corner speed you say....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUO-5LBozW0&feature=related

aaah the italians are pasionate about their motorsport , did anybody else notice how fast the little yellow fiat was with a much wider track at the rear than the front? (much like go-kart geometery) and how balanced the Radical chassis cars handled

Fiat are the italian datsuns but no where as reliable!

However the 600, 850 and nikki are great lil jiggers
with anything other than fiat engines :)

Id love for one of those guys to get hold of a 1000
or even a honda z600 :))

The radicals here run SCCA's D-sports racer class, but believe it or not they are actually slower than the fastest cars. The class allows 900lbs with driver. As I've mentioned before I ran this class from 97-2003, even the stockish Yamaha 1000 in our car put out about 175 horsepower, there is simply no comparison to a road car even one as wildly modified as the little Fiats in that video. Your talking 2G+ cornering and 3G's on the brakes...........down force makes such a difference, the driving style is different as well.

I had not been in a sports racer for about a year when a buddy gave me a ride in one of the school radicals..............it took two corners before the view out the front stopped looking like someone speed up the film. If only once everybody should have the chance to drive a single seater, something at least at the level of a base radical or FF2000. Formula Fords that schools run are pretty cool but lack the oomph and down force of a Radical or 2.0 liter FF.

Cool video and those are some meaty slicks on the little buzz bombs.


Tom

Just need a Nissan Flying Feather radical :))
with wider flares than this one I mocked up ;)

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Well, I had a similar experience but it seems a whole lifetime ago. In the early '80's I built the 1200 GT5 car. I was able to talk the local Vintage club into letting me go to the track on one of their test days. I was minding my own business when a guy in front of me in a 911 went slithering off of the track into the cat tails that surrounded a little pond. The "chairman" i guess you would call him of the Vintage club came over after the session and told me that I had to quit being so "aggressive". I loaded up the car and left. I didn't feel that braking deeper than the posers was being all that aggressive and if the guy gets lost because he is watching me in the mirror that is his own fault.

hahaha Posers looking into the mirror :)))

I had a similar experience at a vintage race I did in early October.................knowing that most vintage clubs in the US prefer a notched down version of what we'd run at a SCCA race I tired to keep myself in check. I did give a Alfa Guiletta driver a scare as I went round the outside of him at a little over 90MPH, ended up with the outside tires hanging half in the dirt as he almost moved over into me......................in one of the races a guy in a 930 Grp 4 Porsche came roaring past then parked it in the next couple of turns................most of the drivers that weren't up to speed also knew they weren't up to speed............although some thought they were. In fact a fellow SCCA driver in one of the front running Z cars in the Alfa - Datsun - Porsche event wanted to say that he was appreciative of my being aware of the faster class of cars passing and actually being up to speed in the corners.

It all comes down to knowing what 10/10ths really is and not lying to yourself about whether you are really up to speed or not (see my comments about kids on 85cc MX bikes blowing past me). I have no problems with someone running 8/10ths at a track day or in a valuable vintage car or a club race just be mindful of it.............and don't kid yourself.

Tom