Not only is it the monthly meet at Newlands this week but the GP season kicks off again.
Who'll be getting up early to watch little coloured cars go whizzing round without too much racing or overtaking.
The sponsors dont like getting the logos scratched, and the drivers like to cash thier big fat pay cheques, but who cares I'll still be watching
in case it good!!!!
in case its good?yawn
i watch the first 5 laps, most likely to be an interesting crash 
im looking forward myself! 2.30am on friday i think is the first dose...
time for a new carting thread me thinks!
I'll be up early to watch the qualifying, then I'm marshalling at Elvington track day on Saturday.
And I'll be up early Sunday to watch the race, then I'm going paint balling!
Should be a fun weekend, but not much time for building cars 
Have you seen the new Ads for the GP season.
They have made additions to the pitstop rules.
The driver now has to get out, he gets spun around on the spot 10 x by the pit crew and then has to get back in the car and carry on racing after
taking on fuel / tyres / sandwiches / 20 bensons (or whoever is sponsoring) / bunch of flowers and a bag of charcoal (cos garages always sell them.
I think it'll spruce it all up no end.
Then again I do subscribe to the school of thought that thinks the cars should be fitted at least 3 'Wacky Racers' weapons /
countermeasures each. Oil, banana skins, guns and 'Ben Hur' wheel centres.
could use ballast as in touring/gt,that would even things up a bit
level with bob now
Theres too many restrictions on F1 it should have simlpe rules where most things are allowed, then there will be all sorts of things tried, and it
would get interesting. Fancy putting grooves in tyres to slow them down, I think they have forgoten its ment to be a race
Perhaps they should borrow something from the lesser formulas (formulae?):
e.g. the air intake restrictor from Formula Ford.
Imagine the rule: you can do what you like to the car (within a size/weight limit) but you can only suck air into your normally-aspirated engine
through a fixed-size hole.
If the cars continue to get too fast, make the air hole smaller!
rgds,
David
I agree for restricted classes but I dont think that F1 should be a restricted class, just my opinion.
I agree, having more varied engineering (ala Le Mans and GT etc) would spruce it up no end. These days if presented with a row of F1 cars without
paint or livery, could you tell which is which?
I like the fixed number of turbo boosts (an extra 50bhp for a moment or so) you get in Formula Palmer, it means people actually overtake, those are
fun cars!
(Admittedly I've only driven the Corporate spec 200bhp ones)
quote:
Originally posted by theconrodkid
could use ballast as in touring/gt,that would even things up a bit
level with bob now
so anyone want to stick thier neck out and predict a winner?i predict a red car again
a certain amount of turbo boosts sounds like a video game - hyperspace or summat
would be interesting tho
i used to get up early to see the F1 and was jumping around in 1996 when damon won at 5am.
I wont get up early to see a kraut win for the gadzillionth time. I can do that several hours later and the the edited snooselights.
anyone but ferrari.please. pretty please. or bring CART back here. That was far more watchable.
atb
steve
I know who's doing Mclaren's gearbox gears for them this season- Ferrari don't have a chance!
James
"and coolturd mashes his gearbox on the first lap"
Have to admit I am bricking it about that possibility! Could be a little embarassing...
James
just blame it on final inspection,any spare engines laying around unwanted?
james, you're only on production, not qc surely?
either tht or blame r&d! lol
Ned.
James? I thought you worked for HP or something?
sauce, loans co, or computers?
A guy I work with left to go to mcclaren as a programmer at their TAG facility. It was so controlled, regimented and devoid of free thought he came
back to the company i work for.
mcclaren must be a hell hole....
atb
steve
James has 2 jobs....
Over to James...
(who's been waiting for someone to ask him about the fact he's working for an f1 team for ages)
Ned.
ps i pass tag's office everyday on the train, runs right past the other side of the road...
[Edited on 3/3/04 by ned]
so, james, you got summat to do with F1 then...........
drum roll, curtains open,james enters....
What u mean get up, probably wont bother going to sleep, then at least i have an excuse for falling asleep mid race!
Who is it james? is it a team or another company like xtrac?
Also can u get me a job, i need one for my placement year next year. £20,000 starting salary please! 
No but seriously.....
Cheers Ned- I given loads of hints and no-one's asked!
Little side-line I got going aswell as the HP sauce.
A senior manager there is my girlfriends neighbour/best friends Dad. He kindly took me for a tour of the race car factory a few months ago. Then said
he had some part-time work that needed doing which as you can imagine I jumped at like a shot! I didn't mention I'd practically have done it
for free just to look around some more!
Anyway, I've since spent more time there than here practically. The work itself is pretty dull but you wouldn't believe how cool it is
working in a place where they fire up race cars quite frequently!
I haven't met him yet but there's atleast one more Locoster who works there.
Sorry Jon, even *I* haven't managed to find an abandoned car there!
18'000 RPM would be nice tho!
What I find most amusing is that muppet like me with no mechanical experience is working at a formula 1 team!
