the rising sun also sets

route 318 was unexpectedly attacked Sunday, 9/18/3, a day that will live in infamy, by some nouveau wanna be record holder Japansers, who did not have a clue by all eyewitness analysis. Here is before:

and here is after, 7 miles from the start. don't try this at home kids.

holy cow, how did that happen

Have 350Z will fly... hope no one was hurt...

BANZAI! BUMMER....

Pardon the ignorance but what type of speeds are we talking about here? I assume that ORR only occurs on closed roads? I really hope no one was hurt - the damage leads me to think otherwise.

no one hurt, cage held up. but this is 2 crashes in 2 tries above 200 for theze guyz. tire may have blown, they heard a pop, and downshifted to slow the car.... a no no!!! rolled only 7 times. wend see openroadracing.com or silverstateclassic.com. road is closed. when poeple drive over their head, road may get permanently closed to racing.

Holy Crap, the occupants of that car are lucky to be alive.

Watt, went to the websites - I now understand perfectly why the GT3 did not suit your requirements! Do you feel any power loss in the GT2 running at those sorts of elevations?

Forgot to add - don't bother with the RGT, RTurbo's the way to go.

Watt, I looked over the results on the openroadracing website and maybe you can explain them to me. It looks like your top speed was around 140mph, and the target speed you chose to compete in was also the 140mph target. Forgive me for asking, but what do you need with a GT2 if you are only doing 140??? I figure I must be reading something wrong, is there something you can point me to that shows the top recorded speed for your GT2 at one of these events? TIA!

ghost -- this has been discussed before. no offense taken, you are forgiven but obviously you have never averaged 140 for an hour, and you have no concept of what's involved: try it on a curvy, rutted 2 lane, you will find if you are starting twice from zero, cornering as low as 120, that much sustained 165 is required, and acceleration is required. the gt2 and my limited skills gave me some major moments in a crosswind and in the ruts at 165. search the 996 turbo threads on the subject. do you need a gt2 for ORR? no. many guys do it in 928's, vipers and corvettes, but i happen to own one and i find it lacking for ORR over 150. on a road trip you have probably blipped your car to 160 170? 180? once or twice, but your average speed on that journey was what maybe 80-100 at best? a simple example for you to understand what average means: get a gps, start at zero and try to average say 60 down a moderately crowded freeway. every slow period kills your average. i was struggling at 165 to get my avaerage up to 140 by the end of 50 miles! and why not come out to the races next year and you can show us how to do it!! the first one is in May. we welcome rookies, as i and jakemate were welcomed last summer. but it's not as simple as you think it is, or the Japs in the picture. you, even with your background, may want to start in the 115 class, top speed 124 and learn to wade before you jump in the big water, just as the japs should have. i started in the 120 class top speed 140. i am dog-paddling now, but i have plans to try to swim. if you search the 996 turbo threads on the subject you could learn more from the profound knowledge of Ruf racer. he's chuckling reading you i'm sure!! Knowledge is power, in ORR it can keep you shiny side up.

Weng, you got it!! and yes additional impact of elevation on NA motors makes turbo power even more attractive!!! some NA guys figured they are down 12% on power. i could not feel the diff from sea level in the gt2. Glad you're enjoying your gt3 mkII. please go over to Nring and post a time since walter hasn't. i bet he couldn't beat van saurma's 7.54.

Watt, I am now convinced there has to be a good an benevolent god in heaven to allow such a thing as open road racing and for me to be brought to your message, I can't believe I never heard of it before now, bless you for your post. I'll never miss mass again and I'm packing my things and moving to Nevada.

isn't life grand?

you did mean to write "Japanese," didn't you?

Watt seems pretty, uh, filled with years of wisdom, so I think Japs is fine. Do we get offended by "Yanks?" Nope. Japs is a fine shortened descriptor.

Watt, Thanks for the rundown, I knew it had to be something, and I simply overlooked that the stretch of highway you are on isn't flat, straight and well paved I guess. I was sort of looking for say a top speed in 3 miles run or something of that nature, starting from 0 how fast will your car be traveling after 1 mile, 2, 3? I would think that would make for some interesting stats, but also imagine that trying to sustain 140 on a road that isn't cooperative would also be quite a challenge. I concur, time to move to Nevada or buy my own stretch of highway... Then again there is always the salt flats!

