Hillclimb racing

[MadMatt]

Now is the FIA Hillclimb Masters, first of its name, find the stream here:

http://www.rtl.lu/sport/573488.html

Discussion on hillclimb racing will follow!

[MadMatt]

Results:

http://www.berg-zeitnahme.net/download. ... gesamt.pdf

Nicolas Schatz (FRA) wins in front of Scott Moran (GBR) and Eric Berguerand (SWI). Simone Fagioli (ITA), 7 times hillclimb european champion only 5th. It has to be said that the cars were under different regulations so it was a bit biased but still.

[andylaurence]

Amazing that Scott Moran beat the hill record by 4 tenths on his fourth ever ascent of the hill. Amazing stuff. Had the rain not come in, he might have won - he'd already picked 3 seconds off his previous time.

[MadMatt]

Good performance yes, but keep in mind the track record was made with cars under different regulations. Things cannot really be compared just by looking at numbers.

[andylaurence]

Isn't that the whole point of a hillclimb? To compare with numbers? Specifically the numbers shown on the clock at the top of the hill.

[MadMatt]

Are you serious? I think you've missed the fact that the track record was held by FIA homologated car.

There was category 1, 2, and 3 in this competition. 1 being FIA homologated saloon and GT cars, 2 being single-seaters and FIA homologated prototypes and 3 being cars not complying with FIA homologation regulations, and the record set by Schatz was made using a C3 car, but yes that's still impressive.

Here are the different classifications:

Category 1: http://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/ ... gory_1.pdf
Category 2: http://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/ ... gory_2.pdf
Category 3: http://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/ ... gory_3.pdf

I am personally happy that Eric finally beat Simone. Eric had a really great season this year!

I was however disappointed at the track, way too short and easy, but I guess that was made on purpose.

[andylaurence]

I'm not sure what I'm missing. This was the World Masters, for which the challenge was to ascend the hill as quickly as possible. A rather impressive drive to beat the record, irrespective of the category.

I'm not sure the hill was chosen because it's easy, but rather that it's central to most of the competitors likely to attend (many are still club level competitors doing this from their garages) and is suitable for cars from all the differing disciplines. Had it been held in Trento, there would have been no British drivers as the cars cannot drive that far on a tank of fuel - Eschdorf is already nearly twice as long as the hills in the UK (we have hills, rather than mountains).

[MadMatt]

Yes but it is like saying oh the Peugeot 106 was 20 seconds off the pace, without anything else. Of course he was, because he is in another category. There was 3 categories at this Hillclimb Masters, so for sure they are looking for the scratch time, but you have to be realistic and see that if you don't have a car in the fastest category, your chances are reducing.

And yes I agree about the track being in central Europe, and I think it was ok for this year, but it would be great to have a bit more of a challenging course. Not longer as you said it might cause issues, but a bit more challenging!

[andylaurence]

I read it as two top-tier categories. Category 2 for those that comply with FIA regulations and Category 3 for those that comply with the equivalent regulations in their country. At the top end, there doesn't seem to be much between them.

Either way, I really enjoyed watching the live stream.

[SectorOne]

From Scarbs twitter feed, Willem Toet´s part time hill climb project.





edit: another angle,

[andylaurence]

It's on the TotalSim stand, I think. The white stickers look like someone's been doing some photogrammetry to check the body parts match the CAD models...

[MadMatt]

Looks very good. Would love to see a shot from underneath but we can dream I guess. Christmas is gone! What about numbers?

[andylaurence]

They've covered the Wraith in Racecar Engineering quite a bit over the last year. Pretty sure there's a picture of the underside in one of those issues. I don't remember if they gave any figures.

[MadMatt]

Some information on the design, build and aero test of the Palatov DP4 here: http://www.dpcars.net/dplite/dc.htm

[zenji]

Formula Libre may become the premier category one day, it's like formula 1 without coporate money.