The future of Motorsports ?

[NYLIBUD]

Wow,that's a lot of hay bales.Where did they get all that hay?

[jaxenro]

"Robot vs. human?  I saw Jay Leno beat an autonomous Audi at Willow Springs.  That probably won't last long."

 

Shades of John Henry. At least Leno didn't die winning

[Jim N]

I don't know how anyone will be able to program 2 - 3 dozen cars to race on a closed track.

Doing the AI to mimic human thought is proving to be more difficult than the programmers will admit.

Someone programmed a robot to build an Ikea chair.  It took 20 minutes.  It takes a person about 5 minutes to build the same chair.

[smhardesty]

1 hour ago, NYLIBUD said:

Wow,that's a lot of hay bales.Where did they get all that hay?

Not nit picking, just a minor correction. Straw bales, not hay.

[NYLIBUD]

31 minutes ago, smhardesty said:

Not nit picking, just a minor correction. Straw bales, not hay.

No,you are correct,thanks for correcting me..But seriously,I wonder whose job that is laying out all those straw bales.Then having to pick them all up.

[maltsr]

20 minutes ago, NYLIBUD said:

No,you are correct,thanks for correcting me..But seriously,I wonder whose job that is laying out all those straw bales.Then having to pick them all up.

Possibly volunteers or hired hands, without whom the greatest motoring event on the planet that is the Goodwood Festival of Speed would not take place. 

[NYLIBUD]

That's like all the corner markers,and other volunteers in the Isle of Man TT race.There has to be 100s of them all over the race course.

[smhardesty]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that whoever got the contract to provide all the straw MIGHT have been required to place them where track officials indicated. I don't know that to be fact, but I do know that is often the case when bids are put out for large quantities of straw. And they would definitely need to be removed fairly soon after the event, or events. After a couple of rains, straw bales start getting pretty rank.

[Miatatom]

Just watched another Battlebots and I've come to a conclusion. When I was racing 1:1 cats and motorcycles, I always wanted to build a machine that beat the heck out of all my opponents. Battlebots is literally that. Build a machine and beat the heck out of your opponent and his machine. It's that competitive thing. Don't care for all the spectacle, but the battles are pretty awesome. Plus, I see all ages in the audience as well as building the bots.

[1930fordpickup]

7 hours ago, smhardesty said:

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that whoever got the contract to provide all the straw MIGHT have been required to place them where track officials indicated. I don't know that to be fact, but I do know that is often the case when bids are put out for large quantities of straw. And they would definitely need to be removed fairly soon after the event, or events. After a couple of rains, straw bales start getting pretty rank.

Those also look like the large bales about 3 or 4 times the size of a standard bale.  200 to 300 pounds dry  don't even want to guess wet weight. 

[1930fordpickup]

At the very end did something fall off the car or did it run over something? 

Toyota is currently building a site across the street from my buddies farm to test driverless cars.  Inside the former Dana test track.  They are planning to start testing this fall. 

[skymnky721]

I watched NHRA recent event,,and there doin the 1/8 mile now due to safety reasons,,I get that but not nearly as exciting as a full 1320 IMO Sign of the times I guess

[Miatatom]

3 hours ago, skymnky721 said:

I watched NHRA recent event,,and there doin the 1/8 mile now due to safety reasons,,I get that but not nearly as exciting as a full 1320 IMO Sign of the times I guess

The cars are simply too fast to run a full 1/4 mile. It was either shorten the race or put "governors" on all the cars like Nastycar with their restricter plates for 'dega and Daytona. They avoided using that word to this day but that's basically what they're running.

[Force]

As far as I know NHRA run the full 1/4 mile in National Events, except in Top Fuel and Funny Car wich run 1000 feet after Scott Kalitta's fatal crash at Englishtown NJ 10 years ago.
NHRA have been trying to slow the nitro cars down since then and going to 1000 feet worked for a while, but now 10 years later they run just as fast or even faster in 1000 feet (336.57 mph for TF and 339.87 mph for FC) than they were doing in 1320 feet back in the day (337.58 mph for TF and 334.32 mph for FC), so NHRA has changed the way they prep the tracks and use a lot less traction compound on the tracks now, as of this year they have also mandated a rpm limit of 7900 for both nitro classes using a timing retarder and some other stuff to try to slow the cars down...good or bad...well I don't know...but if you don't do anything it will get out of hand pretty quick.

[Bugatti Fan]

The Isle of Man is no ordinary course judging by the number of motor bike racing fatalities compared to dedicated face courses. Will it be matter of time before Monaco is judged as too dangerous for F1 racing?

[jchrisf]

2 hours ago, Force said:

As far as I know NHRA run the full 1/4 mile in National Events, except in Top Fuel and Funny Car wich run 1000 feet 

I watched the Denver races this weekend... first time I have watched drag racing since the 80s or early 90s.  I thought that run looked short but the speeds were where I remembered them... so I didn't put 2 and 2 together.  

John Force did it again just like the last time I watched.  The top fuel winner sure got prettier since back then too. 

Edited July 24, 2018 by jchrisf

[Force]

Yes he did, first win since Gatornationals in March last year and 149th total.

[High octane]

I attended the Meltdown Drags this past Saturday and they were runnin' 1/8 mile due to water on the far end of the track from the rains on Friday. Saturday was a beautiful day with cars mostly gassers from all over the country and Canada as well. The race cars are mostly gassers but there were altereds and rails also. All the cars that raced had to be "period correct" from 1966 or earlier. There was also a swap meet with mostly racing parts and a car show with cars from 1977 and earlier. It was a great time and an event that I enjoy being at every year.

 

[El Roberto]

Wow! Robot cars.  Who's gonna watch them, robot humans? 

[skymnky721]

Neat drag meet pics!