Quote:
Originally Posted by M0nk3y
If re-watch the stream at all, Devin practically walks around the NC on the back straight every single time like it's standing still. Even within the draft the NC couldn't get to the bumper of the BRZ.
NC was by far a better driver, made amazing passes and yet still got driven around like it was nothing. Sorry, but the argument of BOP isn't valid when you look at the winning car....
Ironically though, if you look at every other FRS/86/BRZ - they couldn't easily motor around an NC, or RX8 for that matter. Kind of interesting observation and more holds true to your claim.
Then there is the whole pre-race footage of Techsports BRZ literally having it's entire front wheel buried underneath it's fender while everyone else is running standard heights. Isn't T4 fixed perch height with lowering springs?
So....what's the post-race inspection like?
|
For those who know, know that the BOP is sort of a running joke. No matter what car they drive, drivers think it favors the other guy. The parity is pretty good in T4 but really only on the big long tracks.
Devin is a smokin' fast driver and I disagree that Neudorf was out driving him - they both drove very well and Neudorf was in the catbird seat for 1 final attempt before the RX8 nabbed him. The 86 struggles with tire management compared to the others. The RX8 started from too far back and this was his first runoffs (I think) so I would pick him to win next year at Road America if he goes because it's BIGGER and tire management there will matter too. At long tracks the RX8 is fastest with great tire management while the NC is best under braking and apex speed and the 86 sort of in the middle. But that's at long tracks... Once the tracks get shorter (like under 3 miles), the 86 is arguably the worst of the 3 with challenging tire management. Keep in mind, all the cars are on 225 wide Hoosiers and are limited to -3.5 degrees of camber, yet only the 86 has macs.
Look at the Traps of the top 3: RX8: 126mph, 86: 124mph and NC: 122mph. A 2mph difference between the 86 and the NC is ONLY happening at the very tail end of that long straight and nowhere else. At medium tracks the NC will have the same Trap as an 86 but with all the advantages of less weight, better brakes and better tire utilization. Same applies for the RX8. I'm hoping the touring committee can find a way to create parity across different size tracks at some point, but that's frankly a very difficult thing to do.
The torque difference between the cars is minimal, yet the NC weighs 400lbs less AND has double wishbone suspension on the same tire, with the same camber. The RX8 has that great straightline performance but also has double A-arms like the NC and the advantage of 8" wide wheels. Wide wheels and Double Wishbones WORK GREAT with -3.5 degrees of camber.
The 86s have Mac Struts and are forced to run 7" wide wheels and a weird non-linear rear spring. There's a whole bunch of that tire that front tire that gets under utilized and at the end of 40 minutes they are mostly destroyed. This is why at tracks that aren't big wide tracks like VIR, the NC is dominant and if it wasn't for the demolition derby at Indy in 2021, John would not have even seen the podium. The decision by SCCA to do Runoffs at the same track 2 years in a row is asinine and the entry count was down this year as a result.
T4 allows a minimum ride height of 4.5" which is insanely low for the 86 and I'm as curious as anyone else why Devin ran the front so low and maybe it wasn't all that low, just appeared so - on these cars the front can looked really tucked without actually being super low if you don't run a lot of spacing on the front.
From my experience the post race inspection is a moving goal post. Only about half the time do they pull the engine on the winner. They will have a set agenda for things to inspect but beyond that they don't "look" for much else. So many cars, so many classes, so many rules - very tall order for any volunteer. Not a lot of protesting in the SCCA because it's very bureaucratic and burdensome to do so and doesn't happen enough.