Re: ad-blitzes, or is that Flag waving

[Frank Martin <fmartin@ithaca.edu>]

> Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 00:06:51 -0500
> From: John Courtney <dendrite@sbt.infi.net>
> Subject: Re: ad-blitzes, or is that Flag waving
>
> Of course the same would be true of drivers in Audi's, Chevettes, Escorts, and
> Yugos.  At some point, however, there's a dividing line.  Even a great driver
> would have a tough time beating an inexperienced one if the race were between
> a stock 4 cyl. Vega and a Porsche 911.
>

Oh boy, now I can chime in.

Hey, don't knock Vega's, one was my first car.  I disagree on the great driver vs.
inexperienced driver bit. There'd need to be even more of a spread in car potentials. I'd
put $100 on a great driver in a good running Vega with high perf. pads and tires against
an inexperienced one in a 911.  I've run in enough driving schools (club and pro) by now
_start_ getting it through my  head that smoothness and "conservation of momentum" carry
the day on the track. A perfectly balanced and timed trajectory through a curve is like
having an extra 40 HP down the straight, compared to a b_lls-out, slam on the brakes at
the last minute, swing that wheel over, slam the throttle down he-man effort through a
turn (which is exactly what I used to do).  Why, I myself (and I'm no race driver), just
last summer got the wave-by at the Porsche Club's Glen driving school by well over a dozen
Porsches (several varieties) a Corvette or two, M3 or two, and even a Dodge Viper, for
goodness sake.  This in my 10-yr. old GTX on street tires,  mediocre brakes and tired
suspension, running _maybe_ 170 HP.   (Then again, maybe it was the S E K A R B   ON  sign
in my windshield.)   Does this mean I wouldn't instantly trade my car for any one of
those?  Heck no.

As far as I'm concerned, street-racing tales are fun to hear, but as some others have
said, there are too many variables to flat out judge one make/model against  another
except on a track, with equal drivers.  Myself, just one reason I don't street race is
I've always got one eye out for the troopers -- I _cannot_ afford those damn tickets. So,
some dimwit local yokel in a clapped out Ford Bronco could zip around me in a lane merge
and think, "huh, those GTX's sure suck."

Frank M.
Odessa, NY
'90 200 TQ
'88 Mazda 323 GTX
'74 Aermacchi Harley Davidson Sprint
(All for sale, by the way, due to my recent marital separation. Among other things, she
was not an automobile enthusiast. When I did Skip Barber in '85, she saw me do a half-spin
on the back side of the Limerock track. When I came back in, she said, "Frank, I saw that,
and if that's what you want to do, then we sell the house and split."  I guess I made the
wrong choice.  As I told her in later years, "but honey,  I could'a bin a contenduh.")