CART St. Petersburg
Posted by Vader
Instead of a 45min-summary Eurosport Germany just showed the whole race.
I can only say 'WOW, what a track". EXACTLY what I would like to have for GP3/GP4. It is a bit like a mix between Long Beach (only wider) and Burke Lakefront (start finish line + 1st corner). Looks like it has a perfect rhythm and as if it was fun to race there. It just could be a little longer - 2,9km (still 14 corners) is a bit too short even for a street circuit.
Since the track has just been finished - it only took 6 weeks (!!!) to build it - grip levels were a problem first. Surprisingly though there were not many accidents.
A funny thing as a side note: Close to the track is a Salvadore Dali museum. They had to especially enhance the mounting of the paintings, since the vibration coming from the cars was enough to make the pictures come off the walls. A little bit like the problem they had in Long Beach where part of the circuit used to go over the Long Beach dolphinarium underneath and animal-rights activists worried about the impact the vibration would have on the dolphins. Considering the fact that sound gets sort of amplified underwater and travels 4 times as fast as through air, really shows they had a valid point there.
A few facts on a CART 2003 in general:
They have no TC or automatic/semiautomatic gears this season; it's a pure driver's car.
In order to cut the costs, the development of the chassis has been frozen last year. 2003 uses the same chassis as in 2002. Teams can choose from either a Lola or Reynard one. Surprisingly these unmodified chassis seem to work great with the new engines.
These engines are supplied by Ford. The bhp level has been cut down to approx 730-750 bhp and instead of 16,000 rpm they only rev 12,000 now. Still the sound is almost the same - a typical fat CART sound. Despite of less bhp the engines have a lot of power in mid speed range. There lifetime is between 2,000 - 3,000 (F1 still between 500 -800). During the pre-season tests there had been no (!!!) engine failures or blow-ups.
Want a few prices? Okay:
chassis: 300,000 $ for a Lola or Reynard
engine: 1.2 million $ for the whole season (Sauber has to pay about 20 million $ for the Ferrari engine)
Well, that's pretty cheap and will eventually make a lot of teams stay in CART. In fact it even made Mi-Jack Conquest Racing switch from IRL to CART. If they can keep the costs low, more might follow and this save CART from extinction.
Although this was just the sort of racing fix I needed, I still can hardly wait for F1 to start.
Post Edited (02-24-03 00:12)
REHAB IS FOR QUITTERS
I can only say 'WOW, what a track". EXACTLY what I would like to have for GP3/GP4. It is a bit like a mix between Long Beach (only wider) and Burke Lakefront (start finish line + 1st corner). Looks like it has a perfect rhythm and as if it was fun to race there. It just could be a little longer - 2,9km (still 14 corners) is a bit too short even for a street circuit.
Since the track has just been finished - it only took 6 weeks (!!!) to build it - grip levels were a problem first. Surprisingly though there were not many accidents.
A funny thing as a side note: Close to the track is a Salvadore Dali museum. They had to especially enhance the mounting of the paintings, since the vibration coming from the cars was enough to make the pictures come off the walls. A little bit like the problem they had in Long Beach where part of the circuit used to go over the Long Beach dolphinarium underneath and animal-rights activists worried about the impact the vibration would have on the dolphins. Considering the fact that sound gets sort of amplified underwater and travels 4 times as fast as through air, really shows they had a valid point there.
A few facts on a CART 2003 in general:
They have no TC or automatic/semiautomatic gears this season; it's a pure driver's car.
In order to cut the costs, the development of the chassis has been frozen last year. 2003 uses the same chassis as in 2002. Teams can choose from either a Lola or Reynard one. Surprisingly these unmodified chassis seem to work great with the new engines.
These engines are supplied by Ford. The bhp level has been cut down to approx 730-750 bhp and instead of 16,000 rpm they only rev 12,000 now. Still the sound is almost the same - a typical fat CART sound. Despite of less bhp the engines have a lot of power in mid speed range. There lifetime is between 2,000 - 3,000 (F1 still between 500 -800). During the pre-season tests there had been no (!!!) engine failures or blow-ups.
Want a few prices? Okay:
chassis: 300,000 $ for a Lola or Reynard
engine: 1.2 million $ for the whole season (Sauber has to pay about 20 million $ for the Ferrari engine)
Well, that's pretty cheap and will eventually make a lot of teams stay in CART. In fact it even made Mi-Jack Conquest Racing switch from IRL to CART. If they can keep the costs low, more might follow and this save CART from extinction.
Although this was just the sort of racing fix I needed, I still can hardly wait for F1 to start.
Post Edited (02-24-03 00:12)
REHAB IS FOR QUITTERS
Hmm very interesting!
Thanks for the info Vader about the track and the costs in the CART series.
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Did your birth certificate come with an apology letter from Durex?
Thanks for the info Vader about the track and the costs in the CART series.
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Did your birth certificate come with an apology letter from Durex?
The Ford engines are still V8 Turbo technology. They might switch over to naturally-aspirated engines in 2005 or 2006. Most likely they will use V10 engines then, maybe a slimmed F1 version. It could also be possible that they are going to use normal petrol instead of methanol as well.
I thing this "off the rack"- chassis version works well in CART. They are pretty fast and teams that tried to customize them over the last years did find out it they were already close to being perfect. Even expensive tests in wind tunnels normally lead to a step backwards, rather than improvement. Ask Penske who tried many years (and often without success) to build his own chassis.
If it is true what I just heard we will see a similar development in F1 as well. At least Minardi have announced to stop developing own chassis. Appararently they want to buy Ferrari ones.
Post Edited (02-24-03 19:52)
REHAB IS FOR QUITTERS
I thing this "off the rack"- chassis version works well in CART. They are pretty fast and teams that tried to customize them over the last years did find out it they were already close to being perfect. Even expensive tests in wind tunnels normally lead to a step backwards, rather than improvement. Ask Penske who tried many years (and often without success) to build his own chassis.
If it is true what I just heard we will see a similar development in F1 as well. At least Minardi have announced to stop developing own chassis. Appararently they want to buy Ferrari ones.
Post Edited (02-24-03 19:52)
REHAB IS FOR QUITTERS
Cart was on earlier here in the UK. It was on Sky Sports 2, I watched bits of it in between watch the Liverpool match!
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