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stopkidding

2007 Champ Car Laps Faster Than 2006 Toyota!

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This might be hard to stomach for die hard F1 fans, but Bourdais beat Zonta's mark set last year in the 2006 Toyota. Sure it was only a demonstration run by toyota last year, but I remember Toyota gloating about breaking the lap record at Laguna Seca last year. This year with new panoz chassis, champ car now has cars that are comparable to F1 cars in circuit racing! I think its a good development for American racing and should be a rude awakening to the F1 community!

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http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/20070...ngtraining.html

MONTEREY – Sebastien Bourdais showed again Saturday at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca that he has a flair for the dramatic.

The three-time defending Champ Car World Series champion turned the fastest lap of the week just moments before former teammate Bruno Junqueira ran off the 2.238-mile, 11-turn road course, ending the two-day Spring Training test session.

Bourdais blistered the circuit with a lap of 1 minute, 5.880 seconds (122.295 mph), unofficially shattering the track record of 1:06.309 (121.504) set last year in an exhibition run by Ricardo Zonta in a Toyota Formula One car.

Official records can only be set in race conditions, either in qualifying or during a race, but Bourdais' run, which goes into the record book with an asterisk, was still impressive.

“It's great that we were able to get under the track time set by the 2006 F1 car,” said Bourdais, who acknowledged using the Push to Pass button – a feature giving the car an extra boost of horsepower for a limited amount of time – on the fast lap.

“But it's only good for a couple of tenths (of a second) here, so we would have broke it without using it.”

After former series champion Paul Tracy, Bourdais and rookie Neel Jani, all came within about four-tenths of a second of Zonta's unofficial mark Friday, Champ Car posted a $5,000 “bounty” payable to the first driver to eclipse the mark Saturday.

Seven drivers, including Bourdais, turned times of under 1:07 in the morning session Saturday, but only Bourdais approached Zonta's time in the afternoon. The Frenchman flashed across the finish line on the record-setting lap with just under 10 minutes remaining in testing. There wasn't enough time to collect Junqueira and clean the track, so the test session was ended.

It was a strong test for Champ Car's new DP01 chassis, which will be used by all the teams in 2007 and beyond. In all, 11 drivers, including Junqueira, driving for the first time for Dale Coyne Racing, were faster than the official track record of 1:07.722 (118.969), set in 2000 by Helio Castroneves.

“The track has a lot of grip; it's really fun to drive here,” said Bourdais, who drives for Newman Haas Lanigan Racing. “Unfortunately, there is so much grip that I really doubt we can use any of the information we gained at any of the tracks this season. The information might be completely irrelevant.”

The 2007 season begins April 8 on a new downtown street circuit in Las Vegas and the Monterey track is not part of the schedule.

“We were able to work through some issues with the car,” Bourdais added. “Cosworth is really trying to get some issues resolved (with the engines) and have made some progress, and Hewland has improved the gearbox.

“My team has fixed what they could, but now it is in the hands of the suppliers. There aren't any tests left so I really hope they can fix the problems, but we won't know until we get to Las Vegas. You hardly ever win a championship with a good start to the season, but you can lose it if you have a bad start.”

The drivers again practiced standing starts for an hour after Champ Car's last of three open tests during the offseason. Champ Car plans to use standing starts at some races this season.

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I'm loving it!!!

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Somehow dosent seem like a fair comparison, defending champion vs a test driver in....a Toyota F1 car.

Trulli in a Ferrari F1...now that would be more like it.

Honestly i'm surprised the Toyota even got it in the first place.

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Somehow dosent seem like a fair comparison, defending champion vs a test driver in....a Toyota F1 car.

Trulli in a Ferrari F1...now that would be more like it.

Honestly i'm surprised the Toyota even got it in the first place.

the difference between the 2006 championship winning Renault and the 2006 Toyota was about 1 sec/lap (atmost). Zonta is no pushover, he has driven on champ car circuits including laguna seca and pretty much can drive the toyota at its limit! Even if he did push the toyota at its limit at laguna seca it would be fair to say that the best F1 car driven hard at laguna seca would probably just beat Boudais current time......

that itself is good enough to cause a scare as f1 fans like to claim a 5-6 second superiority of the F1 car over a champ car on road courses!

