed that Toseland didn't win, he really looked on top of his game this weekend.

[Amarantha]

Gee Willikers six points! How many 2nds does this bloke need. That was an awesomely exciting final race, though.

[MotorToad]

Next year it is his. It must be his. I demand it. The universe requires it.

I cannot freaking wait to see how Team Texican does next year in GP. I think Spies is going to finally show how fast CEII really is. I won't be surprised if they're side-by-side on the grid for every race.

[MotorToad]

This is me resurrecting one of my favorite threads.

I started a thread in Science about an old Honda race bike that I thought people would find interesting even if they don't share our love of racing, but it's been met with deafening silence. Since I think you guys will find it interesting and I'm not sure you'd see it in [/i]Science[/i] I'll post it here.

Later I'm going to gather what information I can about the Honda NS500 (oval piston engine) and add to that thread.

[Plasma Man]

So, the new Formula 1 season starts this weekend. What are people's predictions / hopes for this season?

My predictions:

Fernando Alonso and Ferrari to win the championship.
Button having the edge over Hamilton, I think his smoother style will help in the early stages of each race when the car will be fat with fuel. He should make his tyres last better and benefit from this.
Schumacher to perform reasonably well and consistently score points, but not be a serious championship challenger. He'll also pull at least on trick of dubious legality and get away with it.

My hopes:

For there to be at least one race where Alonso, Hamilton, Button and Schumacher are all racing each other. Four world champions racing each other would be excellent.
Massa to be fully recovered and competing for the championship.
Kobayashi to achieve a podium and celebrate by shouting "Yatta!"
More overtaking. I know that the rules have been tweaked again to try to encourage this, but it remains to be seen whether it will work.
A few races where rain starts falling during the race. It always creates an interesting race as the teams work out how best to respond.

[MotorToad]

So, the new Formula 1 season starts this weekend. What are people's predictions / hopes for this season?

My predictions:

Fernando Alonso and Ferrari to win the championship.
Button having the edge over Hamilton, I think his smoother style will help in the early stages of each race when the car will be fat with fuel. He should make his tyres last better and benefit from this.
Schumacher to perform reasonably well and consistently score points, but not be a serious championship challenger. He'll also pull at least on trick of dubious legality and get away with it.

I hope not.
I don't expect that at all.
His teammate looked pretty strong this race. I think it'd be kind of humorous if Schumacher was looking at the back of his teammate's car all season.

My hopes:

For there to be at least one race where Alonso, Hamilton, Button and Schumacher are all racing each other. Four world champions racing each other would be excellent.
Massa to be fully recovered and competing for the championship.
Kobayashi to achieve a podium and celebrate by shouting "Yatta!"
More overtaking. I know that the rules have been tweaked again to try to encourage this, but it remains to be seen whether it will work.
A few races where rain starts falling during the race. It always creates an interesting race as the teams work out how best to respond.

Not unreasonable to expect that.
I hope he consistently beats Alonso (obv I am not a fan).
Unlikely.
Unlikely, but not impossible.
Rain always makes racing better! I hope to see a few, too.

[cypherspace]

Bloody awful race, really. They need to do something to reintroduce effective slipstreaming, or F1 is going to be doomed to be a procession broken only by race starts, relative car speeds, driver error or mechanical problems.

And I was so looking forward to this season.

[Amarantha]

Watch the superbikes instead Round 1 was awesome!

[Plasma Man]

Well, it wasn't a classic grand prix, but at least there was a bit of overtaking towards the mid- and back of the field runners. I think it's too soon to tell how things are going to go yet, I got the impression that even the main teams weren't quite ready and were using the race as a final test. It's good that the Red Bull seems to be as fast as the Ferraris, I don't want a season dominated by just one team.

[MotorToad]

Watch the superbikes instead Round 1 was awesome!

What the bloody forking hell is up with the Xerox bikes? Haga's going to have to get some shit done if he wants a championship sometime in the 21st century.

[Amarantha]

Bah. He always sucks on those tracks (except Valencia). The ones coming up are usually pretty good for him

Also, the Doctor's still got it

[Plasma Man]

Yay! The Chinese Grand Prix was a good one. One of my hopes came to pass as well - we got to see how Schumacher fared up against the new generation (answer: Not very well). It was a hugely entertaining race with an interesting, well-earned result.

[Amarantha]

Bugger.
http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news ... -sodf.html

[wst]

I want to be back in the UK for the Japanese GP, I want to see how my driving on Forza motorsport on Suzuka matches up with the F1

[Amarantha]

*watches wsbk assen round*

Well, fuck.

[el_loco_avs]

What's going on with Nori, man?

[MotorToad]

*watches wsbk assen round*

Well, fuck.

Just finished race 2... WOAH. Those guys were really feeling out the possible lines through that new fast part of the track, very exciting!

This season, and especially Assen, is looking like an advert for BSB.* Two British podiums is crazy.

















*Now that the AMA champion came through and ran out of asses to kick!

[Amarantha]

What's going on with Nori, man?

