Tag: racing

Hello everyone,

I enjoyed watching quite a bit of the Nurburgring 24 hours race this weekend …

This was actually from the race held in September 2020. It’s normally held a couple of weeks before the Le Mans 24 hour race which aims for the longest days of the year with a little bit of separation to allow drivers and cars to compete in both if able to. The weather this year was far better … previous years have seen the race suspended overnight due to fog or just too dangerous conditions but they got a full uninterrupted 24 hours of running in this year.

It’s a classic race, I enjoyed watching it a lot this time around. And there’s something I find way too fascinating about having the timing screen up instead of the actual cars and watching the sector time numbers steadily collect there. Especially if a faster car has had a problem, got repaired and is catching up through the field again. Or a slower car is steadily gobbling up fast cars that have retired from the race several hours before.

Stats ! It’s run on the Nurburgring Nordschlieffe course which is in the various racing games. I tried it when I played Forza Motorsport way back. Here’s a wiki link. The 24 hour race is held on a layout that includes the 3.2 mile (5.1km) Grand Prix circuit for a total of 15.77 miles or 25.378km. It’ll take the fast GT3 cars 8 minutes 15 seconds to cover that on a fastest lap, or the Dacia Logan taking 11 minutes 46 seconds on their fastest lap.

I like it more when I can adopt? a car to follow for the race and see how its doing throughout the race. Sure, the racing at the top is pretty close and spectacular, like when the Van Thoor Manthey Porsche slightly tapped another car on a fast part of the circuit and pirouetted itself a heap of times before hammering into the barriers. It bounced off a car driven by the other Van Thoor brother too so the commentators were speculating for a while about christmas card lists in the Van Thoor family :-D. But I think I connect more with the little guys, the underdogs, the ones that people write off as having no chance but they’ll keep on punching on reminding you that they’re there waiting to slip ahead when you make a mistake.

And the little Dacia Logan outdid super fast cars like this :

This was one of the oddest things I’ve seen in racing for quite a few years. Before I go on – driver escaped fine and the only things hurt were the grass, several bits of barrier and the car itself. What happened ? The cameras caught the KTM car on fire with the driver looking for a good spot to abandon it. The flames were pretty much out as the car was stopped and the driver jumped out. However … this is where the weird comes in.

Apparently the car wanted to continue racing and set off again, sans driver, down the steep hill. The flames then reignited … Several more cars came through and avoided the fireball before it took an early left and embedded itself in a roadside barrier. The marshals quickly got the fire under control again and the incident was pretty much done again.

Most races would see this being handled under a full course yellow or safety car but this isn’t really practical or sensible for a nearly 16 mile race track. So what they do instead is to have the area with marshals under a Code 60 protocol with a strict 60km/h speed limit. They’ll have a Slow Zone before with a strict 120km/h limit and waved yellow flags before to make it safe for the track marshals to work and return the track to a safe state for racing. I.e. a small portion of the track under a local speed control with the rest of the track under green flag unrestricted racing.

Yep. Enjoyed the race again this year and it was good to see excellent conditions throughout with occasional rain to add even more interesting times for the teams during the second half.

Post Part 2 time !

One thing about the race is the variation in cars taking place. The fastest cars are GT3 standard, so road going race cars like the Porsche cars, the fast Mercs, Ferraris, Lamborghinis and even the hideous BMW M4. Hopefully the Lexus cars will be back as well, they’ve brought the RC F variant of the IS cars I had before. That’s like … a 2 door coupe version of this car :

Whereas those had 220bhp and a hybrid electric drive, the RC F loses a couple of doors, goes a bit lower, they swap out the powertrain for a 460hp V8 cylinder 5 litre engine and send it round a racetrack. Bit like what BMW will do with their higher spec M cars. The N24 race also includes cars more like what we’d have though, like Hyundai i30N’s, Toyota Corollas, there were a collection of VW Golfs of various ages, Opel Astras and … the Dacia Logan. The Dacia was being a bit of a running joke because it was taking 50% longer to go round the course than the fast cars but … it kept going and came 98th out of the 135 cars taking part despite losing about 90 minutes that would have kept it competitive with the other 4 cars in its class. The two Corolla Altis were doing better than the GT86 car that was also in their class.

So … post part 2 ? I’m warming up the thinking to what the next car I get will be. It’ll be a Toyota again for a bit because I put myself on a multi year servicing deal (might have oopsed there) but Lexus don’t make a car I want to buy any more so I’ll be moving away from that brand. The UX is their small car now and its SUV doesn’t have much sport and little utility. The ES that I have now is too big, as are the other cars in their range since they put the CT/Prius and the IS in the bin.

To be honest though, I’d rather drop a size and cost level and go for the highest spec in a cheaper range than read the manual, see shiny features (even down to a kick open boot release) that aren’t included in the car I get.

Because I like shiny things and I was sad when nothing happened when I waved my foot under the back of the car as well as other things in the manual that weren’t in my car this time. So one thing that might happen next is go for a top spec Lexus CT from the last year they were sold, instead of having something new.

