June 14, 2011

Formula 1 at Watkins Glen

F1 at the Glen by Nathan Sunseri

Yup that's a recent spec McLaren F1 car running turn 11 at Watking Glen. The picture was posted by Nathan Sunseri who was on hand to see the Mobil 1 organized promo event. Lewis Hamilton and Tony Steward swapped a tight F1 for a big NASCAR . It's going to be shown on SpeedTV later tonight.. 2:10 for the NASCAR..really?

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14 comments:

  1. 2:10??? something's wrong with that. in my nearly stock 135i on street tires, i ran a 2:30 last month

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  2. maybe Lewis could not reach the pedals. :)

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  3. Timing completely anecdotal btw...just what went along with the picture on fb. Iperhaps Lewis was just cruising looking for someone to hit? :) sorry could not resist

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  4. Fastest time in iRacing with the laser scanned WG and Williams FW31 (2010) is a 1:18.7 with the boot (as accurate a F1 car and track simulated to public, track accuracy is down to 1mm). Its ridiculously fast track to race on with a modern F1 car, you enter the esses at 160mph and exit at the top at 180, maxing at 204 100m before the bus stop.

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  5. @AC

    It's not a 'NASCAR'. NASCAR is a sanctioning body, not a type of racecar. Drives me nuts when people refer to a racecar as a NASCAR. That's completely wrong.

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  6. @UHHUH, you are right but NASCAR car sounds funny :)

    so fastest Lewis time on the car with a roof was 2:11 and change and that was on an essentially dry track. Tracktards not likely to be impressed... I can run 2:11 laps with the MCoupe, the group 52 trucker guys regularly run sub 2 minutes and that's with used parts!

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  7. Lewis was also on rain tires, only got 3 or 4 timed laps in a car he has never driven, and looks like he spent most of them having fun and drifting on corner exit...lol I dont think any of his timed laps are anything close to what could be done.

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  8. According to the qualifying results from Watkins Glen in 2010 qualifying times were around 70-73 seconds for the top Nascar drivers at that race.

    Use your brain AC, if Hamilton ran 2min 11sec (approx 131 seconds) he was more than likely just having a good time and feeling out the car, not going for the fastest lap possible.

    Trust me when I say this...your Mcoupe's engine has nothing on the engines that are utilized in these cars. On a high speed track like the Glen, you would be left for dead on the straights.

    Hamilton was probably just having fun, get off his nuts.

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  9. Just found the video on youtube and it looks like the track was wet and temperatures were very cold.

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  10. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsrYLNRn-MY

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  11. Yes, clearly Hammy was just cruising around looking for someone to hit :)

    Hey, all I'm saying was that the lap times were unimpressive, based on what people usually run at teack days. Hell, Axis Adil did 2:11 with his GT 3 in limp mode!

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  12. Oh and of course, NASCAR runs the shout course, not the full 11 turn track

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  13. Ahhhhh, I didn't realize that AC. If he was on the short course and he was still running 2:11 (a comparable time to a GT3 in limp mode on the long course?) then that is kind of eh.

    Kind of like Infineon, from what I've found they run the SHORT course and a stock Audi R8 is only a second slower on the FULL course.

    The only thing I could think of is that they said Hamilton was on rain tires.

    Rain tires + solid rear axle + 850bhp / 650tq = slow lap times.

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  14. I think he was just having fun. It's a great opportunity to grease some palms and let his hair down, so to speak. I thought it was great, who knew Lewis could drive a stick? Haha, just kidding!

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