benclear said:
I don’t understand how racing a slow car fast could possibly be beneficial, but I am new to racing.
I’m not sure if this is what Tim was intending, but one way to interpret the question has to do with the structure of most club racing groups. SCCA, NASA, etc, we usually have way more classes than we do groups, so each race group is made up of multiple classes. The org tries to be smart about how they do the grouping and put similar cars together, but sometimes (especially in endurance racing) there can be some pretty big speed disparities between classes.
So if you were racing the NASA 25 hours of Thunderhill, would you rather be driving a Spec Miata or one of the sports racer/prototypes? Getting passed 5-10 times per lap, or passing other cars a similar amount? Is it better to be in the Miata that’s leading the E3 class, or a prototype that’s further down the field in its class but much higher in overall position than the Miata?
JG Pasterjak said:
False dichotomy.
Fast car fast 🙂
I whole heartedly disagree see the long winded post that follows this one.
Well, My track car is a 2100LB 150HP car in the V8 dominated track day scene of the Midwest so you know where my vote is.
I drive a slow car slow lol. I autocross a MK4 GTI in STH…I give away a lot of HP to the others in my class…and my car is chubby. But I’m grinning at the end of each run. I say drive whatever you have, as fast as you can and laugh the entire way!
I been on both sides of this one. Time trials back in the day I had the right car in FSP with a ACR neon. I had a blast driving that car and it was much faster than anything in the class at the time. I am currently running all the autox I can in a Chevy Sonic so I am in what is by far the slowest car (probably in any class). I ran all this season in HS against Fiesta Sts, Fiat 500s, and Honda Civic sports. So the Fiestas I’ve heard are rated at 197hp against my 138. The Fiat is 160hp and the Civics are at like 160 from what I hear. I had a absolute blast mixing it up with those guys but have now moved on to STH and will probably end up in SMF. Again in these classes I’m way way down on everything compared to the other cars but it’s fun still running the same times they do in a slow car so I vote slow car fast.
While I’m best known for slow car fast I have driven a fast cars fast.
It’s been 20 years since I campaigned it but our D-Sports Racer (now SCCA P2) was a very fast car. The class lap record I set with it was only a second off Mike Lewis’ ex Roush Trans-Am car and roughly the same off the Formula Mazda record set by one of the Pro Mazda series front runners.
The car was exhilarating to drive but here’s the rub; I know that I am a better than average club racer and the car was fast, so anything less than a lap record would be underperforming. If you finish down the order (regardless of the reason) it’s a disappointment. Driving the car on the limit was effortless and lapping slower cars was child’s play.
Now juxtapose that against my 80 wheel horsepower Datsun; you have to drive every inch of every lap like a fiend and constantly adjust to milk ever RPM out of it. You have to plan 1/2 a lap ahead. In the Datsun once you turn into the corner, if you aren’t a passenger all the way to the exit you’re simply not trying hard enough. You have to borderline overdrive the car to be fast.
Dragging the Datsun up the overall finishing order is hugely satisfying. Having competitors come up to you and say “you get every once out of that car” adds to that satisfaction.
In slow car if you do get it the slightest bit wrong it’s immediately obvious. When you’re only getting 90% out of a slow car is painfully obvious whereas in a fast car 90% of it’s potential may well be fast enough to win.
If you’re in a fast car and go fast it’s expected……………I like the thrill of surpassing expectations with a slow car.
Tom1200 said:
If you’re in a fast car and go fast it’s expected……………I like the thrill of surpassing expectations with a slow car.
All the things you say about the Datsun are also true about the DSR if you’re racing other people who are also in DSRs.
