On Wed, 22 Aug 2001, john matthews wrote:
> Hi Bob,
Hi...
> >if you make a car "dual purpose" it will do niether purpose well. For
> >example, a street car cannot be an effective racer. An autocrosser >would
> >make a lousey road racer. Granted you can have fun with cars set >up this
> >way, you just cannot extract maximum performance.
>
> This is not 100% true. It can be done if you select the right car and build
> it accordingly. I have a friend who has a Lotus Europa that is consistently
> the second fastest production car in SF Region SCCA and takes fast time of
> day at local autocrosses. Granted this car is highly developed by a
> meticulous engineer, but the two (autox and road racing) are not mutually
> exclusive. I'm sure he also makes some changes to the suspension, but he
> does run both on the same day sometimes.
Okay - there's one in every crowd.
I thought we were talking about Triumphs. Not Lotii. I think it's just
grand that your friend has a honkin' Lotus. But it has absolutely nothing
to do with Triumphs. Period.
My direct experience is that if you make a car right for autocross, it is
probably not a very good racer if only because the autoxer will need
higher spring rates and "insane" sway bar rates to get up into the
"national level". The hard spring rates etc. will make the car "skip"
across corners - not kool on a road race course! Hence the softer setups
for the road racers.
Besides, from the initial respondent's message, I got the feeling he was
"testing the waters", not looking for a missive on building a perfect dual
purpose Triumph.
> However, if you're looking for race set-up tips on this list you probably
> won't be able to build a dual purpose car.
The defense rests, your honor.
> I'm sure your suggestions will
> help this person and anyone else who reads them, but the only absolutes in
> building a race car are the laws of physics, and the old adage "you can't
> beat cubic dollars"....
Well, this gets into another discussion which is not appropriate for a
Triumphs list... there is that silly little _driver factor_.
> Cheers,
>
> John Matthews
> '61 Herald
> '63 TR 4
Bye!
rml
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