Old In-Car 240Z Vids

[kthomas]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwNKw9hsZgw

One lap around Charlotte Motor Speedway in Chet Wittel's ITS 240Z. Also by the same poster you should be able to find a lap around the old Road A, the current Road A, and Roebling Road, with driver's Chet Wittel, Paul Reckert, and Yours Truly. I think the current Road A lap might be the last lap of Chet's ARRC victory against Sylvain Trembley. Anyway, it's old VHS we converted to digital a number of years ago so the quality sucks, but hey, its a Z on a race track.

[Andy Bettencourt]

Heaven.

[JeffYoung]

HOLY CRAP -- the last lap of the ARRC in 01 is amazing!

So Tremblay was leading? Who is the Z who loses it trying to pass you guys in 10? Is that John Williams?

That was a masterful move in 5 when Tremblay caught the lapped Z car at the wrong time. Your driver then had white RX7 on his BUMPER the whole way home. Got all squirrelly coming to the flag too.

GREAT race. Was it Tremblay-Whittel-Williams for most of the race?

[jmark]

Thanks Keith. Great stuff.

[[email protected]]

As I recall Chet had help getting squirley. Near the end, I was the Z they caught in 10 A and B, #23, got out of the way as best as I could.

Mike

[kthomas]

HOLY CRAP -- the last lap of the ARRC in 01 is amazing!

So Tremblay was leading? Who is the Z who loses it trying to pass you guys in 10? Is that John Williams?

That was a masterful move in 5 when Tremblay caught the lapped Z car at the wrong time. Your driver then had white RX7 on his BUMPER the whole way home. Got all squirrelly coming to the flag too.

GREAT race. Was it Tremblay-Whittel-Williams for most of the race?
[/b]

Yeah that was John Williams. Oops. The white RX-7 was David Haskell. Trembley was in the silver car.

The 10 laps prior was just as good. Chet qualified 3rd, behind the two Speedsource cars of Trembley and Haskell (I think David was on the pole). After a few laps we had a full course caution for an incident in turn 1. Coming up to the bridge for the restart Chet felt something in the tranny and thought we had lost 4th gear. So on the restart he cruised down the front straight whilst half or more of the field passed him. Going up turn 1 he calls me back on the radio and says he has 4th gear back. By then we were in about 11th place and 14 seconds behind with about 14 laps to go and Seth Thomas, Williams, Haskell, Trembley, and a few other top notch folks in front of us. I told him to forget about how far behind we were and just focus on each lap. Best drive I've ever seen.

[Ron Earp]

Awesome! RA drive is the best vid I've seen!

Almost got sideways on the checker, classic.

What the heck was that red Z doing?

Ron

[kthomas]

I think he driving the rear view mirror and forgot where he was.

[dspillrat]

HI Guys,
Keith, Thanks for letting us know about the video of the old layout....."Back in the day" did you guys run a 3.54 at road atlanta? Couple extra gear shifts from turn 7 suggest it.

Awesome videos!!!

David Spillman

[kthomas]

HI Guys,
Keith, Thanks for letting us know about the video of the old layout....."Back in the day" did you guys run a 3.54 at road atlanta? Couple extra gear shifts from turn 7 suggest it.

Awesome videos!!!

David Spillman
[/b]

Yeah, we pretty much ran a 3.54 everywhere but Daytona. Turn 7 was 2nd gear. Unless you were Thomas Thorman, the yellow "Z Service Unlimited" car in some of the older video. He ran an illegal 5 speed....

God I miss the old Road A. Life begins under the bridge, 3rd gear, foot on the floor, passenger mirror scraping the concrete wall to the inside, the sound of 107db (we got 108 back then) from our twin megaphone exhaust reverberating as you pass under, blind apex hoping it stays stuck on the other side, down shift to 4th halfway down the hill, foot on the floor turn in at that little patch in the road that used to be there...man that was what separated the men from the boys. If you scared the Starter enough to see him backing up you must have hit it just about right...

&*%$# Panoz. I like clean bath rooms and all, but God I miss the dip and the bridge and turn 12.

[Ron Earp]

Yeah, we pretty much ran a 3.54 everywhere but Daytona. Turn 7 was 2nd gear. Unless you were Thomas Thorman, the yellow "Z Service Unlimited" car in some of the older video. He ran an illegal 5 speed....


[/b]

You guys running 14" or 13" wheels? I assume 14".

I've got a 3.90 that might be a bit steep, but, it was what could be put in the car and get it running in the shortest amount of time.

Thomas figured nobody would notice the upshift to fifth? Come on.....

Never raced at RA so I don't guess I'll ever experience the good old days. Seems a lot of folks are not fond of the new layout though. I've seen those comments on about every car forum I've ever been on, and that is a fair amount.

3.54.......

R

[kthomas]

You guys running 14" or 13" wheels? I assume 14".

I've got a 3.90 that might be a bit steep, but, it was what could be put in the car and get it running in the shortest amount of time.

Thomas figured nobody would notice the upshift to fifth? Come on.....

Never raced at RA so I don't guess I'll ever experience the good old days. Seems a lot of folks are not fond of the new layout though. I've seen those comments on about every car forum I've ever been on, and that is a fair amount.

3.54.......

R
[/b]

3.54 was old track. 3.90 for new track with 225/50-14 tires, and if you get off of 7 good you're looking at 7400 rpm before braking for 10a.

That's how we caught him, counting shifts.

[[email protected]]

Yea, I saw Thorman coming by me as I crested the rise at the turn 8 station, as I was shifting to forth. I saw and heard that he was already in 4th. As he pulled away towards the turn 9 station, I saw the bumper dip for the 4-5 shift. I went home and wrote a spreadsheet looking at all the possible rear end gears that would work for that and came up with nothing. Then I heard the results of the protest a couple weeks later. Special rockers, and an ultra-close 5 speed. No doubt he can drive, and the motor I was running then was a warmed over stocker, so I expected to get beat on the straights, but man that car was fast!!!