Great Racing Confessions about Cheating - P Car Content

[asphaltgambler]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfq7-1ePW-M

P car stuff starts @ 3:40....................enjoy

[pwd72s]

Great fun! Thanks..

club racer to race steward: "That car is cheating!"

Steward: "How do you know?"

Club racer: "Because I'm cheating and he pulls me by 3 cars down the straight."

[Aerkuld]

Creative interpretation of the rules is what it's all about. It isn't what they say you can and can't do, it's what they don't say that matters.

Back in the IndyCar / CART days the engine rules said something to the effect that the valve springs must be steel, not titanium. At the time F1 were in the process of moving from titanium springs to pneumatic valve springs. Clearly titanium was out, but what the CART rules didn't say was that you weren't allowed to use something to 'help' the steel springs. The idea - design a head with sealed lifters which used compressed air from the turbo to assist the steel springs. It was a complete design but it was never actually built, although the logic seemed perfectly reasonable.

There's been so much stuff we heard about over the years as people moved from team to team. Some of it was blatant cheating, but most of it was being liberal with the interpretation of the rule book, and reading between the lines.

[legion]

That is great!

[masraum]

I'm 10 mins in. I wish this was an hour or two long. I'd read a whole book about this sort of thing.

[ckelly78z]

I like that they were sworn in on the bible of Smokey...the ultimate innovator/cheater.

[masraum]

Not on the same subject, but the same place/time, a seminar on the 956/962.

https://youtu.be/6jZV_npkx1w

[astrochex]

Should watch the whole thing. How about that Holley mod!

[Scott Douglas]

I liked that restrictor plate mod myself.

Thanks for sharing this with us.

[asphaltgambler]

Loved the part where only 2 cylinders were of spec displacement because everyone knew the tech guys would access those. The other 4? - a lot larger.....

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by asphaltgambler

Loved the part where only 2 cylinders were of spec displacement because everyone knew the tech guys would access those. The other 4? - a lot larger.....

Looking forward to watching. Only saw the fire extinguisher/nitrous portion.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by astrochex

Should watch the whole thing. How about that Holley mod!

I watched the whole thing and found myself wanting more, more, MORE!!!

I may watch it again.

At the end, there was a group that you could contact to get your own copy. If it wasn't ridiculously expensive and was a lot longer, I might consider that.

I think there may have been an email. I'll email them and ask about cost and length for both the unfair advantage seminar and the 956/962 seminar. I suspect they're going to want to recoupe their investment and are going to want a bunch of money.

[greglepore]

You guys should read "The Best Damned Garage in Town". By Smokey. big ego, but y'all won't be dissapointed.

[mattdavis11]

Loved it! Stories from those who didn't cheat, like Smokey, but skated the rules, are awesome. Reminds me of a DW story where they filled the roll cage with BBs and dumped them on the track. I think they got caught for being too light or too high post race though.

[Tobra]

Or they would jam rocks between the springs, so the car would ride high enough to pass tech, but would fall out after hitting a few bumps.

Smokey Yunick did not cheat, he just used the whole rule book. That guy was brilliant.

[greglepore]

Originally Posted by Tobra

Smokey Yunick did not cheat, he just used the whole rule book. That guy was brilliant.

Well, he did build an entire 9/10ths scale Chevelle...

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Cheating doesn't impress me, any idiot can cheat, only the cleverer idiots get away with it

Reading the rules and finding loopholes is a much more difficult game to play but writing rules is the hardest game of all

I worked at Honda when they were banned from three F1 races for cheating, know what went on, know who was responsible and know who knew about it. Only takes a couple of bad eggs to spoil a good omelette

Also worked at Ferrari, they had a reputation of cheating but I found they played the straightest game with regards to the rules than any other F1 team I'd worked for. Their secret was how they approached the rules and more importantly the way in which they asked for clarifications to get the answer the team wanted

Over the years I've had F1 rule clarifications from other teams (thank you Williams ) stop me from doing what I was doing and I've also found ways to do the same to competitors (sorry McLaren and Mercedes ). On one occasion I had to redesign a part but my redesign improved performance (thanks again Redbull ) It's all part of the game of distracting another team away from adding performance to their car

Stuff I've designed which didn't break any rules has also caused new rules to be created to stop our team doing what we were doing. Most effective example being the qualifying only Benetton F1 car, The ultimate endorsement for getting it right!

I've also been on the other side of the fence too, this was harder, was writing the cockpit safety rules for the F1 inshore powerboat world championship. Did this in my spare time while helping McLaren beat Porsche at Le Mans and the GT world championship. Well, until they exploited the rule book better than we did and started to homologated race cars for the road along with Mercedes instead of the other way around as the rule book intended

More recently I helped break the F3 European Championship with Lance Stroll in 2016. We didn't cheat just exploited the rule book in every way we could think of. Basically we attacked a restrictive, homologated championship using a F1 approach, like taking a machine gun to a knife fight, the other drivers/teams didn't stand a chance

[Brian 162]

Originally Posted by greglepore

Well, he did build an entire 9/10ths scale Chevelle...

The Chevelle also had ground effects on the bottom of the car, it was perfectly flat.
Yes the Smokey book is a good read.

[astrochex]

So, Captain, when is your book coming out?

[mattdavis11]

Originally Posted by astrochex

So, Captain, when are your books coming out?

Fixed that for you. He has a great yard home remodel going on now. Both would be great reads, time permitting.