What's to "Hate" about a Prius? I get 66 mpg avg right now. I can plug mine in and make it to work and back without using gas either. I have solar panels so I complete the loop when I charge my car with sun power. Oh yeah my car can power my house in a power outage or crisis. Maybe someday we will see a hybrid at Indy, completely changing fuel strategy. But I also think the DW is ugly
Yea, I used to really hate Prii before I bought one. I got transferred, was working 2 miles from where I live and it went to a much longer commute on a freeway that was always stop and go. Got a new Prius with the carpool plates and love it. Only gets 47 mpg because I pretty much drive it hard, but it's comfortable, adequately fast, and saves me a ton of time and money.
Interesting...an Indycar concept that will now run in another series and will generate worldwide attention is now forcibly ignored by Indycar people. It's a racer that many on the Indy forum love to hate and always generates lots of posts...yet it is shunned to the ALMS board where threads quickly disappear.
By the way, I'd read on another site that a trackside observer at Sebring hand timed a lap that would have placed the DW about 12th on the grid. The Highcroft site gives fairly regular updates as test progress on European tracks. Not too bad for a car that many "engineering experts" claimed could not possibly turn at speed.![]()
You get 47 mpg because you haven't learned the Prius shuffle, how to "roll" through stop signs, "extend" redlights, coast "above" the speed limit even in towns, "coasting" downhill on the interstate no matter what lane you're in and not restarting till you hit 50 mph.......it's all about "extending" the driving and trying to get run over, and when it happens it's quite ugly.![]()
Katharine's Legge is in the gravel!--Jenks
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12-7-1941 Never, Never Forget 9-11-2001
Yea, I suck at all that. It's just not in my genes. I have always had muscle cars in the past and have always driven "briskly." I still have my 06 Vette, but it sits in the garage most of the time now. I tried the hypermiling techniques you describe and found myself fretting over it all the time. Especially since my boss has one and gets better mileage than I do. You are right, it's about maintaining momentum along with doing the pulse and glide technique. I finally turned off the avg mpg screen and now I just drive it. At the end of the day I still get almost 50 mpg which saves me a ton of money. I've also taken it to San Diego and to LA (just took it to the LBGP) and I got 45 mpg on the trips going 80 on the interstates. Great little car.
EDIT: If the Delta Wing can be shown to be very competitive, then it's not going to be that ugly to me anymore. I'd really like to see some lap times on the European tracks. I'll look on the Highcroft site.
It's not good looking. That's the point. We'll see if it actually proves it's point in France.
********. All that would happen with free rules is that only theme would be more for more. More power, bigger tires, wider cars, bigger wings. The Delta Wing isn't just about lighter weight, it's about less being more. The engine, ceteris paribus, would only be remotely competitive in WTCC and F3 or lower categories. The front tires are smaller than FFord tires.
What I don't get is the fact that the most vocal of the detractors are the short track USAC set. This would have been the silver bullet for spridget drivers, as it would have legitimately, not artificially, cost a fraction of what it used to to run at Indy, and it could have taken a road car engine at the back. The DeltaWing could literally have been run out of a garage, and had it been given leeway at Indy, it could have been run very competitively.
"It takes a special level of incompetance to make a schedule this terrible. America is possibly the greatest country in the world overall for tracks. To make a bad schedule in America takes effort. A special kind of effort. A kind of effort that only IndyCar could come up with."
"The series may be hesitant to say it, but the day is here for everybody that loves IndyCar racing to link arms and help each other out. Anybody who doesn’t want to do that needs to find something else to do with their time.”
-- Eddie Gossage, President, Texas Motor Speedway, ICONIC Advisory Committee & TrackForum member
This is what I found the most interesting aspect of the DW design. It originated back when there was some momentum for the FIA, 4 cylinder global engine spec. To allow all those possible manufacturers to play, the DW incorporated a non-stressed engine, and to still meet the laptimes desired by most gearheads they had to focus on less is more, less weight, less drag, etc.
In that manner its a fascinating design, that could have had amazing repurcussions on the racing industry. Now its just a design excercise, but it'll be entertaining to watch none the less.
Yea, the Delta Wing is a very interesting experiment that could radically change auto racing. But there are 2 things I don't like. First, the looks, it looks too much like a Bonneville car. Second, it hits me as an ECO car, not a race car. If they had gone for the ultra lightweight, but instead of a 300 hp street engine installed a 700 hp engine, then I would have been extremely interested. Make something that is a lot faster than what we have now and you have my vote!
If you ask me, the Delta Wing embodies the original spirit and purpose of the Indianapolis 500 - to develop and test new ideas and new techonology. I wish I could find the first story I read about it, I think it was in Racer. The idea was to throw everything out the window and re-think the idea of what a race car can and should be in the 21st century. The concepts behind today's Indy car design have been in place since the late '70s. The ideas have been refined considerably, but differences seem to me to be more in degree than in kind.
The Delta Wing is unlike anything we've seen before. All of a sudden, there's a car that breaks the mold and could help develop ideas regarding efficiency, design and materials that would have an application to the automobile industry beyond the marketing department. I don't know about others, but it has captured my imagination unlike anything I can remember. It is far more exciting than the promise of different aero kits in Indy cars, or the ground-breaking use of fuel injection in NASCAR.
I ain't quiet, everybody else is too loud.
The Delta looks sinister and purposeful in those testing photo's. To me, it looks racier than the DW12....which I'm trying to like but still looks like it's dragging a really fat a**.![]()
I'm very interested to see how this thing goes. Sure, it may not be the best looking rig out there, but the key behind this whole project is supposed to be efficiency. While everyone else is in the pits, these guys are still circulating...
Good luck to Highcroft Racing this weekend! I'll be watching.
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