utterly random picture thread.

[gremlin]

Leave the kids in the prams. More space for everybody.

[Count Steer]

It was definitely a novel approach to impact absorbing bumpers.

[Mr. Dazzle]

This year's Le Mans grid.

Love the big blue American interloper half way back They're running a single NASCAR this year as part of the Garage 56 programme - sort of a wildcard thing. It's faster than some LMP2 prototypes

[v8-powered]

This year's Le Mans grid.

Love the big blue American interloper half way back They're running a single NASCAR this year as part of the Garage 56 programme - sort of a wildcard thing. It's faster than some LMP2 prototypes

All good until they come to a RH corner - isn't NASCAR 'go fast, turn left, go fast, turn left etc.?

[Mr. Dazzle]

They do actually have "Street Circuits" on the calendar, as the yanks call 'em. What you or I would call a normal racetrack.

I have worked in/with NASCAR just a tiny bit. One of the last projects I worked on at my old job was designing the new carbon propshafts for that ^^^ car (it's a common core vehicle with lots of parts shared by all teams). It's a weird old mix of high tech motorsport like in F1 and old school charm. They have carbon propshafts and wind tunnel honed aero but they also have 4 speed H-pattern 'boxes and steering wheels from a routemaster bus.

When my old place first started supplying the props a few of the Engineers went to some early races as tech support. 'tis one of the few regrets I have from leaving, I never got to do that

[Mr. Dazzle]

This year's Le Mans grid.

Love the big blue American interloper half way back....

Sooooo....they qualified at the front of all the GTE racers (Corvettes, 911s, Astons, stuff like that), 4s ahead of the fastest GTE cars. Actually faster than some LMP2 full slicks-and-wings prototypes albeit ones which had problems.

They've got an F1 world champ, a 7 times NASCAR champ and a former Le Mans winner driving. Should go alright in the race, reliability notwithstanding.

It's just so big.

[cheb]

Is there a maximum width for the cars? Or could you build a Dick Dastardly style super wide car with not much top speed but incredible acceleration off the start line and then just cruise to victory?

[Mr. Dazzle]

Sadly there's a maximum width for proper entries. The NASCAR is under Garage 56, which is a one time entry for oddballs. They've had drivers with no legs or that Nissan Deltawing in there before.

[ZRX61]

They do actually have "Street Circuits" on the calendar, as the yanks call 'em. What you or I would call a normal racetrack.

I have worked in/with NASCAR just a tiny bit. One of the last projects I worked on at my old job was designing the new carbon propshafts for that ^^^ car (it's a common core vehicle with lots of parts shared by all teams). It's a weird old mix of high tech motorsport like in F1 and old school charm. They have carbon propshafts and wind tunnel honed aero but they also have 4 speed H-pattern 'boxes and steering wheels from a routemaster bus.

When my old place first started supplying the props a few of the Engineers went to some early races as tech support. 'tis one of the few regrets I have from leaving, I never got to do that

Been that way for years. At one time they all used 9in Ford difs & GM trans no matter what engine was in it.

[ZRX61]

This year's Le Mans grid.

Love the big blue American interloper half way back They're running a single NASCAR this year as part of the Garage 56 programme - sort of a wildcard thing. It's faster than some LMP2 prototypes

The street version of the ZL-1 is a 700hp car, race version is probably a bit more than that...

[ChrisW]

I'd always made the mistake of thinking of the LMP cars as being big, but I saw this yesterday on a thread about car 24 yesterday - it's not just that it's big, the others are TINY!

Toyota Yaris WRC car comparison:

[Mr. Dazzle]

This year's Le Mans grid.

Love the big blue American interloper half way back They're running a single NASCAR this year as part of the Garage 56 programme - sort of a wildcard thing. It's faster than some LMP2 prototypes

The street version of the ZL-1 is a 700hp car, race version is probably a bit more than that...

600something IIRC, they're all capped. Time was I could tell you the exact torque and power, I did the propshafts as above

Snot really a Camero at all. Its a spaceframe race car with a roughly Camero shaped lid on top hence why it's so fast.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I'd always made the mistake of thinking of the LMP cars as being big, but I saw this yesterday on a thread about car 24 yesterday - it's not just that it's big, the others are TINY!

Toyota Yaris WRC car comparison:

LMP is pretty much F1 levels of tech/performance. It looks like they should be big "full size" cars cause they've got windows and doors but they're essentially F1 cars with a roof...that's the nearest thing anyway. They're much more restricted on development but conceptually that's what they are.

In fact, if you let em off the leash they're about as fast...

https://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsport ... pa-record/

[Count Steer]

Reminds me of going to see the Legends Racing series at Brands. They came blatting down the pit straight looking like Al Capone hot rods and, as they got closer....they didn't get any bigger. They're tiny!

[ZRX61]

600something IIRC, they're all capped. Time was I could tell you the exact torque and power, I did the propshafts as above

Snot really a Camero at all. Its a spaceframe race car with a roughly Camero shaped lid on top hence why it's so fast.

Apparently they're claiming 650hp & 650ft/lb

The Henessey version is 800+

[Mr. Dazzle]

Full Redneck NASCAR evening/night race is still on my list of things to do

[Noggin]

.

That proper made me laugh

[Felix]

I may have been driving over the weight limit

20230609_140117 (1).jpg (1.85 MiB) Viewed 560 times

[Taipan]

[Taipan]

One stop shop!