2/23: Inside of Earnhardt car

[Undertoad]

Doesn't look like the inside of a death vehicle.

[tw]

As long as passenger compartments remain intact, then passengers should not be killed. This was demonstrated before WWII (a famous airplane crash in TX involving Jennys began that discovery). It is not car damage that determines death rates. It is what the human hits inside a car; if the human remains inside the car.

This is the joke about SUVs - designed to 'look' safe - they are some of the most dangerous vehicles on the road and some of the last vehicles you want to be inside during inclement weather.

NASCAR is a slow racer by racing standards. Energy increases exponentially as speed increases. Whereas NASCAR at 180 MPH might have 324 energy units per pound, Indy racers will have 576 energy units per pound. Therefore Indy cars should have substantially higher injury and death rates. But Indy is racing by innovators. NASCAR is racing by the 'fast profit in cigarette and booze' philosphy. CART, Formula 1, etc don't have the injury and death rates of NASCAR because innovation and safety are important to those other circuits. NASCAR shares the concepts of Winston tobacco pushers - ie. the Winston Cup.

[russotto]

Comparing a NASCAR car to a CART car is a bit ridiculous. They're entirely different designs. Earnhardt apparently died not due to tobacco (also a sponsor of CART), nor alcohol, nor to a lack of innovation, but due to a harness that broke.

[tw]

Originally posted by russotto
Comparing a NASCAR car to a CART car is a bit ridiculous. They're entirely different designs. Earnhardt apparently died not due to tobacco (also a sponsor of CART), nor alcohol, nor to a lack of innovation, but due to a harness that broke.

I see. CART does not use harnesses? Therefore a harness broken harness in a CART car kills noone? Phoeey. CART harnesses must handle almost twice the energy levels of a NASCAR racer AND don't fail.

The cars are "entirely different designs" that happen to race on the same tracks, ride four wheels, powered by piston engines, steering wheel manipulated by a human driver.... Different designs that do the same thing - except NASCAR does it slower. NASCAR races with less energy (lower speeds), provide greater separation between the driver and concrete/asphalt, drop more responsibility on a driver to check out and replace his safety equipment AND, ... have higher fatalities than all other big racing circuits combined.

Earnheardt death was accurately traced directly to NASCAR attitude - especially recent changes designed to increase conjestion and crashes. Harnesses don't break on their own. It takes human failure to have a harness break in a race.

[russotto]

CART uses harnesses. F1 uses harnesses. IndyCar uses harnesses. And yes, NASCAR uses harnesses. They very rarely break. There's been some talk that Earnhardt had his mounted in a non-standard way, at his own order -- in which case, there was human failure, and the human responsible has paid for it in full.

Despite the fact that CART and NASCAR cars are both cars, and piston-powered at that, they really are very different designs, as a casual glance will tell you. They're not even made from the same materials. Often they are not racing on the same tracks; in fact, a check of Daytona's website reveals there are no CART events there.

[Undertoad]

What is CART?

In central PA where I grew up, there are local races on dirt tracks, with smallish cars that look entirely home-built. It's big events for the brainless locals. Sometimes you see these events on ESPN2. I gotta think they air it just for the laughs.

[Scred]

CART is american pseudo F1 racing. much cheaper cars. consider indy cars actually having to make BOTH left and right turns, and you're about there.

of course, that's just my opinion, i could be wrong.

ps: hi tony! i tried to telnet into cellar.org. does that give you a clue how long ive been gone?

[sycamore]

Originally posted by Scred
CART is american pseudo F1 racing. much cheaper cars. consider indy cars actually having to make BOTH left and right turns, and you're about there.

Although tensions between CART and the IRL have cooled somewhat, the biggest complaint about the IRL cars (and one of the biggest reasons why Indy racing splintered into 2 groups) is because IRL used piece of shit cars/engines. For a while, they were only using Oldsmobile Aurora or Infiniti engines...and during that first year of the IRL, there were so many probs. I haven't followed the IRL much (as I dig NASCAR more), so hopefully things have gotten better.

And for the record, Indy itself is left turns only.

[Scred]

[quote]Originally posted by sycamore

And for the record, Indy itself is left turns only.

yes, indeed. exactly my point.

by the way, who is keeping this 'record' and for what is it being used? will there be prizes?

[Undertoad]

Originally posted by Scred
ps: hi tony! i tried to telnet into cellar.org. does that give you a clue how long ive been gone?

Heh! Welcome back, welcome o most heartily. As long as you don't try to call one of the old modem numbers!

[sycamore]

Originally posted by Scred
by the way, who is keeping this 'record' and for what is it being used? will there be prizes?

I will keep the "record" in a "lockbox" until a later date, perhaps armageddon. As for its purpose, hmmm...

(Actually, my apologies Scred. I misread your original post on that...my bad.)