Nascar press conference

[Gaidos, A.]

 First, I too don't know that the HANS device would have helped. Even with
the neck supported the brain (and other organs) are free floating. His brain
would still slam into his skull and there is the chance the spinal cord
would seperate.
 Concrete barriers today beat what they used in the past. Recall Lee Petty
flying completely out of the circuit in the '61 500 ending his career (They
only used lap belts back then and went just about as fast as today). I
recall about 8 years ago something similar at Talladega (the fastest circuit
they run). I guy went right over the wall at 190mph. Amazingly this guy not
only lived but he was dancing on the remains of the car. I think even he
thought he should be dead.
 The walls and catch fences are now much higher.
 As for the carburetors. I think they should get with the program and use
fuel injection. They use carburetors to keep costs down. If they ran the
full 800HP motors at the two restrictor plate tracks the cars would go about
230mph. And they just don't handle that well. On the other hand I think they
restrict the motors too much. That plus the aero package creates the tight
racing, hence more wrecks.

-----Original Message-----
From: quattro-admin at audifans.com [mailto:quattro-admin at audifans.com]On
Behalf Of Steven Addy
Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2001 2:08 PM
To: JanDebL at aol.com; aukdav at wcoil.com; quattro at audifans.com
Subject: Re: Nascar press conference


you wrote -

I'm not a NASCAR fan, please no flames, but it's mostly because I cannot
understand the announcers. (Jeff Foxworthy can explain it better than I
can).

You've got the temerity to say this and think you don't deserve to be
flamed? Why can't you understand them? They speak pretty plain
American-English.
I've attended Nascar races, F1 races and IndyCar races. The reason Nascar
is the most popular is because it's the most user friendly of the three.
The people involved are more accessible, the tracks are better setup to
watch racing and the spectators can actually see the entire race.


- The obsolete concrete barriers you mention are # 1.

What do you suggest? You certainly can't put runoff areas at the top of
the banked turns. You'd launch the cars.

- Similarly noted by you are the non-deforming chassis.
- I don't know but I can't help but wonder why collapsible steering
columns /
air bags     and other common safety items couldn't be adapted in some
form
and would have helped last Sunday.

The man was killed because his neck/spine snapped because of the the
forward motion of his head when the seat belt stopped his body. It's
unlikely that anything you mentioned would've helped. The hans device
maybe. Better design of the front end maybe.

(even F 1 runs in the rain).

They use special tires. No one else runs in the rain. What would Winston
Cup cars do on the high banked turns?

The lack of AWD provides minimal
protection traction and virtually no hope of saving the car once it
become
loose.

No body races with AWD
- There is little or no resemblance between the actual "stock car" and
the
car on the show room floor.
- And finally, I actually heard the announcers discussing carburetors -
talk
about living in the past.

They don't seem to have much trouble making horsepower. Nascars
continually slows the cars down.

I apologize in advance if I offend someone, I just personally believe
that
ignoring technology is a crime especially when lives are at stake.
Jan Lahtonen