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Five days ago, I reached the grand old age of 66party0775.gif . None of you remembered and I'm heartbroken :( I'm obviously not as popular here as in Scandinavia!no.gif . Never mind, I'm a big boy and I'll get over itmad.gif I have just played 11 concerts in Sweden and I was alarmed to discover that despite the fact that a Swedish Grand Prix was held at Anderstorp from 1973-78 there is little or no interest in the sport at all now. There is certainly no TV coverage. It's demise seems to have been triggered by the deaths of national heroes and Lotus team mates, Gunnar Nilsson and Ronnie Petersen in 1978. Ronnie died at Monza while Gunnar succumbed to cancer. The race may have gone now but the tracks still remains to this day: http://anderstorpraceway.net

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Happy birthday! You only need one more 6 to be pure evil! (666)loljump.gif

Many thanks, my friend. This place is like a morgue!

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I hope you enjoyed your birthday. It seems as though the one thing the forum upgrade eliminated was listing birthdays on the main page.

I'm still not a fan of this break. I assume it is well-intentioned, but they really ought to have considered the impact it would have on forum traffic. :P

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These slacking European race teams right? Don't they know that NASCAR doesn't have a five week break? :P j/k

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Five days ago, I reached the grand old age of 66

Hey sorry to miss your birthday!

Your fault, though. Had you chosen to have a route instead of a birthday we would all be talking about it wink.png

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These slacking European race teams right? Don't they know that NASCAR doesn't have a five week break? tongue.png j/k

That's because everyone's well-rested from the five week safety car period... ;)

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Five days ago, I reached the grand old age of 66party0775.gif . None of you remembered and I'm heartbroken sad.png I'm obviously not as popular here as in Scandinavia!no.gif .

We did remember, its just that at your age, your eyesight's not so good and you couldn't read all the responses :P:)

Hope you had a good one :)

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We did remember, its just that at your age, your eyesight's not so good and you couldn't read all the responses tongue.pngsmile.png

Hope you had a good one smile.png

Yeah, yeah, yeah :))

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Can someone explain Double DRS to me? I've yet to find something that explains it properly (I know its being banned but its good to know what was good and won't be there any more...) smile.png

I'll try and explain it in a way you will understand; it's quite technical.

It's when 'DRS' is written down or spoken of twice. This applies to cream, trouble and or quits.

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I'll try and explain it in a way you will understand; it's quite technical.

Ah, now I understand, thanks :)dam.gif

It's when 'DRS' is written down or spoken of twice. This applies to cream, trouble and or quits.

I Quit

I Quit

Oh yeah! :P:)

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Not a Maldonado fan and I did enjoy seeing that!

You would think he would have taken it easy, not many of the people there would have seen a f1 car live so he didnt have to go flat out! wonder if he knew how the track went or if someone painted a pic of hammi on the wall and he tried to hit him?!

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Loads of pace, brain in his trousers.

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A bit off-topic, and a bit stupid, but it leads to something eventually...

I was playing Gran Turismo 4 in the AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR FIA GT Championship car (it evolved into the Le Mans car that Dumbreck had his accident in). The car was so fast (and the Le Mans one was faster still) I was dizzy, had a slight headache, and felt a little nauseous after doing practice laps at Laguna Seca (where FIA GT raced).

So, perspective on that: the lap times I was doing in the game were in the 1 minute 15 second range. 1:15 is qualifying time for a low-end LMP1 or a high-end LMP2...the track record is around 1:05...what am I trying to say? That I'm ****ing horrible at video games, that's what! :P

What I'm really trying to say is, holy **** race cars are fast. How the hell do you even see your braking points in one of these cars? How do you even think? How do you not puke everywhere going that fast? I mean that all 100% seriously because I can't even keep up with my braking points in a poor man's simulator (GT4 has its pros and cons, obviously) and I get simulator sickness doing it. It's truly incredible what racing drivers do. Your body and mind shouldn't function at those speeds and when you consider that a modern F1 car with a real driver in real qualifying would be about 12-13 seconds per lap quicker around that same track.

Is auto racing a sport? I don't give anything close to a **** if it is or isn't. Couldn't care less. Doesn't change my enjoyment of it if it is or isn't a sport; it's not like being a sport makes anything less inherently stupid because as far as I know there's really no difference between killing two hours watching football or killing two hours watching racing or killing two hours watching Seinfeld re-runs. At the end of the day you probably had better things to do and the only way the experience varies among them is if you enjoy one or the other, and I happen to enjoy racing.

But. Even if it's not a sport...today in F1 I just said damn, these guys absolutely blow my mind. Sometimes you forget the speed because it looks slower on TV. I remember the CART race at Texas that got canceled because drivers were getting vertigo and blacking out from going too fast around the track. I can't even fathom how that doesn't happen in every series on every single weekend.

F1's absolutely amazing. Even this Maldonado guy or that Karthikeyan guy...they're good. They are damn good. That's what I decided today in F1.

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It turns out I wasn't signed in these days so it showed no new posts. Here's a lesson, kids: when you log on, it does show new posts! :facepalm:

Anyways, some pretty harsh days in real life for me and nothing too interesting to add. What's new? Pic to partner Alonso? Have they finally found out that RBRs are powered by hamsters on spinning wheels? Will marihuana be legal in F1 from 2015 onwards? Massa to Disneyworld?

