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Old 06-27-2010, 11:56 AM   #8
RC45
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Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Texas
Posts: 15,413
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Originally Posted by turpija View Post
driver error for sure but he was probably on street legal slick which pretty much suck on wet road/track so he had significantly less grip.

@RC45, there are high performance brake discs that are fade free so brake cooking shouldn't be a major problem if the car is upgraded properly
There is no such thing as "high performance brakes" that makes up for excess weight - if there where, F1 cars would weight 10 tonnes.

Originally Posted by turpija View Post
and tire managing is all on driver skill, lighter car would help but even heavy car can go for more then 5 laps if a good driver is driving and knows the weak spots of the car and adjusts his driving style accordingly

That is the entire point of the objection to excess weight (coupled with excess power that doesnt reall ymake up for it other than in a straightline from a stand still) - if you have to "adjust your driving for the cars weak spots" which in this case is braking early and light-footing it around that by definition means you will need to go slower that the "dynoqueen power" suggest you could - so why bother showing up with a 4000lb 800bhp car in the first palce, other than to brag and sell tungin kits (which is fin, thats a great business model and it is proven to work well )

If the car is heavy it will cook the brakes and tyres if the full power potential is extracted. That is just how it is. The overall performance extracted would be no better than a car that was lighter and had less power - if you have to scrub so much speed off before every brake marker to compensate for tyres and brakes that will be cooked in no time, you just defeated the purpose of blasting past everyone on the straights with the uber-horsepower.

Just ask all those Elise/Exige and Caterham drivers that run circles around heavy cars after a coupel laps on technical circuits - bah... its a losing effort this debate, as 5 years ago euro and jap car fans where all about low weight and handling and made fun fo "heavy hight HP American" cars... btu the moment the euros and the japs got fat and high HP, suddenly it became fashionable... bah whatever, you win.. fat and powerful rules
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