Watt's right. It ain't easy. I entered the 110 class for my first race and it was tougher and more nerve-racking than I thought. I'll be bumping up a few speed categories next time but averaging those speeds for 100 miles with two stops, wind, curves, hills, birds, and swarms of grasshoppers the size of sparrows is harder than most people think.

Ghost- I also think that to crack into a corner above 100, you'd like to know the road well enough to know what comes next. I've been racing for 35 years, and I can't get over how much more danger there is in open road events. By the way and OT, I think you get a mention in School of Rock.

Alex, Awesome, I'll have to go see it! Thanks! I happen to hail from a place where you can see a couple of counties over it is so flat, turns? Seriously though, sounds like a lot of fun... wish we had something similar closer by...

Come to Inidana, we'll go to Gingerman any week night. AS

ghost, to give you more flavour, here's a lift from the silverstate board: "Never could I have visualized what running 200+ entails. In fact, until you've been there, don't even speculate, cause you can't. The curve of "radical-ness" gets really damn steep above about 180, and then you can add in the curves on the road. It gets real narrow, the bumps are huge, and you can go from hero to zero real quick. We saw that play out last weekend with a driver who suppossedly had the experience- he made it about 7 miles. I sure am glad he's OK. the intensity level in ORR is ineffable, you got a taste from jakemate. the skill level only a few have... it's worth aspiring to; ORR in Nevada is unique in the world -- no body else runs this fast for so long. eg, in F1: 22 sec of open throttle on indianapolis above 200, alot different from 30 minutes at the speed. nothing is trivial out there. everything must be perfect.

Do you get desensitized to the speed after awhile? I find that when driving fast I start to get desensitized if I remain at a constant high speed for awhile, say 110-120mph. I am wondering if the same thing happens at say 160-180?

but it's not as simple as you think it is, or the Japs in the picture. you, even with your background, may want to start in the 115 class, top speed 124 and learn to wade before you jump in the big water, just as the japs should have. ---\ Watt seems pretty, uh, filled with years of wisdom, so I think Japs is fine. Do we get offended by "Yanks?" Nope. Japs is a fine shortened descriptor. Gentlemen Please . . . "Japs" is not the same as "Yanks". It's the the same as the "N" word. Watt is perhaps filled with years of wisdom regarding driving, not race relations...

I can only speak for the track, where I've been over 160 often. You tend to raise your visual focus point higher on the horizon, so you see farther ahead. That gives you more time to absorb what is actually coming at you . Even though you're looking farther ahead, you still see everything in your frontal field clearly. 2 exceptions: 1. When you are passing somebody or somebody is passing you at high speed, the speed differentials can seem disproportionate. George Follmer once passed me when I was at about 160 and he was at about 185. The difference seemed huge. Part of it is the air movement. In a car at that speed, the turbulence is phenomenal. 2. When something goes wrong, like an accident next to you or a spin ,things actually seem to speed up. If anyone has spun off the road surface onto grass, you know what I mean. For a brief interval, you actually feel like you're going faster. Possibly because you are decelerating less on the grass, and possibly because of the rotational forces. A guy in a 512 Ferrari had the nose blow off next to me on the front strait at Elkhart Lake. My observation was that you are not acclimated to the speed at which that happens. Regarding open road- I can't imagine what is going thru the mind of somebody losing control in an area with no run-off where you can't mentally prepare yourself for what you face. Lastly, I'd be curious from Watt. I always found I had to make myself keep my right foot down at those speeds. It's not natural or necessarily comfortable. Lastly, and curiously, I wonder if his emotion is the same as mine. It's not necessarily fun while you're doing it. It's extremely tense while you're doing it with no room for other emotions. It's only exhilarating after it's over. Comment, please, if you would. AS

it's fun when the car is behaving well, [and you're driving well]. it is not fun when it's not! i got blasted sideways by a puffy crosswind at 165 where the road was raised so the drop off to the ditch was 15 feet... this did make me tense as i thought i had a tyre going down. with more experience you just correct and go. driving in the middle gives you room on each side for wind push and if you lose a tyre. ruf racer has years of experience could provide more insight. for me, gaining seat time at ever increasing speeds in the plan to build my knowledge of the car, the road and develop the "soft hands and no brakes" serenity the skilled guys have.