One thing I find odd though is that manufacturers look as if they’re tuning their ranges … SUVs are taking over (I’m not a fan of SUVs) and car makers are either going small or big. Vauxhall don’t sell the Cavalier any more. The Dacia Logan from N24 isn’t for sale any more. Honda aren’t bringing the Integra to the UK.

It feels like an odd trend. Perhaps they’re looking forwards in time to when petrol and diesel cars are stopped from sales. Or they’re recovering from the Dieselgate scandals. One huge consideration for me though is what car I’ll find myself in at the end of the decade … because unless politics change, it’ll be the last car I get due to electric not being a good option for me. I’d have to charge it on a public road with a cable going across a pavement – that ain’t an option and I bet I’m pretty common with that consideration. If you live in a flat, where are you supposed to charge the car up ?

What am I looking at as the options at the moment ? Considerations are : Speed but economical. Toys. Comfort. Size bracket. Being able to put shopping supplies in the boot. The Lexus UX fails utterly on the boot.

I’m actually looking at the latest Puma, even if it is an SUV style. It would feel weird to be back in a Ford after the horrid 2002 Focus ST … but I wouldn’t be captive to an emergency buy this time. The original Puma sports coupe was a lovely little car.

There’s also the latest Corolla hybrid, Lexus should really be looking at bringing a posh version of this out like they did with the CT / Prius. They did a wonderful job with the CT, delivering a solid ultra high quality conversion of the Prius which had them break through into the UK market which was continued with the faster IS300h that I was seeing in work’s car park a lot. It’s weird that they discontinued both CT and IS.

Audi looked ok until you started adding in the options. Similar with BMW and Merc. Vauxhall were a nope (plug in hybrid isn’t an option). And I wouldn’t touch a French car unless thoroughly convinced otherwise. Mazda are a curious one. I wonder why the MX-5 Miata isn’t at Nurburgring … perhaps they can’t fit the safety stuff into them.

Volvo are off the list because their cars are too big. Will have to expand the research a bit while being careful about what any magazines I get say.

Last bit – we had a work trip last week that allowed a bit more research … I’ve enjoyed having decent satnavs in the Lexii, although the last two have had deficiencies come in. (The last IS was an utter failure at last mile navigation, i.e. the most important bit, the destination point can be difficult to set on the ES satnav). This time, we used Android Auto as the satnav. It actually worked really well, with two phones connected to the car quickly and the signal staying good throughout.

However … the reason we used two phones is that sending the signal continuously through Bluetooth murders the battery and we didn’t have charging facilities. My impression was that Android Auto is very viable as a satnav … but I won’t be using it because it connects to one phone only, so I’d have to think of something to allow my music to be used. I wonder if I’d be able to satnav off the old iPodPhone I have, that might sort out that one.

(My main phone is a Pixel 4. Is good phone. My music comes off an iPhone 5, which is staying on an ancient version of iOS so that it talks to an equally ancient version of iTunes. I can’t update them. Similarly, I can’t allow the iPodPhone to connect to the internet because it’s hilariously exposed on security.)

So there’s another big consideration – getting satnav and music via two different devices.

I think that’s it for now though. Time to have a little diversion looking at Mazda’s site to see what they got :-D.

Stay safe everyone, be well.

Hello everyone,

I might be changing cars again soon … It’s only a “might” at the moment but there are a few compelling arguments either way. The “No Change” route would mean keeping what I have and paying off the remaining finance on it when the PCP* period finishes next year.

*PCP is Personal Contract Purchase. It splits the cost of the car three ways. There’s a deposit at the start and the value remaining at the end is engineered to be the same as the expected future value of the car. So on a car costing £35,000, the up front would be anything from £2,000 to £10,000 and they’d expect the value after 3 years to be around £10,000. And then the finance is for the difference.

The other way would be to hand mine back in early and jump into a different car after delivery.

Erm … we interrupt this post for a very important thumbnail.

More on this later.

It’s a curious choice this time around because Lexus have been busy rejigging their range for the UK … You can still buy the CT for now :

This was my first Lexus, the Tardis Blue Car CT. (That was a shameless attempt at invoking search engine optimisation 😀 ). It was a lovely car too, very well put together, probably as close to perfection as I’ve had in a car and extremely practical besides that too. It had only one problem, under the bonnet there was the Prius hybrid powertrain that struggled somewhat for power. The electric motors give it excellent starting speed but it ran out of puff fairly quickly. It also had to be worked a little harder than the IS300h, which meant the fuel economy while great on paper, would suffer.

I’ve enjoyed my last 3 cars, all three of them being IS300h’s. That’s a saloon shell with more power. It’s a bit sad but there’s been issues with these … they haven’t been the image of perfection that the CT was. I’ll leave the issues I may or may not have with the current one until after it’s gone but … Car 1 had drive by wire issues where it would kangaroo hop into traffic light stops where it should have been smooth. And Car 2 had what I believe was a broken power steering pump. So that was another reason for jumping on the Offer I Couldn’t Refuse last time. Oh and Car 1 had the dead car incident caused by someone in the delivery chain not bolting the battery terminal on correctly.

