Enough with the B.S

[tmcphail]

IMHO, 2nd place behind the Peak team is nothing to be ashamed of.
.

Good luck with that.

 

[2112]

Good luck with that.

:confused

Was somebody else inbetween the 2? If so, Mea culpa. :bored
.

 

[skyrex]

First if all, you never know if an ebay bid is real until the cash actual changed hands. A lot of people bid up their own cars through friends to make it look like there is action on the car. :thumbsdow Not saying this is what happened, but realize that it does occur.

There is no shame in coming in second if you can do it with class. It is a fast car and had a great accomplishment in March that was tarnished in my opinion by the boorish behavior they showed when faced with real competition. Life is about how you face adversity and to say they handled it poorly is the understatement of the century. FGT's deserve to be represented by a better person and I for one will be glad when he is out of our club of ownership.

As for safety, I am all for it. I have only done Mojave and the spectators were not allowed anywhere near the finish. I would like to do Texas in October after my upgrades for fun and to watch Ray take a run at history. But I do think some of the roll cage risk is mitigated by the fact that this is a race in a straight line with no other cars. Yes track cars have serious roll bar requirements because they are doing turns and racing against other cars. Losing a tire on a turn at high speed or doing a 180 and having the car behind you T-bone you is a bit different than losing a tire going in a relatively straight line.

 

[2112]

There is no shame in coming in second if you can do it with class.

Which is what I was trying to say. :wink
.

 

[HHGT]

My kids Tae Kwon Do master had a saying.

In competition "Second place is First Loser". In sparring we all take care of each other.

 

[ObeyMyFast!]

Wow, They are up to $175 K on ebay. :eek

IMHO, 2nd place behind the Peak team is nothing to be ashamed of.
.

There is a video on youtube with him saying it cost him 750k to build, including R&D costs.

He then mentioned that he could convert any other GT into something like his for about 300k :willy

I looked on his site... it looks like they're gonna try with a lambo?!?

 

[ChipBeck]

Don't forget to stop and.......

The other safety concern I have is spectators & photographers at the big end of the mile run. A car out of control at these speeds could be very hard to get out of the way of.

Steve

Steve,

The crowd line at the finish of the Texas Mile is over 400 feet from the runway. Airshows use a 500 foot crowd line for stunt planes going over 400 MPH and because no maneuvers can be directed toward the crowd, it is very safe. Since these current rules have been in place, (over 20 years), there have been many airshow crashes, but there has never been a spectator hurt. All of the energy (velocity) of 1 mile racers is directed parallel to the crowd line. It would be extremly difficult for a mile car to change direction enough and cross the expanse of dirt & grass while maintaining enough speed to hit someone. Yeah, I know that anything is possible. A wheel coming loose and making it to the crowd is more likely. I felt very safe all weekend at the finish of the Texas Mile. I thought we were too far away.

Your biggest risk if you come to the Texas Mile will be passing other cars that are driving the opposite direction at 75mph just a few feet from your car that is also going 75mph (a closing speed of 150 mph!!) A deviation of just 10 feet by either car will cause a fatal crash. And you will need to perform that dangerous maneuver hundreds of times......when you are driving home after the event.

I know that driving my GT 220 mph is more dangerous than playing golf. And sooner or later someone is going to blow a tire at high speed, loose control, and get killed. It's inevitable. But like flying or climbing or a lot of other sports, many participants decide that the reward outweighs the risk. We all bought cars that are capable of going over 200 mph, we want to experience that a time or two, and very few of us are going to cut them up to put roll cages in them. Because nobody gets out of this world alive, a few of us want to stop and smell the C16.

Chip

 

[skyrex]

Ever notice most of the fun things in life can get you killed.

 

[Fast Freddy]

at the Texas mile their tech crew never even looked under the hood of my viper :lol but the biggest risk in Texas is all the rocks in the pits. as i would drive through the pits in my viper they would bounce through the open areas in the wheel wells of my viper and land on my engine bay sills. then when i was racing down the runway they would fall out onto the track. then on my next pass down the runway i would run them over. all these rocks also pitted my Forgeline wheels and i am still pissed about that :mad someone is gonna cut a tire but it is not gonna be me because i don't need Texas or Turbo's to join the 200 mph club. AREA 51 is safer than this place imo......

the Texas mile is run on a very old inactive abandoned runway. the Mojave mile is run on a active runway where the space shuttle lands :thumbsup

 

[centerpunch]

Steve,

The crowd line at the finish of the Texas Mile is over 400 feet from the runway.

It would be extremly difficult for a mile car to change direction enough and cross the expanse of dirt & grass while maintaining enough speed to hit someone.

I know that driving my GT 220 mph is more dangerous than playing golf. And sooner or later someone is going to blow a tire at high speed, loose control, and get killed. It's inevitable.

