rockville

If you are really serious about FF you should check out the Apexspeed forum.

I haven't spent much time at all in an open seat car but the little time I had in a FVee was very memorable.

BTW, this was an awesome(!!) race last year. This was an example of FF at it's best in the US. Beautiful clean driving all day by all the front runners. The guy who won initially was falling back. He was in third, had charged to nearly catch the leaders but somewhere along the way his car had picked up some leaves in the radiators. He was on the verge of overheating when 1 and 2 took themselves out. So while the racing gods teased him with an overheating motor, they gave back with a national championship. I do feel really bad for 1 and 2 as they put on a great show just to have it end literally right at the last corner. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejFWxlmVIBM [/media]

Here is some in car footage from that same race. It is interesting to watch the eventual race winner. He passes the camera car at about 1:45 in the video. Note that every time he turns it looks like the tail steps out. That was apparently by design. Old F1 cars would do the same thing. That's a sign that the front and rear slip angles are the same thus you are evenly distributing cornering loads between the front and rear tires (even with respect to the level of grip available at each axle). I've never drive a car that handles that way (basically no road car would). One experienced racer told me it's rather spooky for beginners as it feels like the tail comes out before the front starts to flow into the turn. However, it is supposed to be the fastest way to get around a corner as it balances the loads on the tires. It's the sort of thing that should be learned at this level and used all the way to the top.
http://vimeo.com/6800713

Steponme

Not to nitpick, but it's more like 27 seconds, not 40; spread out around 13 miles, not a normal track.