Don't think many of us would have caught that, mind you...
... three cars abreast, I'd have waited for the straight!
Rob Baldwin in the BDR S2
One of Three.
That is some awesome car control about 10:05 ish......! Still keeps his foot planted!
He just got faster and faster. Scary moment just before the end.
Scary moment indeed...
Don't think many of us would have caught that, mind you...
... three cars abreast, I'd have waited for the straight!
Thats a pretty fast car he has there, my 200Bhp target is beginning to worry me!!!
also there seems to be a few amatures on that track, i wouldnt have the balls to pass people on the inside bend- incase they turned in on me, at least
he seems to be a good compatant driver!
[Edited on 4/11/07 by Krismc]
quote:
Originally posted by arrybradbury
That is some awesome car control about 10:05 ish......! Still keeps his foot planted!
quote:
Originally posted by David Jenkins
quote:
Originally posted by arrybradbury
That is some awesome car control about 10:05 ish......! Still keeps his foot planted!
He was lucky that he had somewhere to go...
that is one quick car! that zx12r lump has so much mid range grunt!
Cheers for the comments. I sure had fun in the race, you don't really have much time to rest or think - 30mins is up before you know it and you
don't want to pull into the pits. It's quite good fun working out what other people are going to do, and you can quite quickly work out
different characters/styles of the other drivers to give you an idea of how they will react to you trying to pass. You certainly have to plan a fair
bit further ahead than I'm used to, as you can easily find yourself being blocked or squeezed out very quickly.
Despite what it might appear on the video I was actually looking after the car quite carefully, as it's not a championship event just a bit of
fun and the car was sold several months ago. I still managed to get a couple of clean laps in and reached my target of getting the fastest lap of the
day (last year I just missed out, so wanted to make sure I got it this year).
I haven't had a chance to upload the 2nd session from the day yet, but the link to the 3rd session is below (all 30mins!):
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-7065202327348286401
It was a real shame that that was my last race in the BDN S2, but I'm looking forward to the new BDN S3 next year - should be a good year
hopefully.
Rob.
Rob - looking forward to seeing that. Any clues as to spec? What motor?
Tim,
Same engine - ZX12R, although this time we will be installing it with a better exhaust and run a powercommander with it (that's all we're
allowed to do within the regs). With the S2 we had an exhaust designed on the stock exhaust that comes with the bike and no PC, and while we knew we
were down on power to the competition we wanted to concentrate on getting the car working well through the twisty stuff. Seeing that I haven't
spun all season while breaking lap records at every circuit we've been to this year (if it's been dry) it would certainly seem to indicate
that we've got the car handling pretty well now (oh, and I'm no expert - I've never raced in anything else and this is only my second
season). This especially shows in the wet where power doesn't make such a difference but the car's handling obviously does - at Combe early
in the year we qualified 6 seconds ahead of the nearest rival!
The car itself will look quite different, brand new chassis and bodywork design. The plan is to make the car at least as quick through the bends,
while increasing the straight line speed and improving the look of the car amongst other things.
Next year will be a real test for the S3, the S2 has been sold to someone who's very quick, 20kg lighter than me (so the car will be on the
weight limit rather than over) and he's planning on improving some of the areas that we'd originally purposed to change.
Rob.
Rob,
Don't these kind of events get a little boring when you obliterate most other cars on the track?!?
[Edited on 14/11/07 by The Great Fandango]
Hi Rob
I saw the Combe race but not the qualifying. Next season should very interesting with people coming and going and the new cars.
Hopefully make it myself one year - it's looking like 2010! Maybe I'll be in the market for a BDR S5?
Cheers
TC
Why everybody else is so much slower than you?? Is this fun?
What engines everybody else use?
I think people should check the results. Rob had plenty of competion... mostly from the T5 Mission of Gordon Griffin - which is mega also.
Results
The video you are watching is not a normal event from me and I'm not normally used to passing many cars on every lap. The Birkett is quite a
special event, run once a year with 50 teams of 4-6 cars with a real mix of cars, the race is handicapped so you are racing against your own times
rather than against other people on the track while still racing against them. So the fact that I'm quicker than the other cars on circuit
doesn't mean that my team wins the race.
Yes, this is amazing fun - trying to lap quickly while driving around others who are all driving at different speeds makes it incredibly challenging.
While it would be silly as a race series, as an event to close the year just for pure fun you cannot beat it. If you have not been to the event
before I would highly recommend going, either as a racer or spectator. Oh, and engines - the ZX12R kicks out around 180hp at best (without mods which
is how we're running it), there were cars out there with far far more bhp! When you consider I run on road tyres without wings, and other cars
were running slicks and wings (eg Radicals), I'm pretty pleased with the speed we had.
In my normal formula this year has been really good fun battling against Gordon, he's a great driver with a lot of experience and the Mission is
a quick car (especially in a straight line - much to my dismay on several occasions!!). Combe was a good event, shame we're not going back there
next year as I now know the circuit. In the race we were learning the circuit as we were racing, improving rapidly with each lap. Unfortunately for
me, I led every lap apart from the important one, Gordon beat me over the line by 0.135 secs!
Rob, I meant to say that it's good to see you on here. The Locostbuilders site must be a very fertile breeding ground for potential new RGBers so it's good to see someone here. I know Gordon was once a member here but once asked a sensible question and got the most ridiculous answer so I don't think he's ever been back. Mr Rogers is a regular but it's good to see others.
Tim,
Thanks for the welcome. I only found this forum when my Birkett team manager phoned me up to ask me about my grassy moment after he saw your post to
my video. Shame there aren't more RGBers on here, and like you say it would seem like an ideal place to recruit some new blood to RGB.
Anyway, I've finally found time to upload the 3rd session from the Birkett, so if you'd like to take a look it can be found at:
http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=-7065202327348286401&hl=en-AU
Regards,
Rob.