From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.advocacy
On Monday, December 18, 2023 at 12:36:28 PM UTC-8, Wally J wrote:
I knew you never read their seminal papers, so you have no clue whom they studied, just like Alan Baker is a liar that he teaches racing since he doesn't even know the difference between a bimmer and a beamer (which grew up as racing terms) just as nospam constantly claims imaginary apps for iOS that don't exist, just as Alan Baker always claims every fact is a lie,
Let's talk a little about lying and who is actually "only speaking facts". Since "Arlen" is too cowardly to engage he has kill-filed my usual posting ID, I'm using this other account of mine for just this post.
Arlen claims I can't really be a racer, or a race driving instructor, or even own a BMW 135i because I once facetiously said:
"I'm interested in driving cars fast, and I own a BMW. I'm not sure what
a "bimmer" or "beemer" means (or why you would use both terms)."
Well let's deal with that first. Here's a pic of my 2012 BMW 135i M Sport: <
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m8KvC7FNJ2D09Akwxt72keKHro2zP-55/view?usp=share_link>
With that out of the way, let's talk about my racing credentials. The whole thing started in 2011 because my family asked me what I wanted for my 50th birthday, and I said that I'd like a 3-day race driving school with Skip Barber. And in June of 2012, I took the 3-day Skip Barber course held at Laguna Seca outside Monterey California (and anyone who really knows racing knows "Laguna Seca" all you need to say; not "Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca" and certainly not "Weathertech Raceway Lagun Seca"). Some pictures.
Me in the car(taken as a part of a package you could opt for): <
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vo4L1aauvzukLdus3XlQbnxlijVSHf5I/view?usp=share_link>
And later, on the course (at the top of the iconic "Corkscrew"): <
https://drive.google.com/file/d/15adcI7cFc5YMkY4zE475AD5mH8_0E-8w/view?usp=sharing>
Even before the course was over—during my very first session on the actual track, I knew I had to buy a race car to continue, and by September, I had discovered that I could afford to buy a Formula Ford open wheel car.
I had always thought when we used to go to the races when I was around 8-12, that it was when the Formula Fords took to the track that we were seeing the first "real" racing cars. The sedan racing was fine (and I discovered only a couple of years ago that one of the guys I watched in sedans back then was now a fellow competitor in Formula F; as Formula Ford became with addition of the Honda "/Fit/" engine). And Formula Vees were SORT of real, but their VW roots were too much on display with the Beetle beam assembly out front. But when the Formula Fords came out, we were seeing a completely bespoke racing car where its only heritage from production cars was the engine and perhaps the uprights (off a Triumph usually). They looked like the younger brothers of the Formula One cars we would see later. No wings, and not as much power, but the family resemblance was clear.
So I got a great deal on a 1989 Van Diemen RF89 ("Special", as I was to learn later), which for $10.5K CAD came along with spare bits and pieces molds to make bodywork... ...and a trailer to transport it.
<
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1feiRykASv8mZD7O0KXn-62Go-KCQdHoE/view?usp=share_link>
<
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TNVpjA04UUyG6YBmDj7Y2w8eRI001nHB/view?usp=share_link>
But having only acquired the car in August of 2012, and it not yet being in race-ready condition, I needed something to keep me interested until I could get it on track for 2013. So I went back to Skip Barber for two of their advanced 2-day courses; one back and Laguna Seca, and then a second at Sebring (and another iconic track for the bucket list!). My performance in those courses earned me one of 33 spots (note the number) in the Skip Barber IndyCar Academy shootout, a part of the Mazda Road to Indy.
<
https://www.skipbarber.com/2013/01/16/skip-barber-racing-school-indycar-academy-field/>
Out of hundreds of their students, at age 51, I was the oldest in the field by 12 years.
(And let me just say that through my first 3-day school, and both 2-day schools, no one ever once used the word "catenary" 😉)
With my own car not yet ready, I rented a Formula Vee from my neighbour at the complex where I'd rented garage space to house my Van Diemen. Bob because a good friend and a mentor in those early days as he both ran a Formula Vee rental operation, and he had his own Formula Ford (a 1982 Reynard). And in that April race (as a novice, I only got to race Saturday), I qualified 5th out of the 9 FVs and finished 4th. Not bad for my first actual race (in the wet) in a car I'd never driven until that morning.
<
https://www.sccbc.net/data/results/byevent/20130413.pdf>
Then in May of 2013, in the rain, it was finally time to race my own car at Mission Raceway Park at the BC Historic Motor Races:
<
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Qu6KTNQnTDL_fcIVPDPf9foy1hrjzt46/view?usp=share_link>
And I'm pleased to say that I acquitted myself well; qualifying 6th, then passing two long-time Formula Ford racers and setting the 5th best lap time of the race.
<
https://www.bchmr.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Formula-Ford-Qualify-Results.pdf>
<
https://www.bchmr.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/FFord-FVee-Race-1-Results.pdf> From that beginning, I learned more about my car, and finally figured out out to make it handle better (it took a long time to believe the previous owner had screwed it up so very badly when I was so new to everything), and by the end of 2013, I won the SCCBC's "Novice Driver of the Year" award:
<
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kHaeqHmDY4pZbaZxmp8sgQit55DGU66i/view?usp=share_link>
And at the end of 2016, I was invited by the Race Drivers Committee (RDC) to become an instructor...
("Membership on the Race Drivers Committee is by invitation only. The committee is comprised of some of the best racers in British Columbia. Most committee members have won championships in their class while others have done consistently well over the years and have proven themselves capable of excelling in all race conditions.")
...and humbly accepted. From 2017 until now, I've been a certified race driving instructor of the regional governing body (the Confederation of Autosports Car Clubs) which gets its authority from Sports Development Ground, which in turn is the National Sporting Authority for motorsport with authority coming from the FIA. And just this last year, I was chairman of the RDC:
<
https://web.archive.org/web/20230422005048/https://www.sccbc.net/about-sccbc/race-drivers/>
I am something of a pack rat, so it was easy to find my last three years of racing credentials:
<
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1300s-RYBtkg9pI6e70NYNbHJ-TBBDUMj/view?usp=share_link>
So:
Just who has the facts on this subject?
And just to be clear: in all the time of spent being taught, racing, and teaching racing, never once has the term "catenary" come up. I realize that Arlen once read something somewhere that suggested that the curve that a racing car at the limit describes as it's going through a turn was a catenary (the curve created when a chain or rope hangs down between two supports), but it's not. In fact, the first part of the curve—from the end of braking down to the speed required to negotiate the turn until the corner's "midpoint" (a discussion of why it isn't actually the midpoint can wait for another day) is described best by a parabola. And if anyone wants to read my thoughts on how I came up with that claim, I'm more than happy to share.
Cheers.
--- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.114