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Re: Drifting along with the .../was NHIS Vintage race report

To: vintage-race@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Drifting along with the .../was NHIS Vintage race report
From: jeh@world.std.com (jim hayes)
Date: Wed, 5 Jul 1995 18:30:40 -0400
> Subject: Re: NHIS Vintage race report
> To: krobinson@primavera.com

>       Let me say this up front. I'm not a vintage racer (though I do 
>       autocross an old TR4). Okay, now I'll start the fire... Isn't 
>       a "controlled 4 wheel drift" the way it was done back in the 
>       halcyon days when those old racers were the "hot new 
>       racers"? Having said that (I'll probably get creamed by the 
>       cognoscenti) I think the key word here is "controlled". I don't 
>       think that driving a vintage racer the way it was driven is "bad",
>       so long as you aren't driving beyond your abilities and creating a 
>       hazard to the "other guy".
> 
Still true today:

                |                     *
                |                  *    *
                |                 *      *
        Grip    |                *        (Spin)
                |               *
                |              *
                |             *
                |            *
                |____________________________________
                0                     10
                                Slip angle (deg)


For radials or real race tires, 10 deg might be 5 deg.
But that's why we co around corners sideways!

And although we may look spectacular, I doubt we ever exceed 0.75g, as 
oposed to a hot sedan today at 0.85 and a sports car at 1.0. At NHIS, i do 
1:33s but the record for EP cars (my 1600 spider is still calssified by SCCA 
as EP) is undre 1:20 on a 1.6 mi course!





Jim Hayes  1-800-537-8254, 1-617-241-7810, Fax: 1-617-241-8616
Alfa NUT: '58 and '62 Alfa Spider vintage racecars

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