Rusty goes fast..

[dando]

linky (http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?id=1819575)


"We hit 228 at the end of the straightaway,'' an excited Wallace said of his run Wednesday on the 2.66-mile oval. "It was a deal that I certainly will remember for the rest of my life.

"We'd all been wondering what it would feel like to run at Talladega again without the plates and now I know. I'll bet we could be running speeds up to 235 without the plates, if we spent time doing some tweaking.''

Would a Champ Car go 240-250?

-Kevin

[Madmaxfan2]

Easily

[CART T. Katz]

you can sorta figure it out. with the game indycar racing 2 (a game based on CHAMPIONSHIP AUTO RACING TEAMS (in case any evil ims lawyers come across this)), in a 1995 penske/honda/firestone combination at nascar racing 3 converted tally, i have done 240-242 at the end of the backstretch.

with a full 40 gallons. unrestricted, in testing. with the default n3 converted setup.

now imagine what 10 years of tweaking with the chassis, engine and setup could do. i think they would be hitting 260 easily. :eek:

[Sean O'Gorman]

you can sorta figure it out. with the game indycar racing 2 (a game based on CHAMPIONSHIP AUTO RACING TEAMS (in case any evil ims lawyers come across this)), in a 1995 penske/honda/firestone combination at nascar racing 3 converted tally, i have done 240-242 at the end of the backstretch.

with a full 40 gallons. unrestricted, in testing. with the default n3 converted setup.

now imagine what 10 years of tweaking with the chassis, engine and setup could do. i think they would be hitting 260 easily. :eek:

240? You must've sucked at that game, I remember when I converted Talladega from N1 I was averaging 256 around the track. :D

[racer2c]

Tin top 3400lbs, 750hp.
Champ Car 1500lbs, 750hp.
Guess which one goes faster?

[Winston Wolfe]

Tin top 3400lbs, 750hp.
Champ Car 1500lbs, 750hp.
Guess which one goes faster?
When Gil de Ferran AVERAGED 241.xxx at Fontana back in 2001 with one of the Honda developmental engines, what top speed do you think he hit at the backstretch at Cal Speedway. In order to average 240+, he musta been goin' 255-260 since he had to slow down for the corners, right ?

Anyone ever got the scoop on that deal ?

[Ziggy]

Mike Kellner will show up here soon and read this, then lay some fat daddy math on you that will make sense.

You guys know (I think) that Donohue ran his CAM2 Porsche 917/30 at Talladega to some awsome speeds in 1974, establishing a new closed course world record. This record was broken by AJ Foyt at Texas World Speedway, I think in 1976 or 1977 with his Foyt powered Coyote. Foyt then tried to break that record with an Olds powered silhouette car to no avail. Rick Mears broke the Foyt record qualifying for the Michigan 500 in CART legal car in the late 80's. It was prior to Marlboro sponsoring the car, as it was a Pennzoil car.

Come to think of it, I dont know if the Foyt record was ever recognized????

I would imagine a Champcar with current pop off valve would easily be in the low 250 range. Kick up the boost, and find out just how well things like uprights are made, not to mention chassie spuds being attached. (ie, weird stuff could happen to the car from a construction standpoint, or destruction, take your pick)

USAC ran Daytona in the late 50's with disasterous results. Red Amick was killed there, and they threw down some very modern lap times. They never went back. Pat O'Connor went 171 in 1957 at Monza in testing. I spoke with Jim Rathmann about it last month. Said it was a whole new ball game from where he was sitting......

Ziggy

[JohnHKart]

Rainman checking in here, Donahue's Can Am speed record with the 917 was set August 9, 1975, ten days before his death at the Austrian GP.

John

[Wheel-Nut]

The two mile high banked oval became known as "The Worlds Fastest Speedway" when Mario Andretti set a world closed course speed record of 214.158 mph on October 6, 1973 while qualifying for an Indy car race. That record stood in the Guinness Book of World Records for twelve years. Since then many Indy cars have tested at unofficial speeds of 238 mph.