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the difference between the 2006 championship winning Renault and the 2006 Toyota was about 1 sec/lap (atmost). Zonta is no pushover, he has driven on champ car circuits including laguna seca and pretty much can drive the toyota at its limit! Even if he did push the toyota at its limit at laguna seca it would be fair to say that the best F1 car driven hard at laguna seca would probably just beat Boudais current time......

that itself is good enough to cause a scare as f1 fans like to claim a 5-6 second superiority of the F1 car over a champ car on road courses!

Ferrari had over a second on the Renault for first hotlaps on new tyres aswell though and if the F1 car's where running laguna seca they would have alot more data to get the most out of the setup. So the majority of that 5-6 seconds is made up there.

The amount of effort the Champcar drivers had to put in to getting near a midfield F1 car by a test driver that did a demo run just isent impressive.

McLaren should go over with an mp4-22 (with the lower performance bridgestones) and their defending champion and put in as much effort and we'd see what happens, still wont be the ultimate pace of F1 either.

They should have a bonus race for like double or tribple points counting for each respective series so theres a definitive comparison. Against Nascar aswell......Champions league of motorsport, whoever wins the title that year in each series races in it on a track for each series. Whats the mpg of champcar anyway?

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Who is faster is irrelevant. Many sports cars were faster than the F1 cars in the late 60's and that fact didn't make F1 any less than the pinnacle; in those days it was the pinnacle of talent, not tech.

ChampCar may not be as fast as F1, but it's close. What's more interesting to note is the quality of racing seems better in ChampCar. Dynamic overtaking, drivers bumping wheels and the general inability to predict the winner of any given race make ChampCar pure fun to watch.

As I (and Bruce) will be doing in person! WoooHOOO!! I can't wait.

Oh, as a side note, the world record for the fastest race car, I think, is held by CART (ChampCar) and Cristiano DaMatta. 142+mph.

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Oh, as a side note, the world record for the fastest race car, I think, is held by CART (ChampCar) and Cristiano DaMatta. 142+mph.

I think that more depends on the track rather than the car.

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Not entirely. While it's true that the record was set on an oval, at that time, CART was a faster car than F1; if you put them both on that oval, the CART would win. Where F1 is supreme is in the low weight and the rate of acceleration and braking. Those factors mean an F1 car can go round a road course faster than a MotoGP bike. In it's element, F1 is the fastest on the planet, but on an oval........................................NOT.

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Not entirely. While it's true that the record was set on an oval, at that time, CART was a faster car than F1; if you put them both on that oval, the CART would win. Where F1 is supreme is in the low weight and the rate of acceleration and braking. Those factors mean an F1 car can go round a road course faster than a MotoGP bike. In it's element, F1 is the fastest on the planet, but on an oval........................................NOT.

Properly modified a F1 car can go alot faster than they are currently setup for. If you get rid of most of the downforce from the rear wing im sure a F1 cars top speed would greatly increase.

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i've seen the champcars this year and they certainly look very f1-esque at the front end, they have got turbos so i guess they would be a tad faster in the straights and the fast corners

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Who is faster is irrelevant. Many sports cars were faster than the F1 cars in the late 60's and that fact didn't make F1 any less than the pinnacle; in those days it was the pinnacle of talent, not tech.

ChampCar may not be as fast as F1, but it's close. What's more interesting to note is the quality of racing seems better in ChampCar. Dynamic overtaking, drivers bumping wheels and the general inability to predict the winner of any given race make ChampCar pure fun to watch.

As I (and Bruce) will be doing in person! WoooHOOO!! I can't wait.

Oh, as a side note, the world record for the fastest race car, I think, is held by CART (ChampCar) and Cristiano DaMatta. 142+mph.

you mean 242+ mph

The reason i posted this story was to highlight that champ cars this year will be racing pretty decent machinery. There was has been a general misconception that champ cars are only suited to ovals and they don't stop or turn as well as F1. Even though F1 cars are a league ahead when it comes to stopping and acceleration, i think recent introduction of the panoz chassis has done a lot to restore the credibility to the Champ Car series. It does more to improve Champ Cars image than reduce F1's significance.