Cheers,
James
[Edited on 3/3/04 by James]
quote:
James
What I find most amusing is that muppet like me with no mechanical experience is working at a formula 1 team!
i went to brooklands college. was mates with half the motorsport group. several of them work for mackers or pherr-ari, or so they say!
quote:
Originally posted by Surrey Dave
quote:
James
What I find most amusing is that muppet like me with no mechanical experience is working at a formula 1 team!
I didn't know you had no mechanical experience...
quote:
Originally posted by JamJah
i went to brooklands college. was mates with half the motorsport group. several of them work for mackers or pherr-ari, or so they say!
yes but james, have u sat in an f1 car with the engine runing, while changing up and down the gears?
cus i have
but that was with minardi, hay i no they r at the back as usual but they gave me 2 weeks work exp
quote:
Originally posted by James
Suck, squeeze, bang, blow innit?
James
Here's an article out of London's Evening Standard from last night:
Sorry the text's a bit ragged, but I had to reduce the size of the file from 500Kb! It's still readable, though (just).
rgds,
David
Interesting picture.
I was told yesterday that Toyota actually have the biggest budget- about £200million. God knows what they blow it on!
As regards the prices- I was told that the teams are given the tyres- it's advertising for the manufacturers!
What are the 'gear ratios' at £250 each? do they mean the gears themselves? Maybe I should make Jaguar an offer- I make 'em much
cheaper than that!
James
yeah, like they're gonna buy gears from a guy with no mechanical experience!
pmsl!!!
Ned.
I've done about 500 of Mclaren's now- that's more than enough for Jaguar! It's not like they're gonna get anywhere anyway!
James, when did your lot fly out ? it's just that i saw a B A R Honda artic on the M40 yesterday heading south, thought they would have all been
there be then ??
Jason
They were packing the trucks a week Thursday so I'm guessing Friday.
James
quote:
Originally posted by Deckman001
it's just that i saw a B A R Honda artic on the M40 yesterday heading south
Good point, he'll have at least a couple of spare cars in that artic then !!
Jason
"i blame the gearbox"david coldturd
Can you keep the noise down this morning , I'm a bit tired!!!!!
Nice one Jensen!!!!!!!!!
Yeah the lad button looked good,although his teammate looked good too so the BAR honda must have come on leaps and bounds.
The BAR was supposed to be a good car last year, just let down by tires developed for the Red cars
managed to stay awake during the repeat of the qualifying,wonder how i will do during the ferrari benifit,sorry i mean race
i dropped off at 4am... wasnt really worth watching anyway was it.
from next sunday they will be having speed sunday with touring cars,real racing at last
Mate of mine at uni is driving in the TOCA formula renault this year, after winning the BARC F Renault championship last year in his first season. Hope fully will do well as he has had a hard time getting the sponsorship together. So look out for james gornall, the next kimi raikonnen!! Shame they wont be showing on the telly.
Kimi Raikkonen :- " The gearbox just locked up on me, we think it was some dodgy gears some gimp made."
[Edited on 7/3/04 by Northy]
I think james has fled the country!
an interesting point about arch poseur button
5th season, and still not even a podium.
not the great white hope everyone thinks........
I hope ferrari win everything in sight this year. that way people will know what an uncompetitive money driven / biased farce it has become.
atb
steve
Yeah, But what do you really think!!!
quote:
Originally posted by greggors84
I think james has fled the country!
I'd have to agree that the race was a bit dull. I sat up and watched it live but I wish I hadn't bothered tbh...
I'm an avid Coulthard fan (in other words an eternal optimist!!) so I'm particularly unhappy but what really got me was the complete lack of
overtaking. I know it's been said before but these guys just couldn't get anywhere near each other before the aerodynamics stopped the
advance. There were some good races last year but they really need to look again at the rule changes and get their act together.
In my view they need to go back to slick tyres and reduce the aerodynamic downforce by restricting wing areas. More mechanical grip would permit
overtaking and would let them get a bit closer together. It would also take the emphasis away from the expensive aero testing and let the smaller
teams compete more easily. Also, get rid of traction control completely and let the drivers drive for goodness sake!
In fact, scrap all of the above, let's just put turbo's back in the cars!!!
Cheers,
Craig.
Craig,
I could not agree more. 
quote:
Originally posted by stephen_gusterson
an interesting point about arch poseur button
5th season, and still not even a podium.
not the great white hope everyone thinks........
atb
steve
button interviews
thats what made my mind up.
there was one on itv a couple years back with louise whatsername. Half way thro he forgot he wasnt wearing his trademark dark glasses and put em on.
arch poseur, sun in eyes, or missing sponsor resonsibilities - looked like poseur to me.
also he come over as a well posy git on the BBCi ads on TV.
prob loves his mum tho
atb
steve
Nah not left the country... just in hiding!
Knew I should have mentioned it when I dropped that nut down one of the oil ways! Don't tell anyone I said that tho!
So what was it then, engine not up to it ??
Jason
I have the impression that Button is a bit uncharismatic, but not a poser. ho hum. Being an F1 driver when you're a young chap must go to the head a bit though.
I dont think he comes across big headed. Hes not like Irvine, who really was living the lifestyle to the most. Those recent bbc ads with button really
were poor, he might be able to drive but he sure cant act!
His missus is a cracker though!