Very this And ya, BSB madness, although not so much this time as last...

I shall have to get my 2010 joy from The Other Championship (thank FSM for Fiat Yamaha). Speaking of which, how awesome is Moto2! That last race was exciting as all hell; now I've got one more race series to try to fit in amongst study and work. Bunch of familiar names in there too; looks like everyone who couldn't get a ride in MotoGP or WSBK has gravitated there.

[MotorToad]

An easy way for Haga to explain his lack of results in 2010 would be the Xerox Ducati off-season team shake-up. After all, team manager Davide Tardozzi went to BMW, Haga's crewchief, Ernesto Marinelli, rose to the team manager job, Alessandra Balducci, Haga's ex-Troy Bayliss electronics engineer joined the Ducati development team and Haga is now saddled with Luca Ferraccioli as his engineer, the man who worked with Eric Bostrom in Bostrom's infamous "lost summer" on the Austin Ducati where he could not ride his way out of a wet bag.

I hope that quoting a link to a url works, I'll never figure out what I did wrong if it didn't.

If any one missed EBoz's "lost summer," it just about ruined his career. To be honest, I don't see how an engineer went from that season to... well, ever working in racing again, much less moving up to the factory WSB team. I remember seeing Bostrom at Barber riding the Austin Ducati. He's a very "front-end" guy, and Barber is the queen mother of all "front-end" tracks; Boz looked like he was sure the bike was going to kill him every corner, every lap.

[Amarantha]

Holy shit. RIP Tomizawa.

[Amarantha]

How fucking ironic. Dug up this thread to RIP Simoncelli, and the last post was me doing the same for Tomizawa.

Now tempted to just let the thread die

[a_fuzzyduck]

The Italian Me was an AWFUL freak of an accident, bikes are NOT meant to slide like that

At least next season's bikes are meant to be far easier to control through corners

[MotorToad]

I never saw Tomizawa's accident, and have only seen youtubes of Marco, and that shit was just weird. One thing I've heard (but I'm sure it didn't matter in this case) was that the marshals gave Simoncelli a stretcher ride as rough as what they did with Daijiro Kato. After I saw that I thought that'd never happen again. :\

At least I can look forward to next year.

Moto2 this year, though, has been amazing! (No spoilers, I haven't seen the last couple of races yet.)

[Amarantha]

Never mind, I haven't seen 'em either. My friend tells me it's been better than MotoGP, but I've barely had time to even keep up with that lately.

[MotorToad]

So then I'll let you know a couple names to make sure you're looking for them in the future. Bradl's got a ride in the liter class this year, taking RdP's spot, and Marquez has been touted this entire season as the Next Big Thing since one Valentino Somethingorother.

[wst]

Been a while since I've been on the fora, but I digress a tad.
Since whenever-it-was, I've got a job, got money (of a sort), and got friends with a workshop and a racing team/serious driving skills...
And a Jensen Interceptor.
And this -
Clicky
That's an 496ci/8.1 litre, roughly 600hp (probably flywheel) Chysler V8 (basically a stroked standard Jensen Interceptor engine), and a Tremec 'box.
It's going to be road legal when we've finished putting it together. The only snag is cash. The brake system will cost..... in the region of £4k?
I promise to keep you posted on the results of this endeavour, whenever that is.

(Oh, and I've been elected "guy to calculate propshaft specification" just because I've only just learned about torsion in college and frankly I want to put that knowledge to a practical use!)

[Amarantha]

That's awesome, wst

And thanks, MT. Ya, my mate's talking up Marquez also. I really need to find the time to watch that next year.

[MotorToad]

wsx: I've been thinking that the pneumatic tire was a happy accidental invention when someone was trying to design a floor-based engine cradle. =]

I hope to see that Interceptor when it's done! When you guys finish it you should look into a Chevy LS6, about the same power and I'd guess a couple hundred pounds lighter.

[wst]

The problem with an LS6 is more money. The Chevy engine was being used for drag racing until lately, so I suspect it cost a pretty penny... and we have an entire spare engine for parts, if needed :p

The brake system will need a few £k of components, I'm hoping to help inject funds into the project by buying an MR2 from the guy that owns the Interceptor (that name puts hairs on your chest! Say it, "Interceptor".) (depending on how easy it'll be for me to insure a stripped out and caged race-prepped MR2...)

[MotorToad]

Arise, Thread, and welcome summer!

So, uh, anyone see Marc Marquez and Pol Espargaro bash bars? I'm wondering if Pol flipped himself on the brake or if the lever protector failed. I sure felt bad for the guy, though. Looked like a rough trip off a potential podium.

I'm a little surprised by Elias' middling pace ths year after his romping on the series two years ago. Was it his bike that year or that weird setup he requires?

Oh, and even the cages are having fun this year, six different winners in six races.

[MotorToad]

So I refuse to let this thread die.

So BMW decides to drop their WSB effort and I'm trying to figure out how that meeting went. "Hey, we've been dawdling in Superbike for four years, tossing coin like parade candy, and now we've finally won a race. So let's pack our tents up."