One of the topics that always bounce around between the writers here at the StartingGrid, is how we could join a racing team, or create one of our own. Between our group, the majority of us are always training to improve ourselves. It’s what drives us.
From our physical fitness, technical knowledge base and our driving techniques, our aims are always to improve ourselves for our day in the sun. Whenever it comes.
What does it take to be a good racing driver? What does it take to be a good racing team? Here is a view from the Team Dynamics BTCC racing team.
This video inspired us. Hopefully, it’ll inspire you as well.
I cruised down the freeway towards my exit, fortuitously a loop ramp, on the last sunny evening of summer. It was 70 degrees and almost sunset. I rev-matched a downshift to 4th gear and dragged the brakes. Then I dropped another gear, smoothly matching revs as I released the clutch. Off the brake now, I turn in and ease onto the throttle.
Gently I press the pedal, shifting weight to the back and slowly picking up speed. I launch out of the loop at 50 miles per hour, well over the currently posted speed limit, and I lift and coast down the highway towards a stoplight.
This is why I own a 1999 Miata. I can enjoy a moment of driving zen on my commute at 30 miles per gallon or better. Better than that, I can afford my moment of driving zen… used 1999 Miatas are not particularly expensive and generally low maintenance if treated well.
That the car is a convertible is not a selling point… quite to the contrary.
In the interest of getting to know the readers a bit better (and have them get to know me a bit better), I wanted to pose a couple of questions:
What was your first race car?(If you have never raced, what was the first car that really captured your imagination?)
My first race car was a 2000 Subaru Impreza 2.5RS. This was the first generation chassis, and it was a 4-door manual. I beat this car up at autocrosses, rallycrosses, off-pavement TSD rallies, and track days. It was put into service at the end of 2000 and retired from service at the end of 2005.
This car was pretty darn gutless, but it was also incredibly stable on-throttle. Even on packed snow, you could just stand on it.
It was a great starter car, but it also taught horrible driving habits. The only real incident the car suffered was the result of a miscommunication between my co-driver and I on a winter rally (oh… turn here!)… I put the car into a snow bank, but backed right out and kept on going.
If Subaru would sell me a new one of these, I’d buy it.
On the cusp of the release of the new ‘F1 2011′ game, Codemasters has released another developer diary which highlight more of the new game feature. This video speaks lightly to the Safety Car element, and the introduction of KERS, DRS and the new Pirelli tire selection in the game.
As I’ve mentioned in some of my past posts about this game, my skepticism is a bit high on how some of these elements will be playable in the game. Game developers are classically good at putting a marketing spin on in-game playability, when it doesn’t live up to expectations.
However, I’m still excited to play the game on its release, so I can bring you guys a post on the user experience. It does sound like F1 2011 is going to be a much different experience than the previous game.
The new Codemasters game, F1 2011 is ready for public release at the end of the month. Here is an interview with Stephen Hood, one of the game designers. The interview covers some of the new in-game features on F1 2011, like the Safety Car, new AI Behavior and the Race Engineer. Interesting stuff.
Although, why can’t they find better players to demo the game in these videos?
It’s not that the film wasn’t great. It’s just what I got was not what I expected.
I felt like the movie just skipped through a lot of interesting information about Senna’s career. Especially the earlier years when he rose up through the junior single-seater formula
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What about some Formula Ford?
Some commentators believe that his driving was more aggressive than after he entered Formula 1. I wished the film had mentioned in more detail some of his struggles working his way up the racing ladder, and interviewed some of the people that he met, while he was trying to get noticed.
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Not even any Formula 3???
How about his involvement in Formula 3, where Senna would start to race with drivers like Martin Brundle? (See video below) Brundle, who wasn’t even really mentioned in the film at all, would become one of the key commentators on Senna’s career after his death. So it was a shame not to hear more from him. In the documentary that Top Gear did, they a better job getting an interview from Brundle.
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Come on! No, Honda and Senna?! Really?!
The film entirely neglected to talk about Senna’s close personal relationship with Honda, who provided racing engines for McLaren during the late 80s and early 90s. Honda LOVED Senna. During his F1 career when racing the Honda-powered Mclarens, Prost would complain that Senna was receiving better race engines from Honda due to how much the company endeared Aryton. (But that would make Prost harder of a villian to target, if the public knew that.)
