ROC

[point n squirt]

Race of champions today Motors Tv team Scotland Coultard and Wolff that's us out 1st then

[campbell]

Was hoping to watch but

A) am at Thomasland

B) don't have Motors TV

Any way to watch on demand later?

[duggiesmith]

Thanks for the reminder.

[tut]

It was boring.

Did not know that the Atom weighed 1214kg......

tut

[j2 lot]

Pretty sure it is lighter than that ( although V8 is obviously going to be heavier so maybe it's that version)

[tut]

Atom Cup Car is 550kg and standard power spec as the road car running 245hp.

tut

[Mikie711]

Race of champions today Motors Tv team Scotland Coultard and Wolff that's us out 1st then

Turned out to be quite the opposite, but then the driver line up was very weak this year. Never the less well done to Suzzi and David

[graeme]

ROC was a good laugh, I thought. Loved Grosjean in those mental trucks with the inside front wheel up in the air. Tom Kristensen was on fine form, gritted teeth full attack runs in the Atom... he wasn't winning races; he was annihilating people! Total legend, and easily the fastest driver of the weekend, but when you're out you're out, and DC was fast all weekend too.

Great selection of cars too... the R8 V10 LMs sounded epic on launch control, the VW Polo Rallycross cars with 600bhp were MENTAL (want want want), Atom Cups were suitably sideways, those truck things were bonkers... all good fun.

Wolff... hmmm. "Not my day" she wrote on Twitter... yeah, that's the understatement of the year! She gets to go home with a runners-up trophy for the nations cup (and has already tweeted pics of her holding it and a space on the trophy cabinet at home ), despite her winning absolutely NOTHING all weekend. Every round was the same: Wolff loses her race, totally outclassed. DC wins his race, then DC has to go out and win the tie-breaker while Wolff cheers from the pits like it's a team effort! Ah well, she's hot and Scottish and clad in Martini colours, so

[BigD]

ROC was a good laugh, I thought. Loved Grosjean in those mental trucks with the inside front wheel up in the air. Tom Kristensen was on fine form, gritted teeth full attack runs in the Atom... he wasn't winning races; he was annihilating people! Total legend, and easily the fastest driver of the weekend, but when you're out you're out, and DC was fast all weekend too.

Great selection of cars too... the R8 V10 LMs sounded epic on launch control, the VW Polo Rallycross cars with 600bhp were MENTAL (want want want), Atom Cups were suitably sideways, those truck things were bonkers... all good fun.

Wolff... hmmm. "Not my day" she wrote on Twitter... yeah, that's the understatement of the year! She gets to go home with a runners-up trophy for the nations cup (and has already tweeted pics of her holding it and a space on the trophy cabinet at home ), despite her winning absolutely NOTHING all weekend. Every round was the same: Wolff loses her race, totally outclassed. DC wins his race, then DC has to go out and win the tie-breaker while Wolff cheers from the pits like it's a team effort! Ah well, she's hot and Scottish and clad in Martini colours, so

In all you said.

Suzy was average at best..........

DC was excellent and those Polo rally cars looked great fun.

I was also impressed by how good the Barbadian? drivers were.

[graeme]

I also enjoyed watching the circuit style (neat and tidy) vs rally style (sideways) head to head. We all know a neat racing line is faster, yet watch any rally tarmac stage and it's still heaps of handbrake and rotation around the nose at the hairpins. Why do so many rally drivers go sideways on tarmac when it's definitely not quicker on paper? Is it their lack of adaptability, or is it dictated by car set up? Genuine question if anyone knows.

[Dominic]

I also enjoyed watching the circuit style (neat and tidy) vs rally style (sideways) head to head. We all know a neat racing line is faster, yet watch any rally tarmac stage and it's still heaps of handbrake and rotation around the nose at the hairpins. Why do so many rally drivers go sideways on tarmac when it's definitely not quicker on paper? Is it their lack of adaptability, or is it dictated by car set up? Genuine question if anyone knows.

I think it's the rally driver approach. On gravel / ice - loose surfaces they need to get the car sliding and drifting, means they can carry more speed without understeering off. On tighter tarmac corners (tight hairpins) it pays to hand brake the car and rotate it quickly, but in my opinion, on the faster tarmac stuff, neat and tidy is quicker. Good example of this would be my experience of autotests Vs autosolos - the autotests are tight and twisty and require a lot of handbrake turns and throwing the car around. Recently I have done a few autosolos which are more open, faster and flowing. Lewis turned up at an autosolo event last December in his VX220, and I persuaded him to join in and have a go. As he was new to it he just drove neatly and swiftly. Meanwhile, I was in autotest mode and was going for big drifts etc, and was a lot more dramatic, but was also slower. Lewis beat me! Interestingly, another former British Champion pal was there, and he too was struggling. His brother (a KH instructor) was pointing out that his approach (and mine) was wrong - we were over driving it, like the rally boys do on tarmac. The truly great drivers have the skill to adapt from one type of vehicle / driving style to another with ease. That's one of the things that makes ROC so interesting. IMHO.

[GBOBM]

The skills test was just like an autosolo test wasn't it?

I was watching it thinking that I could have done better than a lot of them.

[graeme]

I was just about to say the same thing... the reverse of the "rally drivers suck on circuits" was clearly demonstrated to be "circuit drivers suck at autotest stuff". Understeer, spins, finding reverse in a hurry, getting out a pushing... DC gave up completely and turned it into a donut exhibition.

[I-Mac]

The principle behind the racing line is to maximise the speed around & out of a corner. That speed would decrease the tighter the car turns so by turning the car less (via the racing line) that speed can be optimised allowing the car to maintain a maximum apex and exit speed. Ultimately if a car was to achieve the very maximum cornering speed for a given corner, then the driver would be unable to adjust the attitude of the car to tighten the turn in any way as the grip and slip angle already applied to the tyres would be at their very maximum.

The reason that rally drivers enter into the corners sideways on tarmac is the same as it is on gravel or M&S. It leaves the window of adaptability wider than it would in a “racing line”. The driver of a rally car would not know the corner in the same intimate way that a racing driver would know it. So entering some corners with the car unsettled allows the driver to adjust the attitude of the car more easily should the corner be slightly tighter than they thought or should the road surface change. Rally drivers really don’t know where they are going and are relying on their co-drivers to tell them information on the tightness of a corner, shape of a corner and any hazards associated with a corner. Rally drivers will use racing lines where required, for example in single venue events where the corner can be seen and perhaps has been used several times on the same stage. On closed road stages (for example: Manx, Mull Jim Clark etc) where the corners are not generally reused in the same event the cars will be driven more like a gravel event…ie more sideways (cautiously?)…

[graeme]

Makes sense, Iain.