Is 1:48.6 fast for Buttonwillow?
 

The RX7 Forums are a flutter over this guys run at a time attack final shootout at Buttonwillow. The only car faster was a HKS sponsored Evo.


I car video.
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Is this truly a fast time or just fast for this event?

BTW That RX7 sounds LOUD!! Even for a Turbo.

Yea, for a bicycle. :)

J/K.

That's one of those clowns that used to be on TV. Apparently it's not that fast. ASCA stock car, 1.44. GT4 Porsche 1.29, BMW F1 1.02

I don't know. For a racing RX7 that sounds awfully quiet! You can most likely thank the turbo for that. I remember going to Lime Rock in 1980 for the IMSA races and hearing the GTU Mustangs. C&D recorded them as putting out an ear-splitting 133 dBA at 50 feet (it was still louder inside the car!). Mazda always claimed that it was a hum, but sure sounded like a painfully loud buzz to me.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1195174080.jpg

Buttonwillow has something like 20 configurations, so its hard to compare those times against the Mazda. For reference, I do 2:00-2:01s on my slow Aprilia RS250 on the same configuration as the Mazda, so yeah, that's moving along pretty good. I believe Jack O does 1:31s-1:32s at Willow Springs, which is what I do on the Aprilia. So, by that measure, this Mazda is much, much faster than Jack O's 3.6 longhood.

Just checked around and found that a very fast lap in a Formula Atlantic is 1:41.

Not that I know anything about racing compared to the rest of you guys,

But I know that Jackie Stewart says to not apply the power in the corner until you wont have to turn it off again. This guy is on/off/on/off.

I am no expert but I can say that Turbo Rotaries are a different monster. You cannot let the fire go out sort of speak. He most likely has a huge turbo on that thing and he needs to get back on the gas early to spool it up. Therefore it may come online too early and he will have to back off of it. Also, because those cars are a perfect 50% F-R balance he can use the throttle a lot to get it where it needs to go.

There were comments on the RX7 forums his turn in looked wrong, but it seems they were fighting with under steer all weekend so he was adapting his style to make the car respond.

The owner said they left a few seconds on course due to some mechanical glitches and the under steer issues, they felt they could have taken out the HKS Evo and they were an independent team not a factory one like HKS.

Jackie's got a very valid strategy and it's worked well for him and certainly contributed to his smooth style. By the same token, watch and listen closely to to an Ayrton Senna video and you'll notice that he would generally be on and off the throttle in a series of micro-adjustments through-out a long corner. Prost and Schumacher I believe tend more towards the Stewart model, while Alesi and Mansell I think tended more towards Senna. Some examples...

Jim Clark (from whom Jackie learned a lot of his style. Note that the sound track doesn't always match the video.)
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Jackie Stewart as described. Even in the first two corners you can see how and hear how he smoothly brakes in a straight line and applies the power from the apex out.
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Now here he also is at Monaco. You can hear how his throttle application is one smooth "swoop" of acceleration from the apex out.
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Now here's Senna on his classic Monaco qualifying lap. If you listen closely to the engine note through the long left at Massenet and the hairpins, you can hear him constantly "goosing" the throttle throughout the turns. The result is that he's constantly hurrying the car through the turns using the throttle.
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Prost going around the same circuit in the turbo R30B (More power, less traction) is much closer to the Stewart style of driving
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Now here's Schumacher. From the apex out he's seems to me to be definitely of the Stewart/Prost school of driving, but where he's different is that he attacks the entry a lot harder, rolling a lot more speed down to the apex. You can see how his entries seem to be tighter then Stewart's or Prost's.
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Each style can be fast, and I'm not trying to advocate one over the other. The trick is to maximize the performance of the car with the strategy that you chose to use.