Ohhhh...cookies! Yummy!

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A bit off-topic, and a bit stupid, but it leads to something eventually...

I was playing Gran Turismo 4 in the AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR FIA GT Championship car (it evolved into the Le Mans car that Dumbreck had his accident in). The car was so fast (and the Le Mans one was faster still) I was dizzy, had a slight headache, and felt a little nauseous after doing practice laps at Laguna Seca (where FIA GT raced).

So, perspective on that: the lap times I was doing in the game were in the 1 minute 15 second range. 1:15 is qualifying time for a low-end LMP1 or a high-end LMP2...the track record is around 1:05...what am I trying to say? That I'm ****ing horrible at video games, that's what! tongue.png

What I'm really trying to say is, holy **** race cars are fast. How the hell do you even see your braking points in one of these cars? How do you even think? How do you not puke everywhere going that fast? I mean that all 100% seriously because I can't even keep up with my braking points in a poor man's simulator (GT4 has its pros and cons, obviously) and I get simulator sickness doing it. It's truly incredible what racing drivers do. Your body and mind shouldn't function at those speeds and when you consider that a modern F1 car with a real driver in real qualifying would be about 12-13 seconds per lap quicker around that same track.

Is auto racing a sport? I don't give anything close to a **** if it is or isn't. Couldn't care less. Doesn't change my enjoyment of it if it is or isn't a sport; it's not like being a sport makes anything less inherently stupid because as far as I know there's really no difference between killing two hours watching football or killing two hours watching racing or killing two hours watching Seinfeld re-runs. At the end of the day you probably had better things to do and the only way the experience varies among them is if you enjoy one or the other, and I happen to enjoy racing.

But. Even if it's not a sport...today in F1 I just said damn, these guys absolutely blow my mind. Sometimes you forget the speed because it looks slower on TV. I remember the CART race at Texas that got canceled because drivers were getting vertigo and blacking out from going too fast around the track. I can't even fathom how that doesn't happen in every series on every single weekend.

F1's absolutely amazing. Even this Maldonado guy or that Karthikeyan guy...they're good. They are damn good. That's what I decided today in F1.

I agree and I get what you mean, they are insane (although not sure on maldonado and Kart being good) but yeah! The other thing is that they build up to F1 through lower formulas and by the time they get to F1 they are use to it. (ish) Whilst it is still a big step up from gp2 there are enough similarities (sp?) to make it straight forward.

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Your post reminds me of:

That's pretty interesting, actually.

The true race car I was "driving" had 600 horsepower; GT4's came stock with 797 for some reason. The actual pole time at Laguna Seca was 1:16.1 that year. I was only a few tenths up with an extra 200 hp...meaning I couldn't even do a 1:16.1 in the video game, which isn't even a full simulator like what drivers use (hell, even iRacing is beyond my level). My actual time would be .001 seconds before I spun and wrecked it (likely just driving at pit road speed onto the track :P). I don't think I could get a racecar going fast enough for it to turn. I'd be too scared and I'd doubtlessly spin under acceleration.

Another comparison of racing drivers to myself: karting. Spec karts, on the same track. The karts weren't adjusted for weight, and at the time, I was really, really small (maybe 12 or 13 years old) so I had a big-time advantage weight-wise. I never went quicker than a 47.9. The best normal karter could get in the mid-45s (yes, I truly sucked...I'm very cautious and didn't have the stomach to hold it flat in high-speed corners :lol:). The pro driver, who probably weighed twice as much as I did, did 43 flats. Nearly five seconds per lap, despite an 80-lb weight disadvantage, around a tiny karting track set up in an abandoned storage warehouse. And this guy, though talented, hasn't even made a dent in NASCAR as far as his results go...

Blows my mind.

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That's another good one JHS!

One thing I wanted to say about Eric's post is that while I respect what all of these guys can do, how skilled they are etc, I also wonder if it's as impressive as we think or not. It's hard to explain but essentially, if you're an F1/racing driver, then spotting braking points isn't a hugely difficult thing to do, braking late for a corner isn't a massive mental effort, it's just your job; a genetic thing you are capable of doing and something you have honed over the years. The whole point is the racing driver isn't thinking: my God what if the brakes fail. In the same way, a virtuoso pianist isn't constantly thinking "my God I hope I hit this next note" or whatever.

I know it's an obvious point but it's not like any of these people are doing something completely out of their comfort zone, they were just born with certain genetic traits and lucky to be in an environment which allowed them to flourish (yes, they work hard, etc). The only difference is society/the media places more reverence on the skill of a racing driver, than let's say, the best barristers or doctors for example (or almost anybody else as equally skilled in their field). I think the only difference is that some skills (the skills of a racing driver) are more entertaining, which does not necessarily make them more impressive or admirable. Sorry, I don't know why I have to deconstruct this laugh.png I just think it's always more impressive when you see someone operating out of their comfort zone and being really successful. Basically, when Alonso becomes a decent doctor I'll only then be more than superficially impressed tongue.png

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