Bad bad comparison

[Belatti]

Ciro, Ugly Betty is a rather beautiful chick with thick glasses and a bad hairdo. Pedro "El Escamoso", well that is what I call ugly.

BTW, the time Herbie posted at Laguna Seca, was with the rear part, the front part or the complete car running?

Now lets get serious (aren´t we?)
This is a Bourdais quote from http://www.formula1.com/news/interviews ... /7317.html

Q: The tests have shown so far that the transition from Champ Car to Toro Rosso was no big deal. Have you been surprised to be doing so well?
SB: Well, these are two different worlds. Champ Car is a series where everybody pretty much has the same equipment - tyres, engines and chassis. In Formula One everything is wide open. Every time you jump in the car there is something different whereas in Champ Car it more or less stayed the same over the last four years...

Let me say it again: Champ Car it more or less stayed the same over the last four years!!!

That can´t be good...

The performance of the car is not that different - what is really different is the weight. Champ Cars are 150 to 200 kilograms heavier and that equates to about four to five seconds on the track. That changes the driving style - with a Formula One car you brake later and in the fast corners you can push a little bit more.

What is remarkable about Sebastien (and its what we all want to hear from a F1 driver) is this:

Q: With the backdrop of your American heritage, can you understand the safety concerns surrounding the ban on traction control (TC)?
SB: In general it never made sense to me to have TC in Formula One. We are supposed to be the best drivers on this planet. We all come from Formulae without traction control and nobody complains. And then we come into Formula One and suddenly it was the easiest car to drive because there was nothing to do with the right foot. And in fact when I tested last year it was a bit frustrating for me as I felt I was not 100 percent in control of the car. All the discussions about not driving in the wet without TC…if we have such discussions we should not be here. For myself I have discovered that in wet conditions the car drives superbly - it is super balanced.

[Jersey Tom]

ChampCar the same for past 4 years.. maybe if you exclude the fact that the chassis are now completely different within the past year.

What sucks though is with the Lolas you could at least modify a good but and do your own custom parts. Much more restrictive with Panoz IIRC.

[F1RusH]

As the story goes, depending on who you believe...Panoz built the current champ car with specs that would allow it`s car to run ovals like the Lolas did. This theoretically requires some reinforcement of the tub to withstand many crashes into walls like the IRL...adding weight. So, is a DP01 champ car a purpose built grand prix car?...No.
If the series survives .... we will get some testing times in a few weeks when they test the cars at Laguna Seca.

[Rev Limiter]

I think the 240-1 mph figure quoted was probably De Ferran's run at Fontana a few years ago (or maybe Gulgemin at the same track in 1998). The figure I remember quoted in RPM was about 16,000+ by one of the commentators (Danny Sullivan??).

Back in the mid 90's I think a Champcar had about 800-900 horsepower, then they dumbed it down to keep the speeds from becoming excessive, played with the turbo, and even aero.

Yes, it was oval racing ... and NASCAR speeds do not even approach Champcar at 240mph.

The best way I could compare F1 vs Champcar was to use V8 Supercar fastest times in Melbourne (F1) and Surfers Paradise (CART) as a common denominator. Yes, F1 came up in front, but only by a few seconds from memory (sub 10 secs) Would the fan on the grandstand notice? Don't think so.

In terms of acceleration, I would say an F1 car was more nimble (due to weight). But remember that a Champcar is heavier and is also configurable for ovals as well as roads and street courses.

As for an IRL car? What is there to compare?