I know, hard to believe that last one isn’t it. Anyway, both the CT, the IS and the RC coupe version of the IS are being discontinued in the UK. If I change, it’d either be an SUV shell (I don’t like these, too much metal) or the bigger ES saloon. I’ll be pondering on it for a few days.

One thing for this post is racing cars … I have the Steve McQueen Le Mans film on at the moment …

And EEK. Crash time. We’ve had a car spin and the next car through following went out of control and off the road, landing off the track and exploding into flames as the driver attempts to run away. And then another crash with one of the Porsches which also hit the barriers out of control.

The picture and cinematography work is incredible. They’re doing a lot of slow motion and freeze frame to capture the heavy drama of what’s going on.

I saw the film a while ago and was impressed back then. Both this Le Mans and the more recent Ford vs Ferrari (Le Mans 66) are well worth a watch. They’re both remarkable films.

Things I have been noticing from both though is the differences between racing then and racing now. I’ll get to the Follow The Race stuff later but the opening sequences of the Steve McQueen movie shows the drivers getting set up for the start of the race. They’re wrapping what are essentially bandannas around their mouths and neck before putting on open face crash helmets. Yep. That’s moved on since. Full face helmets, balaclavas and the HANS (Head And Neck System) are mandatory now and have saved many lives. There is also communications between driver and team which can warn the driver if they’re approaching an incident.

The pit stop sequences shown in both movies show the cars moving a little off the main straight and into the service areas. The cars are being refuelled about 10 feet away from where the racing is happening. And it’s side of the road stuff, they have a proper pit complex now with garages. Curiously, a lot of the IMSA races still operate with pit boxes without garages, although these are a long way away from the race track. If an IMSA car has a serious issue, it’s said to be “going behind the wall” to where the garage is.

Another huge difference is the cars. Ford vs Ferrari was in the time of the GT40. It was the story of the 1966 Le Mans when cars looked like :

Picture is from this Motorsport Magazine article (Link). It’s from the days when streamlining and aerodynamics were just starting to be thought about. They knew to smooth out the cars to get more speed and maybe a little about downforce with that lip spoiler at the back but they understood very little about the more subtle aerodynamic efforts. Developments continued and designers looked more and more at this thing called Downforce, where if they engineered an extra force pushing down on the car, it would mean the drivers could push them harder through corners.

The Steve McQueen film features the Porsche 917 from 1970 :

Picture taken from a Road And Track article (Linky). See the extended bodywork at the back ? It was intended to improve the downforce, which apparently it did. However … it also led to instability and a likelihood of the car going end over end.

That’s been one issue with racing cars over the years … They’re great going forwards and around corners but if something disrupts that like a crash, then they can quickly turn from racing machine into a sail that catches the air, taking the car out of control. The tolerances were so fine that the Mercedes cars ended up flipping at 200+mph as they went over the Mulsanne Hump, the crest allowed enough air to get under the car and catastrophically disrupt the airflow, after which the driver would be just a passenger.

(Don’t worry about this for road cars, we don’t go fast enough although sidewinds can make driving into Interesting Times sometimes).

Things have improved a lot … The endurance racing fraternity took a look at why the crashes were happening and enforced design changes like the shark fin that acts like an airbrake if the car goes sufficiently sideways to get in trouble. (It also pivots the car back up the right way). The endurance cars also have cut outs above the wheel arches which counter the tendency to flip before it happens.

(Rabbiting on detector alarm is going off).

I think that’s enough from me about the racing cars for now.

Steve McQueen’s Le Mans and Ford vs Ferrari (Le Mans 66) are both excellent movies and I’d thoroughly recommend a watching. They have more than their share of tragedy though amongst the drama.

Before I close up though, the information around the races is SO MUCH BETTER now. In the movies, there’s an announcer that also acts as a narrator for the audience and the people in the pits are using stopwatches to time their cars. Nowadays, we have streaming video services covering the races that usually offer extra feeds as well as the main feed. The official timings are available and in races like Le Mans and Nurburgrings with their very long tracks, the timings get split up for the various parts of the course. There are also the twitter feeds for the teams and organisers keeping you up to date.

Yep, close time …

But first … today’s out among people job was the car service and on the way back there is the farm shop service station … It’s at a lower level of service at the moment due to Pandemic Things but they’re still offering hot sandwiches (no running to the loo this year – hurrah!) and drinks and the farm shop is mostly open.

I may have visited the farm shop while I was very hungry, hence the opening picture and thumbnail. Alas though,

Gosh that film flew by. (Steve McQueen’s Le Mans). Almost at the end, the race is over and we’re getting long lingering looks between two of the stars.

Munchies ? Yep. Munchies happened. Sadly no chocolate dwagonsaur yet this year. Maybe later. They only had minimal Easter Stuff out there earlier. That’s pretty understandable given the current times. Hopefully later :-).

In the meantime, time for the traditional send off : Stay safe, be well.