Another point to note is how F1's budgets are inflated and wasted every year where as a small budget spec series can produce a car that can lap faster than Toyota's $400M+ media adventure.....

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An ice-cream van with a punctured tyre looks a better bet than toyota ATM. put it up against a fast F1 car, and it would be another story altogether

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Who cares? I'll compare them when they've both raced on the same track in the same year (I think they both still race at Montreal?).

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Not entirely. While it's true that the record was set on an oval, at that time, CART was a faster car than F1; if you put them both on that oval, the CART would win. Where F1 is supreme is in the low weight and the rate of acceleration and braking. Those factors mean an F1 car can go round a road course faster than a MotoGP bike. In it's element, F1 is the fastest on the planet, but on an oval........................................NOT.

The real problem for the top speed of an F1 car is the drag regulations set by the FIA, even at minimum downforce an F1 car has a drag coefficent of almost 1. And to get to 220mph with a drag coefficent of 1 is no small feat. and as Honda proved, they went 415 km/h in Bonnvile being fully within regs. An F1 car is only really limited by strait lengh. If an F1 car had as long a strait as it needed it could mathamaticly read 430-440km/h the only problem is that once it reaches around 370 its acceleration is very slow.

so yes, on an oval a CART car would win, but in a strait line thats long enough the F1 car would still be fastest.

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The car honda raced on the bonneville salt flats had no front or rear wing :P

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Why don't we just bring back slicks, and take off the aero restrictions and bring back V10's and anything else thats banned that'll make them faster.... :naughty:

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The car honda raced on the bonneville salt flats had no front or rear wing :P

They did test runs about a month before on an air strip close by due to the rain making the salt flats mud. that car had both wings and went 415 km/h but it was not an offical record, the salt flats run was though but thy only went 402 km/h

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Why don't we just bring back slicks, and take off the aero restrictions and bring back V10's and anything else thats banned that'll make them faster.... :naughty:

Yeah, and strap on some jet engines that shoots fire out the back!! that will show them americans!!

F1 cars now have to many restrictions in my opinion, by 2012 the Renault Megane could beat the f1 car!!!!!

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you mean 242+ mph

Damned typos...yeah, that's what I meant....

The real problem for the top speed of an F1 car is the drag regulations set by the FIA, even at minimum downforce an F1 car has a drag coefficent of almost 1. And to get to 220mph with a drag coefficent of 1 is no small feat. and as Honda proved, they went 415 km/h in Bonnvile being fully within regs. An F1 car is only really limited by strait lengh. If an F1 car had as long a strait as it needed it could mathamaticly read 430-440km/h the only problem is that once it reaches around 370 its acceleration is very slow.

so yes, on an oval a CART car would win, but in a strait line thats long enough the F1 car would still be fastest.

Good points. :thbup:

Now, how much of the ChampCar's speed (over the Toyota's) is due to the ChampCar turbo and engine specs or the Panoz chassis? If we put a Cosworth V8CA into the Panoz, how would it fare on the F1 grid? I believe that even with the turbo, isn't the Cosworth used in ChampCar of less power than the CA? We might see the Panoz punching above a few F1 teams.....for a fraction of the cost.

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Yeah, and strap on some jet engines that shoots fire out the back!! that will show them americans!!

F1 cars now have to many restrictions in my opinion, by 2012 the Renault Megane could beat the f1 car!!!!!

oooooooooooo......FIRE! Slap some monster truck tires on them and we got ourselves a race!!

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oooooooooooo......FIRE! Slap some monster truck tires on them and we got ourselves a race!!

Indeed! now thats what i call a race........even whack on some machine guns! so if a driver p**sez you off you could shoot him

PS. isn't tires spelt tyres? and why did you put the ''i'' in bold??????

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oooooooooooo......FIRE! Slap some monster truck tires on them and we got ourselves a race!!
PS. isn't tires spelt tyres? and why did you put the ''i'' in bold??????

He did that because he is American and they all spell strangely.

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