Anatomy of a Racer: Only Elite Athletes Can Vanquish Rivals at Triple-Digit Speeds
Topic: Sports
2:27 pm EDT, Apr 30, 2008
Admit it: You think driving a race car is easy. With closed tracks and all that horsepower, who needs talent — let alone athletic prowess? But unless you've trained your heart like a distance runner, built your muscles like a football player, and conditioned your body to withstand 150-degree heat, you'd probably kill yourself and several bystanders by the third turn.
Dishing out inertial forces of up to 5 gs, racing is one of the most grueling tests your body can endure while seated. Success demands a rare ability to stay calm and focused for hours while piloting a screaming land rocket mere inches from other victory-obsessed psychos. The best way to prepare is in an actual race car on an actual racetrack. But track time costs tens of thousands of dollars a day. To keep fit without bankrupting their backers, drivers spend hours in front of simulators, log hundreds of human-powered miles, and go turbo at the gym. Here's a look at the anatomy of an auto racer.
I tried to do 60 minutes on-track @ full speed during a 90F degree day, while wearing long pants, a long sleeve t-shirt and race helmet. After 40 minutes I almost passed out. Then again I don't have the body of a heavy lifter, more like the body of a heavy reader.
It’s not quite the same type of hybrid drive-train you’d see in street vehicles, but in an exciting announcement, Max Mosely of F1 has announced that all cars will become hybrid by 2013, along with other changes to the vehicles.
The hybrid system that will be phased in is known as KERS, which stands for Kenetic Energy Recovery System. KERS doesn’t store as much energy as a traditional hybrid system, but it only weighs 55 pounds and the limited energy storage capacity is well suited for Formula-style racing.
The biggest difference between KERS and a regular battery-electric hybrid is that KERS stores recovered waste energy in a rotating flywheel. Instead of converting waste energy into electricity and than back into useful energy again with an electric motor, KERS simply transfers the kenetic energy to a ~5kg flywheel in the F1 car’s transmission. The energy stored in the flywheel can then be used by the driver by pushing a “boost” button.
Wanna see a 7ft tall Bearcat mascott stiff arm a bunch of 10 year old kids into the ground? These mascots sure don't seem like they're taking it easy on the kids.
Clearly, after the first day of practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix, it is going to be close between McLaren and Ferrari for the rest of the weekend. That is an obvious conclusion to a day that saw several teams running light to achieve apparently promising times.
Generally, the new surface at Sepang required some rethinking on set-up, but most drivers seemed content with the balance they achieved on Bridgestone’s hard and medium tyres; the major problem for some was in getting the best out of them over a single lap, ready for qualifying.
McLaren Lewis Hamilton, 1m 36.626s, P5/1m 35.055s, P1 Heikki Kovalainen, 1m 36.556s, P3/1m 36.512s, P7 McLaren did not rise to the bait this morning as Ferrari set the pace, and for most of the afternoon the red cars continued to rule. But then Hamilton put on the softer tyres and got going for lap times. He was happy with his MP4-23’s consistent pace. His only real problem was with the gear selection at the end of the morning session, but it did not require a change of unit as was first thought. Kovalainen was the faster runner in the morning, and felt he had made a steady start to his weekend as he made progress with chassis set-up.
Ferrari Felipe Massa, 1m 35.392s, P1/1m 35.206s, P2 Kimi Raikkonen, 1m 36.459s, P2/1m 35.428s, P3 Ferrari set the pace all morning, and for most of the afternoon. Massa was fastest in the former, after Raikkonen rolled to a halt after a misunderstanding over fuel load saw him run short. Both drivers said they were happy with the F2008’s performance over a lap on both tyre compounds, though Massa reported that he could not get the best out of his second set of soft tyres in the afternoon when he was upstaged by Hamilton.
On a day that Ferrari might prefer to forget, McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton opened his 2008 world championship challenge by grabbing pole position for the Australian Grand Prix from a super-impressive Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber.
First F1 grand prix of 2008 tonight at mid-night! (EST)
Doors @ 4pm Game 1 @ 5pm, Game 2 @ 7pm New Location - IN TOWN! Yaarab Shrine Center on Ponce de Leon!
March 8 Denim Demons vs. Toxic Shocks Apocalypstix vs. Blue Ridge Rollergirls April 12 Toxic Shocks vs. Sake Tuyas ARG All-Stars vs. Tampa Bay Derby Darlins May 10 Apocalypstix vs. Sake Tuyas Denim Demons vs. Inland Empire Derby Divas June 14 Sake Tuyas vs. Denim Demons Toxic Shocks vs. Visitor July 12 Denim Demons vs. Apocalypstix ARG All-Stars vs. Fort Wayne Derby Girls August 9 Toxic Shocks vs. Apocalypstix Sake Tuyas vs. Hard Knox RG (East TN) September 20 Grudge Match: Battle for 3rd & 4th Home Teams Championship
The Pittsburgh Penguins added to their impressive stable of forwards Tuesday, obtaining All-Star Marian Hossa from the Atlanta Thrashers
Hossa, who was unable to come to terms on a new contract agreement with Atlanta, joins a potent offensive attack that already includes young superstars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, who currently is tied for the league lead in scoring with 82 points.
"I'm really looking forward to joining this group," Hossa said. "You look at the centermen and you have Sid, Malkin and (Jordan) Staal. They are some really strong, great young players. They have good goaltending and good moving defensemen. They create lots of offense. I am really looking forward to playing with these guys."
I went to the Thrasher's game last night. They beat the Penguins 3-2 in a shoot out. After the winning goal they played this movie clip on the big screen.
Really?! That is your go to celebratory movie clip!? Frick'in hilarious. At that moment I still felt like a winner being a Pens fan.
