Hell Yeah!

Originally Posted by mailman

Guys, not being sarcastic here but I'm not up on F1 racing so this is a serious question. What's the big deal if MS bumped someone to pass and they crashed? I'm not a big NASCAR fan, but I know this kind of thing happens there all the time.

Valid question. You see Walnuts, in F1 the cars are open wheeled, so unlike NASCAR, if two cars touch, the risk of touching wheel is great. And if they touch wheel to wheel, one car is getting launched into the air and the driver could get seriously injured or worse.

F1 isn't about bumping, as is standard practise in NASCAR. Bumping occasionally happens in sportscar or saloon (sedan) racing, but it's generally not accepted. Further, these days the cars are all carbon fibre, so that if a car does bump, chances are the suspension arms will snap and your day is done.

Basically, it's dangerous, against the rules (I think) and 'not cricket'.

[mailman]

Originally Posted by Atomic

Valid question. You see Walnuts, in F1 the cars are open wheeled, so unlike NASCAR, if two cars touch, the risk of touching wheel is great. And if they touch wheel to wheel, one car is getting launched into the air and the driver could get seriously injured or worse.

F1 isn't about bumping, as is standard practise in NASCAR. Bumping occasionally happens in sportscar or saloon (sedan) racing, but it's generally not accepted. Further, these days the cars are all carbon fibre, so that if a car does bump, chances are the suspension arms will snap and your day is done.

Basically, it's dangerous, against the rules (I think) and 'not cricket'.

So what you're saying is that just because they don't bump, they're pu$$ies? Come on now, any racer with some sack Johnny(pun intended) would have no problem with a little bump and run. It's how they drive in NYC all of the time.















After hearing it explained like that, it makes sense

[Gedanken]

Well just to accentuate the point, Paul, when open wheelers bump, the results can be quite spectacular:





And this is how Scummaker won his first championship.



At the beginning of this race (Adelaide 1994), Scum has 1 more championship point than Damon Hill - the points are so close that either driver would win the championship by winning this race. Schu takes an early lead, but Hill keeps him under pressure until he slips up, slides into a wall and damages his suspension, effectively taking him out of the race.

All Hill has to do at this point is to wait for Schu to roll into the pits and quit, but nooooooooo, he's got to be a smart arse and try to take Schu on the track. There's this moment when you can see Schu tilt his helmet (the way the cars are laid out, you have to tilt you head to actually see in the mirrors), see Hill coming along and steer right into his path. Hill hits Scum, Scum gets launched into the air as in the photo, but Hill's also out with a damaged suspension. With neither driver getting any points and Scum having a slight points advantage at the beginning of the race, Scum becomes champion - by ramming his closest rival.

I leave it to you if that fits your defintion of a champion.

[Gedanken]

Originally Posted by Avalon

I don't want to get into the MS discussion, but wanted to point out that I am certainly impressed that James knows who Simon Fairweather is. Good on ya mate!

And by the way, I've met him and he's an okay guy......

For those who don't know who this is and can't use Google, he won the individual gold medal in archery at the 2000 Olympics - my coach was there coaching the Canadian team and said it was quite something to see him win it on home soil in front of an Australian crowd.

Hey Al, you know we Aussies love our atheletes!

Originally Posted by Gedanken

Well just to accentuate the point, Paul, when open wheelers bump, the results can be quite spectacular:





And this is how Scummaker won his first championship.



At the beginning of this race (Adelaide 1994), Scum has 1 more championship point than Damon Hill - the points are so close that either driver would win the championship by winning this race. Schu takes an early lead, but Hill keeps him under pressure until he slips up, slides into a wall and damages his suspension, effectively taking him out of the race.

All Hill has to do at this point is to wait for Schu to roll into the pits and quit, but nooooooooo, he's got to be a smart arse and try to take Schu on the track. There's this moment when you can see Schu tilt his helmet (the way the cars are laid out, you have to tilt you head to actually see in the mirrors), see Hill coming along and steer right into his path. Hill hits Scum, Scum gets launched into the air as in the photo, but Hill's also out with a damaged suspension. With neither driver getting any points and Scum having a slight points advantage at the beginning of the race, Scum becomes champion - by ramming his closest rival.

I leave it to you if that fits your defintion of a champion.

Great analysis there James. Maybe you could get a job with ITV?

[Gedanken]

Maybe I could do a Murray Walker:

"And it's Yoong in the lead! Alex Yoong is leading this grand prix!
.
.
.
.
No, wait, I stand corrected, it's a Ferrari in the lead".

[mailman]

Originally Posted by Gedanken

Well just to accentuate the point, Paul, when open wheelers bump, the results can be quite spectacular:


I leave it to you if that fits your defintion of a champion.