That is from TEXAS WORLD SPEEDWAY (http://www.texasworldspeedway.com/history.htm)


I would like to see the results of a Champ Car on the 7 mile oval at the Bridgestne Proving Grounds in Fort Stockton, Texas.

[Hot Rod Otis]

Mark Donohue went 221.12 @ Talladega in the 917-30 in 1975, which was the closed course record at the time.



As for ChampCar top speed. IIRC, in the late 90's, CART's pole speed @ MIS was about 40 to 50 MPH faster than the NASCAR pole speed. On or around 230 for CART, NASCAR was in the 180-185 range.

[Brickman]

http://8w.forix.com/6thgear/fastestraces-laps.html

[Madmaxfan2]

Great Link, Brickman. That is how I remember the progression of speed.

[Brickman]

Great Link, Brickman. That is how I remember the progression of speed.

Pretty complete list.

[Winston Wolfe]

Pretty complete list.

SO... DeFerran has the fastest open wheel car Q lap.
Big Mo has the fastest PRACTICE lap.
Both at Fontana, and I was there for both of them. I remember Big Mo's car coming by and each time, you knew he was just going so much faster than everyone else. I went all the way down to row 1 in T1, and when he tracked past you, you would feel a whoosh and he was already halfway thru the turn. :cool:

But like I said B4, what do you think the Champ Cars were doing on the straights, when they would AVERAGE 241-242 MPH... Anyone, Anyone ???

[DaveL]

I'm not sure how fast the lap would be after the car breaks in half at the motor mounts and only the front part of the tub flies down the track.

Dega has never been resurfaced since it was built in '69. When you watch Cup cars, note the black streaks in turn one that run at a right angle to the wall. The surface is so bumpy that the rear wheels lift and the streaks are the marks made when they land. If that can happen to a Cup car, imagine what the same bumps would do to a Champ Car.

[Brickman]

SO... DeFerran has the fastest open wheel car Q lap.
Big Mo has the fastest PRACTICE lap.
Both at Fontana, and I was there for both of them. I remember Big Mo's car coming by and each time, you knew he was just going so much faster than everyone else. I went all the way down to row 1 in T1, and when he tracked past you, you would feel a whoosh and he was already halfway thru the turn. :cool:

But like I said B4, what do you think the Champ Cars were doing on the straights, when they would AVERAGE 241-242 MPH... Anyone, Anyone ???

I looked for qualifying tapes from then and couldn't find them. 252? Those were the days of speed. Fires in 03' and no Champ Cars in 04' will feel pretty strange. IMO

Found this on the www:

Mauricio Gugelmin [...]
Pole performance at California, at an average speed of 240.942 mph [387.7586 km/h], was the fastest official lap in auto racing history ... Also had a practice lap of 242.333 mph [389.9972 km/h] prior to qualifying, the fastest unofficial lap in auto racing history ...
[...] Recorded the fastest race lap in the U.S. 500 at Michigan Speedway ..."

Now this was average. The top (trap) speed was (from a post by Barry Posner):

: According to the Omega Timing site (omegatiming.com), the fastest
: trap speed during the Fontana race was 245.528 mph (395.14 km/h)
: by Jimmy Vasser.

: Last year at Michigan, Paul Tracy recorded a trap speed of
: 256.948 mph (413.52 km/h). The same site gives Adrian
: Fernandez a trap speed of 333 mph, but that *has* to be an error.

: The top trap speed at this year's Michigam 500 was 249.018 mph
: (400.76 km/h) recorded by Richie Hearn. With a Ford motor ;)

[chop456]

I believe the record still stands for F1, but Coulthard did a 224 trap at Hockenheim before they butchered it. (The track and the car. :D ). I think it was 2000, but I'm not sure. I've never seen it listed as an official highest trap speed for F1, but I remember a big deal was made of it at the time.