Racing the New Buggy as Men's A-team

[JakeReid]

CIA's Ascension - Looks like a legit buggy, good job guys! Is this camber intentional? http://cmubuggy.org/forum/v/2010-2011/2 ... 5.JPG.html

Mackin, the camber is completely intentional, and definitely had nothing at all to do with Ascension losing that wheel in the chute on Sunday. That was obviously due to an explosive bolt (for rapid wheel changes, of course) misfiring at the worst possible time, and the port-side backup wheel failing to deploy. Never fear, we've fixed the wiring and that should never happen again.

Glad to see that Banyan V is doing well! Call it what you will, but in my mind it will forever be "Bamf".

And JakeReid - I warned you about spray-adhesive, bro.

We had the same problem with Kami last year. I recommend an explosive snap ring AND an explosive set screw, that way if one of them misfires the other will still hold the wheel on.

[jixson]

don't try to visit our tent to sneak a peak.

Request denied.

We'll let our machete wielding gorilla know that you're an exception

[Carl Nott]

We had the same problem with Kami last year. I recommend an explosive snap ring AND an explosive set screw, that way if one of them misfires the other will still hold the wheel on.

Explosive axle stubs are sooo last year. Explosive wheels are the new hawtness.

[pdesiderio]

Explosive axle stubs are sooo last year. Explosive wheels are the new hawtness.

For those fast tire changes.

[jixson]

If it rolls a sub-55 I'll digitally spew all over this place.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

but in all seriousness, the fact that with a brand new driver its already in the middle of the timing sheet speaks to the quality of that buggy

[Mackin]

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

New catch phrase?

[McCue]

dammit mackin, did I teach you nothing? (don't answer that)

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/challenge-accepted

[TommyK]

the choices offered are too freeroll centric. if you change the criteria to include some measure of total course time in place of freeroll ( i.e. account for both the push and the roll), then D is a good choice

Freeroll centric for a reason ... If you follow the board you may know I tend to rant about teams 'saving speed' for raceday, meaning they are rolling buggies on that day faster than their drivers are ready for, creating an 'unsafe condition'. Its a pretty hashed out topic but the spate of new buggies puts a new twist on it, how do you determine the new buggy is ready for the top shove from your best hill 2 fully amped up on raceday with the hottest wheels and the warmest road its ever rolled on? Are teams getting the buggies out soon enough to work up to the speeds? Are they using veteran drivers? Are they using raceday setups? All that paranoid stuff I bitch about now I'm an observer but went ahead and did when I was in the game (Brazen in 01 = new buggy, new driver, new wheels, new steering, new rear attachment = Men's A for the win)

p.s. Brazen rolled a 54 on 2001 raceday with Steve Mahalec shoving her when he could have passed as Arnold Schwarzenegger's body double from his Conan days ... on Xootrs when they didn't suck, ceramic bearings and a whole lot of special sauce #205 (too much even, had to replace the rear wheel at the last minute - would have done well in the pits if they still had that in the race.) I'm guessing the new poly and roads will give you some help so ... hit 55 or I'm coming to get her, even if I have to paddle her back to Hawaii.

p.p.s. McCue, everything that could be said has been said on the internet somewhere - this post is probably not an exception.

p.p.p.s. I could draw a better cartoon with a pencil stuck up my nose.

[Carl Nott]

Are there any buggy gnomes out there with historical freeroll times? I'm curious what Spirit Men's A rolled first day in '98 for, like, historical perspective purposes and stuff.

For what it's worth when I was a student we ran truck weekend at full speed. Actually backed off a bit for raceday, honestly.

[shafeeq]

If you follow the board you may know I tend to rant about teams 'saving speed' for raceday, meaning they are rolling buggies on that day faster than their drivers are ready for, creating an 'unsafe condition'.

At some point, a driver is going to go faster than she ever has before. How is it any less safe if that happens on raceday, than if it happens on truck weekend, or even before? The only difference is that you can't place if you crash on raceday, the buggies that might crash into you belong to another team rather than your own, and there's a bigger audience. At least there's only going to be at most two buggies behind you.

Personally, I always had the A buggy rolling as well as I knew how. How else was I going to find out if anything we'd "improved" was helping (or more likely not)? Plus, the Hill 3 probably had more influence on overall time than I did as a mechanic, so giving him/her a realistic rollout was worth the extra work it caused us.

I'd probably feel differently if going fast all the time chewed up consumable parts fast enough to be a problem, or if the team had enough experience to predict what the extra speed boost on raceday was going to be and prepare the driver and pushers accordingly.