I was just asking a question James and put a bit of humor in my reply. I guess it's safe to say you don't like MS?

[Gedanken]

Whatever gave you that idea, Paul?

Originally Posted by Gedanken

Maybe I could do a Murray Walker:

"And it's Yoong in the lead! Alex Yoong is leading this grand prix!
.
.
.
.
No, wait, I stand corrected, it's a Ferrari in the lead".

Some Walkerisms:

Unless I am very much mistaken, I AM VERY MUCH MISTAKEN!

Anything can happen in formula 1 and it usually does.

"Alboreto has dropped back up to fifth place"

"As you look at the first four, the significant thing is that Alboreto is 5th"

"This is an interesting circuit because it has inclines, and not just up, but down as well."

"Only a few more laps to go and then the action will begin, unless this is the action, which it is."

"This has been a great season for Nelson Piquet, as he is now known, and always has been"

"And the first five places are filled by five different cars."

"...the lead is now 6.9 seconds. In fact it's just under 7 seconds"

"Tambay's hopes , which were nil before, are absolutely zero now."



"I can't imagine what kind of problem Senna has. I imagine it must be some sort of grip problem"

"He is shedding buckets of adrenalin in that car"

"It's raining and the track is wet"

"And theres just a few more corners for Nigel Mansell to go to win the Canadian Grand Prix...and...he's going rather slow....HE'S STOPPING HE'S STOPPING!"

"and this is the third placed car about to lap the second placed car"

[Rto]

Originally Posted by Gedanken

Frans, I'll make no secret of my view of Schumacher as a cheating scumbag, what with Adelaide 1994 and Jerez 1997. Yes, other drivers have forced their opponents out of the way before, but actually ramming them is going too damned far. This guy is NOT a champion.

Performance? What performance? Schumacher's feared "chop" wasn't a problem when he was trying to pull it on the really good drivers back in the early 90's. Senna drove right round him like it never happened, and the old hands like Mansell and Prost shrugged it off - that's saying a lot about the standard of driving when Schumacher was running away with the goodies and everybody was bleating about the chop.

And what the hell kind of 7-time WDC (choke!) needs a tail gunner who pulls over for him at the last lap?!

It's not Schumacher behind all of those stats. It's Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne, who put together a series of damned good cars and race strategies. Look at what happened last year when Schumacher finally DIDN'T get a car that was the class of the field - he flip-flopped about until he got the gift of a 6-car race. Even with the substandard MP 4/8, Senna managed to take 5 wins when straight-line speed didn't count (Monaco, Adelaide, Donnington Park in the wet) - I don't see Schumacher doing anything like that.

I'll thank you to speak with some repect here, Frans. Maybe a lot of the Schumacher fanboys treat racing like pop music or movies, but I will not stand for you telling me in a condescending tone that I simply don't like the guy because that implies that I don't appreciate racing. Try telling John that he just doesn't like Lance Armstrong, or Al that he just doesn't like Simon Fairweather, and see if you'll make it as far as the door.

If you think he's so good, please present evidence. I personally see nothing that puts him in the same class as Senna, Clark, Moss or Fangio.

Does it makes you remember how "Magic" it was??

[Launch Mini]

FYI, one of my clients is a huge racing fan, He has ( and i've seen) a piece of Hills car from that crash, signed by both Scum & Hill....

[Rto]

Originally Posted by Launch Mini

FYI, one of my clients is a huge racing fan, He has ( and i've seen) a piece of Hills car from that crash, signed by both Scum & Hill....

Cool! There is a nice store in Toronto that sells some memorabilia and the owner is a nice guy as well.
I'm a huge fan of Senna and F1 as well...Gilles Villeneuve was one of the serious guys out there...crazy crazy!!

[Gedanken]

Yeah, after a long dry spell, we're about due for the next great racer to come along. It could be Alonso (although he played it way too safe last year), and Rosberg's looking very promising right now.

Originally Posted by Rto

Cool! There is a nice store in Toronto that sells some memorabilia and the owner is a nice guy as well.
I'm a huge fan of Senna and F1 as well...Gilles Villeneuve was one of the serious guys out there...crazy crazy!!

I know that shop well and have been in it numerous times. They have parts of cars going back 20+ years. There's a Lamborghini F1 V12 engine block set up as a glass-top table! They have dozens of top driver's helmets including the one you see in my avatar. During his career, Gilles only wore 12 helmets, and the dude running the store said they wouldn't think of entertaining an offer unless it started above US$50,000! They also have a Gilles firesuit, and helmets from any top driver you can name in F1, CART and even NASCAR, over the past 30 years.