His relationship with Honda was apparent with their road cars, as Senna also aided in the development of the Honda NSX, which although has nothing to do with his F1 career would have been interesting information for the public to know about.
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Overall Rating: 7/10- Frankly, I think they could have done better, but then the film would have been four hours long.
It’s not like the film was terrible. Theatrically, I enjoyed the soundtrack, and I thought that the remastered race audio was a great addition. However, the depth of the content left me wanting more. It did do a very good job at summarizing Senna’s time at Mclaren, but that’s not his entire career.
I guess I was just expecting a lot more out of the film than it was able to provide in a two hour period. Read the Senna biography. You really start to understand more about Aryton’s character and personality prior to him entering Formula 1, and I wish that had been reflected in this documentary.
For some whom were in Spa for the Belgian GP last weekend, might of seen this blonde bombshell of track marshal. Now for me, I’ve been around a bit, but I’ve never seen anyone like this!
I’m sitting in my local coffee shop watching cars drive by the freeway, as I think about nostalgic JDM cars that I have always loved. (Is that weird?) Anyway, my thoughts lead back to a group of cars that I’ve followed since I first got into tuning cars. The Mid Night Club.
There aren’t many good magazines on tuning cars available in the marketplace today. The UK-based, ‘Redline Magazine’ is one of them. There have been rumors that the publishing agency that carries ‘Redline’ has been facing shutting the publication down.
That would be a real loss for the tuning world, as this magazine reflects some of the most passionate people in the tuning world. Redline always has amazing features, from shop-build cars to home-grown tuned machines. They’ve travel all over Europe to visit race tracks and drift days, and provide information tutorials on the proper way to modify a car.
I’ve been watching more series like Initial D lately in my downtime. I always like racing anime/manga, so I find series like ‘Wangan Midnight’ or ‘Initial D’ extremely relaxing on an evening like this.
Most likely, because if I could alter reality, life would be more like anime.
Yeah, I said it. You know you agree. Actually, I’ve gotten some feedback from readers that they would like to learn more about what racing manga/anime comes from Japan outside of ‘Initial D’, so I’m going to write some posts which feature some of these.
In the meantime, check out a post from an old favorite blog of mine, ‘Auto-Otaku‘, which talks about some racing manga that you may be interested in.
However in the meantime, I’m watching Initial D, so you’re getting a video of that.
Has anyone seen the series ‘Ex-Driver?’ It’s an automotive anime from a few years back. The setting is based in the future, where the traffic system has been automated by artificial intelligence. (Wait, it does get interesting, I promise!)
People have been removed from the equation as the cars drive themselves. As the traffic system is regulated, occasionally the AI systems regulating the cars would fall off the grid, which will cause the cars go out of control.
Basically, the main characters of the series actually drive their own gasoline powered cars around and attempt to stop the AI cars from going out of control. The characters drive mostly European cars, such as the Caterham 7, Lancia Stratos and Lotus Europa, and it’s the classic ‘kid driver saving the city from danger’ story.
The music is corny, the dialogue is a bit stiff, but the main character drives a Caterham, so I can’t not love this series. It’s only 6 episodes, so jump on Youtube and give it a watch.
Yes, I do feature drifting from time to time. I’m not the hugest fan, but this video is what I’m talking about with drivers who can do the business.
Not all drifters have to be ‘hella-flush- and slammed low. The only reason that I’m featuring this car, is because the driver in this video is now a Formula D driver. I just really enjoy how he just simply goes over every facet of the car, and has a strong rationale for setting it up.
More people need to approach tuning cars with a mindset like his. Oh wait, it’s because he’s Dai Yoshihara, which makes him a badass.
I’ve been spending alot of my spare time lately karting. Karting in league races, karting with my girlfriend, and teaching some kart schools. I’ve been having a real fun time at my local kart tracks, just getting some seat time refining my racecraft at Pacific Grand Prix. Fun stuff.
Today I spent some time up at Pacific Grand Prix, the outdoor gokarting track, to race in one of their league races. I love spending time up at PGP as alot of competitive drivers show up to race League. I competed in the Expert Class, and had an exciting final race, driving from 9th place to a 2nd place spot on the podium!
Maybe, I was thinking about Mark Webber’s China run when I was out there. Anyway, take a look at the pictures. If you have a chance, you have to stop by PGP. It is a blast!