Chip

The fastest cars at these events are going 400 feet each second, so being 400 feet away seems pretty close to me.

You are certainly right about the inevitability of someone getting killed, I'm surprised it hasn't happened already.

Having known the young Car and Driver writer who died while testing a modified Mercedes for top speed (and really, who cares if it could go 195 or 200?), I must say I find all these top speed events VERY uninteresting.

 

[427Aggie]

The fastest cars at these events are going 400 feet each second, so being 400 feet away seems pretty close to me.

You are certainly right about the inevitability of someone getting killed, I'm surprised it hasn't happened already.

Having known the young Car and Driver writer who died while testing a modified Mercedes for top speed (and really, who cares if it could go 195 or 200?), I must say I find all these top speed events VERY uninteresting.

The question of putting a roll cage in the cars I don't think is as easy as saying do it. I remember a thread way back when that the NHRA certified these cars for a class that would normally have a cage but because engineering data and other things showed the cage would actually compromise the structure in a way as to make it less safe.

But I have slept since then.

 

[Thugboat]

On the lighter side!

"I know that driving my GT 220 mph is more dangerous than playing golf."

Chip, You obviously aren't playing golf with some of the guys I do. Between shanks, helicopter throwing, tomahawk throwing, breaking in half, I have found golf to be almost a full contact sport!!!:rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl

Sorry, Couldn't resist.

Larry

 

[soroush]

Ever notice most of the fun things in life can get you killed.

like the guy that went to the doctor and asked him "can you help me add 20 years to my life?"

doc asked, do you smoke? do you eat red meat? do you do drugs? do you have lots of sex? do you drive fast cars?

to all of which the answer was No.

the doc said, than why do you want to live 20 more years?

 

[B.M.F.]

You can see the percent the people bidding on the car that have already bid on his stuff in the past, most bidders were like 66% and 72%. one bidder was 1% and one was a little more. I am sure he will have some people ring this thing up there..... I wonder how he got the motor fixed so fast from the mile:rofl

 

[Fubar]

My dad always told me, "It's not the mistakes a man makes in his life that define him, it is how he recovers from those mistakes." (He usually said this to me after I did something really stupid). But the same applies here, bringing guns to a family style event, being an ass to people who offer friendship... mistakes. Taking shit all over the internet about being cheated afterwards, well that defines you.

 

[HHGT]

My dad always told me, "It's not the mistakes a man makes in his life that define him, it is how he recovers from those mistakes." (He usually said this to me after I did something really stupid). But the same applies here, bringing guns to a family style event, being an ass to people who offer friendship... mistakes. Taking shit all over the internet about being cheated afterwards, well that defines you.

Amen

 

[skyrex]

like the guy that went to the doctor and asked him "can you help me add 20 years to my life?"

doc asked, do you smoke? do you eat red meat? do you do drugs? do you have lots of sex? do you drive fast cars?

to all of which the answer was No.

the doc said, than why do you want to live 20 more years?

EXACTLY!!!

Everyone should take some risks, but they should be calculated risks. Whether your interests lie in cars, planes, motorcycles or skydiving you can limit your risk while working your way up the "aggressive" ladder carefully. Most of us have evolved to these cars through different sports cars over the years working our way up to the supercar. How many of us drove our cars stock a bit, went to the next level with a pulley or a whipple, and then a few continued on to TT. It is a progression.

Bottom line is you need to know your limitations. I don't care what the sport is you can tell who is on the wrong path. When I was instructing beginning jumpers I could tell the guys who were too aggressive immediately and knew they would have to get hurt to learn a lesson. You just hoped that they break something and not get themselves killed. No amount of safety lectures was going to get through. Someone may get killed someday at one of these events (and I truly hope that never happens) however odds are it will be somebody who is either unprepared for what they are attempting to do or someone who is cutting corners on their car/tires/parts.

I want to make the most of my years. No regrets. :thumbsup

 

[598]

Thanks for the replies. I don't know how to engineer a cage that would sustain a 270mph blow over in an uncontained environment, just curious if it was being discussed. I love these high speeds and give great credit to each of you who push the boundaries to do it. Can you imagine this discussion 20 years ago? I'm going to buy this car, never crack open the engine, throw on a couple turbos and run 220+ in the standing mile, then turn the air on and drive 1000 miles home. Thank you Ford.

Steve

 

[Mullet]

EXACTLY!!!

I want to make the most of my years. No regrets. :thumbsup

I completely agree and that's why I tend to do things that are a little dangerous. I going to have fun and if that means I MIGHT have a little shorter life.....I'm willing to roll those dice......NO REGRETS

 

[GTdrummer]

I would also agree that playing golf with the right (or wrong) foursome can be more dangerous.

Also, not telling your wife until it arrives that you just bought a GT, with a garage already full of car toys is FAR more dangerous.