Stock Car Race Shop from Motorbooks - mmmmm, yummy picture book of a NASCAR shop. It has words too, but they can amount to only a few percent of the value of the book.

Showroom Stock Race Car Preparation on sale from Motorbooks. Save your money. I'd send it back but my shipping cost would approach the refund.

Inside Racing (A season with the Pacwest CART Indy team) by Paul Haney. If you loved the "begats" in the Bible, you'll love this book. It's a serial journal with at least several pages of interesting technical information buried within a mind numbing stream of words. If you encounter this book I wish you luck.

Der Nurburgring. I don't speak or read German, but I'm going to practice some of the words in this book so I can say them during the "physical act of love" (General Jack D. Ripper is one of my few real heroes). I was expecting more pic's of the track itself, rather than of the history that has passed thru it - but it's still good, and let's face it: for people like us what makes a better coffee table book than this?

Competition Car Data Logging by Simon McBeath - new from Motorbooks. Decent primer on DAQ. I haven't read the whole thing closely - I audited it over the weekend out of town. The guidance on the interpretation of g-graphs appears to below the standard set by Buddy Fey's book in terms of directness and clarity. If you're going to buy a chassis engineer type DAQ setup you will want to read this book because you will want to read everything you can get your hands on because the task of getting reasonable value out of DAQ is not to be taken lightly.

Data Power by Buddy Fey - supposed to be getting a second printing late this year. Buy it immediately when it appears. I borrowed a copy from a friend and audited it over this long weekend. The book is dated in some respects. Among them are NOT any important respects. The guidance on interpretation is excellent. The guidance with respect to common sense is excellent. If Buddy adds anything new for the second printing I'm anxious to see it.

I'm coming to the realization that DAQ has going against it not just the high initial cost, but also the amount of time and work required to make it pay off. After the whiz bang and the "will you look at that" wear off, what's left is the job of sorting data and guessing at compromises and looking at the whole lap in the final (?) analysis. I'm not saying that I can't (or you can't) actually use it successfully enough to justify the expense, but I might be saying that it's pretty far over the top for "just for fun" club racing. I've given so much thought to what parts of the racing game are the most fun and satisfying for me, and I've tried to understand how others can find other parts of the whole enterprise satisfying enough to keep them happy out of the drivers seat. Every step you take along the progression of technical sophistication removes another veil of the romance of the sport, but there's no choice if maximizing performance is the goal. One must be both methodical scientist and relentless predator to take the game to the fast end. As you add to the race weekend workload it becomes increasingly difficult to be both and either. That's what I'm beginning to see, and wondering how to cope with. Bruce McLaren I'm not.

Scott, who has taken each next step now for about 6 years.....it's not "am I having fun yet", it's "am I still having fun yet"......

 

And what are the contributors to this race deprivation depression.

Silly vintage sports car TSD Rally. I spend two days in the passenger seat of a hot rodded early sixties Alfa roadster, no top sun beating down on me while I bang calculator keys and yell at my driver. No cage, no bar, not much car around me - I'm glad we don't really go very fast. Socializing amongst the eye candy (39 Alfa 8C2900 - Il Duce's favorite) is good, and it's nice to have the animal competitor inside me under leash. I get emotional at these things because my Dad should really be there. Sometimes I feel like I'm living parts of the life he would have lived - it just happens that I like the same things.

Silly vintage Motorcycle poker run at Vashon Island on borrowed Triumph 650 twin. Egad - the thing has virtually no front brake, shifts on the wrong side, and requires mega left hand strength on the clutch. Just plunking along on the tree canopied island roads reminds me so much of my first woods ride when I was a kid. No crazed quest for maximum speed - just riding along and enjoying it. Wow! Haven't had that kind of sensation in so long. About 5-600 stop at a campground for lunch. I look over everything in sight. Most of it predates my existence. I've decided I have the hots for an old Triumph Cub - a 250 single. I also have the hots for a Honda RC51. I also have the hots for a JDM Yamaha 200cc RSV(?) - a neat water cooled 200 2-stroke road bike with a Ducati-esque tubular superframe. Some Canadian had brought it in and said it was easy because of the small displacement. Naturally my thoughts along these lines reach toward actual road racing on track. I check around with some close friends and they all say something like "Riiiggt, so you're going to race cars, race motorcycles, have a job, have a wife, have a house, and it's all going to work? Riiigghhht." I didn't even mention Karts.

Silly Indoor Karting with wifes little brothers. I've taken it upon myself to assist with their development into men. Naturally that means they get reading assignments from me in the Skippy book and a couple of others I had laying around. On this visit we go out to check out the local outdoor kart track and a guy who's got his kid practicing tells us that the new indoor kart track is already open and operating. We thank him, say goodbye, and head directly there. As we're driving I'm giving the verbal refresher course in line and controls. After the first session I'm looking at a printout of nice consistent slowness. One of them asks me a question and I tell him to ask his brother because I'm not in a position to offer advice. After the second session in a crummier driving kart with a much better engine I'm ahead of them by more than a half second. I reflect on how truly representative of real racing an outing to the indoor kart track is. I think - think - I could really get into real outdoor karting. I dare not think about it too much. I dare not think about any of this stuff too much - I'm in enough trouble whatwith racing cars already.

Scott, who's whole life has been owned by things wheeled.....

 

data acq can be very involving indeed. but you can learn so much just by looking at speed vs. lateral g vs. distance (or time).



data acq is used for two function, driver development, and car development. the former is much easier. the later can require tons of testing and detailed setup. data acq cost certainly has come down a lot with lots of entry level units available for under 1500 now. here i'll plug the DL90 again.

http://dl90.com/downloads/

i ought to pick up some books and read too, instead of surfing the net and wasting time. is senns's priciple of driving any good? i'm gonna keep an eye out for the buddy fey book.

 

Scott~ An insightful disclosure of your psyche as it relates to "all things wheeled"...

Unless racing is your full time and high-paying job, it's hard to imagine how to avoid this predicament. It seems the task would be to accept what is so, and then learn and adapt to your genetic and psychological predispositions. I know, easier said than done... Sounds as though you've learned how to deal with these periodic funks, at least to some extent (your self-managed treatment regimen is to read...) , so you're probably doing better than most... So, when do you get your next "fix"?